Trump imposes visa ban on Nigeria, others

US president, Donald Trump, has imposed a visa ban that ensures immigration from Nigeria is no longer possible.

Citizens from Eritrea, Myanmar and Kyrgyzstan, won’t also be allowed to apply for visas to immigrate to America under the policy.

The Trump administration has taken this decision to tighten security for countries, that don’t comply with the U.S. minimum security standards or cooperate to prevent illegal immigration.

Sudan and Tanzania will be barred from participating in the diversity visa lottery, which randomly awards green cards to 50,000 immigrants annually.

The new restrictions take effect on February 21 and will apply only to new visa applications.

Immigrants, who were issued valid visas before that date, will still be able to move to the U.S.

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Coronavirus patients in Wuhan spit at doctors to spread disease

A South African teacher trapped in Wuhan, China has revealed that coronavirus patients in the coronavirus epicenter deliberately spit at health care workers to spread the highly contagious respiratory virus. Her explosive claims come amid the coronavirus scare that has taken over several parts of the world in recent weeks.

“I’ve heard shocking stories about infected people going out of their way to contaminate others by taking off their masks and spitting in doctors’ faces,” revealed the teacher, Jessica Bailing. “I saw one video of a man spitting on all of the buttons in an apartment elevator,” she added.

As the situation in Wuhan gets worse by the day, Bailing is now afraid to leave their home, worrying she might contract the deadly disease. “I covered myself from head-to-toe with gloves on my hands, glasses to cover my eyes and of course, my mask,” she said.

In Wuhan alone, figures show that cases of coronavirus have tripled in just three days. 6,100 have already been infected with the virus since the outbreak started a month ago, 133 of which have already died. However, leading scientists believe that the actual number of patients infected with coronavirus is far greater than the official toll.

Since coronavirus can be easily spread from one person to another through a sneeze or cough, the World Health Organization (WHO) considers this strain as highly contagious. The first cases of coronavirus were from China, particularly people connected to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan.

Today, the outbreak is already bigger than the SARS epidemic that infected at least 5,327 people around the world in 2003. On Wednesday, China’s National Health Commission said this could even get worse in the next 10 days. Aside from China, several other countries already have confirmed cases of the virus, including South Korea, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Canada, France, Finland, and the U.S.

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NIGERIA: Widows of soldiers protest release of repentant Boko Haram terrorists

Wants them punished like other criminals

Boko Haram members 

By Kingsley Omonobi – Abuja 

Widows of slain military officers and soldiers particularly those fighting the war against terrorism have protested the continuous release of murderous Boko Haram terrorists on the grounds that they have repented. 
National Vice President of Military Widows Association, Mrs Edith Opesanmi who spoke on their behalf during the seminar by the ‘Support Our Troops Foundation’ in Abuja, faulted the decision of the federal government in releasing the so-called repentant criminals who are responsible for the death of so many gallant officers and soldiers as well as helpless innocent Nigerians.

Opesanmi said this during an interview with The on the sidelines of the maiden lecture of Support Our Troops Foundation in Abuja on Wednesday. Emphasizing that the terrorists were not better than other criminals like armed robbers and kidnappers who are being made to pay for their crimes, Opesanmi who is the widow of the late Col. Johnson Opesanmi, said terrorists should not be given preferential treatment.

Her words, “They (terrorists) should face justice. You know they are involved in the killing and maiming of soldiers. So, whenever they are arrested, they should be punished like any other criminal.

 “We widows feel bad about it. Our husbands go to fight these terrorists and keep dying. The number of widows is increasing daily. Some of these widows are young ladies. Admitting that the Federal Government may be trying to replicate the amnesty programme of the Niger Delta militants, she said both situations were not the same noting that after all, the amnesty programme did not stop militancy. In his contribution, a former Director at the Department of State Services, Barr. Mike Ejiofor disagreed with the timing of the release of so-called repentant terrorists especially when the war on terror is still ongoing.

“For me, the programme is not well-timed. You cannot be releasing Boko Haram suspects when the war is still ongoing. “Ideally, it is after the war has been fought and won that you can release those ones that have been rehabilitated and deradicalized,” he said. It will be recalled that more than 2,000 so-called repentant Boko Haram terrorists who murdered, raped, publicly executed both Muslims and Christians, castrated soldiers, burnt military locations and carried out suicide bombings in places of worship have been released back into the society through a programme, Operation Safe Corridor. There is a general belief that most of the insecurity being peddled in different parts of the country including kidnapping, banditry, cattle rustling and other robbery activities may be perpetrated by some of the so-called repentant Boko Haram criminals.

