Foreign News
From Libreville, An Ugly Postcard
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By Chidi Amuta
The immediate past president of Gabon, Mr. Ali Bongo Ondimbo, has joined the new crop of video -posting toppled rulers.
The luxurious expanse of his gold plated presidential mansion in Libreville has shrunk into a tiny sitting space surrounded by book shelves and inconsequential furniture. From here, he has posted an online video that casually urged the world to ‘make some noise’ to draw attention to his altered circumstances. He of course pretends to be unaware of what is happening around him as he admits he is confined to a room while the whereabouts of his wife and family are yet uncertain.https://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/ads?client=ca-pub-6709758369371331&output=html&h=280&slotname=2123119829&adk=465047999&adf=2676246547&pi=t.ma~as.2123119829&w=644&fwrn=4&fwrnh=100&lmt=1693736032&rafmt=1&format=644×280&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationalaccordnewspaper.com%2Ffrom-libreville-an-ugly-postcard-by-chidi-amuta%2F&host=ca-host-pub-2644536267352236&fwr=0&fwrattr=true&rpe=1&resp_fmts=3&wgl=1&uach=WyJtYWNPUyIsIjEwLjEyLjYiLCJ4ODYiLCIiLCIxMDMuMC41MDYwLjEzNCIsW10sMCxudWxsLCI2NCIsW1siLk5vdC9BKUJyYW5kIiwiOTkuMC4wLjAiXSxbIkdvb2dsZSBDaHJvbWUiLCIxMDMuMC41MDYwLjEzNCJdLFsiQ2hyb21pdW0iLCIxMDMuMC41MDYwLjEzNCJdXSwwXQ..&dt=1693736032201&bpp=1&bdt=948&idt=404&shv=r20230830&mjsv=m202308290101&ptt=9&saldr=aa&abxe=1&cookie=ID%3Df5adffd583b64c9b-229526ea10d600fc%3AT%3D1666132495%3ART%3D1693736013%3AS%3DALNI_Ma693dnNsBzLrK_vRGO5C1xWYmQPA&gpic=UID%3D00000b12d62d6e07%3AT%3D1666132495%3ART%3D1693736013%3AS%3DALNI_Malo7GCYB-ozwNUzBx8cU6CU7j_2w&prev_fmts=0x0%2C644x280&nras=1&correlator=4018695916601&frm=20&pv=1&ga_vid=1995591903.1666132495&ga_sid=1693736032&ga_hid=1156506440&ga_fc=1&u_tz=60&u_his=6&u_h=800&u_w=1280&u_ah=739&u_aw=1280&u_cd=24&u_sd=1&dmc=4&adx=25&ady=1407&biw=1029&bih=659&scr_x=0&scr_y=0&eid=44759842%2C44759875%2C44759926%2C44796632%2C44801881&oid=2&pvsid=2968901827039517&tmod=829431005&uas=0&nvt=1&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationalaccordnewspaper.com%2Fcategory%2Fopinion%2F&fc=1920&brdim=0%2C23%2C0%2C23%2C1280%2C23%2C1044%2C738%2C1044%2C659&vis=1&rsz=%7C%7CoEebr%7C&abl=CS&pfx=0&fu=128&bc=31&ifi=3&uci=a!3&btvi=1&fsb=1&xpc=sE2HGBXB0s&p=https%3A//www.nationalaccordnewspaper.com&dtd=411 https://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/ads?client=ca-pub-6709758369371331&output=html&h=280&slotname=2824164842&adk=1841859071&adf=1676647969&pi=t.ma~as.2824164842&w=644&fwrn=4&fwrnh=100&lmt=1693736032&rafmt=1&format=644×280&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationalaccordnewspaper.com%2Ffrom-libreville-an-ugly-postcard-by-chidi-amuta%2F&host=ca-host-pub-2644536267352236&fwr=0&fwrattr=true&rpe=1&resp_fmts=3&wgl=1&uach=WyJtYWNPUyIsIjEwLjEyLjYiLCJ4ODYiLCIiLCIxMDMuMC41MDYwLjEzNCIsW10sMCxudWxsLCI2NCIsW1siLk5vdC9BKUJyYW5kIiwiOTkuMC4wLjAiXSxbIkdvb2dsZSBDaHJvbWUiLCIxMDMuMC41MDYwLjEzNCJdLFsiQ2hyb21pdW0iLCIxMDMuMC41MDYwLjEzNCJdXSwwXQ..&dt=1693736032202&bpp=1&bdt=949&idt=441&shv=r20230830&mjsv=m202308290101&ptt=9&saldr=aa&abxe=1&cookie=ID%3Df5adffd583b64c9b-229526ea10d600fc%3AT%3D1666132495%3ART%3D1693736013%3AS%3DALNI_Ma693dnNsBzLrK_vRGO5C1xWYmQPA&gpic=UID%3D00000b12d62d6e07%3AT%3D1666132495%3ART%3D1693736013%3AS%3DALNI_Malo7GCYB-ozwNUzBx8cU6CU7j_2w&prev_fmts=0x0%2C644x280%2C644x280&nras=1&correlator=4018695916601&frm=20&pv=1&ga_vid=1995591903.1666132495&ga_sid=1693736032&ga_hid=1156506440&ga_fc=1&u_tz=60&u_his=6&u_h=800&u_w=1280&u_ah=739&u_aw=1280&u_cd=24&u_sd=1&dmc=4&adx=25&ady=1695&biw=1029&bih=659&scr_x=0&scr_y=0&eid=44759842%2C44759875%2C44759926%2C44796632%2C44801881&oid=2&pvsid=2968901827039517&tmod=829431005&uas=0&nvt=1&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nationalaccordnewspaper.com%2Fcategory%2Fopinion%2F&fc=1920&brdim=0%2C23%2C0%2C23%2C1280%2C23%2C1044%2C738%2C1044%2C659&vis=1&rsz=%7C%7CoEebr%7C&abl=CS&pfx=0&fu=128&bc=31&ifi=4&uci=a!4&btvi=2&fsb=1&xpc=PIXeAiBNBA&p=https%3A//www.nationalaccordnewspaper.com&dtd=452
In the last couple of months, some of the footages of Mr. Ali Bongo’s public appearances before the coup showed an infirm man recovering from a debilitating stroke but still firmly in power as the c heir to a family political dynasty that has presided over Gabon for the last 55 years. The younger Bongo is the son of former President, Omar Bongo who often wore high wedge shoes covered by a baggy James Brown -style ‘bongo’ trousers to enhance his dimunitive proportions.
