Nigerian parliament debates 2010 budget

Nigeria’s lower house of parliament held a closed session to debate the country’s 2010 budget on Tuesday, paving the way for the spending plans to be signed into law in the absence of President Umaru Yar’Adua.

Once the House of Representatives approves the 4.08 trillion naira budget, the Senate must do the same and any differences must be harmonised before the spending plans can be signed into law.

Yar’Adua sent the budget proposal to parliament in November but has since been absent for more than two months, receiving hospital treatment for a heart condition in Saudi Arabia.

His absence had raised fears that there could be delays to the passage of the 2010 budget, which if approved in its current form would push sub-Saharan Africa’s second biggest economy to a deficit of 4.79 percent of gross domestic product.

The Senate on Tuesday passed a motion that Vice President Goodluck Jonathan should immediately take over as acting president in Yar’Adua’s absence, which would mean he is able to sign the budget for this year.

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Nigerian parliament recognises VP as acting leader

Nigeria’s parliament recognised Vice President Goodluck Jonathan as acting head of state on Tuesday in the absence of the African oil producer’s ailing president.

But the move takes Nigeria into uncharted political territory and does not end the uncertainty over who rules Africa’s most populous nation since President Umaru Yar’Adua was hospitalised in Saudi Arabia in November.

Motions backed by both chambers of parliament enable Jonathan to pass legislation and act as commander of the armed forces until Yar’Adua declares he is fit enough to resume his duties.

But the constitution makes no provision for parliament to take such a step, saying the president must make a written declaration before such a transfer of powers can take place.

Yar’Adua has been receiving treatment for a heart condition for more than two months and his failure to formally hand over to Jonathan has risked bringing government business to a halt.

The Nigerian ambassador in Saudi Arabia, who has given occasional updates on Yar’Adua’s health, could not immediately be reached to comment on parliament’s move.

“This foray into uncharted waters will lead to questions as to its constitutional legality,” said Kayode Akindele, a director at Lagos-based financial advisory firm Greengate Strategic Partners.

“It is now up to the presidency and cabinet in their meeting tomorrow to align with this gathering political consensus. The vice president has to now step out of the shadows and assume the mantle of leadership in a very deliberate fashion.”

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Nelson Mandela dinner celebrates 20 years of freedom

Nelson Mandela has celebrated the 20th anniversary of his release from prison with a special dinner, inviting ex-wife Winnie and one of his former jailers.

Cyril Ramaphosa leads the toast at the dinner

Mr Mandela, who became South Africa’s first black president, was freed on 11 February 1990 after 27 years in jail, served mostly on Robben Island.

Mr Mandela has said he developed a friendship with warder Christo Brand that cemented his views of humanity.

The Nobel Prize winner, 91, was also joined by children and grandchildren.

Mr Mandela’s daughter, Zindzi, and a number of anti-apartheid activists who were there when he walked free, also attended the small gathering.

Zindzi Mandela filmed the dinner for a documentary called Conversations About That Day, which will be shown on the anniversary next week.

Key anti-apartheid politician Cyril Ramaphosa toasted Mr Mandela as “tata” or father.

He said: “You are still an inspiration. We are forever indebted to you, for the leadership and inspiration you provided. We are happy you are a free man, because as you became free, you made us free.”

Mr Mandela said of his friendship with Mr Brand that it “reinforced my belief in the essential humanity of even those who had kept me behind bars”.

He said he still did some exercise, but added: “I do feel like I am getting old. Time is flying. I’m not really worried.”

South Africa’s parliament will open next Thursday on the exact date of the anniversary.

Also coinciding with the anniversary is the release in the UK of the film Invictus, which draws on Mr Mandela’s efforts to unite South Africa in the run-up to the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

Incumbent declared winner in flawed Nigeria polls

The incumbent governor of Nigeria’s southeastern Anambra state was on Sunday declared the winner of an election which voters and candidates said had been marred by widespread irregularities.

The polls on Saturday in one of Nigeria’s most politically turbulent

Peter Obi is a veteran of local politics.

states are the first in a cycle of state and federal votes culminating in presidential elections due in April 2011.

Diplomats and investors hope Africa’s most populous nation can avoid a repeat of the chaos seen during the 2007 elections which brought President Umaru Yar’Adua to power, polls marred by widespread ballot-stuffing and voter intimidation.

But the signs from Anambra were not promising.

Voters complained their names were not on electoral rolls, while the main candidates — including even the winner — complained of irregularities.

“Peter Obi of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), having satisfied all requirements of the law and scored the highest number of votes, is hereby declared the winner,” chief electoral officer Josiah Uwazuronye announced at the INEC electoral commission headquarters in the state capital Awka.

Obi won 97,843 votes, beating ex-state governor Chris Ngige of the opposition Action Congress party with 60,240 votes.

