Daniel Morris: Redrawing the map of Africa

On March 1, 2010, a conference of military officials from the U.S. and various African nations opened to an auspicious start. Flights on time and visas in hand, invitees from Maseru to Ouagadougou had arrived safely at the military base in Washington, D.C., for the opening meeting. They came to network and receive a two-week course in U.S. security concerns: piracy, terrorism, oil security. After introductions, the floor was opened to questions. From the back of the room, sitting among the translators and press, a military official raised his hand.

"Where is my flag, South Sudan?" he asked.

Attendees looked around. The room was lined with flags from 53 African countries, but the one from South Sudan — stripes of black, red and green, with a blue triangle and gold star at the hoist — was nowhere to be found. Then snickers undulated. A referendum on South Sudan’s status was more than a year away. How could the official expect to see his flag, when at least in official terms, his country didn’t exist?

The pointed question reflected a much larger truth about African borders. Their arbitrary, absurd lines, dreamed up by European powers at a conference in Berlin more than 125 years ago, persist in defiance of compelling humanitarian reasons for redrawing them.

Yet the map will be a little less recognizable after tomorrow, when South Sudan celebrates its first independence day. The holiday comes after nearly 99% of the region’s residents voted in January to secede from the sclerotic, savage regime of Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum. Usually a result that high on any side is a sure sign a vote has been rigged. But even al-Bashir accepted the outcome as a reflection of the will of the people. He had tried everything, including stealing the food and medicine of foreign aid, to starve and sicken Southerners into submission. He may have found the referendum result unwelcome, but it couldn’t have been surprising.

Despite some lingering uncertainties, the celebrations will raise a timely question: With a precedent set for rethinking African borders, what other regions might benefit from a status update? In the cold calculus of international policy-makers, even allowing for the possibility of bloodshed over exact border demarcations, where might more lives be saved by creating a new nation, rather than maintaining the fiction of an old one?

Perhaps the most persuasive case for divorce would be the Democratic Republic of Congo. Even if a Congolese president were less kleptocratic than today’s Joseph Kabila, the country’s geography makes effective governance nearly impossible. Roads and railways are decrepit and air travel is too expensive for the vast majority of the population. J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa program at the Atlantic Council, likens DRC to "an archipelago of population centres separated from each other by literally hundreds of kilometers of impassable forest."

The lack of governance has led to decades of war by a mosaic of armed groups proficient in committing atrocities. The UN reports the South Kivu area is contested by groups including the Burundian Intelligence Services; former Rwandan genocidaires; the Congolese army; a loose group of militias known as the Mai Mai; and a network of arms traffickers connected to Tanzanian authorities.

Riek Machar Teny-Dhurgon, Vice-President of South Sudan, speaks before the United Nations General Assembly. Export processing zone investors should tap into the South Sudan and Ethiopian markets to diversify from the export restriction imposed by the East Africa Protocol.

As the saying in East Africa goes, when elephants fight it is the grass that gets hurt. Congo’s Second War nominally ended in 2003, but the UN continues to document hundreds of instances of the slaughter of defenseless civilians and refugees. A woman in the DRC is more than 100 times more likely to be raped than a woman in Canada. Annual government spending on health care per person amounts to two dollars and is probably closer to zero in the eastern Kivu areas. A more localized form of government, including army, police and health services, could go a long way toward establishing for the first time a social contract between citizens of eastern Congo and their leaders.

Unfortunately, the international community’s scarce resources for Africa are devoted to other hotspots. But maintaining the illusion of a unitary Congolese state is not free. Foreigners bankrolled Congo’s last election in 2006 at a cost of more than $1-billion and the ongoing UN mission costs another $1-billion annually.

While any serious discussion about the legitimacy of African borders is first a subject for Africans, Canada can support African Union (AU) research into regions where the status quo is untenable and where a referendum is warranted. Residents of restive regions in Africa will no doubt be inspired by South Sudan’s independence celebration, in addition to the ongoing protests in the Arab world. Before these groups inquire about their own flags more aggressively, the AU and its international partners should proactively respond to their grievances.

