Over the coming weeks we will be focusing on regional coverage, starting this week with North Africa.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/305/blogs_01_nefertiti.gif comments on a new law which she states reflects Egypt’s religious intolerance. She reports on a new law that forbids Christians who have converted to Islam from reverting to Christianity however Muslims who covert to Christianity then wish to revert back to Islam are free to do so.

According to Neferteeti, there is resentment from the Christian community who say the law is a 'step backwards' as the constitution gives freedom of religion.

'Meanwhile, Christian clergy have also voiced their concern over the new law, saying that Christians must take a serious stand against the law and object to the oppression of the government.

Morqous Aziz, a Coptic priest, recently told reporters that there would be an appeal of the ruling.

'This is...oppression against all religions and the [Egyptian] Constitution. The Pope will do something about the matter.'

Maybe people should study the religion they want to convert to a little more deeply then they wouldn’t have to go back and forth between religions.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/305/blogs_02_snefru.gifFellow Egyptian blogger – Faisal's Tobril takes issue with Neferteeti’s comment stating that she 'has got things wrong' about Islam and in particular her statement about Islam being too afraid to let people choose. He goes on to say:

'Do we blame Christianity, or the Aryan race, for Hitler’s mass murder of European Jews? Or do we blame one man, Hitler himself, for the actions taken by members of the Nazi party and the army of the Third Reich?

I should think the answers to the question would be: The men themselves (and not Christianity) as well as Hitler (and not Christianity nor the Aryan race).

It does not require a religious scholar nor a person of astounding knowledge to realize that the application of the different supposed rules of different religions are carried out differently from region to region and country to country. Compare Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Morrocco, Turkey and Egypt, if you need facts.'

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/305/blogs_03_mahgrebism.gifMaghrebism is one of many North African blogs commenting on President Nicolas Sarkozy’s appointment of Rachida Dati (of Moroccan and Algerian parentage) as the new justice minister. He does not say whether he supports the appointment but responds to those people that criticise the appointment such as Morocco Time (see below).

'You know, I’ve seen this happen a lot. Apparently, we Moroccans/North Africans in Europe, are subjected to an invisible law that states that we can only be government members if that government is “leftist”.

Apparently there is also another invisible law that states that North Africans have to have the same view on immigration and integration as the “leftists”.

And if we don’t share the same views, we’re bigots, traitors and Uncle Toms.
Why can’t an immigrant child share the same views as Sarkozy? (or any other rightist politician for that matter).'

No there is no law but as Morocco Time points out there is considerable hypocrisy around Ms Dati’s support of Sarkozy…

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/305/blogs_04_liosliath.gifhttp://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/305/blogs_05_blacklooks.gifhttp://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/305/blogs_06_septic.gifSeptiC asks us to sign a petition against the proposed concert by the Rolling Stones in Israel. He received one comment saying that no one gave 'a rat's ass' about boycotting and responded as follows:

'In the eyes of the uneducated and unwilling to learn, maybe. But that only applies if your expectations are very low. Mine aren't.

Some people know damn well what's going on. A good example that I came across a couple of weeks ago is Alan Rickman of Die Hard, Galaxy Quest, and the Potter movies. Rickman directed a play based on the diaries of Rachel Corrie - the 23 year old American woman who was killed on March 16, 2003 by an Israeli Army bulldozer while she was protesting against the demolition of Palestinian civilian homes.

I wouldn't for a second think that Alan Rickman, for instance, didn't give a "rat's ass".

Artists who choose to inform themselves of the realities of the situation should act responsibly. And in this day and age, not informing yourself is simply irresponsible.

If the Rolling Stones don't, as you say, "give a rat's ass" - then we should make it clear to them that we, in turn, won't give a rat's ass about them. It's that simple.'

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/305/blogs_07_altmuslim.gif • Ensure transparency and accountability on both ends. Nobody expects the US government to simply take the word of Muslim institutions and community leaders when they say they will take the necessary steps to prevent extremism from taking root.
• Give Muslims the freedom to fight extremism on the front lines. The main place that extremism thrives is not your local mosque, but on the Internet…'

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/305/blogs_08_progmuslima.gifProgressive Muslima News points to a BBC report on French rapper of Congolese parentage, Abd Al Malik who performs at France’s 'Metisses Music Festival'.

'His latest album Gibraltar has already won four awards, including the prestigious Victoire de la Musique. It’s an original mix of hip-hop, slam poetry and French philosophy. He sees Gibraltar as the symbolic meeting point of Africa and Europe.

The reason I called it Gibraltar was to use music to try and link our different cultures and people together…'

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/305/blogs_09_laila.gif
Moroccan literary blogger, http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/305/blogs_10_egyptian.gifEgyptian Chronicle writes about an advert in an Egyptian newspaper by Animal Rights activists attacking 'officials for the ill-treatment of street dogs'. This is serious as the President has ordered an investigation being that this ill treatment of dogs could affect the country’s tourist industry. Her comment:

'I don't know really which is bad or can affect the repetition of Egypt abroad photos of a dead pregnant street dog or video clips from humans sexually and physically abused in the police stations.

When the humans take their right first we can speak about other creatures' right because don't expect an oppressed human will treat others which are weaker from him or her fairly.

It seems the President is right – when it comes to tourism and the country’s reputation more people care about the dogs than Egypt’s human rights abuses.'

* Sokari Ekine is online editor of Pambazuka News and editor of the Black Looks blog

* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org

I am grateful for your support for Zimbabwe. SA is pathetically supporting the Mugabe regime, with no indication of supporting the masses. Thousands of refugees flock to this country every day. They are called illegal immigrants, they get arrested and deported to Zimbabwe each day. They are excluded from social services. Those qualified to do certain jobs cannot get proper papers to work, especially if their skills are not listed as needed.

I suggest that Zimbabweans themselves rise up in the diaspora. Let them stand up and be counted. If the masses would be visible...then we can start talking. Let the millions of Zimbabweans in SA rise up and be counted to air their grievances. The Zimbabwean problems will be solved by those who will take the initiative!

Dr S Dube
Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Limpopo, Pretoria

The U.N. Security Council has voted to keep its 17,000 peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo at least until the end of the year. The 15-nation council unanimously approved a resolution that also called on Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to submit by mid-November a timetable for the gradual reduction of the force, the largest the United Nations maintains anywhere. The new mandate expires on Dec. 31, 2007.

