Ron Singer

This report is a summary of a conversation with Honourable Albert Kan Dapaah, Chair, Public Accounts Committee, Parliament of Ghana on Thursday, 3 November 2011.

Nigeria’s massive problems are common knowledge. Negative stereotypes and jokes about scams and inefficiencies reverberate around the globe. In crime-ridden Johannesburg, for instance, Nigerians are regarded as primus inter pares. Hand-wringing books and articles also abound.

By serendipity, I met John Githongo on 28 February 2011, my last day in Nairobi, where I had been interviewing journalists for a book.

Dawit Kebede (b. 1980) is editor-in-chief of the Awramba Times, a weekly newspaper in Amharic which has the second-largest circulation of any Ethiopian paper, and which is also the sole remaining dissident print newspaper inside the country.

Understandably, the democratic risings in the Middle East and North Africa make the rulers of neighbouring countries very nervous. Since all of these rulers have at least a skeleton or two in their own closets, they worry about anything that looks as if it might spark discontent.