No 'Nobel' for African Leaders

When Sudanese-born billionaire Mo Ibrahim announced an annual $5 million prize to reward Africa's best leaders, he warned that there would be years when "we wouldn't award the prize." Just three years on, and despite considering "some credible candidates," the prize committee said on Monday that no prize would be awarded in 2009. In announcing the decision, committee member and former Botswana President Ketumile Masire said the panel "noted the progress made with governance in some African countries, while noticing with concern recent setbacks in other countries."

The non-award is, of course, a powerful indictment of Africa's still patchy governance and the continent's most recently retired leaders. The Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership considers democratically elected former heads of state or government who have left office in the last three years. The prize is worth $5 million over 10 years and $200,000 a year for life thereafter. By making the reward so big — it is the largest annually awarded prize in the world — Ibrahim has said he wanted to create something to encourage African leaders to do good while in power, in part because they might be rewarded in retirement.

(Simon Robinson, senior editor Europe writes in TIME magazine. Click to read more..)

Nigeria, Gabon in the UN Security Council

Nigeria and Gabon have both been elected to a United Nations Security Council non-permanent seat, following voting by the 192-member General Assembly.

Assembly President, Ali Treki, announced the results - 186 votes for Nigeria, 184 for Gabon, 183 for Bosnia, 182 for Brazil and 180 for Lebanon and declared the five countries elected to terms beginning 1st of January 2010.

In a press conference Nigerian Foreign minister Ojo Maduekwe expressed gratitude for the "solidarity of the entire African bloc" and hailed the election, saying preventive diplomacy will be central to Nigeria's approach to issues.

Nigeria has served three terms in a U.N. Security Council non-permanent seat, most recently between 1994 and 1995. This will be Gabon's first time serving on the council. Professor Kabir Mato, head of the political science department at the University of Abuja said in an interview with VOA News, that Nigeria worked very hard to reach this point. "It is quite a strategic achievement, and if properly used, I do believe that Nigeria will be able to impact positively by pushing through some very cogent economic and political issues that will not only affect Nigeria as a country, but above all Africa and the rest of the third world in general," he said.

"It's going to be an even stronger Security Council, I think, next year," Britain's UN Ambassador John Sawers said in a statement. "We have two large countries in Brazil and Nigeria who carry the weight of being a regional power. We have two countries in Lebanon and Bosnia that have been through conflict and can bring their own national experiences to the Security Council," he added.

THISDAY reported that on the eve of Nigeria's election of Nigeria to the Council, Amnesty International released a 10-point agenda for the country to fulfil as a member of the Security Council. These included the following: complying with international and regional human rights obligations; preventing and prosecuting acts of extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, torture or other ill treatment; adopting a moratorium on improving access to justice and protecting human rights in the Niger delta. The Amnesty International statement went on:

“In 12 months Nigeria will celebrate 50 years of independence. Following successive military regimes, efforts have been made by the Nigerian government to improve the human rights situation in the country."

“The Constitution that came into force in 1999 recognizes the right to life; prohibits torture and other ill treatment, and guarantees a fair trial; however, economic, social and cultural rights fall under the directive principles and are not justifable. In addition, a wide range of human rights concern remain.”

Ten of the Security Council's 15 seats are filled by regional groups for two-years, and five non-permanent members are elected by the General Assembly every year. To win, candidates must get a two-thirds majority vote of the assembly members which is done by secret ballot.

The five other Security Council seats are occupied by its permanent members: the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.

Source: Africa the Good News

Uganda's homophobic frenzy

I broke out in a bout of hysterical laughter when I read the following excerpt from this press release from Human Rights Watch.

"This new draft bill includes a provision that could lead to the imprisonment for up to three years of anyone, including same-gender-loving persons, who fail to report within 24 hours the identities of everyone they know who is lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, or who supports human rights for people who are."

This outbreak of frenzied homophobia is the epitome of the hypocrisy that pervades political life in Africa. At a time when expensive legislative time should be judiciously expended on the issues that really matter to the people of the country; when Ugandan lawmakers and the Ugandan government should be concerned about the welfare of vulnerable Ugandans, (including those very same same-gender-loving men and women in their society who are susceptible to wanton physical abuse and discrimination); when the Ugandan authorities should be looking to protect those of the country's citizens whose welfare is their responsibility; when the challenges that face our continent in this 21st Century are enormous; what we hear of instead is an Anti-Homosexuality Bill being introduced to Parliament. This bill is deemed necessary according to the MP David Bahati who introduced it. He claims that the purpose of the bill is to protect children and the "traditional family".

Now lets face it, the vast majority of the incidents of child rape in Uganda, as everywhere else, are not perpetrated by same-gender-loving persons. (In Uganda, child rape is referred to as 'defilement'). In fact, more often than not, the child victim has fallen prey to a predatory heterosexual rapist. It is this heterosexual rapist who children need protection from. And as far as I am aware, the laws that are currently in force in Uganda already make it an offence to engage in sexual relations with a minor.

Mr Bahati goes on to demand the death penalty for what he calls "aggravated homosexuality". I read this and I wondered if the said Mr Bahati has ever had the opportunity to sit inside a classroom in his life, given that unless he is starkly illiterate, he ought to know that there are no law books in any Common Law jurisdiction, (including Uganda), that refer to an offence known as 'homosexuality'. Homosexuality cannot be an offence. You cannot make it an offence and punish a person for having feelings of sexual and emotional attraction towards others of the same gender. You cannot prove 'homosexuality' in a court of law to the standard of proof that is required in a criminal court.