Wary eyes in French-speaking West Africa are being directed towards France as Nicolas Sarkozy begins his presidency. Babacar Gueye, political science professor at Dakar's Cheikh Anta Diop University, says most Africans were hoping for a different outcome. The May 7 run-off election pitted Sarkozy, a business-oriented conservative with a reformist agenda, against Senegal-born socialist Segolene Royal.

The African Development Bank (ADB) on Thursday concluded its two-day annual board meetings in Shanghai, boosting Africa-China ties in the process. ADB President Donald Kaberuka hailed the meetings as "a success". He said the discussions on a wide range of issues were constructive and the organization flawless. Around 2,000 people attended the meetings, including Rwandan President Paul Kagame, President of Cape Verde Pedro Pires and Madagascar President Marc Ravalomanana.

The United Nations human rights chief has said recent air raids by Sudanese forces on at least five Darfur villages appeared to be "indiscriminate and disproportionate", and violated international law. The attacks between April 19 and 29 have already been condemned by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, although Khartoum says they never took place.

African leaders will meet in Ghana in July to discuss the idea of creating a united government for the continent. This would be a legacy of the dreams of pioneering post-colonial leaders, such as Kwame Nkrumah, and would see current states surrender certain powers to the superior entity.

Militant groups in the Niger Delta have stepped up attacks on oil installations following last month's election. Since the beginning of May, pipelines have been sabotaged and at least 29 foreign oil workers have been kidnapped. A spokesman for the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) warned that attacks would continued until the government opened a dialogue about restoring the oil wealth to the people in the region.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/304/41480.jpgPastor Wuganaale, of the Ogoni Solidarity Front in Nigeria maintains that the Ogoni people wish to be free of 'indigenous colonisaton' and will not make a deal with Shell.

Barely 48 hours after the 'spiritual cleansing' service that was held in Ogoniland, the Centre for Conflict Resolution (CCR) in Cape Town hosted Rev. Fr. Mathew Hassan Kukah for a public talk entitled 'Nigerian Election: Is the country no Longer at Ease?'

The news of his visit to Cape Town, ostensibly to polish the image of the Obasanjo government and create a platform of acceptability for the incoming government, filtered into the office of the Ogoni Solidarity Forum about 24 hours before the programme.

Rev. Fr. Kukah summarily said that the Nigerian election is acceptable, considering the history of Nigeria and within the context of its politics, because there had been no credible election in the past. He emphasised that the George Bush election was as much fraud as the Nigerian election. 'But because it is America, things are still moving on' he said.

Kukah said the criticism of Nigeria’s own electoral charade is like describing the poor as thief. The Nigerian election is painted as fraudulent because it is Nigeria. This done to justify the mindset, perception and public opinion held of the country.

He argued that if the elections were as bad as the international observers claimed, 'why is it that there is calm in the country; the military should have taken over by now'.

Kukah went as far as to say that a fraudulent election is not the problem of the average Nigerians: 'what the people are looking for service delivery, no matter who is in power or how such person came to power'.

Kukah contradicted himself, even though he reaffirmed some of the things that are known facts.

For instance, he stated that the National Constitution Reformation Conference was aimed at elongating the period of Obasanjo in power. When it failed Obasanjo has to seek means of remaining relevant by becoming the power behind the power.

He also said that Shehu Musa Yar’Adua is not as clean as he has been portrayed. Stating that it is not practically possible for anybody to contest the position of the presidency in Nigerian without spending as much as 100,000,000 dollars he asked: 'who paid for all the planes that were used for the campaigns of Yar’Adua?'

His extensive presentation ended with the call that the Nigerian incoming government should be accepted, while at the same time he described Olusegun Obasanjo as the main disease that has bedeviled the country.

To his shock, the first person that intervened was an Ogoni, the project coordinator of Ogoni Solidarity Forum, Pastor Barry Wuganaale. He asked Kukah, 'if you know this much of Obasanjo and the fact that he runs a highly centralized state that masquerade as democracy, why have you been working with him to force the Ogoni people back into the failed state you describe Nigeria to be?'

The chairperson of the Anti-War Coalition of Western Cape followed with another question: 'Why is your committee aligning with the imperial force – Shell, that is behind the suffering of the people?'

The hall was dominated by the pro-Ogoni struggle activists. It turned the discussion to focus on Ogoni. Kukah flared in demonstration of his enragement and consequently made a lot of revelations. He was obviously stirred with the number of placards carried up from that moment till the end of the programme.

Some of the placards read:

'Rev. Fr. Kukah, what is your interest in Ogoni oil?'

'Kukah, what happened to the Oputa Panel?'

'If oil was in Kaduna would you allow it to be stolen?'

'Your Committee didn’t respond to the petition of the refugees in Benin!'

'Ogoniland does not need spiritual cleansing” “Ogoniland need environmental cleansing.'

'Don’t force Ogoni people to negotiate with HELL.'

'Kukah! Shell means HELL, what kind of clergy advocate for HELL for a people?'

'Ogonis are not ‘Nigerians.’

'Ogonis want to be free from indigenous colonization.'

'Ogonis are not your slaves.'

'Kukah; the time of slavery is over.'

'If you have no deal with Shell, hands off Ogoniland.'

In responding to the questions on Ogoni, which took over the whole discussion, Kukah said, it was Ledum Mitee that actually initiated the invitation of the United Nation Environmental Programme (UNEP) and that he has never been to Nairobi to have discussion with the UNEP.

On this matter, there seem to be a kernel of truth in Kukah’s statement. During the World Social Forum in Nairobi, Pastor Barry who was in Nairobi narrowly missed Ledum Mitee who left on the day of the opening of the WSF. Legborsi Pyagbara confirmed to Barry that Ledum was in Nairobi solely for a meeting with UNEP. After the WSF, Legborsi stayed behind for almost two weeks to follow up with meetings with the UNEP.

Kukah told the audience under suppressed anger that 'money had been given to your president, Ledum, on several occasion by the governor of Rivers state and he did not utilize them'.

Kukah made a staggering revelation that when Ledum Mitee was asked to say what should be given to the families of the eight other Ogonis that were hanged with Ken, that he 'suggested five hundred thousand or at most one million naira to each family'.

Kukah stated that the 5,000,000 naira that was given to each of the families of the deceased were out of the magnanimity of Peter Odili. From that point, the heat was turned to Mitee, he asserted that if MOSOP is fighting for democracy, why is it that Ledum Mitee has ruled MOSOP for ten years without an election and set outside the constitution of the organisation?

