XYZ AFRICA NEWS BULLETIN @ 20h00
The
best 10-minute news from across Anglophone & francophone Africa on Radio
XYZ93.1FM in Accra, Ghana. We offer mini-features under "Focus".
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STORIES:
1.
FOCUS: PUBLICATION
LAUNCH: “WHO REALLY GOVERNS URBAN ACCRA?”
WEST AFRICA:
Ø
West African Jurists
Adopt Constitution for WAJA
Ø
ECOWAS Concern About
Political Situation in The Gambia
Ø
Chairman of ERERA
Visits Ghana’s Energy Commission
CENTRAL AFRICA:
Ø
7-yr-old Boy Knocked
Down & Killed by UN Entourage in Cameroon
Ø
Gabonese President Ali
Bongo in Controversy over Paternity Test
FOCUS
Publication
Launch: Who Really Governs Urban Accra?
|
It will be recalled that in the Bulletin
of 29 January, we reported how…
Ahead of Ghana’s elections in November,
the UK-based Africa Research Institute(ARI) has shone the spotlight on slums in
Accra.
We reported how ARI held an event on 28
January, entitled “Slum Politics in Accra: Understanding Urban Ghana.”
Organised to mark the launch of ARI’s new
“Counterpoint” publication, Dr.Jeffrey Paller – a post-doctoral research fellow
at the Earth Institute at Colombia University – led a talk about the social and
political networks supposed to really govern urban Ghana.
The country is considered one of Africa’s
most rapidly-urbanising countries, with the number of city-dwellers having
risen from 4 million to 14 million over thirty years.
The event was organized on the premise
that as informal settlements will play an increasingly important role in Ghana
politics, Ghana needs to understand the voting intentions of these
slum-dwellers ahead of Ghana’s elections in November 2016. It sought to unpack
how “hidden” informal networks interact with formal politics, and how citizens
ought to hold their leaders to account in this environment.
The discussion was live-tweeted under
“#Accrapolitics” on the twitter social media network with many of the
participants tweeting key points.
Jeffrey Paller, the invited speaker,
tweeting @JWPaller, was quoted as saying that “many researchers in development
and urbanization studies fail to look at what is happening in slums.”
The discussion further revealed that
“local leaders have become highly accountable to locals.” Another tweet
indicated a representative of Cities Alliance maintains Ghana has “more houses
demolished than built.” One other tweet predicted that “elections in Ghana will
be heavily influenced by informal networks.”
The Accra launch took place today at the
Centre for Democratic Development, with participants asking questions about the
role of slums in offering positive dynamics around resilient communities;
whether slums should be re-drawn as cities. Other questions included how to
properly-manage slums; and how does Ghana get different coalitions of poor to
fight together?
The publication “Who Really Governs Urban
Ghana?” is authored by Mohammed Awal of CDD-Ghana and Jeffrey Paller. It is a
12-page piece that includes sub-headings, such as “how to win at politics”;
“the rules of the game”; “landlords and housing”; and “crisis? What crisis?”
WEST AFRICA
|
Jurists from the ECOWAS sub-region have adopted a
constitution for the West African Jurists Association (WAJA) to consolidate
democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights in West Africa.
The document was adopted at the end of a
three-day inaugural meeting of the Association that was convened in Abidjan,
Cote d’Ivoire, by the ECOWAS Community Court f Justice (CCJ). It also presented
the jurists with the four basic documents of the Association for the
consideration of members.
A statement issued by the ECOWAS Commission and
released to the Ghana News Agency said the 10-page document enumerated the
objectives of the Association to include the promotion of the harmonization of
the legal texts of the Community in the spirit of Article 3(2)a of the 1993
ECOWAS Revised Treaty – as well as defend the principle of the independence of
the judiciary.
The
President of the Community Court of Justice, Justice Maria de Ceu Silva
Monteiro, described the Association as a forum to exchange ideas among the
members and strengthen the integration of legal practice, adding it had the
potential to contribute to the realization of the strategic objectives of
ECOWAS.
Still
in West Africa…
The
Commission of ECOWAS has expressed its deep concern about the political
situation in The Gambia, which is characterized by the arrest, detention and
death of some opposition leaders following demonstrations advocating for
political reforms prior to the presidential election scheduled to hold in
December 2016.
ECOWAS
explained in a statement, Tuesday, that the consolidation of peace and
stability in the Gambia can only result from a consensual, inclusive and
nationally-owned process and respect for constitutional order.
The
ECOWAS Commission went on to extend its deep condolences to the families of the
deceased persons and further called on the government to shed light on the
circumstances that led to the unfortunate event.
The
statement adds that the Commission will “continue monitoring the situation, and
expresses its readiness to support authorities and citizens of the Gambia for a
peaceful resolution of the crisis.”
Finally
under West Africa…
In
a release issued by the ECOWAS Regional Electricity Authority(ERERA) here in
Accra, and copied to XYZ Africa News Bulletin@8, the new Chairman of the
Regulatory Council of ERERA, Professor Honoré Bogler, led a three-member
delegation to pay a courtesy call on the Board Chairman of the Energy
Commission of Ghana, Dr.Kwame Ampofo and the Executive Secretary of the
Commission, Mr.Michael Opam, on Wednesday 20th April, 2016 here in
Accra.
Professor
Bogler said the visit was to familiarize himself with the leadership of the
Energy Commission and to express his appreciation over the Commission’s
hospitality, in particular by playing host to ERERA in Accra.
Dr.Ampofo
also pledged his support to ERERA’s quest for its own headquarters, a step he
said would symbolize the institution’s growth and development.
CENTRAL AFRICA
|
The UN Ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, has
sparked controversy after a truck in her entourage hit and killed a young boy
in Cameroon on Tuesday.
The incident occurred near Moloko, Northern
Cameroon, where Ms Power and her team were headed to meet refugees displaced by
Islamist group Boko Haram.
Ms Power said she learned of the death with
“great sorrow” and met the boy’s family to “offer our profound condolences and
our grief and heartbreak.”
Ms. Power is reported to have returned to the
scene several hours after the accident to see the seven-year-old boy’s parents.
Finally under Central Africa…
The francophone Cameroon Info.net reports how Joyce Ondo, mother of 18-year-old
Amissa, has lodged a complaint in France to force the President of Gabon, Ali
Bongo, to undergo a paternity test.
Joyce Ondo claims to have met the President in
May 1994 while she was in secondary school. She claims to have been through
several abortions on the insistence of President Bongo before Amissa was
finally born on 26 May, 1998.
She says that, at the time, he was about to
divorce his wife. She maintains “we both chose the name of Amissa Albertine,
which was the name of one of his late sisters. But he abruptly changed his mind
in 1998”, she said.
She continues: “Ali Bongo offered me a Lexus RX350
and I received a house 26 December, 2013. He was disbursing 15000 Euros cash a
month through one of his lieutenants” insists Ondo.
ENDs
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