There is hardly any way one can escape hearing about China these days. I have not written anything about Sino-African relations simply because I was not willing to take a side in the debate on whether the effects of Chinese interests in Africa are positive or not. Arguments and all A main argument of those… Read More »
I normally download a podcst of the round-up of major stories on/from Africa by the BBC each evening. Yesterday’s edition was concluded with a report by Sola Odunfa. The story goes something like this: Joshua Dariye, the former Plateau state (Nigeria) governor who is currently on trial on corruption charges, accuses the Economic and Financial… Read More »
Last week, Yoko Ono and Amnesty International celebrated the sale of 15,000 copies of a special album of John Lenon’s post-Beatles songs. Ono gave the rights to use all of the songs to Amnesty International. The album was made to raise money for the victims of the conflict in Dafur. The album, which was released… Read More »
Eldis is an arm of the Institute for Development Studies, Sussex. The managers of the website collect development related articles, publications and general information. According to the website, the managers of Eldis ‘focus on materials which are of strategic, policy or practical interest for development practitioners based in both the North and South.’ I have… Read More »
I downloaded Andrew Mwenda’s TEDTalks presentation and watched it last night. One of his main arguments was that aid makes the government fat, and that because of aid, governments are more attentive to the World Bank and the IMF than to their own citizens. Let’s elaborate on the argument a bit: governments know from whom… Read More »
I just joined a Facebook group and I found the question ” Nigeria’s Movie Industry (Nollywood), Quality or Quantity?” on the discussion board of the group. I decided to contribute to the discussion. The contribution ran some lenght so I thought, Why not make a post out of it? So, here is it as a… Read More »
The Nigerian Central Bank Governor, Professor Soludo, really meant it when he said he wanted the Nigerian naira to become the legal tender in West Africa. I recently blogged about Nigeria as a black superpower; I think Soludo too believes that. He has outlined plans to revalue the naira by cutting off two zeros from… Read More »
I don’t know if you guys know, but my research is on informal economy in West Africa…. This morning, I got a confirmation that I am on the right track. I saw George Ayittey’s Ted Talk presentation and it reinforced what I always thought: the real economy in most African countries is the informal economy.… Read More »
I watched Dreamgirls last night, and it was so funny to hear Curtis Taylor, Jr.(Jamie Foxx) tell Deena Jones (Beyoncé) ‘Your voice has no personality, no depth.’ The funny thing is that I never thought much more than that of Beyoncé.
Jeff Koinange, CNN’s Africa correspondent was fired by CNN on May 29. Many people have said that it was because it was found that he fabricated a large part of the story on MEND in Nigeria. I am still wondering what he fabricated. Was the display of the hostages also ‘fabircated’? I think that CNN… Read More »