Kukah reiterated that the problem of the Ogoni people is the prominent Ogoni people that collect contract from the back door from Shell and the government, that countless number of opportunities had been given to the Ogoni through their elites but they were squandered by their representatives in government and the MOSOP.

Kukah went on to openly say that even Mitee does not believe that Shell should be driven out of Ogoniland because 'as your president, Ledum, puts it, Shell is not a chicken that can just be driven away like that.'

The most important revelation that Kukah made to the audience is that the Ogoni people are already being antagonised, because, 'other tribes are worried that the Ogoni is cheating them for not allowing Shell to drill from their land, so whose oil would be used to develop your own land?'

Kukah implied that the Ogoni people must allow themselves to be part of the corrupt Nigerian system because the time of carrying placards over. Communism he said is death. 'Placards or guns had never enabled any people to form a government in the world, you have to join to the government because no matter how good your voice is, you can never sing anywhere except in the choir.'

He explained in no uncertain terms that the several Ogonis had been begging for appointment and departing from the Ogoni Bill of Rights. In apparently referring to struggle for resource control by the Ogoni people, he said:

'No ethnic group has ever had control over oil, it is the right of the federal government to mine and control oil and your people cannot achieve that.'

Mathew Kukah concluded by saying that the prayer and dedication of Ogoniland that was organised on 14 May was initiated by the Christian leaders of Ogoniland. 'If the Ogoni people say they want to pray and cleanse their land, l am not an Ogoni man and l cannot oppose it.'

* Pastor Barry Wuganaale is from the Ogoni Solidarity Front, Cape Town, South Africa.

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

Aid-for-Trade (A4T) initiative is a new concept introduced as part of the World Trade Organisation (WTO)'s package to make the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) truly development oriented. Specifically, A4T is aimed at promoting development in low-income countries, especially the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) weak and vulnerable economies, given that these economies cannot profit from increased market access and trade liberalisation without supply-side capacity support in terms of production of goods, improved infrastructure, and enhanced human and institutional capacity.

FEATURES: Ronald Wesso on the challenges for solidarity with Zimbabwe activists
COMMENT AND ANALYSIS:
- Book reviews and commentary on child soldiers by Lansana Gberie
- SMS election monitoring report from Nigeria
- Kavaljit Singh discusses Southern transnationals
- Pastor Barry Wuganaale says no to Shell in Ogoniland
LETTERS: Mordecai Mahlangu on being assaulted by Mugabe
PAN-AFRICAN POSTCARD: Tajudeen Abdul Raheem on Wolfowitz, the World Bank and the hypocrisy of the West
BLOGGING AFRICA: A round up of the African blogosphere
BOOKS AND ARTS: Raising funds for Zimbabwean activists

WOMEN AND GENDER: Is violence against women on the HIV/Aids donor agenda?
CONFLICT AND EMERGENCIES: Bomb kills four peacekeepers in Somalia
HUMAN RIGHTS: 20,000 poor Angolans evicted from capital
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: Nigerian lawyers boycott courts
REFUGEES AND FORCED MIGRATION: Coast guard saves 35 illegal immigrants
ELECTIONS AND GOVERNANCE: Controversy ahead of Congo elections
AFRICA AND CHINA: Calls for wider Sino-African cooperation
CORRUPTION: Wolfowitz resigns
DEVELOPMENT: Making a case for debt relief with no strings attached
HEALTH AND HIV/Aids: Nevirapine price-cut for developing world
EDUCATION: Zimbabwe’s teachers go AWOL
LGBTI: Frontline grants for human rights defenders at risk
ENVIRONMENT: Continent pays price for climate change
LAND & LAND RIGHTS: Agrarian reform in South Africa comes down to earth
MEDIA AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: Kenya’s FoI bill tabled in parliament
NEWS FROM THE DIASPORA: Very British coup for African francophone
INTERNET AND TECHNOLOGY: New laws to regulate Ghana’s ICT industry
PLUS: e-newsletters and mailings lists; fundraising and useful resources; courses,
seminars and workshops, jobs and books and publications

*Pambazuka News now has a Del.icio.us page, where you can view the various websites that we visit to keep our fingers on the pulse of Africa! Visit

Barely two months before legislative elections in the Republic of Congo, a row is raging between the government and opposition over the composition of the electoral commission that will oversee the polls. The national assembly, dominated by members of President Denis Sassou-Nguesso's party, in April adopted a motion stipulating that members of the independent electoral commission be nominated by presidential decree.

Between 2002 and 2006, Angola’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has reached 89.6 percent, a General Programme Performance Report approved by the cabinet council reveals. The fourth extra-ordinary cabinet council meeting chaired by the Angolan President, José Eduardo dos Santos, approved the report. And in a statement, the council said agriculture, transforming industry and commercial services recorded unexpected growth – more than what has been planned.

Although third world debt has long been recognized as a major obstacle to sustainable human development, poor countries are still paying money to rich countries and institutions at great cost to their domestic development. Responding to the gravity of the situation, 16 May 2007, World Debt Day, reminds us of the millions of people living in poverty as a result of unpayable world debt - notwithstanding the fact that poverty increases the power relations between the north and the south.

The security situation in northern Uganda has improved beyond recognition since peace talks to end 20 years of civil war began last July, the new U.N. aid chief has said. John Holmes is on his first visit to the region ravaged by an insurgency that has killed tens of thousands and driven some 1.7 million more into squalid camps.

The scandal hanging over World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz has damaged his ability to preach against corruption in Africa, but Africans say the bank's anti-graft message must remain whether he stays or goes. The bank is due to give its final decision soon on Wolfowitz's future, which is now clouded over a pay and promotion deal he approved for his companion, World Bank Middle East expert Shaha Riza.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/304/41428.jpgLansana Gberie reviews two books on child soldiers: Allah is Not Obliged by Ahmadou Kourama and Ishmael Beah’s A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, which is now being sold in Starbucks coffee shops across America.

The most difficult ones to deal with, the earnest UN official told me, are the 'teenage ruffians'. I was talking to him in Monrovia, capital of Liberia in 2004.

A large UN force, 15,000 strong, was desperately trying to disarm the mostly deranged combatants who ravaged the place for over a decade. Many people had thought that the disarmament would be fairly easy because a large number of the Liberian militias have gone through such a process before, some of them twice.