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JACK MA DONATES £11M TO HELP TACKLE CORONAVIRUS

BY NANCY AKAHALU

China richest man, Jack Ma has announced through his foundation that he donated 100 million yaun( £11m) to help tackle coronavirus.

Jack Ma announced the donation on Thursday on social media platform, Weibo, stating:

‘The Jack Ma Foundation will exhaust our abilities to provide more help to the development and growth of medical science .’

Ma’s  said it had donated 100 million yuan to “support the development of a coronavirus vaccine.”

“We know that the battle between humanity and disease is a long journey.

This money will help various medical research efforts and help disease prevention,” it added.

The Corona disease has rampaged China and recorded about 170 death and 7700 infection.

Coronaviruses are a family of diseases which include the common cold and the virus which caused Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which originated in China in 2002 and killed nearly 800 people around the world.

Jack Ma announced the donation on Thursdayon social media platform, Weibo, stating:

‘The Jack Ma Foundation will exhaust our abilities to provide more help to the development and growth of medical science.’

Jack Ma is worth £32.9 billion and the owner of  E-commerce giants, AliBaba.

He  donated the money to scientists across the world who are working towards creating a vaccine for the coronavirus while £4.4 million of the money will go to the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering.

The World Health Organisation (WH0) emergency committee is expected to declare Coronavirus an international public health emergency any time from now.

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Chinese residents face jail if they slam country’s coronavirus response

Speaking ill of Beijing’s response to the deadly coronavirus outbreak could land China residents in jail.

WeChat, the Chinese social-media app, has warned its users that anyone who “spreads rumors” about the virus could be locked up for up to seven years.

Anyone who attempts to “disrupt social order” by posting information that doesn’t come from state-run media would face the penalty, the alert, issued Jan. 25, said.

Police in the city of Tianjin, this week, detained a man who criticized how authorities were handling the outbreak in a WeChat group he shared with friends, Vice reported on Thursday.

He was detained for 10 days for “maliciously publishing aggressive, insulting speech against medical personnel,” according to the website.

On Jan. 3, eight people in the city of Wuhan where the flu-like illness originated were arrested for allegedly “publishing or forwarding false information on the internet without verification,” AFP reported.

At least one of them was a doctor who had reported the existence of the new virus.

Wuhan authorities have been accused of initially covering up and ignoring the coronavirus. The mayor, Zhou Xianwang, offered to resign on Monday after admitting the city government’s disclosure of information about the disease had been “unsatisfactory.”

After citizens ripped Wuhan officials for detaining the doctor, China’s highest court stepped in and reprimanded police for silencing whistleblowers, The Washington Post reported.

“Rumors stop when information is public,” the Supreme People’s Court said Tuesday on social media, as it urged Wuhan officials to learn a “profound lesson.”

But China’s censorship machine has been taking down any information Beijing deems to be a “rumor.”

On Wednesday, authorities ordered that for an article that looked at how China’s economy would be affected by the World Health Organization declaring the virus a “global health emergency” to be scrubbed from the internet, according to China Digital Times, a California-based monitoring group.

Examples of other censorship include posts by families of infected people looking for help, of folks in quarantined cities documenting their day-to-day and those slamming the government’s handling of the crisis, according to Vice.

To counteract any criticism, state-media have been publishing gushing reports of Beijing’s response.

“Public perception will be shaped by the propaganda machinery,” Steve Tsang, the director of the China Institute at SOAS University of London, told The Washington Post.

“That machinery is going into overdrive right now to protect [Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s] reputation,” said Tsang.

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Suspected jihadist attack kills more than 30 in northern Burkina Faso

Officials say that between 10 and 30 people were killed in the northern Soum province

Soldiers from Burkina Faso patrol on the road of Gorgadji in the country's Sahel area on March 3, 2019. © Luc Gnago/REUTERS

Thirty-nine people were killed in northern Burkina Faso on Saturday, in what the government called a terrorist attack on a village in Soum province.

The weekend attack followed less than a week after militants killed 36 civilians in a neighbouring province, part of a surge in violence in the West African country that has killed hundreds, forced more than half a million from their homes and made much of the north ungovernable over the past two years.

The government did not provide further details on the latest attack in the village of Silgadji, describing it in a statement on Tuesday as “cowardly and barbaric”.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible.

