08-08-08: USAfrica celebrates 50 Years of CHINUA ACHEBE's THINGS FALL APART during the 15th Anniversary weekend of USAfrica's pioneering
multimedia leadership of the bi-continental interests of Africans and Americans. Event date is Friday August 8 n Saturday 9, 2008 in Houston, Texas.
USAfricaonline.com, first African-owned U.S.-based professional newspaper to be published on the internet, is listed among the world's hot sites by the international newspaper, USAToday.
USAfrica has been cited by the New York Times as America's largest African-owned multimedia company. 8303 SW Freeway, Suite 100, Houston, Texas 77074. Phone: 713-270-5500. Cell direct: 832-45-CHIDO (24436)
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On the Prof. Chinua Achebe project, log on to www.Achebebooks.com •• CLASS magazine 'the Ebony magazine for Africans in north America'
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Angola
president urges Mugabe to halt pre-poll violence.
In a rare rebuke to Robert Mugabe, Angola's president has
urged the Zimbabwean leader "to stop the violence and
intimidation" In a letter to Mugabe, Jose
Eduardo Dos Santos advised his counterpart to "observe the
spirit of tolerance, respect for difference and cease all
forms of intimidation and political violence", the radio
reported. The letter was sent to Mugabe through Angola's
representative in the observer mission from the 14-nation
Southern African Development Community (SADC), the radio
added. Violence has escalated in Zimbabwe ahead of the June
27 presidential run-off, with the United Nations alleging
that Mugabe's supporters are responsible for most
incidents.The opposition Movement for Democratic Change
claims that around 70 of its supporters have been killed in
a campaign of intimidation since first-round elections on
March 29.
A leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta told The Associated Press that militants attacked the Bonga oil field more than 65 miles from land. But the fighters weren't able to enter a computer control room, which they had hoped to destroy. OIL in NIGERIA: Liquid Gold or Petro-Dollars Curse? Nigeria losing $14 billion a year in oil. Nigeria loses $14 billion a year to oil theft, according to Stephen Hayes, the president of the Corporate Council on Africa. The supposed monetary losses incurred by the oil-rich West African country were calculated based on the estimated number of barrels of lost production due to corruption and crime, said Hayes. "If you are losing 600,000 barrels a day on oil at $70 a barrel, you are losing $12 million a day on oil theft," Hayes told Nigerian newspaper This Day. Before stepped-up hostilities by militant and other armed groups in the Niger Delta beginning in late 2005, Nigeria claimed to be producing about 2.5 million bpd. Since then, production has reportedly decreased by at least 20 percent, perhaps even by one-third, warn some analysts. In and around the delta's de
facto capital, Port Harcourt, a recent spike in violence has
raised concerns about the long-term viability of doing
business in the region, where foreign oil and gas operations
and regularly targeted. "The situation in Port Harcourt will
remain unstable in the short term until Nigerian authorities
can regain some level of control," read a recent report by
the Stratfor consulting group. By Carmen Gentile, UPI Energy
Correspondent.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, accompanying President George W. Bush on a visit to Rome, criticized the "continued use of state-sponsored violence in Zimbabwe and the regime's actions, including unwarranted arrests of opposition figures." "We believe the time has come for the United Nations Security Council to take up immediately the issue to prevent further deterioration of the region's humanitarian and security situation," Perino told reporters on Thursday. A group of prominent African leaders joined the international chorus for an end to political violence in Zimbabwe, once a regional bread basket but now in economic meltdown. "It is crucial for the interests of both Zimbabwe and Africa that the upcoming elections are free and fair," former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and 39 former African heads of state and civic leaders said in an open letter on Friday. (Reuters) Algeria bus station bomb kills 20. The north African country suffered the impact of a bomb explosion on Monday at a bus station in in Bouira, a town east of Algiers. It reportedly killed 20 persons, according to Algerian security officials. It was the fourth bomb attack within six days. 
Kenya to host Africa's World Economic
Forum in 2010. Kenya is to host the World Economic Forum on Africa in 2010, Prime Minister Raila Odinga has announced. Odinga, who led the country's delegation to the 18th WEF on Africa in Cape Town, South Africa, said Kenya had accepted an invitation by the organisers to host the forum. "This is a major breakthrough that heralds the country's emergence as a leading player in the drive for the continent's global economic integration," he told reporters (AFP). In pix, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, President Kibaki and Odinga shaking hands earlier in 2008 after brokering "peace" following inter-ethnic killings of almost 2000 Kenyans. Kenya's immiseration should be last of Africa's genocidal states. By Prof. Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe, contributing editor of USAfricaonline.com based in London. INSIGHT: Obama turns the page of America's history with 2008 nomination. By Chido Nwangwu. Today, the historic dateline of Tuesday June 3, 2008 has become etched in the collective history of mankind as a 
worthy milestone. "Tonight, we mark the end of one historic
journey with the beginning of another-- a journey that will
bring a new and better day to America. Because of you,
tonight, I can stand before you and say that I will be the
Democratic nominee for president of the United States." With
those soaring words, the history of this day continues to
resonate all over the world as Senator Barack Obama, the
savvy, hardworking son of a Kenyan immigrant and White
mother, shattered the iron-gates of what seemed culturally
and politically impossible.
He did it by creating the most cross-ethnic and trans-generational coalition in the history of American politics; indeed of any modern society. He did it by resolutely and clearly defeating his hard-charging, relentless opponent, former American First Lady New York Senator Hillary Clinton and the entire bare-knuckle Clinton machine for the Democratic nomination to become the first African American with a credible, viable and realistic chance of winning the presidency of the United States. On June 3, 2008, Obama won convincingly past the "magic number" of 2,118 delegates. With only 3 years in the U.S Senate, Obama's thunderbolt rise seems almost metaphysical and a remarkably unique political moment in America. The 46-year old former assistant professor of law soared in speech, again, after the superdelegates and June 3 votes shuttered Clinton's incredible week of the collapse of her efforts. "You chose to listen not to your doubts or your fears, but to your greatest hopes and highest aspirations," Obama told teeming supporters at a rally in St. Paul, Minnesota. In ways and means almost
reflecting the harmonization of the political, financial and
strategic elements of presidential quests, Obama has already
started writing and turning the pages of America's history.
After all, did he not enthrall millions with the political
theology and chant of making the seemingly impossible
altogether possible: yes,
we can! Only in America!! FULL
commentary CLICK here. It added that it is
"critically important that all candidates are able to
campaign freely and have free access to the media."
Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change has
been barred from staging a series of rallies in Harare after
police said they can't guarantee their leaders' safety, the
party said. According to a letter signed by a superintendent
of police, a copy of which was read by the MDC to AFP,
authorities have based their decision on statements by the
party concerning assassination threats. Police detained
MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who is hoping to topple
President Robert Mugabe in the June 27 vote, for the second
time this week on Friday and released him without charge
some two hours later. The ANC said it was "deeply concerned"
at Tsvangirai's detention. South African President Thabo
Mbeki is chief mediator between Zimbabwe's ruling party and
Tsvangirai's MDC, and has faced criticism over what many
have seen as an unwillingness to pressure Mugabe. Tsvangirai
has called for Mbeki to be axed as a mediator.Meanwhile, the
South African government Friday called "on all parties to
desist from any action that may serve to detract from the
objective of having free and fair run-off presidential
elections."
U.N. Security Council to tour, study Africa crises areas in June. The U.N. Security Council will tour Africa in June to try to better understand and address some of the continent's crises, including Darfur and Somalia, British Ambassador John Sawers has announced. 
Sawers,
the current council president, and South African Ambassador
Dumisani Kumalo will lead the mission, which will leave New
York on May 31 and spend the first 10 days of June in
Africa. The party, grouping representatives of the 15
nations on the council, will visit Kenya, where it will
consider the Somali problem, Sudan -- including the
semi-independent south and the violence-torn western region
of Darfur -- Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo and
Ivory Coast, Sawers
said.
Cameroon's president Biya extends his 25-year rule, amidst protests. Cameroon's parliament  adopted
a constitutional bill on Thursday April 17, 2008 removing a
two-term limit to allow President Paul Biya to extend his
25-year rule over central Africa's biggest economy past
2011.
Opposition lawmakers, who criticise the bill as a setback for democracy, stormed out of the chamber before the vote. The proposed change was a major cause of riots in February that killed dozens of people, many shot dead by security forces. "It is common knowledge
that incumbent presidents in Africa use the government
machinery and all the powers at their disposal to manouevre
the electoral process," SDF parliamentary chief whip Joseph
Barnadzem told reporters outside the chamber. "To try now to
amend this article only through the National Assembly, for
us is tantamount to a hold-up," he said. FULL
report, click here More than 1,200 people died and 300,000 were uprooted in violence that followed Mr Kibaki's disputed win in elections in December 2007. The crisis exposed decades-old disputes, which degenerated into ethnic killings and riots that shattered Kenya's image as a stable tourism and trade hub with one of sub-Saharan Africa's most promising economies. Kenya's currency and stock market have both been on the rebound since former UN chief Kofi Annan brokered a deal in February to create the coalition cabinet and launch a constitutional review. Finance Minister Amos Kimunya
has said the crisis forced the government to trim its growth
forecast to 4.5 from a previous estimate of 6.9%
percent. Odinga, 63, had rejected Mr
Kibaki's election "victory" after votes were counted in the
Dec 27 poll. The opposition, international observers and
some sections of Kenya's electoral commission have alleged
that widespread fraud was committed in the
elections
Once completed in six to eight
weeks, the merger will pave the way for the creation of what
Stanbic Bank Kenya says will be Kenya's fourth largest bank,
with a 12 branch-network. "This was the last regulatory
condition that had to be met. It came through last Thursday
night," Mike du Toit, managing director of Stanbic Bank
Kenya told Reuters without giving more details on the bank's
size.
"Mugabe has started a
crackdown," opposition secretary-general Tendai Biti said.
"It is quite clear he has unleashed a war." While the
election commission has issued results for the parliamentary
races held Saturday alongside the presidential race, it has
yet to release any presidential count. The opposition says
leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the presidential race, but says
it would take part in a runoff.
Zuma defeated Mbeki at a party election in December and is likely to become state president when Mbeki must step down in 2009 if he defeats corruption charges in court. In an unusually strong and direct attack on Mbeki, Zuma said power was firmly concentrated in the hands of the African National Congress (ANC), suggesting the president's authority had slipped away. "... if he's not part of the ANC leadership, he doesn't have authority. You can't even take serious decisions in terms of governance," he said in an interview with London's Financial Times published on the newspaper's Web site. Zuma is a populist with backing from left-leaning unions who has promised investors he would not stray from pro-business policies that Mbeki has pursued to keep an economic boom going. The ANC leader says those are party policies. Zuma still faces trial in August on money-laundering and racketeering charges. Oil hits $103 all-time high as U.S. dollar weakness continues. Light, sweet crude for April delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange jumped to a new trading price of $103.05 a barrel in electronic trading, on Friday Feb 29, 2008: . This affects, typically, all other aspects of consumer, business, energy and transportation anchors of any economy. The high price is set against the continuing weakness of the U.S dollar. On Feb 28, 2008, at a White House press conference, President Bush said with astonishing indifference that he did not know that there exists a popular projection by industry experts of a $4 a gallon price for gasoline here in the U.S. Many were surprised by the statement which reflected a sense of disconnection with the fundamental dynamics of the economy. By Chido Nwangwu  Nigeria
Elections
tribunal backs Yar'Adua's disputed presidential
election A Nigerian tribunal on Tuesday
(February 26, 2008) rejected opposition demands for a re-run
of last year's presidential election, averting a political
crisis in Africa's most populous nation.
Umaru Yar'Adua won a (disputed) landslide victory, but local and international observers said vote-rigging was so rampant that the results were "not credible". A special five-judge tribunal rejected legal challenges filed by the two main opposition candidates, former army ruler Muhammadu Buhari and former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar. "Umaru Yar'Adua and Goodluck Jonathan remain the president and vice-president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria," said Judge John Fabiyi at the conclusion of a ruling that took more than three hours to deliver.Full report on the ruling and reaction, click here on Nigeria's election USAfricaonline.com FLASHBACK 
Alhaji
Yar'Adua pushed to victory as Nigeria's president by
Obasanjo's ruling party; local and international monitors,
opposition reject Nigeria's 2007 presidential elections
vote as marred by rigging,
fraud.... Special to
USAfricaonline.com,
CLASS
magazine, USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston and
The
Black Business Journal. Nigeria's electoral
commision has announced the ruling PDP party candidate Umaru
Yar'Adua, the 56-year-old Muslim governor of northern
Katsina state, as winner of Nigeria's presidential
elections. The "landslide victory" was announced by
electoral commission chairman Maurice Iwu, as a prelude to
the May 29, 2007 handover of power to President Olusegun
Obasanjo's hand-picked successor Yar'Adua. Meanwhile,
international and local monitors rejected Nigeria's election
as a failure on Sunday in scathing verdicts on the first
handover from one civilian president to another. Reuters
reports that the opposition and foreign observers called the
vote, marred by rigging, a shortage of millions of voting
papers and violence in which 16 people were killed, the
worst in Nigeria, plagued by years of military rule since
independence from Britain in 1960.
Tribunal voids election of Nigeria's senate president David Mark. A Nigerian electoral tribunal on Saturday Feb 23, 2008 voided the election of federal senate president David Mark, government spokesman Cletus Akwaya said. "For now he remains the senate president until all the legal channels are exhausted," Akwaya added after the tribunal in the central state of Benue found there was no clear winner of the election last year and that the national electoral commission was wrong to have declared Mark the winner, he said... On February 26 the tribunal hearing petitions challenging the validity of the 2007 presidential vote ruled positively on the validity of Umaru Yar'Adua's election. For full and related David Mark's and other Nigeria election issues click here FLASHBACK Why
Bush should focus on dangers
facing Nigeria's return
to democracy
and Obasanjo's slippery slide.
FLASHPOINT! In 15 years: Nigeria could collapse, destabilize entire West Africa - U.S. intelligence analysts claim OIL in NIGERIA: Liquid Gold or Petro-Dollars Curse? Bush offers some help to troubled Liberia. U.S President Bush offered encouragement and help Thursday February 21, 2008 to lift this shattered country 
from years of ruinous fighting as he concluded a tour of
Africa and turned toward other global problems. In Liberia,
the final stop on Bush's five-country trip, almost nothing
works and people are nervous about their future in the
aftermath of a 14-year civil war that ended in 2003.