Former central bank governor Chukwuma Soludo of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) took 59,355 votes while ex-state governor Andy Uba of the Labour party polled 26,106 votes.

But voter turnout was extremely low, according to INEC figures. Just 301,232 of 1.84 million registered voters took part, a figure partly explained by so many names being missed off the electoral register.

Even Obi initially refused to vote, saying his own relatives were missing from the electoral list and that similar problems were being encountered across the state, but he later returned to the polling station to take part.

Checkpoints jointly manned by police and soldiers were withdrawn from the streets on Sunday and the state capital Awka and commercial hub Onitsha were calm, with many people in church, apparently relieved that there had been no unrest.

“It is to the great credit of the people here that the election was run peacefully yesterday. However, our visits to polling stations at a number of locations suggest that there were irregularities,” British Deputy High Commissioner Richard Powell told Reuters.

“At some stations there was late arrival of materials, some of the (electoral) registers appeared to be incomplete. I would say a lot of work would need to be done if next year’s election were to run smoothly and I hope that the Nigerian authorities would address this as a matter of urgency,” he said.

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Nigerian militants say disabled Shell oil pipeline

A Nigerian militant group said on Sunday it had attacked a Royal Dutch Shell oil pipeline in the Niger Delta but the Anglo-Dutch company said it had no reports of any such sabotage.

The Joint Revolutionary Council (JRC), a coalition of ex-militants and community leaders, said in a statement it had disabled a trunk line in the Obunoma area of Rivers state connecting several flow stations to the Bonny export terminal.

“At about midnight today, the patriotic force of the Niger Delta successfully disabled the trunk line belonging to Shell in the swamp of Obunoma,” the JRC statement said.

There was no independent confirmation of an attack.

Thousands of militants in the Niger Delta last year handed over weapons under an amnesty programme led by the administration of President Umaru Yar’Adua, bringing a lull in attacks against Africa’s biggest oil and gas industry.

But progress in implementing the post-amnesty programme, including the payment of stipends and re-training of former militants, has slowed during Yar’Adua’s more than two month absence for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia.

The JRC warned last month that training centres and funding were inadequate for the programme.

The main militant group in the region, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), called off a three-month old ceasefire a week ago and threatened to unleash an “all-out assault” on the OPEC member’s energy industry.

Oil traders expect Nigerian crude oil exports to fall in March because of insecurity.

Years of violence in the Niger Delta have prevented Nigeria from pumping much above 2 million barrels per day of oil, just two thirds of its installed production capacity, costing it around $1 billion a month in lost oil revenues.

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Jacob Zuma ‘deeply regrets pain’ over love-child

South African President Jacob Zuma has apologised for fathering a child with a woman who was not his wife.

“I deeply regret the pain that I have caused to my family, the ANC (African National Congress), the alliance and South Africans in general,” he said.

The daughter of a World Cup chief gave birth to a baby girl last year believed to have been fathered by Mr Zuma.

Mr Zuma, aged 67, is a Zulu, a group which practices polygamy. He has three actual wives and at least 19 children.

“I have over the past week taken time to consider and reflect on the issues relating to a relationship I had outside of wedlock,” Mr Zuma said in a statement, admitting that it “has been a subject of much public discussion and debate”.

“It has put a lot of pressure on my family and my organization, the African National Congress,” the statement said.

Earlier this week, the president confirmed that he was having a relationship with Sonono Khoza – the 39-year-old daughter of World Cup official Irvin Khoza.

He said the matter was “intensely personal” and dismissed as “mischievous” criticism from activists who said his actions had undermined official HIV/Aids campaigns.

Mr Zuma was praised last year when he announced major changes to the country’s Aids policy, which included increasing the roll-out of anti-retroviral drugs.

But opposition parties now say his behaviour contradicts the government’s stance on HIV prevention – preaching regular condom use and faithfulness to one partner.

South Africa has the highest number of HIV infections in the world – more than five million people.

This is not the first time that the president’s sex life has been under the spotlight.

In 2006, while being acquitted of rape, Mr Zuma admitted that he had made a mistake by having unprotected sex with a woman he knew to be HIV-positive.

Like Ms Khoza, the woman was also the daughter of a family friend.

Mr Zuma has been married five times in all, most recently in January, and is also engaged to another woman.

He has 19 children according to his office, but it is not clear if that includes the baby born last October.

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Nigeria’s oil pipeline sabotaged- Royal Dutch Shell

Royal Dutch Shell has shut three oil flow stations in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region after a pipeline was sabotaged, a company spokeswoman has said.

Militant attacks have sharply cut Nigeria's oil output in recent years

She said Saturday’s leak on the Trans Ramos oil pipeline was confirmed “to have been caused by sabotage”. The leak was later stopped.

No group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

It came shortly after Nigeria’s militant group Mend said it was ending the truce it declared last October.