In spite of his personal infirmity and the obviously dysfunctional state of Gabon, Mr. Bongo went ahead to prepare for last weekend’s presidential election. He predictably ‘won’ the election. Opposition parties and groups throughout Gabon however dismissed the election as a fraudulent sham. Mr. Bongo clung to his victory and power nonetheless but was quickly toppled in a palace military coup, barely four days after. The election would have given him a third term in an office he assumed in 2009. He had tweaked the constitution to give himself room for a third presidential term.
Soon after the election of last weekend, it was predictable that his party, the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) which he inherited from his late father would win. With a time tested combination of rigging, violence and official intimidation, the perpetual victory of the ruling party was fairly much guaranteed. But opposition forces had of late increased in strength and been joined by masses of disenchanted youth and the urban poor. Gabon, a nation of a little over 2.4 million people has the fourth highest GDP per head in sub Saharan Africa but lately wracked by unemployment and poverty.
Mounting political opposition led to a belated coalition of 16 opposition parties into an electoral alliance that presented a joint candidate to challenge Mr. Bongo at last weekend’s presidential election. That did not alter what was a foregone outcome in what has become a typical African sit -tight tradition of democratic persistence disguised as succession.
In continuation of a recent fashion among French speaking African countries, Gabon has fallen to the new coup contagion. The military struck barely four days after the election results were announced. In a televised photo opportunity that has become typical of the recent Franco-phone coups, a group of soldiers appeared on Gabonese national television to announce that they had decided to topple the democratic order ‘in the name of the Gabonese people’.
Predictably, they declared last weekend’s presidential elections as flawed, dubious and therefore annulled. Typically, the soldiers have suspended the constitution and all institutions of the state. They have also placed the ousted president under house arrest while taking in one of his sons on a charge of ‘high treason.’ As it turns out, the cop leader and transitional president is Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, commander of the presidential guards and a cousin of Ali Bongo.
The coup in Gabon comes barely two months after that in Niger which is still the centre of feverish activity within ECOWAS and the African Union. The Gabon coup merely increases the tally of a series of coups that have ravaged Franco-phone Africa. In quick succession, Sudan, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger and now Gabon have all literally fallen onto the sword. Previous coups in the countries under review have been advanced and marketed as the result of a series of identical causes ranging from insecurity caused by Sahelian jihadist terrorists to economic adversity and political misrule by leaders enthroned by democratic elections.
The Gabonese coup has pointedly indicated an open political dimension. The Gabonese military has added its voice to that of African opposition parties who have of late decried abuses in recent African democratic elections. The Gabonese coup makers have been clear and direct in joining their voice to that of opposition parties and groups. They have openly rejected the conduct and outcome of last weekend’s presidential election in Gabon as well as the long misrule under the Bongo dynasty.
Without doubt, all the coup makers in French -speaking West and Central Africa have acquired their audacity as a result of one single factor: the reduction and even outright decline in French presence and influence in the region. The disengagement of France from its former African coloniesis is the direct result of a latter day revolt by African countries against certain extant exploitative colonial era arrangements between France and its former African colonies. This arrangement which has gained recent currency defines an essentially exploitative economic relationship between France and its former African colonies.
