The Voice News Magazine by The Voice magazine

ISSN:1571-3466

Motto: Actuated towards Africaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s advancement

Volume 21 NO. 202 February 2021

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First complete African magazine published in The Netherlands since August 1999

Museveni retains power but

Uganda has a new figure in Bobi Wine

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YOUR COPY NOW.... Getting to know you written by Pastor Elvis Iruh Pastor Felix Asare wrote the foreword

BOOK REVIEW Pastor Elvis Iruh’s new book is out…… Title: “Getting to know you” - A book on marital steps with information about marriage Author: Pastor Amb. Elvis Iruh About the book Whether you’re preparing for marriage or want to enjoy a deeper union with your spouse, this guide will help you enjoy a relationship built on solid Christian values. Pastor Elvis Iruh is a licensed minister with Victory Outreach International. His book highlights simple principles that are often taken for granted. Learn how to: • get to really know a love interest before deciding to marry; • avoid mistakes that lead to divorce; • appreciate the sanctity of marriage; • forgive your partner when they make mistakes.

Before you think of getting married, you should take the necessary steps to really get to know your partner. Your past should not contain any surprises - and your values must be aligned. This revealing book is filled with practical exercises that partners can carry out with each other as well as guidance for

pastors and church leaders who may need help in advising couples. This guide will help couples enjoy marriage that is built to last. ***** About the Author ELVIS IRUH is a native of Delta State, Nigeria. He attended numerous schools in Nigeria, including the Nigeria Institute of Journalism, Lagos, Nigeria, before continuing his studies in Europe and earning a degree in theology from Victory Education & Training Institute. He worked for several media organizations in Nigeria as well and has been the publisher and editor-in-chief of The Voice news magazine since August 1999. He is serving as an associate pastor at Victory Outreach Almere, The Netherlands. The book can be used for educational purposes as well as educating your children on the subject of marriage. He is also available to speak on related topics covered in the book at any organized event or church activities. He is open for collaborative efforts to strengthen marriage institutions worldwide. It is a mission he has dedicated himself to helping the younger generation to talk and address the challenges they face in building good and solid relationships which could end up in marriage. You can purchase the book in Holland via his website: www.elvisiruh.com or through his publishers’: www. authorhouse.com/ Elvis Iruh or on www.amazon.co.uk via this link:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ gp/aw/d/1665580844/ ref=ox_sc_act_ image_1?smid=AHRB2OK2Q2YCL&psc=1 You can contact him directly through any of his social media handle for your questions or comments, he would look into it and respond would be sent to you accordingly. Email: info@elvisiruh.com or elvisiruh@gmail.com

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The Voice magazine

THE VOICE MAGAZINE TEAM

The Voice magazine is editorially independent although we enjoys the support of our readers, subscribers, advertisers, non-governmental organizations and in dividuals of like minds; however the magazine publishers are in no way affiliated to any of these bodies or to any other publishing institution or political interest or group. The Voice magazine strives to foster awareness among the African audience and bridge the widening gap between Africans and the rest of the world in news gathering and dissemination. The Voice is published digitally online except on demand, we print hard copy.. If you want to receive a copy, send us your email address. On the Editorial board are Pastor Amb. Elvis Iruh, Jonathan Mgbejume, Sandra Iruh-Monsels, and Henry Oduenyi READ THE VOICE ON LINE AT www.thevoicenewsmagazine.com Our Affiliate partner: www.thenigerianvoice.com Registration NO: (Kvk. Nr. 34.110.928) TAX (BTW) NO: NL806215809B01 ISSN: 1571-3466 (For Print edition) ISSN: 2588-8807 (For Digital edition)

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Editor-in-Chief Pastor Amb. Elvis Ndubuisi Iruh elvisiruh@thevoicenewsmagazine.com Founding/Contributing Editor Edward Idahosa Ogbee apexbest2000@yahoo.co.uk

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MEDIA CONSULTANT Jonathan Mgbejume Abeka Salmin Abdallah Mildred Kleinbussink Pastor Duncan Spier Engr. Barry Igbeare You can as well contact our Office Address: Stichting Paddi Europa Inz The Voice Jeroen Boschplantsoen 82 1318 HH Almere, The Netherlands

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OUR MISSION STATEMENT

The Voice magazine is published in the Netherlands by Stichting Paddi Europa and it is published online since 2016 around the world. It is registered at the Chamber of Commerce Amsterdam. The Voice aim to serve as a vital link among African readers in the Diaspora and we provide objective information and organizes opinion exchange among African people both in the continent and abroad. Thus it strives to foster and enhance complete understanding of developing countries problems and bring information to help address those issues. You can support this project now with as much as one euro a month to help keep publishing our digital copy for you. TV MANAGEMENT

Volume 21 www.thevoicenewsmagazine.com

NO 202 February 2021

Contents Get fast results by advertising with us. Others are doing, join us today. Call us on +31684999548 or +31648519292 E-mail: info@thevoicenewsmagazine.com

Page 6- Editorial: New tactics: Museveni knows all the tricks in the book Page 8 - Book Review: The Other Side of Fear Pages 12 & 13 – International aid for Museveni’s Uganda can no longer be justified Page 14 - Lessons in Joe Biden’s Appointments of Nigerians Pages16 & 17 – German Chancellor Angela Merkel bows out in honour after 18 years! Pages 18 – 21 - Bring your children to learn typing skills says Felicidade Luzolo Page 22 – Lupita Nyong’o laughs off claims of inaccessibility for Kenya tourism role Page 23 – Column: My diary for 2021 by Eva Nakato Page 24 - Upcoming School of Ecology: HOMEF Partners with Ecole Urbaine de Lyon Page 25 - Online training called “Break Free and Breakthrough from fear” has arrived! Pages 30 – 34 - Innovation in times of Corona Crisis Pages 34-41 – ‘This is not your grandfather’s IMF’, says Africa department director Abebe Selassie Pages 42 & 43 – Justina Mutale reveals power secrets of female world leaders Page 44- ‘Finally some justice’: court rules Shell Nigeria must pay for oil damage Pages 46& 47 - State funeral for leader Jerry Rawlings in Ghana Pages 48 & 49 - Violent anti-lockdown protests sweep the Netherlands Page 50 – Ghana President warns of health system overload as Covid cases soar Pages 52 & 57 - Dutch news in focus Page 59 – The Gambia nominates former Vice President Fatoumata CM Jallow Tambajang Pages 60 & 61 - Uganda’s Museveni: President for life with 6th term election victory Page 62 - Africa is set to roll out its Single Passport this year Page 63 - Nine African nations in debt to UN lose voting rights Pages 66 - 67 – Meet the Black feminist politician shaking up Dutch politics Page s 68 & 69 – Sports stories - Anthony Joshua says he is ‘coming towards the end of his career

The Voice Magazine Volume 21. No 202 February 2021 Edition

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E DITORI A L:

New tactics: Museveni knows all the tricks in the book

his editorial is probably the most satirically one I have written in many years now. I just wonder why anyone in Uganda or within Africa and the rest of the world expected another result than what we had in the Ugandan election last month. Even Bobi Wine knew before the election that he does not stand a chance with the master tactician in rigging elections. He has perfected the skills and he could see and know what the outcome of the election would be. From the start to finish, the playing field was not even or equal, he was harassed throughout the election campaigns, he was detained several times, it is nearly a miracle that he was even allowed to vote for himself, I mean the opposition leader. If he could be put under house arrest for his own safety, it is more possible to have denied him the right to vote for his own security as well! What a ridiculous assertion by a government that a Presidential candidate is detained in his own house for the fear for his safety! Who wants him dead than the Museveni led government; they have publicly threatened to deal with him if he causes any trouble during and after the elections. Museveni, 76, has outlasted many other onetime African revolutionary leaders, showing an ability to stay in power that exceeds even former stalwarts like Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe. For decades, this was relatively simple, thanks to the wellfunded Ugandan military and alliances with the United States and other major world powers. But as the country has developed, becoming one of sub-Saharan Africa’s strongest economies, the government’s Pastor Elvis Iruh ability to respond to demands Editor-in-Chief

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from a growing and increasingly well educated, connected population, has waned. According to the IMF, Uganda has one of the fastest growing populations in Africa, and needs to create more than 600,000 jobs a year to cater for its expanding labor

force, a task that has been made all the more difficult by the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent economic contraction. Museveni has sometimes appeared less than sympathetic to his citizens, saying in 2017 -- following another hotlycontested election during which internet restrictions were rife -- “I hear some people are saying I am their servant, I am not a servant of anybody.” In his speeches, he often harkens back to his history as a revolutionary, but Museveni’s real talent has been for adapting to modern methods of control, not least online censorship and surveillance. Uganda has been a leader in this regard, thanks in part, critics allege, to the assistance of China, which has invested heavily in the country, increasing its influence over the formerly stalwart US ally. Chinese firms, both state-backed and nominally private, have also established a major presence in Uganda, reportedly supplying core internet technology and network monitoring equipment. Museveni’s growing grip over the internet, both technological and through new laws against “cyber harassment” or “offensive communication,” has enabled his government to limit the effect of the internet as a platform for organizing against him. And this is the reason why Bobi Wine effort could not succeed. As the former revolutionary begins his sixth term in office, other wannabe authoritarian leaders, facing their own online dissenters, will be taking note.

ONE EURO A MONTH SUPPORT TO THE VOICE MAGAZINE ..... Since you’re here... Support the Voice magazine so we stay publishing for your reading pleasure….. Happy New Year (2021) to you our readers and our followers. We have a small favour to ask. More people, like you, are reading and supporting the Voice News magazine since we stopped the hard copy print in 2016. We have continued to serve you the magazine in the same format with all production cost covered like editing, page designs, photography and digital distribution via online channels. The Voice News magazine has been an independent organization, we do not receive any form of subsidy except the support of our advertisers, readers and friends. We made the choice to keep our reporting open for all, regardless of where you live or what you can afford to pay. Our advertising drive continue to grow. You can support us through this medium by promoting us among your friends, colleagues and clients as well,. You can promote your businesses and services with us as your way of support. Our editorial independence means we set our own agenda and voice our own opinions. You are free and welcome to contribute both commercial and political independent articles for our reading audience without bias. We want to continue to give a voice to those less heard, exploited or turn away. We continue to rigorously challenge those in power to do what is right and just. We hope you will consider supporting us from now on. We need your support to keep delivering quality journalism that’s open and independent. Every reader contribution, however big or small, is so valuable. Support The Voice News magazine as little as one EURO and it only takes a minute through your bank account.

For The Netherlands Account Name: Stichting Paddi Europa IBAN: NL29SNSB0908374372 SWIFT CODE: SNSBNL2A (For payment from abroad) Bank: SNS BANK Address: Utrecht, The Netherlands Thank you. TV Management www.thevoicenewsmagazine.com

BOOK REVIEW

The Other Side of Fear Uncertainty, anxiety and fear: only fictitious superheroes are exempted from this all-too human sequence. The trouble is that fear is paralyzing because it feeds our minds with negative thoughts. In a second, fear can turn the idea of courage into one of recklessness, and then it’s all downhill to a point where determination is put aside in favour of ‘playing it safe.’ Sadly, fear can stop you from doing anything slightly risky. It’ll keep you locked up in the prison of the comfortable and predictable where you’re more likely to die of boredom than might from any of the dangers you fear. So, what’s to be done? The simple answer is that risk-taking and adaptability are as much part of our human heritage as uncertainty-inspired fear. It’s finding a balance that matters most. Fear is a useful tool for making better life-directing decisions, but fear must never be allowed to control the direction of your life. That way you lose the opportunity of reaching your true potential. I hope this book will inspire you to transcend your fears and achieve all of your dreams. The greatest prison you can live in is the prison of your own fears. Nothing of value can be achieved when we allow fear to control our life. Grab a copy of “The other side of fear” be inspired to live above your fears. You can purchase E-book & paperback on amazon. First and foremost, I want to thank God for guiding my every step towards completing this project and to every other

person who contributed to this. I’ve learned that if we can find the courage to begin something, God will empower & enable us to complete the task. There’s nothing we cannot accomplish if we are determined enough. I was inspired to write this book because fear has kept a lot of people locked up in the prison of comfort. Too many people are living in a self-made prison of their own fears, they are stuck, unable to move forward and achieve their meaningful dreams. Fear has the power to limit your greatness, and blind you from seeing the opportunities that lies ahead of you. Everything you desire is on the other side of your fear, don’t stay trapped behind the walls of your fear for the rest of your life. It’s time to move towards your fears instead for trying to avoid them. I can confidently tell you that this book will inspire and challenge you to transcend your fears. And also provide principles to help you on the journey. Grab a copy of this book to bless yourself, a friend or a loved one. You can read online, download, & order hard copies of this book online click on the link. www.amazon.com/Other-Side-Fear-M-K-Slim-ebook/dp/ B088RKSDW7/ref=sr_1_8? Thank you By M.K. Slim

About M.K. Slim For much of my life, I’ve been fully committed to my music career, but I’m also an entrepreneur and a budding writer. I’m very motivated and mentally resilient: a genuinely optimistic person who believes that anything can be achieved if I’m determined enough. I strive to create a positive impact in the lives of those around me and I believe the highest of human acts is to inspire others to reach their potential. I strive to inspire as many people as I can. I’d like others to say of me, “Because you didn’t give up, I can do the same.” That’s the legacy I hope to leave behind when I die.

