African voice 503 by African Voice Newspapers UK

Friday, 11 October – Thursday, 17 October 2013 ISSUE 503

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

SINCE 2001

B R I TA I N ’ S N O . 1 A F R I C A N N E W S PA P E R

£1.00

‘We have a responsibility as a govt to ensuring your welfare’ - Abba Moro, Nigeria’s Interior Minister SEE PAGE 18 & 19 Snatched Libyan PM set free

SEE PAGE 4

MIGRANTS MAY BE LOSING THEIR APPEAL Tories threaten to axe Human Rights Act By Alan Oakley

Home Secretary Theresa May has vowed to reform the country’s immigration tribunals and appeals system to make it easier to deport people. Outlining proposals to be spelled out in the Conservative Party manifesto for the 2015 general election, Mrs May also launched an attack on the Human Rights Act for facilitating delays and blocking the removal of illegal immigrants and foreign criminals; adding that those fighting deportation would no longer qualify for government funding of their legal representation. The Home Secretary told the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester that the 17 ways to appeal deportation currently would be slashed to four in order to “streamline” the system. In the longer term, she said, the government intended to repeal human rights legislation to prevent those facing deportation from claiming the right to stay in the UK under the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR). The moves are part of Mrs May’s plans to cut the number of deportation appeals by half by reducing the number of challenges allowed and ending what she sees as abuse of ECHR Article 8 – the right to respect for private and family life. She said the Con-

servatives’ position on the ECHR was clear and the Party will leave the Convention if that is what it takes to fix Britain’s human rights laws. The speech was short on detail though Mrs May said that a draft immigration bill containing all the details of her proposals would be released within the next few weeks. Mrs May attracted enthusiastic applause when she reminded her audience of the deportation of ‘hate preacher’ Abu Qatada. Abu Qatada fought deportation for over ten years before finally being removed from the UK in July this year. Mrs May said that it was ‘ridiculous’ that it had taken so long. Promising that the Conservative manifesto for the 2015 national poll would contain a commitment to repeal the 1988 Human Rights Act, Mrs May said that many people in the country avoided deportation by relying on the Act, which incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law. She said that this had had the effect of ensuring that the law was “now on the side of the criminals rather than the public”. She said that many foreign criminals rely on Article 8 and that this provision had become “a free-for-all” because UK judges had interpreted the law wrongly.

Continued on page 2

The Home Secretary says the European Convention on Human Rights provision for individuals’ right to respect for private and family life has resulted in a “free for all”

Friday, 11 October – Thursday, 17 October 2013

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

Have You GotNews For Us

News Prem Goyal announces plan to contest 2015 election

Mr Goyal said: “After 30 years of the same politician representing the constituency, Camberwell and Peckham’s leadership is crying out for an innovative and fresh perspective that is relevant and addresses the needs of one of the most ethnically diverse areas in London. “The people of Camberwell and Peckham are telling me every minute that the current political representation is out of touch with them and doesn’t

build relationships with the whole community: in short, their votes have been taken for granted. ” Mr Goyal told African Voice that if he won the 2015 election, he would only be an MP for a maximum two terms to ensure there are always new ideas and fresh perspectives in the constituency so as many people as possible can get leadership opportunities at the top and make a significant difference. “If I win in 2015, I will live in the constituency and ensure that people hired in my offices will not only reflect the diversity of the constituency but also have deep roots in the Camberwell and Peckham community. I’ll never wear a bullet proof vest in my community. I’ll care for my whole community by embracing all cultures, including English, African and Caribbean, and all people. “My priorities are to ensure Camberwell and Peckham have decent homes and jobs for all, to make Southwark a Living Wage borough and to build business bridges between Southwark and emerging markets like Nigeria.”

Business Banking Manager, a Start Up Loans representative and a business liaison officer from Companies House. The idea of this exhibition was born from the knowledge that small marketing budgets often prevented young start-ups from being seen at larger trade shows and exhibitions, often being overshadowed by larger companies with much larger marketing power. EN Start Up loans will host a stand at the event to encourage young entrepreneurs to realise their dreams of business expansion. EN Start Up loans has given youth enterprise in London a much needed boost this year by giving young entrepreneurs access to loan capital. The EN Start Up Loans serve as a life line to the

young entrepreneurs who have created their businesses as an alternative to employment. The average loan amount is £2,500, there is no definite limit and the final amount will be determined by your business plan. There is an option of a 1 year holiday period before beginning repayment. Start Young Global launched its first website on February 4th, 2013 by two extremely ambitious entrepreneurs, Lina Gadi aged 24 and Moza Ahmed aged 19. Since it’s launched the company has seen steady growth and has included new additions to the board of directors, including Aaron Wallace and Jusnah Gadi. Entry tickets to The Young Entrepreneurs Exhibition are completely free.

Newsdesk: 020 3737 3077

Email: africanvoicenews@gmail.com

Hajj Consular Delegation accompanies British pilgrims

The 15th Hajj Consular Delegation to accompany British pilgrims to Saudi Arabia has been launched by Senior Minis-ter of State Baroness Warsi and Minister for Consular Services Mark Simmonds.

This year’s Hajj is expected to take place from 13-18 October. Approximately 19,000 British Muslims are expected to participate. The British Hajj Delegation (BHD) has been based in Makkah every year since 1999. Senior Minister of State Baroness Warsi said: “The Foreign and Commonwealth Office understands how deeply important the Hajj is to the British Muslim community and once again we are sending a Hajj Consular Delegation. Saudi Arabia provides excellent facilities and services to all pilgrims and I would like to thank Saudi Arabia for everything it does for British pilgrims on Hajj”. Foreign Office Minister responsible for Consular Services, Mark Simmonds, MP continued: “We are absolutely committed to providing appropriate Consular services to British pilgrims during Hajj through having consular officers on the ground in Makkah and Jeddaha”

Publisher and Editor-In-Chief Mike Abiola Editorial Board Adviser Dr Ola Ogunyemi News Editor Peter Olorunnisomo Managing Editor Alan Oakley Sports Editor Abiodun Teriba Assist. Sports Editor Olubunmi Omoogun Arts Editor Golda John Columnists Ryan Holmes Photo Journalist Isaac Adegbite Graphic Designer Ryan Holmes Legal Adviser Nosa Kings Erhunmwunsee London Office: Unit 7 Holles House Overton Road London SW9 7AP

Tel: 0203 737 3077

Email: africanvoicenews@gmail.com

African Voice is published by African Voice UK.

Prem Goyal quit the Labour Party earlier this year over the local leadership’s apparent disregard for Southwark’s ethnic diversity

Local entrepreneur and businessman, Prem Goyal OBE, has announced that he will stand as an MP candidate for Camberwell and Peckham in 2015.

The news comes after former Labour Party member Mr Goyal, together with some local community champions, set up a new political party for Southwark, the All People’s Party “to give avenues and leadership opportunities for all people now”.

Young entrepreneurs only exhibition holds in November EN Start Up Loans is planning to support young entrepreneurs, who received funding from the organisation to establish an online resource hub, with their new event. The annual Young Entrepreneurs Exhibition will be the first of its kind in the UK and will give young business owners the unique opportunity to stand out, selling their products and increase their brands visibility by exhibiting to over 200 expected visitors.

This event is not SYG’s first, in July this year this start-up company managed to put together the highly successful ‘New Face of Business’ seminar, aimed at specifically at young start-ups. Their July event secured a high calibre of panel speakers including a Barclays

MIGRANTS MAY BE LOSING THEIR APPEAL Continued from front page

She said: “Parliament wants the law on the people’s side. Conservatives in government will put the law on the people’s side once and for all.” The Home Secretary also told delegates that she plans to introduce tough new laws to boot out foreign criminals and illegal immigrants before their appeals are heard.

She said a new Immigration Bill would allow immediate deportation if there was no risk to the deportee of serious or irreversible harm. Appeals would then be heard while the person is outside the UK. Critics warn that pulling out of the ECHR could cause the system to collapse, meaning countries with poor human rights

records would be under less pressure to improve. Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper warned: “Blaming the Human Rights Act when the principal reason for not deporting foreign criminals is Home Office incompetence is just a cover for failure.”

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

Friday, 11 October – Thursday, 17 October 2013

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

News

Snatched Libyan PM set free Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan, who was abducted on Thursday from the Corinthia Bab Africa Hotel in the Libyan capital, Tripoli where he was residing by armed gunmen, is reported to have been released unharmed, according to Libyan state television. An Interior Ministry official has been quoted by the country’s news agency as saying the PM is being held at the Ministry’s anti-crime department.

Ali Zeidan was seized in an audacious pre-dawn raid

Meanwhile, Agence France-Presse reported that it has been told by the group responsible for the ‘kidnap’ that Mr Zeidan “was arrested under the Libyan penal code... on the instructions of the public prosecutor.” The general prosecutor’s office is denying reports that it had issued an order to arrest the PM. There have also been unconfirmed reports that the Operations Cell of Libya’s Revolutionaries said it merely detained Mr Zeidan because he has been charged with financial

and administrative corruption. However, the justice ministry said there was no arrest warrant, and even went as far as to call the move a kidnapping. The pre-dawn seizure of Zeidan came five days after US commandos embarrassed and angered Libya’s government by capturing senior Al-Qaeda suspect Abu Anas al-Libi off the streets of Tripoli and whisking him away to a warship. A group of former rebels, which had roundly denounced Libi’s abduction and blamed Zeidan’s government for it, said it had “arrested” Zeidan. “The head of the transitional government, Ali Zeidan, was taken to an unknown destination for unknown reasons by a group of men believed to be former rebels”, the government had said in a brief statement on its website. According to another unconfirmed report, Mohamed Sheikh, the Libyan Minister of the Interior could tender his resignation from the government over this incident

New ID checks will impact everyone, warn lawyers

Habib Rahman, Chief Executive of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, warns of a return to the days of ‘no dogs, no blacks, no Irish’

Immigration lawyers have warned home secretary Theresa May that the immigration checks she plans to reveal in her flagship Home Office Immigration Bill later today (Thursday, October 10) will have to encompass British citizens. The bill will require immigration checks to be carried out before anyone can open a new bank account, be issued with a driving licence or access routine health treatment.

The Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association (ILPA) has called the plan 4

for millions of private landlords to face “proportionate” fines of up to £3,000 if they fail to conduct checks on the immigration status of new tenants and other adults living in their properties unworkable. The lawyers say the combination of the new housing and health checks with existing checks carried out by employers and educational colleges amounts to a system of identity checks for foreign nationals in Britain. The official ILPA response to the Home Office consultation says: “What this means in practice is a system of identity checks for all, since it is necessary for British citizens or people with permanent residence to prove that they

are lawfully present in the UK if and when checked. “British citizens, European economic area nationals and third country nationals alike would be required to produce identity documents at many turns in a scheme that would be intrusive, bullying, ineffective and expensive and likely racist and unlawful to boot.” The lawyers say the scheme is discriminatory because landlords can simply say they aren’t satisfied with a tenant’s identity documents and refuse them accommodation. They also point out that the proposals take no account of those who do not yet have leave to remain in Britain but have an outstanding application that clearly meets the immigration rules. The Residential Landlords Association has told the home secretary that there are potentially 404 types of European identity documents that landlords may need to know about to operate the scheme. Landlords are consequently likely to simply refuse to house migrants for fear of falling foul of the new rules. Habib Rahman, of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, says: “These measures will divide society, creating a two-tier Britain, a return to the days of ‘no dogs, no blacks, no Irish’ and of ill people with no access to healthcare walking the streets of Britain. This bill is a travesty and must be stopped.” Gavin Smart, director of policy and

practice at the Chartered Institute of Housing, said: “Checking immigration status is complicated so landlords may shy away from letting to anyone who appears not to be British.”

Other new measures in the Bill, which could become law as early as Spring 2014 if approved, include: • New powers to check driving licence applicants’ immigration status • Cut the number of deportation decisions that can be appealed against from 17 to four • Restrict the ability of immigration detainees to apply repeatedly for bail if they have previously been refused it • Make it easier for the Home Office to recover unpaid civil penalties • Clamp down on people who try to gain an immigration advantage by entering into a “sham” marriage or civil partnership • Require banks to check against a database of known immigration offenders before opening bank accounts Immigration minister, Mark Harper, defends the bill, saying it would “stop migrants using public services to which they are not entitled, reduce the pull factors which encourage people to come to the UK and make it easier to remove people who should not be here”.

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

Friday, 11 October – Thursday, 17 October 2013

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

News

Blood diamond warlord set to die in UK jail By Alan Oakley

Liberia’s former president and warlord Charles Taylor is to serve out his 50-year prison sentence for war crimes in a British jail, Britain confirmed today.

Taylor, 65, is likely to spend the rest of his life behind bars in Britain after the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) in The Hague upheld his sentence for arming rebels during Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war during the 1990s. “Former president Taylor will now be transferred to a prison in the UK to serve that sentence,” Britain’s junior justice minister Jeremy Wright said in a statement to parliament. The justice ministry refused to disclose which jail would house the former strongman. “We don’t comment on individual cases,” a ministry spokeswoman told reporters. Taylor’s landmark sentence - on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity - was the first handed

Charles Taylor was convicted at the International Criminal Court in 2012

down by an international court against a former head of state since the Nazi trials at Nuremberg in 1946. He had been arrested in 2006 and sentenced at The Hague last year for “some of the most heinous crimes in human history”. As Liberia’s president from 1997 to

2003, Taylor supplied guns and ammunition to rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone in a conflict notorious for its mutilations, drugged child soldiers and sex slaves, judges said. He had maintained his innocence throughout the sevenyear trial, which had heard evidence

from witnesses including actress Mia Farrow and supermodel Naomi Campbell, who told of the diamonds she believed she was given by Taylor in 1997. The British government had offered in 2007 to house Taylor in a British jail if he was convicted, and to cover the costs of his imprisonment. Sweden, Finland and Rwanda also offered to take in Taylor. His lawyer had earlier suggested that he would prefer to go to Rwanda to be closer to his family. “The United Kingdom’s offer to enforce any sentence imposed on former president Taylor by the SCSL was crucial to ensuring that he could be transferred to The Hague to stand trial for his crimes,” Wright said, adding: “The conviction of Charles Taylor is a landmark moment for international justice. It clearly demonstrates that those who commit atrocities will be held to account and that no matter their position they will not enjoy impunity.”