There had been the incomplete process, supervised by ECOMOG (the West African intervention force) just before the shambolic 1997 elections. Some of the Liberian fighters had actually been disarmed as fighters in Sierra Leone during that country’s (earlier) UN-supervised disarmament process.

But the first attempted demobilisation turned chaotic after the militias, desperate for the small cash incentive to hand in their weapons before Christmas, stormed Monrovia. At least eight people were killed in the ensuing violence. In the event, the UN paid 12,000 soldiers but received only 8,000 weapons.

The UN official calmly told me about a two-hour long meeting he had had with '48 Generals'. 'Most of them were children, of course', he added. 'And the trouble is that these bush Generals are absolutely jealous of their ranks! It makes the word ‘feral’ meaningless.'

The official suggested that I go with him to Gbarnga to see for myself. With some reluctance I agreed. Gbarnga was once the headquarters of Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), which started Liberia’s war. It had become an immense ruin. The pathos of its decrepitude was that it had now edged itself, once again, towards the centre of Liberia’s woes: the militias encamped there had become frighteningly restive and violent.

By the time we got there, a long line of them had formed at the cantonment site to hand in old AK 47 rifles and collect their money. Things seemed to be going well when suddenly a scrawny teenage fighter with a bandana around his head jumped ahead of the queue, raised his old rifle and started shouting abuses at the UN officers. 'Mother fucker. Give us our money now or we’ll go to Sierra Leone, to Guinea, to Ivory Coast, and start fighting all over again.' I sneaked quietly away.

I was reminded of this chilly incident recently when I started reading Ahmadou Kourama’s haunting novel Allah is Not Obliged. Its obscenely loquacious central character, Birihima, an ex-child fighter who has seen service in the wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone, happily describes himself as 'rude as a goat’s beard', and given to swearing 'like a bastard'.

He continues: 'I don’t give two fucks about village custom any more, 'cos I’ve been in Liberia and killed lots of guys with an AK-47 (we called it a ‘kalash’) and got fucked-up on kanif [cannabis] and lots of hard drugs.' He is now, he says, stalked by 'the ghosts of many innocent people I killed'. This is not 'an edifying spectacle'.

The novel was first published in France in 2000. Its Ivorian author died three years later. It was a huge success in France, but its English edition, published by William Heinemann last year got a few respectable mentions and then was quickly forgotten.

The novel’s liberal and somewhat foolish use of the word ‘nigger’ was probably too off-putting. Doubtless it makes the story – a powerful psychological exploration of the terrible phenomenon of child soldiery – less exalted for a reader of the English translation than it actually is.

The narrator says at the outset in the novel that 'the full, final and completely complete title of my bullshit story is Allah is not obliged to be fair about all things he does on earth.' It is an insight of sort, capturing the kind of cynicism that has, until recently, surrounded the phenomenon of child soldiery.

The use of children in armed combat is probably as old as warfare itself. It has never been limited to irregular armies. Even Clauswitz, the great theoretician of conventional warfare, joined the Prussian army at age 13. There were hundreds of thousands of children in all the major armies that fought the two world wars.

After much foot-dragging, in 1989 193 countries signed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which sets 15 years as the minimum age for recruitment into armed forces.

Incidentally the US (and Somalia, no doubt because it didn’t have a government) signed, but refused to ratify the convention. The convention was largely ignored even by those who signed it There was no legal instrument to enforce it.

In the 1980s Renamo, a uniquely brutal (and mercenary) rebel group in Mozambique, which anticipated Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in the use of amputations as a war tactic, had made widespread recruitment of children into its militia (also anticipating the RUF) a core part of its insurgency.

Other African rebel groups, also markedly mercenary, followed this pattern. The spectacle of drug-addled children armed with AK 47 rifles and gamely inflicting terror against defenceless civilians became a ubiquitous part of African warfare: a metaphor for the continent’s underdevelopment and mindless brutality.

After an intense campaign – led by Graca Machel, the Mozambican wife of Nelson Mandela, with the active support of then Canadian foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy – against this appalling new reality, the UN Security Council in 2000 passed the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict, which made no distinction between formal militaries and non-state militias, and which defined the recruitment of children under 18 (instead of 15) years of age as a war crime.

Since then, UN-sponsored war crimes trials, like the one in Sierra Leone, have included recruitment of children into armed groups as a crime against humanity.

As I write, however, it is estimated that 300,000 children are serving in various armies or militia groups around the world. During Sierra Leone’s war, the RUF would have its child recruits branded with red-hot bayonets: the figures R-U-F were literally carved on their body, making defection – because RUF fighters caught by government troops and sometimes by civilians were often summarily executed – almost impossible. These children – hysterical, flagellant, and immensely lethal – would then roam the countryside, destroying every living thing they encounter.

Shortly before the Optional Protocol was issued, I attended a conference about child soldiers, organised by Axworthy in the Canadian city of Winnipeg in 2000.

In one of the sessions, I attempted to make a distinction between children kidnapped and inducted into militias (like the RUF did) and those who, orphaned and left homeless by the terror campaigns of insurgents voluntarily join armies or pro-government forces, finding for themselves a home and some kind of security.

The Liberian activist/politician Conmany Wesseh, who was actively engaged with the problem in West Africa, took me aside and remarked: 'This issue does not admit of such a fine distinction. Recruitment of children into any armed group is bad, full stop. You provide a loophole for all kinds of opportunists by fudging: what moral and professional difference is there between some armies and all these rebel groups?' His point was unanswerable, and I kept quiet about the issue henceforth.

Ishmael Beah’s phenomenally successful A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2007) makes this same point in another way. Though his pained but fluent account does not exactly resolve the central dilemma.

Beah served as a child soldier in the Sierra Leone army during the country’s decade-long war. His book, which recounts his traumatic experiences during the period, has been on the top of the New York Times bestseller list for several weeks now, and it is being offered by Starbucks in its thousands of coffee shops in North America. It has been a sensation.

While reading my copy on the plane during the short flight from Chicago to New York City recently, a handsome teenage girl leaned over my seat. Giggling, she asked me whether I found it interesting. 'I heard him [Beah] speak yesterday and I bought a copy there and then', she said. 'I am so excited about it!'

It was the most unalloyed compliment that can be made of a recently-released book, pure in its curiosity and innocence. It almost made me – someone who has also written about the war of which Beah’s memoir is concerned – green with envy. I found Beah’s astonishing story both unsettling and hugely satisfying: the author, who is now 27, emerges as a highly intelligent young man with remarkable literary flair. But his account has obvious flaws.