The country is overrun with weapons, malnutrition is pervasive, half of children are not in school, and many buildings are uninhabitable. There is little running water or electricity and no sewage or landline phone system. "It's easier to tear a country down than it is to rebuild a country," Bush said. "And the people of this good country must understand the United States will stand with you as you rebuild your country." Though Bush's entourage was a bit jittery about his seven-hour stopover, Liberia's president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, declared at one point, "You're safe." Bush used his five-country (visit to Africa) to showcase how billions in aid and diplomatic engagement are improving the everyday lives of people across the continent. Jennifer Loven/AP Related insight: Liberia's president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf calls for "partnership" rather than "patronage" relationship with U.S. Liberia's bloody mess and hopes of a battered nation. Liberia: Death by installment. By Chido Nwangwu, June 21, 1996. Obasanjo and Bush 'monitored' while Liberia was murdered. U.S. First Lady Bush, Sec of State Rice in Liberia for inauguration of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman elected President in Africa. Obama scores 10th straight victory; overpowers Clintons in Wisconsin, wins landslide 76% in Hawaii. Obama's Wisconsin and Hawaii wins compel the Clintons to chase a difficult must-win overwhelmingly scenario in Democratic primaries on March 4, 2008 in Texas and Ohio. Ohio's demographics mirror Wisconsin's where Obama beat and cut into Clinton's previous, strong segments.  INSIGHT:
Why America should halt the
genocide in the Sudan.
By Chido Nwangwu, Founder and Publisher of
USAfricaonline.com. Certain facts and the continuing,
bigoted impudence of Islamic Sudan offer clarity to why the
U.S should aggressively halt the genocide and gory events in
Africa's largest country. The Sudan has almost 918,000
square miles in size and a war-weary population of
30million. Even as I call for a red line to be drawn against
the rag-tag army of Arab-taliban-fascists in Africa and the
assorted troops of religio-criminal rapists who have since
four decades set upon the southern Christian, indigenous
African Sudanese, I agree with Gen. Powell that "America
will be a friend to all Africans who seek peace; but we
cannot make peace among Africans." He is right. Africans
must respect and love each other. Continued
here....U.S President Bush, Tanzania's Kikwete Sign $698 million grant; and Bush wants AIDS plan renewed. Bush's three-night stay in this vast East Africa nation takes him to a part of the continent that is important in the U.S. fight against terrorism. The bombed-out former U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam still stands as a stark reminder of deadly attacks in Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya, in 1998. The visit to Tanzania is the longest of Bush's six-day African trip and longer than usual for the president anywhere. The stay and the celebration of a new five-year $698 million U.S. aid pact were intended as goodwill messages to Tanzania's large Muslim population. FULL report here  In 2008 visit, Bush pledges money and sanctions for Darfur; tours Ghana and Liberia. U.S President George W. Bush on Tuesday arrived in Ghana, the fourth stop in his five-nation African tour, an AFP correspondent at the airport reported. Bush was met by his host President John Kufuor, and the two left the airport immediately. The two leaders are expected to discuss regional security, the African Union and issues linked to trade at a meeting on Wednesday morning. Earlier on Tuesday, Bush had
paid somber homage Tuesday to the estimated 800,000 people
killed in Rwanda's 1994 genocide and urged global action to
end the bloodshed in Sudan's Darfur region "once and for
all." "Evil must be confronted," he said after touring a
Kigali memorial to the 100-day, systematic massacre of
minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus by Hutu extremist
militias and government troops. Bush, mid-way through a
five-country Africa tour, announced he was freeing up 100
million dollars (68 million euros) for African peacekeeping
efforts in the restive Sudanese province of Darfur but
firmly defended his decision not to send US troops
there.
read book in modern African literature, Things Fall Apart, has described the departed highlife music legend Chief Osita Osadebe as "an artiste who played music with a message and mission." Osadebe (in picture, right) lived as one of Africa's longest and durable great talents. He played, sang and released melodious songs since 1956 until 2005. Osadebe who hailed from Umuekeke in Atani, Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra State was born in 1936. His family announced that he passed on Friday May 11, 2007 and burial is set for this week. Achebe, author of several landmark works told
Houston-based USAfrica and CLASSmagazine Publisher Chido
Nwangwu in an exclusive interview on Wednesday February 6,
2008 that "Osadebe was a priest who used words and
sounds. He lived like any of the greatest musicians
who are prominent in any culture; he lived as a great
musician who used music to reach people in order to improve
their lives and make them happy. He had message for people
to reflect upon. He
had deep message in his music as much as he provided
music for celebration and [to] be merry." 
"We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change
that we seek" says the poetic presidential candidate Obama
after impressive wins on Super
Tuesday.
USAfricaonline.com reports that Barack Obama has taken the
momentum, won more states., more delegates and trumps
Hillary Clinton on money raised for campaign. Amidst
operational pressures, Hillary loans $5m to her own
campaign....
Obama raised almost $6 million after the Feb. 5 voting
contests, all of which came from online
donations.
He has consistently
set a record in imaginative and technologically compelling
was of fundraising with his team. Obama's campaign manager
David Plouffe noted in a letter to supporters that $3
million was raised the evening after Tuesday's primaries and
caucuses. "The Clinton campaign just announced that Hillary
and Bill Clinton injected $5 million of their personal
fortune into her campaign a few days ago,'' Plouffe stated.
"Thanks to you, we have raised more than $3 million since
the polls closed on February 5th. But we have no choice --
we must match their $5 million right now.'' A live ticker
embedded to his e-mail showed donations, recorded $5.8
million as of 11:30 p.m. eastern on Wednesday, February 6,
2008. (In the AP photo, Sen. Barack Obama and wife Michelle
greet supporters in Chicago)
...talks to end crisis resume. Kenyan police killed four people in looting mobs who set scores of houses and businesses ablaze in a western Kenyan town, an official said Friday, in clashes sparked by a policeman's killing of an opposition lawmaker. The shooting of David Kimutai Too on Thursday interrupted the start of talks to help resolve the monthlong postelection crisis that has killed more than 800 people and forced 300,000 from their homes. Talks, being mediated by former U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, resumed Friday with an address
by Annan's successor, Ban Ki-Moon, who appealed to
negotiators to "Look beyond the individual interest. Look
beyond the party lines. ... Now the future is on you."
AP
INTERVIEW:
Colin Powell:
it's nonsense to say Obama is not Black
enough....Retired
Gen. Powell, a former Secretary of State, also urged
Americans to "enjoy this moment where a person like Barack
Obama can knock down all of these old barriers that people
thought existed with respect to the opportunities that are
available to African-Americans."INSIGHT:
"Who
speaks for Nigerian President?" Special
report
Hillary Clinton, McCain win NHampshire votes. (AP) &emdash; In the land of comebacks, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain revived their sagging campaigns Tuesday night and catapulted the Democratic and Republican presidential races into a surprise state of chaos. Neither could afford to lose New Hampshire. Suddenly, the fallen front-runners look like winners again. Clinton defied campaign-closing polls and the expectations of her own advisers to pull out a narrow victory over Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, the self-styled agent of change bidding to be the nation's first black president. She won with a last-minute show of emotion and pointed criticism of Obama, the harshest attacks coming from her husband, Bill. By Ron Fournier PRIMARIES 2008: Does Obama's win in Iowa indicate Americans are colorblind? Special report by Sharon Cohen. Obama's convincing win in Thursday's caucuses in Iowa - a state with just a smattering of minority voters - demonstrated the Illinois senator's support crosses racial lines and bolstered the notion that America is receptive to electing its first black president. Whether Obama's appeal stretches beyond the farm fields of Iowa will become clear over the next month as the freshman senator faces a series of tests on different political terrain - beginning with Tuesday's primary in New Hampshire, another overwhelmingly white state. Click here for FULL report First Win: Obama defeats Clinton machine to make historic win of Democratic caucus in Iowa; evangelical pastor- former Governor Huckabee win Republican vote
in Iowa. Sen. Barack Obama swept to victory in
the Iowa caucuses Thursday night, January 3, 2008, pushing
Hillary Rodham Clinton to third place and taking a major
stride in a historic bid to become the nation's first black
president. "You've got to have hope if you are a black man
named Obama running for the presidency of the United States
of America,'' Obama said during a late-night campaign stop
two days before the caucus. It was one of his rare mentions
of what he had to overcome. "I'm probably the only candidate
who, having won the nomination, can actually redraw the
political map,'' Obama said at the time. ``I guarantee you
African-American turnout, if I'm the nominee, goes up 30
percent around the country, minimum. Young people's
percentage of the vote goes up 25-30 percent. So we're in a
position to put states in play that haven't been in play
since LBJ.''
Mike Huckabee rode a wave of support from evangelical Christians to win the opening round among Republicans in the 2008 campaign for the White House. Obama, 46 and a first-term senator from Illinois, scored his victory on a message of change in Washington. Nearly complete returns showed him gaining 37 percent support from Iowans. Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina appeared headed for second place, relegating Clinton, the former first lady, to a close third. USAfricaonline.com with additional reports from the AP and wire reports. Riots escalate: 132 dead into the first week of January 2008 after Kenya's president Mwai Kibaki is declared winner in hotly disputed elections....opposition leader Odinga reject official results as rigged, again demands Kibaki to step down, stating: "I am the elected president of the Republic of Kenya.... For the last 48 hours the people of Kenya have seen their nascent democracy shackled, strangled and finally killed." Odinga has called for a mass rally on Thursday January3, 2008 in Nairobi's main Uhuru Park, named for the word freedom in Swahili. USAfricaonline.com with CNN/wire reports/ click here Riots follow Kenya's controversial, disputed elections BUSINESS: Free trade for SADC by 2008? The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is on course to establish a free trade area by 2008, Lesotho Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili has said. He was opening an extraordinary heads of state and government summit in Midrand, between Johannesburg and Pretoria. Mosisili, current chairperson of SADC, said the process
to achieve the free trade area would be "a give and take
affair." Several heads of government and state, including
President Thabo Mbeki and Zimbabwe's President Robert
Mugabe, are attending the conference on regional
integration. They will review recommendations by a
ministerial task team &emdash; comprising trade and industry
and finance ministers in the region &emdash; about the best
way to achieve the free trade area. Sapa
Zuma ousted President Thabo Mbeki as party leader after their intense rivalry divided the party, which has ruled South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994. Before the election, Mandela who decided not to endorse one candidate or to attend the conference, said divisions within the party race were saddening. He said it was inevitable the results of the elections would be interpreted by some "as an overwhelming victory for one camp or faction over another". Mandela's spokeswoman on Friday dismissed rumours that former president's health has taken a turn for the worse. Zelda la Grange said her office had been flooded with inquiries. "Rumours have again surfaced about Mr Mandela's well-being. Mr Mandela is in the former Transkei (his hometown in the Eastern Cape Province) where he is enjoying the festive season with his family," SAPA quoted her as saying. "He is due back in Johannesburg only towards the end of January." (Reuters) Presidents Museveni, Kabila meet over fighting, crises in region. The special summit between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) opened officially on September 7, 2007 with Congolese foreign minister Mbusa Nyamwisi announcing that Kinshasa would start fighting Ugandan rebels on Congolese territory. "The DRC will start an operation against the negative forces of Uganda this month", Nyamwisi said in his opening speech in the Tanzanian town of Arusha, without specifying which rebel groups. The negative forces operating from eastern Congo include the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), the People's Redemption Army (PRA) and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Nyamwisi also called upon Uganda to withdraw its forces from Congolese territory. He accused UPDF of having troops in the eastern town of Mahagi. He also alleged that Congolese militia were recruiting
fighters in refugee camps in Uganda. He further stated that
Kinshasa was in favour of joint oil exploration on Lake
Albert. Earlier, foreign minister Sam Kutesa, who leads the
Ugandan delegation, said he hoped the summit would address
the conflict between the two countries. "The presence of
negative forces in the DRC is a matter of serious concern to
Uganda", he stressed in his opening address. By Felix Osike
and Alfred Wasike, New Vision in Kampala.
In and around the delta's de facto capital, Port Harcourt, a recent spike in violence has raised concerns about the long-term viability of doing business in the region, where foreign oil and gas operations and regularly targeted. "The situation in Port Harcourt will remain unstable in the short term until Nigerian authorities can regain some level of control," read a recent report by the Stratfor consulting group. By Carmen Gentile, UPI Energy Correspondent. OIL in NIGERIA: Liquid Gold or Petro-Dollars Curse? Nelson Mandela celebrates his 89th birthday, launching a humanitarian campaign along with former President Jimmy Carter, ex-U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and other "elders" of the global village. The initiative stems from an idea by British entrepreneur Richard Branson and musician Peter Gabriel to create a world council of elders to tackle issues such as conflict, AIDS and global warming. "This group of international leaders will share how they intend to work together to contribute their wisdom, independent leadership and integrity in addressing some of the world's toughest problems," organizers said in a statement. Branson and Gabriel, who founded an international human rights organization and championed the anti-apartheid cause, attended part of a week of festivities for Mandela's birthday. A children's party that has become an annual fixture wraps things up July 24. Before that, events will feature Bill Clinton and soccer legend Pele, who will play in a special star-studded match to honor Mandela. 2007 Mothers Day event: honorees, community leaders network in Houston at USAfrica and CLASS annual banquet. OIL in NIGERIA: Liquid Gold or Petro-Dollars Curse? Special report by Chido Nwangwu Alhaji Yar'Adua pushed to victory as Nigeria's president by Obasanjo's ruling party; local and international monitors, opposition reject Nigeria's 2007 presidential elections vote as marred by rigging, fraud.... How Obasanjo rewarded Nigerians with a farce called elections. By Muhammad Al-Ghazali Meanwhile, Nigeria's Senate leader Ken Nnamani, the third most senior state official and a member of the PDP, said Nigeria had abdicated its role as an example to the rest of Africa. "There will be a legacy of hatred. People will hate the new administration and they will have a crisis of legitimacy," he told Reuters by telephone. In another chat with Nigerian media/reporters , he said "Some people may like to deceive themselves that it is free and fair, but I don't think so." MONITORS SAY NO CREDIBILITY: "The system failed the Nigerian people and suffers from a lack of credibility...the Nigerian people were failed by their leaders," said Pierre Richard Prosper of the International Republican Institute ( IRI, a U.S.-based pro-democracy group), which monitored the vote. The biggest local monitoring group, which had 10,000 observers across Africa's most populous nation, said voting was either delayed for hours or did not occur at all in many areas. "We are going to call for a rerun of elections. You cannot use the result from half of the country to announce a new president," said Innocent Chukwuma, chairman of the Transition Monitoring Group. Click here for Full report FLASHBACK Why
Bush should focus on dangers
facing Nigeria's return
to democracy
and Obasanjo's slippery slide.
