There are twelve papers in this series available as a set. The papers, by distinguished African scholars, address current issues and debates on governance, civil society and globalisation. The contributors include Abdalla Bujra, Ali Mazrui and Subhash Narula.

Operations of the National Anti-Corruption Steering Committee launched by President Mwai Kibaki last week have not taken off due to a lack of budgetary allocation. Twice in the last week, scheduled meetings for the committee members have been postponed at the last minute, both times via SMS. The committee has now delayed the next meeting till August 11th.

President Kibaki announced on Monday that his government would not protect anybody found guilty of corruption. But he emphasised that the fight against the vice must not be out of hearsay. "The institutions of government responsible for fighting corruption are investigating the alleged corruption, and anyone who has evidence is encouraged to forward the evidence to enable us to facilitate and conclude the investigations," he said. The President said he was aware of his obligations, and would not waver on his crusade against graft.

Written with energy and honesty, this powerful, thought–provoking memoir describes a life dominated by an abusive father, and explores some of the African traditional customs that are still expected of women today. Set in the province of KwazuluNatal, South Africa, Zazah Khuzwayo tells of the frustrations of growing up with a loving, intelligent but uneducated mother. Zazah paints a picture of a difficult and painful life, but at the same time it is inspiring to watch how she develops a fighting spirit and learns to stand up to her father.

Guineans who have returned home from neighbouring Côte d’Ivoire because of instability there are facing further hardship in the border regions of Guinea Forestière and Haute Guinea. They are one of several "forgotten vulnerable groups" in this area, along with other displaced people and host communities, according to the UN’s mid-year review of the 2004 consolidated appeals process (CAP) for Guinea. The returnees face similar problems to refugees in Guinea, but enjoy much less support, says UN OCHA. Humanitarian assistance has been sporadic and very limited.

In his first appearance before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Gaspard Kanyarukiga has entered a plea of not guilty. Amongst other allegations, the 59 year old, arrested last Friday in South Africa, is said to have supervised the massacre of some 2,000 Tutsi civilians taking shelter in Nyange church in 1994 by transporting police and members of the Interahamwe militia to the scene. In total he faces four charges: genocide, complicity in genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity. A date for Kanyarukiga's trial is yet to be fixed.

Mr. Edward Clay, the British High Commissioner to the Republic of Kenya threw both pairs of his hands and feet into a serious controversy with the Kenyan government last week. In a memorable choice of words he blasted unnamed government officials for being corrupt and behaving "like gluttons" and "vomiting on the shoes" of foreign donors.

The truth is that there are many Africans in different countries who will recognise those graphic words and apply them to their countries. So if the diplomat had spoken true words why the furore? Is it because the truth hurts?

Many people including government ministers will admit privately that he was right but are angry that he spoke out. It is not in the nature and business of diplomats to be so blunt. After all it is said that a diplomat 'is someone sent abroad to lie on behalf of his country'. It should have been added too that the same person is not expected to be openly truthful to his hosts and is expected to be awfully nice to them at all times.

That is the code that Edward Clay had broken. The responses in Kenya depended on whether you are a supporter or opponent of the faltering NARC government of Kenya. There are many of us who are neither in both camps but are still caught in a dilemma as to how to respond to the Clay bluntness.
Only 18 months ago President Mwai Kibaki led the overarching multi party alliance to an unprecedented victory over KANU. It was a silent revolution that was welcomed and celebrated across Africa, promising people's power and peaceful democratic changes as opposed to violent military ones. Kenya showed itself able and willing to follow the democratic path and we were all thrilled. But in just under two years the illusions are clearing. It was an unrealistic, even if unavoidable, mass expectation that the new government will quickly transform Kenya from the corrupt and authoritarian KANU power structure it inherited.

However, ordinary Kenyans, while giving NARC the benefit of the doubt, had a right to expect some light at the end of the dark tunnel. This was not to be. They are harvesting more pain and misery from their would be liberators. The uneasy alliance is unravelling and bursting at the alter of ethno-regional politics and unbridled ambition on the part of the hydra headed leadership of the coalition.

The promised transparency, accountability and clean government have given room to KANU-type corrupt business as usual. Maybe this is not surprising given the solid KANU history of most of the leaders themselves. What can one expect from KANU refugees?