Beah was just ten when the war in Sierra Leone started. He was attending school in a village in southern Sierra Leone, which became one of the key theatres of the bloody conflict. At that age, he had already read Shakespeare. He could quote passages from Julius Caesar from memory. He had also become interested in American hip hop.

The book is a sustained study in such contrasts: high culture versus low, a Shakespeare-loving teenager committing barbarous atrocities, frightened civilians versus red-eyed murderers, a friendly people versus brutal politics, demented cruelty versus pure kindness, poverty-stricken Sierra Leone versus affluent New York.

It is soon clear that the book is aimed, first and last, at an American readership. No problem with that: for Beah tells us early on that he intends to address the curiosity of his former schoolmates who had always suspected that he was not telling them all about his past.

This past, therefore, comes to include his memory of some 'nice summer days' in Sierra Leone – the torrential rains in the country, which should surely form one of the most vivid of experiences for a barefoot straggler in the bush there, is barely mentioned (and when mentioned only perfunctorily).

Hip Hop is evoked throughout – and why not? It can be readily associated with gun violence and drugs in America, core aspects of Beah’s experience as a boy soldier. One should not quibble too much here, even when Beah calls Yele 'a big village with more than ten houses' – it is actually a small town with over a hundred houses.

The area that Beah lived in, somewhere in Moyamba District in southern Sierra Leone, was largely unaffected by the war in its early stages. But then rebels – aided by rogue government troops – attacked the Sierra Leone Rutile Mines, where Beah’s father worked, in 1994.

They killed some of the people, apparently including Beah’s parents, and kidnapped some European ex-patriate workers and Sierra Leonean senior staff.

Beah was then living in a village not far away, and soon his village was also attacked. He fled with a few friends. Then he began a traumatic trek through the bush to virtually nowhere.

Beah devotes a lot of space to this depressing bush trek – the night spent in the forest living bare, grim encounters with the rebels in some places, the death and destruction they encountered along the way, the occasional kindness he and his friends got along the way, the more general fear that people they met had for child stragglers who could well have been rebels, the debilitating hunger and near-collapse into insanity – about three times more space, in fact, than for his actual experience as a child fighter.

The intention is plain. Without this background, without knowledge of the hopelessness of Beah’s situation, one would be far less prepared for this:

'My face, my hands, my shirt and gun were covered with blood. I raised my gun and pulled the trigger, and I killed a man. Suddenly, as if someone was shooting them inside my brain, all the massacres I had seen since the day I was touched by war began flashing in my head. Every time I stopped shooting to change magazines and saw my two young lifeless friends, I angrily pointed my gun into the swamp and killed more people. I shot everything that moved, until we were ordered to retreat because we needed another strategy.'

Beah is describing his first real battle with the rebels after his recruitment into a contingent of Sierra Leone Army by an officer who, like Beah, would quote Shakespeare for fun. The recruitment, unlike those into the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF), was not coerced. But it was not voluntary either.

It was also ad hoc: the new recruits were not registered as government soldiers, and were not paid. They accounted only to the officer, acting on his own whim, who had recruited them.

After the months trekking in the bush, the starving young boys having completely run down to seeds, Beah and his friends really had no choice when, after spending some days in the village where the army had occupied in some comfort, they along with everyone else in the village were asked to help defend the village from the rebels who had started mounting attacks against it. Two of Beah’s very young friends were killed at the first encounter with the rebels. A line had been crossed. Beah becomes a killing machine. He tells us:

'I grabbed [a] man’s head and slit his throat in one fluid motion. His Adam’s apple made way for the sharp knife, and I turned the bayonet on its zigzag edge as I brought it out.'

All this may be true, but what one remembers about one’s past is always a choice – a choice partly conditioned by what one feels one’s audience expects. It is hard not to feel, on reading this, that Beah is keen on playing to all those voyeurs after adolescent terror and mindless African violence.

This may be a curious judgment, but one thinks that Beah is perhaps guilty of a chilling excess of candour. Killing people becomes a way of life, an obligation: in war you have to kill to remain alive. The lieutenant who recruited Beah tells him: 'Visualise the enemy, the rebels who killed your parents, your family, and those who are responsible for everything that has happened to you.'

He would add: '...[the rebels] have lost everything that makes them human. They do not deserve to live. That is why we must kill every single one of them…It is the highest service you can perform for your country.'

Beah takes the message to heart – so much so in fact that he is made an officer, having command over his own troop of child fighters. W.H Auden’s famous poem, 'September 1, 1939', about that 'low dishonest decade' of 'darkened lands of the earth' comes readily to mind:

I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return

It was terribly traumatic for Beah, all the same. For months after his rescue from this murderous life by the UN and an NGO dedicated to rehabilitating ex-child soldiers, he suffered from nightmares and frequent bouts of migraine (the side effects of the heavy drugs they fed on daily).

The rehabilitation turns out to be far more difficult than his induction into the army, and there were moments of extreme violence – fights broke out between child soldiers who had served with the Sierra Leone and those who had fought with the RUF, leading to loss of lives.

On arriving at the camp, Beah encounters another ex-child soldier who looked to him like a RUF rebel. Beah, who had hidden a grenade in his pocket, took it, and the boy pulled out a bayonet. Beah asked who the boy was. 'We are from Kono district', the boy replied. 'Ah, the diamond district!', Alhaji, Beah’s friend, responds.

Finally the boy says: 'I fought for the army. The rebels burned my village and killed my parents, and you look like one of them'. A deadly fight was averted. It is a telling moment, but quickly Beah relates another encounter which seems to make another, more profound point. He and his other friend, Mambu, accost another ex-child soldier who looks different in appearance. 'What kind of army person wears civilian clothes?' Mambu asks of the boy. The boy responds: 'We fought for the RUF; the army is the enemy. We fought for freedom, and the army killed my family and destroyed my village.' A nasty fight breaks out immediately, and several people are killed.

It does not really matter, in other words, on what side one fought during the war: all sides had reasonable claims to have been wronged: all the armed groups in the country committed atrocities, and all should be held to account on the same level. There is no difference, this incident seems to suggest, in the methodology of recruitment and induction into the various fighting forces. The problem is that this is not true, and it is clear from Beah’s account overall that this point is absurd: it looks like a sop to the campaigners against child soldiery.