Islamist groups with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State have carried out increasingly brazen raids against civilian and military targets in Burkina Faso in recent months, including an attack on a mining convoy in November that killed nearly 40 people.

The rising insecurity has forced people from their homes.  The number of displaced increased tenfold in 2019 to more than 560,000 people, making it the world’s fastest-growing displacement crisis, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council.

The flight of refugees into other parts of the country is straining local resources and leaving authorities struggling to cope.

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Nigerian senator demands President Buhari’s resignation over insecurity

By Timileyin Omiana

Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe Wednesday asked Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari to resign over spike in insecurity in the country.

“If you want to treat an issue, you go to the head. We did not appoint the IG or the security chiefs. We will go to the president and ask him to resign,” Abaribe said.

Abaribe spoke after the Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi, presented his motion on rising security challenges in the country.

Abaribe said he was surprised why the president will claim to be surprised at the rising insecurity in the country.

He also called out the presidential media aide, Femi Adesina, for referring to the Christian Association of Nigeria as a political party for condemning killings by Boko Haram.

“Those who live by propaganda will die by propaganda,” Abaribe said.

However, while reacting to Abaribe’s motion, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, a member of the All Progressives Congress, said Abaribe’s submissions were unnecessary.

The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, also appealed to his colleagues to approach the issue with caution.

The Red Chamber senators have set aside Wednesday to discuss security challenges in the country that have seen attacks by Boko Haram, kidnappers and so-called “bandits” increase, especially in the northern part of the country.

On Tuesday, Mr Buhari said he was surprised at the growing insecurity, and said his government will be “harder” on bandits.

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Resign Or Be Sacked, Nigerian Lawmakers Tell Service Chiefs

The lawmakers speaking during plenary on Wednesday in Abuja, asked President Muhammadu Buhari to sack them.

Members of Nigeria’s House of Representatives have called on the country’s service chiefs to resign over their failure to curb insecurity in the country. 

The lawmakers speaking during plenary on Wednesday in Abuja, asked President Muhammadu Buhari to sack them.

This move, according to a report by PUNCH, followed the unanimous adoption of a motion moved by the Chief Whip, Mohammed Monguno, as a result of rising attacks by Boko Haram insurgents on communities in the North-East.

Lawmaker representing Chibok/Damboa/Gwoza Federal Constituency of Borno State, Ahmadu Jaha, called for the resignation and sacking in the additional prayers he made on the motion.

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Uganda expected to move its embassy to Jerusalem - report

By MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN

The Hebrew website Ynet reported on Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to travel to Uganda on Monday, but did not cite a reason for the visit.

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni (L) speaks to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) during a memorial service to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Operation Entebbe at the Entebbe airport in Uganda, July 4, 2016. (photo credit: REUTERS)

Uganda is reportedly planning to announce that it is moving its embassy to Jerusalem next week, sources close to the Ugandan president and the Ugandan Christian community told The Jerusalem Post.

The Hebrew website Ynet reported on Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to travel to Uganda on Monday, but did not cite a reason for the visit.

Sources close to the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus in Uganda told the Post that the move has been in the works for three years. The caucus works to strengthen cooperation between Christian leaders and the State of Israel by building direct lines of communication, cooperation and coordination, between the Knesset and Christian leaders around the world.

Pastor Drake Kanaabo, who ministers at the Redeemed of the Lord Evangelistic Church Makerere in Kampala, Uganda, told the Post that he had been hearing rumors about the move.

"I got a note from sources that Uganda is moving the embassy," he said, though he noted that he was unable to confirm the rumors with senior leaders by press time.

He said it is important that Uganda move the embassy to the holy city "because of our past good relationship with the State of Israel.

"On a spiritual level, Uganda regards Israel as the mother of Christianity," he told the Post. "Ugandan Christians are no longer standing on one leg for Israel, but two - in prayer and action. Israel is the only first-world country that is near to Uganda and Africa."

For years, Evangelical Christians from the United States have been traveling to Uganda, spreading the messages of the Bible and Christianity and influencing policy in the African country.

Uganda’s president, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, is an evangelical Christian. A 2009 report by NPR reported on ties between Museveni and the American fundamentalist Christian organization The Fellowship, which founded the National Prayer Breakfast in the US.

Over time, Uganda has been swayed toward Christianity. Earlier this week, the Post reported that thousands of Christians across Uganda sang, marched and waved Israeli flags while praying for the State of Israel in a series of events sponsored by Christians for Israel and Intercessors for Uganda.