Daniel Morris is a freelance journalist who studied African affairs at McGill University and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Chancellor Angela Merkel in Nigeria, Kenya

"German Chancellor Angela Merkel met the president of oil-and-gas rich Nigeria on Thursday after her trip to Angola the previous day sparked controversy over an offer to sell patrol boats. Merkel was expected to discuss energy and African security matters with President Goodluck Jonathan, who won April elections viewed as the fairest since the continent's largest oil producer returned to civilian rule in 1999.The German chancellor was welcomed by a military guard at the presidential palace in Abuja on Thursday morning following her arrival in Africa's most populous nation the previous night." -AFP

German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives in Nigeria accompanied by Minister of State, Foreign Affairs Viola Onwuliri at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja..

German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, centre, inspects a guard of honor, during her visit to the state house, in Abuja, Nigeria, Thursday, July 14, 2011.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel poses with representatives of religious communities (L-R) emir of Wase, Muhammadu Sambo Haruna, catholic archbishop of Jos, Ignatius Kaigama, sultan of Sokoto, Muhammed Sa'adu Abubakar, rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah and imam of the National mosque Sheikh Musa Muhammad on July 14, 2011 in Abuja, Nigeria

German Chancellor Angela Merkel reviews the honour guard during a welcoming ceremony at the State House in Nairobi, on July 12, 2011 before meeting with Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki. Merkel is on official visit to Kenya to discuss economic cooperation, specifically in the energy sector.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) shakes hands with Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki at the State House in Nairobi, on July 12, 2011.

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel gives a speech on July 12, 2011 at the University of Nairobi during the second day of her state visit to the East African nation. Merkel on Tuesday urged Kenya to cooperate with the International Criminal Court in the trial of six top suspects in the country's 2007-2008 post-election unrest.'I talked with the prime minister and the president about the fact that it is right to cooperate with the ICC,' Merkel said. Nairobi has challenged the ICC's jurisdiction to investigate six senior allies of President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, and previously sought a delay of the trial.

credits:  AP, AFP

Pictures of South Sudan Independence Celebration

"July 9th is independence day for the Republic of Southern Sudan: a burst of glorious celebration in a region routinely reported in tones of gloom. This is a day that many Sudanese must have thought would never come. There was an interminable civil war with the north that began in the 1950s. When it finally ended with a 2005 peace deal, it was almost immediately threatened by the death of the south's leader, and Sudanese vice-president, John Garang, in a helicopter crash. But, finally, after a six-year disengagement, the climax arrived with the overwhelming vote for separation in January and now – with the grudging acquiescence of Khartoum – the birth of a nation. It is a significant achievement for the UN, helped by a little judicious arm-twisting from President Obama; and it is a great day for the South Sudanese, whose lives have been cursed by two generations of insecurity: 2 million dead, at least as many displaced. They have good cause to dance on the streets of Juba."   -   Guardian U.K

                                                                                         Wounded Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) veterans march during Independence Day ceremony in Juba July 9, 2011. Tens of thousands of South Sudanese danced and cheered as their new country formally declared its independence on Saturday, a hard-won separation from the north that also plunged the fractured region into a new period of uncertainty.

South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit (L) and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir (C) attend a ceremony to declare the official independence of the Republic of South Sudan in Juba on July 9, 201

                                                                 South Sudan's President Salva Kiir unveils the statue of the late Dr. John Garang before the Independence Day celebrations in the capital Juba, July 9, 2011. Tens of thousands of South Sudanese danced and cheered as their new country formally declared its independence on Saturday, a hard-won separation from the north that also plunged the fractured region into a new period of uncertainty

 credit: reuters,

A new nation is born in Africa

With these words, "We, the democratically elected representatives of the people, based on the will of the people of South Sudan, and as confirmed by the outcome of the referendum of self-determination, hereby declare South Sudan to be an independent and sovereign nation," James Wani Igga the South Sudan’s parliament speaker on Saturday announced and proclaimed the Independence of a new country in Africa.