The ordinary people that were inspired to hope for a different Kenya now despair at the politicians who seem to care little about the country but a lot about their bank balances. Many of them went for the treasury like hungry lions in reckless abandon.

Things are so bad that many people are beginning to miss former president Moi and KANU. At least they are devils they knew for four decades and were predictable. The new hungry lot cannot just be second-guessed! The paralysed and paralysing leadership of the gerontocratic President Kibaki does not help the situation. Zimbabwe and Kenya's presidencies are unique on this continent. Between the President and his deputy there are probably more than 150 years! Are these the people to inspire the future: tired old men who are tiring the country!

So why are people complaining about Edward Clay for daring to say in public what many know to be true and opposition parties and CSO activists have been saying about the Kibaki leadership?

For someone who takes special delight in being irreverent to those in officialdom my instinct is with Clay. Yet I am still troubled by the politics of the bluntness. The man has a right to say whatever he wants to say without being hounded for it, whether he is a diplomat or not. The world can do with more outspoken ambassadors and other diplomats. We are surely tired of people just wearing suits whatever the climate and saying sweet nothings in the name of diplomacy.

But my problem with Clay and all the aspiring Clayites of Western diplomacy in Africa is the selective nature of their bravery and courage. They seem able to say and do things in Africa and other poorer countries that they wouldn’t dare to say in the West or North America. In fact, many of them behave in Africa like latter day colonial governors and bureaucrats. They have views on everything and our spineless media collude in their delusions of grandeur by giving all their whims and caprices saturation coverage. How many times has one seen lead stories on African televisions and other media of Western Ambassadors 'donating' ordinary footballs to one hapless school or the other? That is news! Many of them deliberately cultivate the image of being 'the opposition' to the government hosting them.

But more importantly I will accept the opinionated interference of Western diplomats in Africa if and when African diplomats in Europe or America are also able to do the same about the countries they are sent to. How would the British take it if an African Diplomat to the court of St James were to express his or her view publicly on the various failings of the hypocritical Blair regime? Can you imagine an African diplomat in Washington just repeating some of the more moderate stupidities that daily emanate from Bush's white house?

The fault is not that of Western leaders or their diplomats but our own colonial mentality that makes us accept from Westerners what we cannot take from our own compatriots and fellow Africans. We need a mental revolution, 'by any means necessary', as Malcom X would have said.

* Dr Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem is General-Secretary of the Pan African Movement, Kampala (Uganda) and Co-Director of Justice Africa ([email protected] or [email][email protected])

* Please send comments to [email protected]

Association FEMINIAA and RNTC will organise a three-day workshop on 'The Use of the New Information and Communication Technology for Women Media Professionals in Africa'. The workshop will take place in Yaoundé, Cameroon. From 16th until 18th August 2004, 25 representatives of African women media organisations will come together to participate in the workshop.

PlusNews has launched a new service, "Hayden's Diary", a personal account of living with HIV by journalist Hayden Horner. Each week Hayden explores - with courage and feeling - his experiences as a young HIV-positive South African, in the hope that his frankness will encourage others to speak openly about the disease. The journal is not an emailed service but is available on the website http://www.plusnews.org/HDiaryEntry.asp

Civil society groups and the opposition in Zimbabwe are calling for a fresh voter registration process to create a new and reliable voters' roll. The move follows last week's announcement by the Chairman of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), Reginald Matchaba-Hove, that it 'was impossible, even under new electoral laws, to hold a truly free and fair election next year because of the serious defects in the present voters' register'.

The UN refugee agency has criticised the handling of the Cap Anamur boat incident that has led to the expulsion of a group of asylum seekers from Italy and underlined the need for better burden-sharing in the European Union. The controversy surrounds a group of 37 people who were rescued from the southern Mediterranean by the German non-governmental organisation vessel, Cap Anamur, in late June.

The Gleitsman Foundation was established in 1989 with the goal of inspiring greater grass-roots activism by recognizing the exceptional achievements of people who have initiated social change. They are seeking those individuals whose energy and courage have inspired others to join with them in confronting and challenging injustices.

U.N. reports say rising temperatures linked to human burning of fossil fuels are likely to widen malaria's range in the tropics because mosquitoes and the parasite they pass on when sucking human blood thrive best in hot, wet climates. But some insect experts swat those reports as simplistic.