North Africa Qaeda wing vows more suicide bombings in the region: Al Qaeda's North Africa wing has, since April 2007, warned it would carry out more suicide bombings and urged Muslims to join its ranks as suicide bombers. Attacks in the past few weeks have deepened fears of a broad upsurge in violence in North Africa after the group set a goal of linking up with similar Islamist groups in the region and using it as a base for bombings against European targets. "We have decided to adopt the style of martyrdom operations in the confrontation with our enemies from now on," Abu Musab Abdul-Wadud, a leader of al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb, said in a video broadcast by Al Jazeera television. He said the group had issued instructions for the selection of targets "that achieves the goals of jihad (holy war)." "We bring good tidings to our nation and youth and tell
them that the list of martyrdom-seekers has become long and
is growing every day," he said. "This is a crusader war on
Islam and a battle of The struggle will be aimed largely at keeping the man-in-the-street, middle class professional people, and the youth ever committed to the quest in advance of the Common Good for change. The pain of seeing so many middle class people come out to vote on April 14 and witnessing their retreat on April 21 after it became clear their votes were not allowed to count increases the essence of the struggle. It is time to say thank you and to roll up our sleeves, like Nehemiah, to rebuild the falling walls of Nigeria. Full text here. REGIONAL CRISES: Somalia faces crisis as 350,000 flee homes, away from fighting. The United Nations (UN) is calling the attention of the world, again, to the fact that Somalia is facing a major humanitarian crisis with more than 250,000 people fleeing the country. According to the UN spokeswoman Stephanie Bunker at least 350,000 people have fled Mogadishu since February 2007. "If you look at the situation from February until now, in that one time frame, more people have been displaced inside Somalia then any place else in the world," she said. "That includes Iraq, that includes Darfur (in Sudan) - where 107,000 people have been displaced this year - and that includes Sri Lanka, where there has been also very significant displacement this year." The UN notes more people have been displaced in Somalia over the last two months than anywhere else in the world. Fighting between government forces and Islamic rebels has forced thousands of people to flee the capital Mogadishu. Somalia's Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi says most of the fighting is over in the capital and it is is safe for residents to return. But residents do not seem too reassured. The latest reports say gunfire and mortar explosions are continuing to echo through the streets. USAfricaonline.com/ABC/BBC Alhaji Yar'Adua pushed to victory as Nigeria's president by Obasanjo's ruling party; local and international monitors, opposition reject Nigeria's 2007 presidential elections vote as marred by rigging, fraud.... Special to USAfricaonline.com, CLASS magazine, USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston and The Black Business Journal . Monday, April 23, 2007. Nigeria's electoral commision has announced the ruling PDP party candidate Umaru Yar'Adua, the 56-year-old Muslim governor of northern Katsina state, as winner of Nigeria's presidential elections (in pix). The "landslide victory" was announced by electoral commission chairman Maurice Iwu, as a prelude to the May 29, 2007 handover of power to President Olusegun Obasanjo's hand-picked successor Yar'Adua. Meanwhile, international and local monitors rejected Nigeria's election as a failure on Sunday in scathing verdicts on the first handover from one civilian president to another. Reuters reports that the opposition and foreign observers called the vote, marred by rigging, a shortage of millions of voting papers and violence in which 16 people were killed, the worst in Nigeria, plagued by years of military rule since independence from Britain in 1960. How Obasanjo rewarded Nigerians with a farce called elections. By Muhammad Al-Ghazali Meanwhile, Nigeria's Senate leader Ken Nnamani, the third most senior state official and a member of the PDP, said Nigeria had abdicated its role as an example to the rest of Africa. "There will be a legacy of hatred. People will hate the new administration and they will have a crisis of legitimacy," he told Reuters by telephone. In another chat with Nigerian media/reporters , he said "Some people may like to deceive themselves that it is free and fair, but I don't think so." MO  NITORS
SAY NO CREDIBILITY: "The
system failed the Nigerian people and suffers from a lack of
credibility...the Nigerian people were failed by their
leaders," said Pierre Richard Prosper of the
International Republican Institute ( IRI, a U.S.-based
pro-democracy group), which monitored the vote. The biggest
local monitoring group, which had 10,000 observers across
Africa's most populous nation, said voting was either
delayed for hours or did not occur at all in many areas. "We
are going to call for a rerun of elections. You cannot use
the result from half of the country to announce a new
president," said Innocent Chukwuma, chairman of the
Transition Monitoring Group.Click here for Full report FLASHBACK Why
Bush should focus on dangers
facing Nigeria's return
to democracy
and Obasanjo's slippery slide.
INEC headquarters in Abuja targetted by petrol tanker.... Again, violence and delays threaten Nigeria 2nd poll for President, Senators. Nigerians voted April 21, the second of two elections amidst violence, logistical problems and allegations of "allocated votes". At the time of this report, voting was closing in many polling centers. A major havoc failed to occur some hours before polling stations opened, when unknown attackers with with a fully loaded petrol tanker was used to try blow up the national electoral commission's headquarters in Nigeria's capital Abuja. The truck hit a telephone pole outside INEC but failed to the building and did not exlpode. During voting, some armed thugs abducted an elections officer in Ondo state, carted away voting materials and scared many away from voting. Earlier in the evening of Friday (April 20) militants in the oil-producing Niger Delta attacked stormed the office of Gov. Goodluck Jonathan, Obasanjo's pick as the ruling PDP party's vice-presidential ticket; two persons were killed. For report, click here SPECIAL REPORT: Nigeria's do or die election flawed by rigging. By Koert Lindijer , Africa correspondent of Radio Netherlands (April 19, 2007). It looks very much as if Africa's most populous nation has once again failed to organise free and fair elections. Foreign and domestic observers and journalists say the state elections on 14 April were marked by blatant fraud and violence. They were even worse than the 2003 elections.... These are the biggest elections ever held in Africa and arguably the most important. For the first time since Nigeria gained its independence in 1960, a civilian government is handing over to another civilian government. There is a great deal at stake and President Olusegun Obasanjo is out to control his succession. "It's a do or die affair" as he has said. Ballot theft: In the southwestern state of Ikiti I saw supporters of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) unashamedly stealing ballot boxes and filling them with completed ballot papers. The police - and sometimes the army - looked on and did nothing. Reports have been coming in from nearly all 36 states of ballot box theft and of large groups of voters who say they were prevented from voting, while at the end of the day the official turnout has been announced as 90 percent.... USAfricaonline.com VIEWPOINT. By Prof. Niyi Osundare: "Obasanjo has ruined this country...." An open letter to Nigeria's President Obasanjo. Nigeria's President Obasanjo fingered by his VP Atiku in loss of $500m Oil Money. Vice President Atiku Abubakar has alleged that over $500 million of the money realised during the 2002/2003 oil licensing bids cannot be accounted for by the current authorities of Nigeria's government led by retired Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo. He raised the question: "About $700m was realised during the 2002/2003 bidding rounds but only the sum of about $145m was released to the PTDF. At this point, the pertinent question to ask is: where is the balance and who used it and under what law or which appropriation sub-head." ANNIVERSARY
 SPECIAL:
Why
Martin
Luther King's
legacy
and
vision are relevant into 21st century. By Chido Nwangwu.
As an African
in America, as a recent immigrant who has been blessed by
the graciousness, business opportunities, global breadth and
hospitality of Americans, I have cause to be thankful for
benefiting from the vision, personal sacrifice and peaceful
soldiering of the late Martin Luther King, who sought to
create an atmosphere which fosters harmony and acceptance of
all our unique talents and racial origins.
On this day/week of
the post-humous celebration of birthday, I believe that the
existing global alliance of all humankind, representing the
full tapestry of our ethnic/racial origins as Indians,
Caucasians, Blacks, Jews, Asians, and a multitude of other
backgrounds should, markedly, advance Dr. King's vision and
efforts should do more by utilizing technological tools,
networking personal discipline, boosting religious and
communal re-orientation to fight all forms of discrimination
and intolerance into the 21st century. Why? We must
all remember the fact that although King and his colleagues
fought and died to achieve the cause of racial harmony and
peaceful resolution of conflicts, there
are more sophisticated forms of discrimination which
besmirch our collective dignity as God's
children. INTERVIEW: USAfricaonline.com Publisher Chido Nwangwu on the U.S National Public radio affiliate KPFT to analyze the oil-related events in Nigeria, Dec 27, 2006.POPE'S MESSAGE ON MORALITY and SOCIETY: Pope Benedict XVI delivers a blistering attack on the decadence of today's  society:
"Lord,
we have lost our sense of sin...spreading an
inane apologia of evil, a senseless cult of Satan, a
mindless desire for transgression, a dishonest and frivolous
freedom, exalting impulsiveness, immorality and selfishness
as if they were new heights of sophistication."
"Lord Jesus, our affluence is making us less human, our entertainment has become a drug, a source of alienation, and our society's incessant, tedious message is an invitation to die of selfishness." During the Good Friday April 14, 2006 message, he delivers one of the strongest meditations and warns against the attack on the family. "Today we seem to be witnessing a kind of anti-Genesis, a counter-plan, a diabolical pride aimed at eliminating the family." The Pope will also confront the question of evil in the
world in a meditation that asks: "Where is Jesus in the
agony of our own time, in the division of our world into
belts of prosperity and belts of poverty . . . in one room
they are concerned about obesity, in the other, they are
begging for charity?" Click
here for full report by Ruth Gledhill, Religion
correspondent of The Times of London.
INSIGHT: Genocide and why Nigeria does not deserve UN Security Council seat. By Professor Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe, contributing editor of USAfricaonline.com. The weekend of  March
26, 2006, it appears very likely that Nigeria will, after
all, hand over Liberian fugitive leader Charles Taylor
(currently on exile in Nigeria) to the Freetown-based UN
court investigating war crimes in conflicts in and around
Sierra Leone. But we must note that in the
past 40 years, Nigeria has been run by a succession of
genocidist generals and other operatives (military and
civilian alike) who planned, executed and sustained the Igbo
genocide. The current head of state, Olusegun Obasanjo,
commanded a notorious division in southern Igboland which
committed indescribable atrocities as it overran cities,
towns and villages. Neither he (who has been head of state
for a total of nine years during the period) nor any of his
colleagues (most of whom are still alive) has apologised or
shown remorse for their crimes against humanity. On the
contrary. In fact Yakubu Gowon, who was head of state and
grand overseer of the genocide, only recently told the press
in Enugu (political and cultural capital of Igboland) that
he had "nothing to apologise" to the Igbo. Before he shot
himself in a Berlin bunker in 1945, few would have expected
Adolf Hitler to apologise or show remorse for his organised
genocide of six million Jews across Europe during the Second
World War. Hardly anyone, though, would wish to contemplate
a Hitler travelling to Jerusalem today to address a press
conference in which he would insist categorically: "I have
nothing to apologise for the six
million Jews my forces annihilated between 1939 and
1945. What I did was right." That would be unimaginable
monstrosity. But this was precisely what Gowon did at Enugu
a fortnight ago.
Nigeria's "bid" to join the Security Council could not have provided the world with a better opportunity to deal with the crux of contemporary Africa's malaise: the non-accountability of African leaderships who employ genocide and the pillage of the economy as a twin-track instrument of power. No country in Africa is more appropriate for the world to enforce this accountability than where the disease emerged in the first place on the continent &endash; Nigeria, the quintessentially failed and genocide-state. Special to USAfricaonline.com, USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston; IgboEvents blog and CLASS magazine DEMOCRACY WATCH: Senator Udoma: Why I opposed 3rd term for Obasanjo or anyone. VIEWPOINT: Obasanjo, Go! Just go! Prof. Wole Soyinka Why Bush should focus on dangers facing Nigeria's return to democracy and Obasanjo's slipperyslide. By Chido Nwangwu USAfricaonline.com Insight: Islam and Christianity clashes in Nigeria. Is Obasanjo really up to Nigeria's crises and challenge? By Ken Okorie, editorial board member of USAfrica Also see Transcript CNN International Interview Sept 17, 2002 with Nigeria's President Obasanjo and USAfricaonline.com Publisher Chido Nwangwu on Democracy and Security Issues HEALTHWATCH: South Africa labour boss slams Mbeki on AIDS. INSIGHT: OIL in NIGERIA: Liquid Gold or Petro-Dollars Curse? by Chido Nwangwu (written and published in October 1998, updated in 2003) USAfricaonline.com archived background insight: The coup in Cote d'Ivoire and its implications for democracy in Africa. (Related commentary) Coup in Cote d'Ivoire has been in the waiting. By Tom Kamara. U.S. First Lady Bush, Sec of State Rice in Liberia for inauguration of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman elected President in Africa. Related insight: Liberia's bloody mess and hopes of a battered nation. By Chido Nwangwu Liberia: Death by installment. By Chido Nwangwu, June 21, 1996. Obasanjo and Bush 'monitored' while Liberia was murdered. Exclusive: OJUKWU says "  Until
my last dying breath, I shall continue to think of
my
Jerusalem, Biafra!" Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu speaks
also on his secret August 2004 meeting with Nigeria's
president Obasanjo.... "before I
left, he (Obasanjo) then said to me, "You know, we have no
problem; but there's one thing you must do for me." I said
to him, "What is it?" And he said, "Renounce Biafra so that
we can work together!" My response was, "No, never! How can
I? You see, Omo-Oba, I came to you thinking I was coming to
a friend, and all you can ask of me is to commit suicide. I
don't know what type of friendship this is. No, you're
groping...." Interview by Prof. Kalu
Ogbaa appears in full on USAfricaonline.com.