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Victory Outreach Church Almere is a Pentecostal Church, a Bible based believing people in the trinity of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. What would you like to know? Our vision? Which activities we organize? Or would you like to hear testimonies about how we follow God? One thing is certain, we would like to get to know you and therefore you are more than welcome to visit one of our services in this new year 2020. You can visit us every day of the week as there is a Resident Pastor available to your demand. You may have been a believer for many years already. Or you might still be searching for the meaning of life and asking yourself whether or not there is God. Within Victory Outreach Almere we would like to help you find the answer. We will gladly teach you through the help of the Holy Spirit the exact meaning of â&#x20AC;&#x153;a living faithâ&#x20AC;?. With us you will truly see

and experience the supernatural power of the living God. You can always count on love and comfort when you need it. You will discover that we have a wonderful diversity of people with lots of different backgrounds, characters and personalities. But there is one thing we have in common. We all follow the same God, Jesus Christ. In that diversity and love for God, we are a family where you are more than welcome. We personally hope to meet you during one of our services. God bless you as you come in Jesus Christ name. Amen Signed: Pastor Roel & Ida van Rooij Senior Pastors Victory Outreach Almere. Barbeelstraat 12, 1317 PZ Almere The Netherlands. Telephone: +31646890203; Telephone: 036-7505571 E-mail: info@voalmere.nl Website: www.voalmere.nl

Join our church service every SUNDAY in church and also online service via FACEBOOK or YOUTUBE

Victory Outreach Almere

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Opinion

International aid for Museveni’s Uganda can no longer be justified

bservers of Ugandan politics will regard the results from last week’s election with an overwhelming sense of déjà vu. President Yoweri Museveni, in power for nearly 35 years, won with almost 59 per cent of the vote. His main rival, the musician and member of Parliament Bobi Wine, received about 35 per cent. In a familiar pattern, the opposition contests the results, while the President claims it was the most free and fair election since independence. Make no mistake: This was an election, but not democracy. Elections in Uganda

have long been a foregone conclusion. Mr. Museveni, one of Africa’s longest-serving presidents, has perfected a system allowing him and the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) to reap just enough votes to claim that democracy is working and thus bestow a thin veneer of legitimacy on their continued rule. The keys to the system’s success are a well-oiled patronage machine, a ruthless, politicized security apparatus and an international community willing to turn a blind eye to democratic decline and human-rights abuses in return for stability and support in the fight against terrorism. This time, 12

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COVID-19 also rose to the President’s defence, as did the widespread retreat of democracy around the world. Curfews, lockdowns and physical-distancing regulations were introduced in late March, 2020, and remained in place throughout the electoral campaign, providing ample opportunity to curtail the opposition, harass their supporters and clamp down on civil society and the media. This made the Jan. 14 election the most violent and the least fair in a two-decade-long history of violent and unfair elections. In one incident alone, at least 54 people were killed by the security forces and more than 1,000 arrested. Mr. Wine spent most of the election campaign wearing a bulletproof vest and a helmet, constantly trailed by an intimidating convoy of police vehicles, mobile prison vans and armoured personnel carriers. His home remains surrounded by soldiers, and members of his campaign team are in jail, as are numerous other activists and politicians. This oppressive regime is bankrolled by international donors. As a top contributor of troops to peacekeeping missions in Somalia, South Sudan and the Central African Republic, Uganda has become a key ally of the United States and a pivotal state in the fight against terrorism. In return, the country has been lavished with development and military assistance. The U.S. provides nearly US$1billion a year, and another US$1-billion flows from

other countries, including Canada, and international institutions. The U.S. has trained more troops from Uganda than from any other country in sub-Saharan Africa except Burundi. It is this well-trained, well-equipped military that Mr.

Museveni placed in charge of security in the capital city and the surrounding areas in advance of the election. Battle-hardened generals with extensive experience from operations against terrorist groups such as al-Shabaab and soldiers trained to combat violent extremism patrolled the streets of Kampala. It is not only military aid that strengthens Mr. Museveni’s grip on power. Development assistance also ensures that patronage flows to loyal supporters, and corruption

is rampant. For example, a recent US$300-million World Bank loan for COVID-19 relief appears to have been transferred to a classified budget used to fund the security forces. After the violence of this election, international support for Mr. Museveni’s regime can no longer be justified in the name of security and stability. There is an urgent need for donors to rethink their relationship with Uganda. This should not entail a return to the high-handed and arrogant democracy-promotion of the past. Democracy cannot come from outside or be dictated by fingerwagging donors threatening to withhold aid. But past mistakes do not invalidate the value of democracy nor diminish the need for solidarity with democratic struggles. Five of Uganda’s opposition leaders have urged the UN Secretary-General to encourage donors to suspend all but the most essential humanitarian aid to their country. Mr. Wine has argued that the West has helped “cripple Uganda’s democracy” and that it must now stand by those struggling against tyranny. These are difficult times for democracy and for democracy promotion. The recent attack on the U.S. Capitol deeply wounded America’s standing in the world. But the answer is not to retreat from democracy; it is to recommit to it. Uganda is a test case for the incoming Biden administration and for all Uganda’s donors. This includes Canada, which has joined others in calling for the investigation of election irregularities and violence by the security forces. That is a good start, but ritual condemnation followed by a return to business-asusual needs to end. By Rita Abrahamsen. She is a professor of public and international affairs at the University of Ottawa. And Gerald Bareebe is an assistant professor at York University, currently based in Kampala.

Lessons in Joe Biden’s Appointments of Nigerians

he United States President, Joe Biden’s appointment of three young Nigerians into his cabinet is replete with lessons, not just for Nigeria, but for the entire African continent. President Biden first appointed 39-year-old Adewale Adeyemo, who was the first President of the Obama Foundation, as United States Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. Next, President Biden appointed 26-yearold Miss Osaremen Okolo, who hails from Ewohimi in Esan South East Local Council of Edo State, as his COVID-19 Policy Advisor. Miss Okolo is a graduate of Harvard University and a former Senior Health Policy Advisor in the US House of Representatives. The latest Nigerian young talent President Biden has found worthy of appointment is Funmi Olorunnipa Badejo whom he appointed as White House Counsel. Badejo, a lawyer and an alumnus of Berkeley Law College in the US, has served as a counsel for policy to the Assistant Attorney-General in the Civil Division of the US Department of Justice, Ethics Counsel at the White House Counsel’s Office. She was also Attorney Advisor at the Administrative Conference of the United States during the Obama-Biden administration. These appointments are restatements of Nigerian youths’ ingenuity and brilliance which have long been established by their forerunners in various fields of human endeavour. Many brilliant minds whom Nigeria lost, mostly to the United States through the well-known brain drain syndrome, include: Saheed Adepoju, inventor of the INYE-1&2 tablet computers designed for the African market; Seyi Oyesola, co-inventor of CompactOR, a solar powered life-saving operating room nicknamed “Hospital in a box”; Jelani Aliyu, designer of Chevrolet Volt for General Motors, a leading auto brand. There is also Ndubuisi Ekekwe, developer of microchips used in minimally invasive surgical robots; Cyprian Emeka Uzoh, who holds more than 126 United States-issued patents and over 160 patents worldwide in semiconductor technology; Kunle Olukotun, who led the Stanford

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University Hydra research project that developed one of the first chip multiprocessors with support for thread-level speculations; Sebastine Chinonye Omeh, who conducted the research into the use of wind-propelled turbines to generate electricity; and Shehu Saleh Balami, designer of a solid-fuel rocket. There are also Yemi Adesokan, who made a discovery on drug-resistant infections; Umeh Ifeanyi Charles, who has five inventions patented at the United States Patent & Trademark Office; Aloysius Anaebonam, who has 12 United States patents; Emeka Nchekwube, a US-based neurosurgeon and co-inventor of two brands of hypoestoxides, terfenadine oral powder and solutions of pentamidine and many others. The United States and other countries saw the talents in these Nigerians and gave them citizenships and everything they needed to do their works for the benefit of their countries. As the opportunities were given to these Nigerians in the field of science and technology, so it was also in political arenas and other areas of human endeavour, without discriminations, even though we accuse the US of racism. Perhaps the saddest story in Nigeria is how the Federal Government allowed majority of the brains that birthed the promise of the first technologically advanced Black nation to waste while the rest migrated abroad where their ingenuities were harvested for the benefit of the host country. Nigeria, at the moment, cannot refine the crude oil multinational companies drill out of its soil. The good news for Nigeria, however, is that it is never too late to start. Fortunately, genius brains still abound in the country. With the right environment in terms of policies and infrastructure, Nigeria can start and find her footings. But it requires a will and honesty of purpose, and not self-deceit evident among our politicians, leaders and accomplice. The government should stop recyclying old and tired politicians into offices as if this is all Nigeria has got, the same goes for many other African countries. Change starts with us.

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel bows out in honour after 18 years!

ermany has bided farewell to Angela Merkel with six minutes of warm applause. The Germans elected her to lead them, and she led 80 million Germans for 18 years with competence, skill, dedication and sincerity. During these eighteen years of her leadership of the authority in her country, no transgressions were recorded against her. She did not assign any of her relatives a secretary. She did not claim that she was the maker of glories. She did not get millions out of her position or office, nor did anyone cheer her life, she did not receive charters and pledges, she did not fight those who preceded her and did not dissolve her. She protected the blood of her fellow countrymen and women. She did not utter nonsense to endanger her people. She did not appear in the alleys of Berlin to be photographed. It is (Angelica Merkel) the woman who was dubbed â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Lady of the Worldâ&#x20AC;? and was described as the equivalent of six million men. Merkel left the party leadership position and handed it over to those after her, and Germany and its German people are in the best condition. What a woman and politician where many of her colleagues and mates want to remain in office until death do them part? The reaction of the Germans was unprecedented in the history of the Germans. The whole people went out to the balconies of their houses and clapped for her spontaneously for 6 continuous minutes of warm applause, without popular poets, scum, impudence, colorists and climbers. Contrary to our Arab reality, there was no praise, hypocrisy, representation and drumming ... and no one shouted (Merkel and Bass) or (Merkel a red line).

Germany stood as one body bidding farewell to the leader of Germany, a chemical physicist who was not tempted by the fashion or the lights and did not buy real estate, cars, yachts and private planes, knowing that she is from former East Germany. She left her post after leaving Germany at the top. She left and her relatives did not repeat (We are the elders of the country). Eighteen years and did not change her old clothes and her fashion style, the old Merkel remains the same as it was in the beginning to the end. God be upon this silent leader. God be upon the greatness of Germany. At a press conference, a female journalist asked Merkel: We notice that your suit is repeated, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t you have another? She replied: I am a government employee and not a model. At another press conference, they asked her: Do you have housemaids who clean the house, prepare meals and so on? Her answer was: No, I do not have female workers and I do not need them. My husband and I do this work at home every day. Then another journalist asked: Who is washing the clothes, you or your husband? Their answer: I arrange the clothes, and my husband is the one who operates the washing machine, and it is usually at night, because electricity is available and there is no pressure on it, and the most important thing is to take into the account the neighbors from the inconvenience,

Tribute to successful political career

and the wall separating our apartment from the neighbors is thick. She said: To them, I expected you to ask me about the successes and failures in our work in the government. Mrs. Merkel lives in a normal apartment like any other citizen. This apartment she lives in before

being elected Prime Minister of Germany and she did not leave it and does not own a villa, servants, swimming pools and gardens. What a great leader and yet she is a woman for those who are threatened at the rise of women in politics.

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INTERVIEW

Bring your children to learn typing skills says Felicidade Luzolo Typing seem to have gone out of fashion but not for this woman whose passion is bringing the fire back in children around Amsterdam environs. She is busy teaching the children how to professionally type and become the best in it. We encounter her and we find what she is doing very interesting so we spoke to her for your reading pleasure and after this, you must have a child register for this typing skills program. Meet our Guest in this edition. Enjoy this short chat withe her.............

Felicidade: It’s about teaching children how to type. I teach children typing skills. They follow a course of 13 weeks and during the Iast week they have an examination. I also provide them with a diploma with their scores on it. By the way the

TV: Give us a short introduce of yourself and what you do for a living? Felicidade: My name is Felicidade Luzolo, 44 years, married and mother of 4 children. At the moment I work as a freelance HR professional with an Australian Bank in Amsterdam. I am part of the project team; my focus is setting up the HR department in Amsterdam. Next to that I am a freelance reintegration coach. I help people that have been ill for some time back to work. And I have my typing classes on Saturdays. TV: You have an African background, so where do you originally come from in Africa? Felicidade: I was born in Luanda (Angola). I also have Congolese roots. TV: What is your experience like living in The Netherlands? Felicidade: I came to The Netherlands at the age of 11 in 1987. No Dutch language, new culture. We had to adapt quickly. We lived 4 months close to Amsterdam Central Station. We went to a school where all kids were blond. It was for them a strange thing to have us in school. There were no foreigners in the area. The people were nice but we did not really fit. That was our first experience with The Netherlands, not always nice. A pleasant experience was when we moved to Amsterdam Bijlmer (Kralenbeek). We as kids were so happy to see other kids and they looked like us and many other nationalities. It was a different world. And all was so green. We enjoyed our new place. I went to primary school, Senior School. There was a good school system for children coming from abroad (schakelklas). Later I managed to find different jobs with international companies and gained HR experience and studied HR at InHolland Hogeschool. Living in The Netherlands has been only positive.

course is also for adults. TV: What motivated you to take interest in teaching children how to type? Felicidade: It was not my plan to start this experience; I believe that God guided my steps. Because in 2019, I applied for a parttime job on the Internet. Before I knew I had my first class of 12 children. I remember how fulfilling it was to see these children picking up the skills so quickly. Some of them are just so amazing! Now I cannot do without my pupils, it’s always very exciting to start a fresh class. TV: Is typing such an important development skill for kids to have especially a time like this when they are always on their telephone?

Felicidade Luzolo

TV: Of recent, you start your company or organization called FL Typing? What is it all about? 18

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Felicidade: It’s really important, because they really need it for school and their future career. They are on their phones but when you’re asked to type an essay in school or later on the job typing emails, reports, or letters typing skills is needed.

TV: Who do you organize this training for children and of what age group? Felicidade: My training is for children from 9 years to adults. Anyone that would like to learn how to type for school, a job

Face to Face with Felicidade Luzolo or just for fun.

before class starts. Or want to have a double lesson.

TV: What is the response of parents to what you are doing?

TV: Lastly what would be your advice to those reading your interview right now and wants to be inspired by you even with little or less opportunities in life?

Felicidade: Parents are very positive. They are happy to see how their kids pick up the skills. The kids are very eager to do their homework at home and the parents are very pleased to see that and also they tell me that the children always look forward to come to the class. Please check my reviews on https://fltyping.nl/ TV: How can African kids participate in this program? Felicidade: They can contact me by sending me a WhatsApp message or enroll trough the website by filling out the online form.