Mend (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta) said it was not “directly responsible” for the attack, reports the Reuters news agency.

But an e-mailed statement said: “It was certainly a response to our order to resume hostilities by one of the various freelance groups we endorse.”

Nigeria is one of the world’s major oil producers but output has been cut by years of unrest in the Niger Delta – the source of its oil.

A Mend spokesman said the group did not believe the government would restore control of resources to local people.

Mend has demanded that local residents be given a greater share in profits from the oil produced by the region.

But much of the violence in the region has been carried out by criminal gangs.

Mend warned oil companies to prepare for an “all-out onslaught” against installations and personnel.

Analysts later said it was not immediately clear if this statement came from the whole of Mend or just a faction that did not accept the offer of an amnesty from Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua.

Under the amnesty, thousands of fighters handed in their weapons last year.

But correspondents say the peace accord has been jeopardised by Mr Yar’Adua’s absence for the past two months – he is being treated for a heart problem in Saudi Arabia.

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Millions more face poverty in crisis: World Bank

Tens of millions more people in Africa and elsewhere will be driven into poverty this year even though the world is recovering from the global financial crisis, World Bank president Robert Zoellick said on Sunday.

“I hope we are now on a path to global recovery,” he told African leaders at the annual summit of the African Union (AU).

“But we still face considerable risks in 2010 and we have to repair the damage done by the crisis. It has a human face,” he said.

“We estimate that 64 million people worldwide will fall into extreme poverty because of the crisis and an additional 30,000 to 50,000 babies may die in sub-Saharan Africa,” he added.

Zoellick said the bank would use its direct subsidy schemes to mitigate poverty for the those who are most vulnerable.

He also restated the bank’s promise to raise its financial commitments to the world’s poorest continent by a minimum of $15 billion over the next two to three years.

World Bank projects in Africa range from fertiliser procurement in Ethiopia to job programmes in Sierra Leone. The Washington-based institution invested $3.6 billion in the infrastructure of sub-Saharan Africa last year.

Malawian President Mbingu wa Mutharika, president elect of the AU, earlier pledged to push for a continental food security agenda during his year-long leadership of the 53-nation bloc.

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Jacob Zuma love-child claim sparks South Africa row

South Africa’s main opposition party has accused the country’s president of contradicting the government’s message on HIV/Aids prevention.

Jacob Zuma married for the fifth time in early January

President Jacob Zuma had a child with Sonono Khoza, the daughter of local world cup boss Irvin Khoza last year, claims NewsAgency.

Mr Zuma has also been criticised for being polygamous, in a country with some five million HIV-positive people.

Mr Zuma, 67, married his third wife Thobeka Madiba-Zuma, 36, in January.

At the time, his office said he had 19 children.

So far, neither the ANC nor the government have commented on the story, splashed across the front page of South Africa’s newspaper.

The newspaper alleges that a girl was born to Mr Zuma and Ms Khoza last October.

Ms Khoza is 39 years old and works for a bank.

Her father is a friend of Mr Zuma and, as chairman of the World Cup Organising Committee, is one of the most powerful men in South African football.

The president’s many supporters will no doubt say this is a private matter.

But, if true, it is not the first time that Mr Zuma’s actions have directly contradicted the government’s HIV/Aids policy.

In 2006, while being acquitted of rape, Mr Zuma admitted that he had made a mistake by having unprotected sex.

The Democratic Alliance, South Africa’s largest opposition party, said the latest allegations showed the president undermining the struggle against Aids by having unprotected sex with multiple partners.

Mr Zuma’s colourful private life is never far from the headlines, our reporter says.

Earlier this month, he married for the fifth time – with Thobeka Madiba-Zuma becoming one of three current wives.

He is also engaged to be married to another woman.

Polygamy is permitted in South African law and is regarded as an important part of Zulu culture.

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Egypt border police kill African migrant: sources

Egyptian border police shot dead an African migrant and injured another on Monday as they tried to slip across the border into Israel, security sources said.

The pair attempted to sneak into Israel near the Karam Abu Salem border crossing. The first migrant died on the spot but his nationality was unknown as he was carrying no identity papers. The injured migrant, who was from Cameroon, was taken to Rafah hospital.

Egyptian police have stepped up efforts in recent months to control the border with Israel, following an increase in human trafficking through Egypt.

At least 19 migrants have now been killed at the border since last May, and 28 have been injured.

The Sinai border is a main transit route for usually unarmed African migrants and refugees seeking work or asylum in Israel. Egyptian police say the smugglers who ferry migrants to the border region sometimes fire on security forces.

Egypt, which for years tolerated tens of thousands of African migrants on its territory, fears the unfettered flow of migrants at its Sinai border could pose a security threat in an area where Islamist militants sometimes find refuge.

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