It is being serialized across the multimedia platforms of
USAfrica, CLASS
magazine and IgboEvents
Related Interview: Odumegwu Emeka Ojukwu: "It was simply a choice between Biafra and enslavement."By Chido Nwangwu  Johnson-Sirleaf Africa's first female president from Liberia's 2005 presidential race. Harvard-trained Iron Lady Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has been elected the first female president in Africa following a commanding advantage over football great George Weah in Liberia's post-war presidential runoff in November 2005. The 66-year-old grandmother and former finance minister had 59.2 percent of the votes while the 39-year-old former FIFA player ofthe year had 40.8 percent, Frances Johnson-Morris, chairwoman of the National Elections Commission, told a news conference. The results, she said, are from 2,719 of the 3,070 polling stations across the war-torn west African country. Analysts fear the worst that angry supporters of Weah, mostly youth, might turn to violence over the fraud allegations if he lost to Liberia's foremost female politician. Weah and Johnson-Sirleaf obtained 28.3 percent and 19.8 percent respectively in thefirst round. Liberia, founded in 1847 by freed American slaves, experienced a bloody civil war from 1989 to 2003 in which an estimated 250,000people, about eight percent of its population, died and about one million made refugees. Meanwhile, the first woman to be nominated and aspired as a candidate for vice president of Nigeria, Mrs. Oyibo Odinamadu has ain an e-mail to USAfricaonline.com described the strides of Dr. Sirleaf as "a very wonderful and exhilarating news... Liberia is now in the line of liberated nations." USAfricaFORUM: What Africans need is Economic Democracy and Not Aid. I subscribe to the group which argues that Africans do not need more aid from the rich nations; that what Africans need is economic democracy. Africans need freedom to chart their own future. Africans need the freedom to decide how the vast mineral resources in the continent can be marketed. The second largest continent in the world is rich with abundance of natural and human resources. If these resources are put in proper use, Africa will be self sufficient, and should not need any aid from any country or group of nations......By Ezekiel Nwakwue. South Africa labour boss slams Mbeki on AIDS. South Africa's top trade unionist has attacked President Thabo Mbeki for failing to stem a raging AIDS pandemic in the latest sign of discord between the ruling African National Congress and its labour allies. "This lack of government leadership on HIV is a betrayal of our people and our struggle," USAfricaNEWSBANK: Why the American FBI officers raided home of Nigeria's VP Atiku in Potomac, reportedly regarding iGate telecomm deal and payments to Nigerian and Ghana officials. On the same 
day that federal agents executed search warrants on the New
Orleans and Washington, D.C., homes of U.S. Rep. William
Jefferson, the FBI also raided the Maryland residence of
Nigeria's vice president, seeking evidence of possible
payments to officials in that African nation.
A State Department official confirmed the Aug. 3 search of the Potomac, Md., home of Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar and his wife, Jennifer. The agency referred all quest ions about the raid to the Justice Department, which declined to comment. A source familiar with the investigation said subpoenas show agents were looking for records showing whether Jefferson, D-New Orleans, paid, offered to pay or authorized payments to officials in the government of Nigeria or Ghana. The subpoenas, described to The Times-Picayune, seek documents related to Jefferson's dealings with Abubakar and the vice president of Ghana, Alhaji Aliu Mahama. Jefferson returned from a five-day visit to Ghana in mid-July, about three weeks before the FBI raided his homes. CLICK here for Full report by The Times Picayune newspaper of New Orleans. Mandela's 87th birthday focus on his legacy, message beyond the man.... Nelson Mandela's 87th birthday and festivities kicked off at one minute past midnight on Monday morning July 18, 2005, with a fireworks extravaganza on Robbenma 
Island and the lighting of a torch in Mandela's former
prison cell. The torch-lighting was the first step in the
Six Day 46664 Torch Run Relay, in which the torch is to be
carried on a route winding through the nine provinces as an
inclusive celebration of Mandela's birthday.
The relay is to use the network of
the South African Rugby's 14 unions around the country and
runners are to carry the torch for distances ranging from
200 metres to a kilometre. "We hope to collect more than a
million messages by July 23, and we ask people to monitor
the vehicle's progress," said John Samuel, head of the
Nelson Mandela Foundation. Parties, lectures, a rugby match
and the launch of a comic series were some of the
festivities celebrating Madiba's 87th birthday.
|
INSIGHT: Obama
turns the page of America's history with 2008
nomination.
By Chido Nwangwu.
The itinerary included stops in Durban, Johannesburg and
Cape Town and meetings with government and business leaders.
Nagin's office says the mayor will speak in Durban on
emergency preparedness and his experiences surrounding
Hurricane Katrina and visit the ports in Durban and Cape
Town to learn about what's being done successfully there and
how that might translate for New Orleans, whose port hopes
to position itself for expanded trade.
As an African in America, as a recent immigrant who has been blessed by the graciousness, business opportunities, global breadth and hospitality of Americans, I have cause to be thankful for benefiting from the vision, personal sacrifice and peaceful soldiering of the late Martin Luther King, who sought to create an atmosphere which fosters harmony and acceptance of all our unique talents and racial origins. On this day/week of the post-humous celebration of birthday, I believe that the existing global alliance of all humankind, representing the full tapestry of our ethnic/racial origins as Indians, Caucasians, Blacks, Jews, Asians, and a multitude of other backgrounds should, markedly, advance Dr. King's vision and efforts should do more by utilizing technological tools, networking personal discipline, boosting religious and communal re-orientation to fight all forms of discrimination and intolerance into the 21st century. Why? Kenya's immiseration should be last of Africa's genocidal states. By Prof. Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe. Today, far into the first month of 2008, the great nations of the Gikuyu and Luo of east Africa have been bludgeoned into that dreadful circle of murder and immiseration, which signposts the seemingly inexorable march of the African genocide state. Yesterday, the Dafuri were whipped into that circle by the ruthless punch of the Arab regime in Khartoum and its Janjaweed subalterns. The previous day, it was the harrowing turn of the Tutsi, some Hutu, Kongo, Mongo and Luba and Muonjang, Azande, Nuer, Bari, Ndebele … All these African constituent nations have become solemnly codified in the eerie grouping of slaughter that maps Africa's (European) post-conquest sociopolitical landscape. FULL insight click here 50 Years of Achebe's THINGS FALL APART'': USAfrica honors Achebe by holding 2008 international symposium on 08-08-08 in Houston. REGISTER online, today, for The Event http://www.regonline.com/achebeusafrica
The August 8 and 9, 2008 will include symposia and the special USAfrica harvest of Achebe's 1958 masterpiece and epic work, 'Things Fall Apart.' The convener and chief host of the harvest of the Achebe events is USAfrica's Founder, publisher of AchebeBooks.com and mutlimedia executive Chido Nwangwu. USAfrica (characterized by The New York Times as the largest and most influential African-owned, U.S-based multimedia networks) notes that "we'll portray both the high-minded, intellectual cadences and the everyday person and high-schoolers thoughts about the father of modern African literature. Hence I set the thematic summary as the USAfrica harvest of Achebe. Certianly, there will be critical insights and reviews/performances in honor of the great Achebe." USAfrica is honoring Achebe as the main event of the 15th Anniversary of its pioneering multimedia leadership of the bi-continental interests of Africans and Americans. The acclaimed 2007 'BEST OF AFRICA' International Awards annual dinner in honor of African professionals will hold at the Marriot Hotel Westchase. The events require pre-event registration, USAfrica15@Gmail.com deadline June 8, 2008. Registration is required, and will include getting a copy of Prof. Chinua Achebe's 'Things Fall Apart' - for all those who register before June 8, 2008. The events are being organized by USAfrica and USAfricaonline.com, CLASS magazine, PhotoWorks.TV, Black Business Journal, BBJonline.com and Achebebooks.com. E-mail: USAfrica15@Gmail.com Office: 713-270-5500. wireless: 832-45-CHIDO (24436) USAfricaonline
LITERATUREWhy Chinua Achebe, the Eagle on the Iroko, is Africa's writer of the century. USAfricaonline.com
YouTube VIDEO pick:
I'm
so bush.. Naija Boyz.. Im so Hood
remix. Young
Africans in Houston.
Nelson Mandela's political trinity: the man, the messiah and the mystique. INSIGHT: Lindhs' Mandela comparison is foolish and scandalous. By Chido Nwangwu June 16, and South Africa's treble historic events. By Nkem Ekeopara What
has Africa
to do with September 11 terror? By Chido
Nwangwu
How and why Osama bin-Laden's goons threaten Nigeria and Africa's stability COMMUNITY MOURNS: 17-year old Vince Agwuoke drowns in Houston school. The Houston and African communities are saddened by the drowning death of a Westside High senior around 2:30pm on Thursday April 10, 2008. The incident has put more pressure on the Houston Independent School District to review all policies and procedures for student activities in (swimming) pool areas and athletic facilities. The handsome only son of the Agwuoke family died at Memorial Hermann Memorial City Hospital shortly after he was rushed from the school for medical care. FAMILY
EVENT: 2008 USAfrica 9th
Annual PRAYER BREAKFAST held as usual on the last Satirday
of January, JANUARY 26, 2008. Time: 9am to 11.30am.
Venue: Shanae's Cafe (former Kennys, 9780 Bissonet, Houston,
TX 77036). Songs by Stacy Egbo, musical events coordinator
Pastor Jonathan, Trumpeter Isaiah, Sharon Bogney, the
Kuforiji sisters and other artistes. Pastors and members of
the community from different cities attended..
08-08-08 USAfrica
celebrates 15th Anniversary of Excellence, USAfrica
and USAfricaonline.com (characterized by The New York Times
as the largest and most influential African-owned, U.S-based
multimedia networks) will celebrate its 15 years of
community leadership, professional journalism excellence and
public insights during summer weekend of August 8 and 9,
2008, in Houston. The acclaimed 2007 'BEST OF AFRICA'
International Awards annual dinner in honor of African
professionals will hold. The events are being organized by
CLASS magazine, PhotoWorks.TV, Black Business Journal,
BBJonline.com, USAfrica and USAfricaonline.com. GET your
Tickets, now, for the invitation only event. E-mail:
USAfrica15@Gmail.com
Office: 713-270-5500. wireless: 832-45-CHIDO (24436)
USAfricaLOGISTICS: United Bank for Africa (UBA), one of Africa's largest banks, was hosted to a business dinner and mortgage information event in Houston, Texas, on March 28, 2007 at the Hilton Southwest, Hotel. E-mail for further info: ubausafrica@gmail.com. Office: 713-270-5500. Houston event/business roadshow was coordinated by USAfrica LOGISTICS, international special events management, corporate business facilitation and proprietary data-mining arm of USAfrica, serving African and American businesses/organizations. Chido Nwangwu is CEO, USAfrica. Wireless phone: 832-45-CHIDO (24436). BUSINESS: Ghana has Oil reserves at 3 billion barrels. By Francis Kokutse. Accra, Ghana (AP) - Ghana's president said Saturday that offshore oil reserves discovered in the West African country's 
waters total 3 billion barrels. "Ghana has struck oil in
commercial quantities," President John Kufuor said, speaking
at a ruling party congress in the capital, Accra. "This is
only the beginning. The future is very bright indeed."
British-based oil explorer Tullow Oil PLC announced over the summer that it had had success with a well off the coast of Ghana. It gave no details at the time, saying only that it had discovered "a significant light oil accumulation" and was appraising it. Tullow operates the Deepwater Tano license that covers the new stake, holding a 50 percent stake. Its partners are Kosmos Energy and a subsidiary of Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Sabre Oil & Gas and the Ghana National Petroleum Corp. Tullow also holds a 23 percent stake in the West Cape Three Points license, off Ghana. Kufuor gave no other details. Energy Minister Kofi Adda also declined to comment on the announcement, but told The Associated Press the find was part of the ongoing explorations involving Tullow in western Ghana. Ghana's defense minister calls for US military aid for West Africa. Ghana's defence minister Kwame Addo-Kufuor recently called on the United States to assist stable countries in West Africa to beef up their security and defence sector as a contribution to long-term socio-economic development in the sub- region. Addo-Kufuor told the Secretary of the US Navy, Donald Winter, who is in the country to boost bilateral ties between the two countries, that the role of the Ghana Navy was crucial to any plan for maritime safety and security in the sub-region. Winter is responsible for the entire US Navy, as well as the formulation and implementation of naval policies. His visit is related to that of Admiral Henry Ulrich, Commander of the US Naval Forces in Europe, who was in Ghana recently, official sources said. The Ghanaian defence minister expressed appreciation to the US government for the arrival of spare parts to support repair works on the US-acquired Ghanaian navy ships. Lucky Dube's death a blow to Africa's cultural heritage; Presidents of South Africa, Gambia and Senegal mourn  reggae
superstar.
The Presidents of Gambia and
Senegal say Lucky Dube's death strikes a serious blow to
Africa's cultural heritage. The two dignitaries have joined
thousands of mourners in paying tribute to the South African
reggae legend, who was shot dead in a botched hijacking in
front of his two children on Thursday, October 18, 2007.
South African President Thabo Mbeki has led the tributes for
slain reggae superstar Lucky Dube, describing him as "an
outstanding South African." Mbeki's tribute came amid
growing calls for tough government action to bring gun crime
under control.
Dube's memorial service is underway at
the Bassline in Newtown, Johannesburg. Cosatu
General-Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi -- speaking at the
memorial service -- lambasted South African radio stations
for their failure to support local artists. Thousands have
come to pay tribute to Lucky Dube. The 43-year-old Dube's
funeral takes place at the Farmers Hall in Newcastle this
Sunday. Family members have requested that the funeral be a
private affair. Click here for some of Dube's
videos
Chinua Achebe wins Man Booker International Prize 2007. The highly-regarded Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe has won the Man Booker International Prize, which is worth £60,000 and awarded only once every two years. Achebe, who was born in 1930, is best known for his first novel, "Things Fall Apart," written in 1958, though he has written more than 20 books. In "Things Fall Apart," Achebe portrays Nigerian tribal life in an Ibo village before and after colonialism.
USAfricaonline
LITERATUREWhy Chinua Achebe, the Eagle on the Iroko, is Africa's writer of the century. By Chido Nwangwu Exclusive:110 Minutes with basketball Hall of famer HAKEEM OLAJUWON Obasanjo last auction of Nigeria's key assets. By National Association of Seadogs (NAS). via Prof. Olatunde Makanju, NAS Capone: The fact that beneficiaries of these transactions are cronies and aco lytes
of now former President Obasanjo (in picture) directly or
indirectly, overtly or covertly as well as the ludicrously
low prices at which these lucrative deals were concluded at
the twilight of the last administration seems to supply the
motivation.