Friday, 11 October â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Thursday, 17 October 2013

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

2 Year Fast Track Undegraduate Degrees in Law, Oil & Gas Business

Quoting Ref: 332

(07424892206) 7

Friday, 11 October – Thursday, 17 October 2013

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

Building African managers for African business

Walter Baets

THE latest research by the African Management Institution (AMI) shows the continent suffers a severe shortage of managers posessing the skills required to advance the African economy. “Africa is a continent that is going through an economic growth spurt and is brimming with tal-

ent but is tragically short of skills needed to support this,” says Director of the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business (GSB), Walter Baets.

The 2012 AMI survey, which drew from 50 in-depth interviews with individuals at 40 organisations across Africa, including employers, educators, thought leaders,

training providers and more, showed that in Africa overall efforts to develop high quality managers are entirely inadequate to meet the opportunities the next few decades would bring. The report states that more young Africans are pursuing higher education, but too often the quality of education is low. To address this problem, Baets believes business schools have the responsibilty to rebalance education in Africa, so that leaders acquire the necessary skills to develop inclusive business and contribute to human and economic advancement. “Educational institutions need to question the type of training that is being provided. In confronting the lack of managers at home and in the rest of Africa, the continent needs institutions that take on the responsibility to ensure that we have capable managers who can perform to international standards and managers who are capable of dealing with the unique opportunities and challenges that set Africa apart from the rest of the world. At the same time they need to establish the

foundations for a strong economy and the continent’s progress,” he says. Africans clearly have a big appetite for learnng. According to Bruce MacDonald who heads the Programme for Management Development (PMD) at the UCT GSB, a two-week programme that runs in November every year has seen the number of African participants attending the course surge in the past decade. As one of the GSB’s longest running short courses, PMD deliberately changed its focus in 2001 from serving a narrowly South African market to rather encapsulating the needs of the broader Africa. MacDonald says that the development of the sub-Saharan market for PMD has been an enormously rewarding undertaking. The ‘Afropolitan’ approach PMD takes is something the GSB strives to uphold in all its programmes, and one that Baets believes African educational institutions need to take to see that the continent reaches its potential.

Africa’s poor infrastructure hurts growing trade promise

Road construction in Kenya

Lack of infrastructure is negatively affecting Africa’s international trade, Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba said on Tuesday.

“The world is eager to do business with Africa, but finds it difficult to access African markets, especially in the interior, due to poor infrastructure,” he said at the convention of the association of municipal electricity utilities in East London, Eastern Cape. “Greater economic activity, enhanced efficiency and increased competitiveness are hampered by inadequate transport, communication, water and power infrastructure.” He said while inadequate infrastructure could be the biggest threat to Africa’s longterm growth, it also represented a significant opportunity for investors. “With governments across the continent committing billions of dollars to infrastruc-

ture, Africa is at the start of a 20 to 30-year infrastructure development boom,” Gigaba said. The development and modernisation of infrastructure remained critical to South Africa’s future economic competitiveness, facilitating domestic, regional and international trade, and enhancing South Africa’s integration into the regional and global economy. He said critics of the national development plan (NDP), which listed infrastructure as one of its priorities, still saw its potential. “Some of the critics of the NDP have not outrightly rejected the plan, but highlighted issues which require further engagement and debate, with a view to improving them as we march forward with its implementation,” he said. “The plan itself is not sacrosanct or cast in stone, but is a living document.”

Friday, 11 October – Thursday, 17 October 2013

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

Nig. signs trade MoU with Brazil By Peter Olorunnisomo

Olusegun Aganga Last Tuesday in Abuja marked a signiﬁcant step in the co-operation and demonstration of goodwill in the economic sector between Nigeria and Brazil when a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen their bilateral co-operation on trade and investment was signed.

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr Olusegun Aganga, representing Nigeria, signed on behalf of the Federal Government, while Mr Ricardo Shaefer, his Brazilian counterpart on De-

velopment, Industry and Foreign Trade, signed for his country. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) further reports that the agreement strengthens bilateral cooperation on the promotion and facilitation of trade and investment between the two countries. At the ceremony, the Minister stated that the MoU was a follow-up to the recent meeting between President Goodluck Jonathan and his Brazilian counterpart, Dilma Rousseff. According to him, the agreement goes beyond trade and investment to include industrial cooperation and ﬁnancing as

well as how both countries can double their trade volume.· The minister listed the sectors covered by the MoU to include infrastructure, power, automobile, agriculture and sugarcane to sugar among others. ``Nigeria has policies on sugar and automobile development. These are areas that Brazil has very strong presence and this is how we work together to develop those sectors. ``In the area of trade, the balance of payment is in favour of Nigeria but that is because of the export of crude oil to Brazil. ``We have agreed that we need to look at the non-oil sector and double trade within the next two years in all the sectors in terms of industrial products, services, agriculture and all that. ``Then we have looked at how to strengthen institutions to deliver and support industrial and SMEs development as well as trade. ``In Brazil, there is Sindra and of course SINACH, both of which offer almost the same services as the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria. ``We want to make sure that there is a strong relationship because that is what is going to address the development of

micro, small and medium enterprises in both countries. ``So, this agreement will cover cooperation in all these areas including how we double trade between the two countries, and of course how we attract investment into strategic areas of the economy.’’ Aganga, however, decried the presence of some obstacles to free movement of people between both countries, which he said, were a threat to implementation of the agreement.· He identified a lack of direct flight from Nigeria to Brazil and the difficulty in obtaining visa at the Brazilian Embassy as some of the obstacles that should be addressed.· In his remark, Shaefer, observed that Brazil and Nigeria shared some development challenges that could be addressed through cooperation.· He noted that stronger economic and trade ties between Nigeria and Brazil would translate into economic development for both countries and a better life for their citizens. The minister, who spoke through an interpreter, expressed his delight on the MoU, pledging the commitment of his country to its implementation for the benefit of both countries.

Nigeria takes UN Seat campaign to IPU Delta state plans Mandela Park

Senate President David Mark

Nigeria’s quest for a permanent seat in the United Nations’ Security Council went a step further when the country took en its to the International Parliamentary Union (IPU) which had a total of 160 countries represented at its 129th meeting. At the 129th meeting of the IPU on Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland, the President of the Senate, David Mark, addressed the leaders of parliaments from across the World pointed out that the campaign was already yielding positive results as many of the law makers at the meeting had indicated their countries’ readiness to support Nigeria’s quest for the seat.

The Nigerian delegation which was led by Senator David Mark also had the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Hon. Emeka Ihedioha is support. Hon. Ihedioha explained that because Nigeria was very regular at international conferences and has also been meeting it’s ﬁnancial obligations to international bodies, the task of persuading other countries to support its quest for the UN Security Council seat had not been very difﬁcult. He further disclosed that the Nigeria delegation also made a case against the production and circulation of small arms because of the fact that it was an important signatory to all the treaties prohibiting small arms production. Some of the factors he listed which were in favour of Nigeria in her bid for the UN Security Council seat include the vigorous campaign against apartheid in South Africa, crusade against violence and war in Africa as well as many other diplomatic roles Nigeria had played in the continent and beyond. Nigeria’s delegation at the meeting also made a case against the use of chemical weapons in Syria in agreement with the views of other countries represented at the IPU meeting.

Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan

The Mandela family has endorsed the construction of the Mandela Garden of 96 Trees in Asaba the capital of Delta State, which makes it the fourth Nelson Mandela Park in the world. Asaba is now in the league of the New York, London and Cape Town to own such.

Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan led the commissioning of the garden and the unveiling of a life sized bronze statue of Mandela alongside South African Consul General Sam Monaisa. A South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and politician who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999., Mandela was the ﬁrst black South African

to hold the office, and the first elected in a fully representative, multiracial election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid through tackling institutionalised racism, poverty and inequality, and fostering racial reconciliation. He served as the President of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1991 to 1997 and was the Secretary General of the NonAligned Movement from 1998 to 1999. Mandela served 27 years in prison, first on Robben Island, and later in Pollsmoor Prison and Victor Verster Prison. An international campaign lobbied for his release, which was granted in 1990 amid escalating civil strife. He was elected President and formed a Government of National Unity in an attempt to defuse ethnic tensions. He promulgated a new constitution and initiated the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate past human rights abuses, as President. Continuing the former government’s liberal economic policy, his administration introduced measures to encourage land reform, combat poverty, and expand healthcare services. He declined to run for a second term, and was succeeded by his deputy, Thabo Mbeki 9

Friday, 11 October – Thursday, 17 October 2013

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

Senator Omoworare hosts Young Diaspora Volunteers in Osun Young Africans drawn from across the United Kingdom and United States have just completed a 2 weeks exchange program in Osun East Senatorial District, Osun State Nigeria, hosted by Nigeria’s Senator Babajide Omoworare as part of the Rockefeller Foundation Sponsored Africa Gives Program. The program offers guidance on how to capitalise on the growing opportunities in a fast-changing African continent and challenges young people to innovate and activate new and effective ways of enhancing how Africans give to Africa. The initiative aims to network young Africans in the diaspora to share their experiences of Africa and inspire a new generation to seize the growing opportunities in a fast changing continent. The “Africa Gives” Program, coordinated by UK based Africa’s Foundation for Development (AFFORD) was launched at the Africa Diaspora Development Day at Chatham House London in July.

The Nigerian visit which is a pilot of a series of exchange visit between Young Professionals in the Diaspora and Nigeria is sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation and AFFORD in partnership with the Office of Senator Babajide Omoworare, Africa Bureau for Legislative Empowerment, AFARA the Bridge for Community Development and GLEEHD Foundation for Leadership and International Development. Speaking at one of the sessions, the Nigerian program coordinator and Special Assistant to Senator Babajide Omoworare, Mr Dayo Israel highlighted the goals of the program saying “The key objective of the project is to deepen learning and understanding of young diaspora ‘giving’, by creating opportunities to engage young Africans, a group that are currently underrepresented in ‘official’ giving and philanthropic profiles; and to build on this learning by developing strategies and schemes to improve and enhance young diaspora giving that realises significant resources for Africa’s development”. Led by AFFORD program coordinator Emma Orefuwa, the delegation to Nigeria

included a Public health analyst, Communication engineer, Architect and a Financial Intelligence Specialist. “Nigeria is growing, Nigeria is changing and the Diaspora must play a pivotal role in helping the country achieve its goals and that is why I am excited to host the delegation in my constituency”, says Host Senator Babajide Omoworare, Senator Representing Osun East Senatorial District. While in Osun East, the Diaspora delegates

were paired with local youths during their stays with activities including volunteering with community organisations, Strategic meetings with OYES (Osun Youth Empowerment Scheme) program, Volunteerism with Tuns Farm, Observing the State Parliament sitting, meeting with Stakeholders in the Government and Media, Granting media interviews and addressing local community members at various fora.

Senator with delegates

Photos: Taofeeq Adejare

Delegates with deputy governor

Delegates at Ooni’s Palace

Friday, 11 October – Thursday, 17 October 2013

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

Russia

Court rules Greenpeace ‘pirates’ must stay behind bars

Protests about Israel’s alleged unjust treatment of Eritrean refugees are commonplace on the streets of Tel-Aviv

Photojournalist Denis Sinyakov was aboard the Arctic Sunrise in his professional capacity rather than as an activist

A court in Russia’s Arctic port city of Murmansk has ruled that three Russian nationals detained onboard a Greenpeace ship seized last month amid accusations of piracy should stay behind bars pending trial.

Ship doctor Yekaterina Zaspa, Greenpeace spokesman Andrei Allakhverdov and Denis Sinyakov, a freelance photographer who was covering the ship’s twomonth voyage in the Russian Arctic, had been seeking release on bail or home arrest.

Tensions rise as border ﬁghting leaves seven dead

India claims to have killed seven fighters and is still fighting a Pakistan-backed force of several dozen who crossed a mountainous and thickly forested border area with the aim of killing Indian troops. The events ratchet up tensions just as the two countries’ leaders agreed to work together to de-escalate the situation. Indian troops and the “infiltrators” were facing off at a distance of around 600 metres, engaged in “controlled firing,” Naresh Vijay Vig, a spokesman for the Indian Army, said on Monday. He said five Indian soldiers had been injured.

rejected the appeals. The environmental group also staged worldwide protests against the crackdown last week and gathered 1 million signatures supporting the release of the Arctic 30. The Dutch Foreign Ministry said last week it would contest the seizure of the Arctic Sunrise – sailing under the Dutch ﬂag – in the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg if the ship and the people on board are not released. Russian diplomats hit back on Saturday, accusing the ship of “illegal activities” that the government of the Netherlands did nothing to prevent. The detention of Sinyakov caused a particular outcry because he is a journalist and was denounced by many leading media outlets in Russia, as well as the Parisbased Reporters Without Borders, as a crackdown on freedom of the press. Sinyakov, a renowned photographer who has worked with Reuters and the French news agency AFP, was contracted by Greenpeace to cover the Arctic Sunrise voyage, but also had an assignment for the story from a Russian news website.