It is important to consider the needs, roles and skills of women in efforts to protect the environment, both in order to recognise the potential negative impacts of gender-blind policies on the livelihoods of women, and also because of the many ways that drawing on women's abilities and knowledge can increase the effectiveness of programmes. This is according to a paper by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) that calls for action, implementation, and for empowerment and encouragement of women's leadership.

Together with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the World Bank is supporting the development of comprehensive new forestry laws in the Congo, as well as the 'zoning' of the country's entire forest area which would imply the logging of some 60 million hectares of tropical forest. According to the Bank's own estimates, as many as 35 million of the Congo's 50 million people depend on the forests for their very survival. All those people could see their livelihood undermined at the best, or even destroyed.

This month the Ghanaian government launched a US$1.5 million war on the 270 tonnes of plastic waste generated each day by the capital's three million inhabitants. Officials estimate that plastic water sachets account for about 85 percent of that refuse.

In a letter to the Ethiopian government six free expression organisations (ARTICLE 19, Media Institute of Southern Africa, Media Foundation of West Africa, Media Rights Agenda, the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Federation of Journalists) reiterated their concerns over the recent draft Proclamation to Provide for the Freedom of the Press (Draft Proclamation) in Ethiopia. “The Draft Proclamation in its present form contains some improvements on previous drafts, but there are still some serious problems with the law, including: restriction on who may practice journalism; government-controlled licensing and registration systems; and harsh sanctions for violations of the law, including up to five years imprisonment.”

Madiambal Diagne, publication director of the independent Senegalese daily Le Quotidien, was granted a provisional release on July 26 after being held for more than two weeks in prison. Diagne was jailed on July 9 in connection with articles published in Le Quotidien about alleged fraud in the customs service and alleged government interference in the judiciary. The criminal charges against him remain: publishing secret documents; publishing false information; and committing acts likely to cause public unrest.

Zimbabwean journalists have teamed up to publish a new daily online newspaper: "Zim Online - An independent news service from Zimbabwe", according to a media release. The service will be distributed via the internet (www.zimonline.co.za) and start operating from 7 July 2004. Zim Online aims to help fill the vast information vacuum left by the banning of independent newspapers and the expulsion of all foreign correspondents from Zimbabwe.

Any long-term and sustainable approach to advancing a right to water cannot be divorced from the wider origin of freshwater, and from the important role that healthy ecosystems play in ensuring adequate quality and quantity of freshwater for basic human needs. The term 'right to water' therefore does not only refer to the rights of people but also to the needs of the environment with regard to river basins, lakes, aquifers, oceans and ecosystems surrounding watercourses. This is one of the conclusions of an IUCN Environmental Law Programme (ELP) and World Conservation Union paper which looked at the contribution that a human right to water could make to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Government has unveiled a draft agricultural charter setting out tough empowerment targets including 35% black ownership of agriculture-based companies by 2014. The draft charter also said that 50% of agricultural land, including that held by the state, should be available to black farmers by 2014. The 50% requirement increases government's earlier target of 30% by adding another 20% of prime farmland that must be leased to black people.

A San Bushman who defied a state order to move out of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve told the Botswana High Court on Tuesday that the land had been given to him by God. The Botswana High Court is hearing a case brought by 243 San Bushmen challenging their relocation from the game reserve, one of the world's largest sanctuaries and an area which has been their home for thousands of years.

The UK Department for International Development has extended the deadline for full Civil Society Challenge Fund applications until 31st October. The move comes as a result of DFID's decision to reassess the scope of the fund with a view to widening its remit to include innovative service delivery programmes.

October 2004 will mark the fourth anniversary of the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security. To mark the occasion, the United Nations Secretary-General will publish a report on the progress and challenges in the implementation of the resolution since 2000. The report will not formally seek the input of civil society for the formulation of his report. However, the NGO Working Group on Women, Peace and Security is seeking assistance in creating a civil society alternative report, entitled 'Four Years On: Advancing Women, Peace and Security'. For more information click on the link below.

Women are still marginalised by men in national decision-making bodies, participants to the 6th Annual General Conference of the SADC Electoral Commission Forum heard. Presenting a paper entitled "Elections, Democracy and National Development: A Gender Perspective", Dr Amy Tsanga, a senior law lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe's East and Southern Africa Women's Studies Centre, said the participation by men and women in national decision-making bodies was skewed in favour of men.