What the law describes as an offence is the act of "carnal knowledge against the order of nature", i.e., the physical act of sexual penetration by one person of another person of the same gender. Now, unless you can prove beyond reasonable doubt that this penetration has occurred, you do not have a case. Most of the homosexual sex that happens in this world is consensual, and not all of it is penetrative. Therefore, unless homosexual rape has occurred, a successful prosecution under the existing laws is virtually impossible. The operative word here is "rape", and a rapist should always be punished for his crime, be it homosexual or heterosexual rape. Similarly, a convicted paedophile must always be severely punished, and where he continues to pose a threat to children, be removed from society altogether until such a time as when that risk no longer exists...but most paedophiles are not homosexuals. Homosexuals are only a tiny minority of the overall population, and to ascribe to them such a disproportionate portion of the burden of guilt for child sex offences in Uganda is not only wrong, it is also manifestly prejudicial and irrational.

My point here is that you cannot prosecute for 'homosexuality'. There can be no such offence. Therefore, there cannot  be the aggravated form of a non-existent offence. The law cannot compel the impossible, 'Lex non cogit ad impossibilia'.  Section 140 of the Penal Code Act of Uganda already outlaws homosexual acts. The proper thing for lawmakers to do is to introduce an Amendment to the existing legislation, which in any event, I do not even see the need for, seeing as the existing law in Uganda is already one of the more draconian anti-same-sex laws anywhere in the world. On the whole, this bill is suggestive of the fact that Ugandan lawmakers are allowing their homophobic prejudice to run away with them. Surely, there are some intelligent people in the Uganda Parliament who know enough to be tolerant and to be moderate in their views? I am relying on their good sense to kill this ridiculous bill.

Africa crisis warning

Some months ago I wrote this blog post expressing concern that Africa may not be doing enough in preparation for the world's changing climate. Events have come to light which vindicate those like me who have been crying out for a long time about the need for us to take heed of what the climate change scientists have been saying for years. Millions of people across East Africa are already facing starvation and dire poverty as rising food prices and a drought leave them without food.

Oxfam are warning that aid is needed urgently across Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, where many people who rely on imported food have seen prices go up by as much as 500 per cent.

Lindsey Hilsum Channel 4 News's International Editor was based in Kenya between 1982 and 1989. She wrote this report on returning to parts of Northern Kenya recently, after 20 years.

Among other things, she writes:

"It’s a world away from Nairobi, where Kenyan MPs – who are, incidentally, paid more than their British counterparts – drive around in fancy cars and plot for the next election."

"Climate change scientists say northern Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia can expect more extreme weather events like this. Later this month heavy rains associated with El Nino are expected, but they may not improve the pasture so much as cause erosion by flooding. The aid agencies call this a “climate and poverty hotspot”, a desperate conjunction of misfortune. The people here need money to build dams to conserve water when the rains come. They need new laws on land tenure to minimise the risk of conflict between different groups and tribes over scarce resources. They need alternative employment opportunities, or they’ll end up leaving pastoralism, which remains the best way of using this arid land, and add to Kenya’s growing population of unemployed slum-dwellers."

"Aid agencies, both foreign and national, can help alleviate the worst of the suffering but in the end a government is responsible for the welfare of its people."

"As we drove south I thought how China has lifted 400m people out of poverty in the last 30 years. That’s the population equivalent of 10 Kenyas. What has the Kenyan government done in that time? It hasn’t even built a decent road from Baragoi to Maralal."

This doctor's blog from Kenya is worth reading..

Climate Change at the UN

As a global ambassador for Oxfam, Djimon has travelled in sub-Saharan Africa and seen the direct links between climate change and human suffering. "I've witnessed firsthand devastation with drought," Mr Hounsou told reporters after he helped to kick off the UN Summit on Climate Change. "Year after year, local farmers are still expecting rain to come pretty much as it used to. Its not coming, so they adapt, with their crops and plantings."

I share Djimon's opinion about the human cost of climate change and I too am passionately aware of the enormity of the problem that it poses to mankind and to our home, the Earth. I applaud him for the good work he has been doing as a humanitarian and as a climate activist. He has let people know what the rich industrialised nations need to be doing to help the less rich developing nations adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change, a very real problem that is creeping up on us slowly but surely. "Climate change threatens to roll back years of development gains", the UN Secretary General said during his address to the General Assembly at the UN climate change summit. The entire continent of Australia has been in the grip of a drought for the best part of a decade.

Parts of East Africa have experienced successive years of failed rains. In West Africa, desertification is a serious problem in the arid Sahel regions, causing the migration southwards of large numbers of people; whereas flooding is becoming more frequent in the coastal regions. Africa is the continent that is least prepared to deal with the effects of climate change, yet the people of Africa are those who will suffer most severely from its impact. And this is already being felt in many parts of the continent.

This is a global problem, the cause for which the rich industrialised nations must accept responsibility. It is a problem that we must work together to tackle, rich and less rich nations alike. However, it is trite that because the rich industrialised nations bear a greater responsibility for the problem, they ought to be providing assistance more actively to the less well-off countries in the fight against climate change. The idea being mooted that Western nations should pay for investment in technologies designed to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of emergent economies such as India and Brazil is encouraging. It is important that people recognise the seriousness of this problem that our generation has on its hands.

For C'est Moi