Brazil

Pakistan

Indian troops claimed they seized an arsenal of weapons from Pakistani “inﬁltrators”

All 30 people from the Arctic Sunrise icebreaker appealed their placement in pretrial detention. As of October 8, a date for the appeal hearing had only been set for one more Russian national, Greenpeace activist Roman Dolgov, who was due to appear in the courtroom the following day. The “Arctic 30,” as the group has been dubbed by Greenpeace, is comprised of nationals from 18 countries. The icebreaker was seized by border guards in September after several activists tried to scale an oil rig operated by an afﬁliate of state-run energy giant Gazprom in the Pechora Sea to protest against what they say are the facility’s environmentally hazardous and ﬁnancially unviable impact on the Arctic. The ship was towed to Murmansk, where all 30 people on board were charged with piracy, punishable by up to 15 years in prison, and put in pretrial detention. Greenpeace Russia said on the Monday before the ruling it would contest the activists’ detention in the European Court of Human Rights if the Murmansk court

Indian officials say the exchange of fire began two weeks ago, when the fighters were spotted in an abandoned village and prevented from advancing farther into Indian territory. Indian troops killed the seven fighters and seized a large cache of arms, including 6 AK-47s, 10 pistols, four grenade launchers and four rocket launchers, an Army spokesman said last Friday. “They have been stopped,” Army general, Bikram Singh, told reporters in New Delhi, adding: “Some of them have been neutralised. An operation is on to flush them out.” India’s Defence Ministry described the episode as a “Border Action Team” manoeuvre, a reference to a unit of Pakistan’s Army. A Pakistani military spokesman denied any involvement. “No such thing happened at all,” the official said, in comments to the Press Trust of India. “This is a blatant lie. We totally deny this baseless allegation.” The flare-up began just as the prime ministers of Pakistan and India met in an effort to de-escalate the tensions, agreeing that senior military commanders should meet to find ways to uphold the 2003 cease-fire along the so-called line of control. It is considered a crucial step toward peace between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

Teachers’ pay march hijacked by rioters

Masked rioters produce their own makeshift versions of riot shields as they battle police

Masked rioters turned over cars and broke into buildings on Monday (October 7) as thousands of protesters marched on Rio de Janeiro in support of teachers who are seeking pay increases.

The initially peaceful demonstration turned violent as at least 20 “black bloc” anarchists smashed a City Hall gate while others broke into banks and tried to break open ATMs, setting some alight. Rioters also torched a bus on busy Rio Branco Avenue, and pulled furniture out of banks to use in barricades as they squared off with police. Authorities used tear gas to get the

crowd under control. “Without the police, there is no violence. When they are there, there always is,” said anarchist Hugo Cryois, 23, who had a gas mask dangling from his neck. “I came prepared,” he said. “You can’t trust them.” Teachers who have been pressing for a pay raise for two months said 50,000 people marched to support them before the violence broke out. Police would only concede a ﬁgure of 10,000. Brazil’s security situation is an ongoing challenge in this city that will play host to the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games. 11

Friday, 11 October – Thursday, 17 October 2013

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

News

Nigerians in the UK celebrate 53rd The Nigeria High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Senator (Dr.) Dalhatu Tafida, OFR, CFR, hosted members of the diplomatic corps, community leaders, Nigerians and friends of Nigeria to celebrations of Nigeria’s 53rd Independence anniversary in London at both the Nigeria High Commission on October 1 at Northumberland and the Abuja House on Saturday 5th Ocotber. Ambassador Tafida used the occasions to inform on the cordial relationship between Nigeria and the British government and the visits of the President, the Vice President, Sate Governors, and cabinet ministers on various official businesses in the year. He pointed out that Nigeria also

marked 100years of amalgamation from January, 1914 when the political entity called Nigeria came into recognition. He added that Abuja Centennial City project was in the pipeline to create a commemorative city and also answer to the Nigerian housing needs and an avenue for job creation to thousands of people. He re-iterated Nigeria’s role in Africa and the Commonwealth stating that her commitment was unwavering in the international comity. He related to Nigeria’s external economic relationship with Britain and the internal economic reforms taking place in Nigeria to diversify from oil revenue to developing other non-oil revenues: an indication of a vibrant economic participation in nation building. Photos: Bukola Grace

Cutting the anniversary cake

His Excellency Senator (Dr.) Dalhatu Tafida, OFR, CFR and Hajiya Salamatu

Ambassador and Mrs Oluwatoyin Kayode Lawal Deputy High Commissioner

Capt. and Mrs A. Olugbade Mr and Mrs C. Gwam

Mr T.G. Adeniyi Minister/Special Assistant to the HC and his wife 12

Friday, 11 October â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Thursday, 17 October 2013

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

independence anniversary!

Drinks raised for a toast

Chief Bimbo Roberts, Prince Adeniyi, Chief Oladimeji and a guest

News

Mr and Mrs Ahmed Inusa

Mr and Mrs S. Ogah

Friday, 11 October – Thursday, 17 October 2013

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

CRIME

Man convicted of murder

Shoﬁque Uddin

A man has been found guilty of the murder of Sultan Ahmed in E14, following a confrontation prompted by a neighbourly dispute over garden drainage.

Shofique Uddin, aged 51, stabbed the 20year-old victim to death Gulbahar Begum, aged 51, was today acquitted of two counts of GBH with intent. Police were called to Larson Walk, off Lanterns Way, at 19.20hrs on 29 May 2012 following reports of a fight and stabbing. Officers in attendance found Sultan Ahmed inside the hallway of a property suffering a single stab wound. They provided emergency treatment before the arrival of London Ambulance Service and London’s Air Ambulance, however, he was

pronounced dead at the scene at 20.08hrs. A subsequent post-mortem examination, at Poplar Mortuary on 30 May, gave cause of death as a stab wound that entered his left lung and heart. The wound was sustained during a confrontation at 41 Larson Walk, involving the defendants and a group comprised of people living at a neighbouring property and their friends. The Old Bailey heard that, earlier on 29 May 2012, Uddin’s son had abused a female resident of the neighbouring property. This was prompted by her washing carpets with a hose in her garden, with the dirty water draining into Uddin’s garden. In response to this abuse, a group of about six people went round to Uddin’s house that evening in order to confront his son. The confrontation soon became heated and Mr Uddin armed himself with a knife and witnesses described him as swinging it wildly. During the ﬁght, Uddin stabbed Sultan Ahmed in the back and he collapsed almost immediately before being carried to a neighbouring property where he died. One man was also bitten received a slash wound to the head, another man received stab wounds to his shoulder and armpit and the woman was stabbed in the hand. “Although there were two sides to this dispute, only one side chose to arm themselves with weapons.” said D.I Andy Jones.

Man jailed for cigarette robbery

A man who held up a Newham offlicence in order to get a pack of cigarettes and alcohol has been jailed for four years at Inner London Crown Court today (Monday 7 October). A look-out who stood guard was jailed for two and a half years for possession of an imitation firearm. Giedrius Skliaudys, 30 (01.07.83), a mechanic of Lansdown Road, London, E7 went into Lucky Food and Wine in Plashet Grove, E6 at around 23.00hrs Skliaudys asked two shop assistants for wine but was turned away as he could not pay for it. Minutes later, Skliaudys returned and attempted to leave with two bottles of beer. One of the shop assistants tried to stop Skliaudys by holding him. Skliaudys made to hit the assistant with the bottles and the assistant defended himself with a cricket bat he had been passed by a colleague, but he was struck on the back of the head by an unknown male. The assistant fell to the floor, suffering cuts and bruises in the process, and Skliaudys ran off. He then returned at around 00.20hrs with what appeared to be a handgun and for around 25 minutes he tormented three shop assistants by pointing the weapon at them and shouting: “I can kill anyone. I will only do five years.” Petrified, the shop assistants gave in to Skliaudys’ demands for a bottle of brandy

and a packet of cigarettes which he then left the shop with. Outside, he was joined by Nerijus Rutkahskas, 28 (17.03.85), a labourer of Lansdown Road, London, E7 who had been caught on CCTV pacing up and down outside the shop, acting as a look-out. Rutkahskas’ behaviour had raised the suspicions of a nearby mini-cab driver, who followed the pair as they made off along Katherine Road. The cab driver called 999 and gave a running commentary as he followed the pair until firearms officers arrived and detained the men. The alcohol, cigarettes and an air pistol loaded with two pellets were recovered from the ground nearby. The men were arrested and taken to Forest Gate Police Station. Skliaudys was charged with robbery, possession of an imitation firearm at the time of committing an offence and theft, to which he pleaded guilty. Today he was sentenced to four years imprisonment for robbery, two years imprisonment for possession of an imitation firearm - to run concurrently - and one month for theft, also to run concurrently. Total = four years imprisonment. Rutkahskas was found guilty of possession of an imitation firearm at Inner Crown Court on 16 September 2013, for which he was sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment today.

Member of prison staff jailed for smuggling

Jason Paul Singh

A member of prison staff who used vinegar-drenched chips to smuggle cannabis into HMP Wormwood Scrubs has been jailed for four years. Jason Paul Singh, 24 (13.05.89) of Totteridge Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire pleaded guilty yesterday, Monday 7 October the to supply of list A articles (drugs) into the prisons estate, contrary to the Prison’s Act 1952 at Isle14

worth Crown Court and was sentenced to four years imprisonment. Isleworth Crown Court heard how on the evening of 10 September 2013, Singh went to work with 50 grams of cannabis wrapped in cellophane in his rucksack. The smell of the cannabis was so strong that Singh went to a fish and chip shop en route and bought a packet of chips which he smothered with vinegar. He then placed these in his bag, on top of the cannabis, to disguise the smell of the drugs. However, he arrived at work at around 2030hrs, to find that prison officers - acting on intelligence about Singh - were waiting to specifically search him on his arrival inside the prison. Singh, knowing his rucksack would be thoroughly searched, revealed the drugs of his own accord. The wraps were intended to be given to an inmate. The MPS London Prisons Anti-Corruption Team (LPACT) - a joint team of officers and staff from Her Majesty’s Prison Service (HMPS), who work together to investigate corruption in London’s prisons - were informed by Wormwood Scrubs’ corruption prevention governor and detectives arrested

Singh at the scene. Investigating ofﬁcer DC Scott Pavitt, of LPACT, said: “Singh thought he could outwit the prison service by covering the cannabis with smelly food but they were already wise to his plans and ready to stop him from getting his contraband in. “In interview, Singh stated he had been pressured to bring the drugs in by a prisoner and other inmates. Despite being fully trained in how to deal with situations like this, he continued with his corrupt act and he continues to refuse to name the prisoner he was smuggling the contraband in for. “It is important that corrupt prison staff such as Singh are stopped from carrying out their crimes, and Singh’s conviction is another example of our commitment to doing this with HMPS.” Phil Taylor, Governor of Wormwood Scrubs, said: “The vast majority of our staff are honest and hard working but one corrupt worker can jeopardise the safety of the whole prison. We support a culture which values integrity above all and rejects corruption and dishonesty. This sentence reﬂects the seriousness of this offence and demonstrates our com-

mitment to root out corruption. “I am grateful for the hard work of all those involved in this case. It is a credit to the security systems at Wormwood Scrubs and a recognition of our excellent joint working with the Met.”

Police appeal after fight A male is wanted in connection with a ﬁght that broke out in Vauxhall after a 5-a side football match. It is said a man in his early twenties reacted viciously to complaints from a member of the opposing team for being “too rough”. After the game it is reported an altercation between the two men broke out. The victim, a 24 year old male from the Richmond area recieved a mixture of minor and major injuries. The suspect is a scottish male with short brown hair, a goatee and a variety of tattoos. If anyone has any information on this event should call the local authorities.

Friday, 11 October – Thursday, 17 October 2013

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

Sounds of Diaspora People of America

Lauryn Hill given permission to tour

DA may investigate Cee Lo rape allegation after all

Hill will start a one year ‘probationary period’ after her three months home detention ends

Cee Lo Green

Lauryn Hill is to be given special dispensation to perform and tour during what should have been three months home detention following time served in jail for failing to pay taxes on her earnings. Her attorney, Nathan Hochman, told reporters that Hill has permission to tour

between November 15 and December 31, after which she must serve the remainder of her home detention. Hill was released a few days early on October 4 having been sentenced in July to three months in a minimum security correctional facility. As a condition of her being allowed to perform, she must provide her probation officer “a detailed itinerary, including the dates, cities, and hotels where she will be staying” while on tour. A day before her release, Hill put out a new single, Consumerism, which was written and recorded before she entered prison and mixed while she was detained. In a press release, she said: “Consumerism is part of some material I was trying to finish before I had to come in. We did our best to eek out a mix via verbal and emailed direction, thanks to the crew of surrogate ears on the other side.” The song had racked up more than 290,000 plays on the Soundcloud website by Monday (October 7) and will appear on her next album Letters From Exile.

Has delusional Kanye picked on the wrong guy? An ongoing e-feud between Kanye West and US late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel was set to take on a new dimension this week as West was scheduled to face-off with Kimmel on this weeks show.

West and Kimmel, who is best known in the UK for faking a YouTube video of a twerking girl falling onto a flame, have been embroiled in a feud since West criticised Kimmel in a series of tweets last month. As African Voice went to press, West was set to appear on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live on Wednesday night. West had lashed out at Kimmel after the latter spoofed a recent interview with BBC Radio 1’s Zane Lowe, in which West expressed his frustration with getting knocked down in the fashion world and declared himself the “biggest” rock star in the world. That interview became a talking point in an episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, where Kimmel highlighted his “favourite” part of West’s “weird” interview. “Does Kanye West know he’s not supposed to be his own hype man?” Kimmel asked before showing a snippet of the chat featuring a rambling West. Kimmel then showed a ‘Kimmel Kid (re)Kreation’ spoof of the interview featuring two children in the West and Lowe roles, milkshakes in hand. Two days later, West decided to begin his Twitter rant, sparking a feud between the duo, with Kimmel assuring his followers that it was not a prank like his recent “twerking fail” YouTube hoax. Kimmel addressed the situation that night on his September 26 show. “Did anyone else get a very angry phone call from Kanye West about an hour and a half ago? Just me? OK. I didn’t know if he was mad at all of us,” Kimmel said in his opening monologue.