Felicidade: You can do more than you think but most importantly don’t hesitate to reach out for help. And don’t be ashamed. “The only stupid question is the question never asked”. TV: Thank you for your time and this interview Felicidade: You’re welcome and thank you for the opportunity. TV

TV: Cost is always a challenge so what would it cost for a child to be register and for how long is the training? Felicidade: The course is €157.30 for 13 weeks. But if the children live in Amsterdam and have a stadspas they pay €12 for the 13 weeks this is an agreement with the municipality of Amsterdam. TV: Apart from the typing training, what other activities or program do you have for the children? Felicidade: At the moment only typing classes. TV: How has the issue of corona virus affected your training program and what are the next steps of action for the children? Felicidade: Corona affected my classes a lot but I managed to continue with the current children online. I follow them up weekly online and the parents help with sending me videos of their progress. Based on what I see I give them feedback. The examination is done at home, but recorded so I can evaluate how it’s done. At the moment I will not start new classes but wait till the lockdown is over. TV: What is the response of the children already involved? Felicidade: Very positive! They always look forward to the classes; sometimes they even come 30 minutes

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Lupita Nyong’o laughs off claims of inaccessibility for Kenya tourism role

scar Award-winning Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o, 37, has hit back at Kenya’s tourism minister for saying she has been unreachable for the last five years. The Tourism Minister Najib Balala had named British model Naomi Campbell as the country’s international tourism ambassador and defended the decision with the comment on Lupita’s “inaccessibility”. As criticism grew on why the role had not been given to Lupita Nyong’o, an international Kenyan personality, Mr Balala insisted they had tried and failed to make contact with her. “I know everybody is asking why not Lupita. Lupita has commitments and her managers cannot allow us to access her. We’ve spent the last five years looking for Lupita,” Balala said. According to him, Naomi Campbell’s services were offered to Kenya for free. “We have a framework to work around her and she accepted to do it for free. She offered herself because of her love and commitment to Kenya. We are now working on the details on how do we use her to promote the destination,” he said. In a reaction, Lupita posted a photo of herself laughing on Twitter with the message: “Me when I hear the Kenya Ministry of Tourism has been looking for me for five years.” Her tweet was with the hashtags: “I am right here baby” and “alternative facts”. Nyongos reaction ended up trending and getting Kenyans to argue on her level of patriotism.

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Meanwhile, the Black Panther star has announced an audio book version of her 2019 children’s book, Sulwe, will be released by Listening Library on February 23. Nyong’o revealed that the narration will help readers further connect with the characters. In an interview with People magazine, she said that the narration will help readers further connect with the characters. “Listening to a book read aloud is such a personal, intimate way to experience the characters and story, I wanted to narrate the audio book for Sulwe myself in order to bring to life the characters as I had imagined them in my head when writing the book.” Nyong’o said. ‘Sulwe’ is a children’s book that tells the story of a 5-year-old girl, whose skin is darker than that of her mother and sister. It’s not until Sulwe (meaning “Star”) embarks on a magical journey through the night sky that she discovers how special she truly is.

COLUMN Column:

MY DIARY FOR 2021. By Eva Nakato

2020 was a year the world was brought to its knees. The Covid-19 Pandemic caught us all unaware. It wasn’t easy at all but you should be grateful for having been able to manoeuvre through the storms. If you’re reading this then congratulations upon making it to 2021! With that said, forward we match as a soldier in the battlefield. This New Year should be dedicated to reflection and positivity. As such, we need to plan it accordingly. Below are a few things you can embark on for your physical and emotional well-being as well as personal development. You could as well come up with your own list according to your current standing and needs in life. Starting the year has never been easy especially when you were let down the previous year. You could be undergoing a feeling of hopelessness, anger, rejection, regret, or even resentment. However, you are stronger than you’ve ever known. By admitting your personal challenges and weaknesses, you are creating room for your superhero self to overcoming them. Self-realisation is the first step to recovery. Do not keep this entire heavy load to yourself. Find someone you can trust and open up to him or her about your challenges. Remember, a problem shared is a problem solved! Do yourself a favour and prioritise your health. You are what you eat so mind your diet. Exercise regularly to keep your heart alive. Spread the same message to your neighbours too. Don’t expect much from people. People will never treat you the very same way you treat them. We are different and not everyone is as kind or polite as you. When you decide to do good, do it wholeheartedly without expecting anything in return.

Follow your dreams and trust your instincts. You have that business idea that keeps you on your toes? Go for it! Don’t hold back from opportunities, you will never know if it’s your next breakthrough in life. Work hard in silence and let your success make the noise. Don’t be afraid of responsibilities. They can be overwhelming at times but responsibilities are our path to maturity and personal development. They shape us into better people physically, mentally and financially. Through taking on responsibilities, we learn to plan better for families, our businesses and ourselves. Last year, millions of people world all over lost their jobs due to the pandemic. As such, financial constraints were inevitable. Many slipped into depression due to this. However, a little bit of financial literacy could have mitigated some of those financial challenges. This year, aim at handling your finances more diligently. Develop a saving culture. Also, save to invest so as to be able to diversify your streams of income. Develop the habit of giving and helping those in need whenever you can. The law of abundance is clear: the more you give, the more you get! Remember, no man is an island! Also, always remember where you came from. Many people change when they reach a certain level in life and tend to forget the hands that helped them get to the top. Stay humble always. This will help you to fight back unnecessary pride. Finally, I would like to you as well that I would love to hear from you, what resolutions have you set for this year? Eva Nakato is a Ugandan based writer and she wants to read from you so write her through info@thevoicenewsmagazine.com

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Upcoming School of Ecology: HOMEF Partners with Ecole Urbaine de Lyon

ealth of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) will be partnering with Ecole Urbaine de Lyon in hosting her first School of Ecology (SoE) for 2021. This partnership was officially announced at a virtual press conference held on Friday, 15 January 2021 to present the third edition of Ecole de l’Anthropocene (School of Anthropocene) 2021 organised by Ecole urbaine de Lyon (Lyon urban school) in France. The School of Anthropocene will run for one week, from 25th to 31st (Monday to Sunday) January 2021. The SoE which will form one of the sections of A l’Ecole de l’Anthropocene, will be examining the roots of resource exploitation with particular focus on food, extractivism and ecology. This section will hold 26th to 28th that is, Tuesday to Thursday. Featuring in the SoE are Mariam Mayet of African Centre for Biosafety, South Africa and Mamadou Goita of IRPAD, Mali who will be speaking on “Who feeds the planet”; Firoze Manji of Daraja Press speaking on “Plantation and Extractivism” and; Ikal Angelei of Friends of Lake Turkana, Kenya, speaking on “Green Colonialism”. Nnimmo Bassey, Director of HOMEF will be co-moderating all panels at the SoE. Speaking at the virtual press conference, Nnimmo Bassey expressed his concerns about the current geological age called the Anthropocene. He explained that humans have assumed a certain measure of exploitative control over the environment and earth’s resources. To surmount challenges such as climate change, environmental degradation and pollution which human activities are largely responsible for, terms such as sustainability have been coined. According to him, “sustainability has been on the card for decades and everyone speaks about sustainable development. Yet the three circles of sustainability which include the economic, environment and social aspectscovering the 3Ps representing People, Planet and Profitare not balanced in the scheme of corporate operations. Focus is mostly on the economic aspect of sustainability leading to economic systems of exploitation, destruction, dispossession and extractivism.” It has been the character of the mining and extractive industry generally to focus more on profit maximizationdiscounting the environment and labour. This character is not only displayed on the African continent but in other countries like Canada and the United States of America.

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From the press conference, it was gathered that the challenge of climate change calls for a new approach. This approach according to Nnimmo Bassey is that of repairing connections- which have been weakened by undue competition and lack of solidarity and care, among humans. He emphasised that, “We must stay connected to reclaim the pathways that will make the universe livable. We must reconnect to ourselves and to mother Earth. We can’t continue with business as usual.” This is part of the narrative that the School of Ecology section of the School of Anthropocene hopes to explore. HOMEF’s School of Ecology is a space for education and knowledge sharing focused on creating understanding of the problems that plague our environment. It is believed that if one cannot understand the roots of a problem, we cannot formulate a suitable solution. The School of Ecology is hinged on sharing knowledge that will lead to action. “This is what we hope to achieve in the School of Ecology/Anthropocene that is coming up” Nnimmo Bassey affirmed. The event will be live on: https://ecoleanthropocene. universite-lyon.fr/ For active participation and interaction with speakers as well as other participants on social media the hashtag #EcoleAnthropocene2021 should be used on Instagram and Twitter. Live streaming is available on Youtube and Facebook.

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Innovation in times of Corona Crisis

n particular, locally rooted organizations make a difference in the response to Covid-19. With few resources, they deliver tailor-made assistance and make a huge impact. A report on the work of Amani Kibera in Nairobi. ‘It’s not only more effective, it guarantees the dignity of the people.’ Text: Marc Broere and Eunice Mwaura Pictures: Jimmie Nicks Drop the word Kibera and many people will immediately list all the prejudices about slums- or informal settlements. However, if you do so with Mariam Twahir, you will get a warm and glowing argument about the place where she feels at home and grew up. Kibera began as a place of residence for Nubian soldiers who fought alongside the English in The First World War – such as Twahir’s great-grandfather, the Uwezo Girls Project Leader of Amani Kibera. Today, the district is primarily a labour reservoir for the nearby Industrial Area of Nairobi.

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According to the government, there are now 350,000 people living there, but according to Twahir, a small million is closer to the truth. Kibera, in western Nairobi, is divided into thirteen neighbourhoods. ‘All thirteen are unique in their diversity’, says Twahir. ‘All of Kenya’s ethnic groups live here too, it’s a cosmopolitan neighbourhood.’

We’re outside the Amani Kibera training center in the middle of the neighbourhood. In addition to Twahir, her husband Ben Ooko and Jarol Ontita also sit at the table. Ooko, the Founder and Director of Amani Kibera, says it is a highly politicized district. ‘Kibera is the country’s political thermometer. If the opposition wants to make a statement about corruption or the elections, it will come to Kibera.’ Programme manager Jarol Ontita adds: ‘When a fire is lit in Kibera, it spreads rapidly across the rest of the country. Informal settlements are places where people are easiest to mobilize. It is fertile ground to send a message into the country or to protest. In Kenya, the word Kibera is central to

‘The Kibera district is the country’s political thermometer’ the narrative of conflict in urban areas.’ It was against this background that Ben Ooko started community activities in 2007. He had been annoyed at an election rally of the governing party where one speaker after another spoke negatively of Kibera. ‘They all called Kibera the worst place to live, an example of how the whole country

would be if the opposition won the election.’ At the time, there was a lot of tension between supporters of the government and those of the opposition. According to Ooko, you could feel it walking around Kibera, the cosmopolitan character had become a danger. He took the initiative to convene a group of young people. Together they wanted to do something to reduce the tension.

‘I then organized a week of activities under the name Amani Kibera, which means “Peace in Kibera”. Every day we held a march through one of the neighbourhoods. We asked people to sign a peace manifesto saying that we did not accept that politicians were stoking tensions. By the end of the week, we had almost 10,000 signatures, including 24 from people running for political office.’ Yet after the elections, widespread unrest broke out in the country; for which current President Uhuru Kenyatta and his Deputy President, but then-rival William Ruto, had to answer to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. People were also killed in Kibera and houses were set on fire. When the unrest calmed down, Ooko decided to set up a long-term organization. It became a youth movement with the same name: Amani Kibera. In order to get children from different ethnic backgrounds to interact with each other early on, he chose football as an approach. Amani Kibera organized tournaments for the youth and ook teams from outside the district were allowed to participate. ‘To show them that Kibera is not what you see in the news,’ Ooko says. The second pillar became art and culture. ‘During our peace march, we used music, drama and acrobatics. That caught on and was actually the best way to mobilize people.’ And then there was education. ‘We’ve started a community library where young people come into contact with books; a safe place where they can walk in and out and where it doesn’t matter what ethnic background you have. The shared agenda is to gain knowledge –if you have a challenge, your neighbour or neighbour in the library can be the one who can help you.’ Mariam Twahir, who had become Ooko’s girlfriend and later wife, added: ‘We felt we had to do something special for girls as well, as a fourth pillar. They didn’t go to school more often than boys, sometimes because they had one or more children as a teenager. ‘I have a background as a fashion designer myself’, she continues. ‘We started an academy in which I induced them the principles of tailoring, the Uwe Girls Project. The first group consisted of twelve girls aged 14 to 17, nine of whom were already mothers. More than 500 girls have now completed their education.’ In addition to teaching skills for the craft, the fashion academy has another goal: to teach life skills. ‘I have a lot of conversations with teenage mothers to see where their problems lie. What is their own opinion and what do they want? The tendency of social workers is often to think in Continued on Page 32 www.thevoicenewsmagazine.com

Continued from Page 31

front of them instead of asking the girls themselves how they see something.’ Amani Kibera developed into a respected grassroots organization that does a lot with few resources. Ooko estimates that until Covid-19 broke out, it reached about 5,000 young people a year. He has a number of donors in Croatia, Ireland, Malta and the Netherlands (the International Sports Alliance), who offer modest support. The organization does not move in the large donor circuit. Amani Kibera has received several awards, including from the Dutch Butterfly Works and her community library has been named the best in the country three times. The prize money was repeatedly put into new books and other activities. And then came corona! Jarol Ontita brings back the atmosphere of that moment. ‘When the first case was reported in Kenya, there was an immediate panic in the

government. She immediately closed the schools and banned all meetings. Our centre has also been closed for two weeks.’ ‘The government did talk about sanitation and basic things like washing hands, wearing a mask and staying home, but not about how these people should feed themselves. Moreover, how can you ask people to wash their hands all 32

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the time if the district has problems with water supply? We then asked ourselves what we could do as a basic organisation in humanitarian work.’ Ooko adds: ‘We also looked at what opportunities the pandemic might offer. When we reopened after two weeks, Mariam’s fashion class started producing masks. If we sold it, the girls would have an income. It wasn’t easy to keep up, many organisations handed out free masks.’ But Amani Kibera has found a niche within the mouth caps circuit, says Twahir: ‘We make them mainly for young children. That is done much less by other organizations that make one measure for adults. Since the beginning until now, we have manufactured about 18,000 of them, as much as possible from recycled material, as well as T-shirts.’ The money for the other material was financed through crowd funding by German and Dutch friends. Over time, other NGOs also received orders for the making of masks. ‘It wasn’t just about producing,’ says Twahir, ‘but its distribution went hand in hand with information about sanitation and how to use a mouth cap properly.’ Ooko nods: ‘We have taken a holistic approach.’ Amani Kibera quickly became involved in food aid. From the Asian Community in Nairobi, food banks were set up where organizations like Amani Kibera could pick up food to hand out to families in need. Also, money from the donor from Croatia that was actually intended as school fees, are used for food aid because the schools were closed. ‘We have reached 3500 families with food aid,’ says Ooko. Even for Ooko and Twahir, handing out food brought out many new secrets of Kibera. They saw so many people at home in the misery; people who had lost their jobs as a result of the crisis, with chronic diseases and who were unable to go to hospital, disabled children who were always hidden from the outside world by their parents anyway. They also found that people with HIV were in trouble,

because the HIV inhibitor Septrin was suddenly also used by many others to prevent Covid-19. ‘That’s what we’ve been talking about in the national media.’ As you do, one learns. Ooko noted that food donations were bad for the local economy in Kibera, especially for the shops that sold food items. ‘Then we encouraged donors and benefactors to buy the food directly from the local shops. In

In one bag there are fifteen to 25 plants. ‘There’s cabbage, spinach, onions, lettuce and tomatoes on the plot. ‘If it’s a success- we want to roll this out in the community.’ To finish the story about the special corona assistance, Amani Kibera has finally started another project: Stories of Hope. For this purpose, videos and stories are made about people who were able to give a positive turn to their lives because of

our case, we gave money to the local retailers and a list of names and contacts of people in need, who could pick up their products there.’ Food aid led to yet another idea. ‘During a crisis, you notice

the corona crisis. It began with the story of Berin Akoth Odero. When corona broke out, she lost her job as a housekeeper for a number of families. She received from the food aid of Amani Kibera among other wheat flour, from which she went to make and sell mandazis (a sweet snack). ‘She didn’t want to be dependent on donations,’ Ooko says. ‘We’ve given her a small investment, and she now has a shop near her house where she sells other food in addition to mandazis. And now Berin can more easily look back at her disabled 24-year-old son- who is bed-logged.’ ‘For us,’ Ooko, continues, ‘Berine’s story was a sign of resistance and hope, an inspiring example for so many who lost their jobs and are just waiting for the next donation. We’ve started tracing more of these kinds of stories from

“How can you ask people to wash their hands all the time if the district has problems with water supply?” how dependent people are on food. That’s why we delve into urban agriculture.’ Ooko proudly points to a small plot in the centre of Amani Kibera where the first test garden stands. ‘We started vertical farming, where food is grown in multiple layers on top of each other to make the most of the space.

