AfricaBriefing - May - June 2023 Edition

Sierra Leone: crunch elections

Unleashing Africa's mineral power: overcoming obstacles to maximise value

The fight against racism, xenophobia and tribalism

Youthful and innovative potential holds key to region’s economic growth

Africa's imperative: seizing the opportunity of critical minerals

AFRICA finds itself at a pivotal moment, facing a unique opportunity in the realm of critical minerals. These valuable resources, vital for economic growth and national security, must not be squandered. As Western powers strive to break China's dominance in mining and processing these minerals, African nations have a chance to become major players in the global critical mineral value chain. However, it is crucial for Africa to act decisively and wisely to fully capitalise on this opportunity.

Publisher

Jon Offei-Ansah

Editor Desmond Davies

Contributing Editors

Stephen Williams

Prof. Toyin Falola

Tikum Mbah Azonga

Contributors

Justice Lee Adoboe

Chief Chuks Iloegbunam

Joseph Kayira

Zachary Ochieng

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

Critical minerals are indispensable for various industries and technologies, with no viable substitutes and susceptibility to supply chain disruptions. Acknowledging their significance, the international community has identified 50 minerals as critical, making their production a matter of strategic importance. Africa possesses abundant reserves of such minerals, including graphite, lithium, and cobalt, which are essential components of clean energy technologies.

Africa bucks global economic trend

Jon Offei-Ansah Publisher

Desmond Davies Editor

In the past, Africa has often been exploited for its natural resources, resulting in limited local benefits. This time, Africa must avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. Rather than being mere providers of raw materials, African nations should aim to participate in the value-added stages of the critical mineral supply chain. By engaging in beneficiation processes such as refining and manufacturing, Africa can maximise the economic benefits derived from its resources.

In 2018, six of the 10 fastest-growing economies in the world were in Africa, according to the World Bank, with Ghana leading the pack. With GDP growth for the continent projected to accelerate to four per cent in 2019 and 4.1 per cent in 2020, Africa’s economic growth story continues apace. Meanwhile, the World Bank’s 2019 Doing Business Index reveals that five of the 10 most-improved countries are in Africa, and one-third of all reforms recorded globally were in sub-Saharan Africa.

Deputy Editor

Angela Cobbinah

Contributing Editor

Stephen Williams

Director, Special Projects

Olu Ojewale

Oladipo Okubanjo

Corinne Soar

Kennedy Olilo

Gorata Chepete

Designer

Simon Blemadzie

Country Representatives

What makes the story more impressive and heartening is that the growth – projected to be broad-based – is being achieved in a challenging global environment, bucking the trend.

Africa faces numerous challenges in harnessing the potential of its critical minerals. Historical grievances and geopolitical dynamics may hinder progress, requiring leaders to set aside animosities and prioritise their nations' long-term interests. Swift reforms are essential to address issues like corruption, infrastructure deficiencies, and the shortage of skilled labour. By confronting these hurdles headon, Africa can create an enabling environment for critical mineral development.

In the Cover Story of this edition, Dr. Hippolyte Fofack, Chief Economist at the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), analyses the factors underpinning this performance. Two factors, in my opinion, stand out in Dr. Hippolyte’s analysis: trade between Africa and China and the intra-African cross-border investment and infrastructure development.

Michael Orji

Contributors

Justice Lee Adoboe

Chuks Iloegbunam

Joseph Kayira

Zachary Ochieng

Olu Ojewale

South Africa

Edward Walter Byerley

Top Dog Media, 5 Ascot Knights

47 Grand National Boulevard Royal Ascot, Milnerton 7441, South Africa

Tel: +27 (0) 21 555 0096

Cell: +27 (0) 81 331 4887

Oladipo Okubanjo

Much has been said and written about China’s ever-deepening economic foray into Africa, especially by Western analysts and commentators who have been sounding alarm bells about re-colonisation of Africa, this time by the Chinese. But empirical evidence paints a different picture.

Despite the decelerating global growth environment, trade between Africa and China increased by 14.5 per cent in the first three quarters of 2018, surpassing the growth rate of world trade (11.6 per cent), reflecting the deepening economic dependency between the two major trading partners.

Regional cooperation is key to Africa's success in the critical minerals sector. By joining forces, African countries can pool their resources, share expertise, and mitigate risks. Collaboration facilitates the establishment of critical mineral processing and manufacturing hubs, where economies of scale and shared infrastructure can drive efficiency and competitiveness. Initiatives like the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement provide platforms for leaders to engage in discussions and forge partnerships for mutual benefit.

Empirical evidence shows that China’s domestic investment has become highly linked with economic expansion in Africa. A one percentage point increase in China’s domestic investment growth is associated with an average of 0.6 percentage point increase in overall African exports. And, the expected economic development and trade impact of expanding Chinese investment on resource-rich African countries, especially oil-exporting countries, is even more important.

Corinne Soar

Gloria Ansah Designer

Country Representatives

South Africa

Edward Walter Byerley

Top Dog Media, 5 Ascot Knights

Africa must adopt a visionary approach to make the most of its critical minerals opportunity. Learning from the experiences of other nations, particularly those that have successfully developed their critical minerals sector, can provide valuable insights. Investing in research and development, promoting innovation, and creating an enabling business environment are crucial elements of this visionary approach. By doing so, Africa can attract investments, foster entrepreneurship, and nurture a skilled workforce.

The resilience of African economies can also be attributed to growing intra-African cross-border investment and infrastructure development. A combination of the two factors is accelerating the process of structural transformation in a continent where industrial output and services account for a growing share of GDP. African corporations and industrialists which are expanding their industrial footprint across Africa and globally are leading the diversification from agriculture into higher value goods in manufacturing and service sectors. These industrial champions are carrying out transcontinental operations, with investment holdings around the globe, with a strong presence in Europe and Pacific Asia, together account for more than 75 per cent of their combined activities outside Africa.

Email: ed@topdog-media.net

Ghana

Nana Asiama Bekoe

Kingdom Concept Co.

Tel: +233 243 393 943 / +233 303 967 470 kingsconceptsltd@gmail.com

47 Grand National Boulevard Royal Ascot, Milnerton 7441, South Africa

Tel: +27 (0) 21 555 0096

Cell: +27 (0) 81 331 4887 Email: ed@topdog-media.net

Ghana

Nana Asiama Bekoe

Kingdom Concept Co.

Nigeria

Nnenna Ogbu

#4 Babatunde Oduse crescent

Isheri Olowora - Isheri Berger, Lagos

Tel: +233 243 393 943 / +233 303 967 470 kingsconceptsltd@gmail.com

Tel: +234 803 670 4879 getnnenna.ogbu@gmail.com

Kenya

A survey of 30 leading emerging African corporations with global footprints and combined revenue of more than $118 billion shows that they are active in several industries, including manufacturing (e.g., Dangote Industries), basic materials, telecommunications (e.g., Econet, Safaricom), finance (e.g., Ecobank) and oil and gas. In addition to mitigating risks highly correlated with African economies, these emerging African global corporations are accelerating the diversification of sources of growth and reducing the exposure of countries to adverse commodity terms of trade.

This makes me very bullish about Africa!

Africa stands on the brink of a transformative opportunity with its wealth of critical minerals. The continent must seize this moment and ensure that its resources are utilised in a sustainable and inclusive manner. By embracing beneficiation, addressing challenges, fostering collaboration, and adopting a visionary approach, Africa can become a major global player in the critical mineral value chain. The responsible and strategic management of critical minerals will contribute to Africa's economic growth, enhance national security, and position the continent as a key player in shaping the future of global industries and technologies.

Nigeria

Taiwo Adedoyin

MV Noble, Press House, 3rd Floor 27 Acme Road, Ogba, Ikeja, Lagos

Tel: +234 806 291 7100 taiadedoyin52@gmail.com

Kenya

Naima Farah

Room 22, 2nd Floor West Wing

Patrick Mwangi

Aquarius Media Ltd, PO Box 10668-11000

Nairobi, Kenya

Tel: 0720 391 546/0773 35 41

Email: mwangi@aquariusmedia.co.ke

Royal Square, Ngong Road, Nairobi

Tel: +254 729 381 561 naimafarah_m@yahoo.com

Africa Briefing Ltd

2 Redruth Close, London N22 8RN

United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0) 208 888 6693 publisher@africabriefing.org

©Africa Briefing Ltd

2 Redruth Close, London N22 8RN

United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0) 208 888 6693

publisher@africabriefing.org

LEADER COMMENT COVER STORY

60 years of African unity: trials and tribulations

Crunch time for Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone: battle for the country’s soul

For most Sierra Leoneans, the June 24 election has raised one primary concern: what will be the reaction to the result by supporters of the two main political parties if there is a whiff of foul play? Winston OjukutuMacaulay Jnr reports

Waiting in anticipation

With various observer groups promising Sierra Leoneans that they will be keeping watchful eyes on the electoral process, it is possible that the outcome of the presidential contest between the two major parties in the country could turn out to be quite interesting, writes

Winston Ojukutu-Macaulay Jnr

ANALYSIS

Oil: a humanitarian issue for Nigeria’s new president

High on the list of priorities for Nigerian President-elect Bola Tinubu is how to revive the country’s troubled oil industry – the source of so much of the nation’s wealth, but also a blight on the environment, a trigger for violent unrest and now the subject of several lawsuits, writes Dulue

Mbachu

The difficult fight against racism, xenophobia and tribalism

Efforts to resolve various forms of prejudices around the world do not just mean that one is saving a person's life but saving a generation, reducing mental breakdown and giving voices to the voiceless, writes

Toyin Falola

CULTURE BUSINESS & ECONOMY

Youthful and innovative potential holds key to region’s robust economic growth

With a fast-growing population and vibrant cities, Africa is poised to harness its resources and human potential to drive inclusive prosperity at home and globally, says a new report read by Jon

Offei-Ansah

Why are there so many questions over return of the Benin Bronzes?

Many thought the period of colonialism was long over, but Western reportage of the Nigerian government’s request for handing back Benin treasures and its plans of preserving them shows a lack of sensitivity and understanding of the societies looted of their valuable cultural materials, writes Peju Layiwola

Shanghai Grand International Logistics Co., Ltd.

Established in 2002, Shanghai Grand International Co., Ltd. offers a variety of shipping and transportation options via air, sea and ground. Our company is based in Shanghai, China, with branches across the nation. Ranging from customs declaration, warehouse storage, containers and consolidated cargo shipping we have a large array of options to meet your needs.

In addition to being approved and designated by the Ministry of Transportation of China as a First Class cargo service provider, we have also established excellent business relations with major shipping companies including Maersk, CMA, ONE, SM line, and

C.E.O President.

EMC over the past 15 years. In addition we have also built long term business relations with major airline cargo departments. In order to expand our global operation, we are looking for international partnerships to work together in this industry. Should you ever import any goods from Peoples Republic of China please ask your exporter and shipper to contact us. We will provide our best service to you.

Room 814, 578 Tian Bao Lu, Shanghai, Peoples Republic of China

E-Mail: felix@grand-log.net

phone: 86-13501786280

Mr, Felix Ji

60 years of African unity: trials and tribulations

MAY 25 has been celebrated as Africa Day since the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was formed in 1963, three years after the independence wave swept the continent. In those heady days there was a deep sense among Africans – young and old – of better things to come.

There were high hopes for the continent. In fact, things were orderly for a while and the projections for the continent were positive.

While most of the countries on the continent were savouring their new-found freedom, there were others that were still under colonial rule, and in South Africa racism against the country’s majority black population was entrenched by a minority white government under its odious apartheid policies.

So, while independent African governments were forging ahead with plans for their own citizens, they were still relentless in pursuing their goal of freeing the whole continent from foreign oppressive regimes. Thus, as the OAU was being formed, African leaders also decided to establish the Coordinating Committee for the Liberation of Africa to rid the continent of Portuguese and Spanish colonial rule, as well as oppressive white minority governments in South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Headquartered in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, the Liberation Committee was totally committed to its remit. It was fully backed by the rest of free Africa. Indeed, while in later years OAU members were late in making their annual contributions to the regular budget of the pan-African body, there was no tardiness when it came to funding the Liberation Committee.

In some countries, such as Nigeria, civil servants had a percentage of their salaries deducted and sent to the Liberation Committee. This commitment eventually paid off – first with the independence of Rhodesia, which became Zimbabwe in 1980, and then the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa when the country’s first black President, Nelson Mandela, eventually took charge in 1994 after being released from 27 year in prison in 1990.

By 2002, African leaders decided that

the main aim of the OAU, ridding the continent of foreign political control, had been achieved. The Liberation Committee was wound up.

So, South Africa was selected for the launch of the African Union (AU) that would move the continent to a higher plane. Its Constitutive Act has laudable goals. For instance, under Article 3(h), the AU is to “promote and protect human and peoples’ rights in accordance with the Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and other relevant instruments.” Article 7 notes: “Every individual shall have the right to liberty and to the security of his person.”

While the OAU had stuck to its principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of member states, the AU had other ideas. In the mood of the times,

African unity today include the apparent lack of self-belief among leaders and the people, rising xenophobia in North Africa and South Africa of all places. Africans now feel lost, even though their continent is the richest in terms of natural and human resources. Everyone, except Africans themselves, is benefiting from the continent’s wealth.

Poor political and economic governance has compounded the issue. Nigeria, for example, a major oil producer, has been importing petroleum products since the 1970s because its oil refineries are moribund.

In South Africa, for which the rest of the continent made such huge sacrifices, the Gupta brothers arrived from India in 1993, and under Jacob Zuma they were allowed to “capture” the South African

African leaders agreed to Article 4(h), which established “the right of the Union to intervene in a member state pursuant to a decision of the Assembly in respect of grave circumstances, namely war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity”.

Later, it was added that the AU could intervene in a member state if the “legitimate order” was threatened. This was forced through by leaders who ran their countries with an iron hand. Since then, we have seen many uprisings by citizens against governments that are not acting in the interest of the people. The chaos that is being witnessed around the continent is a clear sign that despite all its good intentions, the AU has been unsuccessful in living up to expectations, just as governments have equally failed to deliver for the countries.