In the last few years, the number of women who independently migrate as main economic providers has increased. Consequently, their contribution to their country’s and their family's economic development has increased with the sending of remittances. The majority of studies and programmes on remittances have ignored the gender dimension. Furthermore, data related to the sending, receiving and use of the remittances is seldom disaggregated by sex. Remittances are much more than sums of money sent from one person to another. They reflect an intricate combination of dynamics that interact at individual, social, economic and political levels. Click on the link to read more on the web page of the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women.

The scale of HIV infection is such that all actors - government, business, civil society, the medical community - need to be drawn into one massive coordinated effort of life-preserving. In this context, are the big pharmaceutical companies part of the solution or part of the problem, asks Walden Bello from Focus on the Global South in a speech delivered at the debate on patents, drug development, and HIV/AIDS at the XV International AIDS Conference in Bangkok. Big Pharma are less concerned about saving lives and much more concerned about protecting its patents, he says and suggests a new research and development framework, based on a people-oriented approach to patents, maybe coordinated by the UN, in which there is room for participation by many other actors, including governments, government institutes, and civil society organisations.

The Communication Rights in the Information Society has called for support to its campaign for democratising media, disseminating knowledge, ensuring civil rights in the information society and making ICTs affordable. For more information on the campaign click on the URL provided.

The health of the nation is characterised by a quadruple burden of disease, with the impact of HIV/AIDS adding to the combination of a high injury burden, conditions related to underdevelopment and chronic diseases. Per capita spending at district level on Primary Health Care (PHC) ranges from R389 in richer districts to R42 in the poorest districts, meaning that many districts are simply not able to afford the PHC package estimated at approximately R220 per capita. Although spending on health in the public sector in 2005/6 is projected to increase by R 8.7 billion in real terms over a decade, much of the funding has been absorbed by HIV/AIDS, medical inflation and relatively higher salaries which has resulted in real expenditure per capita stagnating. These are some of the findings contained in the 9th South African Health Review (SAHR).

The World Bank has finally debarred Acres International, nearly two years after it was found guilty by a Lesotho court of corruption on Africa's largest dam project. Reacting to the move, Korinna Horta of the US-based group Environmental Defence said, "This long overdue action on Acres is very much welcome, and hopefully signals a more forceful World Bank approach to corruption on its projects. But the fact that a court case in Lesotho was decisive in the limited debarment of Acres appears to be a case of the tail wagging the dog. It remains to be seen if this will lead to more systemic changes in how the Bank approaches corruption."

The debate around a journalism school in Lagos, which has withdrawn the admission letter of a new student, after learning that he is living with HIV, doesn’t seem to go away. Adegboye Ibikunle’s dismissal by the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) has sparked protests by civil societies who have demanded that the college takes him back immediately.

With a potentially devastating malaria epidemic threatening to break out in Ethiopia, United Nations agencies are working with the country's Government to raise nearly $7 million to purchase new medicines needed to treat the disease. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are supporting the Addis Ababa authorities in attempting to rapidly mobilize the funds to supply a newer treatment known as Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy (ACT) because of increased resistance to drugs now in use.

In a bid to encourage refugees and other war victims to repatriate voluntarily and reintegrate into Burundian life, UN agencies are turning their attention to improving the low level of social services, particularly with health care. Three UN agencies and the Burundi government jointly signed a memorandum last week to provide equipment and essential medicine as well as to rehabilitate health centres ruined by 10 years of political crisis and war.

The incidence of measles among children in Uganda has fallen by over 84%, a World Health Organisation (WHO) report has revealed. The drop is mainly attributed to the massive nationwide immunisation conducted last year, a press release from the WHO office in Kampala said on Wednesday. It says from January to March this year, a cumulative total of 1,606 suspected cases (of measles) were reported from all health centres and hospitals countrywide, showing a significant decline from 10,329 reported in the same time period of 2003."

From the slave trade era of the 15th century to the crude oil era of the 20th century, Nigeria's natural resource history has been fraught by a systemic cartel of merchants whose primary agenda was in the amount of natural resources they could garner from the country. In their exploitative ventures they raided whole communities, introduced internecine wars and conflicts, and ignited a raging fire of habitat degradation and fragmentation.

