Welcome to our last weekly edition. From next week, News in Africa Online will be reaching you twice every week. We will be publishing an abridged version first on Tuesdays and the concluding segment on Fridays. The idea is to reduce the span of time you wait to read from us after each Friday. The new arrangement is clearly aimed at keeping you abreast of the topical issues in Africa and our analyses of the events of the week.
Does it need any gainsaying that civilization started in Africa? The American leader, Donald Trump, requires proper enlightenment on this. Mr. Trump would not like it but the daughters of the civil rights icon, Martin Luther King Jr. have drawn attention to his goof by referring to Africa in derogatory terms. See our Diaspora Matters column.
In our World Report column, we looked at Pope Francis’ trip to Chile and his insistence on convincing evidence. Yes, Pope Francis likes to apologize on behalf of the Catholic Church and its erring clergy, but he must be convinced about the reports of the crimes brought to his knowledge. That is what he threw back at the Chileans, who obviously did not expect it.
Since leaving office, the influential erstwhile President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, likes to have a major say every presidential election year in who gets to Aso Rock as president. He has written to the incumbent leader, Muhammadu Buhari, advising him not to seek re-election next year. Although he painted a gloomy picture of President Buhari’s performance so far, he struck the right cord by anchoring his advice on the President’s health and age constraints. The President’s Media aide also commented on the prospects of his boss going for another term. Click on the column, Politics, and read it up.
A child was said to have told his father that he would like to grow up and play football for money. His father discouraged him, telling him that footballers may make the money but they are hardly known in important circles. The boy added, for good measure, that after football he would go into politics. That boy is George Weah. He has become the first international footballer to move to the presidential mansion, anywhere in the world. Last Monday, Senator Weah was sworn-in as the President of Liberia. You can call it the West African Dream.
On Aviation, we have an intriguing report about bed bugs. British authorities would rather complain that Ghana Airways flights to London bring bed bugs into their country. Now, it is the other way round. Ghana has warned British Airways to watch out because it carries bed bugs on its flights to Accra. And BA officials tended to accept the warning. Check the History books and you will see that in 1969, food protests in Sudan led to the overthrow of the government of Ismail al-Azhari. This time, the emphasis is on the price of bread and as expected, the government of Omar Al-Bashir is not amused. Browse through our report on Sudan.
Our Personality Profile focuses on an internationally acclaimed diplomat, Emeka Anyaoku. His name rings a bell among educated Africans especially as he served for ten years as the Commonwealth Secretary-General between 1990 and 2000. Chief Anyaoku just turned 85 but he looks like he is seventy. Click on his profile and you will get some clues.
Our regulars – Health, Education, Agriculture, Travel/Tourism, Human Rights, Entertainment, and of course, Sports – are embedded here. From next Tuesday, when we plan to be reaching you twice weekly, we will be dishing out 12 topics per publication. Happy browsing!
Pat I. Chukwuelue
Editor-in-Chief
