The leader of a coup that overthrew Gabon’s President Ali Bongo says he wants to avoid rushing into elections that “repeat past mistakes” as pressure mounts to hand back power to a civilian government.

Military officers led by General Brice Oligui Nguema seized power on Wednesday minutes after an announcement that Bongo had secured a third term in an election.

The officers placed Bongo under house arrest and installed Nguema as head of state, ending the Bongo family’s 56-year hold on power.

The coup – West and Central Africa’s eighth in three years – drew cheering crowds onto the streets of the capital, Libreville, but condemnation from abroad and at home.

“Our aim is to move as quickly as possible, quickly but surely. Moving as quickly as possible doesn’t mean organising elections in a rush where we’ll end up with the same mistakes, where the same people will continue in power, and it all comes back to the same thing,” Nguema said in a televised address on Friday night.

Regional bloc, the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), has urged partners led by the United Nations and the African Union to support a rapid return to constitutional order, it said in a statement after an extraordinary meeting on Thursday. It said it would reconvene on Monday.

Duffel bags stuffed with cash

Gabon’s main opposition group, Alternance 2023, which says it is the rightful winner of the election, urged the international community on Friday to encourage the generals to hand power back to civilians.

Bongo was elected in 2009, taking over from his late father who came to power in 1967. Opponents say the family did little to share Gabon’s oil and mining wealth.

For years the Bongo family occupied a luxurious palace overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. They own expensive cars and properties in France and the United States, often paid for in cash, according to a 2020 investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a global network of investigative journalists.

Meanwhile, almost one-third of the country’s 2.3 million people live in poverty.

Military leaders ordered the arrest of one of Bongo’s sons, Noureddin Bongo Valentin, and several members of Bongo’s cabinet on accusations ranging from alleged embezzlement to narcotics trafficking.

State broadcaster Gabon 24 said on Thursday that duffel bags stuffed with cash wrapped in plastic had been confiscated from the homes of various officials. Its footage included a raid on the house of former cabinet director Ian Ghislain Ngoulou.

Standing next to Bongo Valentin, he told the channel the money was part of Bongo’s election fund. It was unclear when the images were shot.

Lawyers for Bongo’s wife Sylvia said on Friday that Bongo Valentin was being held in an undisclosed location, and the family is concerned about his safety.

“You need politicians to manage a transition and above all a state,” said retired Libreville resident Timothe Moutsinga. “We expect a lot from this government and this transition, a transfer of power to civilians.”

The takeover in Gabon follows coups in Guinea, Chad and Niger, plus two each in Mali and Burkina Faso since 2020. The takeovers have erased democratic gains in a region where insecurity and widespread poverty have weakened elected governments, worrying international powers with strategic interests at stake.

Credit to: Aljazeera

Nigeria’s first satellite, NigeriaSat-1, launched by Russian rocket.

Wilfred Ndidi has been heavily linked with a move from the King Power Stadium this summer after negotiations to extend his contract have been stalling for months now

Liverpool are still in the race to acquire the signing of Super Eagles midfielder Wilfred Ndidi from Leicester City before the end of the transfer window on Friday, Soccernet.ng reports.

The Reds are looking for an established replacement for Brazilian midfielder Fabinho, who left the club to join Saudi Arabia giants Al-Hilal this window, but it has been hard for them to get the right option.

They have already brought in Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai, and Wataru Endo this summer, but Endo is the only natural defensive-minded option, and with the Japanese needing time to settle in England, they now could turn to recently relegated Leicester City midfielder, Wilfred Ndidi, as reported by the Independent.

The Foxes are willing to do business before the close of the window, and that could pave the way for a deal to be agreed with Liverpool before tomorrow’s deadline.

It was also reported a few days ago that Ndidi has given the green light for a move to the City Ground, with personal terms already sorted between him and the club.

While another report that came in yesterday revealed that Forest have presented an opening bid to Leicester, and negotiations have started between the two clubs.

