African voice newspaper issue 488

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK Friday, 28 June 2013 – Thursday, 4 July 2013 ISSUE 488

B R I TA I N ’ S N O . 1 A F R I C A N N E W S PA P E R

SINCE 2001

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A spending review announced by Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne (aka Jeffrey) has put civil servants, jobseekers and pensioners who have retired abroad in the fi r-ing line. Cutting £11.5 billion in spending, the chancellor said balancing the nation’s books involved “diffi cult decisions”, add-ing: “There never was an easy way to bring spending under control.”

Labour Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls said the new round of cuts represented a “com-prehensive failure” of the Chancellor’s economic strategy. Mr Balls said: “This out of touch Chancellor has failed on living standards, growth and the defi cit and fami-lies and businesses are paying the price for his failure.” But Mr Osborne insisted his meas-ures, which only spared schools, the NHS, overseas aid and the intelligence services,

were necessary and fair. Mr Osborne gave further details of his planned welfare cap, which will come into force in April 2015 - a month before the next general election. Housing benefi t, tax credits, disability ben-efi ts and pensioner benefi ts will all be in-cluded, although the state pension will not.The Chancellor said public sector pay rises will be limited to an average of up to one per cent for 2015-16 and automatic pro-gression pay and re-grading were being

scrapped. He said: “Progression pay can at best be described as antiquated; at worst, it’s deeply unfair to other parts of the pub-lic sector who don’t get it and to the private sector who have to pay for it (..) So we will end automatic progression pay in the Civil Service by 2015-16. And we are working to remove automatic pay rises simply for time served in our schools, NHS, prisons and police.”

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SEE PAGE 14Rapist, Wendell Baker jailed

Nigeria: Pending formal visa bond proposal

Africa welcomes Obama and a cast of many

SEE PAGE 25SEE PAGE 6 & 7

Jobseekers who cannot speak English “will have to attend language courses until they do.” George Osborne

Public sector lose automatic rises in pay

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Publisher and Editor-In-ChiefMike Abiola

Editorial Board AdviserDr Ola Ogunyemi

News EditorPeter OlorunnisomoManaging Editor

Alan OakleySports EditorAbiodun Teriba

Assist. Sports Editor Olubunmi Omoogun

Arts EditorGolda JohnColumnists

Ryan HolmesBen Savill

Photo JournalistIsaac Adegbite

Graphic DesignerAlvin Brown

Legal AdviserGodwin Okri

London Office: Unit 7 Holles House Overton Road London SW9 7AP

Tel: 020 7274 3933 Email: [email protected]

African Voice is published by African Voice UK.

Have YouGotNewsFor UsNewsdesk: 020 7274 3933Email: [email protected]

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News

Separately, a UNHCR report relating to Eu-rope and asylum focuses on a central part of the examination of an asylum claim: deter-mining whether statements and other evi-dence provided by an applicant are credible. UNHCR notes in this report that applica-tions for asylum are often turned down in the European Union due to questioning of the credibility of the evidence presented. With this report, and in light of the steps taken by the European Parliament, UNHCR hopes to contribute to the further harmonization of Member State practices as they relate to the assessment of credibility.At a time when a common understanding of and approach to the credibility assessment process among EU Member States is still lacking, the report “Beyond Proof - Improv-ing Credibility Assessment in EU Asylum Systems” provides unique insights into state practices based on research in EU Member States, guidance from other states and court rulings. UNHCR calls for a fair EU asylum sys-tem with objective and impartial asylum de-cisions that take into account the applicant’s individual background and circumstances.The report includes checklists and flow-charts that translate the legal and theoretical concepts into practical tools to assist deci-sion-makers and support a fair assessment of credibility.