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people we’ve supported and moved forward. We found 50. Through the local crowd funding platform M-Changa, we started to give these kinds of initiatives a capital of between five and fifteen thousand shillings so that they can scale it up a bit. We then document these stories to encourage others to do something.’ Meanwhile, the familiar activities of Amani Kibera continue within the limits of the ‘new normal’. After the library closed, it was reopened two months later with a new way of working under the name My Home, My Library. Children can register and borrow up to three books a week to read and study at home. It’s got 175 kids in it. Sport has also moved on in a different form. Organizing

“You it the food aid she received wheat flour, from which she was going to make and sell mandazis”

major football tournaments is no longer possible, but in collaboration with Futbalmas, a solution has been devised under the similar name My Home, My Playground. In the open air, families do weekly fitness exercises. About 20 young people selected by Amani Kibera each have 25 families in their care. In addition to fitness classes, they receive socalled life skills sessions via WhatsApp or printed paper, including personal hygiene and positive behaviour. ‘This has increased our scope’, says Mariam Twahir. ‘The tournaments were only for young people, now 550 families have signed up. The parents love it, considering the videos they share via social media. Moreover, the group leaders gain a lot of experience in guiding, which is a learning curve for them. They feel very involved and share information with each other.’ So actually, corona is also driving innovation here? Jarol Ontita nods: ‘Pretty much. We had to dig deep and see what we could do, within the new boundaries, but well succeeded, we think.’ The three see that grassroots organisations such as Amani Kibera enjoy an advantage in crisis like this. Ooko sums it up in a nice sense: ‘A friend of mine always says that international aid organizations work from home in this crisis and grassroots organizations like ours at home.’ They think it is a missed opportunity that the big players in this crisis often chose to go through the Kenyan government, which has a bad reputation for corruption and does not know the situation on the ground in districts like Kibera. ‘I think organisations like ours could have been called on a lot more’, says Ooko. ‘We offer tailor-made support, because we know the families. Not everyone has a problem with food. Some people have problems with rent or with health care. You don’t need food aid if you have your own garden, but you do have problems with the rent. I think you should let people choose what kind of support they need. Tailor-made help is not only more effective, but guarantees the dignity of people.’ Amani Kibera hopes to receive even more income from her own community in the coming years, thinking in addition to crowd funding to setting up social enterprises whose profits are used for the projects. You can think of a cybercafé in Kibera and showers and toilets for a small fee. Because, the importance of food with the local community is the most important lesson Amani Kibera has learned from the crisis. Ontita sums it up: ‘We now know even more than before that the solution in our work lies with the community. If you look at our innovations in this period, these are all local ideas. You have to pick it up and develop it together with the community. We shouldn’t leave her behind. You can see in local organizations that they are reaching a point where they are getting more and more contacts with foreign donors. People in the community usually forget them fast. ‘If you want to be successful, you have to continue working together with the community and involve them in the projects from the outset, right up to the end. All the programs we do are composed by the community. It’s essential to know what they have to say.’

‘People in the community usually forget them first’

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INTERVIEW

‘This is not your grandfather’s IMF’, says Africa department director Abebe Selassie

he International Monetary Fund (IMF) has proven an unlikely countervailing force to the disrepair of international institutions exposed by the pandemic and worsened by nationalism and populism. For decades, the IMF had been excoriated for its loans conditional on fiscal austerity policies and adopting “one-size fits all” measures resulting in reductions to health, education and other social expenditures. Yet in 2020 as the pandemic ripped through economies destroying jobs, closing down businesses and up-ending budgets, the IMF led the international financial response particularly in Africa, Latin America and Asia. In less than nine months, the IMF approved fast-track loans of $16.2bn to African states and $63.8bn to Latin American and Caribbean states – about ten times its usual volume of lending in that timeframe. Of the more than 100 programmes approved globally worth over $88bn, conditions were attached to just 13 of the credits. A study by US-based economists Kevin Gallagher and Maldonado Carlin, based on their IMF COVID-19 Recovery Index, concluded the IMF’s response has “proven to be far less conditioned on fiscal austerity and has prioritised health expenditure and social spending to attack the coronavirus and protect the vulnerable.” In an interview with Abebe Aemro Selassie, director of the Africa Department of the IMF, tells The Africa Report how the fund’s approach has changed: “When a war starts, I guess everything has to be about training resources on ending it as quickly as possible and then rebuilding. We felt compelled to respond the way that we have.” On African governments’ responses to the pandemic, Abebe says the speed and technical innovation of policies put in place had worked in public health terms: “This has been a year where Africa was tested, like never before, and in terms of institutional capacity, its ability to deal with this pandemic.” The economic and social costs of the response played out much faster in Africa than in Europe or North America: “What has really impressed me is the decisiveness of governments in terms of the measures they took […] when the vast majority of the population relies on informal activities […] and closing borders. If you think about how hard they were in the West, you can imagine how much harder they were in Africa?”

The IMF has been winning plaudits from supporters and sceptics alike for its response to the pandemic: releasing money quickly to cash-strapped countries without onerous conditions. What has brought this about? What are the bigger organisational and philosophical changes behind it? Abebe Aemro Selassie: It’s not something that we’re complacent about. We feel like we can and we could and we need to do more to support the [Africa] region policy advice-wise, financing and to rally the international community. This is not just for our region but globally quite frankly, given the scale of the crisis. We have had a change over the years – like I used to say: “This is not your grandfather’s IMF”. I think that has been put on steroids by Kristalina Georgieva [the Bulgarian economist who was appointed managing director of the IMF in 2019]. The true test of an institution is when you’re faced with something that’s in your calling, right? The raison d’être for the IMF is to help sovereigns when they are in distress. This is the kind of shock which I don’t think even our founders expected. So we have to show what we’re there for to provide support. When a war starts I guess everything has to be about training resources on ending it as quickly as possible and then rebuilding. We felt compelled to respond the way that we have. The IMF has about $1trn available. Many say that won’t be

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enough. Where the plans to find more resources – such as issuing Special Drawing Rights [SDRs, the IMF’s international reserve assets to supplement member states’ official reserves]? We looked very early on at all of the toolkits that would be possible to help the membership with. So we are the ones that put on the table an SDR allocation as one of the things that had to be considered. We, of course, have existing resources and we showed we have incredible nimbleness to repurpose those resources to the moment and to expand the limits. Then we also started fundraising for existing resources. So there are things which are under our control and others that are more in the political process. Issuing SDRs requires the membership to endorse it. That consensus wasn’t there. Even in 2009, once the political decision was made to issue SDRs, we took 5-6 months before the allocation was finalised. So we did not just put that on the table and stop there. But rather we started working with existing instruments. So we’ve applied those as much as possible and done some fundraising and debt relief for the poorest countries. We need more funding to continue to do debt relief in 2021 on repayments due to us. We’ve done some fundraising for the resources that we have for the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust. So we have replenished the kitty, but we envisage the fund needing to play an even bigger

financing role in the coming years simply to facilitate a recovery. What specific demands – such as debt relief for Sudan – on IMF resources do you foresee? Abebe Aemro Selassie: I think for Sudan but also more broadly also to enable us to have adequate resources to play a strongly counter-cyclical financing role. The region is facing in the coming years, we think, lower private-sector flows than in the pre-crisis period. I think temporarily the fund may need to play a stepped-up role and we need to be adequately resourced for that. The pandemic has radically changed your working arrangements, some officials working from home and some outside their regional bases. How will your working practices adapt over the next few years? Abebe Aemro Selassie: For us as staff members, one of our biggest reliefs has been our ability to lend about 10 times more in volume to Africa as a whole – despite the different surroundings that we’re working in. It is an operational nimbleness: we have our staff working all hours from home, with kids in the background. That has made me proud as a manager for us not having failed our region. We have not been constrained in the depth of the debt-policy dialogue. Quite a lot of our representatives remain on the ground but have to work from home, for example, in Accra or Abidjan. So, we continue to get a feel for what’s going on, in other countries, some of our resident representatives have had to move out for various family reasons. But we still have quite a bit of presence and I think going forward really a lot will depend on how quickly the vaccine is rolled out. My hope would be that by next summer, like everyone else, we are close to normal. Whatever normality post-COVID will be. How do you assess the policy response of African governments to the pandemic? Which ideas have worked and which haven’t? Abebe Aemro Selassie: The first thing to say is that this has been a year where Africa was tested, like never before, and in terms of institutional capacity, its ability to deal with this pandemic. What has really impressed me is the decisiveness of governments in terms of the measures they took, telling people to stay at home

when they rely on driving taxis, when the vast majority of the population relies on informal activities, and closing borders. These have all been incredibly hard decisions. If you think about how hard they were in the West, you can imagine how much harder they were in Africa? I think having the wherewithal to take those decisions, stop the number of cases coming into your country, et cetera, it’s something for which we have to credit the governments. I speak here of the vast majority of governments. Early on, we kept seeing people traveling to the region being asked for COVID tests. The kind of test and tracing in places like Uganda was really impressive versus what you saw in many Western countries. Secondly, on economics, I think governments have done all that they can to respond by increasing spending on health, rolling out social safety nets in innovative ways. The programme in Togo has been cited for its support for enterprises, for the banking sector, not quite forgiveness of loans but forbearance. Countries have used whatever tools that they could to support activity. There is Rwanda’s food support programme to people; all kinds of programmes. How effective these programs have been, time will tell. This has been a year where we’ve seen Africa being challenged big time with this shock, and the vast majority of countries rising to the occasion in a very impressive way. What about other policy options? Some in Africa argue that as Western economies have abandoned economic orthodoxy, now is the time for African states to try more radical policies such as printing money. Abebe Aemro Selassie: One of the first things we started looking at, beyond the easing of monetary conditions to support economic activity, was how else could central banks could support more fiscal spending – if that’s what was needed. This has been a year where you’ve seen quite a bit of central banks, beyond adjusting interest rates, have also learned forward by way of creating special facilities for governments to use. You don’t want to dictate too much how that is done, whether directly by lending directly to the government or by rediscounting what commercial banks are doing. The key is really the monetary easing that you want to see. And we’ve seen that happening quite a bit in the region. You have commercial banks able to rediscount to the central bank or lend at much more favourable interest rates. Given that we have a moment where the private sector is not borrowing as much, that actually can be a much better way in which monetary policy can be helpful the normal functioning of the markets. Since the start of the pandemic, there has been an accelerating outflow of finance from Africa. How will that affect the region’s economies and how long will it take for some of those flows to return?

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Continued from Page 37 The region has been hit by this brutal health shock tied with an economic shock, where governments have to take policies to depress demand. But it was also a bunch of exogenous things – oil prices, commodity prices declining, capital reversing – going on around all this. You had what my colleague has been calling this brutal cocktail of shocks that has hit the region. Now on capital flows, I think markets do not discriminate enough amongst African countries. They don’t recognise the differences in circumstances and tend to treat all countries as a single asset class. That’s why you saw kind of this massive outflow whether you are in Senegal or Kenya or South Africa … money just left.

are. The question that often arises is that they are very procyclical and, or take positions which sometimes lack economic logic. For example, when the G20 came out and offered the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), which was something that improved the liquidity position of countries, some ratings agencies said that applying to the DSSI would be something that may have a bearing on how debt is assessed. It’s not clear how and why, because there was no expectation that the private sector would be treated in a comparable way under the DSSI [which was restricted to public debt]. It’s in that context that questions have arisen to us from our member countries.

I think over time global financial conditions will have eased. We’ve seen some differentiation of it culminating, most recently in Côte d’Ivoire being able to tap the markets at an interest rate that it had never seen.

We have a role to help countries see through the ups and downs […] because we are the ones that have been there when everybody else has lost confidence to help support the policies that will get countries back.

We have this expression in Amharic that even honey can be too much. So, in terms of how countries should treat this: [they can] rely on this financing only to the extent that it helps them manage a healthy balance between development and keeping debt sustainable.

We have to act in this counter-cyclical way. This is why when all this capital is flowing neither do we get excited and say everything is hunky-dory – nor when it stops coming and dries up, do we just give up.