If Uganda moves it embassy, it will be the third embassy to designate Jerusalem as Israel's capital, following American, Guatemala and Paraguay, the latter which has since withdrawn the decision.

Netanyahu’s visit to Uganda will come days after the prime minister traveled to the United States to meet with US President Donald Trump and unveil the “Deal of the Century” peace plan, and to Russia to help obtain the pardoning of Israeli tourist Naama Isaachar.

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Rwanda: Kagame plays franco-anglo balancing act

At the UK-Africa Investment Summit, Rwanda’s president announced his plans to exempt from visa requirements foreign nationals from member states of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) and the African Union.

The move allows him to play the African integration card while also keeping British and French powers finely balanced.

Just because pink flamingos sometimes sleep on one leg does not mean they forget their other leg. And just because Rwanda supplied the OIF with its secretary general, Louise Mushikiwabo, does not mean the country forgets to look after its relations with English-speaking countries.

Next June, Rwanda will host the 26th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. Paul Kagame chose the country of Queen Elizabeth II, who serves as the head of the Commonwealth, as his preferred place to once again keep the English- and French-speaking parties sweet.

In London for the UK-Africa Investment Summit, which focused on the global impact of Brexit, the Rwandan president spoke on 21 January at the International School for Government of King’s College London.

In his highly diplomatic speech on the “community of values” and the opportunity to “re-imagine […] global trade and investment arrangements,” Kagame left a mark on the audience when he reached his core message about his desire to exempt citizens of the Commonwealth of Nations, the OIF and the African Union from paying visa fees when entering Rwanda.

Urgency, unity and self-reliance

With four official languages – English, French, Swahili and Kinyarwanda – Rwanda is working towards African integration while maintaining the British and French powers, with which it has had vastly different historical experiences, equally within reach.

Although OIF statistics report that in 2014 French was spoken by only 6% of Rwanda’s population, the country has been a member of the organisation since 1970. In 2009, Rwanda decided to join the Commonwealth as well.

Kagame understands that his landlocked country can only survive if it facilitates cooperation with other countries in the region and on the rest of the continent, at a time when the African Continental Free Trade Area is fully taking shape. Making Rwanda more accessible to businesspeople, investors, students and tourists is the right move for the future.

Last November, the 2019 Visa Openness Report for Africa indicated that the continent is making unprecedented strides.

For the first time in history, Africans can travel on average to more than 27 countries without a visa, or more than half of the continent.

Expanding the visa exemption measures to non-African Commonwealth countries and OIF countries is part of the Rwandan government’s strategy to improve the flow of trade in harmony with the three-part principles touted by President Kagame: urgency, unity and self-reliance.

It is not the first time that Kagame has balanced partners. Back in 2018, both China and India paid state visits to Rwanda, within a few days of each other.

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US picks Kenya for bilateral trade deal

President Uhuru Kenyatta and US President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC during an official visit August 27, 2018. FILE PHOTO | JOAN PERERUAN | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

The Trump administration has tapped Kenya as the first sub-Saharan nation to start talks with the US on a bilateral trade deal, the Bloomberg News agency reported on Tuesday.

The prestigious designation is expected to be announced during President Kenyatta's visit to Washington next week, Bloomberg said.

Kenya's Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Macharia Kamau confirmed the report.

TRADE PACT

Mr Kamau told Bloomberg that the US and Kenya are aiming for significant progress towards an agreement in the coming months.

He added that President Kenyatta's Cabinet will probably approve discussions with the US this week.

Completion of a bilateral trade pact could bring major benefits to Kenya's economy and enhance the nation's political standing in Africa and beyond.

Trump administration officials have previously indicated that the US wants to forge bilateral trade deals with sub-Saharan countries as successor arrangements to the multilateral African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) programme that is due to expire in 2025.

TRADE PARTNER

State Department diplomats have said the US will try to hammer out on a deal with a single sub-Saharan nation that would serve as a model for other individual trade pacts in the region.

Kenya ranks as the United States' sixth-biggest trade partner in the sub-Saharan region, Bloomberg noted, with total exchanges of goods and services between the two countries reaching nearly $1.2 billion in 2018.

Kenya has also been one of the leading beneficiaries of the 20-year-old African Growth and Opportunity Act which gives preferential treatment to exports from selected countries. Agoa has been especially helpful to Kenya's textile sector.