After the commercial break, he revealed that West really had called him in his office earlier in the day. “He is very angry because of a bit we aired this week,” Kimmel explained to his audience. “He gave an interview to the BBC, and we had a kid actor take the words and re-enact it. We just had the kid say the stuff Kanye said. And apparently this upset him.” Kimmel said West gave him two choices, the first being to “apologise publicly.” “And that was really the only choice -- the other choice he gave was my life … ‘your life is going to be much better if you apologise,’ and then he started tweeting today,” Kimmel said, adding: “And I don’t even know if I’ve seen some of these because they’re happening as we speak.” Kimmel then read some of West’s tweets on the air and responded to them. -- “JIMMY KIMMEL PUT YOURSELF IN MY SHOES … OH NO THAT MEANS YOU WOULD HAVE GOTTEN TOO MUCH GOOD P*SSY IN YOUR LIFE…” Kimmel’s response: “I’ve seen the video. I know.” -- “SHOULD I DO A SPOOF ABOUT YOUR FACE OR YOU F*CKING BEN AFFLECK… #NODISRESPECTTOBENAFFLECK #ALLDISRESPECTTOJIMMYKIMMEL!!!!” Kimmel’s response: “Which, by the way, was a spoof. I don’t know if he thought that was the news.” Kimmel said he still isn’t sure why West is so angry given that the bit was “pretty innocuous.” He then quipped “Finally, I’m in a rap feud. I always wanted to be in a rap feud.” Kimmel’s track record arouses suspicions as to whether this latest altercation is simply another elaborate hoax.

The LA County District Attorney’s office is deciding whether to prosecute Cee Lo Green for allegedly raping a woman last year.

In October of 2012, TMZ reported that a woman filed a police report accusing the singer of sexual assault. According to the unnamed woman, she and Cee Lo were having drinks at a downtown LA restaurant in July 2012 and the next thing she remembered was waking up naked with Cee Lo present in the room. This story spun out of control when it was revealed that the woman and Cee Lo had been dating since February of 2012 with multiple reports informing

TMZ that the woman had been actively searching for ways to coax Cee Lo into purchasing her expensive items. Sources related to the case told TMZ that Cee Lo Green was on tape apologising and mentioning MDMA (Ecstasy) but not admitting to placing it in her drink. The case was originally dismissed due to unsatisfactory evidence presented to the LA County District Attorney by the investigating agents. However, a five month reinvestigation ensued, which included obtaining additional toxicology reports from the alleged victim as well as more witness reports.

Friday, 11 October – Thursday, 17 October 2013

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

Gospel By Michael Adekoya

LIVE A BALANCED LIFE

Solomon said, ‘…they have made me a keeper of vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept” SoS. 1:6.

Dear Reader, I was deeply saddened when I heard that a certain chaplain in a college back in Africa, a true man of God and minister of the Gospel is going through divorce right now. This man is God’s vessel of honour that God has used and still using to touch, impact, affect and bless many lives. You may ask, “Michael, what happened?” My friend, I will tell you so that you’ll not make the same mistake. He got so busy working for God and raising the budget of the ministry that he had no time for his family and recreation. Listen! None of us, including you and me, is immune to this mistake. Mistake has no respect for genders. So, is Satan and his temptation! By nature, I’m personally just like this man – purpose driven and goal oriented. But do you know it is equally good to live a balanced life? How about you? I thank God for the life of Apostle Paul who said, “Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it” Eph. 5:25. The first part of this verse, which says ‘Husbands love your wife’, is easy for most of us as husbands because we have beautiful, wonderful, accommodating, virtuous, good and caring wives. As men and husbands, it is the second part that we have to work on – “giving ourselves-our time-unselfishly to our own wives and of course to our children” because living is loving and loving is giving. The depth of love is known by the degree of giving. The Bible says, “God so loved the world, that He gave us His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in

Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. “Jesus came to give His life as a ransom for many. Matt. 20:28. “That’s demonstration of true love! True love for God or someone involves giving yourself - spirit, soul, body and your time. Your talent (gifts) and your treasury (money) are not enough. Today, most men and husbands - most secular and Christian leaders - can afford to give their wives and children everything, except themselves. They give flowers, huge amount of money, fleet of cars, state-of-the-art mansions, full loaded wardrobes with latest fashions, modern technology – phones, computers, televisions, Ipods, game consoles, medical facilities and so on. My friend, it is not good enough to give all these things and neglect your own family. Listen! If there is anything that your family needs most, it is your affection and your attention. What is the point of sending your wife and children to constant holiday while you are not there? If you’re not always there to lead your family; teach and train your children in the ways of the Lord, I’m afraid, TV and internet will help you to train, teach and lead them in the ways of the world. My friend, the access the devil has to the souls of men and women - saved and unsaved – in this modern world has increased through mass communications media, information technology and mass literatures. In this time and age, there are floods of words and visual images coming out of Satan. Our society, through technological advances, has made the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, more accessible. Satan, the prince of the power of the air, as stated in Eph. 2:2, has

Are you looking for a church?

Not settled in any particular congregation? Perhaps now is the time to pray about it If you are not yet saved try one of the following: Jubilee International Churchmeets at 2,30pm on Sundays at Kings Avenue, school, park hill. London SW4. Part of Jubilee International Churches worldwide. For information, you may call (020)8697 3354 New Wine Christian Church- 11am holds meeting at Ringcross Tennants club, Lough Road, Holloway, N7. a member of the Icthus fellowship

worldwide. For more information call 020 7609 959 or 07957 757 663. Praise Tabernacle- 10:30am holds meetings at 620 Western Avenue (A40), park royal Business centre, opposite Warner Bros. Cinema Complex, W3. part of The Redeemed Christian Church of God. For information you may call 020 8993 3010 New Life Christian Centre 10.30am & 6.00pm. meetings at Cairo New Road, Croydon. The church has

exercised major influences in our information filled and entertainment-oriented world. We need to watch and pray not to fall into his temptation and at the same time we have to be the watchmen of our own family. Here is the confession to edify you and cause you to change if you are in the habit of neglecting your family. A Christian lady, whose husband was always busy working for God and involved in some businesses, was in the habit of watching sexual perverted Nigerian movies to make up the time for her loneliness since her husband was not always around. She confessed that as she was watching a particular film captioned “Market Sellers”, a spirit came upon her and asked her “why must your husband always neglect you when you have what it takes to get what you want – the affection, attention and pleasure without your husband having to know?” My friend, do you know that this precious lady fell for that satanic voice – the same voice that spoke to Eve in the Garden of

Eden? You may laugh, but you are not above temptation either. Listen! How much of yourself and time do you give to God first and then to your family? If you don’t submit to God by spending time with Him on daily basis, you can’t resist the devil. If you don’t spend time with your family, you’ll give them away to the devil. Solomon said, ‘…they have made me a keeper of vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept” SoS. :6. My friend, are there areas of your life that are not “kept” because you are taking care of everything and everyone else? If you are always on the go, constantly working, constantly pursue contracts or deals, constantly travelling on mission, constantly helping others and never take time for your family, you will end up opening doors for the devil (the thief) whose purpose on earth is to “kill, steal and destroy”. It is rewarding to work for God, witness to people, support, help, counsel and care for them but not at the expense and neglect of your family (wife and

a bible school, primary, is involved in extensive mission work in Eastern Europe, Italy and India. For information you may call 020 8680 7671 Ruach Ministries - holds meeting at 9am, 11am and 6pm. For information you may call 020 8678 6888 International Central Gospel church - Battersea chapel, holds meetings on Sundays from 2.00pm. . For information you may call 020 8684 4934 Jesus Arena International- Sunday service at 11.00am at Broadwater farm centre, Adams road N17 The Bible Life Church UK- They meet on Sunday mornings at 2.30pm at St Giles Centre, Camberwell

Church Street, London SE5 Christ Apostolic church (Full Gospel & Pentecostal) Surrey Docks District 163 Ilderton Rd South Bermondsey London SE16 2UT. Tel. 020 7252 2086. Time of worship: Sunday English service 9- 11.30am. Yoruba service 11.30 -2.30pm. Prophetic counselling: Monday, Tuesday & Thursday 12noon- 5pm, Saturday only 5- 7pm. Holy Cross Church InternationalSunday 10.am- 1 pm at Crown House 71-73 Nathan way London SE28 0BQ Tel: 07904 234 126, 07809 381 886 Times of service:Bible study: Thursdays 8pm. Night Vigil: Friday Forthnightly 12am

children) because they are your first congregation or vineyard for whom you’re accountable The speaker in Song of Solomon 1:6 was good at taking care of everything and everyone else – his relatives, his ministry both on mission and television, his congregation, his jobs, his career, his businesses, his books, his workmates and his friends both males and females. He made everyone happy, he worked tirelessly, he stayed out late with little or no time at home and no recreation, but in doing that, he neglected his vineyard – his family. My friend, does this describe you? Is this the way you operate? Do you spend all your time and energy on other things and other people but only few on your family and yourself, at least in the presence of God to refill yourself? My friend, this is a wake-up call to all of us, especially leaders in the secular and spiritual settings. a call to bring balance to our lives. Hear me, after God, your family is next. Don’t let anyone deceive or mislead you to ignore or neglect them. There is no reward in saving the world or making lots of money while your family is going into pieces or on their way to hell. What shall it profit a man or woman who do great work, yet lose his or her family? Your husband is the head of your family. Without a head, the body is dead. Your wife is your neck. Without a neck, the head cannot stand. God joined you together to complement and complete each other, spend time and stay together. May God – the God of Abraham and Sarah, Boaz and Ruth - give you the wisdom to build great churches, great companies and great family and bring balance to your life. Amen. Remain blessed!

Sunday Service: Sundays 10am - 1pm Winners Chapel London- part of the Living Faith Church Worldwide, at Unit B1 Galleywall Trading Estate, South Bermondsey, London SE16 3PB meets Sunday 7am & 9am and 11am and Wednesdays at 7pm. For details call 020 7237 7894 CHRIST APOSTOLIC CHURCH GRAVESEND, ST. AIDAIN’S CHURCH, ST. AIDAN’S WAY, GRAVESEND, KENT, DA12 4AG TEL. 01474 355 841, 07956 38 38 70 TIME OF WORSHIP: Wednesday Bible Study: 7:30pm to 9:00pm Friday, Night Vigil: 9pm to 11pm Sunday Worship: 12:30pm to 3:00pm

Friday, 11 October – Thursday, 17 October 2013

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

Africa Newsround

Angola

Transsexual Titica takes on ambassadorial role

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) has appointed transsexual Angolan kuduro singer, Titca, as one of its goodwill ambassadors; the latest in a series of celebrities from the former Portuguese colony to become prominent in local awareness campaigns. Miss Universe 2011, Leila Lopes, and women’s basketball star, Nacissela Mauricio, have helped to promote UNAIDS in the recent past. However, the appointment of Titica is a bold move because she was born a boy in Luanda. Formerly Teca Miguel Garcia until receiving breast implants ﬁve years ago, ballet-trained Titica was originally a backing dancer before coming to the attention of Angolans and other Afro-

Portuguese music fans at home and in Diaspora with debut album ‘O Chão’ and singles ‘Olha o Boneco’ (recorded with kizomba star Ary), ‘Abula’ and ‘Chão’. UNAIDS policy of recruiting Angolans who appeal to the country’s youth as ambassadors is an attempt to raise awareness as Angola, ofﬁcially one of Africa’s least perilous nations in terms of HIV/AIDS prevalence, opens its borders post war to neighbouring Namibia, Zambia and Democratic Republic of the Congo, all of which are amongst the continent’s most hazardous. Homosexuality is illegal in Angola but the negligible arrest rate suggests it is tolerated to a far greater extent than elsewhere in Africa. Titica has usually declined to comment on her sexuality when asked, but said her new-found

Ethiopia

Ethiopia names Mulatu fourth president

Mulatu Teshome was educated in China and has served there as Ethiopia’s Ambassador

Ethiopia’s parliament elected Mulatu Teshome to be the country’s president for a six year term in a largely symbolic and ceremonial post on Monday (October 7).

“Following the opening of the new parliament, a joint session of the House of Representatives and House of Federation elected Ambassador Dr. Mulatu Teshome as the President of Ethiopia,” the foreign ministry said in a statement. While Mulatu is ofﬁcially head of state, real power rests in the hands of the Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn. Mulatu, 57, who was Ethiopia’s ambassador to Turkey until his appointment, replaces 88-year old Girma Wolde Giorgis, who ﬁrst took the post in 2001 and

was re-elected in 2007. “I feel honoured to be the fourth president of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia,” Mulatu said after taking the oath of office, and vowing to fulfil “the country’s development strategies.” Mulatu, who like all Ethiopia is known by his first name, comes from the Oromo people, the country’s largest ethnic group. He has also served as Ethiopia’s ambassador to China and Japan as well as Ethiopia’s Minister of Agriculture. Ethiopia’s parliament is dominated by the ruling party, with only one opposition member. Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn took office in September 2012, a month after the death of long-time ruler Meles Zenawi.