Some of the problems clouding

state, pocketing billions of dollars through nefarious financial activities. Zuma, who was the ANC’s head of intelligence during the struggle against apartheid, has been a big let-down, no matter his denials of being complicit in the illegal activities of the Guptas, who are now safely ensconced outside the country and enjoying their illgotten gains.

Under the ANC, South Africa, which had a united Africa behind it during the fight against apartheid, is a failing state because of massive corruption. And the politicians are using foreign Africans living in South Africa as scapegoats for the country’s socio-economic problems.

As we have always pointed out, the world does not owe Africa a living. In fact, what the world wants, as we are clearly seeing, is to make a living from Africa’s immense wealth.

South Africa, for which the rest of the continent made such huge sacrifices, has been a big let-down

Crunch time for Sierra Leone

AS Sierra Leone prepares for presidential and parliamentary elections on June 24, there is a sense of foreboding among the citizens –be they supporters of the governing Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) or the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC). This has been blindingly obvious as the countdown looms.

Politics in Sierra Leone over the last five years has created a toxic atmosphere that could derail the outcome of the polls. The SLPP and APC, the only two parties that have held power in Sierra Leone since the country gained independence from Britain in 1961, have been having a go at each other way beyond the bounds of normal politics.

Hate speech, misinformation, disinformation and malinformation have been deployed to very devastating effect mainly through social media. For instance, the violence that erupted in parts of the country in August last year, which left six police officers and over 20 civilians dead,

social media, so it’s difficult to track down the culprits. Shutting them down does not work because they will easily metamorphose into other entities to continue to weaponize social media and spread disunity.

I am regularly bombarded by these vile audios and inflammatory videos, but I can quite easily deconstruct their underlying messages aimed at causing mayhem. But for those who are disgruntled, they quickly swallow the propaganda because that is what they want to hear anyway.

The messengers are quite clever. They know that people will be swayed by whatever is said about either the SLPP or APC because they are already disillusioned with politicians.

This is crucial because when messages are sent out, the mood of the receiver will decide how to accept whatever he or she hears, sees or reads. Currently in Sierra Leone, given the fraught political situation and economic constraints, it is not difficult to figure out how negative social media

Desmond Davies

On the issue of PR, the APC believes that this is against the party’s chances of getting a majority in Parliament, with arguments raging over the census and electoral data to be used. All of these are adding to the tension, which some might try to exploit.

Sierra Leonean voters should not forget that it was political intolerance that directly led to the civil war that lasted from 1991 to 2002. Forget about the glib narrative that the war was over diamonds; the simplistic manner in which Westerners will try to explain African conflicts that are deep-rooted.

The diamonds were just the spoils of war. In any case, who benefited most from those stones? Diamond dealers in Europe who knowingly bought these stolen natural resources belonging to the government and people of Sierra Leone. They got away with it while Sierra Leoneans are still picking up the pieces from that bitter conflict.

The seeds of discontent of the civil war were sown in 1982, long before it began nine years later. A violent election campaign in the Southern Province, when the country was a one-party state under the APC, was the spark that eventually flared up in 1991.

was a direct result of social media warriors stoking the flames of discontent.

Of course, Sierra Leoneans have not been totally happy with their lot under the SLPP. But what’s new in politics? You can’t please everyone all the time, and, naturally, politicians do exploit this, but within limits.

However, there has been no such consideration among the Sierra Leonean social media warriors. Most of those espousing poisonous messages reside either in Europe or the US, where governments do not take kindly to such destructive communications in their societies.

But one can hide one’s identity on

communications are being received.

When President Julius Maada Bio came to power in 2018, he made a commitment to fight corruption, which he said was rife under the APC. Now, the APC and the government’s opponents are saying that Bio’s attempts to tackle corruption has failed. Indeed, it has been a tough fight for the SLPP on this front.

The most crucial thing, though, is to ensure that the elections are held in an orderly manner, and the results accepted without a violent response. Naturally, there are the usual arguments and objections being raised by the opposition parties: disputes over voters’ lists and proportional representation (PR) for the elections of MPs are the two main sticking points.

But by the way Sierra Leoneans of every political persuasion have been lapping up the discontent that is now been sown by social media warriors, it would seem that they have forgotten about the devastating civil war.

This is really crunch time for Sierra Leone. Supporters of the various parties must not resort to violence just because social media warriors or agitated politicians say so. They should realise that they are the ones who will suffer the most if the country degenerates into postelections violence.

Their political masters will not be at the frontline when the going gets tough. So, any dispute that arises should be resolved peacefully by the courts. After all, the political parties in Sierra Leone just love litigations. AB

‘ ’

Sierra Leone: battle for the country’s soul

SIERRA LEONEANS are beginning to realise that most of their politicians do not care much about their well-being. In recent months, they have become disillusioned with the established powers; most do not trust the political and security institutions, and respect and trust for the civil service and other public services have reached rock bottom.

Five years ago, the country went to the polls and voters handed power to Julius Maada Bio's Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) because the soldier-turnedpolitician told the voters that he had all the answers to the economic hardship millions were facing in their daily lives. Throughout the election campaign in 2017/18, one of the SLPP’s top economic advisers, J.J. Saffa, told the country that the party had solutions to the country's problems and that if it were to be elected in 2018, it would “fix the bread-and-butter issues within six

months”.

Immediately after Bio won the election and was sworn in as president, he appointed Saffa as Minister of Finance, expecting him to transform the country's economy as he had promised during the campaign. However, two years into the job, Bio removed Saffa and appointed him as Chief Minister. One senior SLPP insider familiar with the workings of the Bio government told journalists he was unexpectedly removed from the Finance Ministry because Saffa underestimated the problems Sierra Leone was facing.

Bio’s margin of victory in the 2018 presidential election was not that wide, indicating that voters were not too sure about whether he could change the country’s fortunes. At the time of his victory, the US dollar was equivalent to Le7,050 while one pound sterling was equivalent to Le9,000. Today the leone is almost 18,000 to the US dollar and £1 is

equivalent to Le22,000.

And as the country prepares to elect a new president and parliamentarians for the next five years, Sierra Leone is now considered the second poorest nation in the world with a GDP per capita of $472, compared to $ 716 in 2013, according to Visual Capitalist figures. The latest figures from the Global Human Freedom Index reveal that in 2019, Sierra Leone ranked 132 out of 162 countries, dropping 20 places from 2018. Under the All People’s Congress (APC) of President Ernest Bai Koroma, Sierra Leone ranked 112 out of 162 nations in 2018; and 107 out of 159 in 2017, before Bio’s SLPP took office.

This state of affairs has created tensions around the country, compounded by the economic dysfunction and perceived official corruption, all leading to a deep sense of political disillusionment. In 2018, Sierra Leoneans and many of the country's development partners were excited over

For most Sierra Leoneans, the June 24 election has raised one primary concern: what will be the reaction to the result by supporters of the two main political parties if there is a whiff of foul play? Winston Ojukutu-Macaulay Jnr reports

Maada Bio missed a massive opportunity

the election of Bio and his SLPP.

Indeed, economists were equally upbeat about Sierra Leone's future. One noted recently: “The election of Maada Bio in 2018 was meant to herald a fundamental rewiring of Sierra Leone's economy. The president’s economic team in 2017/18 had correctly identified several maladies including the production of food, particularly rice, which sucks the country’s foreign currency, underfunded primary education and energy and a neglected tourism sector. But President Bio missed a massive opportunity.”

Many Sierra Leoneans at home and abroad see a second chance for the country in the forthcoming election. But they are not too sure about Dr Samura Kamara, the APC candidate. They are expressing concern about the old guard in the APC who might manipulate him if he became president.

Alfred Hamilton, a Sierra Leonean living in Birmingham in the UK, who will be voting for the first in Sierra Leone, asked: “How strong will Samura be in cutting off the 'long-hands of the old guard?”

Another Sierra Leonean, Alimatu Kargbo in Kent in the UK, is also worried. After listening to Kamara recently in London, she said: "I am completely

gutted that the same old people are around Samura Kamara,” adding: “Not much will change because he will have their baggage to carry.” She, too, will be travelling to Sierra Leone to vote, hoping the she will be proved wrong about the APC old guard.

Back in Sierra Leone, where the

recently returned to the party and had hoped to be chosen as the presidential candidate but failed due to internal party rules.

For most Sierra Leoneans, the June 24 election is not about whether the APC old guard would control Kamara if he is elected; for now, Sierra Leoneans in-country have one primary concern: what will be the reaction to the result by supporters of Bio and Kamara if there is a whiff of foul play and the results go against them?

One senior APC member, a former mayor of Freetown Western rural district, declared that the June 24 election was a battle for the soul of Sierra Leone. But many are warning the APC “not to doubt” President Maada Bio's determination to win a second term in office.

For Kamara and the APC, there are reasons to temper the expectations of Bio. The APC is considered the largest political party in Sierra Leone, and with the high level of disgruntled voices in the country and amplified by foreign development partners, many are hoping for a new government. But for that to happen, the APC needs a swing greater than the one Bio had in 2018.

In the past five years, politics in Sierra Leone has been reduced to the psychology of the SLPP’s Paopa ideology, which

campaign is in fever pitch, Kamara’s supporters are also worried about how his government-in-waiting would evolve if he triumphs. They have every reason to feel circumspect. After all, they witnessed the bitter struggles and internal discord within the APC for the party’s 2023 presidential ticket. Many of the contenders who lost have now openly endorsed Kamara's candidacy.

They are now campaigning with him except for a few, including the former Vice President, Alhaji Samsumana, who was expelled from the party in 2015. He

literally translates to everything must be done by force, whether people like it or not. One local commentator, Titus BoyeThompson, recently noted: “For the first time in Sierra Leone, the elections are not being fought on policy. The bread-andbutter issues are not as important in the country [today].”

The fear is that in the current political climate, with many supporters calling on the APC to “take the fight to the SLPP” across the country, things might get out of control.

The June 24 election is a battle for the soul of Sierra Leone

‘ ’

Waiting in anticipation

With various observer groups promising Sierra Leoneans that they will be keeping watchful eyes on the electoral process, it is possible that the outcome of the presidential contest between the two major parties in the country could turn out to be quite interesting, writes Winston Ojukutu-Macaulay Jnr

DR SAMURA Mathew Wilson

Kamara was not supposed to have qualified, let alone to have been allowed, to contest for the

All People’s Congress (APC) presidential ticket in Sierra Leone. However, Kamara stubbornly pursued his goal; and in February, he was given the go-ahead

to represent the party in the June 2023 presidential election.

Kamara had sent a clear message to his opponents that to get to the top

The political contest between Bio and Kamara could turn out to be quite interesting

of politics, one must have an immense sense of destiny. And if a straw poll is to be believed, the APC could even win a massive victory.

In 2018, Julius Maada Bio of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) won 51.8 per cent of a total of over 2.5 million votes cast, defeating Karama, who got 48.1 per cent. As the two men do battle again for the highest office in the country, voters are witnessing a total reversal of political fortunes.

In 2018, under former President Ernest Bai Koroma, many Sierra Leoneans and the country's development partners accused his APC government of corruption and mismanagement of the country's natural resources, taxpayers' money, and foreign aid. These accusations were marshalled and used by the SLPP, then in opposition,

to mount a successful election campaign against Kamara.

Five years later, Bio’s administration is facing similar accusations of corruption, mismanagement of the country's economy, gross human rights abuses, the suppression of citizens' rights and persecution of political opponents and certain sections of the local media.

In the face of this storm, the Bio government now has to deal with the accusation of daring attempts to commit extensive electoral fraud. There have been disputes over the procurement and supply of electoral material, including voter registration and identity cards.

In April, when the cards were being collected, voters complained that the documents were poorly printed without proper security features. Many were not happy with their photos in which they could not be clearly identified; something that could lead to problems at polling stations.

The general impression is that the entire electoral process is not being properly managed. Not surprisingly, many Sierra Leoneans have expressed concern that the country is heading for an acrimonious period after the elections. But, again, many are hoping that things would not get out of hand.

This assurance is born out of the

past-the-post system that was in place.

“I think it is a grave situation. And this Parliament must send a fact-finding mission to Sierra Leone to investigate this major violation,” Snowe said.

“This is not the first time. It is not the second time. It is the third time. The second issue in Sierra Leone is less than a year before the elections, Sierra Leone is trying to change electoral laws.

“They are still trying to change the electoral laws in favour of the ruling SLPP government. I think it is quite alarming, and the Sierra Leone delegation needs to speak here,” Snowe added.

Nevertheless, proportional representation it is against the wishes of most Sierra Leoneans. But there is hope that with huge teams of international election observers from ECOWAS, the European Union and the US, things might go smoothly

Speaking to the media in Freetown at the beginning of May, the High Representative of the European Union, Josep Borrell, said: “Over the last 21 years, Sierra Leoneans have built a hard-won peace. The forthcoming elections will be crucial for the country's future and the West Africa region.

massive interest in the elections of Sierra Leone's regional and international development partners in recent months. During one of its session last December, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Parliament deplored the Sierra Leone government's decision to change electoral laws one year before the presidential and parliamentary elections.

Liberian ECOWAS parliamentarian Edwin Snowe was not pleased with the way things were going in Sierra Leone in respect of legislation relating to the elections, including the introduction of proportional representation for the parliamentary election instead of the first-

“With the deployment of an Electoral Observation Mission for the fifth time, the EU confirms its long-term commitment to supporting competitive, transparent and peaceful elections in Sierra Leone.”

He said that the EU team “will provide an independent, evidence-based assessment of the electoral process, and its final report will be an important contribution to Sierra Leone's efforts and aspirations to strengthening its democracy”.

With the various observer groups promising Sierra Leoneans that they will be keeping watchful eyes on the electoral process, it is possible that the outcome of the contest between Bio and Kamara, representing the two major parties in the country, could turn out to be quite interesting.