It is a noble campaign, but as I said at the Winnipeg conference, there was a marked difference in how the RUF recruited its child fighters and how the army and the Civil Defence Force (CDF) did. The end result may have been pretty much the same, but I doubt whether any official – UN or NGO – could have ventured in a RUF camp (as they did to many army and CDF camps, including Beah’s) to take away child soldiers for rehabilitation camps. The RUF fighters in the rehabilitation camps were, before the war ended, very few, and they certainly were not handed over by their commanders.

Beah’s book does not provide a history of the war or the background to the conflict. Its singular value is that it gives an insight into the thinking of the child soldiers, and it shows – in the subsequent career of Beah – that rehabilitation is eminently possible.

Beah left Sierra Leone after a bloody in 1997 coup. He had earlier acted as a spokesman at a UN conference in New York on child soldiery. He returned to New York and was adopted by an American woman he had met during his first visit. There he attends college, earns a degree, and has now provided us this valuable memoir. For this reason alone, the book deserves the recognition it has been accorded.

* Lansana Gberie is a writer and journalist from Sierra Leone. He is the author of A Dirty War in West Africa: The RUF and the Destruction of Sierra Leone (Indiana University Press 2006).

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

The Botswana government has announced that access to the country for the top UN human rights spokesman for indigenous peoples will be restricted. In an astonishing move, the government has invoked a special clause of the country’s constitution to slam visa restrictions on the UN’s special rapporteur on indigenous peoples, Mexican Rodolfo Stavenhagen.

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/304/41426.jpgSince the 1990s there has been an emergence of transnational corporations (TNCs) in the developing world. Kavaljit Singh assesses the economic and environmental impact on the both the host countries and the outflows between the South-South multinationals.

The mid-1990s witnessed the dramatic emergence of transnational corporations from the developing world.

Although much of the investment by these corporations is concentrated in other developing countries, South-South, they are increasingly investing heavily in developed countries, South-North, as well.

The South-South and South-North FDI (foreign direct investment) flows are growing much faster than the traditional North-South FDI flows.

However, 87 per cent of the total outward FDI flows in 2004 originated from just ten developing countries.

In terms of foreign assets, the majority of top 50 Southern TNCs are headquartered in Asia (32), followed by Latin America (11) and Africa (7, all of them in South Africa).

What is interesting to note is that the increase in FDI outflows is concentrated in many of the same countries that receive the bulk of FDI inflows to developing countries such as China, Brazil, India, South Africa, and Mexico. Outward FDI from China increased from a meagre $400 million in 1980 to $38 billion by the end of 2004.

China is also the second largest investor in Africa, after the US. In the case of India, there were 136 outward investment deals valued at $4.3 billion in 2005. The value of outward foreign investment by Indian firms almost nears the level of inward foreign investment.

With the lifting of international sanctions and the relaxation of capital controls, South African TNCs such as the Anglo American Corporation, De Beers, and SABMiller have become dominant players in the African region. In the words of Graham Mackay, CEO of SABMiller, 'If there was any more of Africa, we would be investing in it. The return on investments here (Africa) has been fantastic.' [1]

The motivations behind cross-border investments by Southern TNCs are not different from others. To a large extent, competition pressures arising from globalisation processes (such as liberalisation of imports and inward FDI) drive Southern corporations to invest abroad.

Like their Northern counterparts, the Southern TNCs are investing abroad to gain access to natural resources, markets, skills, and technology. In some recent cases, acquiring brand names (such as the acquisition of IBM’s personal computer division by China’s Lenovo) seems to be the prime motive.

To a large extent, the expansion of South-South and South-North investment flows reflects the increasing integration of developing countries into the world economy. A number of important factors including regional integration through trade and investment agreements, trade and financial liberalisation, increasing wealth as well as limited market size and resource base at home have encouraged Southern TNCs to invest abroad.

Instead of investing in greenfield projects, however, Southern transnationals are increasingly undertaking investments through acquisitions. Recently announced buyout deals (such as Beijing-based Lenovo’s purchase of IBM’s PC business and the acquisition by Mexican company Cemex of the UK’s RMC) suggest that Southern TNCs are more actively engaged in M&A deals.

The bulk of India’s outward FDI is in the form of mergers and acquisitions, mainly in telecommunications, energy and pharmaceuticals. Even though most of the buyouts by Southern TNCs may still be under the billion dollar range, they portray an increasing outward orientation of big business in the developing world.

According to Joseph Battat and Dilek Aykut of the World Bank, South-South FDI increased from $15 billion in 1995 to $46 billion in 2003, accounting for some 35 per cent of total FDI flows in developing countries [2]. Despite their small size, South-South FDI flows are significant to many poor countries such as Lesotho, Mongolia, and Nepal. As far as South-North FDI flows are concerned, OECD countries received $16 billion of FDI in 2001, up from a mere $1 billion in 1995.

The bulk of South-South FDI flows are regional. For instance, nearly two-thirds of FDI into China originates in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan. Similarly, transnational corporations from Chile, Brazil, and Argentina operate largely in the Latin American region. Russian investments abroad have primarily been in the countries of the former Soviet Union while South African investments are almost completely located in Southern Africa.

In addition, the majority of South-South FDI flows are concentrated in the infrastructure and extractive sectors such as oil and gas. It is mainly state-owned corporations that dominate investments in these sectors. State-owned oil companies from China and India are rapidly acquiring oil and gas fields in Sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia, and Latin America. For instance, almost half of China’s outward FDI went to acquire natural resource projects in Latin America in 2004. Similarly, India’s state-owned firm, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, invested heavily in oil and gas fields in the Russian Federation and Angola.

Given that state-owned corporations are a significant source of South-South FDI flows (particularly in extractive industries and infrastructure), such investments may be driven not only by economic but also by political, strategic and diplomatic factors. The billions of dollars worth of investment by China in Africa is a case in point. The Chinese companies are involved in the building of oil refineries, dams, roads, and big infrastructure projects in several African countries including Sudan, Liberia, Angola, Chad, and Central African Republic.

However, China’s investments in Africa are not purely driven by economic factors. To some extent, such big investments also help China in earning international goodwill and securing political support for its own agenda, particularly to isolate Taiwan diplomatically (out of total 26 countries that have full diplomatic relations with Taiwan, seven belong to Africa).

It is interesting to note that outward investments by Southern TNCs are also supported by their respective governments through removal of capital controls, fiscal incentives, and investment protection measures. China, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore have created special mechanisms to provide preferential treatment and insurance against risks through credit guarantees schemes.