Historical records tell of the fact that the plundering of African natural resources fuelled the industrial revolution of Europe. Energy demands in the 20th century brought on the search for crude oil wells worldwide and Nigeria was not left out. From 1956, when the first oil well was successfully drilled in Nigeria, scrambling for Nigeria's resources by the Europeans took on a new dimension.

The oil boom era of the 1970s saw the downward plunge of the agricultural sector. There was a complete paradigm shift from the nation's then agrarian culture to an oil driven culture, moving ultimately from renewable natural resources to un-renewable resource trade. From the 70s through to the early 80s we witnessed a drastic drop in local food production. Importation rates of foods and finished products increased dramatically and our foreign debt escalated rapidly, bringing the economy to a crisis. During this period, from 1958 to 1983, we recorded $101 billion in estimated oil revenue earnings.

A plethora of environmental problems exist as a result of the oil trade. Communities where certain resources are harvested - in particular oil and gas - bear the impact of exploration and exploitation, while gains are shared to other areas that contribute next to nothing to national oil revenues.

In addition oil communities are impoverished and lack basic social infrastructures and amenities. One region in Nigeria which has borne the brunt of natural resource exploitation is the Niger Delta. This region played a key role in the country's economy in pre-colonial and colonial times and still maintains a primary position in present crude oil trade.

The Niger Delta: The Battlefield For Resource Control

The Niger Delta has featured in global discourse as a region plagued by non-violent demonstrations, violent protests and intra communal wars over resource control. The source and underlying causes of agitation in this region must be clearly understood by the global community in evolving effectual management strategies.

Agitations within this region take root from early colonial trade relations with the British incursion into the area. They made treaties with vulnerable communities, plundered resource capital and introduced a subservient cultural pattern. Communities only benefited by giving-up their farmlands in exchange for ridiculous gifts. In those days, resistance came through such visionary leaders like King Jaja of Opobo and Nana Olomu. These leaders, as recorded by Nigerian historians, led their people in the struggle to rescue their natural economy from the greedy control of the British who had devised a “divide and rule” machinery of control over the people.

Control over the natural resource capital of the Niger Delta people is mirrored presently by the operations of the oil multinational companies, who defraud whole communities of their livelihood sources, paying ridiculous monetary compensation in exchange for a devastated coastal ecosystem.

The oil companies make up the largest industry in the Niger Delta region. Despite this, unemployment levels are still high, especially in the rural areas where oil and gas reserves exist. In this region exist oil well reserves (17.9 billion barrels) and gas wells (3.4 trillion m3), contributing about 80% of federal government revenue.

Despite this vast coastal wealth, GNP per capita is below the national average of US$280. Pollution of coastal corridors and wetlands is a recurrent disaster. Gas flaring has become a notorious pollutant of the local communities of the Delta. Oil spills and gas flaring have destroyed whole fishing communities, reducing needed fishery resources, terrestrial vegetations and compromising the health of local people in and around oil installations.

Nigeria's resource base includes a vast network of rivers, floodplains and a rich rainforest network, with vast deposits of minerals. However about 95% of natural forest cover has been lost to deforestation, leaving 5% contained in the Southeast region. While dams upstream are a constant headache and threat to the rich coastal biodiversity, deforestation ravages the teeming rainforest ecosystem.

The Nigerian Government And The Challenge Of Sustainability

In a country where agriculture accounts for about 40% of GDP and oil production and exports (exporting over 2 million barrels/day) ranks 6th world wide, government's management structure and environmental action plan is essential to maintain balance and reduce abuse. The question here is what has been the role of the Nigerian government in the management of its natural resources?

To attempt an answer, one can say that even though the legal framework and institutional structure for natural resource management is firmly established, it still lacks the strength and drive which natural resource management deserves.

Government response to environmental problems and the nagging problem of unsustainable resource exploitation has been rather slow. Compromises in deals with multinational companies have crippled the implementation of “goodwill” national policies and laws. The management structure at best is fragmentary, and there exists similar government agencies carrying out the same functions, often times leading to conflict between government agencies and stakeholders.