Bio’s administration is facing similar accusations of corruption and mismanagement of the country's economy that were levelled against the previous government

Yet another third force bites the dust

THIRTEEN presidential candidates are vying for the top job in Sierra Leone on June 24. But 11 of them are just making up the numbers. They will never have a look-in.

The battle for supremacy will be between the incumbent, Julius Maada Bio, representing the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), and Samura Kamara, the opposition All People’s Congress (APC) candidate.

Bio is going for a second term, while Kamara is running for the second time, having lost in 2018. For the other candidates, they will only become relevant when they are approached to trade votes if the presidential election goes to a second round, which will inevitably be between Bio and Kamara.

The parties that keep sprouting up over the last 30 years are just peripheral. Mere irritants that have always been swept aside,

in the end, by either the SLPP or APC even though they might try to muddy the waters for a while.

Since leading Sierra Leone to independence from Britain on April 27, 1961, the SLPP, which was formed in 1951, has held power, intermittently over the years. But the APC, whose members split from the SLPP in 1960, has held power longer over various periods as it swapped positions with the SLPP. Three military regimes have made up the rest of the time when politics WAS side-lined.

The SLPP was in power from 1961 until 1967 when it lost the election to the APC – the very first time in independent Africa that an opposition party had defeated the government in power. But then the army made its first intervention in politics in the country, and after a one-year military interregnum, power was handed to the APC’s Siaka Stevens in 1968.

The APC has had a longer stay in power because of the strong-arm tactics it regularly employed against political opponents in the 1970s. During the 1973 election, the SLPP was cowed into submission by the APC’s violence.

The SLPP withdrew all its candidates, leaving the APC as the sole party in parliament. But four years later, the SLPP met force with force in its Southern Province stronghold, capturing 10 seats, rattling the APC.

Thus, sufficiently rattled, Stevens, who had become president in 1971, contrived to get the Constitution amended to make Sierra Leone a one-party state in 1978, with the APC the sole party. All but one of the SLPP MPs were swallowed up by the APC.

So, from 1968, the APC ruled the roost until 1992 when young army officers, led by Captain Valentine Strasser, and including one Lieutenant Julius Maada Bio, overthrew the APC government under Joseph Momoh, who had stepped down as Army Commander to become president when Stevens retired in 1985.

So, from 1992, and in the midst of a civil war, the young Turks were in power until, in a palace coup, Bio ousted Strasser in January 1996. When he became Chairman of the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC), Bio tried to extend his stay in power by arguing that there should be peace before a return to democratic rule.

Sierra Leoneans did not buy Bio’s argument and after several public wranglings, the NPRC agreed to organise elections. Dr Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, representing the SLPP became president in 1996 after defeating Dr John Karefa-Smart of the United National People’s Party (UNPP) in the second round. For once, the APC could not provide a formidable challenge to the SLPP.

The two political parties that have swapped power in Sierra Leone since independence 62 years ago have been far too entrenched to allow any other party to break the cycle, writes Desmond Davies

Kandeh Yumkella: viewed as a disappointment for failing his political apprenticeship

The party had splintered after an APC stalwart, Thaimu Bangura, formed the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which weakened the APC. The NPRC had tried to find a way of hanging on to power by backing the formation of the National Unity Party (NUP), which failed woefully in the 1996 presidential election. Less than a year in power, in May 1997, Kabbah was overthrown by another military takeover, this time led by Major Johnny Paul Koroma.

In February 1998, Koroma’s Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) was ejected from power by Nigerian troops under the aegis of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Monitoring Group (ECOMOG). Kabbah resumed power, and when he stepped down after two five-year terms, the APC returned to power under Ernest Koroma in 2007.

Solomon Berewa, who was Kabbah’s Vice President, stood for the presidency in 2007. But, once again, another split, this time within the SLPP, scuppered Berewa’s ambitions. Charles Margai, scion of the country’s second Prime Minister, Sir Albert Margai, felt he should be the presidential candidate of a party that had been headed by, first, his uncle, Dr Milton Margai, who led Sierra Leone to independence, And then by his father.

This was not to be, and he left to form

the People’s Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC). Naturally, his supporters within the SLPP followed him, and this caused a drop in the party’s vote, not to mention the suspicious cancellation of a number of crucial SLPP votes by the Electoral Commission, thus paving the way for the return to power of the APC.

In 2018, it was the turn of the National Grand Coalition (NGC) to fail to remove the continued stranglehold that the SLPP and APC have on power in the country. The formation of the NGC came about when a former Director-General of the UN Industrial Organisation (UNIDO), Dr Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella, who had stepped down from the body in 2013 after two terms in office, decided that politics was for him.

On a whistle-stop tour of Europe and the US, Yumkella told his burgeoning support base among Sierra Leoneans in the diaspora that he planned to be one of those contesting to become the presidential candidate of the SLPP to take on the APC aspirant in 2018. By May 2014 the Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella (KKY) Movement, made up predominantly of SLPP supporters, emerged in the UK to urge him to enter politics.

He contended that it was easy for him to go for the SLPP because his father was a founder-member of the party in 1951. He told a rally in South London then: “In

our country people present themselves for leadership. I did not have to do that. It was a convergence of circumstances that got the KKY Movement going.”

But when Yumkella eventually challenged for the SLPP presidential candidate position, he lost to Bio whose supporters used strong-arm tactics to get their man on the ballot. Bio defeated Samura Kamara of the APC after Yumkella left the SLPP in a huff and became leader of the nascent NGC.

His detractors argued that his father did not abandon the SLPP in the 1960s when he did not become leader of the party. When I interviewed Yumkella for the Ghana News Agency in November 2017, he told me that he left the SLPP because it had deviated from its founding principles based on inclusivity.

“The party has become devoid of these core values, so I decided to move on. Some within the party wanted me to hang on but there is too much corruption within the leadership,” Yumkella said.” If the leaders are so corrupt, what will they do when they get to power?”

When I asked him what the NGC would offer Sierra Leoneans, he said: “The NGC will follow a results-based policy whereby contractors will be policed by the people to deliver on development projects. There are too many contracts that have been awarded without the projects being finished.

“With my experience in development, I will give a timetable of what can be delivered and what can’t in the first five years of our government. Development is incremental.

“We have to start adding value to our natural resources. For example, we are sitting on huge reserves of iron ore, so we can have steel plants,” Yumkella added.

To Sierra Leoneans this now sounds like cant. They were hoping that Yumkella would serve his political apprenticeship over the last five years to come up with a party that could eventually break the political mould in the country. But he has disappointed them by returning to the SLPP for the June 24 presidential and parliamentary elections, destroying the chances of the NGC.

Yet again, a third political force has failed to make the grade in a perennial twohorse race in politics in Sierra Leone.

Musical chairs: Captain Valentine Strasser (pictured) was ousted by fellow coup-maker, then Captain Julius Maada Bio, in 1996

Oil: a humanitarian issue for Nigeria’s new president

FEW countries in the world have suffered more from pollution than Nigeria, and in particular its oil-rich Delta region. Spillages – year after year – have devastated one of Africa’s most diverse ecosystems, a fragile patchwork of wetlands and mangrove swamps.

Divided by resource disputes stoked by oil extraction, farming and fishing communities that long prospered in the region have become far poorer and far sicker. And with these traditional occupations all but gone, the loss of livelihoods for a mass of young people has helped spur the growth of an alternative illicit industry of kidnapping, oil theft, and high-seas piracy.

Trillions of dollars have been earned by the government and the oil majors over the course of a more than six-decade partnership. During the years of peak production, when more than two million barrels a day were being pumped from the lush Niger Delta, Nigeria earned at least $80 billion annually.

Those days have passed. Not only has oil production slumped, but four of the top five energy companies operating in the country – Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Eni – have indicated their intention to sell off all their remaining onshore and shallow water fields assets. Only TotalEnergies has yet to make clear its plans.

“We may be changing the continent of our portfolio but this is because we intend to focus future investment in Nigeria on deep water exploration and production,” Shell Nigeria’s chair, Osagie Okunbor, said in a statement on the company’s website.

The oil majors’ ostensible reason for leaving is the need to curtail the

environmental impact of petroleum production toward their net-zero obligations. In reality, they are not only escaping a surge in sabotage, oil theft, and an environment deeply scarred by oil mining, but also the threat of litigation launched by local communities – litigation that is finally beginning to have an impact.

Before they leave, communities are demanding they pay any outstanding compensation for the environmental

damage already wrought. “When you’ve created a hazardous situation, you can’t leave as you wish,” Chima Williams, executive director of Environmental Rights Action (ERA), the Nigerian affiliate of Friends of the Earth, told The New Humanitarian. “What the communities are asking for is that they clean up the mess, [compensate] the people, and restore their environment to what it was before they came in.”

High on the list of priorities for Nigerian President-elect Bola Tinubu is how to revive the country’s troubled oil industry – the source of so much of the nation’s wealth, but also a blight on the environment, a trigger for violent unrest and now the subject of several lawsuits, writes Dulue Mbachu

The loss of livelihoods for a mass of young people has helped spur the growth of an alternative illicit industry of kidnapping, oil theft, and high-seas piracy

According to government figures, there were more than 7,000 spill incidents in the Delta between 1970 and 2000, which discharged an estimated 9-13 million barrels of crude into the environment.

Leakages accelerated more recently with close to 8,000 spills between 2006 and 2019, according to a study by Nigerian researchers published in the December 2020 edition of the journal, Environmental Pollution. That contrasts with the situation in Europe, where an average of 10 oil spills a year were recorded between 1971 and 2011.

For 20 years, Fidelis Ledorsi had combined fishing and farming with some success in his hometown of Goi, in the region’s Ogoniland. That was until one day in 2006 when the residents of this rainforest community woke up to see the nearby Goi River, which surrounds their farms and fish ponds, brimming with crude oil.

A major trunk pipeline transporting oil for Shell from onshore fields to the Bonny export terminal on the Atlantic coast had ruptured overnight and spilt its contents. It left the air thick with the acrid fumes of crude oil, sending residents fleeing in the knowledge that a fire could break out at the

slightest spark.

“We lost our livelihood; we lost everything,” Ledorsi told The New Humanitarian. “My cassava farm and two fish ponds, and the river where I had fished since I was a child, were all drenched in oil.”

The village ultimately had to evacuate because the oil slick had made the place uninhabitable. Those affected got no compensation because Shell, the operator of the pipeline, said the break had been caused by sabotage. Nigerian law only allows compensation for spills caused by equipment failure or pipe corrosion.

The Niger Delta has played a crucial historical role in Nigeria’s relations with the rest of the world over the past five centuries. During the trans-Atlantic slave trade, ports from Calabar to Warri became key points for the transport of human cargo. Then, just as the slave trade waned, the region became known as the “Oil Rivers” for its abundant supply of palm oil that greased the wheels of Europe’s industrial revolution.

That was well before Shell first struck oil at Oloibiri in Bayelsa state in 1956, setting off an onshore scramble

Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Eni have indicated their intention to sell off all their remaining onshore and shallow water fields assets

ANALYSIS

for Nigeria’s sweet “Bonny” crude and propelling the country on the path to becoming Africa’s largest producer.

Ledorsi’s story, and that of his village, are typical of the impact of the oil industry in the Delta. At least 5,280 oil wells have been sunk there, linked to more than 7,000 kilometres of pipelines. The infrastructure, which is prone to leaks – and the associated 24-hour gas flaring – disrupts the lives of more than 1,500 agricultural communities, according to data from Shell and the Petroleum Ministry.

The ecological impact is recorded in the quality of the air and water, and the soil people rely on to grow their food. There are well-above-normal levels of lead, cadmium, chromium, and nickel in several Delta rivers, according to a study by the environmental chemistry department of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, based in the south eastern city of Awka.

A 2011 report by the United Nations Environment Programme found that levels of the carcinogen benzene exceeded the level recommended by the World Health

Organisation. The region’s life expectancy, at 41, is a decade lower than the national average.

The UNEP study concluded it would cost $2 billion just to clean up Ogbono –one district that represents a small fraction of the entire Delta.

Delta communities, working with the support of environmental advocacy groups, have been fighting back. The Aghoro community in Bayelsa state, which is seeking $1.5 billion from Shell in compensation for a 2018 spill, got a court injunction in June last year restraining any asset sale pending the suit’s determination.

The Nigerian Supreme Court, where Shell is appealing against a $1.7 billion award to the Ejama-Ebubu community, has also asked that Shell stop any disinvestment sales for now.

For decades, a major impediment communities faced was the partnership between the government and the oil majors.

Government officials and agencies typically view any attempt by the communities to assert their rights as

opposition and disruption of economic activity. If such opposition manifested itself as protests and demonstrations, the response has often been a heavy-handed crackdown by the security forces.

Affected communities and environmentalist groups have sought to overcome this by taking legal action against the energy companies in their home countries. ERA in 2008 filed a suit against Shell in The Netherlands on behalf of four farmers, including one from Goi, and three from other spill sites. The Court of Appeal in The Hague upheld Shell's liability in January 2021, ordering a compensation payment of $16 million to the four farmers.

A month later, the UK Supreme Court made a ruling allowing farming and fishing communities in the oil region to seek legal redress in the UK against Shell for environmental damage caused by its Nigerian subsidiary. The UK legal firm Leigh Day is currently representing more than 13,000 people and organisations in the Niger Delta who have filed loss of livelihood claims against Shell at the High

Chima Williams: what the communities are asking for is that they clean up the mess, compensate the people, and restore their environment to what it was before they came in

Court in London.

Some Nigerian courts have also given stern rulings against the oil companies. One example is the award against Shell to the Ejama-Ebubu community, which is for a spill that dates back more than 50 years.

As the leading international energy companies depart the onshore and shallowwater fields, smaller Nigerian independents are moving to take their place, snapping up the assets on sale amid concerns they lack the technical capacity to deal with the environmental fallout. An oil blowout from a field in the Nembe district of Bayelsa in 2021 owned by Nigerian firm Aiteo spewed hydrocarbons into the environment for more than four weeks before it was finally brought under control. The delay in staunching the flow was because the company had to fly in experts from outside Nigeria.