Leicester have signed Harry Winks from Tottenham and brought in Cesare Casadei on loan from Chelsea to strengthen their midfield this summer. They have, though, lost Youri Tielemans to Aston Villa, James Maddison to Tottenham, and Nampals Mendy as a free agent.

DEMOCRACY’S recession in Africa gathered momentum on Wednesday when military officers staged another coup in Gabon to the consternation of the international community. Claiming that last weekend’s presidential election that returned the incumbent to power was massively rigged, the military overthrew Ali Bongo, who had been in power for 14 years. The putschists elevated a general, Brice Nguema, head of the Republican Guard in charge of presidential security and a relative of the deposed Bongo, to the post of head of state. They put Bongo under house arrest and also arrested his son, Bongo Ondimba, whom they accused of treason. After the July 26 military coup in Niger Republic, this is a dire warning that democracy is endangered in Africa.

Rightly, the coup in Libreville has attracted global rejection. ECOWAS Chairman, Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu, condemned it, warning that “contagious autocracy is spreading in Africa.” The African Union, the European Union, and the United Nations were also unanimous that the military should reinstate Bongo. The Commonwealth described the coup as “deeply concerning.”

Their message is appropriate. Military dictatorships are an aberration; they are also horrible, and often more corrupt than the civilians they overthrow.  The coup in Gabon is the seventh in Africa in the last three years. It confirms the alarm raised recently by the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, of an ongoing “epidemic” of coups in Africa. Since 2020, soldiers have overthrown democratic governments or other military juntas in Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso, Sudan, Guinea, Niger, and now, Gabon.

These put democracy in a fragile moment. However, democracy remains the best form of representative government available to mankind. It sustains the freedoms, inclusion, and socioeconomic growth, as seen in the Western democracies, and emerging economies like South Korea, and Taiwan.

Africa is in a political dilemma. Since the end of July, ECOWAS has been preparing to deploy military force to oust the usurpers in Niger, who accused the detained president, Mohamed Bazoum, of corruption and replaced him with a general, Abdourahamane Tchiani.

As usual, jubilation accompanied Bongo’s removal. People trooped out in Libreville and Port Gentil to celebrate the end of the 55-year long Bongo dynasty. Ali had succeeded his father, Omar, in 2009. He ‘won’ 64.27 per cent of the ballot on Saturday against his main challenger, Albert Ossa’s 30 per cent in an election widely regarded as tainted.

This is the crux of the pervasive coups in Africa: corrupt, sit-tight leaders are giving democracy a very bad name. In Gabon, Omar assumed power as the second president in 1967, spent nearly 42 years till his death in 2009 and was succeeded by his son. The family has faced accusations of fraud. In 2017, Bongo was probed for owning 39 houses and nine luxury cars in France.

Though an oil-rich country of 2.3 million citizens, bad governance is prevalent there. The World Bank says many citizens live below the poverty line. This prepared the ground for the latest coup after an unsuccessful attempt in 2019 by the military to overthrow Bongo, who had suffered a stroke while on an international tour a year earlier.

Across Africa, sit-tight dictators are besmirching governance. Theodore Mbasogo has spent 44 years as president in Equatorial Guinea. In Cameroon, Paul Biya is in his 42nd year; Dennis Sassou 36 years in the Republic of Congo; Yoweri Museveniof Uganda 35 years; Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea 30 years, and Paul Kagame in Rwanda 23 years. The late Robert Mugabe refused to quit as Zimbabwe’s president and serially rigged re-election until he was forced out by a coup. This is a recipe for the violent change being witnessed continent-wide.

For Africa to escape incessant coups, the leaders must radically change their dictatorial, sit-tight tendencies. Incumbents should conduct credible elections and stop the toxic habit of altering the constitution to overthrow term limits and perpetuate themselves in power.

They must shun corrupt enrichment and govern with high standards, emulate the mature democracies and imbibe the basic tenets of democratic practice to rid the continent of dictators and drive its development.

