University security in Nigeria
Many universities (outside of the USA) build fences around the main part of their campuses. The University of Maiduguri is digging a trench. Is this a sign of vitality or a sign of limited state capacity? Or both?
Nigerian university builds trench to stop Boko Haram attacks
Authorities in north-eastern Nigeria have begun digging a 27km (17 mile) trench around the University of Maiduguri to prevent attacks by Boko Haram Islamist militants…
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| Borno trench |
Boko Haram, who want an Islamic state, loosely translates from Hausa as "Western education is forbidden"…
The trenches are designed to make it impossible for the militants to drive into the university as well as making it harder for them to access the campus on foot.
Borno state governor Kashim Shettima is financing the trench and has asked the Nigerian government for money to fund a permanent barrier.
Mr Shettima is also releasing money to pay allowances to guards drawn from local vigilante groups, who are working with the police to patrol the area.
He said that while the university was a federal institution, it was the Borno state government's responsibility to stop the militants from achieving their aim of forcing the university's closure…
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Labels: cleavages, Nigeria, state capacity
Even dating in China is connected to the Party
The Party in one part of China is worried about the dating prospects of its members.
China’s Communist Youth League sets up dating service
A branch of the Communist Youth League in eastern China has established a unit to help young people find romance, state media reported.
The service has been set up in the Zhejiang province branch of the national organisation…
The league’s Zhejiang branch held a huge dating party on Sunday in Hangzhou, with about 5,000 people attending, the China News Service reported.
The event was also organised by a dating website and young people attending included single people working in the information technology, e-commerce and finance sectors.
Among the events at the party was a speed dating event where people taking part had eight minutes to chat to a date before moving on to the next.
More than 500 people succeeded in finding a potential date at the party, the report said…
The new unit was established to meet the changing needs of young people, an official at the league in Zhejiang told the South China Morning Post.
“The circle of friends of youngsters has narrowed due to the heavy work pressure in modern society,” the official said, who did not give her full name. “Some young people and their parents also asked whether we can serve as a bridge,” she said.
China’s latest census in 2010 revealed that 2.47 per cent of women aged 30 or over are not married, up from 0.92 per cent in 2000, the China News Service reported…
In one scene of the speed dating tables, things looked good.
However, at another table, some participants didn't look so happy.
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Labels: China, civil society, Communist Party
Briefing on the details of Parliamentary politics
The BBC offers a detailed and valuable outline of how things will work for the current government.
Theresa May and the DUP deal: What you need to know
Theresa May has done a deal with the DUP which means she stays as UK prime minister. Here's a guide to what's going on.
- What has happened?
- What was the result of the election?
- So how come Theresa May is still prime minister?
- So are the Conservatives and the DUP in coalition?
- What is in it for the DUP?
- Why is doing a deal with DUP controversial?
- What about the Good Friday agreement?
- What about Brexit?
- So will Theresa May survive as prime minister?
- What are the key dates for Mrs May?
- Why are Labour in such good spirits?
- Is there likely to be another general election?
- Further reading
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Labels: Brexit, government, parties, politics, regime, UK
Biafra again?
Fifty years ago Nigerians fought a civil war. Is it happening again?
Nigerian Acting President Meets With Regional Leaders on Ethnic Unrest
Nigeria's acting president met with regional leaders in an effort to quell ethnic tensions, his office said, as threats grow of conflict between northern Muslims and southeastern Igbo people.
The two groups have been trading barbs since the beginning of the month, after Muslim activists demanded the eviction of Igbo from the north over their calls for a separate southeastern state, known as Biafra.
The expulsion notice is an echo, 51 years later, of the anti-Igbo pogroms across the north that helped spark the secession of Biafra in 1967. The resulting civil war ended with Nigeria's victory in 1970, after an estimated 1 million people died…
Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria's acting leader… met with leaders from the north and southeast, state governors and media publishers and editors…
"It will be wrong of us to approach our grievances by threatening to disobey the laws or by threatening the integrity of our nation," Osinbajo told leaders.
Nigeria is no stranger to ethnically charged violence. Deadly clashes between Muslim herders and Christian farmers have erupted in recent years, partly over land use in the region known as the Middle Belt…
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Labels: cleavages, ethnic groups, Nigeria
Political spying in Mexico
Another bit of political culture in Mexico. How vital is spying to the PRI's power?
