Africa News Digest
Will Mugabe End Up on Bush's 'Axis of Evil'?
Will Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe end up on George Bush's "axis of evil" list? The answer would appear to be "yes," if Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Walter Kansteiner, the latest in a succession of rotten U.S. Assistant Secretaries on Africa, carries any weight.
Kansteiner said on Aug. 20 that the Bush Administration is looking for ways to assist the opposition to Mugabe. Referring to the March election, Kansteiner said, "We do not see President Mugabe as the democratically legitimate leader of the country. The election was fraudulent, and it was not free, and it was not fair." Andrew Natsios, administrator of USAID, issued equally damning statements, accusing Mugabe of distributing land seized from white farmers not to landless blacks, but to loyal military and political cronies.
A senior Zimbabwe official responded today: "The legitimacy of our political system or our President is not dependent on America, Britain or any other country, but on Zimbabweans. The bullying tactics that America and Britain are using against us are meant to frustrate our quest for social and economic justice, to stop our program to redistribute some of the very large tracts of land held by whites here to the indigenous black people."
Kansteiner also alleged that South Africa, Botswana, and Mozambique support this "isolation" plan; however, Mozambique's Foreign Affairs Minister Leonardo Simao denied Kansteiner's claim, declaring, "Our approach to Zimbabwe is to bring everybody on board to find solutions."
The senior Zimbabwe official added: "...We pray all the time that God can see us through this and that our own brothers and sisters in Africa will not be used against the interests of their fellow brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe. We pray that no self-respecting African will agree to be an Uncle Tom, a puppet for a hatchet job against fellow Africans no matter what arguments are used to dress it up."
Thousands of Children on Verge of Starvation in Malawi
Some 7,000 malnourished children are "on the verge of death" in Malawi, the coordinator for nutrition in that country, Thereza Banda, told Carol Bellamy, visiting chief of UNICEF, according to the Aug. 19 SAPA wire service. "The situation of malnourished children and mothers is getting worse. There are over 65,000 malnourished childrena fivefold increase from a normal year. Some 40,000 lactating mothers need emergency food to save them from death," Banda is quoted as saying.
Bellamy has begun a four-nation tour, which also includes Zambia, Kenya, and South Africa.
Malawi needs 600,000 tons of food to stave off a famine which threatens up to 3.2 million people.
Nigerian President Obasanjo Says He Won't Resign
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo says he will not resign, and has issued a point-by-point response to the House of Representatives, according to the Lagos-based This Day of Aug. 22 and Aug. 21. Obasanjo's statement followed a motion passed Aug. 13 by the Nigerian House of Representatives demanding that the President resign within two weeks or face impeachment. The motion passed overwhelmingly in a House dominated by Obasanjo's own People's Democratic Party (PDP), despite the fact that Presidential elections are scheduled for early next year.
The PDP leadership described the motion as "irresponsible," but certain PDP members have claimed that there is a secret committee of the PDP board that is launching a search for a new Presidential candidate for the next election.
The points at issue repeatedly touchimplicitlyupon Obasanjo's insistence upon carrying out IMF policies, and the consequences of his doing so, while there is strong opposition to IMF policies in both houses of the Nigerian Legislature.
Another contribution to the crisis was the government's postponement in early August of local electionsfor the second time this yearwhich may raise doubts as to whether the Presidential, national, and gubernatorial elections, slated for the first half of 2003, will be held on schedule.
If impeached, Obasanjo would be tried in the Senate; conviction requires a two-thirds majority. The Senate reconvenes at the end of August. It seems unlikely that the Senate would convict, because the impeachment effort has strong sectionalist overtones of North against South.
Meantime, Obasanjo claims the impeachment drive is coupled with a plan for a military coup. He is relying on a security report that claims that "the plan on the ground transcends mere impeachment motion.... Some external forces actually planned to topple the present democratic government in Nigeria through a military coup d'etat" with the involvement of "civil society," in the words of Oyo State Governor Lam Adesina, who referred to "the briefing given us by the President." "During the briefing, the President mentioned that some members of the House had actually contacted members of the armed forces by using one retired colonel to get across to members of the armed forces and probably truncate the nascent democracy," Adesina said.