Titica is the face of kuduro, Angola’s unique urban rap-techno fusion music style

stardom had not all been plain-sailing. “I’ve been stoned, I’ve been beaten, and there is a lot of prejudice against

me, a lot of people show that. There is a lot of taboo,” she said.

Morocco

Kiss lands schoolchildren in detention

Three schoolchildren aged 14 and 15 have been arrested and placed in juvenile detention after one of them posted a photograph of the other two kissing on Facebook. The couple had their friend take the photograph outside their school in the north-east Moroccan town of Nador. A local newspaper printed the photo, sparking public outrage in the deeply conservative 99 per cent Muslim nation. Police acted to arrest the couple and their friend in response to complaints from the public. Supporters of the teenagers

have staged a sit-in at the juvenile detention centre in which they are being held, while others have posted their own similar photographs in response to a lead taken by Ibtissame Lachgar, co-founder of the Alternative Movement for Individual Liberties (MALI), who has launched a campaign to post one million copycat photos online in protest. She has uploaded a photo of herself kissing a male fellow activist. The three are due to appear before a juvenile court next week charged with violating public decency. 17

Friday, 11 October – Thursday, 17 October 2013

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

African artist Special Interview Travelmusic

In association with

‘We have a responsibility as a govt to ensuring your welfare’- Abba Moro, Nigeria’s Interior Minister

The Minister of Interior for Nigeria, Mr. Abba Moro, recently visited the United Kingdom on a fact-finding mission on prison reforms, and more importantly sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the British government of behalf of Nigeria. African Voice caught up with him. Though we missed getting in on the occasion, African Voice did the next best thing: to engage the Hon. Minister on a few issues that would educate all on the activities of his ministry and contemporary issues African Voice: Given the position and importance of your Ministry to Nigerians at home and in diaspora, what would you say that you have done differently since you assumed office as Minister? Abba Moro: First of all, on assumption of duty, my priority was to practically change the orientation of staff of the Ministry to see government work as personal work; to realise that the essence of government and participation in public service is service delivery. Being part of government is also a rare privilege that other segments of the Nigerian society should gladly take with all sense of responsibility. This is against the backdrop of the general feeling that government job is nobody’s job – that it is everybody’s job. I think that in that regard, we are winning because many people now see that responsibility as a call to duty. Secondly, the Minister of Interior is

ordinarily charged with the responsibility of maintaining the internal security of the country, fostering the maintenance of internal security for good governance. So against the back drop of the current security challenges that we have in the country, the Minister of Interior that has jurisdiction over the Nigeria Immigration Service that has a mandate of controlling our borders ensuring that criminallyminded illegal immigrants do not find their way into Nigeria; the Prisons Service that takes custody of all persons that have infracted on the law; the Federal Fire Service that is the first responder to national emergencies and disasters and lastly the Nigeria Civil Defence and Security Corps are all within the Ministry of Interior. It is therefore a very herculean task to mobilise all these departments of government to ensure internal security for the country. Of course you are aware that the primary purpose of government is to tend to the welfare and security of the lives and property of citizens. And so this government is taking very sure and steady steps to ensure the internal security of the country and the Ministry of Interior is properly positioned also to contribute its quota towards maintaining internal security in the country. The Nigeria Immigration Service, for instance, has been sufficiently mobilised and orientated to ensure that it discharges its duty/mandate of ensuring that people who don’t have valid travel papers do not infiltrate into our country to perpetrate violence. And in this regard, in addition to hiring more hands, we are procuring appropriate technology to complement the human surveillance of our borders. We are also embarking upon the aggressive practice of ensuring the

Abba Moro Nigeria’s Interior Minister

proper maintenance of biometric data of all Nigerians and foreigners alike. The Prisons being reformed – the orientation and mentality of prison workers are being properly aligned to the demands of maintaining the security within the prisons. The massive congestion that has been the bane of our prisons in the country is being ameliorated by the construction of additional prisons, and rehabilitation of existing prisons; and, of course, with the collaboration of the judiciary, the expeditious dispensation of justice to prisoners in the country. The Civil Defence Corps today is one of the most visible security outfits in the country that has the primary mandate of maintaining vital, critical, national assets and infrastructure. It is in this regard that the Civil Defence Corps has performed very creditably towards ensuring the safety of our oil pipelines and electricity cables. Of course, we are re-organising and repositioning the Federal Fire Service to be more operational than it is at the moment and we have in the pipeline a construction of additional (and ambitious) 227 urban, metropolitan and rural fire stations in the country. We are hoping that this massive and holistic approach towards ensuring that our internal security is not compromised as a nation. African Voice: Given the recent talk of prisoners transfer to Nigeria because of the number of Nigerians in British prisons out-numbering other African nations, does this arrangement have government backing and is Nigeria also now able to privatise prisons in Nigeria? Abba Moro: The Federal Government is very much at home with

the concept of prisoner transfer and some form of Memorandum of understanding has been signed between the government of UK and the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Today, I can tell you that plans are at an advanced stage towards amending the appropriate status that deals with prisoner consent that has been a very serious obstacle towards issuing a final agreement on the prisoner transfer desire between the two governments of Nigeria and the UK. Only recently I have had a meeting with the UK Minister of Justice where we discussed various aspects of the impending agreement and we agreed that efforts should be intensified towards ensuring the passage of appropriate legislations to give effect to the prisoner transfer arrangement between the two countries. I can assure you that on the part of the government of Nigeria will do everything we can to ensure that we see through this agreement. Don’t forget that the government of Nigeria believes that whether you are a prisoner or you are free Nigerian on the street, you are a Nigerian, and we have responsibility as a government to ensuring your welfare. Therefore it is only appropriate that if our persons or Nigerians are in prison outside the country, especially countries where you cannot be guaranteed humane treatment and early justice; we will be very pleased to receive such Nigerians back in the country. Not only Britain, we have reasons to enter bilateral agreements with Germany, Austria, and are working on a proposal with the Slovakian government and sundry other countries on re-admission, and so we believe that Nigerians in the diaspora, either legally or illegally, have a role to play in the development of the country.

Friday, 11 October – Thursday, 17 October 2013

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

Special Interview So we are gradually, especially with this new administration that believes in transforming and changing the face of the Nigerian economy for the better that everybody should get involved. We are entering this agreement with the government of the UK, not necessarily because Nigerias are in large numbers in their prisons but because it is the right thing to do. We believe that Nigerians who are willing, by law, to come and serve out their terms of prison in the country should feel very free to do so. That is the reason why we are entering into these agreements as a government. I can tell you that some of the reforms that we are carrying out in the prisons system in Nigeria are geared towards accommodating this new arrangement between, not just Britain but, other countries of the world. On the privatisation of prisons, that is an aspect that i have come (here) to experience first hand in this place. We intend, like other aspects of government as Mr. President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan GCFR has indicated, to engage the private sector in running the system because we believe in this administration that government is by the people for the people. Therefore all persons should be involved and engaged in the process of running the system, and so we are thinking of ensuring effective and efficient service delivery in the prisons like other aspects of Nigerian economy. We are actually seriously working towards ensuring that the private sector is involved in the running of our prisons especially on areas that will not gladly compromise the security of our prisons. African Voice: Is your Ministry capable of manning our several border posts as we hear of unmanned, un-marked border posts unknown to the authorities? Abba Moro: Let me say that I don’t see this as a very unique Nigerian phenomenon. All over the world, there are regular approved routes into the countries. At the same time there are also routes that desperate immigrants use to enter the country outside the eye of the law. So I do not think the issue of regular/ irregular routes is a purely Nigerian phenomenon. Having said that let me say that, we are working very seriously towards ensuring that we adequately man our various border posts. It was a deliberate effort of this administration and the Ministry of Interior in particular, that we have identified regular, authorised, legally approved routes and irregular, illegal routes. The purpose of identifying them is to be able to deploy our resources in such a manner that government should be able to ensure proper entry into the country whether you are going to exploit the existence of illegal routes or the legal routes, Nigeria should be aware that you are entering the country and that is why we are intensifying our efforts at biometric data capturing exercise to ensure that we

are current with the list of persons that are in this country and doing what. African Voice: Is the government aware of the fast growing Chinese population in Nigeria? Is there a policy towards this? Abba Moro: The government is aware of the presence of a sizeable number of Chinese in the country, no doubt about it, because today Nigeria is massively engaging in infra-structural development and rehabilitation and the Chinese by history and experience have been known to be very deft in this area so we are engaging the Chinese and some companies that also want to do business with Nigeria also come in with approved expatriate quota of foreigners that include also Chinese. I am aware of the worrying concern of Nigerians on the presence of the Chinese. But contrary to the fears that they express, not many Chinese, to my knowledge, are illegally in the country. They are there because of the shear volume of the business that they do with Nigeria on the basis of which approvals has been given to them to bring in appropriate technologies and skills. But I also assure you that government is taking every step to ensure that every person that is in Nigeria, Chinese inclusive, are legally authorised to be in Nigeria.

Abba Moro - “we have reasons to enter bilateral agreements with Germany and Austria”

African Voice: What qualifies a foreigner who is married to a Nigerian living abroad with the Nigerian for about 30 years with children of about that age bracket but when they want to go to Nigeria, the mother is treated as a foreigner but the kids are treated as Nigerians because of their father and are granted Nigerian passport but not their mother? Abba Moro: You will notice that we have the Nigeria Immigration Service in many countries and missions of the world. For a Nigeria (Naija) wife as they are referred to by people i.e. a woman that is married to a Nigerian, citizenship by registration and all that is required is for the person to apply and for the relevant government agencies to attest to the marriage with the basic requirements of presentation of marriage certificate, wedding certificate, and the rest of them, and attestation of wedding by relevant agencies like the State Security Service, Nigeria foreign missions, the state governments and communities of these individuals. Once these basic requirements are met, they are automatically entitled to Nigerian citizenship. Where they do not want Nigerian citizenship, special immigrant status can be granted. I do not see any hassles in the way of a foreigner married to a Nigerian or Nigerians wanting to become Nigerians. Apart from meeting the basic requirements for our record purposes, they are automatically regarded as citizens of Nigeria by virtue of marriage. 19

Events calendar What’s On & When Friday, 11 October – Thursday, 17 October 2013

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

Arts

Theatre, Shows and Musicals By Ryan Holmes

Macbeth Now- 13th October

Lenny Henry as Troy and Tanya Moodie as Rose

When three witches tell Macbeth that he is destined to occupy the throne of Scotland, he and his wife choose to become the instruments of their fate and to kill the first man standing in their path, the virtuous King Duncan. But to maintain his position, Macbeth must keep on killing – first Banquo, his old comrade-in-arms; then, as the atmosphere of guilt and paranoia thickens, anyone who seems to threaten his tyrant’s crown. 21 New Globe Walk, London, Greater London SE1 9DT

The Ladykillers Now- October 25th

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Now- November 16th

Always first in line to play the ass, David Walliams hee-haws crowd-pleasingly as donkey-headed Bottom in this sultry reimagining of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, mingling with Sheridan Smith’s lusty Titania and a string of exceptionally chiselled fairies. Set against the backdrop of fairyland’s glistening moon, Shakespeare’s tale of mischief and misplaced devotion is adeptly retold by a talented cast, whose comedic skills bring pace and energy to director Michael Grandage’s turbocharged interpretation. The high octane drama, mirth and calamity of this heady ‘Midsummer Night’ are riotously unpicked as Gavin Fowler’s naughty fairy, Puck, stirs up a love-fuelled frenzy on stage. Noel Coward Theatre. St Martin’s Lane London, WC2N 4AU

Chimerica Now-October 19th

Chimerica is a fragile web of shifting human relationships, which are sometimes severed by corporate greed, state cruelty, or individual selfishness, but achieve moments of connection which transcend their inhospitable environment. It’s staged with a film-like fluidity and flair by brilliant director Lyndsey Turner and designer Es Devlin inside a spinning cube, whose sides open to reveal the squalid Beijing flat of Zhang Lin, Joe’s kindly Beijing contact and friend, and the office of his genial, morally compromised New York newspaper editor. But the only things that are black and white here are Joe’s photographs of China, which are projected all over the set as newspaper contact sheets, crossed out or reframed by the editor’s red pen – a subtle reminder that 20

a photograph is an opinion, not a simple record of the truth. Harold Pinter Theatre,6 Panton Street, London, SW1Y 4DN

The 39 Steps Now- March 2014

When Hitchcock adapted Buchan’s ‘The 39 Steps’, however, he introduced a love interest in a version which Buchan later conceded was better than his own. In this stage version, Patrick Barlow has continued the honourable tradition of mucking around with Buchan’s original, keeping the love interest (now elegantly played by new cast member Rachel Pickup) and adding a whirligig of self-conscious theatrical effects in a production where four actors evoke everyone from lingerie salesmen to a housekeeper who screams like a steamtrain.. The Criterion,218-223 Piccadilly, London, SW1Y 4XA

Pride Now-November 9th

Set in both 1958 and 2008, ‘The Pride’ sees what appears to be the same love triangle play out in two very different eras. In 1958, closeted married man Philip (Harry Hadden-Paton) grapples violently with his feelings for writer Oliver (Al Weaver), while his fragile wife Sylvia (Hayley Atwell) looks on in impotent despair. And in 2008, the three seem to have been given their time again in a more liberated age… Yet they’re not happy – promiscuous journalist Oliver has scewed up his relationship with straight-laced Philip, and Oliver’s chronic neediness is seriously bringing his BFF Sylvia down. Trafalgar Studios,14 Whitehall SW1A 2DY