If you have access to cheap financing and it makes sense to retire more expensive debt, of course it can make sense to tap markets. But just because it’s out there and available it doesn’t

Our role is to modulate and keep the focus on the fundamentals rather than being caught up in the market euphoria either when inflows are non-stop or when they leave. There is still a lot of concern about capital flows currently. Officials are talking about tapping pensions funds, foreign exchange reserves and raising taxes. Do you see those as viable options? What exactly do you want to finance? Is it the private-sector balance sheet, is it the sovereign that you’re worried about? Is it households? There is often kind of a conflation when this is being discussed, and I think it’s really important to think about it. It’s always been the case that the private sector has had varied sources of financing. In South Africa, by far the biggest market, they rely a lot on equity-market financing. And then you’ll have some companies that go out and borrow abroad, by either banks or directly. You also have Standard Bank investing in Kenya and financing Kenyan banks.

mean you should go and take up all of the cheap money because that’s the road to ruin. These cycles happened globally, but countries have to behave in terms of what makes sense rather than just gorging on the available financing. Many governments have concerns about the ratings agencies, for example the triple downgrade in South Africa. How does the IMF work in that relationship between its member countries and the ratings agencies that consult you? The ratings agencies are governed by whoever their regulators

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And then the second one is the sovereign financing and what can governments rely on to finance themselves? In the past they’ve done so by issuing bonds abroad or borrowing domestically, and from the markets or banks. So the question here is, can you get pension funds, for example, to buy more of your debt? In Uganda, the social security system could buy more government bonds rather than investing abroad. At the margin, yes. But don’t forget those pension funds, those entities need a diversified portfolio for the same reasons that other asset managers do. Do you want to take risk on property, you want some foreign risk, some domestic risk. What are the downsides? You have to think through all of that.

Anyway, at the margin, is there hope for some pension funds to finance more domestic assets? Yes, but there are tradeoffs to be made and you have to factor all of that in. The broader question is for a year or two it makes sense absolutely to support the fiscal stance but ultimately you have to go back to a situation where financing has to be consistent with what you’re going to be able to repay over the long run. So pension funds and foreign reserves can play a role in a country’s financing options, but there are other costs involved? Yes. But foreign reserves, don’t forget, you can’t just tap into them because central banks have to hold liquid assets. So the pension funds are the ones that probably you can ask to hold more domestic assets, et cetera. But then again that could come at the expense of having a more diversified portfolio. This belongs to the pensioner, and over the long run they have to pay out, so you want to be careful there. Beyond the diversification issue, there are other things about creating too much of a feedback loop between these funds and the government, but also undermining good public finance management principles. So there’s really a limit as to how much you can do here. The point I’m making is that the financing challenge, the deficit challenge that governments face is not something that’s going to be amenable to just financial engineering. At the margin, a little bit. But fundamentally, it has to be resolved by reviewing what you’re spending money on, how much in taxes you’re raising and addressing that. For a limited time, it absolutely makes sense to rely on deficit financing, but overall the deficit will be consistent with longer-term considerations. It’s not a great time for African governments to say to their populations, even businesses, we’re going to raise money by putting your taxes up. Governments don’t want to depress incentives to expand businesses, at the same time they have to raise money to finance the deficit. How do they deal with that? This is a huge issue, huge issue and it was a pressing issue already pre-crisis for most countries in the region. You have governments facing a trilemma of sorts: one leg is that everybody’s concerned about debt, like civil society in Kenya for example, or Zambia or South Africa. A second element of the trilemma is that people still want the Kenyan, Zambian and South African government to invest more in schools, more development spending, in education, electricity access, infrastructure. So dimensional development is there. And then the third element is that there is often resistance or reluctance to pay the full share of taxes. So how governments navigate this trilemma is going to determine how well they are able to keep track of economic stability and help foster development and growth. At the

moment you have revenues collapsing, so the short-term agenda is about how to recover to pre-crisis levels in due course, over an optimal period. But I think over the next four or five years, there’s no doubt that making progress with raising revenue is really fundamental to allowing all of the investments you need in schools and education, in infrastructure to really improve your growth prospects. Nigeria is a classic example here. The federal government collects about 7%-8% of GDP a month in tax revenues. That is way too low to do all of the investment that you need in health, in education, in security services. Getting that up to 14%-15% of GDP over the next five or eight years is going to be paramount. How you do that is to widen the tax base. There’s a lot of parts of the economy that should be paying some taxes, and they are not at the moment paying taxes. There’s quite a lot of exemptions that our governments provide to either entice new investments or to large corporations. Those have to be closed off. The multinational firms have to pay their fair share. In each country it’s going to be different paying heed to domestic political considerations and preferences. Continuing to finance yourself by borrowing is not going to be a feasible way forward because debt levels are already high. A lot of countries are talking about boosting national production, changing trade routes and relationships. Where is the money for this going to come from? Is it going to be mainly a private-sector initiative with governments focusing on education, health and infrastructure? Did you get a sense of what building back is going to look like in Africa? I think we will see for the next few years, some priority needing to be attached to social safety net programmes, to revert the spike in poverty that we’ve seen this year. We do think that more emphasis in human capital investment would make sense, to get everybody back closer to pre-crisis levels. I mentioned about the need for thinking about revenues. A lot of attention is going to be needed there, if not for immediate Continued on Page 40 www.thevoicenewsmagazine.com

Continued from Page 39 payoff then putting in place agreements, building a social contract about over the next four to five years […] to expand the tax net gradually to capture more and more people. ‘This is a fair share of taxes that people need to pay’… laying that out, making use of digitisation to make things transparent, both on the spending side and on the revenue side. I think those kinds of priorities we see as being very important for the public sector. I think how it’s up to the private sector how it finances itself, but governments are finding ways in which they can influence that. Overall, what we see is this is an inflection point for the region. I think we’ve had 20-25 years of really strong development progress, really strong. I mean from where Africa is now relative to the early 1990s, I think there has been a great leap, they are night and day. Countries are on a much better footing now than they were 30 years ago, institutions are better, political systems are more give and take, there’s a much better human capital endowment. I think we have another generation that can move things forward. But that will require also a transformation in the areas that I mentioned. I think that is the challenge: rethinking and rejigging development strategies to face that monumental challenge is what is needed here. That means thinking about climate change, investing as much in digital networks as in road networks, using technology much more smartly to tax but also to spend, making spending transparent. I mean these are all going to be really critical. On climate change, you’ve got the big COP26 conference coming up at the end of 2021. Talking of inflection points, people say this is the final chance to attack global warming. Where does the IMF come into that? Because you have a position on it, you’re trying to stop it. How is it going to influence the way you relate to your member countries? I think what 2020 has done is to concentrate minds on the reality that events that we think are far away have a nasty way of coming to bite you. We’ve always heard about pandemics, their potential to be disruptive to our lives. Look where we are now. Climate change strikes us as the other big thing that we cannot afford to ignore. In terms of what we’ve been doing as an institution we’ve been a source of a lot of the push on carbon taxation, on the climate mitigation front, we’ve been advocating for making sure that you have the right type of carbon tax framework to help decarbonise the global economy and incentivising that. So far our focus has been on those countries that are already feeling the brunt of natural disasters, thinking about how to do climate adaptation in places like Seychelles and Caribbean countries. But we’re going to be stepping into really high gear on the climate adaptation issue. How is climate affecting a country like Chad? Can we not link what’s been happening in the Lake Chad basin and Boko Haram 40

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strengthening over the last 8-10 years without touching on the massive changes in the region as a result of climate change? Trying to see ways in which we can work with governments to support them think through and put programmes in place is going to be really big chunk of our agenda going forward. Kristalina has been talking about this time and again about resilience has to be an important element of our thinking, making countries, people resilient. Of the things that we going to be focusing on are addressing inequality, climate change, those two are fundamental. In 2008-2009, the G20 led a coordinated response to the financial crisis. With the pandemic in 2020, that wasn’t the case. But the IMF is regarded by many as having stepped into the breach. But the private sector at the moment is very reluctant to get into coordinated debt negotiations. What scope is for a much more joined-up approach on debt in 2021, bringing in the UN system, the G20, the Paris Club and also beyond that, the commercial creditors? Even before the crisis, we had some debt pressures building up in quite a few countries, as a result of what we discussed earlier. Governments were doing quite a lot of investment in infrastructure, in human capital, but doing it by financing too much of the investment by borrowing and not enough by taxes. So this crisis has come in and hit balance sheets severely, affecting revenue going forward. A number of countries are going to need debt workouts. The immediate emergency really has been about creating fiscal space so countries can protect livelihoods and providing financing for that, or some debt relief under the DSSI. And then beginning the work of trying to look at what the growth and revenue pictures will be like going forward, to do our comprehensive debt sustainability assessment. If we had taken decisions that were drastic back in June, we’d have seen countries like Côte d’Ivoire have zero chance of going back to market strength?

So we needed to step back and just give time to do an assessment in a very clear way. These things are complicated enough without doing it in the fog of war. So now we have more data points and now we can do these debt sustainability analyses. But it’s important to get in mind the solution to the debt problems of the 2000s cannot just be brought back and applied now because we have very different and more complex debt environments. Before you’ll remember all of the debts that countries had were either to official bilateral creditors, Paris Club or multilateral entities, development banks, et cetera. We are now in a situation where countries have very

individual country level doing an assessment whether debt is sustainable or not. So we will continue to do that. And then when a country you find has solvency problem, and it’s clear that debt is unsustainable, then to apply a framework that makes sense. I think the recent G20 initiative, this so-called common framework is a very important milestone, because it allows at least bilateral official creditors to move in tandem, before you had Paris Club perspective, then China had a different approach, Saudi or the United Arab Emirates, if they were owed money had a different approach. Now you’re having a way that G20 official bilateral creditors agreeing on how organisations may be treated. With the private sector you will have a different approach. Then there will be many other countries where debt is not an issue. So hopefully the likes of Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Kenya will continue to rely on market access and address the development challenges by continuing to finance themselves from the markets, so it will not be an issue. But we’re going to be dealing with things in a more a country-by-country way than the uniform way we did a decade ago or two decades ago.

complex creditor landscapes, bondholders, exposure to bondholders, to syndicated banks, to new creditors like China, India, some multilateral debts. So we need new ways of thinking about new structures for dealing with that. The key starting point for us is each

There was a proposal in 2020 to establish a type of ‘Brady Bond’ initiative for African debt, collateralising some of it into tradable bonds. Do you think that is that something that could fly? There’s going to be work that needs to be done about how the massive financing needs of the region will be addressed. What role for the official sector? What are the roles that debt re-profiling and restructuring can play. But the issue is if you have a country whose debt situation is fine, do you want to treat it in the same way that you would a country where the debt is completely unsustainable? One thing that I get worked up about is kind of seeing Africa only through a debt prism. There are an incredible range of things that are going on in the middle of this pandemic, the robustness that we’ve seen in institutions and in the role of technology, et cetera. And there’s similarly heterogeneity in the financing of the debt space also. So not treating all of the countries with the same approach but rather paying heed to countries as separate entities will be important.

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JUSTINA MUTALE REVEALS POWER SECRETS OF FEMALE WORLD LEADERS Advertorial London: “The power of women in politics is a soft power”, said Kosovo’s first-ever female President, Atifete Jahjaga. Justina Mutale has gone ahead to reveal that power, by writing a book that chronicles the leadership journey and stories of iconic female world leaders through the ages. “This book is making a timely debut at a significant moment in world history… a time in which issues of gender parity, and the empowerment of women, are taking their pride of place in global discourse”, says Senator Donzella J. James, Senate of the State of Georgia, USA. Despite growing numbers of female world leaders and changing mind-sets, leadership continues to be dominated by men. In her book, Justina Mutale argues that throughout history we have seen many powerful women across the world excel in leadership and demonstrate key characteristics that, if emulated and embraced, have the power to fundamentally change society for the better. Within her new book, “The Art of Iconic Leadership”, Justina delves into the past and present of iconic women to inspire the trailblazing leaders of the future and implore them to harness opportunities for global change. “This book is my gift to the next generation woman, to every young woman and every girl. A gift to inspire their leadership journey and to let them know that it is possible to lead as a female”, say Justina Mutale Justina’s specialist knowledge regarding the strategies to excel as a female leader is evident from her distinctive track 42

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record. Justina is a seasoned professional speaker, delegate, event convenor, mentor and leadership coach. She discusses her own first-hand experiences in the book, both the successes and challenges, to motivate readers. With this in mind, proceeds from the book go to the Scholarship Fund at the Justina Mutale Foundation to help disadvantaged you women and girls from rural communities in Africa access tertiary education across the globe. Within the book, which pulls together politics, gender, economy, strategy, leadership and geo-politics, Justina has identified a number of different characteristics, many of these soft skills, that she believes are fundamental for effective leadership and have been consistently exhibited by female leaders across history, including courage, compassion, resilience and purpose. She also delves into how millennials are leading differently, reflecting on Jacinda Ardern’s impressive success to date. “The entry of this book into the global literary market is both welcome and necessary… it plays its part in an enduring legacy to inspire women and girls this century and beyond”, Says Baroness Sandip K. Verma, Chair of UN Women UK & Member of The House of Lords. To demonstrate the power of these characteristics she showcases key female leaders in history, bringing the achievements of women across the world to the fore to show just what is possible with women at the helm. Justina recounts the reign of Catherine the Great of Russia and how she exercised her creativity to bring innovation like no other. Justina also discusses Queen Elizabeth II and the successful leadership characteristics she has embodied throughout her reign, including astute emotional intel-

ligence. The book has a global focus and includes many women outside of the western world that perhaps readers may not have heard of, including Nkosazana Clairice Dlamini-Zuma, the first ever woman to lead the African Union Commission. She is also the first ever woman to present herself as a presidential candidate in South Africa. It is clear that the coronavirus pandemic has proved the effectiveness of female leadership in times of crisis, and it is essential this recognition is not lost. Justina argues that female leaders are infinitely capable and flourish giv-

en the same opportunities as their male counterparts. The Art of Iconic Leadership is the perfect read for anyone seeking a comprehensive guide to the power of secrets of female world leaders. It is an ideal read for any aspiring female leader keen to learn about the past and the present, so they can be prepared to be the future and command real change. The book is available at Amazon as well as in bookstores, airports, and E-book platforms, as well as some libraries and universities around the world. For press inquiries please contact the Press Team at: +44 (0) 1603 743 363 or Email: media@panomapress.com

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‘Finally some justice’: court rules Shell Nigeria must pay for oil damage

igerian farmers win claim for compensation in The Hague after 13-year battle. A Dutch court has ordered Shell Nigeria to compensate farmers for major oil spills they say caused widespread pollution. On Friday an appeals court in The Hague rejected Shell’s argument that the spills were the result of sabotage, saying not enough evidence had been provided. The court ordered Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary to compensate the farmers for the losses caused by the oil spills in the two villages of Goi and Oruma in 2004 and 2005. The amount of

compensation had not yet been decided. It also ruled the parent company, Royal Dutch Shell, and its subsidiary must install warning equipment on its Oruma pipelines to limit the environmental damage in case of another spill. The court said Shell Nigeria had not done enough to clean the soil around the sites of the spills.

