POLL: TWO-THIRDS OF NIGERIENS BACK COUP
As Jay-Z once put it, “Men lie, women lie, but numbers don't lie!” Well, the latest numbers coming from a poll conducted by The Economist suggest it’s no lie to say Niger’s coup enjoys popular support on the ground. The publication - hardly a fan of the coup itself - found that over two-thirds of Nigeriens back the new military leadership.
The survey also suggests over half the nation is against a foreign military intervention - of the kind the surrounding ECOWAS nations are threatening if the coup leaders don’t step aside. The Economist expresses “alarm” at the fact that over half of those polled who DO want to see an intervention, want to see Russia lead the charge.
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As Jay-Z once put it, “Men lie, women lie, but numbers don't lie!” Well, the latest numbers coming from a poll conducted by The Economist suggest it’s no lie to say Niger’s coup enjoys popular support on the ground. The publication - hardly a fan of the coup itself - found that over two-thirds of Nigeriens back the new military leadership.
The survey also suggests over half the nation is against a foreign military intervention - of the kind the surrounding ECOWAS nations are threatening if the coup leaders don’t step aside. The Economist expresses “alarm” at the fact that over half of those polled who DO want to see an intervention, want to see Russia lead the charge.
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Continued - POLL: TWO-THIRDS OF NIGERIENS BACK COUP
In the last two weeks, the publication has churned out stories portraying Niger's military government as a threat to regional peace, running headlines such as, “Niger’s putschists may end up warring with ECOWAS - but it is jihadists who will win.”
The Economist portrays itself as against the military takeover in Niamey because it is a strong believer in democracy. Let’s remember, though, that this same publication welcomed the overthrow of Chile's democratically elected leader Salvador Allende by US-backed dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1973.
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In the last two weeks, the publication has churned out stories portraying Niger's military government as a threat to regional peace, running headlines such as, “Niger’s putschists may end up warring with ECOWAS - but it is jihadists who will win.”
The Economist portrays itself as against the military takeover in Niamey because it is a strong believer in democracy. Let’s remember, though, that this same publication welcomed the overthrow of Chile's democratically elected leader Salvador Allende by US-backed dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1973.
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RUTO BACKS ‘ANY ECOWAS
INTERVENTION’
Kenya’s president has firmly denounced the coup in Niger - likening its leaders to colonial-era masters for their undemocratic ways.
Speaking during a visit to Mozambique, William Ruto also made clear that he would back any action the ECOWAS bloc of nations might take - including an intervention to restore the pre-coup order in Niger. He expressed his view that ECOWAS was fundamental to the regional African architecture - while also insisting any African nation that tolerates a coup can’t belong to the African Union.
What do you make of what he says?
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INTERVENTION’
Kenya’s president has firmly denounced the coup in Niger - likening its leaders to colonial-era masters for their undemocratic ways.
Speaking during a visit to Mozambique, William Ruto also made clear that he would back any action the ECOWAS bloc of nations might take - including an intervention to restore the pre-coup order in Niger. He expressed his view that ECOWAS was fundamental to the regional African architecture - while also insisting any African nation that tolerates a coup can’t belong to the African Union.
What do you make of what he says?
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WEST LOVES COUPS AND DICTATORS WHEN IT WANTS
The West, including France and the US, has condemned the coup in Niger - as it did the earlier military seizures of power in Mali and Burkina Faso. Yet it seems to have little objection to overthrowing regimes it dislikes, or to working with military leaders and dictators who are swept to power in this way.
Some of the regimes and individuals the West will happily deal with have dire records when it comes to humans rights and democracy. So what’s its REAL beef with Niger and others? It seems you can be as undemocratic and dictatorial as you like, so long as you serve Western interests.
Here’s a look at why you should treat the recent coup-denouncing noises coming out of Washington and the capitals of Europe with extra caution!
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The West, including France and the US, has condemned the coup in Niger - as it did the earlier military seizures of power in Mali and Burkina Faso. Yet it seems to have little objection to overthrowing regimes it dislikes, or to working with military leaders and dictators who are swept to power in this way.
