Feature

A profound lack of growth opportunity, rising unemployment and declining human security in many African countries, has rekindled the debate about the continent’s development strategies.  The economies, despite being endowed with large natural resources, got stuck in severe difficulties in the 1980s and adopted exogenously imposed structural adjustment programs (SAPs) to revive growth.

Campaign posters flood Abuja

In this piece, Abdullah Dass examines the preparations for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential primary and the chances of party in next year’s general elections.

It is generally believed that President Muhammadu Buhari has a near unshakeable stranglehold on the electorate in the North, especially in the Northwest zone consisting of Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Jigawa, Sokoto and Zamfara States.

Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange control over $1trillion worth of Africa’s resources in just five commodities – oil, gold, diamonds, coal and platinum. My research for the NGO, War on Want, which has just been published, reveals that 101 companies, most of them British, control $305billion worth of platinum, $276billion worth of oil and $216billion worth of coal at current market prices.

Former US President Barack Obama.(Image: Nelson Mandela Foundation)

Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture 2018: Obama's full speech 

Former US President Barack Obama delivered the 16th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture in Johannesburg on Tuesday 17 July 2018. Here's the full transcript of his speech, based on the theme "Renewing the Mandela Legacy and Promoting Active Citizenship in a Changing World".

Migrants receiving assistance from the IOM in Senegal (file photo).

On December 10th, under a purpose-built tent in Marrakesh, Morocco, representatives from more than 150 countries affirmed their shared vision of a future in which migration is safe and beneficial for all. The significance of this moment should not be underestimated. Migration remains one of the most intractable of all international issues: we know perfectly well that cooperation is the only realistic way forward. But vast differences in interests and priorities has, until now, made substantive progress almost impossible.

 All though we take it for granted, sanitation is a physical measure that has probably done more to increase human life span than any kind of drug or surgery (Deepak Chopra). The word sanitation also refers to the maintenance of hygienic conditions, through services such as garbage collection and wastewater disposal.

Photo credit: IOM 2017/Amanda Nero

Africa’s population is growing at an astonishing rate. By 2050, the number of people on the continent will climb to 2.5 billion. By the same year, the United Nations predicts that nearly half of the countries in Africa will double their populations. While regions such as Europe have virtually stopped growing, Africa’s population growth shows no signs of slowing.

Postal operators need to wake up to their true potential and start using their enormous reserves of data, vast logistical fleets and infrastructure to lead the world on e-commerce, financial inclusivity and economic development.“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” said Charles Dickens, but for the world’s postal operators, it must sometimes appear that the good times are gone.