UNHCR Credibility Assessment Report

Makaziwe blasts media “vultures”Mail & Guardian Online reports that Makaziwe Mandela, the oldest daughter of Nelson Mandela and emerging family matriarch, has lashed out at foreign media for their coverage of her father’s health, saying it smacked of racism. While she flatly refused to provide details on his health during a studio interview with SABC, referring such questions to the presidency, she said Mandela apparently took a turn for the worse but the family had not entirely lost hope for a recovery. “He doesn’t look good ... I’m not going to lie,” she told the state broadcaster in an interview. “But I think that for us as children and grandchildren we still have hope because when we talk to him he’ll try to open his eyes ... When you touch him he still responds.” Makaziwe used most of the rare interview to criticise the media coverage of Mandela’s health, repeatedly and animatedly criticising the intrusive nature of reporting. “The fact that my dad is a global icon, one of the 25 influential people of the 21st century, does not mean that people cannot respect the privacy and dignity of my dad. I don’t want to say this, but I’m going to say it. There is sort of a racist element with many of the foreign media where they just cross boundaries.” She then compared media stationed outside the Heart Mediclinic Hospital in Pretoria, where Mandela is being treated, to vultures hovering over the carcass of a lion. “At this point as a family, as an African, I know that at this time you have to be

at peace ... you have to have a sense of decorum. That is what is required. I don’t know how people come here and just violate everything in the book ... Is this because we are an African country?” Asked about the hunger for detail on Madiba’s health from the South African public, Makaziwe said there was no similar coverage of the failing health of Margaret Thatcher or Ronald Reagan. “I have never seen it in the history of the world.” She similarly criticised reporting on activity around what may become Mandela’s gravesite near his home in Qunu in the Eastern Cape – and indicated that the site would not be a place of pilgrimage open to the public. “Family graveyards ... they’re not for the public. They are for public once you’ve buried a loved one and you invite people to that. And that is the end. After that it

becomes strictly a family’s sacred place.” The interview came as much of the family are at the Pretoria hospital, including elders from his village of Qunu in the Eastern Cape, while President Jacob Zuma cancelled a scheduled trip to Mozambique after a visit to the hospital on Monday night. Meanwhile, hundreds of South Afri-cans gathered outside the hospital to bid farewell to the former statesman after he was rumoured by international media on Wednesday night to have died. However, Mandela’s grandchildren addressed the media at the entrance of the hospital on Thursday morning to report that the father of the nation is still alive, although he is “in a critical but stable condition”. The grand-children collected flowers left by support-ers and took them into the hospital before leaving a few minutes later. ANC and South African Communist Party supporters dressed in military garb sang struggle songs with fists in the air for the most part of Thursday morning (June 27). Supporters sang songs while they hanged up an ANC flag with Mandela’s face in the middle. Scores of artists brought fresh portraits of Madiba, while other artists brought clean canvases to paint on just near the entrance. Children bearing flowers and clad in ANC flags were brought in by their families. Presidency spokesperson, Mac Maharaj, said President Jacob Zuma cancelled his trip to Mozambique for a regional summit, creating the impression that Mandela’s situation is very critical. The family showed their gratitude to everyone that came to the hospital and to those who continued to pray for them.

Makaziwe Mandela has described media as akin to vultures circling a lion

The Government followed-up its spending review this week with the announcement of plans for a £100bn modernisation of the UK’s infra-structure, including new homes, road repairs and improved flood protection. The package also seeks to promote new sources of energy, such as shale gas. Treasury Minister and Liberal Dem-ocrat MP Danny Alexander, who out-lined the plans to Parliament on Thurs-day, claimed the project would put “long-term priorities before short-term political pressures”. But opposition parties were not wit out criticism. Labour said the projects must immediately as capital invest-ment in the economy was actually fall-ing, while the Greens decried the plans for their likely environmental danger.

The key projects are:

• £3bn to build 165,000 new af-fordable homes.

• £28bn for road improvements, including £10bn for essential mainte-nance.