These spills in the smaller fields that Nigerian companies are buying might not generate the same international headlines that blighted the record of the oil majors. But they are happening in a politically significant region and will still have repercussions for Nigeria’s new president, who is due to be sworn in on May 29.

UK Supreme Court rules in favour of Shell over 2011 Nigerian coast oil spill

SHELL has won a legal battle in the UK Supreme Court against Nigerian claimants seeking damages over a 2011 offshore oil spill. The case involved two Shell subsidiaries and centred around an estimated 40,000 barrels of crude oil that leaked into the sea from Shell’s Bonga oil field, located 120 km off the Nigerian coast. The spill allegedly had a devastating long-term impact on the coastal area, affecting farming, fishing, drinking water, mangrove forests and religious shrines.

The ruling by the UK Supreme Court on May 10 upheld previous decisions by lower courts that found the Nigerian claimants had missed the six-year legal deadline for taking action. The Supreme Court rejected the claimants’ argument that the ongoing consequences of the pollution constituted a ‘continuing nuisance’.

“The risk of increased oil spills and other forms of environmental degradation remains elevated,” Ikemesit Effiong, head of research at Lagos-based business advisory group SBM Intelligence, told The New Humanitarian. “Much of the blowback will remain domestic and will remain a political headache for the incoming Tinubu administration.”

waters, the militant groups that still take up arms from time to time, and the criminal gangs refining stolen crude in makeshift bush refineries that cause further untold harm to the environment. One tell-tale sign is the soot that settles quickly on any surface in the city of Port Harcourt, the by-product of the many illegal refineries at work in the surrounding countryside.

Much of the recent ecological damage has also been due to the region’s restiveness. Armed groups demanding greater control of the area’s oil wealth began attacking oil facilities, as well as the security forces, in the 1990s. The unrest only eased with a 2009 amnesty deal and the creation of a Delta development fund.

But there is still a pool of hands willing to join the pirates roaming the region’s

“There was no continuing nuisance in this case,” said Justice Andrew Burrows, speaking on behalf of the panel of five Supreme Court Justices. Shell has consistently denied the allegations made by the claimants, saying that the oil spill was dispersed offshore and did not impact the shoreline.

The ruling has broader implications for other cases brought by Nigerian residents of the oil-producing Niger Delta region, who have been trying to sue Shell in London courts. The case involving the Bonga oil spill was brought by a group of 27,800 individuals and 457 communities. The ruling will also apply to thousands of others who were involved in the case in the lower courts.

This is not the first time Shell has been the subject of legal action relating to pollution in the Niger Delta. In February 2021, a group of 42,500

“It’s really a vicious circle for the Niger Delta and its people,” Fyneface Dunmamene, who heads the Port Harcourtbased Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre, which seeks to protect the region’s ecology, told The New Humanitarian. “Most of the youths who can no longer fish or farm profitably have taken to one oil-related crime or the other that end up further compounding the problem.”

farmers and fishermen from the Ogale and Bille communities were allowed by the UK Supreme Court to sue Shell over spills. That case is currently going through the High Court.

Shell also agreed in 2015 to pay out £55 million ($70 million) in compensation to the Bodo community in the Niger Delta following a protracted legal battle in London.

Reacting to the ruling, a spokesperson for Shell said: “We have always maintained that the 2011 Bonga oil spill was an operational mishap that was contained offshore and did not impact the shoreline.”

The spokesperson added that the company “will continue to focus on addressing the legitimate concerns of the communities in which we operate through responsible environmental stewardship, targeted social investment, and the development of local economies”.

Dulue Mbachu is a Nigeria-based freelance journalist. This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian.

‘ ’

Russian mercenaries and the Sudanese conflict: the geopolitical significance of Sudan's strife

Russian private military contractor, Wagner, is believed to be supporting Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemedti’ Dagalo, who is in conflict with Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, with Russia's support. While Sudan's northern neighbour, Egypt, backs al-Burham, Russia's involvement and supply of weaponry to both sides raises concerns, writes

Cyril Odukoya

SUDAN has been plunged into despair by the conflicting ambitions of two generals. Having conspired together in the military coups of 2019 (which removed the dictator, Omar al-Bashir) and 2021 (which removed the replacement transition government), now Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo have turned against one another.

Which general to back in this fight? The prevailing view of western governments is neither. That, in part, explains why western intervention has been limited to scrambling to evacuate their diplomatic staff and expats, leaving the Sudanese to fight it out amongst themselves.

American and European strategic indifference to Sudan’s fate is understandable. Neither al-Burham or Hemedti represent anything laudable. Both are implicated in the misery of Darfur, a conflict that led President Omar al-Bashir to be charged with genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court. There are no “good guys” — let alone “our guys” —in this war.

Yet, other powers aren’t so dispassionate. Understanding who stands where in the conflict between the warring generals is to grasp why the outcome of Sudan’s strife matters to geopolitics.

As Sudan’s northern neighbour, it is natural that Egypt has an interest in who wields power further up the Nile. Cairo backs the general-incumbent, al-Burham. But what is really worrying analysts is Russia’s involvement.

In theory, Moscow can’t lose: both sides are tooled-up with Russian kit.

Indeed, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute calculates that 87 per cent of Sudan’s armed forces’ weaponry comes from Russia. Additionally, credible reports — denied in Russia — suggest that Hemedti’s army, the so-called Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has been supplied via the Wagner Group with surface-toair missiles and that it is Hemedti that Moscow is backing.

Can the Russian private army contractors, Wagner, possibly be active in as many places around the world as is claimed? It may seem like analysts who fear its spreading tentacles are inadvertently doing backhanded PR favours to it and its chief, Yevgeny

Prigozhin. For his part, Progozhin denies his group’s involvement in the Sudanese conflict, maintaining that reports to the contrary “are nothing more than an attempt at provocation” and that his mercenaries have not been active there for a couple of years (in 2017, they helped Omar al-Bashir put down his opponents).

But, alongside its combat roles in Syria and Ukraine, Wagner has successfully embedded itself in resource rich African countries. In Sudan’s case, that resource is gold. Sudan is Africa’s third largest gold producer and Russia needs it to prevent the depletion of its sanction-constrained reserves so that it can stay financially secure whilst prosecuting its war in

Neither al-Burham (left) or Hemedti represent anything laudable

Ukraine.

Wagner’s regime-support for al-Bashir in 2017 provided companies linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin with the reward of Sudanese gold mining and smelting rights. The main entity is Meroe Gold Limited (whose parent company is Progozhin’s M Invest) which smelts gold at al-Ibaidiya, northeast of Khartoum. As an investigation by Le Monde and Organized Crime and Corruption (OCCRP) helped uncover, the Sudanese government granted Meroe unusually generous terms, waiving what would legally have been the Ministry of Minerals’ mandatory 30 per cent share in the company.

Taking a cut of the resources in return for no-holds-barred and no-questionsasked muscle for corrupt African regimes is a lucrative business strategy for Wagner. Its mercenaries answer the security needs of West African governments like Mali that lost confidence in France’s protection (the feelings in the Quai d’Orsay, ultimately, were mutual). In Sudan, gold production has benefited greatly from the Russian concession (even if Sudan’s own coffers has not seen the full benefit). Unnamed Central Bank officials in Khartoum quoted by the Wall Street Journal estimate that around 70 per cent of Sudan’s gold ends up in Russia.

How does it get there? Officials on the ground and flight tracking show numerous planes (at least sixteen between January 2021 and July 2022 according to CNN) allegedly carrying smuggled gold between Sudan and Russia. There have been repeated flights between Port Sudan and

the Russian airbase in Latakia, Syria — from where it can then travel on into the Russian Federation.

There have been efforts to disrupt this loot route. Only weeks before General Hemedti’s RSF turned its guns on the national armed forces, arrests of Russian nationals on gold smuggling charges had been made — a doubtless disquieting development for those with a self-interest in keeping the Russian relationship sweet.

But airfreighting gold to Russia via Syria is not the only supply line open to Moscow. Gold is also believed to be smuggled overland across Sudan’s border to the Central African Republic where Faustin-Archange Touadera's government is protected by about a thousand Wagner mercenaries.

There is also the Wagner protection across Sudan’s north-western border where it is supporting Khalifa Haftar, a Libyan warlord who the US Department of Defence suspected in 2020 was backed by the United Arab Emirates. Only days before the fighting in Sudan began, Wagner supplied Hafter with more arms. Hafter — like the officially neutral UAE — is perceived to favour Hemedti’s RSF which has operated from bases in Libya’s and the Central Afrcian Republic’s neighbour, Chad.

In Washington there is mounting exasperation about the extent of the UAE’s friendly attitude towards Moscow (the UAE refused US entreaties to condemn Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in the UN Security Council and backed OPEC’s decision not to ameliorate rising oil

productions by boosting production; highlevel meetings between Abu Dhabi and Moscow have continued unabashed and unabated and the three UAE-registered aviation companies have been hit with US sanctions for allegedly transporting arms to Russian and Wagner entities).

Certainly, the war in Ukraine has not greatly hindered Dubai’s economy which has become a place of financial asylum for Russians with money and assets from where they can more easily re-register their trading operations. It should not be a surprise that so much of the Russian oil sold to Indian refineries is priced in Emirati Dirhams. As an important regional gold market, Dubai is perfectly placed to be exploited as a Mali and Sudanese gold laundromat, turning bars into dollars. If Russian reserves do not seem as depleted by sanctions as the Ukraine’s allies would wish, then the role played by North African mined gold in finding ways to Moscow’s coffers provides at least a part of the answer.

Why might Russia have an interest in disturbing a situation that has been so helpful to it? The falling out between the two generals may not have been its doing, but it nevertheless has to adapt to the consequences. General Hemedti was in Moscow, furthering Sudanese relations, on the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and whether or not Putin and Prigozhin really have anything to fear about General alBurham cutting Russia off from Sudanese gold reserves they appear to regard Hemedti as the better bet.

Whoever, ultimately, occupies the presidential compound in Khartoum, one of the decisions to be made concerns the agreement to provide Russia with a 25-year (and renewable thereafter) lease on a naval base at Port Sudan. The port is already the subject of a recently agreed multibillion UAE investment plan and offers huge economic and strategic advantage for shipping out the resources not just of Sudan but the landlocked countries beyond, including the Central African Republic and South Sudan.

The deal — which requires signoff by Sudan’s currently non-existent legislative assembly — permits Russia to fortify the base with 300 Russian soldiers and dock four warships at any one time, giving Moscow a port on the Red Sea. It is a prize Putin will want to secure once the battle of the generals ends with one of them still standing.

Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar is perceived to favour Hemedti’s RSF

Cyril Odukoya is a US-based policy analyst

Facebook’s Ethiopian quandary

As relatives of victims of the recent civil war in Ethiopia accuse Meta in a Kenyan court of failing to adequately police incendiary speech on Facebook during the armed conflict, much greater effort from the company is warranted, write William Davison, Jane Esberg and Alessandro Accorsi, who point out, though, that Meta’s task is hardly straightforward

IN December 2022, the son of slain Ethiopian Professor Meareg Amare was among those who filed a lawsuit against Meta, the owner of Facebook. The constitutional petition, which was filed in Kenya – home to a Meta moderating hub – alleged that the company had evinced a “woeful failure to address violence on the platform” and held it responsible for the November 2021 murder of Meareg, an ethnic Tigrayan living in Bahir Dar, the capital of Amhara region.

His son, Abraham, said users of Facebook, which became Meta in December 2021, had incited violence against his father, which led to his murder. Abraham and his fellow plaintiffs want Meta to apologise for failing to remove offending posts; contribute around $2.4 billion to funds for victims of hate on Facebook; alter its algorithm so the platform does not spread harmful content; and make its content moderation equitable across languages. Meta said in response that it had invested heavily in content moderation.

Meareg is just one of hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians who over the past few years have lost their lives to the country’s sectarian violence. The bulk of this carnage can be traced to the civil war centred on the Tigray region in the country’s north, which began in November 2020, when a constitutional dispute and power struggle between Tigray’s leaders and the federal government spiralled into conflict.

A November 2022 peace deal between the federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) has brought a welcome respite from the violence in and around Tigray. But peace

in the north remains fragile, and Ethiopia continues to face violence and instability elsewhere – particularly in Oromia, where the government is trying to crush an ethnonationalist insurgency.

Whatever the merits of Meareg’s legal claims, his story highlights concerns about the complicated role that Facebook and other social media platforms have played in this violence. While these platforms can be useful in conflict situations – for example, by helping share information that can protect civilians and document human rights abuses – they can also be an amplifier and accelerator of already existing tensions and a space to carry out

targeted attacks on marginalised groups including, for example, women and girls.

Meta has a history of underinvesting in moderating content in multilingual Ethiopia, just as it did in Myanmar, where the platform was criticised for the role it played prior to the state’s expulsion of Rohingya Muslims in 2017. To be fair, particularly in countries buffeted by conflict, there are issues that no algorithm or investment can fully address – including the challenges of short-order fact-checking in a complex ethno-political landscape.

So, what should be done? Meta can and should do more to address incendiary content on the platform, including

Abraham Meareg accused users of Facebook of inciting violence against his father

through improved language capacities, larger moderation teams, more research transparency and algorithmic changes that do more to demote potentially inflammatory content. Ultimately, however, critics of Meta need to think more broadly in terms of solutions.

Ethiopia needs a healthy, independent media – something successive Ethiopian governments have impeded. Without it, Meta will struggle to verify facts and misinformation.

Of course, the absence of a healthy press also deprives Ethiopians of reliable information about their communities and government; having reliable news sources would better enable them to hold their leaders to account. For these reasons, building up a capacity for rigorous independent reporting should be part of any strategy for managing social media risks in Ethiopia – and Meta should contribute to that effort.