‘The Ladykillers’ is back in town. Now on its third cast of bumbling, murderous crims, it’s as anarchic and free-wheeling as anything you’ll see on a West End stage. Graham Linehan’s script takes the setup of the 1955 Ealing comedy, in which five crooks hole-up in a little old lady’s lopsided house to plan a robbery, and cranks up the contrast. The gags come faster, the killings are crueller and there’s a delicate knowingness to the dialogue that never oversteps the mark. Vaudeville Theatre, Strand, London, WC2R 0NH

One Man, Two Guvnors Now-March 2014

Fired from his skiffle band, Francis Henshall becomes minder to Roscoe Crabbe, a small time East End hood, now in Brighton to collect £6000 from his fiancee’s dad. But Roscoe is really his sister Rachel posing as her own dead brother, who’s been killed by her boyfriend Stanley Stubbers. Holed up at the Cricketers’ Arms, the permanently ravenous Francis spots the chance of an extra meal ticket and takes a second job with one Stanley Stubbers, who is hiding from the police and waiting to be re-united with Rachel. To prevent discovery, Francis must keep his two guvnors apart. Simple. Haymarket Theatre,18 Suffolk St, London SW1Y 4HT

Much Ado About NothingNow-November 30th

Age is the theme and the big talking point at the Old Vic as it plays host to two great theatre pros in Shakespeare’s much-loved comedy. Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones are Benedick and Beatrice: reluctant older lovers, grouchily bickering their way into each other’s hearts. The play is reimagined in a Britain of old too. It’s 1944, and we get a wartime view of the country that perhaps only ever existed in our imaginations. A land of

comedy policemen, dashingly handsome GIs and naughty boy scouts – it conjures up images of a particular kind of British sitcom or BBC radio play, a sort of ‘Archers’ does Shakespeare. 103 The Cut, Waterloo Rd, London SE1 8NB

Lutz Bacher: Black Beauty Now- November 17th

Get ready to be manipulated by an eclectic display of works by the elusive American artist for her first major UK show. Varying degrees of black will dominate with tons of coal slag being emptied into the lower gallery for ‘Black Beauty’ along with pulsating astrotuf in ‘Black Magic’. Accompanying these is an audio of the Shakespearean character, Puck from ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream’ that adds an enchantingly devious tone to the premise of Bacher’s exhibition. ICA, The Mall, London, SW1Y 5AH

Crowning Glory

A new play by Somalia Seaton

17 Oct - 9 Nov 2013

“In a world saturated with images of unrealistic and unobtainable beauty, how do women see themselves?” Join our all-female cast of fun and feisty modern women as they share the trials and tribulations of their hair, and try to uncover what true beauty means. This current, funny and thought-provoking show will undoubtedly get you talking. Come along with friends or family and take part in the conversation!

Theatre Royal Stratford East, London

African Market 27th October

Open The Gate is proudly hosting their unique alternative fair, The African Market, featuring a selection of the most talented designers from Africa and inspired by African cultures. The African Market showcases original & ethical fashion, accessories, jewellery, shoes as well as Arts & Crafts, homeware, natural beauty products, books, music, arts and more. Local & international charities are also represented, promoting their actions and raising awareness but also funds by selling goods Old Spitalfields Market, 16 Horner Square , Spitalfields London E1 6EW

The Scottsboro Boys 18 Oct - 23 Oct

Young Vic Nominated for a remarkable 12 Tony Awards, the legendary creators of Cabaret and Chicago bring their bold and exhilarating musical to the Young Vic for its UK premiere.

Friday, 11 October – Thursday, 17 October 2013

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

Arts

Poet of the Week: John Pepper Clark

John Pepper Clark, pseudonym J.P. Clark-Bekederemo (born April 6, 1935, Kiagbodo, Nigeria), the most lyrical of the Nigerian poets, whose poetry celebrates the physical landscape of Africa. He was also a journalist, playwright, and scholar-critic who conducted research into traditional Ijo myths and legends and wrote essays on African poetry.

While at the University of Ibadan, Clark founded The Horn, a magazine of student poetry. After graduating with a degree in English in 1960, he began his career as writer and journalist by working as a Nigerian government information officer and then as the features and editorial writer for the Daily Express in Lagos (1960–62). A year’s study at Princeton University on a foundation grant resulted in his America, Their America (1964), in which he attacks American middle-class values, from capitalism to black American life-styles. After a year’s research at Ibadan’s Institute of African Studies, he became a lecturer in English at the University of Lagos and coeditor of the literary journal Black Orpheus. Clark’s verse collections Poems (1962) and A Reed in the Tide (1965) do not display the degree of craftsmanship apparent in the work of his fellow Nigerian Christopher Okigbo; but in his best poems his sensual imagination makes successful use of the patterns of traditional African life. His Casualties: Poems 1966–68 (1970) is concerned primarily with the Nigerian civil war. Other poetry collections include A Decade of Tongues (1981), State of the Union (1985, as J.P. Clark Bekederemo), and Mandela and Other Poems (1988). Of his plays, the first three (published

together under the title Three Plays in 1964) are tragedies in which individuals are unable to escape the doom brought about by an inexorable law of nature or society. Song of a Goat (performed 1961), a family tragedy, was well received throughout Africa and Europe for its dramatic skill and the poetic quality of its language. The Masquerade (performed 1965) again portrays a family tragedy, but it is The Raft (performed 1978) that is considered to be his finest piece of dramatic writing. The situation of four men helplessly adrift on a raft in the Niger River suggests both the human predicament and the dilemma of Nigeria in the modern world. Clark’s characterization is convincing and his symbolic setting richly allusive. A more experimental work, Ozidi (performed in the early 1960s; pub. 1966), is a stage version of a traditional Ijo ritual play, which in a native village would take seven days to perform. Like Yoruba folk opera, it is alive with music, dancing, mime, and spectacle. Clark also produced a film (with Francis Speed; The Ozidi of Atazi [1972]) and an English translation of this Ijo epic. His Literary Life For a while he worked as a newspaper editor, before going to Princeton University in the United States where he was a Parvin Fellow. On his return to Nigeria he became a Research Fellow at the University of lbadan. He spent ten years as editor of the highly influential literary magazine Black Orpheus. He then moved to the University of Lagos, as Professor and Head of Department. He took voluntary retirement in 1980 to allow time for his research and creative endeavours. He set up the first Repertory Theatre in the

country, PEC Repertory Theatre. A poet, playwright and essayist, Clark-Bekederemo has been a prolific author. His writings include a book of critical essays, America their America, a collection of literary essays, The Example of Shakespeare, and a highly acclaimed translation of the Ozidi Saga. He has published numerous volumes of poetry including A Reed in the Tide, which is said to have been the first by a single African poet to be published internationally (rather than in an anthology.) His poetry is inspired a great deal by his cultural roots among the Ijaw people of Nigeria. Other volumes of poetry include Casualties, which came out in 1970 just after the Nigerian Civil War, A Decade of Tongues, State of the Union, and a sixth book of poems, Mandela and other poems.JP Clark remains a controversial figure in some respects, but there is no doubting his prowess as a poet. Nigerian poet and playwright; he originally published under the name of J. P. Clark. Poetry is the genre in which he is probably most successful as an artist. His poetic works are Poems (1961), a group of forty lyrics that treat heterogeneous themes; A Reed in the Tide (1965), occasional poems that focus on the poet’s indigenous African background and his travel experience in America and other places; Casualties: Poems 1966-68 (1970), which illustrates the horrendous events of the Nigeria-Biafra war; A Decade of Tongues (1981), a collection of seventy-four poems, all except ‘Epilogue to Casualties’ (dedicated to Michael Echeruo) His poetic career spans three literary pedigrees: the apprenticeship stage of trial and experimentation, exemplified by such juvenilia as ‘Darkness and Light’ and ‘Iddo Bridge’; the imitative stage, in which he appropriates such Western poetic conventions as the couplet measure and the sonnet sequence, exemplified in such lyrics as ‘To a Fallen Soldier’ and ‘Of Faith’, and the individualized stage, in which he attains the maturity and originality of form of such poems as ‘Night Rain’, ‘Out of the Tower’, and ‘Song’. While his poetic themes centre on violence and protest (Casualties), institutional corruption (State of the Union), the beauty of nature and the landscape (A Reed in the Tide), European colonialism (‘Ivbie’ in Poems), and humanity’s inhumanity (Mandela and Other Poems), he draws his imagery from the indigenous African background and the Western literary tradition, interweaving them to dazzling effect. Although he is fascinated by the poetic styles of Western authors, particularly G.M. Hopkins, T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats, and W.H. Auden, he has cultivated an eloquent, penetrating, and descriptive voice of his own. Bekederemo’s dramas

include Song of a Goat (1961), a tragedy cast in the Greek classical mode in which the impotence of Zifa, the protagonist, causes his wife Ebiere and his brother Tonye to indulge in an illicit love relationship that results in suicide. As one of Africa’s pre-eminent and distinguished authors, he has, since his retirement, continued to play an active role in literary affairs, a role in which he is increasingly gaining deserved international recognition. In 1991, for example, he received the Nigerian National Merit Award for literary excellence and saw publication, by Howard University, of his two definitive volumes, The Ozidi Saga and Collected Plays and Poems 1958-1988. Night Rain What time of night it is I do not know Except that like some fish Doped out of the deep I have bobbed up bellywise From stream of sleep And no cocks crow. It is drumming hard here And I suppose everywhere Droning with insistent ardour upon Our roof thatch and shed And thro’ sheaves slit open To lightning and rafters I cannot quite make out overhead Great water drops are dribbling Falling like orange or mango Fruits showered forth in the wind Or perhaps I should say so Much like beads I could in prayer tell Them on string as they break In wooden bowls and earthenware Mother is busy now deploying About our roomlet and floor. Although it is so dark I know her practiced step as She moves her bins, bags and vats Out of the run of water That like ants gain possession Of the floor. Do not tremble then But turns, brothers, turn upon your side Of the loosening mats To where the others lie. We have drunk tonight of a spell Deeper than the owl’s or hat’s That wet of wings may not fly Bedraggled up on the iroko, they stand Emptied of hearts, and Therefore will not stir, no, not Even at dawn for then They must scurry in to hide. So let us roll over on our back And again roll to the beat Of drumming all over the land And under its ample soothing hand Joined to that of the sea

Friday, 11 October – Thursday, 17 October 2013

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

Health

Health insurance is leaving Africa’s poor behind

A doctor takes a patient’s blood pressure

A new report, Universal Health Coverage, published today by Oxfam, is warning that health insurance programs - being promoted by some donor agencies and governments in developing countries - are excluding the poorest and most vulnerable people.

The international agency says that usually only those who are already better-off

are able to sign up, leaving the majority of citizens without cover and forcing the poorest to pay often huge, out of pocket expenses to get health care. This misguided preoccupation with insurance is also leaving other funding methods largely unexplored. Improving tax collection, for example, could raise up to $269 billion a year*, giving developing countries the potential to double their health budgets. One reason coun-

tries are so keen to implement insurance is a false notion that it will generate extra money for health budgets, when in reality is raises very little. Kevin Roussel, Head of Oxfam’s Essential Services Campaign, said: “Three people every second are forced below the poverty line because of catastrophic health care costs, but this obsession with insurance as the answer is leading poor countries down a blind alley. “Most insurance programs are a loselose situation. They fail to reach the poorest people and yet collecting insurance premiums costs a huge amount to administer without raising any signiﬁcant amounts of cash.” For the African countries that have introduced health insurance, low levels of enrolment are proving to be a major and recurring challenge. Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme has been labeled a success but excludes 64 per cent of the population and the vast majority of these are poor people. Ten years after it was introduced in Tanzania, only 17 per cent of the population has health insurance and Kenya’s

National Hospital Insurance Fund covers only 18 per cent of Kenyans, despite the fact it was established nearly 50 years ago. Oxfam’s report argues that even the poorest countries can increase revenue by improving existing tax collection systems, removing unnecessary tax exemptions and introducing new progressive taxes. Gabon, for example, raised $30 million for health with a tiny levy on the profits of companies that handle remittances and a tax on mobile phone operators. At the same time, global action to tackle tax dodging by multinational enterprises could save developing countries an estimated $160 billion a year - more than four times the amount spent on health care by all the governments in Sub-Saharan Africa combined. Kevin Roussel said: “Countries should focus on finding home-grown health financing solutions that are universal and equitable. At the same time donors need to stop pushing unproven insurance programs which in many cases are actually reinforcing inequality.”

Mobile phones are changing healthcare across Africa

Phones are forever changing and improving lives across Africa

Imagine if you could track your general health status on a daily basis through an app on your phone. Consider the following futuristic scenario. Before you show any physical symptoms of illness, your phone detects an anomaly in your health indicators and books you a doctor’s appointment. Your appointment is not at the practitioner’s office but is conducted via mobile phone – you, sitting in a remote village in northern Nigeria, your doctor in his consulting rooms in Gaborone, Botswana. A specialist’s input is needed and with just a few clicks, the three of 22

you are connected in conversation – the specialist joining you from Cape Town, South Africa. A disposable, self-administered pathology kit is readily available to you and the outputs transmitted directly to the two medical practitioners via mobile phone. Within 30 minutes, a diagnosis is made and all the necessary information about your medical history, your condition and its treatment has been shared and recorded with those healthcare professionals who will be involved in your future healthcare. Following the consultation, you receive an SMS confirming to which hospital you will be admitted and when. If you only

need medication, the SMS informs you that your local pharmacist has been contacted and that your pharmacy pack will arrive at your home within the next two hours. That same app later monitors your adherence to the prescribed medication. While this may seem farfetched, such technology is already being developed, with many of the fundamental platforms currently available. A recent article by Accenture, entitled ‘Top three healthcare technology trends: Big, Personal, Social’, suggests that the penetration of Internet access, mobile technologies and social networks collectively offer a global future in which it is possible to deliver highly personalised care without necessarily having to do it in person or even with a doctor. Innovative solutions built on mobile technology are progressing at breakneck speed but nowhere is it having as much of an impact on business and communication as what we are seeing in Africa. According to the World Bank, Africa’s mobile phone market has expanded to become larger than the European Union or the United States, with around 650 million subscribers. Increased mobile phone connectivity on the continent is creating myriad opportunities, which are being embraced on a remarkable scale. Safaricom’s famous m-pesa, launched in Kenya in 2007, allowed people to con-

duct basic banking transactions over their phones, mainly transferring funds to relatives in rural areas. Governments are using mobile technology to communicate more effectively with their constituencies. Farmers receive updates on the weather and other developments, such as the direction of locust swarms, via their mobile phones. All of these innovations have made communication and the transfer of information in Africa much easier. This has led to a reduction in the total cost of transactions and an increase in productivity. Although they are riding on the wave of an explosion in access to mobile phones, these innovations are developed by Africans for Africa. The majority of these solutions were developed in response to typical structural challenges and bottlenecks facing African business and social environments. A limiting factor for many mobile technology innovations is Internet access. Currently, only a small proportion of the phones used in Africa are smart phones, though mobile carriers and phone makers are making headway in changing this, by launching more affordable entry-level to mid-range smart phones. Internet bandwidth in Africa has grown 20-fold over the past five years and as mobile Internet penetration increases, so more sophisticated mobile solutions will emerge.