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The farmers claiming compensation argued the damage was caused by oil leaking from the pipeline, which could have been prevented if Shell had installed the correct detection systems. “Finally, there is some justice for the Nigerian people suffering the consequences of Shell’s oil,” said Eric Dooh, one of the Nigerian plaintiffs, in a statement released by Friends of the Earth Netherlands, which supported the case. “This verdict brings hope for the future of the people in the Niger delta.” Dooh’s father was one of two complainants who died during the case, which has gone on for 13 years. The Hague appeals court ruled in 2015 that Dutch courts had jurisdiction in the case, seven years after the four farmers first sued, and after debate over whether Shell’s parent company should be held liable for the Nigerian subsidiary’s actions. “This is fantastic news for the environment and people living in developing countries,” said Friends of the Earth’s Netherlands head, Donald Pols. “It means people in developing countries can take on the multinationals who do them harm.” Shell Nigeria said in a statement it still believed the spills were caused by sabotage and was disappointed by the ruling. “Sabotage, crude oil theft and illegal refining are a major challenge in the Niger delta,” it said. “Like all Shell-operated ventures globally, we are committed to operating safely and protecting the local environment.” The court also ruled Shell had proved sabotage was the cause of a third spill, at an oil well in the village of Ikot Ada Udo, but it had not decided whether Shell was liable for the damage.

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State funeral for Late Jerry Rawlings in Ghana

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Former Ghanaian leader Jerry Rawlings was buried with military honours at a state funeral in Accra last month after he suddenly died, his death still shocks the whole nation who held him in higher than life status. The 73-year old held power for 20 years, first as a military ruler and later as elected head of state. The former air force pilot was given a guard of honour at Independence Square. He died in November 2020 after a short illness. Hundreds of Ghanaians earlier paid their final respects as his coffin laid in state during two days of national mourning under strict COVID-19 protocols. “You took pride in your fatherly duties... you’re passionate and openhearted,” said his widow Nana Konadu Agyemang-Rawlings in a tribute. “Your gift of sharing knew no bounds. You never hesitated to help in the passing of laws to protect the vulnerable in society. Jerry, I know that God created us for each other. You did your best and I played my part,” she said. Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo described Rawlings as a “charismatic and fearless leader.” What legacy does he leave behind? Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo described Rawlings as a “charismatic and fearless leader.” He was the son of a Scottish father and Ghanaian mother. Although many praise him and he is the country’s longest-serving leader his legacy is divided. Rawlings first came to power in the 1979 coup. He transferred power to civilian rule soon after. The newly formed People’s National Party, led by Hilla Limann, was then elected. But the economy was hard hit with inflation at more than 140% and high levels of foreign debt, which then spiralled into public unrest. But just two years later he orchestrated another coup, citing corruption and weak leadership. A new government, the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), then came to power. The party headed by Rawlings then tried to turn Ghana into a socialist country. But it only lasted two years, as Rawlings then embraced the free market as the Soviet bloc neared its collapse. He held Ghana’s first elections since 1979 in 1992. He won the vote and was widely seen by the poor as their champion, embracing socialism before abandoning it and embracing the free market. Between 1983 and 1987 he survived five coup attempts. But he managed to turn his unpopularity around as, by the early 1990s, his reforms had led the country towards a strong economic recovery. He handed over power in 2001. May the soul of retired Flight Officer Jerry Rawlings rest in peace. Amen

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Violent anti-lockdown protests sweep the Netherlands

he rioters are a mix of anti-government groups and bored hooligans.

Violent protests have erupted in the Netherlands with rioters setting fires and clashing with police in defiance of strict coronavirus lockdown measures last month. This reaction came when the government decided to introduced a night curfew from 9pm to 4.30am for an extra three weeks to curb the new spread of the virus with another outbreak of an imitated version of Corona Virus. Nearly 500 people have been arrested and several people given strict fines ranging from 95 euros upwards since the protests began over a week ago. Riots took place in bigger cities like Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam, but also in smaller cities

across the country. Rioters violated the 9 pm curfew, and looted businesses, set fires, and threw rocks at buildings and at police. “These are the largest riots in 40 years,” Laura Groenendaal, a research and projects associate at the German Marshall Fund, who’s based in Houten, Netherlands, told the press. “Normally we say that the Netherlands are blissfully boring, so this is, of course, the complete opposite.” The Netherlands has been under stay-at-home orders for weeks, with nonessential businesses closed and limits on gatherings. In early January, Dutch Prime Minister Mark 48

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Rutte extended the lockdown orders once again, citing concerns about the more virulent B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant first discovered in the United Kingdom. And the government enacted a 9 pm curfew through February 10 to help slow the spread of the virus, the first time since World War II that the country has imposed a curfew. The rioters include anti-government groups and Covid-19 skeptics, but also criminals trying to exploit the chaos, and bored people — mostly young men who’ve been cooped up inside and have now been unleashed. Police in Amsterdam said “football hooligans” were part of the crowds in that city. “All of these different things formed this toxic cocktail, and

the announcement of the curfew, which started became the spark which made everything explode,” Groenendaal said. The protests are widespread, and some smaller cities witnessed pretty dramatic violence over the period, including the southern city of Eindhoven, where rioters incinerated a car and looted a supermarket at the train station. In Urk, in the central part of the country, rioters burned down a Covid-19 testing center. Rutte called it “criminal violence,” and dismissed the idea that these protests were about freedom. “We must win the fight against the virus together, because only then can we regain our freedom,” he said. The violence of these protests was a bit of a surprise, but Dutch officials and police are preparing for the unrest to continue. Experts I spoke to say there is some dissatisfaction with the current government, particularly over the slow rollout of vaccinations in a country that otherwise has a pretty efficient health care system. The Netherlands was one of the last countries in the European Union to get the vaccine, and the pace of inoculation is still slow. The Dutch government got decent marks for its handling of the coronavirus at the start of the pandemic, but it loosened restrictions over the summer, and at first didn’t advise maskwearing and didn’t strictly enforce social distancing rules. Cases flared up again in the fall, and the Netherlands became

one of the hardest-hit countries during Europe’s second wave. That forced the government to introduce more stringent measures to slow the spread, closing down bars and

restaurants in the fall, and shuttering nonessential businesses and schools in December. Cases have been declining, but the Dutch government has extended those measures and added the curfew to defend against the B.1.1.7 variant, which spreads far more aggressively. Some opposition lawmakers on both the left and the right did criticize the curfew. Geert Wilders, a right-wing populist politician, said the curfew meant “losing freedom en masse and that is no fun.” But ultimately, enough lawmakers backed the measures. The rioters represent a small and disparate slice of the public. How the rest of the country feels about the lockdown measures, and the Dutch government’s handling of Covid-19, will probably be clearer in a few weeks, as the Netherlands is holding general elections for its House of

Representatives in mid-March. Rutte and his party, the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, has remained pretty popular. But an unrelated scandal having to do with child welfare benefits forced the collapse of the Dutch governing coalition earlier this month. Rutte, who is a member of the largest governing party, is staying on until the elections as caretaker minister. But taken together, the pandemic, the vaccination hiccups, and the welfare scandal have created a sense of weariness. “I think it’s more kind of general malaise,” Harvey Feigenbaum, a professor of politics and international affairs at George Washington University, told me. “The government’s been in power for a long time, and even though the party of the prime minister is probably still the most popular party in the Netherlands, I suspect there’s a certain amount of fatigue,” www.thevoicenewsmagazine.com

Ghana President warns of health system overload as Covid cases soar

hana’s Covid-19 infection rates are skyrocketing and include new strains of the virus not before seen in the country, filling treatment centres and threatening to overwhelm the health system, President Nana Akufo-Addo said at the beginning of the month. Ghana is not yet close to a peak seen during the first wave of infections in the middle of last year, but could quickly reach that level if cases keep rising at the current rate. If they do, the president said he would impose another

partial lockdown, despite worries about what that would do to one of West Africa’s largest economies. “Our Covid-19 treatment centers have gone from having zero patients to now being full because of the upsurge in infections,” the president said. “At this current rate ... our healthcare infrastructure will be overwhelmed.” Across Africa, a second coronavirus wave is infecting twice as many people per day than at the height of last year’s first wave and has yet to peak, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. The rise has raised concern across the continent where, unlike in Europe and the United States, cash-strapped governments have been unable to secure supply deals with vaccine manufacturers, putting the onus for now on containment. President Akufo-Addo said details about access to vaccines and a roll out plan would be announced “very soon”. He said that some people arriving from abroad had tested positive for “new variants” of the virus, without giving details. Last month, The Gambia recorded its first two cases of the highly infectious coronavirus variant first found in Britain, in what appears to be the first confirmation of its presence in Africa. “Work is ongoing to determine the presence and extent of spread of the new variants in the general population,” President Akufo-Addo said.

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February 2nd 2021 My daughter, Tamuni Sarah Banjoko turned 18 years, to the Glory of God. How can I pay you dear Lord for these 18 years? My heart is filled with thanksgiving oh Lord my God. I celebrate and I rejoice, for you have kept us dear Lord. Please join me celebrate my lady, my friend, my confidant, my Angel, my inspiration, and a strong woman. I love you my darling daughter. By Mom Rev. Tammy Clarizza Abusi www.thevoicenewsmagazine.com

At the current rate, it will be March before restrictions can be eased: OMT

f the number of coronavirus infections in the Netherlands continues to decline at the current rate, it will the beginning of March before restrictions can be lifted, according to the government’s Outbreak Management Team. The team’s experts say in their latest briefing to the government that it will take weeks before the key level of no more than 40 hospital admissions and 10 IC referrals per day is reached. The statement comes just a day after the government announced the lockdown would be extended to February 9, because the infection rate is still too high, and because of fears about the impact of the more infectious B-117 strain of the virus, first detected in Britain. The number of hospital and IC admissions has stabilised in recent weeks and there are signs that the total is now going down. Nevertheless, at the current rate, the OMT says, it will be the end of March before there are no more than three IC admissions a day, which would show the outbreak is under control. The RIVM reported a further 6,148 positive coronavirus tests on Wednesday, up some 600 on Tuesday’s total but still below the week average of just over 7,000. There are currently just over 2,500 people being treated in hospital, of whom 700 are in IC. In total, 218 people were admitted to hospital in the 24 hours to Wednesday morning, and 46 patients were take to an IC

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ward. OMT member Jaap van Dissel, who heads the public health institute RIVM, told MPs that the current percentage of positive tests is still too high. ‘It is currently 12% to 13% and should be half that,’ Van Dissel told MPs during a discussion on the decision to extend the lockdown by three more weeks. One option, he said, would be to impose further limits on visitors, given that half the infections with a known source happen within a household and 36% derive from visits. ‘The situation with visits is a weak point in the measures,’ he said. The cabinet currently recommends no more than two adult visitors in a 24 hour period. Twente Van Dissel said there are currently 275 infections per 100,000 people in the Netherlands but that Twente, in the south, is a black spot, with up to 450 infections per 100,000. However, the infection rate has been decreasing across all age groups, apart from young adults aged 18 to 24, he said. He also referred to research from Imperial College London which suggests one in five children with coronavirus have no symptoms. ‘This reinforces the idea that children have a much milder version of the virus that adults,’ he said. ‘The change that they will infect other family members is also less likely.’ Ministers hope to reopen Dutch primary schools on January 25, if infection rates continue to decline and the B-117 strain does not start

to spread in the Netherlands. So far 100 cases of the mutant virus have been identified in the Netherlands, many of them related to a primary school in Lansingerland, where all 60,000 residents are now being tested.

KLM temporarily suspends 270 flights Dutch carrier KLM will reportedly suspend 270 flights to the Netherlands after the country’s government imposed new requirements to try to stem the spread of the coronavirus. Various media report on 20 January that the Amsterdambased airline will stop operating all of its intercontinental flights as well as some connections between the Dutch capital and other European destinations starting on 22 January. European flights cancelled include those connections where the carrier’s crew must spend a night. “We cannot run the risk of our staff being stranded somewhere. This is why we are stopping all intercontinental flights from Friday & all flights to European destinations where crew members have to spend the night”, KLM reportedly tells Dutch media.

Attempts to reach the airline independently were not immediately successful and the airline had not posted an update on its website. On social media, numerous customer questions to the airline about this decision went unanswered. The airline’s official Twitter account responded that the carrier is “awaiting further information”. KLM does not operate domestic services due to the small geographic size of its home country. The Netherlands have been in a lockdown since midDecember, with schools, the hospitality industry and retail stores selling non-essential items closed. On 20 January the government recommended stricter measures to mitigate continued spread of the coronavirus, including a curfew and a temporary ban on flights to South Africa, South American countries and the United Kingdom. It also requires passengers bound for the Netherlands from abroad take a rapid test prior to departure as well as a standard PCR test upon arrival.

New testing requirements for flights to Amsterdam If you are travelling to Amsterdam soon, new COVID-19 testing rules are in place. Passengers are required to undertake a PCR COVID-19 test 72 hours prior to arrival and a Rapid Antigen test in the airport prior to boarding the flight. Our Government approved testing provider, NPH Group,

provides PCR tests on site in our Premium Meet & Greet car parking facility and Rapid Antigen tests within the terminal itself. Passengers are advised to pre-book both their PCR and Rapid Antigen tests as soon as possible. Please note, NHS PCR tests will not be accepted by the airline for travel.