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Burundi Diesel Genset Market Expected to Grow with a CAGR of 4.8% During the Forecast Period, 2019-2025 - ResearchAndMarkets.com

According to this research, Burundi Diesel Genset Market size is projected to grow at a CAGR of 4.8% during 2019-25.

The economy of Burundi is recovering slowly after two consecutive years of recession in 2015 (-3.9%) and 2016 (-0.6%). The diesel genset market of Burundi witnessed sluggish growth during the last few years owing to political instability and fuel shortages in 2017 due to lack of hard currency which brought many businesses to a standstill. 

During the forecast period, the diesel genset market in the country is anticipated to witness moderate growth owing to increasing reports of power failure and rising demand for diesel generators across all verticals as a source of backup power. 

Moreover, the diesel genset market of Burundi is primarily import driven due to lack of OEM manufacturers of diesel gensets in the country

In Burundi, diesel gensets with 75.1 - 375 kVA rating, accounted for the majority of the revenue share in the overall market in 2018, due to increasing demand for diesel gensets across various sectors such as banking, power utilities and construction. Additionally, increasing utilization of lower rating gensets across domains, such as telecom infrastructure, unreliable and off-grid areas, and other commercial sectors, would help the 5 - 75 kVA diesel genset segment to register higher growth during the forecast period.

The Burundi diesel genset market report thoroughly covers the market by kVA rating, verticals and regions. Burundi diesel genset market outlook report provides an unbiased and detailed analysis of the on-going Burundi diesel genset market trends, opportunities/high growth areas and market drivers which would help the stakeholders to devise and align their market strategies according to the current and future market dynamics.

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Coronavirus: WHO puts Nigeria, others on alert as death toll hits 56

Says no positive change in situation globally

By Luminous Jannamike

As death toll from the new coronavirus hits 56 globally, World Health Organisation, WHO, has warned Nigeria and other member countries to be ready to deal with possible outbreak of the disease in their territories.

In a statement on Sunday, Tarik Jasarevic, WHO’s spokesman, said nearly 2,000 cases of patients have been confirmed since the disease originated in China last month.

He noted that the virus had spread to United States of America, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Australia, France and Canada; and called for timely detection and management of any outbreak, especially in the Africa region.

Jasarevic said: “WHO’s risk assessment of the new coronavirus has not changed.

“The risk of spreading the infection is very high in China, it is high at the regional level and it is moderate at the global level.

“It is, however, expected that further international exportation of cases may appear in any country, especially in sub-saharan Africa.

“Thus, all countries should be prepared for containment, including active surveillance, early detection, isolation and case management, contact tracing and prevention of onward spread of 2019-nCoV infection, and to share full data with WHO.”

The apex health body maintained that the first confirmed cases of the disease in Europe were not unexpected.

“They remind us that the global nature of travels exempts no country from infectious disease spread.

“This also means that no country can afford postponing the establishment of all necessary measures to protect their people,” it stated.

WHO added that members of its International Health Regulations Emergency Committee have agreed on the urgency of the situation, and suggested that it would reconvene in a matter of days to examine the situation further.

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UN bars officials from using Whatsapp over security concerns

United Nations officials do not use WhatsApp to communicate because “it’s not supported as a secure mechanism,” a UN spokesman said Thursday after UN experts accused Saudi Arabia of using the online communications platform to hack the phone of Amazon chief executive and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos.

The independent UN experts said Wednesday they had information pointing to the “possible involvement” of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in the alleged 2018 cyberattack on the billionaire Amazon.com Inc. chief.

They called for an immediate investigation by US and other authorities, based on a forensic report by Washington-based FTI Consulting. The report alleges that Bezos’ iPhone was hijacked by a malicious video file sent from a WhatsApp account used by the crown prince.

When asked if UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had communicated with the Saudi crown prince or any other world leaders using WhatsApp, UN spokesman Farhan Haq said Thursday, “The senior officials at the UN have been instructed not to use WhatsApp, it’s not supported as a secure mechanism.”

“So no, I do not believe the secretary-general uses it,” Haq said. He later added that the directive not to use WhatsApp was given to UN officials in June last year.

When asked about the move by the United Nations, WhatsApp said it provides industry-leading security for more than 1.5 billion users.

“Every private message is protected by end-to-end encryption to help prevent WhatsApp or others from viewing chats. The encryption technology that we developed with Signal is highly regarded by security experts and remains the best available for people around the world,” said WhatsApp director of communications Carl Woog.