A satisfactory environmental condition would mean developmental projects and resource utilization meet with clearly stated developmental benchmarks, whose implementation is sustainable. For projects to be considered sustainable as contained in Agenda 21 of the Rio declaration three key aspects of development must be integrated into project planning and implementation: economic growth, social equity and ecological integrity.

Historical trends in the Delta have shown that industrial activities in the Delta have negated this all-embracing principle, in the scramble for resources. Indigenous people, their laws and customs have often been sidetracked. Sustainability must therefore be redefined in this region and companies' licenses to operate must be revoked when found guilty. The country does not lack policies and laws, but the gap is in its implementation and policing of resource utilization.

Resource depletion has far reaching multiplier effects and its importance is underscored by communal agitations and high national poverty statistics. It is instructive to evolve stringent measures to “checkmate” the eclipse of our collapsing life support systems. We can't afford to put new wine into old wine skin.

The issue of local content has to do with the active participation of the local indigenous people in decision-making processes. Local people are the best managers, they have over the years evolved methods and approaches in natural resource management that have preserved certain classes of biodiversity and we need to learn from them.

For sustainability, they must be integrated in all developmental issues, especially those that impact on their existence. In ensuring active participation of local stakeholders in project management and development, ideals of Community Based Resource Management (CBRM) can be adopted. A case is in promoting indigenous protected areas. In the Southeast region several lakes and forests exist, designated by local nomenclature as sacred areas. Indigenous laws and customs have protected biodiversity in these areas over the years and we can start by integrating and institutionalizing these areas into our system of protected parks or areas.

True federalism and sustainability can only be obtained by ensuring that the needs and aspirations of local communities are first considered before economic gains. Trade-offs are necessary to maintain equilibrium in developmental conceptualization, and in respect of sustainable development, social equity cannot be overruled, but rather sustained.

Africa and the Way Forward

The New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) could through its review mechanism ensure that African countries comply strictly on the issue of indigenous active participation in decision processes. But the question we must ask is: how sincere are participating African countries on moving the ideology of NEPAD forward? Can NEPAD be a panacea to our dependency on western donors, who dictate the tune of our development? Or would we be strong enough as a people to wield the weapon of resource control and management by Africans to the hungry western world?

We must evolve strategic alliances with other African nations to find long lasting solutions for the management of Africa's vast bank of natural resources. The question of capacity building then arises. Capacity building in natural resource management would mean a network of indigenous people who are able to exchange needed information and technology without barriers. In addition would be the function of resource tracking: we must insist on predetermined certification of forest and coastal land goods and services, which could serve as a monitoring device for products obtained from these ecosystems.

My concluding thought on sustainable natural resource utilization and development in Nigeria and Africa as a whole, is in our corporate realization that for us as Africans, our greatest weaponry against the incursion of the developed economics is our bank of natural resource capital.

It's time we as a race refuse the lies of the western world and shun greed and mismanagement of both human and natural resources. We must encourage all Africans to imbibe the culture of proper management of our contested heritage. This must be clearly understood and articulated by the current crop of leaders as they promote the African Union through its NEPAD initiative.

* Eno Deborah Anwana’s major interest is the sustainable management of Africa's vast wealth of natural resources by Africans. Since 2002 Anwana has worked in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria on a MacArthur funded project focusing on the wise use of natural resources and sustainable development. Anwana is affiliated with Nigerian's foremost environmental NGO called The Nigerian Conservation Foundation, a membership based NGO.

* Please send comments to

The Centre for Human Rights Studies in the Faculty of Law, University of the Free State, South Africa, invites applications for admission to study for a Masters Degree (LLM) in Human Rights specialising in Reproductive and Sexual Rights. The LLM in Human Rights specialising in Reproductive and Sexual Rights is the first of its kind on the African continent. It will be launched for the first time in 2005. It is an international programme that is aimed at equipping committed lawyers from the African continent with academic and practical skills for securing the realisation of reproductive and sexual rights at a domestic as well as an international level.

The respect and observance of the rights of women is key to the development of Africa. The Protocol does make some progressive provisions and together the men and women of Africa will take the bold step forward. It is high time we own and implement the Protocol but not before States ratify. As partners in development we urge States to ratify as soon as possible to confirm their commitment to the cause for the development of Africa.