Friday, 11 October – Thursday, 17 October 2013

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

The Fula of Guinea

countries virtually identical. Today, the only differences are ones of terrain or climate. The livelihood of the Fula Jalon is primarily based on farming and shepherding. Gathering forest produce, hunting, fishing, and trading are also part of their daily lives. Staple crops include millet, rice, and peanuts. Cattle herds, along with sheep and goats, are the primary livestock. The cattle are not the usual Fulani “humped” breed, but a native Fouta Djallon breed that is resistant to the disease-carrying tsetse fly. Herding cattle is usually a male activ-

Fula people

Fula people or Fulani or Fulbe are the largest Migratory ethnic group in the world. They are an ethnic group spread over many countries, predominantly in West Africa and Northern parts of Central Africa, but also in Sudanese North Africa.

Overall, the territory and range of where Fulani people can be found, is significantly larger than the United states and Western Europe in area. Being one of the most widely dispersed and culturally most diverse people of the African continent, Fulani culture comes in a myriad of different expres-

Fula carvings 22

sions in clothing, Music, and lifestyle. However, they are bound together by a common language and some basic elements of Fulbe culture, such as the “’Pulaaku’” African countries where they are present include Mauritania, Ghana, Senegal, Guinea, the Gambia, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea Bissau, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Niger, Chad, Togo, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan the Central African Republic, Liberia, and as far East as the Red sea in Sudan, Eritrea and Egypt. Some Fulani artefacts created by fulbe communities in Eritrea, are currently displayed in the British Museum collections, some of these artworks, include Calabash or Gourd vessels, intricately decorated in deep carvings of black, very similar to same sort of craft, made by their pastoral brethren from further West Fula people form a minority in every country they inhabit, except in Guinea where they are the largest ethnic group, representing some 40% of the population The majority live in Middle Guinea, or the Fouta Djalon of Guinea, an area consisting of mountains and plateaus. They speak a Niger-Congo language called Futa Jalo (or Pulaar). Along the plateaus of Fouta Djallon, there are grassy plains and fields of millet. Fulani herders settled in this region over 200 years ago and have since spread throughout western Africa. The Fula Jalon are a sub-group of this vast Fulani people group. They are semi-nomadic and raise crops as well as livestock. The high plateaus serve as part-time pastures for their herds. The Fula Jalon of Guinea have also moved into southern Senegal and northern Sierra Leone, leaving the culture and heritage of this tribe in all three

A young Fula

ity; however, the women milk and take care of the cattle. Women also care for the poultry and small livestock, as well as cultivate the gardens. Women often carry containers of milk and cheese to sell or trade in local markets.

A group of Fula women

Culture Daughters remain with their mothers until they marry. However, as soon as a son reaches puberty, he leaves the family compound and lives alone in a nearby compound, usually with some cattle. This new compound becomes the home of the son and his future wife. The first marriage of a man is usually arranged by the man’s father. A brideservice of helping the girl’s father with his livestock is performed by the man, who usually marries in his early twenties. Polygyny (the practice of having more than one wife) is practiced, up to the Muslim limit of four wives. There is one chief wife, however, who has authority over the other wives. Children belong to “age-sets” until they marry. An age-set is grouped at three or four year intervals, with every child born in those years belonging to that set. The children in an age-set go to school together and may participate in community labor, or may help someone in their set with bride-service. Each age-set has a leader, a deputy, and a judge. Although Fula Jalon villages are scattered, each village has a central court and a mosque. Houses belonging to the settled Fula Jalon are typically round with mud walls and thatched roofs. Each hut has an encircling verandah. The nomadic Fula Jalon live in open, beehive-shaped huts without walls or verandahs. Each hut is surrounded by a cattle corral. Each village has a headman who handles village affairs and answers to a paramount chief. The Fula Jalon are almost completely Muslim, faithfully following the teachings of the Koran (Islam’s “holy book”). They believe that Allah is the only god and that Mohammed is his prophet. Islamic schools are also set up for the children in some of the villages.

Friday, 11 October – Thursday, 17 October 2013

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

News U.S withdraws military aid in Rwanda over child soldiers The United States is withholding some military aid to Rwanda for its alleged support of a group that uses child soldiers. Linda Thomas-Greenﬁeld, assistant secretary in the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs, announced the sanctions Thursday in an online forum with African reporters.

Assistant secretary Linda Greenﬁeld-Thomas

Woman sets two houses ablaze

She said the sanctions are related to Rwanda’s backing of rebel group M23 in eastern Congo, which the State Department says “continues to actively recruit and abduct children in Rwandan territory.” Rwanda has repeatedly denied supporting the group. The U.S. is acting under the 2008 Child Soldiers Prevention Act (CSPA), which denies certain forms of military aid to countries found to be using child soldiers or supporting

armed groups that use them. Thomas-Greenfield says the U.S. is dedicated to seeing that children not be put into combat. “Our goal is to work with countries [which] have been listed, to ensure that any involvement in child soldiers, any involvement in the recruitment of child soldiers, stop,” said Thomas-Greenfield. A State Department official tells VOA that Rwanda had been slated to receive a “small amount” of funding for military education and training in the coming months. Under the same act, the U.S. is withholding some military training funds to the Central African Republic, where rebels who toppled the president in March are also accused of using underage soldiers.

China-funded Burundi palace project set for 2014

Workers laying the underwater “high speed” Internet cables

A 28-year-old woman is in Police custody at Nkhotakota Police Station for setting ablaze two houses after separating with her husband following accusations that she was having an extra marital affair.

Nkhotakota Police Spokesperson Kaitano Lubrino said the incident took place on September 26, 2013 “Sinani has told Nkhotakota Police that the disagreements started when the suspect identiﬁed as Chrissie Frank spent her night outside their house. “After being pressed, the woman confessed to have extra marital affair,” he said. Lubrino said this development fueled separation and the woman who has been in marriage since 2007 and is blessed with two children went to her home village of 24

Muzwenene in area T/A Ndindi in Salima but she returned on 26 September, 2013 to pick the children. “Before the suspect left the house, it is alleged that the two started quarrelling over a phone with both claiming ownership. “This quarrel erupted into a fight and in the course, the suspect hit her husband with a hoe handle and her husband hid in the bush for some hours,” Lubrino said. The police publicist said while he was still in the bush, the suspect set fire to his two houses. “Assorted items worth over K150, 000 including food for the family were completely consumed by fire. “Police rushed to the scene where they arrested the woman for an offence of arson which is contrary to section 337 of the Penal Code and she will be taken to court soon to answer the charge,”

Pierre Nkurunziza looks to be the one who will beneﬁt from the new palace

The construction of the Burundian presidential palace will begin in 2014 thanks to Chinese funding, Chinese Ambassador to the Central African country Yu Xuzhong announced here on Thursday.

“The construction of the palace of the Burundian president, that of the ﬁrst vicepresident and the palace of the second vicepresident will start next year (2014) as everything is now in place,” said Ambassador Yu said. The Chinese envoy made the announcement on the occasion to mark China’s 64th National Day, which falls on Oct. 1.

Government ofﬁcials and diplomats accredited to Burundi joined the Chinese community living in Burundi during the celebration. Yu told the gathering that China will continue to support Burundi’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper Phase Two (PRSPII). During a two-day visit to Burundi on Sept. 16, Chinese Deputy Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan and the Burundian government signed an agreement of 22 million U. S. dollars for the construction of the presidential palace and a hydropower dam on River Ruzibazi. The presidential palace will be erected in Gasenyi neighborhood, a hill overlooking Kamenge neighborhood, in the north of the capital Bujumbura.

Friday, 11 October – Thursday, 17 October 2013

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

News

Four nations agree to water management programme

Pipes being delivered in Libya

Seeking to improve their management of water resources, four northeast African nations today agreed at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to establish a longterm framework for utilizing a key underground water system.

Chad, Egypt, Libya and Sudan signed a Strategic Action Programme (SAP) that aims to optimize the equitable use of the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System, a huge water resource that lies beneath the four nations. The SAP also commits the countries to strengthen and build upon a previously

existing regional coordination mechanism, in part by establishing a new Joint Authority for the Nubian Aquifer System. The Programme lays the groundwork for improving cooperation among the four arid nations and for strengthening their capacity to monitor and manage the aquifer effectively. With growing populations and decreasing water availability from other sources in the region, the aquifer is under mounting pressure. Removing water without a clear understanding of transboundary and other implications threatens water quality and has the potential to harm biodiversity and accelerate land degradation. The agreement resulted from a joint technical cooperation project of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the United Nations Educational, Scientiﬁc and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the IAEA. “I congratulate all involved on this signiﬁcant achievement,” said IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano. “Water is a key resource, and effective management and use of such water resources is essential for the future. The agreement of the Strategic Action Programme is the result of real cooperation between the four States,

the Agency and UNDP-GEF. I am confident that this Programme will be a success and will benefit the people of the region. This positive project experience benefits strengthened and expanded cooperation between the IAEA and the UNDP-GEF.” “UNDP would like to congratulate the governments of Egypt, Libya, Chad and Sudan for achieving this important milestone towards the cooperative management of their shared sub-surface waters which will help to ensure maintenance of livelihoods and ecosystems”, said UNDP Administrator Helen Clark. The Strategic Action Programme was signed by Mr. Ali Mahamat Abdoulaye, Ministry of Urban and Rural Water Supplies, Chad; H.E. Eng. Ahmed Mostafa Emam, Minister of Electricity and Energy, Egypt.; H.E. Eng. Al Hadi Suleiman Henshir, Ministry of Water Resources, Libya; Her Excellency D.Tabita Potros Teia Shokai, State Minister, Ministry of Water Resources and Electricity, Sudan; and Prof. Seifeldin Hamad Abdalla, Chair of the new Joint Authority. The Nubian aquifer is the world’s largest known ‘fossil’ water aquifer system, meaning that the water is ancient and nonrenewable.

Oil and gas discovery offers ‘new hope’ for investment

Somalian oil ﬁeld

Somali Minister of Finance and Planning Mohamud Hassan Suleiman encouraged foreign investors to “seize the opportunity” to invest in Somalia during the Somalia Oil and Gas Summit in London Monday (October 7th).

“The discovery of oil and gas in Somalia opens up an array of hope and opportunities for the new Somalia, enabling it to inﬂuence the pace of economic recovery and the future stability

of the country,” Suleiman said. “International investors and multi-national corporations are turning their attention to Somalia and we must now seize the opportunity and work with them.” Suleiman added that the government recently revised the Investment Law to make Somalia “investment friendly”, while at the same time ensuring that a fair portion of proﬁts from the industry are re-invested in the country’s economic growth. 25

Friday, 11 October â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Thursday, 17 October 2013

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

Black History Month Special

Boris celebrates Black History Month By Peter Olorunnisomo

Mayor Boris Johnson invited a cross section of the black community in London on Monday, 7th October, 2013 in acknowledgement of the Black History Month but with a different focus from the erstwhile events of performances, literature, poetry, music and all else that mark the black heritage.

The Mayoral concern was for the upliftment of black businesses. Consequently, the event had speakers who could draw from their experiences; and very notable achievements to share viewpoints with the assembly with a view to stimulating them. Reaction and questions to issues that are expedient and needful to promote black entrepreneurs and businesses in the UK and beyond were also elicited.

Among those who spoke are Ric Lewis, Damon Buffini, Sonia Brown, Ade Sawyerr, and Boris Johnson in principal person. Tim Campbell played excellent compere cum motivator for the evening too. It was however, quietly noted that black businesses do need instrumental support by way of policy and government attention to equip them for the challenges in the face of a slippery economic terrain which is rather compelling for the black entrepreneur. The black entrepreneur and those inthe-making were also encouraged to take advantage of the open market and management practices and step up their game as they have much to offer London and, indeed, the UK. Photos: Colin Patterson

Mayor Boris Johnson addressing the assembly

Friday, 11 October â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Thursday, 17 October 2013

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

Black History Month Special

Damon Buffini

Sonia Brown MBE

Natasha Faith

Ade Sawyerr

Events calendar What’s On & When WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

Friday, 11 October – Thursday, 17 October 2013

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

To advertise call 020 3737 3077 or email info@africanvoice.co.uk

AfricanVoice

TODAY

£100 FOR 1 YEAR £100 FOR 1 YEAR £100 FOR 1 YEAR lncluding Paper & Postage

A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OUT EVERY FRIDAY! Name: Full Address: Post Code:

Tel No: I wish to subscribe to AfricanVoice

1 Year:

£100

I enclose a cheque/postal order for £

made payable to: AfricanVoice.

