Tyson's ECOWAS Occasional Journal - Politics in West Africa

Tribal politics are often blamed for many of Africa's troubles, including the response to Ebola. The multitude of mother tongues posed problems for the response to Ebola since many of the communications about the disease and how to avoid it were in English or French and only 20% of the affected countries' populations speak either of those languages. Some traditional healers were reluctant to refer patients to hospitals.  However, local tribal leaders also played an important role in the effective response to the disease in Sierra Leone, where the last person known to have Ebola in Sierra Leone was discharged on  Tuesday . According to The Economist , Ebola in Sierra Leone struck Sierra Leone first in the east side of the country. But the disease was controlled in the south-east earlier than it was in the north-west (see map), despite the north-west receiving more aid. The explanation given in the article is that two doctors connected to the local chief called for a m...

As I mentioned in an earlier post , the electoral code adopted in April banned Burkina Faso's former ruling party, the CDP, and some of its allies from competing in the upcoming election. The banned parties appealed to the Constitutional Court, who turned them down in May because of inadequate signatures. The banned parties appealed to the ECOWAS Community Court, and in July that court ruled that banning those parties was a violation of their human rights. So the CDP registered to compete in the election, along with some aligned parties and parties made up of former CDP members. Now the Constitutional Court of Burkina Faso has ruled that the electoral code IS constitutional, and the banned parties are banned. Or at least some of their candidates are. The CDP held a press conference about it yesterday, and are calling for their supporters to launch a campaign of civil disobedience if they are not allowed to participate in the election. When they were in the opposition, ...

Her Spirit may be Rising, but she doesn't seem to be Running Following the three elections coming up this October, there will be two presidential elections in ECOWAS countries at the beginning of 2016: Niger, where first-term President Issoufou is eligible to run again in January, and Benin in February.  There's been some interesting drama regarding the Benin race so let's take a look.  President Yayi Boni is finishing up his second term, so it's an open race. There was speculation that President Yayi wanted to amend the constitution to enable a third term, but his party did poorly in the parliamentary election in May , so that option was shut out.  The most famous Beninois in the United States is surely Angelique Kidjo , and there was hope among some last year that she would run, but their Facebook page hasn't been updated in ten months so I don't think that's happening. Bummer.  The recent drama among actual candidates circles arou...

Ebola survivors tell their stories at the Survivors’ Conference in Kenema, Sierra Leone. WHO/S. Gborie Reuters: "Sierra Leone released its last confirmed Ebola patient from hospital on Monday and began a 42-day countdown to being declared free of the virus ..." But they aren't necessarily out of the woods yet: "During the course of the epidemic, the outbreak has ebbed only to flare back again. Liberia was declared Ebola-free in May but a fresh cluster of cases appeared nearly two months later. Scientists say sexual transmission is the most likely explanation for the resurgence in Liberia since the virus can live on in semen beyond the usual 21-day incubation period." Other recent good news on the Ebola front: an Ebola vaccine in Guinea shows promise .

Former minis ter  Gilbert Noël Ouédraogo selected as  presidential candidate by ADF-RDA Friday was the deadline to register for Burkina Faso's October presidential election, and Reuters notes that many among the 22 candidates are a former prime minister or minister. That's pretty standard in African elections. As I mentioned last week , the main candidates in Guinea's upcoming election (also in October) includes the incumbent president, two former prime ministers, and potentially a former president. When I wrote about the Burkina Faso election earlier in the month, I cited an article on leFaso.net that said that the deadline was August 1st and there were 98 candidates. I'm not sure if that article was wrong, I misunderstood, or the deadline was extended and some of the candidates didn't qualify. Anyway, the four top candidates mentioned by Reuters were the top four in my list of eleven :

Boko Haram really doesn't like Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai, who was appointed in July by President Buhari after he fired the military top brass for their failure against Boko Haram under Buhari's predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan. Last month, Boko Haram burned down Buratai's house (he wasn't home). Yesterday, they attacked his convoy . Ten of the attackers were killed and five captured; one Nigerian soldier was killed. Since losing control of most of the territory Boko Haram held at the start of the year (at that time it was the size of Belgium), the terrorist group has resorted to hit and run tactics. If Boko Haram hates Buratai that much, I figure he must be doing a pretty good job. It's a good sign that he is always on the ground, rather than hiding out in the capital, which is what Jonathan's military chiefs were apparently doing. This article says that in yesterday's attack, "soldiers led personally by Buratai returned fire, killing five...

Up to $12 billion of Nigerian oil money was "diverted" by the corrupt folks in its state-owned oil company, reports the Economist . "The state-owned oil company sells almost half the 2m barrels that Africa’s biggest producer churns out each day, making it the government’s single largest source of revenue. It has been dogged by allegations of wrongdoing since Mr Buhari helped create it back in the 1970s. Under the watch of the former president, Goodluck Jonathan, and his petroleum minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, it ran totally out of control. Even as the price of oil boomed between 2011 and 2014, remittances to the treasury fell (see chart). Now that prices have plummeted, government coffers are empty and the currency has tanked." Thanks in part to his corruption (as well as his poor performance against Boko Haram), Jonathan lost to Buhari, and now Buhari seems to be delivering on his promise to root out corruption. " Mr Buhari has sacked the NNPC’s b...