Given Ethiopia’s large and active online community and contentious politics, it seems clear that Meta has not adequately invested in its detection and moderation infrastructure there. Part of the problem may be the way that the company approaches new markets. While it operates in more than 110 languages, Meta offers content moderation in only 70 of them, usually adding new languages under crisis conditions.

In her testimony before the U.S. Senate in October 2021, Facebook whistle-blower Frances Haugen claimed that the company’s lack of investment in Ethiopia allowed for problematic content to be widely disseminated. According to Facebook documents that were leaked by Haugen, the company’s hate speech algorithm – responsible for detecting 97 per cent of the hate speech removed from the platform – could not adequately detect harmful posts in Amharic or Oromo, Ethiopia’s most widely used languages.

Facebook has since made changes, though their extent and value are still unclear.

Haugen’s leak showed the company makes investments in specific countries according to a tiering system that assesses the potential for violence and inflammatory content. When the alarm bell goes off that a country has crossed a certain risk threshold, Meta puts together a quick response team.

These teams, called Integrity Product Operations Centres, can be operational for up to a few months – which, of course, is not a long-term solution. As a source familiar with Meta’s approach put it to Crisis Group, the company’s strategy runs the risk that the mobilisation of resources only happens when it is already too late. There is also a question about whether its internal resources are adequate to deal with a complex, multilingual and polarised conflict scenario at any stage of development.

Without a healthy, independent media, Meta will struggle to verify facts and misinformation

Greater transparency with respect to the company’s tiering system and other internal decision-making would help outsiders assess the company’s approach to these issues and questions. Researchers only know that Ethiopia ranked high as of early 2020 thanks to Haugen’s leaks. They do not know where Meta forecasts the next crisis is looming.

The limits of Meta’s tiering approach can be seen in how it has operated in Ethiopia. Meta only started working on improving the algorithm’s ability to detect problematic content in Amharic and the Oromo language at the end of 2020 – around 15 years after first becoming operational in the country.

It now supports Amharic, and the Oromo, Tigray and Somali languages. According to sources close to Meta who spoke to Crisis Group, human content moderators familiar with at least two Ethiopian languages were only hired at some point in 2022 – two years after the brutal civil war that had claimed tens of thousands of lives broke out.

This is not to say that Meta is facing an easy task in Ethiopia. The challenges of responsibly operating a social media platform amid Ethiopia’s conflict are enormous.

The hurdles include the difficulty of real-time fact-checking and the complexity of Ethiopia’s ethno-political landscape. With fast-moving conflict dynamics and few sources that can provide verified information, it is particularly hard to gauge the difference between unproven information and false information that incites violence and should therefore be removed from the website.

Meta has also understandably struggled with decisions about whom to de-platform in Ethiopia and under what circumstances. The company identifies three categories of “dangerous organisations” whose accounts it may delist.

The first comprises organisations and their supporters “organising or advocating for violence against civilians, repeatedly dehumanising or advocating for harm against people based on protected characteristics”. The second is for “violent non-state actors” who generally do not target civilians. The third is for groups that routinely use hate speech and are deemed likely to use violence.

This is tricky terrain in Ethiopia. The country is home to many identity-based political constituencies that frequently claim to be victims of violence at the hands of various groups. The prevalence of such claims complicates efforts by an

outside party like Meta to adjudicate which groups are in fact “dangerous”. Decisionmaking invariably involves a degree of subjectivity.

Further complicating Meta’s situation in Ethiopia is the weakness of the country’s media landscape. Decades of authoritarian rule made it difficult for a free and rigorous press to emerge.

After a diverse coalition of insurgents overthrew the military dictatorship in 1991, a TPLF-led government took charge and established a system of ethnic federalism. A plethora of communally divided media outlets emerged in the aftermath.

These outlets operate in different languages, furthering the divergence in perspectives. More recently, the proliferation of partisan satellite television, Telegram and YouTube channels has only exacerbated this dynamic.

This points to a broader problem plaguing Meta and other social media companies in countries without a healthy media. There are, of course, partisan outlets around the globe. In more established democracies, however, there are generally also professional news organisations with high verification standards and these entities help define the bounds of what is accepted as accurate.

The bulk of the carnage can be traced to the civil war centred on the Tigray region

Without a basis for knowing the facts, Meta will struggle – especially when under time pressure – to identify whether unverified rumours are providing important factual information or when they are fabrications aimed at heightening tensions. A few fact-checking initiatives, such as the aptly named Ethiopia Check, have sprung up.

What is most needed, however, is a strong, autonomous domestic press that strives for accuracy and objectivity. Of course, the longstanding dominant authoritarian political culture in Ethiopia that often punishes dissent and discourages debate is an impediment to the creation of an independent media. Meta therefore faces a particular challenge in places like Ethiopia: the country lacks an independent press and its absence makes people rely heavily on social media for information.

Preserving social media’s crucial role in providing information about conflict in Ethiopia while improving the quality of that information will require changes to happen online and offline. In the online sphere, Meta should continue to strengthen content moderation and reduce the reach of potentially inflammatory content.

Meta should expand its language capacities, both by increasing the number of moderators and improving its hate

speech algorithm so that inflammatory posts are more readily demoted. Meta should also expand consultations with, and where needed increase support to, organisations that can help define standards for hate speech, including content that targets women and girls.

But while the company says it will maintain its content moderation operations, for now there are reasons for concern about how that pledge will hold up. A third-party contractor shut the Nairobi hub in January 2023 and Meta has shed jobs globally amid reduced revenues.

Transparency is also important. Two years ago, leaks from inside the company revealed that Ethiopia ranked high in Meta’s tiering system. To this day, nobody outside Meta knows what steps it took to reduce the online circulation of problematic content as a result of that determination.

The Oversight Board was told that improvements to the algorithm were made and that human moderators and language classifiers were hired. But they cannot confirm numbers, data or even the number of takedowns. As a result, the extent of these investments, their timeline and their impact cannot be assessed independently.

At the very least, the company should give researchers and the Oversight Board greater access to data and information that would allow them to evaluate whether the interventions Facebook has taken are effective, and offer recommendations for how they could be more so. Such moves would also help increase trust in Meta.

Still, neither content moderation nor algorithmic adjustments nor other changes to community standards will by themselves address the many ways in which online content can contribute to violence. Responsible management of those risks requires offline changes as well. Strengthening traditional local media, including through developing less partisan news sources, is crucial for the flow of reliable on-the-ground information –including on Facebook.

While the development of such media depends mostly on local factors, Meta has a supporting role to play in this effort. In the US, Meta’s promotion of “trusted” and local news sources – or “high-quality reporting” – has been central to its goals

of reducing polarising content. This is, of course, highly dependent on independent sources being identifiable and available, and the Ethiopian government’s repressive policies over the course of decades have discouraged their proliferation and growth.

That said, Meta can promote and, where appropriate, support local reporters, fact-checkers and citizen journalists who report in a relatively unbiased way. Boosting their accounts and providing technical and material aid can improve the quality of news online.

Identifying these individuals will require consultations with civil society groups across the country. In Ethiopia, government support for a free press, rather than continued criminalisation of dissent, will be an essential element of improving coverage.

Some may see Ethiopia’s sweeping 2020 hate speech law as a means of addressing online incitement, but it has failed so far to have a noticeable impact. In fact, it may well also discourage legitimate dissent.

Sadly, there is no silver bullet for Ethiopia’s deep-seated political violence, and that also applies to social media’s role in it. But efforts to reduce the harm caused by online content combined with broader efforts to bolster the traditional media may create an improved online environment that does more to curb inflammatory discourse.

Crisis Group previously was a partner of Meta, and in that capacity was in contact with the company regarding misinformation on Facebook that could provoke deadly violence. Crisis Group reached out to the company to comment on this piece. It responded that it has strict rules outlining what is and is not allowed on Facebook and Instagram.

It went on to say that hate speech and incitement to violence are against these rules and that it invests heavily in teams and technology to help find and remove this content. In Ethiopia, specifically, it said it receives feedback from local civil society organisations and international institutions and employs staff with local expertise who focus on the most widely spoken languages in the country, including Amharic, Oromo, Somali and Tigrinya.

William Davison, Senior Analyst, Ethiopia; Jane Esberg, former Senior Analyst, Social Media and Conflict; and Alessandro Accorsi, Senior Analyst, Social Media and Conflict are all at Crisis Group.

The difficult fight against racism, xenophobia and tribalism

THE existence of some strata has been societal norms from time immemorial. People have been defined by the circumstances around their birth, social status, wealth and many other factors that could fit into several societies.

Africans, people of African genetic traces, those with high concentrations of melanin and others of different origins have been valued on the pedestal of their skin colour or origin. Racism is a global error, but there is a need to pay attention to black people's dilemma.

Outside the shores of Africa, they face different levels of racial discrimination; within Africa, there is a likelihood of xenophobic apprehensions by one’s countrymen toward African “foreigners”, and when back in their respective countries, their kinsmen remind them of the ethnic differences blown out of proportion.

The people of black skin are strongly of African descent either to the early contacts of Africa with other parts of the world, including Trans-Saharan and Trans-Atlantic Slave trades, as well as contemporary migrations of Africans to the Americas, Europe, and Asia. For centuries, people of African descent have been put below social standards with others as many early significant individuals, including scholars, doubted their ability to reason like the rest of the world.

They have been wrongly construed without identity, history, spirit, conscience, intelligence, or reasonableness. Africa, Africans, and people of African descent had to embark on different endeavours to create rebuttable grounds for the misled

presumptions of the African identity or blackness.

This historical inferiority perspective of the African people, especially occasioned by the long period of the slave trade, has created consciousness-bias against black people. Although Africans and blacks do not need to prove anything, they have set the pace in global scholarship and developments and, as such, underlined the psychopathic instincts of a racist that has blocked all channels to reasoning.

There are not less than 200 million people of African descent in the Americas and million others in Europe, Asia, and other parts of the world. Although there is no more frequent lynching in the

American South than in the 19th and 20th centuries, systemic lynching and racism are deafening and depressing.

There are laws set up in countries and their respective institutions and systems to discourage racism, but the problem persists due to its transformation into subtle forms. Enforcement of human rights laws and policies has been a major challenge in countries that are the champions of the free world.

President Biden, recognising these dynamics of systemic racism, described it at the early stage of his administration as “destructive”, “corrosive”, and “costly”, especially because of its fast rate of tearing apart the fabric of the society. In a 2021

Efforts to resolve various forms of prejudices around the world do not just mean that one is saving a person's life but saving a generation, reducing mental breakdown and giving voices to the voiceless, writes Toyin Falola

President Biden describes systemic racism as destructive, corrosive and costly

FBI analysis of Hate Crime Statistics, a single-bias analysis showed that 64.5 per cent of victims were discriminated against as a result of race, ethnicity or ancestry.

In 2018, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health conducted a survey that showed that 57 per cent of black Americans stated that they were discriminated against in terms of pay and promotions at their workplaces; 51 per cent had been subjected to the usage of racial slurs at a point or the other; 21 per cent noted that they had intentionally avoided medical care facilities for themselves and their relatives because of the fear of outright racial discrimination; and 60 per cent stated that they and their families had been subjected to undue suspicion by the police and law enforcement agencies because of their colour.

In another survey by the BBC on November 28, 2018, it was noted that the racism rate was between the range of 63 per cent to 20 per cent in European Union countries, with Finland having 63 per cent, the UK 21 per cent, and Malta 20 per cent.

One of the most common sectors that have attracted several racial abuses is football, where players, coaches, and individuals are subjected to the unchecked excesses of fans. Romelu Lukaku, Dani Alves, Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka,

Didier Drogba and loads of black players have at one point been harassed on the pitch whether they were doing fine or not. Saka, Jadon Sancho, and Rashford faced harsh racist abuses after England lost the final of Euro 2020.

Moise Kean, who is of Ivorian descent, Alex Sandro, and Blaise Matuidi, of Juventus in Italy, were racially abused by Cagliari fans in August 2019; particular racial interest was taken in Kean. Unfortunately, Kean was blamed for having provoked the attack.

African migrants who have left their

Africa have difficulties settling down because of the discriminatory attitudes of many of their colleagues.

There has been a tendency for black and migrant children in schools to be about four times more likely to have out-of-school suspensions, and they are more than twice as likely to be arrested for school-related offences. African migrants are largely treated as unwanted visitors who cannot protest because they lack assurance to protect their rights.

Africans deciding to visit, stay, study or work overseas must be aware of possible

countries searching for greener pastures have learned to swallow their “pride” when faced with undue suspicions. Several black people who have decided to study outside

racial abuse and discrimination. This is not to say that overseas communities are toxic in their entirety.

However, an allusion is strongly made

Black footballers like Romelu Lukaku have at one point been harassed on the pitch whether they were doing fine or not

‘ ’

to deforming systems that tolerate the few racial assailants and allow racial subconsciousness to grow. This has led to constructive slavery, human trafficking and other ranges of harassment.

Discrimination is not solely an issue of whether you are black, African, or white. At least many things could be said about racial sentiments by some supposedly distinguished Africans, like Kais Saied, the President of Tunisia, who has faced intense criticism for his racism and hate speech early this year against people from SubSaharan Africa, who are core blacks.

Saied had stated that Tunisia needed to take proactive steps against “hordes of illegal immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa” and qualified their migrations: “The undeclared goal of the successive waves of illegal immigration is to consider Tunisia a purely African country that has no affiliation to the Arab and Islamic

nations.”

Saied could have been right if he had purely frowned upon illegal migration, which is criminal. But he went below the belt by making such divisive comments, considering his position in Africa.

A similar issue could be found in Libya and the Maghreb. Several Africans, especially from Sub-Sahara, who aim to cross to Europe through that route, have been subjected to inhumane treatment. It has been reported that being black in Libya is difficult, and stigmatisation could knock one into depression.

This African version of discrimination snowballs into xenophobia from African citizens to migrant Africans in Africa itself. You see, the shouting about discrimination is not just putting whites on the receiving end, but every human that has failed to accord basic regard for others: the collective protection of our humanity.