* Sign the petition for the ratification of the Protocol on the Rights of Women online at or through your mobile phone by sending a text message to +27832933934 with the word 'petition' and your name in the message.

Governments should sign this protocol as a show of their solid commitment to promote women’s human rights and not plain lip service!

Hilda Mawanda, Kenya

* Sign the petition for the ratification of the Protocol on the Rights of Women online at or through your mobile phone by sending a text message to +27832933934 with the word 'petition' and your name in the message.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in its fourth round of grants has rejected Zimbabwe's application for $218 million in funding for its HIV/AIDS program, Zimbabwe's Standard reports. The denial of funding puts plans to scale up the country's antiretroviral drug program in "disarray," according to the Standard.

The objective reality in Zimbabwe does not meet the minimum conditions for any election to be considered free and fair. For elections to be said to be free and fair, the pre-election, election, and post election periods must be characterized by the opening up of democratic space, respect of human rights, and the protection of fundamental civil and political rights of all citizens. There can be no free and fair elections where people are forced to vote, denied voting or are systematically denied the vital information to enable them to make an informed political decision, concludes this article on the website of the Centre for Civil Society, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

12-year-old Assigno lives in the village of Vo Asso Kedji. She has never seen her parents. Some have told her that they are dead; according to others, they are living in Côte D'Ivoire, over 700 kilometres away. Because of her family's poverty, and the fact that she has to help take care of her three sisters, Assigno could not afford the formal government schools.

The United Nations has poured 15,000 peacekeepers into Liberia and more than 54,000 former combatants have been disarmed, but UN officials admit that not everyone is handing in a weapon and vast tracts of the West African country remain inaccessible to UN patrols. Officially the news is very upbeat. According to figures collated by the UN Mission in Liberia, (UNMIL), 54,525 combatants had been disarmed by 12 July. However, only 17,906 weapons were collected from them- an average of one rifle, rocket launcher, pistol or mortar round for every three fighters.

Somalia's proposed transitional government must be committed to respecting human rights, ending abuses and bringing to book perpetrators of past crimes in a country wracked by factional warfare for more than a decade, Amnesty International (AI) said on Wednesday. The human rights watchdog's appeal came as the Somali National Reconciliation Conference drew close to creating a transitional federal government that is expected to end 13 years of anarchy and violence that have plagued Somalia since the collapse of the regime of former president Mohamed Siyad Barre in 1991.

In an effort to ease tensions between the government and civil society, Zambia's President Levy Mwanawasa this week exempted an influential coalition of civic and religious groups from having to register. Last month the Forum, an umbrella group comprising the Law Association of Zambia, the Roman Catholic Church and several women's organisation, among others, refused to register with the registrar of societies, arguing that by law "loose alliances" were not required to register and, since its member organisations were all registered, there was no need for it to enlist as a separate entity.

When reports of sexual abuses by UN personnel in West Africa emerged in 2002, Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated a clear policy of zero-tolerance of sexual misconduct by staff. However, allegations of sexual misconduct and gender-based violence by peacekeepers have since been reported in several operations, including Kosovo and, more recently, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Recent press reports have alleged that the UN’s internal watchdog, the Office of Internal and Oversight Services (OIOS), has opened an investigation into up to 68 allegations of sexual misconduct by peacekeepers of the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC).

This study, published by UNICEF and the World Conference of Religions for Peace, draws attention to the roles of faith-based responses to HIV/AIDS in the six African countries it surveyed (Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Uganda). The study argues that, despite some negative perceptions of their role and impact, faith-based organisations (FBOs) are among the most viable institutions at both local and national levels and have developed experience in addressing the multidimensional impact of AIDS and its particular impact on children.

The three parties that back Niger's president on Wednesday won local elections, taking 62 percent of the 3 747 municipal seats in the West African state, the electoral commission said. Voters in Niger went to the polls on Saturday in a poll seen as an important step in paving the way to democracy in one of the world's poorest countries.

Nigeria is Africa's largest and most complex country, with a population of 120 million people from over 250 tribes. The vast, swampy terrain of the Niger Delta region supports almost 20 million people, many of them in isolated communities only accessible by boat. The Niger Delta serves as the economic nerve center of the Nigeria Federation with its vast oil deposits. Presently, crude oil accounts for about 85% of the nation's revenue. Oil from the Niger Delta accounts for 20% of oil supply to the US, and has become increasingly important from a strategic perspective as conflicts continue in the Middle East.