Please invoice me/my company Pls make a cheque of £100 payable to African Voice. Mail to Unit 7 Holles House Overton Road London SW9 7JN

Friday, 11 October – Thursday, 17 October 2013

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal renew rivalry

Patrick Vieira holding the Premier League trophy during his time at Arsenal

Scenes from the last time the two nations met, which ended in violence after a late Didier Drogba penalty

Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal will resume what is a long standing west African rivalry in their 2014 FIFA World Cup final round qualifier starting in Abidjan on Saturday.

The pair have been squaring off for almost 50 years, but few matches have been quite as important as this tie to decide which of them will go to Brazil. If their most recent battles are anything to go by then it will be a feisty affair, with the Ivorians having disposed of Senegal 6-2 on aggregate in the qualifiers for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations this time last year. It was during the second leg of that tie that Senegalese fans went on a riot, leading to a year-long ban from playing matches at home in front of their own supporters.

Cote d’Ivoire coach Sabri Lamouchi has made a number of changes to his squad for the first leg. Liverpool’s Kolo Toure has earned a recall for the first time in nine months after he was dropped from the team following their disappointing stint at the Nations Cup in 2013. Also back for the Elephants is Saint Etienne’s Max Gradel, who returns from a long lay-off. The versatile player has been a regular in the starting eleven following his impressive performances in 2012 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. There was a slight concern this week over the fitness of in-form Roma striker Gervinho, though it looks as though he will be fit to play if selected. Senegal coach Alain Giresse controversially left out striker Demba Ba was his squad, something that has pleased Lam-

ouchi. “The absence of Demba Ba is a good thing for us,” said Lamouchi. “But there

These two sides have met on 16 previous occasions in official FIFA matches, with the Ivorians leading the head-to-head 10-4 and just two matches drawn. Senegal’s last victory came in a 1-0 success in Tours in 2006. Meanwhile, One of the symbols of the new generation called-up by national coach Sabri Lamouchi, in the aftermaths of a disappointing 2013 Africa Cup of Nations’ campaign, is Toulouse defender Serge Aurier. “Fear is on the side of the Senegalese. I have some friends in the Ligue 1 who have admitted it and I think that it is a good sign for us,” said the young defender after their first training session. And at only 20 years of age, Aurier has demonstrated a surprising serenity before the crucial encounter. “There is no pressure to feel coming up against Senegal. We know that it is a very important game, but we need to remain calm and quietly prepare to be able to perform on D-Day,” added Aurier. “For us, who recently joined the national team, it is very exciting to feel so close in qualifying for the World Cup. It is an honour to contribute to one of the best teams in the world in helping reach that objective.”

Ivory Coast dynamo Gervinho

Papiss Cisse representing Senegal

are other talented players in the Senegal team. We will have to remain very focused and determined.” Cote d’Ivoire breezed through their qualification pool that also included Morocco, Tanzania and Gambia. It was harder for Senegal, who had to avoid defeat in their final pool phase match against Uganda to advance, and managed to win 1-0.

As for veteran left-back Arthur Boka, he is aiming for his third consecutive World Cup finals appearance, and promised the Ivoirian faithful that they will be in Brazil next year. “I want to tell the Ivorians that we are confident so they must not be worried. We are going to take this game as it comes and without pressure. I think that victory will be there at the end,” assured the former ASEC Mimosas’ defender.

Friday, 11 October – Thursday, 17 October 2013

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

Her Majesty The Queen launches Glasgow 2014

The Queen launched the Glasgow 2014 Queen’s Baton Relay on its global journey

Accompanied by His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh, The Queen placed Her message calling the athletes of the Commonwealth to next summer’s Games inside a baton specially crafted in Scotland which will now travel to the 70 nations and territories of the Commonwealth before being opened at the Opening Ceremony.

HRH Prince Imran, President of the Commonwealth Games Federation and Lord Smith, Chairman of the Glasgow 2014 Organising Committee, took part in the ceremony, which also included a special performance from world-renowned classical violinist, Nicola Benedetti. Sprint legend Allan Wells, winner of two Commonwealth Gold medals and the 100m Olympic title at the 1980 Olympic Games, was the first athlete to receive the baton, joined by honorary batonbearer Monica Dzonzi, UNICEF youth ambassador from Malawi. They were then supported by further batonbearers from Team Scotland: Olympic swimmer and double Commonwealth Gold medallist Caitlin McLatchey; Gymnast and Olympic Bronze medallist Daniel Purvis; Team Scotland gymnast Cara Kennedy; Team Scotland triple jumper Morgan McKinnon; Scottish Junior swimmer Ruairi Kirkwood. Joining the athletes were Glasgow 2014’s first selected Games-time volunteer, known as Clyde-siders, Izzy Conway; Glasgow 2014 Tartan designer Aamir Mehmood; former Scotland’s Strongest Man Gregor Edmunds; passionate advocate for Para-Sport at Glasgow 2014 Julie McElroy; Glasgow 2014 Mascot designer Beth Gilmour and the Official Glasgow 2014 Mascot Clyde. Seventy young people chosen by UNICEF UK, the world’s leading children’s organisation and international charity partner of the Games, carried flags from the 70 nations and territories

of the Commonwealth. Crowds gathered outside the Palace as the celebrations began when Sir Chris Hoy, six-time Gold Olympian, double Commonwealth champion and UNICEF UK ambassador, was the Baton’s special escort as it made the processional journey to the ceremony accompanied by the Pipes and Drums of the 1st Battalion Scots Guards and Pipes and Drums 1st Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland (Royal Scots Borderers). Senior representatives of Glasgow 2014 Games Partners including First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, Councillor Gordon Matheson, leader of Glasgow City Council and Michael Cavanagh, Chairman of Commonwealth Games Scotland also attended. The Queen’s Baton Relay is the world’s most engaging relay, a special tradition of the Games that unites the two billion citizens of the Commonwealth in a celebration of sport, diversity and peace. It is a unique and dynamic opportunity for Glasgow and Scotland to connect with all of nations and territories of the Commonwealth, sharing the excitement and opportunities of the forthcoming Commonwealth Games as well as our culture, creativity and enterprise. The baton returns to Scotland tomorrow where, in Stirling, the Scottish route and details of the recruitment of the 4,000 Scottish Batonbearers required will be revealed. Later that day the baton will depart Scotland for Delhi – host city of the 2010 Commonwealth Games – from where it will visit EVERY nation and territory of the Commonwealth, before travelling the length and breadth of Scotland on the way to its final destination – the Opening Ceremony. Over 248 days and 190,000km the baton will visit all the nations and territories of the Commonwealth and be the first baton ever to visit Rwanda. The international journey of the baton will be captured by global adventurer Mark Beaumont who will report for The

One Show, BBC Breakfast, BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio Scotland, along with BBC News outlets, and online. This is the first formal moment for the Baton, a unique object speciallydesigned for Glasgow 2014 in Scotland. The titanium, wood and granite creation symbolises Glasgow and Scotland’s culture, history and innovation by combining leading-edge technology with traditional skills and craft. Commenting on today’s special moment, Lord Smith of Kelvin, Glasgow 2014 Chairman, said:”It has been a hugely significant day for the Games and a real honour to be part of the ceremony at Buckingham Palace. It was not just a celebration of the baton but of the young people of the Commonwealth and it was a pleasure to have so many of them take part.” CGF President, HRH Prince Imran, said: “Everyone loves the Queen’s Baton Relay, especially children. It brings with it a little of the excitement of the Games, and the unique magic of the Queen’s message. The Glasgow 2014 baton is a particularly fine design, one which reflects the wonderful creativity of the Scottish people and the natural beauty of Scotland. Wherever it goes it will also provide an excuse for a cracking ceilidh!” First Minister, Alex Salmond, said: “The countdown to the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow has truly begun with today’s launch of the Queen’s Baton Relay. “Scotland is gearing up for 2014 and is organising what we hope will be the greatest Games ever and the QBR gives us an opportunity to send an invitation out to the Commonwealth’s 70 nations to travel to Scotland and join us in what will be a fantastic year of celebrations. “The QBR will play an important role in making the Games a success, travelling 190,000km during a 248-day journey that will showcase Scotland on the global stage and extend the hand of friendship to the two billion citizens of the Commonwealth. “And when it returns to Scotland, the baton - beautifully crafted from Ailsa Craig granite and inspired by Charles Rennie Mackintosh – will build on the excitement and momentum we’re currently experiencing around these Games, through visiting communities the length and breadth of the country, celebrating local heroes and success on its way to the Opening Ceremony.” The baton will be relayed on its journey by Emirates, the Official Airline of the Queen’s Baton Relay and an official Partner of Glasgow 2014

Jordan Ayew excited by Ghana recall

Ghana striker Jordan Ayew is delighted to return to international football after being recalled for next Tuesday’s World Cup playoff against Egypt at home.

The 22-year-old took a temporary break from the national team in February this year after he was overlooked for the Africa Cup of Nations finals. Ayew rescinded his decision to step down from the Black Stars in August but was not invited for last month’s final Group D qualifier against Zambia at home. Ghana coach Kwesi Appiah believes his services will be needed against the Pharaohs on 15 October and Ayew with the opportunity he has had. “It’s great to be back for the national team. Everybody wants to play for their national team. It is an honour,” Ayew said “I am not under any pressure. Not at all. I am coming back to give my 100% afterwards we’ll see what God will do for me.”

Gyan sits out Ghana training session Ghana captain Asamoah Gyan did not train with his teammates on Tuesday evening ahead of the World Cup playoff against Egypt.

The Al Ain striker was a spectator as the Black Stars held their first training session at the Accra Sports Stadium. Seventeen players took part in the exercise presided over by coach head coach Kwesi Appiah. The session started off with light jogging and stretches after which Michael Essien and Marseille winger Andre Ayew withdrew. Ayew had his right ankle heavily strapped with packed ice as he watched the remainder of the session from the sidelines. The 23-year-old appears to have a very minimal injury concern and was presumably withdrawn from the session as a precaution. Ghana expect to have a full house before Wednesday’s rehearsal when six players arrive tonight. The Black Stars will host the Pharaohs on 15 October at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi. Ghana players in camp: Fatau Dauda, Jerry Akaminko, Daniel Opare, Rashid Sumaila, Awal Mohammed, Samuel Inkoom, Edwin Gyimah, Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu, Emmanuel Frimpong, Michael Essien, Kwadwo Asamoah, Sulley Muntari, Christian Atsu, Albert Adomah, Andre Ayew, Abdul Majeed Waris, Jordan Ayew and Asamoah Gyan. 31

Friday, 11 October – Thursday, 17 October 2013 ISSUE 503

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK

Her Majesty The Queen launces Glasgow 2014

SEE PAGE 31

World Cup qualifier ‘can’t be held in Egypt’ – Ghana pleads

Sepp Blatter

By Peter Olorunnisomo The Football Association in Ghana has appealed to Fifa to move the second leg of their 2014 World Cup play-off tie against Egypt to a neutral location.

The unrest in Cairo which does not seem to abate amidst the latest reports of scores of people who lost their lives last weekend in the clashes has been a core consideration for safety in the friendly competition of football which is meant to promote peace and goodwill. The security implications that are likely to surround the game in Cairo do not portend the best for all stakeholders. The match is scheduled to be played on Tuesday, 19th November, 2013 in Cairo. “Our request is premised on the alarming and fast deteriorating security situation in Egypt,” the GFA says in a letter in its website. “The violence has shown no sign of abating.

“We are seriously concerned about the security and safety of our delegation and spectators if the match would be played in Egypt as events in the country pointedly indicate that our delegation could be exposed to danger as the violence and insecurity in the country continues relentlessly. While FIFA confirms that it has received the request, it has stated that: “ We can’t give you an exact time-scale for the decision since we are currently monitoring the situation.” Part of the Ghana FA’s worry is also that the match is due to be played before football spectators enthusiasts. It would be Egypt’s first home match in the 2014 qualifying campaign to be have supporters watching. “The GFA is gravely concerned that for the past two years Egyptian authorities have only allowed football matches to be played without spectators yet Ghana has reportedly been asked to play Egypt in Cairo before fans,” the letter continued.

“It is noteworthy that Egypt played all their home qualifying matches for the 2014 World Cup with Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Guinea in Egypt without spectators. “Local clubs Al Ahly and Zamalek played their recent Caf Champions League matches behind closed doors as the security authorities refused the supporters access to the games because of the current turmoil in Egypt. The GFA highlights past internationals that have been moved to neutral venues because of worries over the safety of players and officials. “Due to the civil and political problems, Libya played their football games in Tunisia between 1st June 2012 and 10th September, 2013,” the letter says. “The 2014 Fifa World Cup qualifying matches involving the Central African Republic were moved to neutral venues due to political instability in that country. “Much as we sympathize with our brothers at the Egyptian Football Association,

we are highly concerned about the security and safety of our players, officials and supporters. “We would like FIFA to take the necessary steps to protect lives and from both Ghana and Egypt during the second-leg game. “The GFA is asking FIFA to re-evaluate the decision to host the World Cup playoff in Egypt in November as the safety of our delegation would be as risk if the match is played in Cairo.” The first leg of the tie is due to be played in Kumasi on 15 October.

African Voice Newspaper is published by African Voice Communications. Unit 7 Holles House Overton Road London SW9 7AP. Tel: 020 3737 3077 Registered at the British Library as a newspaper. ISSN 1475-2166.Email: africanvoicenews@googlemail.com