Xenophobia has become more deplorable. It has moved from mere prejudice against people and their cultures to outright physical assaults, lynching, arson, and other unspeakable inhumane actions towards others.

Xenophobia in Africa has been growing since the 1960s, and those that were charged with duties to curtail it have done so with no full commitment. Several reasons explain xenophobic reactions, but they lack any form of justification.

In Angola, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa, the reactions were ignited by economic problems. In other countries it was a mixture of violence and economic issues that triggered the negative reactions.

The exodus of between 900,000 and 1.2 million people from Ghana; the arrest of about 4,000 Somalis in operation “Usalama Watch” in Kenya; the repatriation of Beninese from Gabon in the

Xenophobia in Africa has been growing since the 1960s

late 1970s; the expulsion of about 100,000 Congolese from Angola in 2004; the expelling of about 50,000 Angolans from Congo Kinshasa in 2009; the “Ghana must Go” agitation in Nigeria; and the South African xenophobic violent attacks on Africans in 2008, 2015 and 2019, are some of the worrisome acts of discrimination on the continent.

The story of Nathalie, a grade 10 student in a Cape Town public school who immigrated to South Africa in 2019 with her family from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and was harassed for being chosen as the class monitor, is a pitiful example. Several other individuals who are legal migrants and have prerequisite requirements and qualifications face this type of discrimination and harassment every day because of their nationality.

It would be wrong to say that countries should not look out for their citizens and protect their interests thereof, but the promotion of human rights and regard for humanity, no matter the origin or social status, must always come first. Illegal immigrants should be dealt with without abusing their basic rights, and legal migrants should be treated as much as citizens without discrimination. Africa needs to hold up to a level of consciousness of togetherness and understand the progressive gains in collaborative economies.

When you decide not to go overseas or even migrate to any African country, discrimination waits for you in your country in the form of tribalism. One of the characteristics of Africa is its diversity and variety of cultures.

In Nigeria, there are more than 250 different ethnic groups across the nation with over 500 languages. Ghana has about 70 ethnic groups; there are about 40 groups in Uganda, 42 in Kenya and three major ethnic groups in Rwanda. The diversity has left many minorities, marginalised groups and others agitating for representation and recognition within their countries.

This has been the major fuel for tribal discrimination across Africa. Today, several nations face insecurity because of “tribal differences”. In such scenarios, individuals lose lives, jobs, properties and other things they hold dear.

Fighting discrimination in the form of racism, xenophobia and tribalism is difficult because of the array of

stakeholders involved. However, there is a need for Africa to take a strong stance as one, and the role of the African Union in this endeavour is paramount.

It should carry out collaborative actions with countries with consistent racial problems and make its position known to other international bodies. More so, the same attention should be given to African countries and promote African unity, not at the level of what can benefit the respective countries as a whole but individual consciousness to tolerate people. In addition, human rights laws and policies put in place to capture the menace of discrimination should be revisited, and more efforts should be directed towards implementing and enforcing those laws.

Most importantly, individual African countries need to step up regarding social responsibility and development to not keep pushing human resources outside its shores in need of engagement. When there is a favourable economy and social system that would allow growth and enhance the standard of living of its citizens, emigration, at least permanent emigration, would be reduced to the minimum.

Furthermore, Africans, blacks and other discriminated individuals should always look within the system to explore

solutions to racial and xenophobic abuse. When they are being disregarded, support should be sought from relevant civil society groups for better protection.

On the home front, an international or continental approach may not be as adequate as anticipated. Pan-Africanism is the pre-eminent solution, but it is growing rather slowly. Thus, for now, the solution is national.

First, each African country should engage in structural reconsiderations to figure out the underlying motivations and causes of division. More so, there should be institutionalised efforts to erase traces of tribalism from every state entity and provide general consciousness and experience to reduce it.

In doing this, several stakeholders of different ethnic groups must be engaged to reduce ethnic gaps and ensure equal representation in politics and social activities.

Lives are lost to the dangers of racism, pangs of xenophobia and brutalities of tribalism. Efforts to resolve these issues do not just mean that one is saving a person's life but saving a generation, reducing mental breakdown and giving voices to the voiceless.

Toyin Falola is Professor Emeritus in the Humanities, Lead City University, Ibadan.

Will the New Agenda for Peace deliver?

THE Russian invasion of Ukraine has reshaped global political alliances and accelerated the fragmentation of established systems. It represents one of the most violent and stark rejections of the much-vaunted rules-based international order whose demise has been a long time coming.

As the liberal paradigms it has spawned wane, disgruntled voices across continents are getting louder. Some are chafing at being dictated to or acted upon by its very proponents who repeatedly flout it with impunity when it suits their interests.

Restive scholars and practitioners from the Global South are pushing for an epistemic freedom from the single narrative about peace in order to diversify knowledge creation, and make space for alternative ways of knowing, being, and doing that have been violently othered by colonisation and its hegemonic knowledge system self-perceived as more accurate and superior.

As of the third quarter of 2022, India overtook the UK as the fifth-largest economy in the world, meaning that three of the world’s largest economies are Asian (China and Japan being the other two). And yet, only one Asian country occupies a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, the organ entrusted with making key decisions about world peace and security.

Similarly, by 2030 approximately one in five persons in the world (18 per cent) will live in one of the 54 countries of the African continent and yet, not a single African nation is permanently represented

on the Council. These arguments are repeatedly put forth in the complex discussions on Council reform.

While it is not the intention of this article to belabour this much larger debate, it is symptomatic of the increasing dissonance between evolving geopolitical realities and international organisations whose legitimacy and continued relevance are increasingly under stress.

While waiting for the UN member states to instil new life in the discussion on the reform of the Security Council as part of their commitment to upgrade the world body, the drafters of the New Agenda for Peace (NAfP), need to bear witness to the internal contradictions the aforementioned

geopolitical imbalances are having on the UN and its peace and security work.

In this connection, the NAfP as set out in Our Common Agenda seems to have fallen victim to these contradictions. On the one hand, it recognises that the traditional forms of prevention, management, and resolution are ill-suited to deliver on the promise of peace and that the risks we face are no longer managed effectively through existing systems. On the other hand, it states that strengthening the governance of global public goods does not require new institutions, only simply new resolve and new ways of working together.

The document further emphasises that

With the current geopolitical shifts and the pressures that they are being exercised on the UN, Youssef Mahmoud argues that two critical gaps need to be addressed if the new move to strengthen international governance is to deliver peace as a global public good

the responsibility to shepherd new resolve and ways of working lies in the hands of member states, with the support of other relevant stakeholders. The attempt to deliver a global public good such as peace whilst holding on to institutions that may no longer resonate globally is a contradiction

most visible aspect tends to be conceived as exogenously driven, time-bound interventions aimed at “building” or “sustaining” peace in countries deemed to suffer from a deficit in peace.

The criteria and political considerations

Russian invasion of Ukraine has reshaped global political alliances

in terms, and possibly a source of continued inertia to progress toward a new agenda for peace.

International organisations can be both tangible as the UN, and intangible, manifest in the norms and practices that influence their work. Peacebuilding is one such intangible enterprise, whose

that shape decisions around where there is a peace deficit, how it should be fixed, and who is responsible for leading this endeavour remain rooted in assumptions informed by state-centric, top-down, liberal paradigms steeped in a linear narrative about peace that ties the fortunes of peace to the presence or absence of violent

The

‘ ’

conflict.

Recent attempts to diversify the narrative by turning to the “local” ended up being an exercise in othering and retrofitting. Othering because the Indigenous tends to be described with reference to the liberal peacebuilding model as a baseline; and retrofitting because “local” and “Indigenous” practices are viewed and defined using theoretical frameworks that emanate from existing peacebuilding scholarship steeped in a Eurocentric experience.

It primarily involves collecting local inputs through observation and providing support from (usually external) peacebuilding experts who come to spend time in a foreign country to detect and document Indigenous customs and rituals that could serve the purpose of “building” peace as conceived elsewhere, all under the banner of a romanticised local approach to peacebuilding.

In response to these deficits, researchers, policymakers, and practitioners have been calling to make room for alternative understandings of peace that may have been displaced by hegemonic paradigms judged to be universal. One such alternative is Jarstad et al’s tri-dimensional framework which conceives of peace as a “complex process

of becoming” rather than as an end goal.

As such, peace is conceived simultaneously as a situation, a set of relationships, and an ideational stance that informs policy and shapes power relations. Another alternative conceptualisation treats peace as the norm of human life, not the exception, as an ongoing quest the doors to which open only from the inside. A quest that is motivated by the humility to learn from what still works well in societies under stress and to respect that these societies, however broken they may appear, are not blank pages and their peoples are not projects. On the contrary, they have knowledge and agency, not just needs waiting to be fulfilled by outsiders.

Interrogating the dominant assumptions informing peacebuilding and making room for plural peace would go a long way in responding to the secretary-general’s tangential call in his Common Agenda “to reassess core assumptions, including how peace and security are defined, negotiated and sustained”.

Making peace with the painful legacies of past political violence, including egregious acts perpetrated by colonialism, should be an integral part of the NAfP. It could usefully be considered under what the secretary-general terms as “reshaping our response to all forms of violence”.

This could be achieved through unleashing the potential of the sustaining peace agenda ushered in by the landmark 2016 Security Council-General Assembly twin resolutions. This resolution, however, is nowhere mentioned under the NAfP. It has fallen victim to the liberal peacebuilding agenda which continues to be informed, as intimated above, by assumptions emanating from a very narrow interpretation of recent history.

By this interpretation, peace is modelled on the so-called Western democracies that have committed to eschewing the use of force, primarily among themselves, as a means of pursuing their interests since the end of the Second World War.

This historical trajectory is not the experience lived by most peoples, including Indigenous peoples. It is certainly not the history of Holocaust survivors nor the history of the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombings. Not to speak of the Vietnamese, Afghans, or Nicaraguans whose daily lives became enmeshed in violent proxy wars between two superpowers’ disputing ideologies, or the countless African nations that contested, often violently, the control of their peoples and resources by European colonisers.

The Vatican’s recent renunciation of the Doctrine of Discovery that legitimised colonial conquest with its cortege of egregious human rights abuses is step in the right direction

Building peace as a global public good and crafting the means to its delivery, with reference to the historical experience of a small portion of the world over a relatively short period of time would be an affront to the aspirations of the NafP. Much of the peacebuilding enterprise, particularly those activities funded by bilateral and multinational development agencies, is focused on intra-state level peace, with a strong emphasis on the role of the state as the primary custodian of this peace.

There is, however, much to be said, and more to be done to foster (re) conciliation and facilitate redress for injustices that existed and continue to exist between nations, largely as a result of wars of aggression. Failing to address these injustices and the traumas that have been passed down across generations has negative consequences on efforts to sustain peace.

If peacebuilding scholarship and practice have been forthcoming in recognising the importance of justice, (re) conciliation, and healing as part of the post-conflict “reconstruction” process in countries that have experienced civil wars and other forms of protracted violence, it has not afforded the same attention to violence – both direct and indirect – that has been exacted by some countries upon others. Whether it is decades (or centuries) of oppression or the use of foreign lands

for military exercises and nuclear tests, the traumas incurred because of these actions remain for the most part unaddressed.

Left unaddressed, these painful legacies of the past will continue to infiltrate the institutions, processes, and assumptions that inform definitions of peace and approaches to sustaining peace. Indeed, the NAfP needs to engage with processes of healing and (re)conciliation at this macro-meta level to ensure that the international organisations, not least the UN, are able to deliver on this most important global public good – peace –by holding a space for expressing and addressing the enduring, multigenerational legacies of past wounds.

Initiatives by the US and Vietnam to heal the wounds of their long war, or by citizens of both sides of the atomic bombs coming together to repair the world are steps in the right direction. So is the Vatican’s recent renunciation of the Doctrine of Discovery that legitimised colonial conquest with its cortege of egregious human rights abuses. These initiatives along with others can be built upon to heal other gaping wounds of past wars of aggression.

If the New Agenda is to help the UN deliver peace as a global public good, it needs to revisit the dominant assumptions that have colonised our understanding of peace and dictated the ways to work for it

when it eludes us. The New Agenda cannot be global or legitimate if it continues to perpetuate the worldview of a group of powerful nations that do not represent the peace-and-conflict lived experiences of the majority of the world, erroneously termed as the Global South.

The New Agenda’s lofty aspirations will be equally frustrated if the UN does not create a shared space for helping countries and their citizens come to terms with their historical multigenerational traumas. Such a space could be a forum where erstwhile enemies, victims, and perpetrators striving to heal the painful legacies of their common pasts can come together to repair the broken world they have inherited, and in so doing, help the next and future generations lay the foundations of an enduring global peace.

THE UN secretary-general’s report, Our Common Agenda, was launched on September 10, 2021 in response to member states’ request for recommendations to strengthen global governance, 75 years after the creation of the world body. Among the recommendations is the call for a New Agenda for Peace. At his request, a number of governmental and nongovernmental contributions were forwarded to the UN Secretariat to help inform the drafting of the New Agenda.

Youssef Mahmoud is Senior Adviser at the International Peace Institute (IPI), which first published this article.

Not a single African nation is permanently represented on the UN Security Council

Tackling sub-Saharan Africa’s food security problem

THE agricultural sector in Africa is of crucial importance because it does not only feed people, also generates employment in many countries. Half of the people who work in Africa are in the agricultural sector.

However, since the Covid pandemic and the Ukraine war, the challenge of food security has become a global leadership issue. This is highlighted by its importance within the economic structure of every country.

Indeed, food security does not only arise in poor countries. It is now

acknowledged that for both developing and developed countries, ensuring food security remains a major challenge.

In December 2016, at a conference on achieving agricultural transformation in Africa, Akinwumi Adesina, the President of the African Development Bank, highlighted the importance of the agricultural sector and the opportunities it presented. “Nobody smokes gas, nobody drinks oil, but everybody eats food,” he concluded.