Some of the regimes and individuals the West will happily deal with have dire records when it comes to humans rights and democracy. So what’s its REAL beef with Niger and others? It seems you can be as undemocratic and dictatorial as you like, so long as you serve Western interests.
Here’s a look at why you should treat the recent coup-denouncing noises coming out of Washington and the capitals of Europe with extra caution!
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A pregnant Sudanese woman has shared the horrible ordeal she and other migrants were put through by Tunisian security forces. Tafaul Omar and her husband had fled the war in her country, and had hoped to find safety. Instead, they were rounded up with others, some were beaten, and then the group was driven into the Saharan borderland with Libya and dumped - left to fend for themselves in scorching heat without food or water. It’s a harrowing experience that’s being faced by an increasing number of sub-Saharan Africans who’s journey has taken them to Tunisia, where there has been a spike in racist attacks amid a crackdown on migrants and hate-filled diatribes from the country’s president. Libyan border guards offer help to those they find, though they deny entry to Libya some, and are also recovering an increasing number of bodies in the desert.
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WEST’S SELF- DEFEATING ANTI- AFRICA BIAS
Mo Ibrahim is a British billionaire businessman with a difference - pointing out Western hypocrisy towards African nations. Well, okay - he’s also Sudanese!
In this clip, he compares the sluggish actioning of vaccine access for Africans during the global pandemic with the rapid speed at which support was marshalled during Greece’s financial crisis and, more recently, to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian attack.
The racism must run so deep it overrides self-preservation. As Ibrahim notes, helping Africa with vaccines would also have enabled the West to deal with its own Covid situation!
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Mo Ibrahim is a British billionaire businessman with a difference - pointing out Western hypocrisy towards African nations. Well, okay - he’s also Sudanese!
In this clip, he compares the sluggish actioning of vaccine access for Africans during the global pandemic with the rapid speed at which support was marshalled during Greece’s financial crisis and, more recently, to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian attack.
The racism must run so deep it overrides self-preservation. As Ibrahim notes, helping Africa with vaccines would also have enabled the West to deal with its own Covid situation!
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CIA LIES EXPOSED
For decades, the CIA has manipulated the mainstream media and used it as a tool for spreading propaganda to justify overt and covert US military campaigns across the world. In this video, John Stockwell, a former senior CIA officer who ran several covert operations in Vietnam and Africa for over a decade, explains how the Agency paid journalists to publish fake news about Cuban soldiers raping women in southern Angola, in an attempt to tarnish the image of Cuban troops deployed to Angola to support government forces that were fighting against rebels backed by the US and the South African apartheid regime. His revelations ring as true today as when he made them here in 1983, and serve as a reminder to stay alert when navigating the media - including its mainstream wing.
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For decades, the CIA has manipulated the mainstream media and used it as a tool for spreading propaganda to justify overt and covert US military campaigns across the world. In this video, John Stockwell, a former senior CIA officer who ran several covert operations in Vietnam and Africa for over a decade, explains how the Agency paid journalists to publish fake news about Cuban soldiers raping women in southern Angola, in an attempt to tarnish the image of Cuban troops deployed to Angola to support government forces that were fighting against rebels backed by the US and the South African apartheid regime. His revelations ring as true today as when he made them here in 1983, and serve as a reminder to stay alert when navigating the media - including its mainstream wing.