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EU Commission President: Vaccination Certificate is a Medical Requirement

he President of the European Union Commission, Ursula von der Leyen supports the idea of a common vaccination certificate, which can be established by the EU, and issued by the Member States to every person who gets vaccinated against COVID-19. In an interview with the press, Von der Leyen was asked regarding the proposal of the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to introduce a common document that would be issued to EU citizens who receive the vaccine against COVID-19. “It is a medical requirement to have a certificate proving that you have been vaccinated,” the President of the Commission said, welcoming the proposal of PM Mitsotakis on a mutually recognised vaccination certificate. Last month, the Greek Prime Minister sent a letter to the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen,

calling on the European Commission to introduce a Coronavirus vaccination certificate in order to facilitate travel between the blocs. In his letter, Mitsotakis pointed out that though vaccination should not become an obligation, but rather a matter of choice, only those who receive their vaccines should be permitted to travel from one EU country to another. The idea seems to have been welcomed by Von der Leyen, who told journalists that she largely agrees with the idea, during a European Commission visit to Lisbon organised by the Portuguese EU presidency. “Whatever is decided – whether it gives priority or access to certain goods – is a political and legal decision that should be

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discussed at a European level,” the President said, adding that a document that proves people have been vaccinated should be a medical requirement. The number of EU countries warning they are planning to introduce ‘vaccination passports’ which will enable their citizens who are vaccinated to prove it while their travel, is on the rise. Denmark is one of the countries which any day now may present its ‘vaccination passport’, after the Ministry of Health and the Elderly announced at the beginning of January that the document would be ready before the end of the month. However, the idea of COVID-19 vaccine certificates for travel may not be getting the support of everyone at this phase. The President of the European Council Charles Michel warned throughout that it might be too early to introduce such certificates, as they may “create enormous frustration in Europe.” According to him, travel vaccine certificates’ topic is “sensitive in many European countries because some of them would have the impression that a certificate makes vaccination mandatory.”

Compensating duped parents is a priority, Rutte says, after cabinet resignation The cabinet has resigned because of the government’s failings to deal properly with the childcare benefit scandal and to make sure nothing like this can ever happen again, prime minister Mark Rutte told a press conference on Friday afternoon. ‘Innocent people have been criminalised, their lives have been destroyed and parliament has been incorrectly and incompletely informed, ‘Rutte said. ‘Mistakes have been made which did wrong to thousands of parents… the financial compensation for parents is the first thing that needs to be sorted out.’ The decision to resign and take

political responsibility for the failures of the entire system was unanimous, Rutte said. In addition, he said, the entire

supplementary benefit system will be overhauled and the way in which the cabinet communicates also needs fundamental

change. Many of the families were singled out for investigation because they were dual national households. ‘It is terrible if the government has been guilty of racism,’ Rutte said. The government has drawn up a string of recommendations to make sure this is tackled and to make sure such a thing never happens again, the prime minister said. The cabinet,

with the exception of economic affairs minister Eric Wiebes who has resigned with immediate effect, will now continue in a caretaker role until after the March 17 general election. The caretaker cabinet will have two priorities, dealing with coronavirus and sorting out this ‘awful issue’, Rutte said. ‘We expect to do what is necessary in the national interest and our battle against coronavirus goes on,’ he said. This, he said, includes dealing with the social and economic impact of the epidemic. And despite the fact the cabinet is now acting in a caretaker capacity, Rutte said he expected the full support of parliament to continue to fight the coronavirus crisis. Rutte said he has not considered resigning as VVD leader. ‘That is up to the party,’ he said. ‘And ultimately, it is up to the public,’ he said. ‘Voters will decide what the cabinet should look like after the general election.’ Right decision Renske Leijten, a Socialist Party MP who has been campaigning for justice for broken families for three years, said: ‘It is right that the government should step down. It is terrible that this is necessary and this injustice should have been made right a long time ago. ‘Parliament wants to provide compensation that is quick and just, it hasn’t happened with this government, and now we must make sure it happens. We also believe there should be a parliamentary inquiry.’

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Amsterdam tries to have traffic warden warning app banned

Amsterdam city council is trying to put an end to an app which warns vehicle owners when traffic wardens are using a special car to scan for nonpayment of parking fees. The app enables car owners to deliberately avoid taxes and should, therefore, be banned, council officials told a court hearing last month. The app’s makers, however, say it should be seen as an aid to forgetful car owners to help them through the Amsterdam parking jungle and so avoid fines,

the Financieele Dagblad reported. Their lawyer also told the court that parking fines in Amsterdam are big business. In 2020, Amsterdam generated €321m from parking fees and fines, the paper said. Lawyer Luis Roman also pointed out that apps warning drivers about speed traps on motorways are not illegal. ‘They too send a warning, just like Parkeerwekker does, nothing more and nothing less,’ he told the court. The court will rule on the case this month. (February 2021).

Shell cuts 900 jobs in the Netherlands as part of global restructuring

hell is cutting some 900 jobs in the Netherlands as part of its earlier announced global reorganisation, website Nu.nl and the Financieele Dagblad said on Wednesday. The job losses, which do not include people

working at petrol stations, will cut the company’s workforce in the Netherlands by some 10%, Nu.nl said. The FD said it is unclear how many of the job losses will be compulsory. The company is currently appealing for people to take voluntary redundancy. Shell said in September it planned to cut between 7,000 and 9,000 jobs by 2022 as part of an ongoing restructuring process to create a simpler, streamlined and lower-cost organisation. By making the organisation simpler, Shell said it hopes to deliver annual cost savings of between $2bn and $2.5bn a year. Shell currently has a workforce of 83,000 people, of whom around 10,000 are in the Netherlands, mainly at the headquarters in The Hague and at the Pernis petro-chemicals site. Shell made a record loss in the second half of last year because of both the coronavirus crisis and continuing low oil price.

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Africa

The Gambia nominates former Vice President Fatoumata CM Jallow Tambajang for African Union Commission Deputy Chairperson

he Republic of The Gambia has named former vice president, Her Excellency Fatoumata CM Jallow Tambajang, as the nation’s candidate for the Deputy Chairperson position of the African Union Commission (AUC), according to the Gambian presidency. The Gambian government also secured an Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) endorsement for her candidacy. Next month, leaders of the African Union (AU) member nations will meet at an ordinary summit to elect a new Commission, the body’s secretariat, to run the organisation for the next four years. Mrs Jallow Tambajang has played a prominent role in national and continent-wide platforms, with a career spanning over 35 years, including service with the United Nations and to her country as a policy adviser, minister and eventually, vice president of the Republic. In her time at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) her work focused on international development management, gender, policy, and training. As part of the Gambian government, she served in several capacities including as Policy Adviser on Women for three successive presidents, Minister of Health, Social Welfare and Women’s Affairs,

before becoming vice president. Her distinguished career has seen her recognised with several awards including the Member of the Republic of Gambia, MRG, (1994) and Eminent Person of the OAU (1990) for her exemplary leadership in championing the cause of women. She was also the architect of ‘Coalition 2016’, bringing together eight political parties to uproot Gambia’s 22-year dictatorship. Mrs Jallow Tambajang plans to pursue an aggressive forward-looking agenda if elected to the position. She will look to accelerate the adoption and execution of the AU’s Agenda 2063 and the body’s institutional reform goals to assist in the AU’s pursuit of tackling challenges facing the continent and its people. Mrs Fatoumata Jallow-Tambajang is a former vice president, humanitarian, leading development professional, and one of Africa’s most seasoned technocrats with a lifetime of service to the continent of Africa and her country, The Gambia. Mrs Tambajang has served as a Gambian vice president and minister, as well as a policy adviser on women to three successive Gambian presidents. In 2016, she played a pivotal role in establishing an unprecedented coalition of seven Gambian opposition political parties, two independents, and four civil society organisations that stabilised the country and ushered a peaceful democratic transition of power in The Gambia. Prior to her transition into government, Mrs Tambajang had a distinguished career with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Africa, working as a Chief Technical Adviser in Gambia as well as the UNV/UNDP Adviser on Gender, Health and Population in Liberia.

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Uganda’s Museveni: President for life with 6th term election victory

rom the look of things, it is obvious Museveni is most likely to die in office as he would be 82 years old at the end of his new tenure and no sign of him stepping aside for the younger candidate and popular choice of the youths of Uganda, Bobi Wine. The struggle continues, according to statement he released when he was allowed out of his house arrest weeks after the controversial elections in the country. T he result of the elections was in no doubt, not because Museveni has a better agenda or more popular than the opposition candidate, rather he has all the tools to rig the election to his favour and he used it to the best of his ability; once beaten twice shy; after the long struggle he had with his once personal Doctor and now sworn enemy, Dr. Kissa Besigye, he did not take any chances to allow Bobi Wine to get too comfortable at the polls, several harassments, charges, beaten, denials to a fair and free playground during the campaigns was bitter politics to swallow by the young politician, he still managed to gather the votes given to him by the Electoral commission. In the eyes of the people, this effort itself is a victory for a young man, without much experience in politics, just two years in parliament and he could give President Museveni sleepless nights that he had to engaged the might of the military to stop him is a victory on its own. Bobi Wine has changed the face of politics in Uganda and Africa in general. He is not relying on political platform but his social media and musical platform to mobilize new attitude of the people towards politics. Before Bobi Wine, politics was nearly dead; it was on the sick bed. More youths would be involved in political agitations in the country from now on. President Museveni can no longer sleep with both eyes closed, he has to keep constant watch over the new rising star of Uganda politics, Bobi Wine. He is young and the new face of political resistance to the 35 years rule of the President. The opposition calls it political fraud but what do you expect when the media including the social media was banned from

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covering the elections, the county was put under complete darkness as the elections was going on, this is Africa style of dealing with opposition who tries to outsmart them. Bobi Wine has not been defeated by a candidate but a whole corrupt and evil system orchestrated by Yoweri Museveni is the verdict of the majority of the opposition elements in the country and nothing would change that stand in the next six years of misrule of Museveni in Uganda. Museveni won 5.85 million votes, or 58.6%, while main opposition candidate Wine had 3.48 million votes (34.8%), the Electoral Commission said at a news conference on the final results from the elections, the manner the result was quickly ordinated leaves so much to create suspicious, this is the first time ever that the elections in Uganda took just two days, they knew the longer the delay, the greater the agitation would be and questions asked so with the electoral commission, everything has hurriedly been done and a final result released. Wine accused Museveni of fabricating the results and called the poll “the most fraudulent election in the history of Uganda”. In a phone interview before the final results were announced, he urged citizens to reject the results. The only annoying of this is that Wine’s home was surrounded by 100s of armed soldiers, probably to prevent him from having access to the public who may join him to demand the true result of the elections, this tactics is not new to the opposition in Uganda. He would be harassed to abandon his objection to the released results and wait for another 6 years to try again, hoping that President Museveni would be too tired to run again. A singer-turned-lawmaker, also said his home in the capital, Kampala, was surrounded by hundreds of soldiers and that the military was not allowing him to leave. The army says it is for Wine’s protection that he could face threats if he is allowed to go out; what a ridiculous explanation ever. He was not attacked during the tense campaigns but now that he has fought and won in his own

eyes that he would be attacked by the public. Please tell this story to the dead…….. Wine is 38 and the next elections, he would be 44 years old then, more experienced and more ready for the challenges of leadership ahead. He should be careful however that he does not allow himself killed before then, he has to watch his utterances and steps from now on. The government could be up to evil to stop his popularity from now. Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, said in a video released that he has proof of voting fraud, and would he, would share the videos as soon as internet connections were restored. The government in panic has raided his offices and took away computers and all electronic materials found. It would be recalled that the government ordered the internet shut down the day before the election, and the blackout lasted until the elections results were announced and Ugandans did not know how even the election results were counted. Electoral Commission Chairman Simon Byabakama said that under Ugandan law, the burden of proof rested with Wine and he would be allowed to have his date in court. Experiences from past petitions has shown that it would not bring out any positive result Dr. Besigye was denied his victory even by the court controlled by President Museveni. The press is also accused by Bobi Wine of taking side

with the tired dictator as he describes him but we have not been able to independently verified Wine’s claims that he has proof that he won the elections and that the results released were cooked by the electoral commission. The United States and the European Union did not deploy observer teams, but the U.S. State Department’s top diplomat for Africa, Tibor Nagy, said in a tweet that the “electoral process has been fundamentally flawed”. He cited fraud reports, denial of accreditation to observers, violence and harassment of opposition members, and the arrest of civil society activists.

The African Union and East African Community sent observer teams to the election, but neither group of officials responded to requests for comment about possible irregularities. Police recorded 42 election-related offences nationwide during voting and tallying so far, police spokesman Fred Enanga said on Friday night on local NBS TV. Offences included assaults, voter bribery, and theft and damage of electoral materials, he said. The run-up to the election was more violent than in previous polls. Security forces cracked down on opposition candidates and their supporters during the campaign, and more than 50 people died in protests in November 2020 on one of the multiple occasions when Wine was arrested. PARLIAMENTARY WINS In addition to the internet blackout, the government banned all social media and messaging apps. Wine and his supporters often used Facebook to relay live coverage of his campaign. In the parliamentary election, where candidates were vying for 529 seats, results were still not conclusive but reports has it that 56 candidates from Wine’s National Unity Platform (NUP) had won their races, while the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), previously the largest opposition party, has so far won 34 seats. The country’s vice president, Edward Ssekandi, was one of a number of senior ruling party MPs who lost their seats, according to broadcaster NTV Uganda. The FDC won 35 seats in the 2016 election, but the NUP had no seats in the previous parliament - Wine was elected as an independent and joined the party last year. There would be more opposition voices in the new Ugandan parliament than previous experienced when President Museveni starts his sixth term in office. Reporting by Nairobi newsroom; Writing by Maggie Fick; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Frances Kerry www.thevoicenewsmagazine.com

Africa is set to roll out its Single Passport this year

frican passport is the flagship project of the 2063 Agenda aiming to remove restrictions on Africans’ ability to travel, work and live within their own continent Single passport for all African nations is set to be introduced this year as the continent is forging its way to easing movements of people and goods within its internal boundaries. Single passport for Africans is a declaration of the Africa Union Agenda 2063 seeking to integrate the continent’s business and politics based on Pan-Africanism and the vision of Africa’s Renaissance. The African passport is the flagship project of the 2063 Agenda aiming to remove restrictions on Africans’ ability to travel, work and live within their own continent. The initiative aims at transforming Africa’s laws, which remain generally restrictive on the movement of people despite political commitments to bring down borders with the view to promoting the issuance of visas by member states to enhance free movement of all African citizens in all African countries. The African Union Passport is currently available to government leaders, diplomats and AU officials only. Reports from South Africa said that the passport is set to be rolled out this year as an implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Reports said that the AfCFTA aims to bring together 1.3 billion people in Africa’s US$ 3.4 trillion economy, creating a single market for goods and services in addition to a customs union with free movement of both capital and business travelers. The Africa Union Agenda 2063 initiative aims at transforming Africa’s laws, which remain generally restrictive on the movement of people despite political commitments to bring down borders with the view to promoting the issuance of visas by member states to enhance free movement of all African citizens in all African countries. The initiative aims at transforming Africa’s laws, which remain generally restrictive on the movement of people despite political commitments to bring 62

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down borders with the view to promoting the issuance of visas by member states to enhance free movement of all African citizens in all African countries, reports said. The passport is expected to ease travel within the African continent to stimulate then create economic success to this Continent. Tourism is on top agenda among key economic areas envisaged to boost Africa’s development and social welfare of its people. The AU has been pushing its objective to double intra-Africa tourism by 2023, as part of the 10-year implementation plan (2014- 2023), which fits into the broad AU Agenda 2063 on free movements between African states. The introduction of an African passport and opening up of borders has the potential and capacity to ensure that African travelers get the opportunity to explore the continent, which indeed has significant economic, political, cultural and social benefits. Among such benefits are the Boosting intra-Africa trade, commerce and tourism; Facilitating labour mobility, intraAfrica knowledge and skills transfer; Promoting pan-African identity, social integration and tourism. Other benefits are improving trans-border infrastructure and shared development, fostering a comprehensive approach to border management and promoting rule of law, human rights, and public health African Tourism Board (ATB) had joined other economic and development organizations in Africa to campaign then promoting free movement of people including tourists within Africa. ATB is now championing for the creation of intra-Africa tourism, aiming to bring together the people of Africa through free movements and travels within the continent. Established two years ago, ATB is currently working jointly with African governments and other, notable Pan-African organizations and tourism institutions to promote then marketing tourism in Africa with a target to encourage visa free movements among the African states.