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For the third time in 11 years, Rwanda changed the language used in primary schools

Here’s what this means for children, teachers and the nation.

A child playing on the outskirts of Kigali, Rwanda, on Oct. 17, 2019. (-/Afp Via Getty Images)

By Timothy P. Williams 

In December, Rwanda’s government announced that all Rwandan primary schools should teach in English, a language that many teachers in the country cannot understand or speak. This is the third time in 11 years that the government has introduced a major language shift. Education officials, donors and others are now scrambling to respond.

What’s behind these shifts in the language of instruction? And what are the wider implications? Here’s what you need to know.

1. Here’s what just changed

This new plan requires schools to teach in English starting in the first grade. Yet many primary schoolteachers in Rwanda don’t speak English — a 2018 study found that just 38 percent of those teachers likely to be affected by the new change have a working knowledge of English. This statistic likely obscures much lower percentages of spoken English in rural areas outside of Rwanda’s Anglophone-friendly capital city of Kigali.

Analysts cite concerns about the lack of evidence and planning in the government’s announcement. The decision also appears to reject the scientific evidence that suggests primary schoolchildren may learn best in their first language.

2. This isn’t the first attempt to shift to English

Over the last decade, Rwanda has introduced several language changes without much evidence of planning. Before 2008, teachers taught primary students using the local language, Kinyarwanda, before switching to French in fourth grade. But that October the government announced it was changing the language of instruction used in all schools to English. The Ministry of Education ran a crash course for teachers in English over the term break and expected them to use English in early 2009.

Things didn’t go well. After three years, eight in 10 teachers still had a “beginner” or “elementary” knowledge of English. Under pressure from international donor agencies, the government modified the policy in 2011: teachers would use Kinyarwanda for the first three years of instruction and then shift to teaching in English for the upper three grades of primary school.

Switching the language of instruction would be difficult in any context, but the lack of planning compounded the challenge. Normally, education officials make policy decisions in Rwanda through strategic planning processes that guide priorities and budgeting. But Rwanda’s presidential cabinet bypassed these processes to issue the 2008 language directive. Some primary schoolteachers resorted to translating their old French textbooks to plan for lessons.

In a 2012 interview, former director of the Rwanda Education Board, John Rutayisire, explained the government’s rationale behind the rapid changes: “We were not prepared to wait for the conventional 10 or 20 years to adopt a more strategic longer plan, because the interests of this country are more paramount than the difficulties that people can face in the shorter term,” he said.

Experts expressed concern at the time that the lack of planning would allow only the most privileged or talented students to stand a chance of doing well in school. More than 10 years later, this appears to still be the case: 44 percent of sixth graders are illiterate in English, a figure that is likely much lower in rural parts of the country. It means that these children take their pivotal leaving examinations in a language they don’t understand.

3. What explains the politics behind this move?

It’s clear that the December 2019 language shift will pose a heavy burden on children and teachers across the country, particularly in poor rural areas that already struggle to attract qualified teachers. So why did the government decide to do this?

The shift aligns with the government’s cultural alliances and economic ambitions by facilitating regional integration and positioning the country in the global market economy. In 2007, it joined the East African Community, which is predominantly Anglophone. In 2009 Rwanda joined the Commonwealth and will host a heads-of-government meeting in June of this year.

Domestic power dynamics matter, too. Rwanda’s ruling party, the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), sought to distance itself from its Franco-Belgian colonial roots — and specifically France and its alleged complicity in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. Many of the core members of the RPF grew up in exile in Uganda and studied English. Thus, some scholars see the efforts to switch to English as a power move benefiting those in key positions of influence.

But not all Rwandans experience language changes equally. Wealthier families can send their children to private primary schools. These schools have more resources, including English-speaking teachers, and they can better manage the shocks of an education system whose language policies are in constant flux. Children from poor households, in contrast, go to government schools where teachers often have a limited grasp of English, and where teaching and learning materials are scarce.

4. What happens now?

The newest language change puts students and teachers in a difficult situation. Many teachers will be required to teach in a language they don’t know. For students, instruction — and testing — will be in a language most parents don’t speak at home and that children don’t understand.