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TINUBU: ONLY ECOWAS CAN ‘SAVE’ NIGER
ECOWAS has rolled back some of the heavy-handed language when it comes to Niger, but the message is clear: the coup must be undone. The alliance of West African nations held a second ‘extraordinary’ summit for its leaders in Abuja on Thursday. The bloc’s chair - Nigeria’s Bola Tinubu - said all avenues of engagement would be pursued to ensure a return to constitutional order in Niger, warning of grave consequences for regional security if this was not achieved. Despite the less belligerent tone, he tellingly let slip that - when it comes to resolving the ‘crisis’ - “who else can do it except us?“
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ECOWAS has rolled back some of the heavy-handed language when it comes to Niger, but the message is clear: the coup must be undone. The alliance of West African nations held a second ‘extraordinary’ summit for its leaders in Abuja on Thursday. The bloc’s chair - Nigeria’s Bola Tinubu - said all avenues of engagement would be pursued to ensure a return to constitutional order in Niger, warning of grave consequences for regional security if this was not achieved. Despite the less belligerent tone, he tellingly let slip that - when it comes to resolving the ‘crisis’ - “who else can do it except us?“
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OUATTARA FORGETS HIS LOVE FOR COUPS!
Listening to Ivory Coast’s President Alassane Ouattara condemn the coup in Niger, you’d be surprised to learn he held very different views when one took place in his country in 1999. Moreover, he as good as committed a constitutional coup himself just two years ago, when he ran for a third term - in violation of a two-term presidential limit.
Ouattara says Ivory Coast will provide 850 to 1,100 soldiers to support any ECOWAS military intervention to reinstate Bazoum in Niger. An ECOWAS ‘standby force’ is being assembled, despite member states like Nigeria insisting the bloc is focused on diplomacy. Completely ignored is the high level of popularity of the coup among Nigeriens - a fact attested to even by on-the-ground polls conducted by Western outlets, such as The Economist.
Any intervention in Niger would be devastating for Africa, but lucrative for Western interests that have pillaged the country for decades.
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Listening to Ivory Coast’s President Alassane Ouattara condemn the coup in Niger, you’d be surprised to learn he held very different views when one took place in his country in 1999. Moreover, he as good as committed a constitutional coup himself just two years ago, when he ran for a third term - in violation of a two-term presidential limit.
Ouattara says Ivory Coast will provide 850 to 1,100 soldiers to support any ECOWAS military intervention to reinstate Bazoum in Niger. An ECOWAS ‘standby force’ is being assembled, despite member states like Nigeria insisting the bloc is focused on diplomacy. Completely ignored is the high level of popularity of the coup among Nigeriens - a fact attested to even by on-the-ground polls conducted by Western outlets, such as The Economist.
Any intervention in Niger would be devastating for Africa, but lucrative for Western interests that have pillaged the country for decades.
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Amid all the changes happening in the Sahel, one figure stands taller than many others - Burkina Faso’s leader, Ibrahim Traoré. His youth, his energy, his Pan-Africanism, his revolutionary zeal, his military fatigues and beret - all mark him out. But these attributes are strongly reminiscent of another charismatic Burkinabe leader - the man who gave the country its name under his revolutionary leadership, Captain Thomas Sankara. We don’t know if Traoré also has a penchant for playing the electric guitar and composing national anthems like Sankara did, but in terms of political will and Pan-African vision and determination, he’s the re-embodiment. Alas, Sankara and his cause were betrayed when he was assassinated in 1987. Will Ibrahim Traoré be allowed to push ahead with his transformative policies for the region, like his federation with Mali and, it’s hoped, Niger and Guinea? Here’s a quick look at what the two captains have in common.
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AFRICA’S LOVE FOR CASTRO
On this day, August 13th, Fidel Castro would have been 97 years old. A towering figure in history and a revolutionary leader and statesman. Castro’s charismatic leadership and unwavering commitment to the struggle for independence and anti-imperialism for the African people earned him respect and love in Africa. Today we find out why.
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On this day, August 13th, Fidel Castro would have been 97 years old. A towering figure in history and a revolutionary leader and statesman. Castro’s charismatic leadership and unwavering commitment to the struggle for independence and anti-imperialism for the African people earned him respect and love in Africa. Today we find out why.
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As European football is about to kick off again and as anti-France protests rage through the Sahel including in Senegal, we look back at what former France international Patrice Evra said last year about his regret choosing to play for France instead of Senegal. What do you think of what he said?