For instance, the Chinese government adopted a policy ('Go Global') in 2000 to encourage its firms to invest abroad. China’s Export-Import Bank provides loans to firms for outward investments in resource development and infrastructure.

If the investment is undertaken in an aid-recipient country, Chinese firms also receive preferential loans. Fiscal incentives are also provided to firms which bring machinery, plant, and equipment to their overseas ventures.

Some regional arrangements, such as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), also provide various incentives (including lower tax and tariff rates) for outward investment within the regions. Apart from fiscal and financial support, bilateral investment treaties and double taxation treaties between developing countries are growing.

To secure access to strategic assets, some Southern TNCs have also invested in developed countries such as Australia and Canada. In addition to the extractive and infrastructure sectors, there are also a few cases of large-scale South-North investments involving M&As (mergers & acquisitions). In particular, Chinese corporations have been active in acquiring several well-known consumer brand names, such as Thompson, RCA, and IBM.

Interestingly, tax havens are favorite destinations for many Southern TNCs as they are for Northern TNCs. The Cayman Islands, Bermuda, and Cyprus are the main destinations for Brazilian, Indian, and Russian outward FDI. Hong Kong plays an important role for the overseas expansion of Chinese corporations.

However, it needs to be emphasised here that some South-North investment deals have been subjected to intense political backlash in Northern countries. Several recent cross-border investment bids by Southern TNCs (for instance, the proposal by a Chinese company, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) to take over US oil company, Unocal) reflect growing unease among policy makers in the North.

Given the fact that most developing countries are usually capital importers, the rise of Southern TNCs poses new policy dilemmas. The policy makers in the developing world are increasingly finding it difficult to strike a balance between the country’s interest as a host country and its newly-found interests as a home country.

How should the new and growing phenomenon of outward FDI from the South be assessed? Are South-South FDI flows favorable to the host economy? Are the strategies and behaviors of Southern TNCs different from their Northern counterparts? Do Southern TNCs maintain better transparency, environmental, and labor standards than their Northern counterparts? What are the developmental impacts of investments by Southern TNCs? Who benefits from South-South investments? Who loses? Should South-South investment be promoted as an alternative to North-South investment flows?

Unfortunately, the answers to such pertinent questions are hampered by the lack of in-depth studies and reliable data on South-South and South-North FDI flows. Despite such information gaps, one thing is certain: this new and growing phenomenon is going to play an important role in the global economy in the coming years.

Notes:

1. Remarks made by Graham Mackay at Africa Economic Summit 2005, Cape Town, June 1-3, 2005.

2. Joseph Battat and Dilek Aykut, “Southern Multinationals: A Growing Phenomenon,” note prepared for the conference, Southern Multinationals: A Rising Force in the World Economy, Mumbai, November 9-10, 2005.

* Kavaljit Singh is Director of Public Interest Research Centre, a policy research institute, based in New Delhi. He is the author of widely published books, Questioning Globalization (Zed Books, 2005), Taming Global Financial Flows (Zed Books, 2000), and The Globalization of Finance: A Citizen's Guide (Zed Books, 1998). His previous publications on foreign investment include The Reality of Foreign Investments (Madhyam Books, 1997) and TNCs and India (with Jed Greer, PIRG, 1995).

* Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/304/41423.jpgThe Election Monitoring Report compiled by the Network of Mobile Election Monitors (NMEM) on the Nigerian presidential elections held on 21 April 2007.

Introduction
The idea of using mobile phones to monitor elections was developed by NMEM. We are proud to announce to the world that is was extremely successful. We also recommend that other organisations and countries study our project, and plan to use it in their own future elections.

The primary goal of the project was to use technology to give the ordinary citizen an opportunity to tell the world what really happened in their area on election day.

The spread and reach of mobile telephony in Nigeria is mind boggling: in the last four years more than 30,000,000 Nigerians have become mobile phone users.

Traditionally Eeection observers and monitors deemed credible are often foreign diplomats, bureaucrats and professionals who are sent to visit as many polling stations as they can and inform the world of their impression of the polls.

Their effectiveness is limited to the number of places they can visit in a just one day: in a country as vast as Nigeria with a land mass of 925,000 square kilometres and a population of 140,000,000; without maps or road signs to use in navigation, these foreign observers often limit their activities to Abuja, the capital, Lagos and a few major state capitals. Places like the Niger Delta with its reputation for violence and kidnapping of foreigners are no-go areas.

Most election observers especially in Africa are very conspicuous with their UN or EU branded 4-wheel drive jeeps, 'branded' t-shirts with 'observers' boldly printed on it and large ID tags around their necks.

This is often necessary for security reasons which allows them to move around freely on election day where movement is often restricted. This, however, reduces their effectiveness as people are prone to act properly when they know they are being watched, especially by foreigners.

This is why we decided to use ordinary citizens of Nigeria, all voters themselves to report back to our SMS hub on what really happened on election day from their own polling stations.

The use of ordinary Nigerians to observe and report on the election, we believe, encourages participation by people that would be apathetic as well as provide timely, accurate and impartial information on the conduct of the elections.

It is ultimately the same ordinary citizens who validate the credibility and legitimacy of the eventual electoral outcome. Our monitoring is peculiar because people knew that if they try to rig the election there could be someone behind them that may send a text message reporting the incident.

The network, and how it works
The Network of Mobile Election Monitors (NMEM) is organised by the Human Emancipation Lead Project (HELP) Foundation. With the assistance of Professionals for Humanity (PROFOH), another Nigerian NGO, the network started out with 54 associates resident in each of the 36 states of the country, and Abuja.

These associates were trained to recruit volunteers from their states and instruct them to forward our SMS text invitation to as many people as possible to create a nationwide spread.

Technology
The technology behind this project was made possible using a SMS hub called FrontlineSMS, developed by kiwanja.net, to keep track of all of the texts.

The system allows mass-messaging to mobile phones and crucially the ability for recipients to reply to a central computer.

Thanks to the system we could acknowledge receipt of the text (SMS) and even make specific enquiry to individual volunteers and associates in any area to confirm the authenticity of reports received.

The software also was able to alert us when a report came in from our associates or hitherto unknown volunteer allowing us to rank the accuracy of the information received.

Although the software performed brilliantly we would have loved it to have the ability to make allowance for multimedia service (MMS) as a few of our associates took pictures on camera phones and could only forward them to us via the internet.

Election Day
Election day started out for the technical support staff at 8:30am. Our first task was to send a reminder SMS alert to our associates urging them to personally go to their designated polling stations and to file their report by 12 noon.