• £10bn to clear a “backlog” of school building repairs.• 850 miles of railway to be electrified as part of £30bn rail invest-ment.• £250m for extended super-fast broadband to rural areas.• £370m for flood defences. Agreement with industry to provide affordable insurance for flood-hit homes.• £800m extra funding for Green Investment Bank.• £150m for health research in-cluding into dementia.• £100m for a new prison in Wales.The spending is set to be stretched out over the next seven years: while the first £50bn is committed to infra-structure projects starting in 2015-16, the rest is for the period from 2016 to 2020.

“This is an ambitious plan to build an infrastructure that Britain can be proud of,” Alexander told the House of Com-mons. He described the road building plan as the largest for forty years, and the support for affordable new housing as the biggest in two decades.

Nuclear power will also be supported under the new programme, with new support to help the building of plants, including a third at Hinkley Point in Somerset. There will also be a guar-anteed price for offshore wind energy and tax incentives brought in for shale gas projects.Alexander’s comments came just as a new report was being published show-ing that the UK’s shale gas reserves are much greater than previously esti-mated.The £50bn for 2015-16 actually rep-resents a real-terms fall of 1.7% from the infrastructure budget for 2014-15. However, the coalition says the figure is still higher than the one Labour was planning in 2010.

£100bn infrastructure plan outlined

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ELGEYO Marakwet Senator Kip-chumba Murkomen has criticised members of the national assembly who are out to frustrate devolution, according to The Star. Murkomen rebuked members who are behind delayed funds to manage the de-volve system of governments. The Sena-tor said the National Assembly is not fully committed to implementing devolution.“As much as we are trying to ensure that counties are funded well by increasing budgetary allocations, members of the national assembly are on the other hand

frustrating the efforts by reducing the re-sources,” he said. Terming the legislators as enemies of devolution, Murkomen reiterated their commitment as senators to ensure that a devolved system of government be safe-guarded against threats by anti-reformers.Murkomen who chairs the committee on devolution said MPs are determined to ensure county government operations are paralysed by denying them the resources they require to function properly. Murkomen was speaking in Iten during the swearing-in ceremony of members of the county executive committee and Pub-lic Service Board members nominated by Governor Alex Tolgos. He said MPs should not expect governors to deliver on their mandate without adequate budgetary allo-cation. “We are not going to sit and watch enemies of devolution try to frustrate oper-ations of county government for the benefit of the people,” said Murkomen. He called on Kenyans to rally behind them in their bid to safeguard devolved system of government from being scut-tled by members of the national assembly for selfish political gains and warned that should the new system of governance be done away with, the ordinary people would be bound to suffer in all spheres of social and economic development.

News Osborne snatches public sector annual rises and pensioner fuel payments The move prompted union outrage. Bri-an Strutton, national officer of the GMB, said: “This is just another unpleasant dig at public sector workers who have already been made scapegoats for problems they had nothing to do with.” Mr Osborne announced that the coun-cil tax freeze, due to come to an end next April, would be extended for the next two years. He said that would mean nearly £100 off the average council tax bill for families. But he warned that local councils would have to make “the kind of sacrifices central government is making”. He said the local government resource budget would be reduced by 10 per cent in 2015-16, but claimed that when changes affecting local government are taken into account includ-ing local income and other central govern-ment funding, local government spending would be reduced by around two per cent. Sir Merrick Cockell, chairman of the Lo-cal Government Association, said the cut would “stretch essential services to break-ing point in many areas”. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do not escape the squeeze with all three required to find savings of 2%. Mr Os-borne also said that the Ministry of De-fence would face further cuts to its civilian workforce as its budget was maintained in cash terms at £24 billion - representing a real terms cut. But the equipment budget