However, this “blessing” has become a curse for the people of the Niger Delta. They have suffered environmental devastation, economic poverty, and constant conflict. To make matters even worse, political considerations and greed on the part of a corrupt government have kept many of the earnings from these vast reserves from returning to the Niger Delta to help restore the region.

Since the discovery of oil and the production in commercial quantities in 1958, the people of the Niger Delta have known no peace. Today, violent inter tribal and inter communal conflicts, arms proliferation, ethnic militias and illegal bunkering (theft of crude oil directly from pipelines) have become synonymous with the region.

Economic activities related to oil and gas has placed the government's security emphasis on the need to produce oil and gas most effectively and efficiently. This type of security consideration ignores the impact on other environmental and human resources such as waters, forests, fish and the climate of the area. The youth of the region, a vibrant and energetic generation who should be supporting the productivity and the future of this area, are instead being continuously cut down by bullets from security operatives under the guise of the war on terrorism. Communities are razed and extra-judicial killings are the order of the day.

From the days of the hanging of playwright and prominent environmental rights activist Ken Saro Wiwa and nine other Ogoni individuals by the then military regime of General Sani Abacha, to the Odi holocaust and the burning and destruction of Awor and Fenegbene by the present Obasanjo administration, the story has been the same.

When oil production activities are intensified or activated in a very dedicated manner, riverbank erosion results, gas flares occur frequently, forests are cut down, rivers and streams are dredged, turned into canals or blocked and then polluted. Farms and sacred lands are not spared either; they may be acquired for oil and gas development or polluted, as production gets under way. Anything that is seen to obstruct or have the semblance of serving as obstruction to the free flow of oil is uprooted and destroyed, whether it is a human being, a community or a stream.

Compounding the plight of the people of the Niger Delta is the issue of environmental pollution. Oil production and dredging have caused acid rain, fouled the air and the water, and caused widespread and dramatic erosion. Whole communities have watched their lands erode away. Fishing and farming, the traditional occupations of these people, is no longer viable. This situation has caused poverty, hunger and desperation among these peoples, who are struggling to eke out a living.

The issue of ownership rights is key. Federal laws automatically transfer title to any land where oil is found to the federal government without adequate compensation to the landowners. This gives the federal government the right to enter into an unholy alliance with multi national oil companies in the name of joint venture operations at the exclusion of the people. The result is that the federal government and the multinational oil corporations share the resulting revenue on a ratio of 60:40 percent with nothing left for the landowners. In addition, oil spills and other ongoing problems caused by the oil production are not attended to, so the area is left in much worse shape than before the oil reserves were found.

Underlying this complex and fraudulent economic arrangement is the issue of ethnicity and tribalism. There are 250 ethnic nationalities in Nigeria, with the Yorubas, Igbos and the Hausa/Fulani of the west, southeast and the north comprising the majority tribes. The minorities of the Ijaws, Itsekiris and other nationalities inhabit the oil rich Niger Delta region, which is swampy deltaic terrain, and is completely cut off from development, modern industries and social infrastructure. Educational opportunities are limited, and the closest health care facility is about three hours by speedboat.

Because the government tends to be populated by people who originated from the majority tribes which do not happen to be located in the delta, they have created a formula for sharing the revenues from oil production that favors other regions, further increasing the poverty in the delta and creating anger and conflict between the delta tribes themselves. Trust amongst the tribes has been eroded, while hatred and suspicion have grown, as they are made to believe that they are enemies to one and another by the divide and rule and divide and exploit attitude of an insincere national government and its dubious multi national collaborators.

The combination of these factors creates a potential powder keg. Because Nigeria is the largest nation in Africa and considered the leader in political and economic issues, any eruption could have a deeply destabilizing effect on both the continent and the global community. By providing the world a more complete understanding of the real story behind the impact of the oil discovery and production during the last 45 years in Nigeria, perhaps we can find the resources to address these issues before a major eruption occurs.

* Joel Bisina is a peace activist and founder/Regional Director of the Niger Delta Professionals for Development (NIDPRODEV) a non-profit organization working on the communal and inter tribal conflicts in the oil rich Niger Delta Region of Nigeria.

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