Government Spying Allegations in Mexico Spur Calls for Inquiry
After reports this week that sophisticated government-owned surveillance software was used to spy on some of Mexico’s most prominent journalists and activists, victims and others have demanded an independent inquiry into the allegations.
The calls came in response to an article by The New York Times and to a parallel report by several Mexican and international organizations, both of which found that the Israeli-made spyware, which was sold to the Mexican government on the strict condition that it be used only against terrorists and criminal groups, was deployed against some of the government’s most outspoken critics.
The software, called Pegasus, can infiltrate a smartphone and allow spies to monitor all activity on it, including calls, texts and emails…
Those calling for an investigation say the only way a truly independent inquiry can be guaranteed is to bring in an international team of experts…
A spokesman for the Peña Nieto administration [said] “For the government of the republic, the respect of privacy and the protection of personal data of all individuals are inherent values of our liberty, democracy and rule of law,”
Still, the findings provoked broad outrage, with many laying responsibility — if not for the spying itself, then at least to initiate a thorough inquiry — on the shoulders of the administration.
“This new, chilling evidence confirms that Mexican journalists and human rights defenders are a target of illegal practices designed to interfere and hinder their work,” Erika Guevara-Rosas, the Americas director at Amnesty International, said in a statement. The findings “show a clear pattern of illegal use of technology in an attempt to control any criticism against those in power.”…
The findings this week “only add to the idea that, rather than protecting the press, the Mexican government views it as a dissident group or even as an enemy,” Guillermo Osorno, a founder of Horizontal.mx, a digital magazine…
But the reaction was also mitigated somewhat by a certain cynicism in a country where wiretapping has been a time-honored tradition in politics, and allegations of spying by the government against its critics are not new…
But many commentators have been underwhelmed by the administration’s early response, which struck some as highly defensive and a reaffirmation of the widely held view that the government is more interested in preserving its authority than in enforcing the rule of law…
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Labels: civil liberties, Mexico, politics, rule of law
Unitary system
China continues on the path to a truly unitary regime.
Xi urges efforts to boost integrated military and civilian development
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| Xi |
Chinese President Xi Jinping Tuesday underscored centralized and unified leadership to boost integrated military and civilian development.
Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks at the first plenary meeting of the central commission for integrated military and civilian development, which he heads.
Upgraded as a national strategy, integrated military and civilian development is a major achievement of China's long-term coordinated development of economic and national defense construction, Xi said.
It is also a major decision concerning national development and overall security, and a major measure to deal with complicated security threats and gain national strategic advantages, Xi said…
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Limitations on state capacity
When officials and military officers collect salaries for non-existent workers and soldiers, that's one kind of corruption. Stealing and selling food meant for starving people is another kind. The authorities in Nigeria don't seem to be able to do much about either kind of theft.
'Half' Nigeria food aid for Boko Haram victims not delivered
Up to half the food aid meant for people who have fled Nigeria's Islamist insurgency has reportedly not been delivered, the government says.
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| Food aid in Nigeria |
It described it as a "diversion of relief materials", which correspondents say is a euphemism for theft.
A statement from the acting president's office added that security was being beefed up to protect the deliveries.
As a result of Boko Haram violence some 8.5 million Nigerians in the north-east need life-saving aid, officials say.
Poor rains have exacerbated a problem caused by fighting with Boko Haram Islamist militants, which has forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes…
The statement from acting President Yemi Osinbajo said aid going missing had "dogged food delivery" and then cited reports saying that more than 50 lorries out of every 100 sent to the north-east never reach their destination.
It does not say what has happened to the diverted food, but in May two Nigerian officials were jailed for selling food aid.
Last week, Nigeria apologised to Saudi Arabia after 200 tonnes of dates the kingdom sent as a Ramadan gift were found on sale in local markets.
Mr Osinbajo said that the latest consignment of aid which is making its way to the north-east is being protected by more than a thousand soldiers.
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Labels: corruption, Nigeria, state capacity
Generation gap in Russia
It's probably overly simple, but there does appear to be a generation gap in Russian politics. Is it similar to the one in the UK?