One of the reasons the soldiers gave for their coup in Burkina Faso in September

2022 was linked to the country’s food crisis. Captain Ibrahima Traoré, the country's new strongman, said in an interview: “You have to go to the depths of Burkina to understand certain things. I patrol in the bush with my men. When you arrive, you find bruised populations. We want to get our people out of this misery, this insecurity.”

Indeed, Traoré had no trouble in leading his coup and seizing power. He had both the support of the army and the population, which he said were totally bruised by food insecurity.

Leaders in the sub-region must invest massively in their countries’ agricultural sector, support small farmers and adopt nationalist economic policies, as some North African countries have done, if they are to deal with the vagaries of food production, writes Saliou Diallo

Akinwumi Adesina: nobody smokes gas, nobody drinks oil, but everybody eats food

Experts have pointed out that throughout history food insecurity was a major contributory factor in destabilising societies. This was the case of the Arab Spring in 2011, which followed a period of intolerable food inflation for the people.

Among the agricultural challenges facing Sub-Saharan African countries are climate change, rapid population growth, drought and the lack of infrastructure. Addressing the food security challenges facing the continent should be the highest priority for Africa’s political leaders.

Agriculture is a very complex sector, which is dependent on several other sectors. Successful development of the agricultural sector means having water, infrastructure for production and transport, electricity, and also control of all other inputs such as labour, technology and know-how. Such interdependence and the fluidity of some of resources needed for agricultural success, such as water and the climate, clearly show that food security is a global leadership challenge.

The ineffective implementation of agricultural policies and the failure of humanitarian aid led to major disasters, especially in conflict-affected countries. This has been shown consistently in several studies that have measured the impact of an effective agriculture policy on economic development.

Experts have noted that if African political leaders do not put the issue of food security at the centre of their sectoral policies, the continent will never achieve sustainable economic development. They also note that the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) in the 1980s failed in Africa because African leaders implemented them without really measuring the impact they would have on their societies and more particularly on farmers.

African policy makers blindly followed and applied the policies recommended (or imposed) by the World Bank and the US Treasury Department. Several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa began importing food following the implementation of these policies and many of them are now almost entirely dependent on food imports.

But experts agree that this situation could easily be avoided. They urged African leaders to invest massively in the agricultural sector, support small farmers and adopt nationalist economic policies, as some North African countries have done.

Experts have noted that African agriculture is one sector that has suffered

the most from inappropriate policies. The late UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, highlighted a fundamental element: political will.

There is a need for a new model that will change the dynamic of the entire sector. Sub-Saharan countries have failed in the implementation of agricultural policies that

in many Sub-Saharan African countries today are the main reasons why they seem incapable of tackling global challenges such as food insecurity.

To move the agriculture sector forward in sub-Saharan Africa, governments must immediately start investing in small farmers and training them in the techniques and

will support women and small farmers. Thus, to develop agriculture in Africa, inspirational leadership is required.

Also, conflict affected countries are more exposed to food insecurity. The Fund for Peace indicated in 2017 that in Africa were the top three fragile states in the world: the Central African Republic, Somalia and South Sudan.

Terrorism in West Africa, with Boko Haram in Nigeria and armed groups in Mali, Cameroon and Burkina Faso, has weakened agricultural activities. Clearly, this lack of security and political stability

technologies of modern agriculture. Water is a fundamental element for successful agriculture, so particular emphasis should be placed on irrigation policy.

Infrastructure must also be built to develop rural agriculture, which also requires access to electricity. Finally, leaders must involve young people and women to take an interest in agriculture. Some countries, supported by the African Development Bank, have started to take initiatives of this kind and the establishment of the West African Power Pool is a very good scheme to achieve rural electrification.

Addressing the food security challenges facing the continent should be the highest priority for Africa’s political leaders

Saliou Diallo is an MA student at the African Leadership Centre, King’s College London.

Structural Adjustment Programmes failed in Africa because leaders implemented them without really measuring the impact on their societies

Youthful and innovative potential holds key to region’s robust economic growth

With a fast-growing population and vibrant cities, Africa is poised to harness its resources and human potential to drive inclusive prosperity at home and globally, says a new report read by Jon Offei-Ansah

AFRICA is undergoing a transformative shift, driven by its youngest and fastestgrowing population, burgeoning cities, and bold innovations in various sectors,

including fintech and clean energy, says a new report by global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

According to the report, Reimagining economic growth in Africa: Turning

diversity into opportunity, the continent, projected to reach a population of 2.5 billion by 2050, presents a multitude of opportunities for robust and inclusive growth, utilising its abundant natural

Africa's vast working-age population presents

resources and human capital. It says, “By capitalising on these strengths, Africa can reverse the economic deceleration experienced in the past and pave the way for a prosperous future not only within the continent but also worldwide.”

Amidst the challenges faced by Africa, including a 35 percent decline in GDP growth between 2010 and 2019, as well as the disruptive impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and global geopolitical shifts, the report says there are success stories that provide valuable lessons. “Certain countries, cities, sectors, and companies within Africa have emerged as beacons of innovation, productivity, and growth, demonstrating that a one-size-fits-all approach does not apply to the continent. These models can serve as inspiration to

invigorate the African economy and drive widespread development.”

While Africa's overall GDP growth outpaced its population growth, the number of Africans living in poverty still increased. This discrepancy highlights the need for a concentrated effort to boost per capita income growth and address the poverty gap. Nearly half of Africa's population resides in countries that have exceeded the continent's average growth rate, indicating the existence of viable models for inclusive growth. These countries, referred to as "consistent growers" and "recent accelerators," experienced higher-thanaverage increases in investment, exports, and urbanization, leading to increased productivity.

On the other hand, slower growth was observed in the remaining African countries, including Egypt, Nigeria, and South Africa. Additionally, ten of the smallest countries on the continent faced challenges in driving economic expansion. To overcome these obstacles, Africa must focus on improving productivity across sectors. The continent has the necessary human capital and resources to propel growth, particularly within the services sector, which has become the major driver of economic output. However, Africa's services sector productivity is the lowest globally, emphasizing the urgent need for improvement. Enhancing productivity in agriculture, where half of Africa's workforce is employed, is also crucial.

Looking ahead, the report believes that Africa's vast working-age population presents a unique opportunity for economic growth. By strategically deploying this labour force in highly productive jobs, the services sector alone could create at least 85 million net new jobs by 2030. “However, realising this potential requires Africa to match the productivity levels of Asia's strongest services hub, which could add a staggering $1.4 trillion to the continent's economy. Additionally, the agricultural sector, accounting for 49 percent of total employment, must continue to increase yields and add value to agricultural output to meet global standards,” it says.

To further drive economic progress, African leaders in the public and private sectors must explore opportunities within the continent. Currently, only a small percentage of Africa's trade is intraregional, indicating significant room for growth. The African Continental

Free Trade Agreement offers a pathway to reduce border constraints, enhance competitiveness, and encourage technology and talent flows. Sectors such as agroprocessing, pharmaceuticals, automotive, and logistics have the potential to deliver substantial value but require bold interventions and investments in infrastructure and productivity.

Africa's future lies in its vibrant cities, which are urbanising at a remarkable pace. With more than 500 million people projected to migrate to cities over the next two decades, the continent will witness the largest number of urban dwellers globally. However, investment in infrastructure is crucial to support businesses and workers, ensuring high productivity and sustained economic growth.

Large private-sector firms play a vital role in reigniting economic progress in Africa. These firms contribute significantly to growth, innovation, employment, exports, productivity, and taxes. While the number of large corporations on the continent may have decreased compared to other regions, Africa still boasts highperforming companies across various sectors. With the potential to increase collective revenues by over $550 billion by 2030, large companies can create substantial value by adopting ambitious strategies to access new markets, enhance productivity, and contribute to society.

Africa's journey toward inclusive growth requires leveraging successful examples within the continent and addressing the challenges that impede progress. By moving one billion Africans across the empowerment line and unlocking the potential of its consuming class, Africa can generate $3 trillion in consumer spending. This offers immense opportunities for businesses to provide affordable prices, target growth hot spots, and innovate within local value chains. Rising incomes, coupled with population growth, can further enhance Africa's consumption potential.

Africa's youthful population, vibrant cities, and innovative spirit provide a strong foundation for robust economic growth. By harnessing its resources, developing essential skills, and increasing the adoption of digital tools and technologies, Africa has the potential to become a driving force of productivity-led growth, improving the lives of its people and contributing to global prosperity.

Unlocking continent’s mineral potential: overcoming obstacles for greater beneficiation

Offei-Ansah

AFRICA, known for its abundant mineral deposits, contributes to about 30 percent of the world's resources. However, despite this wealth, approximately 70 percent of mined materials are exported to Europe and Asia for further refining and manufacturing into marketable products. This trend has sparked a growing chorus of voices within Africa calling for greater beneficiation, the process of increasing the economic value of raw minerals through in-country processing. Advocates argue that local beneficiation can generate higher incomes, employment opportunities, industrialisation, and regional integration. While the aspiration is ambitious, numerous obstacles stand in the way of its realisation.

African nations possess some of the largest deposits of crucial minerals on the planet. For example, Namibia stands as the world's second-largest producer of uranium and boasts significant reserves of tin and lithium, vital materials for supporting the green transition towards sustainable energy sources. The potential benefits of retaining these minerals within the continent are immense. However, achieving greater beneficiation requires concerted efforts from African governments, including comprehensive development plans and reforms. Infrastructure development, such as road networks and robust transportation systems, is a crucial part of this journey. Yet, inadequate infrastructure remains a significant hurdle. Additionally, miners cite political risk in certain countries as a major concern for potential investors.

While there is an increasing push for cohesion and development within Africa, exemplified by initiatives like the African Continental Free Trade Area that recognises the importance of infrastructure in advancing trade, there is still a pressing need for new policies to drive development. A 2021 report from the African Natural Resources Centre highlights the absence of adequate

domestic policies aimed at developing beneficial value chains for prosperity and job creation.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) plays a vital role in realising the goals of beneficiation. Historically, Africa has been viewed as a risky investment destination, deterring potential investors. However, policymakers and government officials across the continent have been actively working to change this perception. A report by the UN Conference on Trade and Development revealed that between 2006 and 2011, Africa experienced the highest rate of return on FDI inflows compared to other regions. This positive trend reflects the continent's growing attractiveness as an investment destination.

The message from African policymakers and business leaders to investors is clear: "Africa is open for business." However, the question of beneficiation remains closely tied to the investment question. Achieving greater beneficiation necessitates increased investment in infrastructure, including reliable electricity supply, water infrastructure, and transportation networks. The inability to move raw minerals to processing plants and the lack of consistent electricity and water supply hinder the beneficiation process. Moreover, arguments are made for manufacturing minerals closer to their intended usage location, especially for products like lithium-ion batteries. As global supply chains face disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and geopolitical events, manufacturers are increasingly seeking local production

options.

Anthony Viljoen, CEO of Andrada Mining, emphasises the potential benefits of in-country beneficiation. Viljoen believes that investors should assess the practical feasibility of beneficiation and align it with the capabilities of host governments. Despite debates against beneficiation, African governments prioritise value addition to their economies through continent-wide value chains.

Government officials in Africa maintain an optimistic outlook, believing that the challenges can be overcome. Nangula Uaandja, CEO and chairperson of the Namibia Investment Promotion & Development Board (NIPDB), acknowledges the significant opportunities for refineries on the continent. She highlights the advantages of refining a portion of Africa's mined minerals within the region. Namibia is investing in vocational training to develop a skilled labour force essential for the country's emerging manufacturing sector. With Africa projected to have the world's largest working-age population by 2050, the need for such development becomes even more critical.

While obstacles persist, Namibia stands out as an attractive investment destination in Africa. Viljoen commends the country's pragmatic and rational approach, emphasising the importance of collaboration between officials, economic development boards, miners, and investors to establish suitable policies, incentives, and tax regimes that benefit all parties involved.

As Africa seeks to unlock its mineral potential through greater beneficiation, the journey towards in-country processing faces significant challenges. Overcoming obstacles related to infrastructure, policies, and investor perception will be crucial for realising the vision of maximising the economic benefits of Africa's mineral wealth.

Local voices advocate for in-country processing of minerals, but challenges persist in infrastructure, policies, and investor perception, reports Jon

Namibia is the world's second-largest producer of uranium

Testimonials from some of our online subscribers:

We wish to compliment the Africa Briefing Magazine for its insight and value added stories from the Last Frontier. From a Scandanavian view the quality of material presented on time gives us the edge for investment and business purposes. Keep up the good work. Jon Marius Hoensi MD Marex Group, Norway.

I write in conjunction with JIC Holdings and its CEO, Mark Anthony Johnson, to commend Africa Briefing on its coverage of the important political, economic and social news and events in Africa. Its coverage of a wide range of topics is very impressive. I look forward to future editions. David W Gouldman, Consultant, JIC Holdings, United Kingdom.

Africa Briefing is an interesting new project. The publication helps fill the gap in business and economyfocused African journalism. Africa Briefing combines a good news sense with crisp copy to the reader rapid immersion into what is important in economies across the continent.

James

Schneider, Editorial Director,

New African Magazine, London, UK

New World Bank head appointed amid era of multiple crises

AJAY Banga, US President Joe Biden’s pick for the role of President of the World Bank, has been confirmed by its executive directors and will begin his five-year term on June 2. His predecessor David Malpass, a Trump-era nominee, is stepping down nearly a year ahead of schedule.

Banga will inherit a full inbox amid multiple global crises and as the bank undergoes a reform process aimed at increasing lending. “The Board looks forward to working with Mr. Banga on the World Bank Group Evolution process,” the executive directors said in a statement, adding that they want to tackle “the

toughest development challenges facing developing countries”.

Banga, an Indian-born US citizen, has been widely praised for his management skills at Mastercard, as well as his establishment of financial inclusion programmes at the firm. He has made clear he is entering the World Bank

A former Mastercard chief executive is to take the helm as the lender faces rising expectations for its support to countries in need, including in confronting climate challenges, reports Shabtai Gold

New World Bank President Ajay Banga

role with a strong focus on climate and driving private-sector investment into development.