Nigerian Labor Leader Says Resignation, Impeachment Won't Solve Nigeria's Problems
According to the Vanguard Aug. 15, Adams Oshiomhole, the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), declared at a press conference in Abuja Aug. 13 that neither resignation by Obasanjo, nor his impeachment, will solve Nigeria's problems. Oshiomhole said, in the Vanguard's paraphrase, "that the importance of any impeachment process in any democracy was to cause change from which the country could benefit. This particular one does not have that potential.... [T]hose who thought that any elected office holder had failed should avail themselves [of] the opportunity of the forthcoming election."
"To seek to use ... the impeachment machinery when elections are less than six months away smacks of a resolve to short-circuit the process. This will be an unintentional invitation to anarchy with a potential to abort the coming elections," he added. "Nigeria's problems were fundamental and systematic, as they arose from the protracted ruin inflicted by the military," indicating that Obasanjo could not be held exclusively to blame.
Oshiomhole was himself recently arrested by the Obasanjo government to prevent him from holding a labor demonstration, as described in the House of Representatives' motion demanding Obasanjo's resignation.
Mugabe Dismisses Cabinet, Will Name a New One
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe dismissed his Cabinet on Aug. 23, and plans to announce a new one on Monday, Aug. 26, according to Reuters, the Harare-based Financial Gazette, and SAPA-AFP wire service.
SAPA called it "a long-awaited move that comes amid Harare's growing international isolation," but Reuters called it a "surprise move." The official government statement said only that the Cabinet had been dissolved and that Mugabe "is expected to work on a new Cabinet over the weekend, with the swearing-in ceremony for the new Cabinet set for Monday."
Government sources said Mugabe had summoned his ministers and both vice presidents early on Friday, Aug. 23, and discussed with them the land seizure and redistribution program. One source told Reuters, "The stories we are hearing are that he expressed unhappiness with the way in which some of his ministers are handling the land issue."
The Financial Gazette had written Aug. 15 that evicted commercial farmers would be forced to abandon more than 65,000 hectares of crops valued at over $33.4 billion [Zimbabwe dollars]. Jenni Williams, speaking for Zimbabwe Justice for Agriculturewhich represents commercial farmers, black farm workers, and industries dependent on agricultureis quoted as saying, "Whilst this ban on planting, producing and marketing of food occurs, Mr. Mugabe, his Cabinet ministers and aid organizations are lobbying the international community for food aid to feed over 6 million Zimbabweans who are already starving."
Fundamentalists in Northern Nigeria Push Toward Constitutional Crisis
An Islamic high court in Katsina State upheld Aug. 19 a lower-court application of Shari'a (Islamic law) in the sentencing to death by stoning of 31-year-old Amina Lawal, found guilty of having had sexual relations outside of wedlock. The sentence is to be carried out as soon as the woman weans her baby, now eight months old. "Most spectators in court Monday welcomed the ruling," says AP.
The Constitutional significanceapart from the moral issue of the erroneous concept of the personlies in the course of possible appeals. Her case is being appealed to the Katsina Shari'a Court of Appeal. If the sentence is upheld there, it can still be appealed to the Nigerian Supreme Court, "where it would force a showdown between Nigeria's Constitutional and religious authorities," according to AP. This is new ground, because Shari'a has only been introduced into about 12 northern Nigerian states since 1999. Bloody clashes have resulted between Muslims and Christians, leaving more than 3,000 dead.
Amina Lawal is the second Nigerian woman to be condemned to death for sexual relations outside of wedlock. The first had her sentence overturned last March on the first appeal. Another woman so accused had her case dismissed in January. Yet another case is waiting to be heard. All four defendants are poor, uneducated, single mothers from rural villages, according to Associated Press. It looks as if the Supreme Court will eventually have to consider such a case.
Many Nigerians consider the application of Shari'a unconstitutional to begin with, under the concept of the equal application of the Nigerian law to all citizens. Clashes over application of Shari'a could lead to a situation mirroring the civil strife in Sudan, only in reverse (in Sudan, the government has in the past upheld the application of Shari'a, whereas in Nigeria, it does not).
|