It is our view that these transactions are shady and faulty on several fronts. One, they were not conducted by the BPE and apparently did not follow due process by not conforming to competitive open bidding. Secondly, these assets were grossly undervalued. Thirdly, all the stakeholders (employees, creditors and minority shareholders) were not consulted before the transactions were consummated. We wish to highlight a roll call of these transactions as follows: -- The Port Harcourt Refinery was sold to Blue Star Oil at the cost of $561 million. Blue Star is a subsidiary of Dangote Group of Companies, an organization owned by one of the biggest financiers of the ruling party the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The Chairman of Zenon Oil, Mr. Femi Otedola (son of a past governor of Lagos State), is another big financier of the ruling PDP. -- The Onigbolo Cement Company was grabbed by the Dangote Group at a ridiculous sum of $1.78 billion.....Click here for full report intervention, it's a long-term project," says Karim Dahou, an advisor to the Paris-based Africa Partnership Forum. USAfrica VIEWPOINT: President Obasanjo, Nigeria is dying in your hands. Another Open Letter to Nigeria's President by Prof. Niyi Osundare: "President Obasanjo, you had the greatest opportunity in the world to shape the destiny of Nigeria and put her foot on the road to the future. But you turned the noble act of political competition into a "do-or-die" battle. And true to your words, the country is dying from your doing....Everywhere you have turned in the past four years (sometime in the future, you would wish you hadn't had a second term), your feet have fallen on thorns and pebbles: the fomenting of wasteful political disaffection in Anambra, and Oyo States, the cunning manouevering that has turned you into an absolute monarch of your great Party, the PDP, your routine disrespect for legitimate court injunctions and well-deliberated laws from the Legislature, your back-handed attempt to extend your presidential tenure, and your embarrassing showdown with your Vice President over how BOTH of you have mismanaged and squandered the resources of the Petroleum Trust Fund Development (PTDF). As scandalized Nigerians watched their so-called Number One and Number Two citizens dancing so abominably naked in the streets despite their lavish robes, we all wondered: what manner of rulers are these that have absolutely no sense of shame?! Your Excellency, you remind me of the proverbial king that has shat on the throne. Your nose may be too far from the message of your discharge, but the country is surely choking from the stench." VIEWPOINT: Obasanjo, Go! Just go! Prof. Wole Soyinka Obasanjo's failed quest for 3rd Term has damaged his reputation. By Prof. Patrick Wilmot USAfrica VIEWPOINT: Nigeria's flawed 2007 elections and avoiding a tragedy. Nigerians not ready to be governed once again by those they did not give the consent had began to protest and to call for new elections. Click here for an exclusive commentary for USAfricaonline.com by our New York columnist Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo. He is the author of a new book, Children of a retired God. USAfrica INSIGHT: Presidential Succession and National Stability following 2007 Nigeria. By and large then, Nigeria's 2007 presidential election is, to my mind, first a search for a strong leader who has both the experience and proven capacity to take charge of Nigeria and permanently put to rest the fears and schisms that constantly threaten the survival of the nation. Put simply, the priority issue that ought to inform the search for and choice of the next president is national security and stability in their fullest meaning. By Dr. Chidi Amuta, Executive Editor of USAfrica. Click here for full commentary. EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Anambra's deputy Gov Mrs. Etiaba: "How I became Nigeria's first woman Governor" "...I did not know Gov. Peter Obi until 2003; and why I said Obasanjo is father of the Nigerian nation...." ASA-USA demands INEC should conduct another Anambra governorship elections including Ngige, Ukachukwu and Obi ECOBANK increases balance sheet. Lome, Togo: ECOBANK group posted record results for 2006 as its balance sheet grew by 59% to US$3.5 billion while gross revenues before interest expense increased by 46 % to US$419 million and profit before tax jumped from 73.7 to US$129.3 million, i.e. 75 %. The Group maintains its accounts in US dollars and its results are in accordance with international financial reporting standards which make ECOBANK probably the only institution in West and Central Africa to abide by such rules. The results of the group are being published ahead of the company's Annual General Meeting to be held in Cotonou, Republic of Benin, on April 27th. NEWS: Achebe says Obasanjo's anti-corruption fight is a myth; president has taken Nigeria "as low as she has ever gone." Special to USAfricaonline.com, CLASS magazine, USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston and The Black Business Journal The world acclaimed author of Things Apart and several  other
books, Professor Chinua Achebe has said that Nigeria's
President retired General Olusegun Obasanjo, has since 1999
taken Nigeria "as low as she has ever gone." In a statement,
titled "The clouds are gathering,", Achebe added that this
assessment "will surprise foreign 'friends' of Nigeria who
may believe the myth that Obasanjo has been fighting to end
corruption in the country and to bring democracy to its
citizens. Nigerians know better."
"President Obasanjo has had the opportunity to rule Nigeria for three years (1976-79) as an unelected military dictator and later for two terms of eight years as a retired general/civilian (1999-2007). People don't exactly remember what Obasanjo did in his first civilian incarnation. His second coming, however, was a different matter. He unfolded a gigantic scheme for staying in power beyond his tenure. He set up agencies with long titles like the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent National Electoral Commission. It soon became clear, however, that these devices were not intended to curb the crimes they enumerated but to go after people who disagree with the President, especially on his desire to extend his tenure." "Perhaps the strangest of these events took place in my own state, Anambra, where a governor was kidnapped by a criminal gang who claimed that they had 'fixed' the election and earned the right to receive the state budgetary allocation. "Whatever the merit of this bizarre
story the governor refused to turn over the allocation to
these thieves and began to spend it on building roads and
bridges which nobody had done in decades. He began to pay
pension to retired civil servants who had not been paid in
years. Anambra State was transformed overnight. No where
else in Nigeria had such a change happened. Governor Ngige
became the people's governor."Also, see
AchebeBooks.com
"I have told this story again although we all know it. I am retelling it because as it goes with Anambra, so will it go with Nigeria. As Nigeria gets ready for the election of Governors, Anambra State is in a quandary. President Obasanjo's hatchet man for elections is determined that only one candidate will be allowed to run in the state and has gone ahead to disqualify everybody else so that the President's favourite man will be alone in the field. If this plan goes through, it would amount to nothing less than the disenfranchisement of the people of Anambra State." "I must congratulate the Judiciary on the tough battle many of its members are waging for the soul of Nigeria. The Senate came ever so close to snatching Nigeria out of the fire, and then... That was a historic moment lost. What a pity." But he INEC chairman has stated in an
interview with USAfrica and CLASSmagazine that the elections
will be free and fair. The
excerpts of this exclusive interview appear here at
In comparison, while Liberia's Madam President Sirleaf represents the manifestation of the triumph of popular constitutional methods and emerging institutional democratic values in Africa, retired General Obasanjo's imperious, know-it-all, emerging project for a sit-tight presidency in Nigeria remind us all of the 1970s old Africa where constitution-tweaking soldiers (his colleagues) and power drunks funnily believed their country's sun rose and shone at their hideous and idiosyncratic say-so. We won't go back there; no; not now that we have the great Nelson Mandela as our icon, historical benchmark and reference point. Obasanjo makes it difficult for Obasanjo to be a statesman; no doubt, he's a regional leader. As a specialist on US. and Africa public policy and
cultural issues, here are things I'll suggest President Bush
tell President Obasanjo, in a short, sweet but realistic
summary: Full
commentary here
TIAD has also announced that its team is already in
Nigeria as part of the international observers for the April
2007 elections. In their report published by
USAfricaonline.com and CLASSmagazine they note among other
things that: "The INEC voter registration effort was
initially hindered by Direct Data Capture machines from
foreign vendors, which failed to perform in the field as
expected. The resilient INEC used laptops with web cameras
and fingerprinting capacity to continue the voter
registration. This exercise as completed, should improve the
credibility of the election results." TIAD concludes that
from "our observations on the ground and in meetings with
election officials at various locations revealed a vigorous
and innovative voter registration effort." Click
here for full report 
Obasanjo,
Go! Just go!
Prof. WOLE SOYINKA's January 19, 2006 press
statement/conference in Lagos on the crisis in Oyo State and
alleged roles and incapacities of President Olusegun
Obasanjo: "In the name of that very God whom you thank
for yanking you back from the abyss, I implore you-Go! Go
while it is still possible to forgive you for robbing us all
of our earned retirement. Go! Just go! This is no time to
beat about the bush.
The presidential hand in this (Oyo State) affair is blatant. Obasanjo has openly endorsed violence as a means of governance, embraced and empowered individuals whose avowed declarations, confessions and acts are cynically contrary to the democratic mandate that alone upholds the legitimacy and dignity of his office.
The respectful 'Baba' accolade has turned to be yet
another Baabuism, mimics the culture
of the 'dons,' literally actualised by Obasanjo as that of a
Mafia godfather whose hand you either bow and kiss, or
receive the kiss of death." Full text
here
Okereke-Onyuike told the House Committee on Capital
Markets that the president had subscribed to the shares of
the company when it was established. Even though she did not
specify the amount of shares held by the president, her
revelation confirmed media reports that the president owns
between 200million
to 600million shares in Transcorp.....
NEWS: South African President Mbeki unveils World Cup 2010 logo at 2006 World soccer event in Berlin. South African President Thabo Mbeki has presided over the unveiling of the World Cup 2010 logo in Berlin. In remarks to an audience that included United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Liberian football legend George Weah, Mr. Mbeki said Africa is ready to host the world's largest sporting event. The president said by selecting South Africa as the next host nation, the world soccer federation (FIFA) has rewarded all African football lovers. It will be the first time the World Cup is played in Africa. Mr. Annan, a Ghanaian citizen, said football is a universal language that helps heal countries recovering from conflict. Germany will officially hand over hosting of the World Cup to South Africa on Sunday July 9 in Berlin. The logo for the 2010 World Cup shows a silhouette of a
soccer player kicking a ball with a background the colors of
South Africa's flag. Mr. Mbeki said the drawing of the
soccer player was inspired by rock paintings in his
country.
Many Nigerians still feel disappointed that a man
(Obasanjo) who had gained so much from Nigeria would cling
so tightly to power, even against the popular will of the
people, moreso with age, energy and fresh ideas for a new
era not on his side. Day the Senate killed Obasanjo's 3rd term bill in Abuja. Abuja, May 16, 2006 (IRIN) - Nigerian senators voted on Tuesday May 16, 2006 to throw out a bill seeking to amend the country's constitution to give President Olusegun Obasanjo the chance to run for a third successive term in office next year. A majority of lawmakers in the upper house agreed in a voice vote to scrap the bill, which has raised tensions in Africa's most populous country plagued by ethnic and religious violence. "By this result, the Senate has said clearly and eloquently that we should discontinue further proceedings on this amendment bill," Senate President Ken Nnamani announced to applause. Obasanjo, who was on a visit to France as the lawmakers
took the decision, has never stated he wants to run again
when his second, four-year term comes to an end in 2007. But
he has hinted he would like to complete economic and
political reforms he has initiated. However, many Nigerians
believe he is behind a powerful campaign by his supporters
to prolong his rule. Six months must now elapse before the
bill can be re-presented to the Senate, if Obsanjo's third
term supporters wish to. Obasanjo's "3rd term agenda is dead"- says Nigeria's Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, on Thursday night, May 11, 2006, in Abuja: "By today, we definitely know that the third term agenda is dead.... We have enough votes to block the third term agenda and it is also a blessing for Nigerians. The struggle for the enthronement of democracy has virtually started today..." USAfricaonline.com SPECIAL REPORT: Liberia's president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf calls for "partnership" rather than "patronage" relationship with U.S. Related insight: Liberia's bloody mess and hopes of a battered nation. Liberia: Death by installment. By Chido Nwangwu, June 21, 1996. RWANDA: THE GENOCIDE THAT SHOOK THE WORLD, AFTER THE FACT Special to USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston and USAfricaonline.com On Wednesday April 7, 2004, Rwandan
President Paul Kagame pinned the country's
darkness during the 1994 genocide on the international
community and the United Nations in the 10th anniversary of
the tragedy. He pinned the cause of the genocide on
Western countries, namely Belgium, Britain and the United
States that withdrew their forces when they were badly
needed. "Injustice of powerful nations should be stopped.
Rwanda shouldbe a good example to learn a lesson," the
president said. On her second trip to Africa, Mrs. Bush is joining Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to attend the inauguration of President-elect Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who has called on women to help govern other African nations. "I think it's really important worldwide," Mrs. Bush said
about Sirleaf's inauguration, which falls on the day
Americans honor civil rights icon, the Rev. Martin Luther
King Jr. "I think it's particularly important on the
continent of Africa, because traditionally women have been
excluded in many African cultures not all of them, but in
many." Full
report by Deb Reichmann in Monrovia/AP here.
MONEYWATCH: Malawi loses US$ 40 million to corruption.... The Malawi government has lost close to a whopping kwacha 5 billion (Euro 34 million, US$ 40 million) in the last five years due to high-level corrupt practices that involved top government and party officials, 'The Chronicle' has learnt. Malawi's anti-corruption agency is investigating a large number of cases involving high ranking government officials and opposition party members. Anarchy rules when corruption takes over. By USAfrica editorial board member attorney Ken Okorie HEALTH CARE AND BLACK HISTORY: CELEBRATING THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF ROLAND SCOTT. By U.S. Senator Jim Talent Dr. Roland Boyd Scott's first publication on the disease, a 1948 report on the incidence of red cell sickling in newborn infants, was not only the first of its kind, but it also laid the groundwork for the newborn screening programs which would be started more than two decades later. He was the first to report growth and development norms for healthy African-American children which became a nationwide standard. He published hundreds of articles on the disease and treatment methods. Among his biggest challenges were educating parents about their children's disease and persuading the government to provide funding for research. The official manifest of the December 10, 2005 crashed Sosoliso airlines plane in Nigeria where 107 persons were killed has been released. Most of the dead are mainly students from Loyola Jesuit College in Abuja. In October 2005 another plane crash near the commercial city of Lagos killed 117 people. Poor airport conditions and old aircrafts have been major problems of flying in Nigeria. EXCLUSIVE: How deciding against flying the Sosoliso schedule saved some lives: Emmanuel Okoro, one of the CLASS magazine and USAfricaonline.com executives who attended the PDP convention in Abuja was planning with his Port Harcout-based close friend Nnanna Udonsi and visiting associates from Houston to fly back to the East on the same flight. As fate will have it, he informed me in a phone conversation Saturday morning, that he persuaded Nnanna and the rest to stay the weekend in Abuja since they had been out for most of Friday night and very early into Saturday morning regarding the PDP event. USAfricaonline.com has also learnt that about 75 young students from Loyola school, an American Catholic model school and place of first choice for mainly rich Nigerians, were on board the Sosoliso flight. One student who returned to the Port Harcourt this Saturday morning, we gather from a close family source, insisted on driving back to the East rather than fly with the rest. After persistent arguments the student's parents yeilded; and they were glad to see their daughter. Recovery of bodies and post-crash investigations are beginning. USAfricaonline.com will report additional info and background insight as we get them. By Chido Nwangwu with USAfrica correspondents ICON: Civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks honored in America's capital, as she died at 92. Rosa Parks, the black  seamstress
whose refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama,
bus to a white man sparked a revolution in American race
relations, died on Monday October 24, 2005. The U.S. civil
rights pioneer was 92.