Banga will have to drive reforms at the bank to see it increase its lending and become more agile to respond to the rising number of intractable global crises, including the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Getting the evolution of the World Bank right is absolutely critical to meeting the moment,” a senior US administration official told reporters. “Ajay has the track record and the know-how to rise to the occasion,” the official added.

Banga, 63, will face calls for more climate spending at the bank, whose main wing has more than $230 billion in loans to its client countries. But he will also confront the fact that extreme poverty is

rising for the first time in decades, and dozens of the bank’s client countries are facing severe debt challenges that hamper their ability to invest in health, education, and job creation.

The incoming chief has made clear he has no “magic wand” as he seeks to temper expectations. “Our ambitious goals will not be met overnight, and we remain committed to a staged adoption of reforms over the course of the year to build on the vision we have laid out,” US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in welcoming the board’s decision.

Banga will also face a somewhat divided board amid a heated debate about how to shape the bank’s mandate for the modern era. Some countries want its lending to remain focused on poverty, while others — notably some of the higher-

income nations — argue that progress on reducing emissions and fighting poverty inherently go hand-in-hand.

Banga will also face pressure to help debt-distressed countries get relief from China, a major creditor. There was a notable word absent from the board statement that reflects some of the global fragmentation with which Banga will have to cope.

Whereas Malpass was “unanimously selected” in 2019, Banga was merely “selected”. There had been signs Russia might block consensus, as it has done at international fora since the invasion of its neighbour in February last year.

Experts told Devex that Banga has his work cut out for him. “The financing needs of lower-income countries will be larger going forward,” said Amanda Glassman, a keen bank watcher at the Center for Global Development, noting all the shocks in the world.

“I am watching for Banga to deliver leadership and shareholder consensus on the addition of a more ambitious climate goal to the Bank’s mandate whilst growing the finance available to the lagging development agenda,” she said.

On the issue of more finance, Homi Kharas, a former senior banker now at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, supports a capital increase but says Banga will first have to show “demonstrated proof” that he is upgrading the bank for the modern era. The new chief “commands real respect” which will help him cajole the board into changes, Kharas said, but warned: “If the bank wants to be an influential player, it has to step up in terms of its size.”

Banga, who went to eight countries and met with about three dozen governments in recent months, has begun his formal onboarding, according to sources at the bank. Experts say they expect Banga to take time to get to know the institution and its staff from the inside before he makes any big moves.

Shabtai Gold is a Senior Reporter for Devex, the global development network, based in Washington.

The World Bank’s 'shadow workforce’

CONTRACTORS at the World Bank say they fear that failing to comply with additional work requests will jeopardise their contract renewal and could affect their visa status, particularly in the US. The Staff Association delivered a statement during a meeting of the bank’s human resources committee recently that said that “literally none” of the long-standing issues regarding contractor structure were addressed in a recent analysis of the short-term workforce.

The statement, which was seen by Devex, described short-term contractors as highly vulnerable. Staff surveys taken before the pandemic showed that 41 per cent of short-term contractors said they were asked by a manager to work more than their contracted hours and more than half reported working more hours than they billed.

“We continue to hear that these issues persist,” association chair Talib Esmail said in the statement. Esmail did not respond to repeated requests for comment on behalf of the association.

The bank utilises several categories of contractors, with short-term contractors limited to working 150 days in a calendar year. They are not eligible for health insurance, vacation, or sick leave. Extended-term contractors can work full time, receive a salary, have 24 days of leave, access a staff health plan, and get severance payment when their contract ends. Neither category has access to pension benefits.

A World Bank contractor who has worked on both types of contracts spoke to Devex on condition of anonymity out of fear for their job and said it was common knowledge inside the bank that shortterm contractors worked much more than their billable 150 days to complete their workload and remain in good standing. “I’ve never been told that I needed to work

more,” the person said. “But of course, I work way more. And you don’t claim it because you can’t. … You just do it.”

Complaints over the use of consultants at the bank are not new, and in fact go back decades, leading to reforms in the 1990s. Yet those who work at the bank remain frustrated that nothing has changed in

recent years.

According to the staff association, as of fiscal year 2022 there were about 23,000 short-term contractors at the World Bank — equalling the working hours of 7,200 full-time staff. Although the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and International Development Association

Short-term contract employees at the Bretton Woods Institution are regularly asked to work more than their legally billable hours because the lender relies heavily on temporary labour to avoid hiring permanent employees eligible for full benefits, reports Teresa Welsh

World Bank contractors are ineligible for employee service benefits

commitments have grown 64 per cent between fiscal year 2014 and 2022, fulltime staff have only grown by just three per cent.

“Contractors are necessary. I understand that. You need a study done, you need a survey done, you need communications — there’s a thousand reasons why you may need [a short-term contractor],” the contractor said.

“But there are a bunch of us working at the bank that are performing functions. We are not [a short-term contractor] by the definition. We are people that the bank is using not to open a staff position because they don’t want to pay for the full amount.”

A bank spokesperson said the institution “highly values our shortterm consultant colleagues” and their contributions. “Given the large range of seasonal and temporary projects we

invest in around the globe, our short-term employees enhance our overall capacity to deliver on strategic priorities for the people we serve,” the spokesperson told Devex.

“We care about all of our employees — both short-term and full-time — and acknowledge concerns raised by the Staff Association and consultants. We will continue to consider ways to deliver better support while respecting the integrity of our contracts and recognising our evolving business requirements and resources,” the spokesperson wrote to Devex.

The contractor said they had worked in the same position at the bank on a

that perpetuated differences between the employee classes: Contractors are excluded from institutional email distribution lists so they do not receive important internal communications. They are not invited to unit meetings, relying instead on colleagues to informally fill them in on anything that may impact their work.

“It is absurd,” said the contractor. “It’s very demeaning.”

The Staff Association decried the fact that the last time they were able to discuss the contractor issue with management was 2019, and it remains “deeply disappointed that literally none of the issues we raised

short-term contract for five years but had never been offered a full-time role. The person was told there was a cap on head count, and the department did not want to fill a position with someone without topical expertise in the practice area. This happened often, the contractor said, leaving them performing core bank functions rather than focusing on limitedtime projects.

Every year around April and May contractors discuss renewals for the bank’s next fiscal year, which begins in July, the contractor explained. Performance is considered during contract renewal, and the person said they felt that not working the additional hours could be used against them.

Foreign nationals working at the World Bank headquarters in Washington, D.C., hold G-4 visas meant for employees of international institutions. If someone does not have their short-term contract renewed, they lose their ability to remain in the US.

Employing contractors inside the institution was so pervasive, the contractor said, that people assumed their colleagues were full-time staff, not contractors. But the person said it was the little things

then have been addressed” in a recent analysis of the short-term workforce. Esmail described the analysis as shortsighted and cold.

It cites data from the bank’s ethics and internal justice system, which found that contractors are reluctant to use the institution’s conflict resolution system because they fear retaliation for speaking out; no explanation is required for nonrenewal of contracts.

The statement on behalf of the Staff Association also questioned why the analysis does not address the difficulties in accessing health care that affects many short-term staffers, although it does note that the bank provided access to Covid-19related medical benefits for contractors. “We understand that with staffing, budget must be part of the conversation, but it is not supposed to be the only consideration,” Esmail wrote in the Staff Association statement.

“We can only surmise that when the [World Bank Group] says it is committed to an inclusive, respectful workplace that does not include our contingent workforce whose cheap source of labour is the ugly reality behind ‘delivering more with less.’”

Teresa Welsh is a Senior Reporter at Devex, the global development network. Shabtai Gold contributed to this story.

In 2022 there were about 23,000 short-term contractors at the World Bank — equalling the working hours of 7,200 full-time staff

Why are there so many questions over return of the Benin Bronzes?

WESTERN institutions and governments that have held stolen cultural materials for over a century do not have the moral right to insist on their models of keeping and displaying these treasures. They should not cast aspersions on how Nigeria intends to handle, display, and preserve its cultural property.

What should be done is simply to return looted works and cause no further disruptions within the communities where these works were stolen. I made this remark when I was privileged to address the German Culture Minister in Bayreuth last year.

I mentioned the importance of giving voice to host communities from where these works had been taken. The genocide of Herero and Nama people, whom the Germans killed, is another matter regarding the return of skulls and human remains to Namibia.

The Nigerian government recognises the value of these works and the role of the Benin royalty in their sustenance and production before they were looted in the first instance. It was from the palace of this “single royal family” that these treasures were looted. Despite this, the Oba of Benin has said that the works will be accessible to the public and shown in the Benin Royal Museum.

All this bad press has come since the recent Gazette issued by the Nigerian government, which had actually issued a directive about the Benin Bronzes last year. Also, the Nigerian High Commissioner to Britain, Sarafa Tunji Isola, on the return of two looted Benin treasures to Nigeria secured by the government from institutions in the UK, brought them physically to the palace of the King. In his address on December 13, 2021, he

explicitly mentioned that he was acting on the instructions of the President of Nigeria.

The Gazette is a normal and necessary response to distractions playing out over the display and management of the restituted objects. We have read repeatedly that the returned artifacts will be housed in the Edo Museum of West African Art (EMOWAA), which has received international funding.

It is commendable that Germany has gone ahead of other countries to physically return Benin looted objects. Providing funding to hold these returned works is also remarkable. However, the Legacy Restoration Trust (LRT), which has

metamorphosed into EMOWAA, is not a government organ. It was conceived as a separate entity set up to collect objects for which it has no jurisdiction.

Why should a state governor and his cohorts wield so much power as to want to appropriate these artifacts, and why should Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM) be so intertwined with LRT? What are the agreements signed between these parties, and why does such a group have so much access to Benin looted artifacts in Western museums?

Under whose authority does the British Museum fund archaeological excavations

Many thought the period of colonialism was long over, but Western reportage of the Nigerian government’s request for handing back Benin treasures and its plans of preserving them shows a lack of sensitivity and understanding of the societies looted of their valuable cultural materials, writes Peju Layiwola

The Art of Resistance: Benin ancestral heads on display at an exhibition at the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum in Cologne, Germany, 2020-2022

in Benin City? It has categorically said it would not relinquish ownership of Benin Bronzes to Nigeria, yet it is digging up new and fresh treasures.

Do we realise the British Museum might be digging the same palace that British Naval officers burnt down in Benin City and where they looted the artifacts in 1897? The current palace, as it is today, occupies a small portion of what it was pre-1897.

One-third of Benin's looted objects will not leave Germany and will be on permanent loan for 10 years. Who decides what number of treasures remain in Germany? Who also decides which items remain in Europe? There are so many questions to be answered.

I was in Benin City recently and was led to the site of the proposed Museum of West African Art. I was so sad to see that one wing of the Specialist Hospital had been demolished to build a museum. For several decades this state hospital catered to the underserved in Benin City. Can you imagine taking down King's College Hospital in London or the Charité in Germany to build a museum pavilion?

Sidelining the Oba of Benin, whose forebears suffered the attack of 1897, seems a better choice for foreign partners and funders. The memories and trauma

associated with the looted artifacts are still etched in the memory of the Benin royal family. Is the LRT an internal agent of neocolonialism?

I was also in Berlin on July 1, 2022, for the ceremony passing on ownership of the Benin material to Nigeria. There was no mention of the Oba during the entire ceremony. The Western curators who had worked tirelessly on the international scene to bring restitution to fruition were recognised.

I single out Nanette Snoep, with whom I have been on this journey for the return of Benin artifacts since 2003, when we began the Broken Memory project in Benin, Paris, and Zurich. This was a time when no one believed the objects would ever return. Suddenly, we have newcomers who think they understand better how we should handle these treasures.

The restitution victory we see today did not happen overnight. Many advocacies, civil society groups, pressure groups and artist projects – musical, film, installations, performances and lectures – have centred discussions on Benin art and brought awareness in local and international spaces.

Kwame Opoku had begun writing on the Benin case in 2007 when we first met in Vienna. Today, European scholars hardly cite his work even though they read

his well over 300 articles on the Modern Ghana website. These are the true heroes of the restitution debate.

My dear friend and brother, the musician, Monday Midnite, who sang the record, 1897, wrote me when he saw the handover ceremony in Abuja: “Why are these ceremonial showboating advocates acting like they lifted any meaningful fighting finger in the struggle to return the artifacts?

“Where were they when Dr Kwame Opoku, your indefatigable self, a handful of others, and myself, in my little musical way, went headfirst into the eye of the storm in the West over a decade ago to ignite the war for the return of the artifacts when others thought the struggle was hopeless?”

It is important that the Nigerian government has firmly defined the role of the Oba of Benin as the head of a system that encouraged the production and sustenance of these artifacts. Is there any problem with this?

What I see as a problem is that Western institutions may have plans for the future of the Benin artifacts and cry out when there is a deviation from that plan. We must ask them why the artifacts should not be returned to the original owners.

Propagandists claim that the treasures will be kept away from the public. The King has said that a few objects will remain in the West as ambassadors of the culture. But more importantly, the other treasures will be kept in the Benin Royal Museum to tell a different narrative from what we have heard over the decades.

The looting and rape of Benin is one of the most documented histories of pillage in Africa. If we miss this opportunity to handle this situation properly, it will mess up the case for other parts of the continent.

I am sure Ghanaians know where their looted gold treasures should go. The Asantehene’s gold should be kept in some museum that he recognises as a safe and secure place for displaying his treasures. All hands must be on deck to build the Benin Royal Museum.

The ball of restitution is rolling. It could be delayed, but it will eventually happen. More importantly, it should happen the right way so that history and posterity can vindicate our motives and roles.

Peju Layiwola is an artist who teaches studio art and art history at the University of Lagos. www.pejulayiwola.com; pejulayiwola1967@gmail.com; @pejulayiwola

Keeping a watchful eye on cultural treasures: Peju Layiwola at the Cologne exhibition of the Benin Bronzes