Aleksei Navalny’s protesters are a force to be reckoned with
AT TWO O’CLOCK on the afternoon of June 12th, Elizaveta Chukicheva, a 16-year-old technical-college student, stood in the middle of Tverskaya Street in central Moscow next to a large reproduction of an idol from Russia’s pagan antiquity. Ms Chukicheva held a sign on which she had written the words “I love Russia”, and wore a T-shirt bearing the image of Aleksei Navalny, a Russian opposition leader. Against her parents’ advice, she had answered Mr Navalny’s call to attend a rally on Russia’s national holiday against corruption, and for his campaign for the presidential election in 2018. “My parents told me that we can’t change anything and that there are no prospects for us in this country,” she said. “But I don’t want to leave Russia, and I believe that we can change things.” It was her first political action ever, and she was nervous.
A few hours earlier, Mr Navalny had been arrested outside his apartment block for organising an “unsanctioned” rally. Moscow authorities had approved a gathering at a different location, but then sabotaged it…
There, the Kremlin had blocked off traffic for a pedestrian festival celebrating “Russia’s Victorious Past” (hence the pagan idol). The street was occupied with historical reconstructions of Russian military triumphs…
As Mr Navalny’s supporters, many of them young enough to have lived their entire lives under Vladimir Putin, entered the street, they found themselves surrounded by reconstructionists dressed in medieval body armour, 19th-century tsarist gowns and Stalin-era military and secret-police uniforms. The protesters chanted “Russia without Putin!” and “We are the power here!”…
As surreal as the scene was, it also encapsulated the current political confrontation in Russia. Vladimir Putin’s backwards-looking regime, which legitimises itself by restoring the symbols of Russia’s imperial past, is being challenged by a new generation of Russians who feel that their future has been hijacked by the corruption, hypocrisy and lies of the ruling elite…
The symbol of the protests was a rubber duck, a reference to a documentary video Mr Navalny released in March that accuses Dmitry Medvedev, the prime minister, of corruption. (The video depicts Mr Medvedev’s immense estate, allegedly donated to him by an oligarch, which includes a house for a pet duck.)…
A few years ago, such a video might have generated laughter. Now, it produces outrage. “We’re different from our parents’ generation in that we have no future,” said one of the young protesters…
The protests were held in some 170 cities across Russia, gathering a total of about 150,000 people, according to organisers. (An earlier round of protests on March 26th drew perhaps 100,000 people in about 90 cities.) About half of the protesters are aged between 18 and 29…
One reason for the unrest is economic. Russian real incomes have fallen by 13% over the past two and a half years… Retail consumption has shrunk by 15%. Investment has been falling for three years, reaching a cumulative decline of 12%…
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Labels: cleavages, dissent, politics, Russia
Inflation as a threat to Nigeria's regime and government
Many younger Americans might be wondering, "What's inflation?" A visit to Nigeria would answer that question.
Food Inflationary Trend Persists As Inflation Eased to 16.25 Percent in May
The National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, reported, yesterday, that annual inflation rate dropped by 0.99 per cent to 16.25 per cent in May 2017 from 17.24 per cent recorded in April.
This represents the fourth consecutive decline in the rate of inflation since January 2017…
The report shows that pressure points still exist despite the general slowdown in inflation on year-on-year terms, stemming from higher agro commodity prices as a result of higher global food prices, increasing exports…
Analysts at WSTC Financial Services Limited, said: "The downward trend in the general price level has further reinforced our outlook on inflation in the current year…
"Additionally, we believe the Central Bank of Nigeria's, CBN, inflation target of 10 -11 per cent at the end of 2017, is largely optimistic, particularly considering mounting pressure on food inflation…
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Labels: economics, Nigeria, politics
Instant academic analysis
Two political scientists from the UK's University of Birmingham offer these informed observations on the UK election. The authors are Professor David Cutts and Associate Professor Tim Haughton.
Five things we just learned from the U.K. elections
Theresa May’s election gamble failed. Enticed by large leads in opinion polls, the British prime minister called an early election with the expectation of increasing the Conservative Party’s slim majority in Parliament. But the Conservatives lost seats, leaving no party with a majority…
[W]e suggest there are five takeaway lessons of the election:
- Two-party tribalism has returned... [The] public responded, casting more than 80 percent of votes nationwide for the two main parties — for the first time in nearly 40 years… Helped in part by the mechanics of the “first past the post” electoral system, third parties were squeezed in key Labour-Conservative battlegrounds...