There is also a growing concern that the focus on English is putting children’s learning — in any language — in greater peril. Rwanda’s leadership has committed to introducing policies that are inclusive of all Rwandans, and its push to expand access to education for all children is an example of this. But some local media outlets now question how the most recent move fits into the leadership’s plans to improve education quality. In absence of planning, the language change will disproportionately burden children and teachers in poor rural areas, deepening a divide between an urban Anglophone elite and the rest of the country.

A few days after announcing its December 2019 language change, the government appeared to backtrack slightly. It issued another statement that the shift to English will happen “within a determined period to be communicated by the Ministry of Education,” resulting in an uneasy status quo. The ministry has not publicly offered any further details of when or how this change will happen.

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Nigeria Ex-Justice Minister Charged Over $1.3 Billion Oil Deal

By Tope Alake

Mohammed Adoke leaves the Federal High Court in Abuja, on Jan. 22. Photographer: Kola Sulaimon/AFP via Getty Images

Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission charged Mohammed Adoke, a former justice minister and attorney general, for allegedly taking a bribe to facilitate a $1.3 billion oil deal.

The anti-graft body filed 42 charges against Adoke and accused him of receiving a 300 million naira ($831,000) payment from businessman Aliyu Abubakar in relation to the acquisition of Oil Prospecting License 245 in the Gulf of Guinea, the commission said in an emailed statement.

Adoke pleaded not guilty to all the charges and the case was adjourned to Jan. 27 when bail applications will be heard, the EFCC said.

Abubakar is also being tried alongside other parties, including the local units of Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Eni SpA. The two companies, who deny any wrongdoing, are accused of improperly settling disputes over the oil field.

OPL 245 was created in 1998, when then-petroleum minister Dan Etete carved out the offshore license and awarded it to his own company, Malabu Oil and Gas Ltd. Through successive regimes it was taken from him, awarded to Shell, and then given back, locking the companies and government in legal disputes.

To win control of OPL 245, Shell and partner Eni paid the Nigerian government $1.1 billion. The companies agree the payment was made, but disagree about whether those funds went to bribes.

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Turkey targets Somalia for oil drilling

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. (AFP)

ANKARA: Turkey is to drill for oil off the shores of Somalia after an invitation from the Horn of Africa nation to explore its seas, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. 

Somalia adopted a new petroleum law last week to attract further foreign investment in the energy field, and opened up 15 blocks for oil companies that are willing to explore the country’s hydrocarbon potential.

Turkey has been increasing its footprint in Somalia, especially since 2011 when it began providing the country with humanitarian aid to tackle a famine problem, and is also signing energy and resource deals with African countries.

It will start exploring for gas in the eastern Mediterranean this year after signing a maritime agreement with Libya, and has a deal with Niger to carry out mineral research and exploration activities.

“There is a proposal from Somalia,” Erdogan said on Monday. “They are saying: ‘There is oil in our seas. You are carrying out these operations with Libya, but you can also do them here.’ This is very significant for us.” Turkish engineers are carrying out infrastructure work in Somalia, but contractors are increasingly being targeted in terror attacks.

Local forces have been trained by Turkish officers at a military base that was built by Turkey in the Somali capital Mogadishu.

Ibrahim Nassir, an Africa analyst from Ankara-based think tank Ankasam, said the Somali drilling offer might be payback for some of the reconstruction work and humanitarian aid. But he also suggested that Somalia might be using Turkey as a counterbalance against its regional rivals.

FASTFACT

Turkey has been increasing its footprint in Somalia, especially since 2011 when it began providing the country with humanitarian aid to tackle a famine problem, and is also signing energy and resource deals with African countries. 

“The dispute over maritime territory in the Indian Ocean between Kenya and Somalia might result in security risks during drilling activities, and some armed groups may be used to prevent Ankara from proceeding with hydrocarbon exploitation,” he told Arab News.

Jędrzej Czerep, a senior analyst at the Polish Institute of International Affairs, said that Turkish oil extraction from Somalia could be presented as stealing national wealth.

“That would expose the Turks to greater risks both on the mainland and at sea where Al-Shabab is using motor ships. It could also divide the growing Somali diaspora in Istanbul or even radicalize some of its members,” he told Arab News.

An unstable political situation in Somalia could expose Turkey further, according to Atlantic Council senior associate Charles Ellinas. The third Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit is set to be held in April in Turkey.

“It is not just the short term one should be worried about,” he told Arab News. “It is also the longer term. It takes something like 20 years to recover the investment from an oilfield. And during that period oil sales must be maintained. As things stand, with a very unstable political environment, upheavals in Somalia over such a period are quite likely.”

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