Shirley Kaigler, Parks' lawyer,
said she died while taking a nap early on Monday evening
surrounded by a small group of friends and family members.
"She just fell asleep and didn't wake up," Kaigler
said.
The cause of death was not
immediately known. Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts
Democrat, said in a statement: "The nation lost a courageous
woman and a true American hero. A half century ago, Rosa
Parks stood up not only for herself, but for generations
upon generations of Americans." "We are saddened by the
passing of Rosa Parks. We rejoice in her legacy, which will
never die. In many ways, history is marked as before, and
after, Rosa Parks," said civil rights leader Jesse Jackson.
"She sat down in order that we all might stand up, and the
walls of segregation came down."
Reuters
ISSUES: Race and the Hurricane: Howard Dean, Kanye West and Laura Bush disagree on Bush's treatment of Blacks, poor in Katrina's aftermath. U.S. Democratic party leader tells Baptists that U.S. must face the racial "ugly truth" about deaths in Gulf region. Race was a factor in the rising death toll from Hurricane Katrina, Howard Dean told members of the National Baptist Convention of America on Wednesday at the group's annual meeting. Dean, Democratic Party chairman, made the comments to the Baptists' Political and Social Justice Commission. The Baptist Convention has an estimated 3.5 million members representing 3,000 churches and is one of the largest black religious groups in the country. "We must . . . come to terms with the ugly truth that skin color, age and economics played a deadly role in who survived and who did not," Dean said. Dean said Americans have a moral responsibility to not ignore the devastating effects of damage caused by Hurricane Katrina when it struck the Gulf Coast. The former presidential candidate said the government will be judged on how it treats the old, the young and the poor. "People are poor in different parts of the country. They are not refugees. They are Americans," he said. Dean said that instead of considering proposed estate tax breaks, the Senate should channel the $760 billion savings into disaster relief funds. "Shall we give that to the wealthiest people in the country, or should we rebuild New Orleans?" Dean said. Kanye, America's young hip-hop icon, said during a tv telethon that Bush does not care  about
Blacks. Bush's wife, Laura, said in a radio interview that
Dean and Kanye's views of her husband are "disgusting."
PERSPECTIVE: Barbara Bush comments latest in series of blunders: U.S. President George W Bush is not the only member of his prominent political family to be drawing criticism for public utterances about Hurricane Katrina: His mother has raised eyebrows too. In widely reported comments after visting evacuees at the Texas sports arena (Astrodome) former first lady Barbara Bush on Monday (September 5, 2005 seemed to suggest a silver lining for the "underprivileged" forced from their flooded homes in New Orleans. "What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality," Mrs. Bush said in a radio interview from the Astrodome in Houston, Texas."And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this &emdash; this is working very well for them," she said. Click here for additional reports on the Bushs' comments, etc. CLASS is the social events, heritage excellence and style magazine for Africans in north America, described by The New York Times as the magazine for affluent Africans in America. USAfrica INSIGHT: Africa's debt burden, poverty, and the G 8 countries. By Dr. KC Asagwara, Canada-based contributing editor of USAfricaonline.com 
TECHNOLOGY: "Apple's Switch to Intel: The Ultimate Power Move? Steve Jobs' decision to build Macs with Intel chips may finally give the company a shot at challenging Microsoft's Windows." By David Kirkpatrick  AADD:
Africa
Attention Deficit Disorder.
A U.S. disorder that hurts Africa. By David Sarasohn
of Newhouse News Service: Today's pictures are from Niger,
but they could be from lots of places in Africa, and from
lots of times during recent decades. These children with the
matchstick legs, and the eyes bigger than their fists, could
have been from Biafra, a runaway province of Nigeria, in the
1970s, or from Ethiopia in the 1980s, or the Congo in the
1990s. The hideous massacre stories, this time from Darfur,
could be from Liberia, or Sierra Leone, or -- most bloodily
-- Rwanda. The AIDS stories come steadily from the same
places. Full commentary here
FLASHPOINT! In 15 years: Nigeria could collapse, destabilize entire West Africa - U.S.
intelligence analysts claim; Obasanjo calls them "prophets
of doom...."A coup in Nigeria could cause the oil
exporting country to collapse and bring down much of West
Africa with it, the U.S. National Intelligence Council said
in a long-term outlook released in Nigeria on Wednesday, May
25, 2005. The catastrophic scenario was listed as a possible
risk in a long-term forecast for Africa by the U.S.
government intelligence body, which also saw most of the
continent becoming increasingly marginalised over the next
15 years.
"While Nigeria's leaders are locked in a bad marriage
that all dislike but dare not leave, there are possibilities
that could disrupt the precarious equilibrium in Abuja,"
said the report, which was given to the press by Nigerian
lawmakers....Click for report on In
15 years: Nigeria could
collapse....
RWANDA: THE GENOCIDE THAT SHOOK THE WORLD, AFTER THE FACT.... Special to USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston USAfricaonline.com and Classmagazine.tv On Wednesday April 7, 2004, Rwandan President Paul Kagame pinned the country's darkness during the 1994 genocide on the international community and the United Nations in the 10th anniversary of the tragedy. He pinned the cause of the genocide on Western countries, namely Belgium, Britain and the United States that withdrew their forces when they were badly needed. "Injustice of powerful nations should be stopped. Rwanda shouldbe a good example to learn a lesson," the president said. Also, the retired General Romeo Dallaire of Canada, former commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Rwanda (UNMIR), has said that the 1994 genocide in Rwanda could have been stopped if the international community had shown their political will. In an interview with Xinhua in Kigali, where commemoration events are being organized for the 10th anniversary of the genocide, Dallaire expressed his disappointment with the world leaders over their inaction during those horrible days. Dallaire, who led the UN peacekeeping force in Rwanda from October 1993 to August 1994, was invited to the International Conference on Genocide and the April 7 public ceremony, also known as National Reflection, at the Kigali National Stadium. Why Rwanda matters 10 years after the slaughter of 800,000. By Gerald Caplan, author of 'Rwanda: The Preventable Genocide' Rwanda's lesson: 'Never again'. By Clarence Page USAfricaFORUM: Africa, Blair and United Kingdom's commendable push for development assistance. By Dr. Chinua Akukwe  VIEWPOINT"Obasanjo ruined this country...." An open letter to Nigeria's President Obasanjo. By Prof. Niyi Osundare: Dear President, millions of Nigerians see you as the source of their problems. Millions curse you under their breadth. Millions more loudly pronounce their imprecations at the slightest opportunity. You rule over a degraded country, Mr. President; your every act has consistently contributed to that degradation. In the reckoning of most Nigerians, you are the most arrogant, most insensitive, most callous, and most self-righteous and hypocritical ruler that this unfortunate country has ever been saddled with in its hapless saga of misrule.Your words, behaviour, disposition, and general track record seem to justify these negative impressions. Consider these facts: in two years, you have hiked the price of petroleum products two times. You met a litre of petrol selling for 21 naira; it now goes for a whooping 42 naira in a few places and twice as much in many others. As if this were not enough, you topped it all with a N1.50 levy misnamed "fuel tax". You started by flaying us with whips; now you fleece us with scorpions. What good you thought would come out of these hikes, you alone in your unfathomable wisdom will ever know; you and the Mephistophelean PPPRA and your horde of "Special advisers." Osundare, Professor of English at the University of Ibadan (Nigeria), poet and prolific essayist, is the winner of the Commonwealth Poetry Prize for 1986, and the 1991 Noma Award for Publishing in Africa. His essays and reviews have appeared previously on USAfricaonline.com and USAfrica The Newspaper. Click here for FULL commentary VIEWPOINT Obasanjo's Biafra and anti-Igbo battles running past 33 years. By Professor Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe, USAfricaonline.com contributing editor of USAfricaonline.com, author of the highly-acclaimed African Literature in Defence of History: An Essay on Chinua Achebe ANOTHER VIEW: Haba, Obasanjo, please spare us some of this emotional blackmail! Who put Wabara there in the first place? By Ishaq Modibbo Kawu (Daily Trust newspaper, Abuja): "Nigerians had started yawning every time "crusader" Obasanjo re-iterated his commitment to a corruption-free process of governance. The reason was simply the huge credibility deficit Obasanjo's government has consistently run, since his election in 1999. There were too many examples of corruption at the heart of the hypocritical and quixotic tilting at the windmill of corruption. The monster of corruption seemed to have successfully entrenched itself, almost like an ancient pagan god, that was propitiated in the various levels of Nigeria's ruling elite. I'll take one example; the infamous Defence Ministry Permanent Secretary, Makanjuola, who stole N400m from his ministry. It was General T.Y. Danjuma, who blew the whistle on this executive thief. A challenge was thrown by that patriotic act of T.Y Danjuma, because the story that has continued to make the rounds is that the thief Makanjuola is infact, Obasanjo's cousin... COMMUNITY EVENT USAfrica 6th Annual Prayer Breakfast 2005 held, as usual, on the last Saturday of January (the 29th day of 2005) as a multi-denominational family event hosted by our community's multimedia leader, USAfrica and CLASS. U.S. congressman Al Green who attended the 2004 event was represented. There were other community leaders and members of the faith-based organizations, families and inspirational leaders. Keynote speakers were Dr. Joshua Uhiara and Rev. David Okumgba. For the 2004 breakfast event, Pastor Tunji Osinulu was the keynote speaker. He spoke on the power of one by drawing from the lessons of Daniel in the Bible. Retired Archbishop Benjamin Nwankiti, a former Dean of the Church of Nigeria, was guest of honor for the 2003 event at the Holiday inn Sugar Land. African-American educator Rev. Lee Thompson was keynote speaker on 'The Power of Prayer' while Camerounian-born Pastor Bridget Fominyam spoke on the 'Role of Women in Family and Community development.' Its convener is Chido Nwangwu, USAfrica's Founder and Publisher. 713-270-5500. Contact: Owen Woghiren (assistant to the Publisher) FAITH MATTERS To pray or not pray? By Judith Brown Anambra's rigged 2003 elections: Chris Uba's confession at WIC 2004 in Newark, USA. In a matter-of-fact manner, PDP's chieftain in Anambra Chris Uba stood up and astonished all that were present in Newark when he said, "We, the PDP, did not win the election (of 2003). I have gone to church to confess. The election had no document. I called the result before 12 midnight. I gave INEC the money and asked them to call the result." The revelation caused an uproar as well as some applause in the hall. "The person we took his thing is here," Uba said, pointing at Peter Obi (the APGA candidate) who was sitting among the audience, in the back row. There was a thunderous applause as people looked at Peter Obi and some began to call him 'governor.' By Rudolf Okonkwo, special correspondent and columnist for CLASS magazine, USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston and USAfricaonline.com in New Jersey. Related commentary on corruption and graft in Nigeria: Vagabonds In Power (VIP). Parts 1 and 2. By USAfricaonline.com contributing editor and columnist Jonathan Elendu "Obasanjo has ruined this country...." An open letter to Nigeria's President Obasanjo. By Prof. Niyi Osundare: September
11
terror and
the ghost of things to come....Will the rash of Ethnic and Religious Violence disrupt Nigeria's effort at Democracy?DEMOCRAZY: Haruna Yerima and Nigeria's depraved National Assembly. By USAfricaonline.com columnist Jonathan Elendu. How Obasanjo's self-succession charade at his Ota Farm has turned Nigeria to an 'Animal Farm.' By Prof. Mobolaji Aluko Is Obasanjo ordained by God to rule Nigeria? And, other fallacies. By Prof. Sola Adeyeye Resignation of Togo's military-installed president Faure Gnassingbe opens more demands, constitutional crises.... LOME- Togo's military-installed President Faure Gnassingbe on Friday February 25, 2005 evening announced his decision to step down and run for president in April elections, mitigating a three-week political crisis gripping the African country. Hours after his declaration, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said UN 
Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed Gnassingbe's
resignation. Early Saturday, the Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS) said it would immediately drop
sanctions against Togo.
Meanwhile, hardliners from six opposition parties rallied around 20,000 people, demanding a "total return to constitutional legality." Gnassingbe's opposers demanded former parliament speaker Fambare Natchaba Ouattara to become the interim president. Jean-Pierre Fabre, leader of the main opposition Union of
Forces for Change (UFC), declared: "What we want is a whole
and not stray bits and pieces." Fabre said that the election
of Bonfoh is "useless, because it is a continued coup." ACHIEVERS: Kenyan Environmentalist Wangari Maathai winner of the Nobel 2004 Peace Prize. When Wangari Maathai got word she had won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, she was campaigning to protect  Kenya's
forests and distributing food to villagers suffering from
drought the same work she's been doing for decades. Maathai
was in the countryside just one hill away from her childhood
home when told she had won the $1.3 million prize, joining a
club that includes Nelson Mandela, Kofi Annan and the Dalai
Lama.
The 64-year-old Maathai, the first black African woman to win a Nobel Prize in any category since the awards were first handed out in 1901, gained recent acclaim for a campaign planting 30 million trees to stave off deforestation. "Many of the wars in Africa are fought over natural resources," Maathai told The Associated Press. "Ensuring they are not destroyed is a way of ensuring there is no conflict." Maathai, Kenya's deputy environment minister and a former presidential candidate, has worked for nearly half her life to protect the environment and human rights. During the 1980s and 1990s, she also campaigned against government oppression and founded Kenya's Green Party in 1987. She was repeatedly arrested and beaten for protesting former President Daniel arap Moi's non-progressive environmental policies and human rights record. AP. Click here for details COUNTERPOINT Bush, if not Affirmative Action, then what: Reparations? By Dr. Rufus G.W. Sanders MEDIAWATCH: Style Matters, blacks, Blacks and Journalism. I find it extremely insulting to use lower case 'b' when the reference is to Blacks/African-Americans. Style-wise, it is wrong for the dominant media to continue the imposition of such substantial error of form and content since, the basic color, black, should be in lower case. Some dude will attempt, for the 1000th time to "explain" away why its correct to identify Blacks as "blacks" while the hold as accurate the capitalization of Hispanic, Jewish, or Irish. It does not make sense! LITERATURE: Why CHINUA ACHEBE, the Eagle on the Iroko, is Africa's writer of the century. POLITICS and POLICY African Union: Old wine in new skin? Nigeria: a good country led on the wrong path. By USAfrica editorial board member Ken Okorie Venatius Ikem, Anambra saga and the confessions of a hypocrite. By Jonathan Elendu |
iPhone
2.0 sets new features and
innovation for mobile
computing, phones, gaming options..