Credit to: punchng.com

SEPT 1 1950 Ralph Bunche received Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s

Ralph Bunche received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize for his late 1940s work as a United Nations mediator in the Palestine conflict. He called himself ‘an incurable optimist’. Bunche was the first African American and person of color to be so honored in the history of the prize.

Welcome to September

Let go of the past and embrace the new month with open arms. May every day be filled with beauty and happiness.

“Some people call it Thursday, I like to call it Friday Eve. Happy Thursday!”

International Day for People of African Descent

More than 200 million people in the Americas alone identify as being of African descent.  Millions more are located worldwide outside the African continent. Whether as descendants of the victims of the transatlantic slave trade, or as more recent migrants, they are among some of the poorest and most marginalized groups. Nonetheless, people of African descent are holders of a great multicultural richness, resilience and provide substantive contributions to every field of human endeavour, including health.

Last year, the United Nations marked the first-ever International Day for People of African Descent on 31 August 2021. This comes at the midpoint of the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024), which aims to celebrate the important contributions of people of African descent worldwide, advance social justice and inclusion policies, eradicate racism and intolerance, promote human rights, and assist in creating better, more prosperous communities, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals spearheaded by the United Nations.

In relation to health equity, people of African descent who face exclusion, racism, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance can have increased exposure and vulnerability to risk factors for ill-health, lesser access to quality health services, and worse health outcomes. This has been evidenced by COVID-19 pandemic, in which across the globe, some of the starkest inequities have been experienced by indigenous peoples as well as people of African descent and other ethnic minorities experiencing discrimination.

Webinar: “Advancing the Right to Health for People of African Descent”

A global webinar will be held on 31 August 2022 to:

• Shed light on the injustices and systemic discrimination that people of African descent often face and its impact on health;
• Describe how processes of “othering” influence the health of people of African descent;
• Share knowledge and promising practices for advancing social justice, inclusion and participation of people of African descent in health policies, plans and programmes, as well as in intersectoral actions for health to address wider social and environmental determinants.

Chair:

• Princess Nothemba Simelela, Assistant Director-General for Strategic Priorities, World Health Organization

Panel:

• Carissa F. Etienne, World Health Organization Regional Director for the Americas
• Miriam Ekiudoko, Member of the United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent
• John A. Powell, Director of the Othering & Belonging Institute at the University of California, Berkeley
• Tlaleng Mofokeng, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Physical and Mental Health
• David Williams, Department Chair Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

The event will be open to the public, and interpretation will be provided in English, French and Spanish.

Romelu Lukaku completed his season-long loan move to Roma from Chelsea yesterday  after being welcomed as a hero by supporters.

Roma are yet to make their official announcement but Serie A have confirmed that the deal is done on their list of completed transfers.

Thousands of fans greeted Belgium striker Lukaku after he touched down at Ciampino airport just outside the Italian capital on Tuesday, his arrival a boost for Roma following a worrying start to the new Serie A season.

Italian media report that Chelsea accepted Roma’s offer of around six million euros ($6.5 million) to take outcast Lukaku for this season, giving the Italians the striker they have been looking for since Tammy Abraham damaged knee ligaments at the end of last season.

Lukaku has agreed to take a pay cut from nearly 11 million euros to around 7.5 million euros in order to move to Roma, who are operating under a Financial Fair Play settlement agreement made with UEFA.

Roma have collected one point from their first two matches and their inability to convert dominance into goals was fully on display during Saturday’s 2-1 loss at Verona.

Chelsea meanwhile have been trying to permanently offload Lukaku all summer in a bid to end a disastrous transfer which cost the Premier League club a 115 million euro purchase fee from Inter Milan and his whopping annual salary.

But talks with Inter – where he was loaned back to last season – collapsed reportedly after the club discovered he had been secretly talking to their biggest rivals Juve and AC Milan.

nstead he has been reunited with his former coach at Manchester United Jose Mourinho as the capital club try to qualify for the Champions League for the first time since 2018.

Credit to: thenationonlineng.net