The first SMS (text) report to come through the network was on the eve of the presidential election at 11:06pm, alerting NMEM of skirmishes between soldiers of the Nigerian army and unknown militants around government house Yenengoa, Bayelsa state.

The first positive reports started to arrive at 2pm with reports of calm and orderliness in Ibiono Ibom L.G.A in Akwa Ibom State, and also from Kano GRA, Kano state.

From then on, we were flooded with reports from Nigerians who reported as events unfold during the election.The observations below represent a mix of text messages sent in by respondent:

Calm and orderliness; Late arrival of polling materials; Absence of names of registered voters on official voter lists; Early arrival INEC officials and members of the Civil Defense Corp; Voting without proper documents and identification; Extension of voting hours to augment for late opening; Absence of polling booths for voters confidentiality; Stuffing of ballot boxes; Casting away of voting materials; Poor voter turnout; Harassment and intimidation of voters; Ill-equipped security personnel.

Our analysis indicates that extensive fraud and rigging were perpetrated by participating political parties in their areas of control. In total over 10,000 messages were received into the SMS hub.

Observer feedback
The need to readily communicate with the Nigerian electorate was the prime motivation in choosing text messaging as the communications method for our work.

Following the announcement of the presidential election result on Monday the 23 April 2007, text messages were sent out to our respondent asking for their reaction on the acceptability of the result and the president-elect.

While about a fifth of our respondents wanted the results cancelled, the majority, about 80 per cent, reacted that Nigeria could not afford cancellation and re-run. Rather Nigerians want those who are aggrieved to seek peaceful redress at the election tribunals.

Curiously, some of the respondents that reported electoral fraud in their locations believe that the President-elect should be given a chance. One message, which was typical of a number we received, indicated:

'Gov.Yar Adua is generally acceptable as President mainly because of his lack of military antecedence, relative record of transparency as Governor of Katina State and the calibre of opposition he had.'

It is our belief that with adequate funding we can educate and inform the public to take part in exit polls at future elections. Due to inadequate funding we were unable to have our associates follow up at the ward collation center, or Local Government Areas and INEC state offices, where the tallies were added up. Most of our observations were limited to the polling stations.

Sample text messages - below are a few selected messages received from our observers:

'At ward 4 and 5 of Calabar Municipality materials arrived at about 9:45am. Voting started by 10am prompt. All the security agencies and party representatives were all present and voting was conducted orderly though the electorate turn out was low.'

'Almost all result sheets diverted by PDP stalwarts and INEC ad-hoc staff on the way to wards polling stations in Nsukka Enugu State.'

'EVERYWHERE IS CALM VOTING IS ON. MOVEMENT IS RESTRICTED FOR EFFECTIVENESS OF THE ELECTION PROCESS.'

'I want to commend the efforts of INEC and for making this election come to pass in the face of every challenge.'

'Dear Mobile Election Monitor team I am sending this text from UK. There is a huge irregularity of voting at Gwande Karfa ward. In Bokkos LGC. TAKE NOTE. NAPHTALI.

Conclusions
The just concluded election and subsequent handing over of power on 29 May will mark the first time in Nigerian history that power has been transfer from one elected president to another.

Our report indicates fraud and other irregularities in the elections, and this has been collaborated by report of foreign and other domestic observers.

However, there were pockets of hope in places where elections where orderly, free and fairly conducted as earlier mentioned in this report. These area needs to be commended for their vigilance and commitment to their civic responsibilities.

We however believe that the wish of the people was honoured and the most popular candidate returned. Though the election was flawed, many Nigerians shared their views with us, and we believe that this practice will greatly assist in determining the legitimacy of this and future elections in this country. We are very happy we helped give the people a voice via text messaging.

Recommendations
The government must make every effort not to be overly partisan in the electoral process. INEC must be made totally autonomous as regards its finances, appointment of its managerial personnel and its powers, and all aspects of the electoral process must be well articulated.

The political parties must be provided with irrevocable standards and timeline to present to their candidates. The judiciary must be sacrosanct about the laws of the land and be sensitive to the integrity of candidates before clearances to run in the elections. The legislator must be pro-active in its monitoring of the electoral process, and the election commission.

The Nigerian people require more sensitization on their civic responsibility, which should not be restricted to election period only Post-election NMEM project NMEM is convinced that elections and good governance are fundamental and sacrosanct in the democratic process. As such the monitoring and evaluation of an elected government by the governed becomes essential to the process.

In developing countries like Nigeria the challenges of the lack of institutionalised agencies to monitor and ensure good governance or its access and optimal engagement by the ordinary citizens is of great concern due to the almost malignancy of the abuse of office by the political elites. Intervention in the democratic process should therefore not wane after elections but become more resolute in the delivery of democratic dividends to the citizenry.

NMEM has started a process which aims to provide Nigerians a platform to express their aspirations, monitor and evaluate the performances of the elected government and the public office holders in the bid to ensuring good governance. NMEM has created templates of enquiry regarding Nigerians aspirations and expectations of the newly elected government and public officers.

Good Governance Monitoring Project
This phase of the NMEM project has two sub-divisions and is being developed to provide Nigerians with the channels to express aspirations and expectation of the incoming government, and engage directly in the assessment of the government and the performance of the public office holders.

The essence of this phase is to check the abuse of public trust
by political office holders. Firstly, NMEM will reach out to Nigerians via the mass media for Nigerians to articulate their aspirations/expectations through SMS to NMEM computer hub. Messages will be catalogued and presented to the political office holders of respective constituencies.

NMEM hopes this will strengthen the already established covenant between the representatives and their constituencies as already contained in their manifestos.

Although NMEM is challenged by the enormity of the project, the project hopes to identify partners who would share in this commendable intervention - to ensure good governance in Nigeria as a model of true democracy to other developing nations of the world.

For further information on the Good Governance Monitoring Project please contact:

Human Emancipation Lead Project
210 Olusegun Obasanjo Way Uyo Akwa Ibom State Nigeria Telephone: +234-8777-8051 Email: [email][email protected] Acknowledgements We are thankful most especially to Ken Banks of kiwanja.net for providing the technology backbone of our system, and technical assistance, free of charge.

USEFUL LINKS
1. BBC News: http://www.kiwanja.net
3. FrontlineSMS: http://www.frontlinesms.com
4. NMEM: http://www.mobilemonitors.org
5. BBC Digital Planet:
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* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org