Nigeria Orders Troops To Lagos As Union Heads Cancel Strike

Jan. 17 (GIN) – Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan took action against oil subsidy strikers, minutes after agreeing with union officials to roll back a legislative action that spurred the strike and lifted the price of gas to nearly double its usual price. 

Soldiers were ordered into the country's major cities and to remain while “tension” persists - something unseen since the nation abandoned military rule in 1999. The move raises new questions about freedom of speech in a nation where government power still appears absolute.

Removal of the oil subsidy which had kept  gas prices affordable, spurred tens of thousands of Nigerians to take to the streets last week, demanding not just a rollback but the removal of the entire Goodluck Jonathan administration.

Strikers said their protest was not just about the subsidy. It was about rampant government corruption and the transfer of millions of naira (Nigeria’s dollars) into private hands, they said.

The deployment of soldiers against civilian protestors alarmed Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka. In a statement titled “A Gross Betrayal”, Soyinka described the presidential action as “an intolerable act of provocation”.

“Was it part of the deal reached by the government of Goodluck Jonathan, Labor Movement and Civil Society, that soldiers would be sent to occupy Lagos and intimidate the populace? This is a gross violation of the rights of citizens to congregate and give expression to whatever grievances bedevil their existence,” Soyinka said.

“Until they are removed, Nigerians as a whole should understand that the present civic action is not over and prepare to mobilize and defend their liberty. “ w/pix of W. Soyinka

Commercial Farms To Displace Thousands In Ethiopia

Jan. 17 (GIN) – Millions of acres of farm land are being leased to foreign investors  for commercial export crops, under a nefarious plan that relocates indigenous villagers into “bantustans” lacking adequate food, farmland, healthcare or schools.

The lands are leased for pennies on the dollar and resemble “land grabs” that displace the county’s poorest citizens.

Since 2008, six Indian, one Chinese, and Saudi Arabian companies have leased half a million acres in the state. A lesser amount is going to Ethiopians.

Critics say only foreign firms benefit, while ethnic groups such as the Anuak and Nuer are deprived of resources they have used for eons.

A lease agreement for the Gambela region was initially rejected by Ethiopian president Girma Wolde-Giorgis and the country’s Environment Protection Agency but Prime Minister Meles Zenawi gave it the green light.

Under the deal with Bangalore-based Karuturi company, investors would get some 3 million hectares – an area larger than The Netherlands -at just $1.25 per year per hectare for 50 years. The Oakland Institute, an advocacy group in California, highlighted its concerns, including the forced relocation of locals to resettlement of villages and transfer of land coming under the Gambela National Park to Karuturi.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch, in a recent report titled “Waiting Here for Death,” wrote:  "The Ethiopian government … is forcibly relocating approximately 70,000 indigenous people from the western Gambella region."  Critical views on the relocations can be found at the website of the Solidarity Movement for a new Ethiopia. www.solidaritymovement.org  w/pix of Gambela region traditional houses

‘Ma Ellen’ Sworn In For Second Term, Renews Call For Reconciliation

Jan. 17 (GIN) - Liberia's Nobel peace laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf took the oath of office for a second term in the presidency in a lavish $1.2-million ceremony attended by the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton and hundreds of guests and dignitaries.

Thousands looked on from the grounds of the capitol building as the 73-year-old grandmother pledged to uphold the constitution. "We have earned our rightful place as a beacon of democracy, a country of hope and of opportunity," Sirleaf said. "The cleavages that led to decades of war still run deep but so too does the longing for reconciliation."

Six years ago, the newly-elected Sirleaf – informally called “Ma Ellen” - vowed to make graft "public enemy number one", but the Harvard-trained president said she soon realized that Liberia's corruption-endemic society could not be changed in one term.

"We now will move very quickly on the punishment side through our judicial reform, taking cases to court," Sirleaf told The Associated Press in a pre-inauguration interview.

Sirleaf said the nation needed a process of national healing not defined "by tribe, region, religions or ethnicity but by equality of opportunity and a better future for every Liberian".

In the years since Sirleaf took office, the country added nearly 3,500 miles of paved roads. Children under the age of 5 are dying at half the rate they were before, and people are earning almost double what they made when she was first elected, according to reports.

Anti-Dictator T-shirt Brings Life Sentence In Gambia

Jan. 17 (GIN) – A former minister in the government of President Yahya Jammeh was sentenced this week to life in prison for conspiring to overthrow the ruler of 17 years with T-shirts demanding an end to dictatorship.

Amadou Janneh, who also holds a U.S. passport, was convicted of treason after a seven-month trial. Three co-conspirators were also convicted of printing T-shirts with the inscription: ‘Coalition for Change The Gambia; End Dictatorship Now’ written on the front side; ‘Freedom’ inscribed on the back.

They were sentenced to three years in jail.

Janneh, 48, was communications minister in 2005 and 2006. He has also worked with the US embassy in Banjul as political and economic affairs officer.

The trial was closely followed by Gambians in the internet. On the blog “Hello Gambia”, Mathew K Jallow wrote: "The trial period was unbearable …. The sight of Dr. Janneh and codefendants handcuffed and in leg shackles is more than anyone could bear to behold, but seeing them being lifted off the ground like furniture items and placed in the backs of military trucks, brought tears to the eyes of many Gambians.  … This is an all round ridiculous case of political intimidation."

Dr. Janneh and colleagues were arrested in early June 2012, detained for days before being paraded on TV and later charged before the Court. During the trial, a French-language email addressed to the President of Senegal was entered into evidence allegedly signed by Janneh. A police officer said he translated it from French to English although later admitted he was not certified in either language. Wolof is widely spoken as are Jola, Soninke, Fulfulde and other local languages.

The president, an outspoken military officer and former wrestler who took power in a bloodless coup in 1994, has been accused of running the west African country with an iron fist and flouting human rights.

Mr Jammeh's government has been criticised by international rights groups for its attitude to civil liberties, especially freedom of the press and the detention and disappearance of journalists.

Jammeh replied: "The journalists are less than 1% of the population and if anybody expects me to allow less than 1% of the population to destroy 99% of the population, you are in the wrong place."