- Britain is more polarized than ever... Labour entrenched its support in the urban and more cosmopolitan cities while the Conservatives stockpiled votes in the more rural areas of England… Labour’s ability to retain and win seats in university towns, for instance, owed much to the mobilization of young and more educated people…
- UKIP voters did not just migrate to the Conservatives.
- The Conservatives should have done better at the polls… polls universally showed that voters overwhelmingly preferred her over Jeremy Corbyn for prime minister — and found Conservatives far more credible on the economy than Labour…
- Mobilization efforts online and offline may have paid off… Labour put great emphasis on online campaigning and mobilizing younger voters. Social media studies during the campaign suggested that Labour’s online activism was at an unprecedented scale in a British general election…
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Labels: cleavages, elections, parties, UK
Political parties of Nigeria
News reports announce the formation of a new political party in Nigeria. The new leaders are some of the "
big men" in Nigerian politics. There are
many parties registered in Nigeria, but politics and government are dominated by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and party it defeated in 2015, the People's Democratic Party (PDP). (Keep those abbreviations in mind as you read this article.)
New Party, APDA, Unveiled to Sack APC
A new political party, Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance, APDA, promoted by some kingpins of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was unveiled, yesterday, in Abuja…
The party was birthed with the promise of projecting an egalitarian democracy, internal democracy in its activities and ultimately sacking the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
Among the PDP bigwigs spotted at the unveiling, yesterday, was broadcast mogul, Chief Raymond Dokpesi… However, many PDP bigwigs previously linked with the party stayed away from the launch and were believed to have monitored the event…
Speaking yesterday, [Chief Dan Nwanyanwu; former national chairman of Republican Party] said the party was formed to give Nigeria a truly progressive party in the face of what he claimed was the dominance of reactionary persons in some self-styled progressive parties…
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Labels: elections, Nigeria, parties
Losing by winning
Mexico's PRI has won the election (with 33.7% of the vote) for governor of the State of Mexico. But it may have lost many other things.
P.R.I. Closes In on Narrow Victory in State of Mexico Governor’s Race
Mexico’s most powerful political party was on the verge of a clear victory in the closely fought race for the governorship of the nation’s most populous state, according to a nearly completed preliminary vote count on Monday night…
The close finish practically ensures that the matter will be litigated in the courts and perhaps even in the streets, both common features of Mexican electoral politics…
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the pugnacious head of the left-wing National Regeneration Movement, whose candidate was the runner-up in the preliminary count, said Monday that he would demand an examination of ballots and suggested that the P.R.I. had engaged in fraud to secure victory…
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| The winner on Sunday |
According to preliminary results, Alfredo del Mazo Maza, the P.R.I. candidate, had 33.7 percent of the vote. His closest rival, Mr. López Obrador’s handpicked candidate, Delfina Gómez Álvarez, had 30.8 percent…
Even in apparent defeat in the State of Mexico, Mr. López Obrador’s party, also known as Morena, has by some measures emerged victorious, analysts said.
The three-year-old party nearly delivered a stunning upset in the P.R.I.’s historic bastion of power, exposing its vulnerabilities and helping to establish Morena’s legitimacy in the national political arena.
The election results in general — with two-thirds of votes going to opposition candidates — also revealed the widespread disillusionment with the governing party regionally and nationally…
But some analysts also attributed the P.R.I. victory to the use of political favors and, they said, the party’s expert use of dark electoral arts. While most political parties in Mexico have been accused of employing techniques like vote-buying and intimidation, the P.R.I., in its decades-long dominance of Mexican politics, demonstrated an unparalleled expertise.
During its monopoly of presidential politics, stretching from 1929 until its first defeat, in 2000, the P.R.I. achieved many of its electoral victories by employing increasingly sophisticated methods of fraud and coercion…
The agency that monitors electoral crimes has opened more than 230 cases into irregularities associated with the State of Mexico campaign, more than double the number in the last election for governor six years ago…
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Labels: elections, Mexico, parties
Just The Facts! 2nd edition is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