Zimbabwe: Announcer of 2017 coup dies of COVID-19

everal top officials, major political figures in Southern African nation succumb to coronavirus including a top Zimbabwean official and former army general famed for announcing a coup in 2017 that toppled the country’s late former longtime strongman Robert Mugabe from power, succumbed to the novel coronavirus early last month. Foreign Affairs Minister Sibusiso Moyo, 61, was pronounced dead at a local hospital, according to a government statement confirmed by acting Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Jenfan Muswere, though details were scarce. “I can confirm for now that Minister SB Moyo has died,” said Muswere. Moyo, who suffered from a kidney condition, reportedly died in a medical facility in the capital Harare, days after testing positive for the virus.

Nine African nations in debt to UN lose voting rights

.N. chief Antonio Guterres has said nine African nations and Iran should lose their voting rights as required under the U.N. Charter after defaulting on payment of their dues to the United Nations’ operating budget. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres listed the minimum amount that the 10 countries need to pay to have their voting rights restored in a letter to General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir. Iran topped the list and needs to pay $16,251,298 followed by Somalia, which must pay $1,443,640. Comoros $871,632, Sao Tome and Principe $829,888, Libya $705,391, Congo $90,844, Zimbabwe $81,770, Central African Republic $29,395,

Widely seen as a representative of the military in the Zimbabwean government, he is the third government minister to die of the coronavirus. Minister of Agriculture Perrance Shiri, a former air force commander who was given to the portfolio after the coup, also succumbed to the disease in July last year. Ellen Gwaradzimba, who was the minister of provincial affairs for Manicaland Province, also died last week of COVID-19. Another major figure in the Southern African nation, former deputy minister of finance in the 1980s, Morton Malianga, also succumbed to COVID-19 last week. The country has seen a spike in COVID-19 infections and fatalities since the start of the new year, with the Health Ministry on Tuesday recording 52 deaths and 783 new infections within 24 hours. It has reported 28,675 COVID-19 cases to date, including 825 deaths.

South Sudan $22,804, and Niger $6,733 are the remaining countries. The U.N. Charter gives the 193-member General Assembly the authority to decide “that the failure to pay is due to conditions beyond the control of the member,” and in that case a country can continue to vote. The Republic of Congo was also sanctioned. Brazzaville must pay 90,844 dollars to recover its right to vote. South Sudan (22,804 dollars) and Zimbabwe (81,770 dollars). While Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe and Somalia are on probation. The annual operating budget of the UN is about 3.2 billion dollars. The separate budget for peace operations is about 6.5 billion dollars.

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Happy married life to Laila & Abdulaziz Her Excellency, Ambassador Laila Rahhal El Atfani recently got married to her heartthrob, Abdulaziz Ahmad in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Although she mentioned it to us but it escaped our recognition. On behalf of The Voice News magazine, our foundation, Stichting Paddi Europa and The Voice Achievers Award, we sincerely congratulate you and your husband and we wish you a blissful married life. We pray you continue to serve humanity and do your business with more vigour than ever before. Congratulations Abdulaziz & Laila. Signed: Pastor Elvis Iruh President, The Voice News magazine Almere, The Netherlands

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Meet the Black feminist politician shaking up Dutch politics

ylvana Simons’ party will stand in the 2021 Dutch general election. ‘We’re activating people who’ve never felt politicians speaking to them.’ #12DaysofResistance “The Dutch have perfected their facade. They are the definition of ‘facade!’” Sylvana Simons tells me, laughing, on a video call from her home in the Netherlands. “Things look great from the outside. We have told ourselves that we’re tolerant and we’re understanding and we’re progressive, and the rest of

the world is so backwards.” But you don’t have to look far to find plenty of examples to the contrary. Most famously, there’s Zwarte Piet (Black Pete), a Sinterklaas tradition involving blackface; in recent years, antiBlack Pete protesters have experienced violence at the hands of both police and civilians. There’s a Christian youth group lobbying to criminalise sex work. There are the deaths of Mitch Henriquez and Tomy Holten in police custody in 2015 and 2020, respectively. In May, providing a clear example of institutional racism, the Dutch tax authority, the Belastingdienst, was found to have systematically flagged people with a second nationality for extra inspection. And in politics, women, and especially women of colour, are underrepresented – particularly in parliament’s first chamber, the Senate. Of the 75 current members, only 26 are women, including two women of colour. There are no men of colour. Meanwhile, right-wing parties espousing racist and sexist values won a significant number of seats in the Netherlands’ last national elections in 2017. Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom (PVV) gained five more seats, the second highest number, while the Forum for Democracy (FvD) won two. The latter’s gains were especially significant since the party was formed just six months before the election – an anti-racism party, BIJ1, launched around the same time didn’t win any seats. 66

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The People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), a conservative-liberal party seen as more ‘moderate’, which currently holds the most seats in parliament, also mobilised racism in its electoral campaign. The party, led by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, doubled down in defence of Zwarte Piet, despite criticism and protests against the tradition. That’s where BIJ1 comes in. Founded by Simons in 2016, it is explicitly feminist, intersectional and radical. Simons has been a well-known public figure since the mid90s, when she presented Dutch MTV. She entered politics in 2016 by joining the political party DENK, but left in the same year to found BIJ1 (which means ‘together’ in Dutch pronunciation). “We’re an activist party. It’s not that we’re a political party that sometimes joins a demonstration; it’s the other way around. We are activists who have joined forces to become political,” Simons says. As for parties such as the PVV and FvD, “my fight is not primarily against them”, Simons explains. “My focus is first and foremost on uniting the people whose lives are endangered by these extremeright movements and forming a strong force to counter them.” Radical change The clearest difference between BIJ1 and other parties – including groups on the left such as GreenLeft (GL) – is their radical approach to creating a more equal society. “We’re not advocating making this system better or fairer,” Simons says. “That’s not gonna happen! We’re advocating system change.” “This is Dutch politics,” she says, still incredulous. “We have this facade of reason, and as long as you’re reasonable – that’s the whole goal. And in the process of being reasonable, people’s lives are being sacrificed. And BIJ1 vows never to do that.” It’s no coincidence that the first chapter in BIJ1’s 2021 manifesto promotes anti-racism. “Without that, every other idea will be one that’s not going to work for the people I want it to work for,” Simons explains. “We can do something about the cost of education, but if we don’t take into account that there’s a lot of racism and discrimination in that sphere, the people I care about are not going to benefit.” Simons also takes a critical look at the government itself. “We want to install a Ministry of Equality, to make sure that the government itself applies all the rules and laws that they have established. We also advocate for a constitutional court, which we currently don’t have in the Netherlands – meaning we have all this legislation that might be unconstitutional. So protecting

people from the government is very important to us.” But for BIJ1, changing politics is not just about content but also form. The manifesto’s chapters, for example, are written by those actually affected. The chapter on the Netherland’s former colonies which still belong to the Kingdom, for example, was written by members of the party living in the region. To increase accessibility, the manifesto is also available as an audio recording; I have yet to come across any other parties that also do this. “We are the first to have [sign language] interpreters at events. Because if you’re going to say you’re inclusive, you have to be inclusive,” Simons says. “It means we’re giving ourselves a very difficult task and a lot of work in trying to show people what we mean. The same goes for our list of political candidates: it’s about showing that – unless you live in a small town in Friesland, maybe – this is what reality looks like.” Progress and backlash Although BIJ1 received a substantial number of votes in 2017 – especially considering its newness and radical stance – it wasn’t enough for a seat in parliament. In 2018, the party gained a seat on Amsterdam’s city council, which until recently was occupied by Simons. In October, she

announced she was giving up the seat (duties will be taken over by a fellow BIJ1 member) in order to focus on winning a seat in the general election in March next year. The party has gained political experience, but Simons emphasises a cultural shift: “We’re having an impact: we’re changing the narrative, we’re changing language, we’re changing public opinion. We’re activating people who have never felt politicians

are speaking to them.” There are tangible examples of this progress: blackface is no longer used in the national Sinterklaas parade, and many cities have also done away with the practice for their local parades (even the prime minister has changed his views). The word allochtoon (meaning a foreigner) is no longer used as an official designation – which was another key issue for Simons. There are more subtle changes too. “In 2016, when I used the word ‘radical’ as part of BIJ1’s politics, people said ‘you can’t do that, that’s too aggressive, that’s not done,’” says Simons. “Now the ChristenUnie, which is one of the most conservative parties in the Netherlands, launched a tax plan and called it a radical tax plan.” The Black Lives Matter movement, which also had an impact on the Netherlands this summer, marked a significant shift for Simons. “People really understand now that racism isn’t something far, far away. Racism has now definitely been put on the agenda in the Netherlands,” she says firmly. “It’s been on the agenda in the past, but I think we’ve given it a permanent place.” But there is also, of course, a backlash. Not only against the anti-racism movement, but also against the rights of sex workers, trans people and women. “People are trying it!” Simons says with a chuckle. “They’re trying to reopen the conversation on abortion and self-determination for women, for example. They’ll try, but we have to make sure it’s not even a discussion. Abortion is not a debate. We had that debate.” “You also see it in the promotion of traditional values. One party is proposing that we give financial bonuses to big families – basically, a financial incentive to have babies,” Simons says. Simons has no illusions about the current state of affairs: “There’s still so much work to do when it comes to decolonising this whole country, its institutions, the way people think and view each other, the excuses they have for their racism and sexism and ableism.” Although she’s hopeful about next year’s elections, Simons knows that structural change means playing the long game. “The results are not about today and tomorrow. The results are about the next generation, or even the generation after that.” Nor is the goal to simply increase BIJ1’s political power. “We are oppositional, and that’s where we should be. It’s not about getting twenty seats and taking over. The best thing would be if we’re no longer needed,” Simons says. “But for now, as a directive and disruptive force, we need to be here.”

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Anthony Joshua says he is ‘coming towards the end of his career’ and hints about retiring in five years time……….

nthony Joshua on retirement: This may sound unthinkable for a young boxer just capturing the world with just one defeat in his professor career but the pressure seem to be getting at him. What else does he want to accomplish if he is able to unify all the four world title belts in the heavy weight division? Absolutely nothing so he has it already in his mind to quit boxing. “I’m always planning ahead so I’m coming towards the end of my career.” The 31-year-old world champion is set to face Tyson Fury in a massive unification clash this year. According to his manager, discussions and agreements are been reached and the fight may happen this year 2021 and that would definitely define the next step and direction AJ would go with his boxing career. The boxing is evenly divided on whom they think would win the fight, as usual both boxers of boasting of win, in fact Tyson Fury thinks he would finish Joshua under 3 rounds. This is one fight difficult to place a bet now, many lost their money betting against Wilder and Fury 2 where Tyson Fury simply out boxed, outpunched his opponent and won easily. Anthony Joshua admits he is “coming towards the end of his career” and has hinted that he will have a maximum of “five years left” in the sport before retiring. That is really a long time to survive the line up of hungry opponents all aiming at the 3 versions of the world boxing title he owns at the moment and one with Tyson Fury. The 31-year-old world heavyweight champion could be approaching the most significant period of his career, with

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ongoing negotiations about two massive unification fights against Tyson Fury in 2021. Since making his pro debut in 2013, Joshua has become a two-time champion, having regained his WBA, IBF and WBO titles in a 2019 rematch with Andy Ruiz Jr before defending them with a knockout win over Kubrat Pulev few months ago. “This isn’t the start of my career. I’m coming towards the end of my career,” Joshua told Sky Sports News. “I’m not someone who lives in the moment and thinks that everything is just like for now. I’m always planning ahead so I’m coming towards the end of my career. “Five years left and that’s basically an Olympic cycle. I’ve got an Olympic cycle and a little bit more left, so when you see the next Olympics happen is when I’ll be coming to the end of my career and the next generation will be coming through.” Fury turned professional in 2008, nearly five years before Joshua, who recently suggested that his British rival

should also be thinking about hanging up his gloves. “Fury has been professional much longer than me. He should be looking to retire soon,” Joshua had told Sky Sports. “If he wants to cement his legacy, I’m here and ready. I’ve built myself into this position.” But the 32-year-old Fury told Sky Sports last year that he wanted a lengthy world title reign like Wladimir Klitschko. “Klitschko did it until he was 40,” said Fury who ended the Ukrainian’s dominance with a points win in 2015. “A lot of the great champions are continuing, and continuing. I am not boxing for money, I am not boxing for fame, and I am not boxing for a belt. I’m boxing because it keeps me mentally happy and I like to do it. “Nothing to prove to anybody. Not one thing to prove at all, but I box now, because I love boxing and I’ve been doing it all my life. Why walk away when I’m still only young? “Hopefully I box until I have a good sit down with all the team and we all decide it’s time to walk away, while I’m on top, and then sail away into the sunset, and then who knows what will happen after that.”