The news network AFP reported the following from Juba, Souhern Sudan:

"The independence declaration was read out in front of dozens of heads of state, including Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, and foreign dignitaries as well as tens of thousands of cheering southerners. South Sudan’s national flag was then raised, to wild applause, tears and song.

"We shall never, never surrender," the crowd chanted, as people whistled and wiped tears from their eyes."I should cry for the recognition of this flag among the flags of the world," shouted one tearful man. "We have been denied our rights. Today, no more shall that happen," he added.

The declaration affirmed the new state’s democratic and multi-ethnic and multi-confessional character, and its commitment to friendly relations with all countries "including the Republic of Sudan", Igga said.

The parliament speaker said that as a "strategic priority," South Sudan would seek admission to the United Nations, the African Union, the east African bloc IGAD and other international bodies.

Southern leader Salva Kiir then signed the transitional constitution and took the oath of office as the new state’s first president, swearing to "foster the development and welfare of the people of South Sudan."

Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki, the first foreign dignitary to speak, declared that his country "fully recognises" South Sudan.

AP

JOHANNESBURG, July 8 (Reuters) - Tata Motors (TAMO.BO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), India's largest vehicle maker, is looking to set up a vehicle assembly unit in South Africa later this month, the company said on Friday.

"The ... assembly plant in South Africa has been in the planning for a while, and we are at a point that this has now come to fruition," Tata spokesman Debasis Ray said.

He said more details would follow at a formal launch on July 22.

The report comes at a time when demand for new vehicles in South Africa appears to be rising.

"I strongly believe that we should try as a country as much as possible live within our means."

Dressed in a blue blouse and skirt made of African print with black spots and with her landmark headgear, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala entered the Senate chambers at precisely 12.10 p.m. and was let off at 1.15 p.m. for ministerial screening.

She was quizzed on several issues pertaining to the economy and for the first time was publicly made to disclose reasons for her unceremonious exit from the Olusegun Obasanjo cabinet.

Noting that Nigeria was eating out of what it should be using to develop itself, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said: "I am really worried about the issue of making sure our budget is not eaten up by recurrent expenditure. How can we invest in capital if we’re spending all our money on recurrent expenditures. Can we run a budget that is not negative? Absolutely. We can do it, we have done it. We have been able in the past.

Recurrent expenditure

"I strongly believe that we should try as a country as much as possible live within our means. Right now we need to work very hard because the budget that we have is such that the current expenditure is almost 74 per cent of the budget, therefore, there is not as much left for capital, so we need to work hard to put in place policy that will make it possible to continue to implement fiscal policies that will enable us to tackle the various challenges in the economy while at the same time living within our means."

She noted that the recurrent expenditure was crowding out other necessary investment in infrastructure especially power and as such solicited the help of senators to help the executive branch of government by giving the push to cut down recurrent spending.

Also noting the effect of unemployment on the economy, she said: "I think the main problems in the economy have to do with creating jobs. We have unemployment rate of about 14 to 16 per cent, but very large under-employment and the issue is how to make the economy growing in a way that it will create jobs, so those fiscal policies have to be supportive of sectors that are going to be job creating, because we now have growth, but we need to translate that growth into jobs, so those are the kinds of fiscal policies that we need to encourage. We should privatize sectors that are job creating."

Noting the declining performance of the federal budget, she said: "When I joined the administration of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the budget implementation was 30 percent in 2003, we got up to 90 and 85 percent as at the time I was leaving. And that was a good for any country. As at now the implementation is at 53 percent. I don’t see any reason why the budget will not be fully implemented, if it is reasonable and delivered on time. Budget will be fully implemented if the revenue is coming with less expenditure."