According to the outlines of the arrangement, France has retained tight control over the international financial transactions of these former colonies as well as curtailed the autonomy of their central banks. This has made these countries subject to French supervision and ultimate financial authority. Therefore, the political storm at the bottom of these recent coups seems to be a general revolt of former African French colonies against the last vestiges of a colonial relationship that has left these countries politically independent but
Financially and economically dependent on Paris.
The progressive French disengagement from Africa has also removed the safety switch of ready French intervention and stabilization forces which used to be the guarantee against instability and wider insecurity in these countries. In the absence of standby French intervention and stabilization forces, the frail armies of these countries have taken to an easier recourse to coups to assert some authority.
The frenzy of coups in West and Central Africa will destabilize the region strategically in the near term. It may end up destabilizing not just the region but also upsetting an already stressed global order. The decline of French influence and military presence in the region exposes Western oriented countries in West and Central Africa to direct jihadist terrorist threat. More dangerously, West and Central Africa are now under the direct threat of recent Russian ambition and influence through the conspicuous presence and activities of the Wagner Group of mercenaries in the region.
For Africa, the recent spate of coups challenges our leaders to increase confidence in democracy by ensuring that the processes and practice of democracy meet the hopes of the people. But this is not just an African challenge. For the free world, there is a clear and urgent task of restoring confidence in democracy by using diplomatic pressure to roll back the specter of coups in Central and West Africa.
For the West, there is an immediate issue of defending a vital sphere of western influence from the ills of authoritarian rule and potential Russian influence. The ultimate question for the West is not merely diplomacy as usual. It is also an overarching moral burden. When and where does democracy deserve and qualify to be defended by its global champions? There must be a clear indication that global democracy has a guarantor that will stoutly defend it whenever and wherever it is under threat. Democracy is clearly under threat in Africa today. How the West responds will determine whether the forces of authoritarianism championed by China and Russia will prevail in the contest for a new world order or beat a retreat.
Foreign News
At Least 5 Dead in Fresh Russian Attacks on Ukraine
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Russia has attacked Ukraine for the second consecutive night with heavy airstrikes involving various weapon types, initial reports from Ukrainian authorities said on Monday morning.At least five people were killed, two due to a rocket strike on a hotel in Kryvyi Rih and three others due to drone attacks on Zaporizhzhya, they said.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, the Russian army once again used long-range bombers, launching cruise missiles. Hypersonic missiles of the Kinzhal (Dagger) type were also fired.The attacks were primarily aimed at Ukraine’s energy system, analysts observed.On Monday, Russia launched an attack on Ukraine involving 127 missiles and cruise missiles, along with over 100 combat drones.This was the highest number reported by the Ukrainian military in two and a half years of conflict. (dpa/NAN)Foreign News
Electricity Consumers Laud Jos Disco for Exceptional Service in Benue
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From Attah Ede, Makurdi
A broad spectrum of electricity customers in Benue State yesterday, commended Jos Electricity Distribution Plc for delivering consistent, stable and reliable services in the region.They gave the commendation during a radio interactive program on Brothers FM and monitored by our correspondent, heralding the launch of a customer consultative forum in Gboko, the traditional capital of the Tiv nation.
His Royal Highness, Ikpa Ahua, representing the paramount ruler of Gboko, led the commendations. He praised the company’s significant improvement in electricity supply over the past few months, noting its positive impact on local businesses.Ahua also appreciated the company’s metering policy, which has increased access to prepaid meters for customers.He however lamented the frequent cases of vandalism of electricity installations and pledged to intensify efforts to safeguard these facilities.Other dignitaries, including Prince Makir Zakpe, Kindred head of Gboko South, Zaki Amachi Terkimbi and Zaki Linus, also commended the company’s efficient service.In his opening remarks, Pastor Emma Ameh who represented the Managing Director, Engr Abdu Bello Mohammed, urged customers to settle their energy bills promptly, given the improvements in service delivery.He emphasized the need for customers to fulfill their obligations to enable the company to continue meeting its energy delivery mandate.Presentations by Lucky Akpobi, Head of Customer Complaints and Relationship Management, and Comrade Ojochide Matthew Agbata, Regional Manager of Makurdi, highlighted the benefits of prepaid meters in resolving billing disputes.Head, Corporate Communications, Dr. Friday Adakole Elijah, emphasized the importance of vigilance in combating energy theft and vandalism, urging customers to report suspicious activities to the company or law enforcement agencies.Foreign News
2 Pilots Killed in France as Military Jets Crash Mid-flight
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Two French pilots died when their military jets collided mid-flight in eastern France, the nation’s Air Force said in a post on X.
The two Rafale fighter jets were returning from a mission in Germany when they collided near Colombey-les-Belles, close to the city of Nancy, Wednesday’s post said.
A third pilot ejected safely and was quickly found, unharmed, the post said.
French President, Emmanuel Macron, expressed the country’s condolences to the families of the two pilots.
The aircraft were stationed in Saint-Dizier, in eastern France.
No details were initially provided regarding the cause of the accident. (dpa/NAN)