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THABO MBEKI: I AM AN AFRICAN
Politicians and poets couldn’t be more different… you’d think! Prepare to be stirred by former South African president Thabo Mbeki, as he delivers his 1996 speech, ‘I am an African’ - during his vice-presidency, as the nation adopted a new constitution. In this snippet, he channels our continent’s immense geography. The full speech has been dubbed a love letter to Africa. If you feel inspired to hunt it down or know it already, let us know if you think it hits the nail on the head about what makes us African!
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Politicians and poets couldn’t be more different… you’d think! Prepare to be stirred by former South African president Thabo Mbeki, as he delivers his 1996 speech, ‘I am an African’ - during his vice-presidency, as the nation adopted a new constitution. In this snippet, he channels our continent’s immense geography. The full speech has been dubbed a love letter to Africa. If you feel inspired to hunt it down or know it already, let us know if you think it hits the nail on the head about what makes us African!
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AMIN: I GOT CASTRO TO CUT ISRAEL TIES
Africa Rewound: African history is world history, and sometimes good and bad leaders can impact the course of global events. On what would have been Fidel Castro's 97th birthday we look back and the boastful claim made by Uganda’s Former President Idi Amin, that it was his “very good speech” at a 1973 summit that got Cuba to cut ties with Israel.
Do you believe him?
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Africa Rewound: African history is world history, and sometimes good and bad leaders can impact the course of global events. On what would have been Fidel Castro's 97th birthday we look back and the boastful claim made by Uganda’s Former President Idi Amin, that it was his “very good speech” at a 1973 summit that got Cuba to cut ties with Israel.
Do you believe him?
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BOMBING DEMOCRACY INTO AFRICA
The West is busy “bombing democracy” into Africa and other parts of the world, but is itself a sham beacon of democracy - says Kwesi Pratt, founder of Pan-African Television. He cites the example of America’s phoney two-party system - where both dominant parties back the country’s military adventurism abroad - and of Western ‘global’ institutions that discriminate against the non-Western part of the globe! And they want to impose their preferred leaders on Africa?
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The West is busy “bombing democracy” into Africa and other parts of the world, but is itself a sham beacon of democracy - says Kwesi Pratt, founder of Pan-African Television. He cites the example of America’s phoney two-party system - where both dominant parties back the country’s military adventurism abroad - and of Western ‘global’ institutions that discriminate against the non-Western part of the globe! And they want to impose their preferred leaders on Africa?
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MALI STOPS FRENCH VISAS
In a tit for tat, Mali has stopped issuing visas to French citizens. And is pushing back strongly against a string of insults coming out of Paris.
Last week, France put Mali on its “red zone” list and claimed it was unsafe for people to visit. It’s embassy in Bamako then stopped giving visas to Malians.
Mali’s embassy in Paris has now hit back and reciprocated.
There’s widening fallout between France and the region after the coup in Niger.
It’s also seen Niger - along with allies Mali and Burkina - ban Air France.
That followed the carrier’s decision to stop flying to Niger immediately after the coup.
France’s flagship airline now stands accused of breaching the terms of its contract.
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In a tit for tat, Mali has stopped issuing visas to French citizens. And is pushing back strongly against a string of insults coming out of Paris.
Last week, France put Mali on its “red zone” list and claimed it was unsafe for people to visit. It’s embassy in Bamako then stopped giving visas to Malians.
Mali’s embassy in Paris has now hit back and reciprocated.
There’s widening fallout between France and the region after the coup in Niger.
It’s also seen Niger - along with allies Mali and Burkina - ban Air France.
That followed the carrier’s decision to stop flying to Niger immediately after the coup.
France’s flagship airline now stands accused of breaching the terms of its contract.