Expressing concern that the country was not maximally exploiting its oil revenues, she said: "We are losing reserves, it shouldn"t be, we should be increasing our reserves, at the same time. I am aware that part of the reserve maybe due to decision to support the naira, I don’t think is something that is untoward, but if we want to revalue the naira this will not be the time to think about it. I think we should wait until things are more stable, we are growing our economy, we are creating jobs, we make sure our young people are working and the sectors we have are really giving what they should before we think in that direction."

Investment in oil sectcor

Answering a question on the Joint Venture Companies, JVC, Okonjo-Iweala said: "On the issue of JVC I think there are number of modalities that many countries use to manage the oil sector, exploration in their countries and investment into the oil sector. I think the problem that we have is that our own portion of the joint venture over time we have difficulties meeting that, but I don’t see anything wrong with them per se, I think in the beginning if you are going to go that route, you really need to have strong presence and advise to make sure that what you negotiate really obeys the law that will be of benefit to the country at the end of the day after the whole process."

Inevitably, she was drawn to why she had to resign from the Obasanjo government after her successful role in erasing most of the country’s debts to the Paris Club of debtor nations.

She said: "I did not run away, I was here. I resigned, I served the country for about three years and when I determined that I could no longer perform and give to the country the way that I would want, I resigned, which is the honourable thing to do, so I did not run away. When the circumstances are appropriate to serve, you serve and if they are not appropriate, you go and do something else. I think three years plus of service is quite substantial, not only in Nigeria, but elsewhere in other countries, it is regarded as a good amount of time to have given the country and I intend to implement and if Iam cleared I will do my job."

On the usefulness or otherwise of sustaining the subsidy on petroleum, Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said that subsidy was a good instrument needful in narrowing the economic gap between the rich and the poor but lamented that where it is not effectively utilized it becomes wasted.

She said that she was especially touched by the wide gulf between the rich and the poor in Nigeria saying that narrowing it was one of the incentives for her returning to the federal cabinet.

She noted: "We have coefficient of inequality. It is this inequality that is holding us down. People keep asking why I want to come back to work, but the reason is simple. In a country where the rich keeps getting richer and the poor keeps getting poorer, we need to bridge the gap. We live in a country, where the rich can just wake up and decide to travel abroad, just as their children school abroad and have access to good healthcare. On the part of the poor, the reverse is the case."

In addition, Iweala said: "The children of the poor don’t have good schools to attend to and no good healthcare system in a country of 150 million people. That is the inequality we are talking about. We must change this because I know it is possible to do so. I will ensure that we improve the lot of the common people, in order to prevent our young people from moving abroad."

Vanguard's HENRY UMORU, CHARLES KUMOLU, INALEGWU SHAIBU& OGECHI OHAEGBULAM

Nigeria spends N630 billion to import agricultural foods annually because the agricultural sector has been pushed to the background, the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has said.

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi said this yesterday in Abuja when President Goodluck Jonathan launched the N77.5 billion Nigeria incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agriculture (NIRSAL) meant to de-risk lending to the sector.

The CBN designed the NIRSAL as a mechanism to support farmers to transit from subsistence to commercial farming and for the banks to better understand agricultural financing as a profitable business.

Out of the N630 billion spends on food importation annually, N165 billion goes for wheat, N105 billion on fish, N75 billion on rice and N60 billion on sugar.

"In the last five decades, agricultural financing in Nigeria considered and treated each project in isolation not giving adequate attention to other players along the value chain," Sanusi said.

Vice President Mohammed Sambo Namadi represented the President to launch the NIRSAL which is structured into five pillars.

The first pillar is what is called Risk Sharing Facilities which is allocated N46.5 billion; Insurance Facility N4.65 billion; Technical Assistance Facility N9.3 billion; Agric Bank Rating System N1.55 billion; and Bank Incentive Mechanism N15.5 billion.

The President commended the Governor of CBN for the initiative, saying it will help in growing the sector.

NIRSAL is expected to generate additional N465 billion of bank lending within 10 years to increase agricultural lending from the current 1.4 to 7 percent of the total bank lending.

It is expected to increase lending to the pool of small farmers segment and reach 3.8 million agricultural producers by 2020.