Both Nigeria and Egypt have hosted FIFA junior events in the past. In 1997 Egypt hosted the U-17 World Cup, with Brazil, inspired by a young Ronaldinho emerging as the winners. Nigeria hosted the U-20 event two years later. This time Spain took the laurels, with many of the stars of the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany on display, including Esteban Cambiasso, Rafael Marquez, Xavi and the irrepressible Ronaldinho. In 2010, South Africa will host the biggest soccer event of them all, the 2010 FIFA World Cup, set to take place at ten stadia in nine cities across the country. FLASHPOINT: Why Biafra resonates globally for the Igbo nation. By Prof. Kalu Ogbaa  Prof.
Pat Utomi says Nigeria should learn from Obama momemt. A
leading scholar on Africa issues and 2007 presidential
aspirant in Nigeria, Pat Utomi has said in a statement to
USAfricaonline.com that Obama's victory allowed the world to
see "the grave irony of (Nigeria's) House of Representatives
rejecting the freedom of Information Bill on the day (June
3, 2008) a more open society saw Obama cross the tape of the
Democratic Party nomination process."
He argued that "good men and women in Nigeria must arise , draw inspiration from this Obama moment and make our country rise from the ashes of corruption, poverty and mutual distrust into the glorious future that is its potential." POLITICAL NOTES: What I saw as one of the 20,000 at the Obama 'Yes, We Can' movement live in Houston. "Houston, I think we've achieved liftoff here..." Before an enthusiastic 20,000 plus audience (inside and around) the Toyota Center in Houston on Tuesday Feb 19, 2008, Senator Barack Obama told Houstonians that his break-away win over Hillary Clinton in the Wisconsin primaries reflected further momentum. In affirmation and appreciation, many chanted Obama's mantra of change, "Yes, we can!" When the impact and dynamics of the Obama movement is explained in textual formats or even on television, it brings only a part of the totality of its socio-political breadth and purpose-driven, evangelistic frenzy. Significantly, more than we have ever seen him before, he laid out more detailed, policy specific offerings to woo voters. Especially, he spoke about changing what he considers the prevailing "disease care" to real "healthcare" while challenging the youths of America to service. The Houston event is especially valuable too, for the fact that there was not teleprompter; minor recourse to his written notes and a direct policy points on such issues covering energy, education, AIDS, jobs in America, NAFTA, AIDS, use of America's armed forces, veterans care, war on terrorism, Iraq and others . Taking the battle to Clinton and Sen. John McCain, the Republican front-runner who also won Wisconsin, Obama said with his pitch rising and booming through the massive arena: "I opposed this war in 2002. I will bring this war to an end in 2009. It is time to bring our troops home." The Clintons are ratcheting up their negative, sharp "contrasts" campaign which have, thus far, not yeilded votes or better value for the agenda to govern if elected. Rather those tactics and some ill-advised comments especially by former President Bill Clinton in South Carolina have combined to minimize, as polls and reactions and voters show, the Clinton legacy -- especially among African-Americans where Obama is averaging 86% of votes in the primaries. The debates are expected to get more aggressive as Hillary Clinton says it's all about her "experience" versus what she insists are nothing but Obama's "speeches." As one among the 20,000 who heard some of the substance behind the speeches, more surprises will unfold in Ohio and Texas where the Clintons are positioned as front-runners. Remarkably, I saw several 4 year-olds with their parents, enthusiastic college students and young professionals, hundreds of seniors over 60 years old chanting and throwing their fists into the air in a revivalist fervor and finality of resolve "Yes, We Can", and affirming their shared hopes that the young, impressive candidate Obama will make a difference in their lives, should he become President of the United States. But he cautioned them that "The change we seek is still months and miles away." So true, because a day is a long time in political contention and struggles. By Chido Nwangwu, USAfricaonline.com at the Feb 19, 2008 rally in Houston CLICK here. ARTS: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie author of the critically-acclaimed novel 'Half of a Yellow Sun' speaks to USAfrica and CLASSmagazine on her work, life....  One
of the world's most creative writers of this generation,
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie author of the critically-acclaimed
novel 'Half of a Yellow Sun' has been interviewed
exclusively by CLASSmagazine and USAfricaonline.com
Publisher Chido Nwangwu at the Harvard University.
The award-winning novelist shares her
thoughts on writing, inspiration, hopes, her 'permission'
from the father of the modern African novel Chinua
Achebe and the increasing
presence and achievements of young African writers. The
interview will also run in the 15th Anniversary August 2008
special edition of the USAfrica-powered CLASSmagazine.
  
As the facilitator of
inter-religious dialogue, Arinze has seen
and In deftly respecting
and showing sensitivity to the cultural contexts for
religious evangelization and work in different regions of
the world, Arinze (a Nigerian, like me, from the south
eastern Igbo ethnic group as is the literary giant Prof.
Chinua Achebe) seems a fitting bridge for a common, shared
theology of humankind. Our brother, The Cardinal, is neither
extreme in words nor brash in personal conduct, he also
stands as a role model who should be emulated by many,
especially in the community of his natural origin, the
Nigerian community. Among other qualities, he shows
scholarship and a rare balance of reason and theology. May
your pastroral
lineage endure.
By Chido
Nwangwu, Founder and Publisher, USAfricaonline.com and
recipient of Journalism Excellence award (1999).
CLICK
on Arinze's picture or here for full report of this essay
first written online on April 7,1999, updated on April 25,
2002 and April 1, 2005
INSIGHT: Debating Obasanjo's record toward Nigeria's South East and South-South. By Pini Jason How Obasanjo's self-succession charade at his Ota Farm turned Nigeria to an 'Animal Farm.' By Prof. Mobolaji Aluko Is Obasanjo endangering Nigeria's democracy? By Ken Kemnagum Okorie USAfrica The Newspaper voted the "Best Community Newspaper" in the 4th largest city in the U.S., Houston. It is in the Best of Houston 2001 as chosen by the editors and readers of the Houston Press' poll and annual rankings.  HOUSTON's iFest 2008 is spotlighting 'Out of Africa'; announces music lineup including Buddy Guy, The Neville Brothers, The Wailers, Taj Mahal, The National Dance Theater Of Ethiopia, Habib Koite, The Garifuna Collective, and others. UN Sec Gen Annan criticises Darfur response. The US has called the crisis genocide, but the UN has not. United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has criticised the developed world for being too slow to respond to the crisis in Sudan's Darfur region. "We were slow, hesitant, uncaring," Mr Annan said in a BBC interview. He said the international community had "learnt nothing from Rwanda" - a reference to the 1994 genocide there. At least 180,000 have died since 2003 in the western region of Darfur. More than two million people have been forced from their homes. Human rights groups, the US Congress and the US government say that genocide is taking place. However, a UN team sent to Sudan to investigate concluded that war crimes had been committed, but there had been no intent to commit genocide by the Sudanese government. The UN secretary general was heavily criticised at the time of the Rwandan genocide for failing to take heed of warnings from his staff on the ground. In the case of Darfur, Mr Annan has made a point of continuing to demand international action and his comments in an interview for the BBC's Panorama programme are the strongest yet, says the BBC's Fergal Keane. Asked by our correspondent whether the judgment on Darfur would be as damning as in the case of Rwanda, Mr Annan replied: "Quite likely". Darfur has become the first case referred by the UN Security Council to the International Criminal Court. GIANTS OF NOVEMBER: Azikiwe and Achebe. 
Zik of
Africa: Statesman, Intellectual and Titan
of African politics. November
16, 2005 in what could have been his 101st birthday,
may I make this toast to our father, the great and
unmatched one. Here, to: Even after 101 years, your lineage and
works endure. On this your 101st birth date, I rise, again,
to propose a toast that in another 101 years to come,
that the son of my now 46 months old son
Chido
Nwangwu II, (born Feb
12, 2001) by His grace, Chido Nwangwu III, will also
rise to toast to honor you, Zik of Africa, for the plenitude
of roles and assorted inspirations you brought to all of us.
They will rise to toast to Zik of Africa, as the man who saw
tomorrow. Nna anyi Owelle,
nwa Eze Chima, ndeewo!!! Chinua Achebe (born November 16, 1930). Why Chinua Achebe, the Eagle on the Iroko, is Africa's writer of the century. By Chido Nwangwu AchebeBooks.com: On the books, life and work of our Literary ...Achebe, the eagle on the iroko, our pathfinder, social conscience of millions...
Achebe
on oral tradition, juxtapositioning of language
and linguistic
colonialism.
World-famous Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe has
said that Africans should not be overly concerned if the
long-established tradition of oral storytelling dies out.
Achebe, once described by Nelson Mandela as "the writer in
whose presence prison walls fell down," told the BBC that he
agreed that the art was dying out - but insisted it could be
revived "if we decide that the oral story is absolutely
necessary." "Oral storytelling was important when I was
writing - it may not be important when the next generation
is writing," he said. Achebe, who is very critical of
colonialism and its aftermath in Africa, explained that he
himself writes in English because he is a victim of
linguistic colonialism.
But he added that he felt it was important not to "lose sight of the need for our mother tongue." "I hope I have shown it is possible to show respect to English and Igbo together. Chinua Achebe added that "The situation may well develop in the future, in which the different languages of Africa will begin to reassert themselves," he added. "I have made provision for that myself, by writing certain kinds of material in Igbo. For instance, I will insist my poetry is translated back into Igbo while I'm still around." Why Nigeria and Africa's leaders are leading us to nowhere. By Professor Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe, contributing editor of USAfricaonline.com, author of the highly-acclaimed African Literature in Defence of History: An Essay on Chinua Achebe and a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics. Zambian president meets opposition over constitution dispute. - Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa and opposition leaders held talks Saturday seeking a solution to the simmering political situation over a draft constitution in the southern African nation. The closed-door meeting, attended by Zambia's main opposition leader Michael Sata, was taking place at the Mulungushi International Centre in the capital to mainly deal with the contentious constitution-making process. "I hope all the leaders will be debate the issues in a sober manner," said justice Frederick Chomba, who is chairing the deliberations, the first of its kind since Mwanawasa began president in 2001. Political tension has been rising in Zambia over the
process of adopting a new constitution with Mwanawasa
accused of bulldozing the exercise without consulting major
players. The draft constitution calls for reducing the
powers of the president, which Mwanawasa has refused to
accept. (AFP).
Ms. GERTHA WILLIAMS got the USAfrica Community Health Leadership award; Mrs. CAROLINE OKPARA got the USAfrica Community Business Leadership award while Madam MONICA AZUBIKE bagged the USAfrica Mother of the Year honor for 2007. The awards were primarily presented by Senator Eze Ajoku, Dr. & Mrs. Vincent Nwabeke, USAfrica's Founder Chido Nwangwu, Nze & Dr, Mrs. Chinyere Agi, Edith Okere-Ejiogu, event master of ceremonies was Dr. Chris Ulasi; outstanding DJ for the evening was OJ Jammin' Juice. Event co-sponsor was Moneygram. CLASS magazine,
USAfrica and USAfricaonline.com (characterized by The New
York Times as the largest and most influential
African-owned, U.S-based multimedia networks). USAfrica was
founded in May 2002, in Houston, Texas by television
broadcaster and multimedia media executive Chido
Nwangwu.
Contact e-mail: Class@Classmagazine.tv
.
USAfrica mailing
address: .
8303 SW Freeway,
Suite 100, Houston, Texas 77074. Phone:
713-270-5500. Cell direct: 832-45-CHIDO (24436) Chinua Achebe: Why I rejected Nigeria's 2004 national honors from Obasanjo's government First and Special to USAfricaonline.com, USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston CLASS magazine and The Black Business Journal October 15, 2004: The author of the epic, literary
masterpiece, 'Things Fall Apart' (written in 1958), social
conscience of millions, cultural custodian and elevator,
chronicler and essayist, goodwill ambassador and man of
progressive rock-ribbed principles, the most translated
writer of Black heritage in the world, the Eagle on the
Iroko, Professor Chinua Achebe, has taken the
extraordinary step of "declining to accept the high honor
awarded me in the 2004 Honors List" by Nigeria's president,
retired General Olusegun Obasanjo. According to the letter
obtained by USAfricaonline.com,
USAfrica The Newspaper and CLASS
magazine (the first media networks to obtain and publish its
content), Achebe pointed to the issues of Nigeria's leaders
failing to unite the country's diverse peoples and the what
he identified as "the silence, if not connivance, of the
Presidency" in the destabilization of parts of Nigeria and
state governments by political and business renegades. NIGERIA'S POLITICAL TWISTS and TURNS: Enugu Gov. Chime's election nullified by tribunal; tension mounts: Enugu&emdash;The election petition tribunal in Enugu, on Friday, 18 January 2008, nullified the election of Gov. Sullivan Chime. The nullification was based on the grounds of electoral malpractice, irregularities and non-compliance with the Electoral Act, 2006. In the lead judgment, the Chairman of the tribunal, Justice Samuel Otta, said the petitioners, proved the allegations of malpractice and irregularities at April 2007 election beyond reasonable doubt. The petitioners were the Rev. Oscar Egwuonwu of the Democratic People's Party (DPP), Mr. Okey Ezea of the Labour Party and Mr. Dubem Onyia of the Action Congress. Said the chairman: "We are of the humble view that the election of April 14, 2007 in Enugu State was not conducted in compliance with the Electoral Act...We hereby set aside the declaration of the first respondent (Chime) by INEC as the winner of that election." For the Enugu and Igbo communities reactions and political insights, log on to two of the USAfrica-powered e-groups, IgboEvents@yahoogroups.com and Nigeria360@yahoogroups.com. News report, click here CONFLICT:
African
Union's failure to end impasse puts Kenya in worse
spot. By Mwaura Kimani in
Nairobi. Controversy over President Mwai Kibaki's
re-election in a December 27 vote triggered bloodletting
that displaced over 350,000 people, dented the stable
reputation of East Africa's biggest economy and disrupted
essential supplies to nearby countries. For a country which
is increasingly becoming host to foreign business and
political interests, the intervention of international
missions is seen as the only key that might unlock what has
been a stalled process.