Hear Us Roar: https://news.1rj.ru/str/AfricanStream
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NIGERIA'S OSUN OSOGBO WATER FESTIVAL
Experience the vibrant pulse of Nigerian culture by taking part in the Osun Osogbo Festival! With roots dating back centuries, this annual celebration pays homage to the revered river goddess Osun, intertwining history with modern revelry. Brightly coloured clothes and a charged crowd make this festival a must-see. Devotees come to the river to worship the river goddess, to give homage to Osun for her life-giving waters and benevolence. Indulge in delectable local cuisine, explore traditional crafts, and feel the electric energy of unity and reverence during this spectacular festival in Nigeria. Tourists and locals join the joyful procession through the historic city of Osogbo to seek blessings and celebrate. Be sure to tick this festival off your bucket list when in Nigeria.
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Experience the vibrant pulse of Nigerian culture by taking part in the Osun Osogbo Festival! With roots dating back centuries, this annual celebration pays homage to the revered river goddess Osun, intertwining history with modern revelry. Brightly coloured clothes and a charged crowd make this festival a must-see. Devotees come to the river to worship the river goddess, to give homage to Osun for her life-giving waters and benevolence. Indulge in delectable local cuisine, explore traditional crafts, and feel the electric energy of unity and reverence during this spectacular festival in Nigeria. Tourists and locals join the joyful procession through the historic city of Osogbo to seek blessings and celebrate. Be sure to tick this festival off your bucket list when in Nigeria.
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ECOWAS - THE NEW ASKARIS?
It’s 2023, but ECOWAS seems determined to continue a depressing tradition of colonised peoples fighting on behalf of their masters. In West and Central Africa, French colonisers used to deploy African soldiers known as ‘tirailleurs’ to crush rebellions and movements across their empire. Meanwhile, the British, Germans, Italians, Spanish and Portuguese referred to their African (especially East African) foot soldiers as ‘askaris.’ And in Belgian Congo, Africans were forced to brutalise other Africans while serving in a local army known as the Force Publique. Are ECOWAS soldiers now playing, or poised to play, the role of latter-day tirailleurs and askaris - by fighting on behalf of neocolonial interests in Niger? Share your take with us below.
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It’s 2023, but ECOWAS seems determined to continue a depressing tradition of colonised peoples fighting on behalf of their masters. In West and Central Africa, French colonisers used to deploy African soldiers known as ‘tirailleurs’ to crush rebellions and movements across their empire. Meanwhile, the British, Germans, Italians, Spanish and Portuguese referred to their African (especially East African) foot soldiers as ‘askaris.’ And in Belgian Congo, Africans were forced to brutalise other Africans while serving in a local army known as the Force Publique. Are ECOWAS soldiers now playing, or poised to play, the role of latter-day tirailleurs and askaris - by fighting on behalf of neocolonial interests in Niger? Share your take with us below.
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VISA-FREE TRAVEL TO KENYA!
For Africans, travelling around Africa is like trying to ‘brush the teeth of a crocodile’, while for Europeans, it’s like 'having a cup of tea’.
That’s how Kenya’s foreign affairs minister summed up the visa nightmare facing many on the continent. However, Nairobi is leading the way to change this. It’s opening up its borders to fellow African Union members and abolishing visa requirements. It's hoped to boost trade long restrained by frontiers imposed during Africa's past colonisers.
To use another colourful phrase from Mr Mutua: ‘Let us remove the shackles of colonialism that are still embedded in our heads and be able to move forward.”
We’ll second that. Have a listen to his recent speech at an African Union summit.
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For Africans, travelling around Africa is like trying to ‘brush the teeth of a crocodile’, while for Europeans, it’s like 'having a cup of tea’.
That’s how Kenya’s foreign affairs minister summed up the visa nightmare facing many on the continent. However, Nairobi is leading the way to change this. It’s opening up its borders to fellow African Union members and abolishing visa requirements. It's hoped to boost trade long restrained by frontiers imposed during Africa's past colonisers.
To use another colourful phrase from Mr Mutua: ‘Let us remove the shackles of colonialism that are still embedded in our heads and be able to move forward.”
We’ll second that. Have a listen to his recent speech at an African Union summit.
Hear Us Roar: https://news.1rj.ru/str/AfricanStream
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