It is also expected to reduce banks' break-even interest rate to borrowers from 14 to 7.5 to 10.5 percent.

It has been projected that the Nigerian agricultural sector has the potential to grow its current output valued N15.25 trillion by 160 percent to N39.4 trillion by 20230.

"This growth potential could be achieved by increasing both the productivity and total acreage of cultivated land since about 38 percent of Nigeria's arable land of 36.6 million ha is yet to be tapped," Sanusi said.

Idris Ahmed & Tina A. Hassan write for Daily Trust

Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Should Reject Ministerial Position

The government of President Jonathan is in the process of appointing cabinet ministers. Many of the old faces are busy clamouring for one position or another, but Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in particular is being persuaded and wooed to come back based on merit and a history of achievement. The former Minister of Finance and the present Managing Director of World Bank - Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala-needs no introduction for she is the golden appointment that will enhance the presidential cabinet. Her presence in the president's cabinet will bring a comfort level, credibility and dignity that the country needs in the financial world and globalized economy.

When Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is referred as an international financial superstar that is not an overstatement, neither is it pandering to sycophancy. Her fame in Nigeria and beyond is based on concrete achievement and verifiable merit. Her superior educational qualification and training she obtained from prestigious Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is not only what made her an outstanding intellectual and a model citizen of Nigeria; but in addition she has a compelling track record as a technocrat and problem solving over-achiever.

The hard work she put on securing the 18 percent debt write-off and Nigeria's settlement of debts from both Paris and London Clubs of Creditors speaks for itself. Many of us disagreed not with the final exit from the debt but with methodological process and procedure employed by the creditors to arrive at the said debt. For in the final analysis the payment of the big sum of money to these international institutions that used nail crushing interest rates and arrears to arrive at the large debt that Nigeria owned may not be conducive for a country that has overwhelming poverty in her midst.

That notwithstanding, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala did her job by making the best of the moment and saved Nigeria from further higher debt and the mortgaging of the country's financial standing and the financial future of our posterity. She was given a job to do and she did it excellently. And for that Nigerians are grateful to her.

According to the reverberating news on pages of newspaper, her coming back as minister of finance is almost a done deal except that the issues of dollar/naira compensation package and depth of assignment portfolio are receiving finishing touches, therefore holding back the announcement of her appointment.

(R) Dr. Okonjo-Iweala & Afripol's Emeka Chiakwelu at World Affairs conference

Dr. Okonjo-Iweala is a woman of intellectual substance and prudence, and she is not likely to solicit an advice from anybody outside her circle of relation and sphere of influence. Okonjo-Iweala should say no to this appointment because her second coming maybe her stumbling block. The manner she departed from the last position she held was not comforting and in way it was not ceremonial. She came to former President Obsanjo's administration as a finance minister. Later she was transferred to foreign ministry and that was the position she held before she resigned in a foreign land as she was conducting diplomatic business for Nigeria.

Dr. Okonjo-Iweala because of her straight forwardness and transparency of conducting the affairs of her ministerial positions has acquired friends and foes. The later that are in high places with considerable power in media have not give up in throwing her good in the mud. This time around they will not wait for her to make any mistake before they will find her guilty in the pages of newspapers.

Dr. Okonjo-Iweala has both fame and fortune. Does she need the headache of cabinet minister?

A good name is a treasure and once it is compromised, it will be difficult to be reclaimed and re-cultivate. The implication is that the global respect she has worked her to earn and garnish will dissipate in the wind. But this is her decision to be made.

Dr. Okonjo-Iweala can still serve her fatherland not just only by holding a cabinet minister position but by also becoming an adviser to President Jonathan; as she was to Obasanjo's administration before she was appointed a minister, on the matters of finance and economics. Even in that capacity she can accomplish a lot without having detractors and professional critic to question any policy advise she gives to the president in private.

Emeka Chiakwelu, Principal policy Strategist at Afripol. Africa Political & Economic Strategic Center (AFRIPOL).