DEBATE: How Black intellectuals let Africa down, and western stereoptypes complicate the rest. By Cedrick Ngalande at the USC, Los Angeles Nigeria's government opens negotiations with General Electric. Special to USAfricaonline.com. After several complaints about failing to revamp the country's terribly inefficent power supply, President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has met with officials of the American corporation on January 14, 2008. John Rice, Vice President of GE led a meeting with the government. Nigeria's President noted: "We urgently need this partnership in our effort to develop Nigeria and transform it to be among the twenty top nations in the world by 2020, and we know that GE has the capacity to deliver in this partnership." Nigeria's former president Obasanjo promised and failed to deliver on improving the energy/power infrastructure after 8 years of ruling the country. Nollywood superstar Zack Orji wins the 'USAfrica International Actor of the Year'. ZACK ORJI, one of Africa's most versatile actors, has been honored at USAfrica 14th anniversary BEST OF AFRICA banquet with USAfrica's 
first International Actor of the Year 2006 honors in Houston
Houston, Texas, USA. The prestigious award was presented to
Zack on behalf of USAfrica by veteran civil rights advocate
and U.S Congressman Al Green on Friday May 5, 2006, at the
Hilton Towers at Westchase, Houston.
In the prefacing the presentation of the award citation, Chido Nwangwu (Founder & Publisher of USAfrica, USAfricaonline.com, The Black Business Journal, CLASS magazine and AchebeBooks.com) told the dignitaries that "I strongly recommended Zack for this special award of being the first USAfrica International Actor of the Year because it reflects Zack's profound artistic and dramatic versatility, Zack's boundless commitment to professionalism, and for being, in very sense, our true ambassador of excellence. He's our own Eddie Murphy and Will Smith, and more. Zack is bilingual in French and English. He is internationalist in outlook. Zack, we're all very proud of you, and we'll push your creative work across the entire networks of USAfrica and other platforms here in the U.S, and beyond." Immediately, a standing ovation was given Zack by the professionals, creme d'le creme of the African, African-Americans and other Americans at the annual banquet from different sections of the U.S., Nigeria and parts of Africa. In accepting the international honor, Zack said "I'm humbled by this major recognition. I'm very appreciative of being honored by USAfrica and all of you here in Houston. I thank you for this special recognition, for your support and your kind gestures." FULL report here MENTORS: Oprah opens South African school for disadvantaged girls; Mandela  thanks
her, again....
Special to USAfrica, USAfricaonline.com,
CLASS
magazine The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in Henley-on-Klip, South Africa, was built with a $40-million US donation by Winfrey. Winfrey took a hand in every stage of the school's development, from design of the campus to selection of the 152 students. "I wanted to give this opportunity to girls who had a light so bright that not even poverty could dim that light," Winfrey said. The opening was attended by singers Tina Turner, Mary J. Blige and Mariah Carey, actors Sidney Poitier, Chris Rock, and Chris Tucker, director Spike Lee and former president Nelson Mandela. Winfrey promised Mandela six years ago that she would create the school. In pix, U.S. talk show host Oprah Winfrey and students at her Leadership Academy for Girls cut the ribbon to open the school (Denis Farell/Associated Press). "This is a lady that has, despite her own disadvantaged background, become one of the benefactors of the disadvantaged throughout the world," Mandela said. Winfrey said she hoped she could "change the face of a nation" by offering a quality education to girls who are raised in poverty. Winfrey made a promise to build the school six years ago to Nelson Mandela, former president of South Africa, shown here in 2003. In remarks at the gala opening, she referred frequently to her own disadvantaged background. "I was a poor girl who grew up with my grandmother, like so many of these girls, with no water and electricity," said the host of the influential Oprah Winfrey Show. She said she planned a second school for boys and girls in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal. TRIBUTE: Happy 79th Birthday to our Mother, the grand dame Oyibo Odinamadu (born Jan 2, 1928). By Chido Nwangwu. USAfrica COMMUNITY: Moneygram Donates N1m to Kanu Heart Foundation in Nigeria. Special to  USAfricaonline.com
and CLASSmagazine, Houston: MoneyGram, a leading provider of
money transfer services, has donated N1 million
(approximately $7,800 U.S. dollars) to the Kanu Heart
Foundation (KHF) in Nigeria.
The foundation established 6 years by international soccer star Kanu Nwankwo helps children with defective hearts live longer by offering them free heart surgeries abroad. MoneyGram's Country Director in Nigeria, Joke Giwa, presented the donation to KHF Coordinator, Onyebuchi Abia. Giwa commended KHF for its mission to help so many needy Nigerian families with children with heart problems. The foundation has provided open-heart surgeries for 254 children, and 2,000 are still on the waiting list. Abia called on other companies to emulate the kind gesture of MoneyGram by donating to KHF so many more children with defective hearts could be given a chance to live longer and more productive lives. Click here for more reports USAfricaonline.com DEMOCRACY WATCH: Peter Obi takes charge as Governor of Anambra State of Nigeria; following court affirmation of his 2003 electoral victory. Businessman and financial expert Peter Obi, affirmed only a few days ago as governor-elect of Anambra State of Nigeria, has been sworn in March 17, 2006 at the Alex Ekwueme Square, Awka, following the ruling by courts that he won the 2003 governorship elections. He belongs to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). Related, USAfricaonline.com background report: Anambra's rigged 2003 elections: Chris Uba's confession at WIC 2004 in Newark, USA
www.PhotoWorks.Tv
: Our community's digital domain for your pictures and
special events
African Leaders Offered $5 Million Prize: Mo Ibrahim, a 60-year-old Sudanese-born billionaire who made his money in the cellphone business, has announced the creation of what he called the world's biggest individual prize &emdash; $5 million, spread over 10 years, for the African president who on leaving office has demonstrated the greatest commitment to democracy and good governance. "We must face the reality," Mr. Ibrahim said, referring to Africa's leadership record. "Everything starts by admitting the truth: we failed. I'm not proud at all. I'm ashamed. We really need to resolve the problem and the problem, in our view, is bad leadership and bad governance." USAfricaonline.com MoneyWatch: Mobile phone prospects attract more investments to Ghana. By Amos Safo in Accra A new Sultan of Sokoto, the spiritual leader of Nigeria's 70m Muslims, has been announced. He is Colonel Sa'ad Abubakar, 53, brother of Sultan Mohammadu Maccido, who was killed in a plane crash on Sunday, along with 95 others. Col Abubakar until recently served as Nigeria's military attache to Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. $300 Billion Lost to Bribery in Regional Contracts in East Africa. Rampant corruption in the construction and electrification sector costs at least $300 billion a year and undermines sustainable development, according to Transparency International (TI), the leading global anti -corruption organization. According to a release early July, TI chose to concentrate on the construction, electrification sector because of the size, complexity and potentially huge costs of large construction, electrification projects in the region. The organization established that not only is there
fierce competition for major contracts in the region, but
the need for multiple approvals and permits that leaves the
process open to abuse. The TI report adds that between US$3
trillion and US$4 trillion are spent on construction
procurement annually and TI estimates that about 10% of the
total is wasted through bribery and corruption. By Jumah
Ssenyonga & Henry M. Lule, The New Times
(Kigali)
An earlier anti-terror exercise with a budget of just $6
million focused on troop training in four west African
nations. The new campaign will target nine north and west
African nations and seek to bolster regional cooperation
Analysts were waiting to see if the program would be fully
funded &emdash; but said the intended budgetary increase
shows the United States is taking West Africa more
seriously.
INTERVIEW: 'Nigeria needs a democratic system guided by the truth....' Senator Francis J. Ellah, the Eze Nwadei Ogbuehi of Ogba in Rivers state of Nigeria. He is a highly regarded elder statesman with outstanding political credentials and a former Second Republic Senator and a delegate to Nigeria's ongoing national political reforms conference in Abuja. E-commerce Solutions, Web Designs and Special Digital Projects. USAfricaonline.com web professionals will design, host and maintain your web sites. We provide first-rate solutions for businesses, groups and individuals. Phone: 713-270-5500. 832-45-CHIDO (24436) FLASHBACK:CHUBA OKADIGBO: A big tree has fallen (1941-2003). On September 25, 2003, Philosopher, scholar, strategist, wordsmith, publisher, activist, orator, traditionalist (Oyi of Oyi) and former President of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria passed on at 61. Chuba told me in an interview during the 2002 World Igbo Congress in Houston that "Nigeria's President Obasanjo is sorely lacking in the mannerisms of running a democratic government. We fell out because I insisted and worked constitutionally on the principle of separation powers. He believe he owns the government. He's a soldier and acts like one. But this is a democracy." He fell out with Obasanjo and the party, PDP, and said the following in Nigeria "Now, the Nigerian polity is sick of second term syndrome, a threatening political cancer. Sadly, I must say that the PDP, which had been a big party of the people, is fast becoming a problem party for Obasanjo and his associates, which is run by his sycophantic cronies. They now lie prostrate in the trauma wing of a political hospital. Some good persons have been trying to nurse the PDP back to good health. But Obasanjo and his cronies are unwilling to let go, due to their 'second term' mania. So, what next? We all know that nothing succeeds like failure...." Excerpts from the exclusive tribute-profile written a few days after his death in 2003 by USAfricaonline.com Founder Chido Nwangwu Nigeria's Senate prez Wabara's face ignominous fall USAfricaonline.com recommends The New York Times editorial of February 27, 2005: Thousands Died in Africa Yesterday. When a once-in-a-century natural disaster swept  away
the lives of more than 100,000 poor Asians last December,
the developed world opened its hearts and its checkbooks.
Yet when it comes to Africa, where hundreds of thousands of
poor men, women and children die needlessly each year from
preventable diseases, or unnatural disasters like civil
wars, much of the developed world seems to have a heart of
stone.
Not every African state is failing. Most are not. But the continent's most troubled regions - including Somalia and Sudan in the east, Congo in the center, Zimbabwe in the south and Ivory Coast, Liberia and Sierra Leone in the west - challenge not only our common humanity, but global security as well. The lethal combination of corrupt or destructive leaders, porous and unmonitored borders and rootless or hopeless young men has made some of these regions incubators of international terrorism and contagious diseases like AIDS. Others are sanctuaries for swindlers and drug traffickers whose victims can be found throughout the world. In many of these places, poverty and unemployment and the desperation they spawn leave young men vulnerable to the lure of terrorist organizations, which, beyond offering two meals a day, also provide a target to vent their anger at rich societies, which they are led to believe view them with condescension and treat them with contempt. Training camps for Islamic extremists are now thought to be sprouting like anthills on the savanna.... One hundred years ago, before we had the medical know-how to eradicate these illnesses, this might have been acceptable. But we are the first generation able to afford to end poverty and the diseases it spawns. It's past time we step up to the plate. We are all responsible for choosing to view the tsunami victims in Southeast Asia as more deserving of our help than the malaria victims in Africa. Jeffrey Sachs, the economist who heads the United Nations' Millennium Development Project to end global poverty, rightly takes issue with the press in his book "The End of Poverty": "Every morning," Mr. Sachs writes, "our newspapers could report, 'More than 20,000 people perished yesterday of extreme poverty.' " So, on this page, we'd
like to make a first step. Yesterday, more than 20,000
people perished of extreme poverty. Click here
for full text Overall, USAfricaonline.com and CLASSmagazine reporters
inside Nigeria are reporting that the elections are
progressing with thousands if not more disenfranchised due
to INEC's logistical problems, the actual acts of partisan
political violence and threats of violence. The killing in a
mosque of a radical Islamic cleric has left some tension
around the voting and politics.
Click
here for USAfrica's special news feature report.
Nigeria's
2007 elections: progress with familiar
problems....
He breaks his silence on the latest
technical disqualifications and court cases of Nigeria's VP
Atiku and INEC's roles, Peter Obi and Chris Ngige's
disqualifications for Anambra governorship, Iwu's
relationship with Anambra's PDP Governorship aspirant, Andy
Uba. Prof. Plus, Prof. Iwu also speaks on how he would like
to be remembered after the 2007 elections and the
controversies which typically follow his job as elections
chief in Nigeria, a country of almost 110 million
people.... |
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ahead
of next week's run-off election, state radio said Friday
June 20, 2008.
organizations, and news reports least 1052 killed
into the first week of February 2008
In
a message of congratulations, Mandela said: "Our experience
of Comrade Zuma is of a person and leader who is inclusive
in his approach, a unifier and one who values reconciliation
and collective leadership." "We have no doubt that he will
bring those well-known characteristics to his task of
leading our organisation," he was quoted as saying by the
Saturday Star newspaper of December 22, 2007. Mandela urged
the divided ANC to rally behind Zuma.
Let
me repeat this: the contempt of President Obasanjo for the
demands for a democratic self-realisation by the electorate
is no longer in doubt, and can be proved, chapter and verse
- from Anambra to Oyo.... We are confronted by a mind that
has gone awry, a mind that is subject to no order except
that of the crudest, most despotic notions of dominance in a
primitive society. Nigeria is not a primitive or private
fiefdom. It is governed by law. 
State Rice in Liberia for inauguration of the 
and
opposition supporters clashed with security forces on the
streets. Final results gave the ex-guerrilla leader 59
percent of votes, compared with 37 percent for his former
doctor and main rival, Kizza Besigye of the Forum for
Democratic Change (FDC). 
world
cup youth soccer tournaments in 2009. FIFA's Executive
Committee has agreed that in 2009, Egypt would host the FIFA
under 20 World Cup and that Nigeria would host the FIFA
under 17 World Cup. The Nigerian government has already
submitted the necessary guarantees to FIFA, assuring that it
can host a successful event."With South Africa hosting the
FIFA Confederations Cup in the same year, it promises to be
a busy one for the African continent, but also an extremely
exciting one," the world football governing body said on its
website.
staff
from nine participating countries for medical training and
command-post exercises, drawn and focused on: Morocco,
Algeria, Tunisia, Senegal, Mali, Niger, Mauritania, Chad and
Nigeria Blair stands up for Africa. A
new effort outlined Wednesday in a statement from the U.S.
Embassy in Senegal proposes spending $100 million a year
over five years to boost security in some of the world's
least-policed areas, starting with a joint military exercise
in the region next month.