will rise by 1% per annum - as previously promised - and there will be no further re-ductions in military personnel. The intelligence services - MI5, MI6 and GCHQ - emerged among the winners with a 3.4% increase in their annual budget. But there will be cuts of 6% at the Home Office, 8% at the Foreign Office and 7% at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport - although funding for elite sports will be protected. Winter fuel payments for expat pen-sioners who have retired to sunnier climes will be linked to a “temperature test” from autumn 2015, the Chancellor confirmed. “People in hot countries will no longer get it. It is, after all, a payment for winter fuel,” he said. A “limit on the nation’s credit card” will be brought in, he said, adding: “We will act to ensure that we will stop the cost of paying the Winter Fuel Payments made to those who live abroad rising in a way that no one ever intended. “Paying out even more money to people from all nationali-ties who may have worked in this country years ago but no longer live here is not a fair use of the nation’s cash.” Mr Osborne also announced that job-seekers will be required to come to the Jobcentre every week rather than once a fortnight and the introduction of a new seven day wait before people can claim

benefits. He went on: “From now on, if claimants don’t speak English, they will have to attend language courses until they do. This is a reasonable requirement in this country.”The Chancellor promised investment in education and accelerated school reform, with the overall budget of the Education Department increasing and schools spend-ing protected in real terms. To transfer power - and money - from town halls and central bureaucracy to schools he said grants to councils and spending on central agencies were being reduced while cash going to schools will go up. He also announced schools spending will be allocated in a “fairer way” so the lowest funded local authorities will re-ceive an increase in their per pupil funding through a new national funding formula. He said the pupil premium, introduced “to make sure we are fair to children from low income backgrounds”, will be protected in real terms “so every poor child will have more cash spent on their future than ever before”. Mr Osborne also announced funding for an unprecedented increase in the number of Free Schools - 180 in 2015-16.The Conservatives say they inherited the biggest peacetime deficit from Labour when they came to power in 2010 and have cut it by a third. Their favourite line

of attack is that Labour can never be trust-ed to manage the economy again. But Labour accuses Prime Minister David Cameron’s government of pushing through too many cuts too quickly, a tac-tic it says is stifling growth and delaying a recovery. It believes in more stimulus, but has been reluctant to promise to borrow more for fear of being branded irresponsible. Labour reminded Osborne of his 2010 pledge to eliminate the budget deficit by 2015. “The Chancellor (Osborne) spoke for over 50 minutes today, but not once did he mention the real reason for this spending review - his comprehensive failure on liv-ing standards, growth and on the deficit,” said Ed Balls, Labour’s finance spokes-man.“Surely the Chancellor should be taking bold action now to boost growth this year and next.” Economists said further pain lay ahead as the government sought to eliminate the deficit by 2017/18. “While today’s cuts will be very painful they’re only a precur-sor to steeper cuts after the 2015 election,” said Matthew Whittaker at the Resolution Foundation, a thinktank which focuses on issues facing lower-income Britons.

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Kipchumba Murkomen

Senator chides Kenyan legislators over plot to derail devolution

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HealthNeed for accessible end-of-life care for ethnic minorities brought into focusA report commissioned by Marie Curie Cancer Care and Public Health England to provide evidence for key stakeholders and policy makers planning future care for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups highlights that the care currently being provided is often far from adequate. The evidence-based report “Palliative and end of life care for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups in the UK” describes the current demographic profile of the BAME populations and reviews the current evidence on palliative and end of life care provided to them. The report raises the question of how care, which is currently reported as inadequate, will meet the needs of even larger numbers of people, including those usually not represented in research. Data from the 2001 and 2011 Censuses show that England has become more ethni-cally diverse, with an increase in both num-bers and proportions for all BAME groups from 2001 to 2011 (with the exception of White Irish). Although most residents re-ported their ethnic group as White Brit-ish in 2011, there was a reduction in both numbers and proportions of people from this group (7.2% reduction in proportion or 467,900 fewer residents). In 2011, 86.2% of all residents in Eng-land (over 45 million people) reported that they were born in the UK. Although the number of residents who were UK born has increased by almost 1.1 million since 2001, there has been a decrease in terms of the proportion of the population (in 2001 the UK-born represented 90.7% of all resi-dents). On the other hand, both numbers and proportions of the foreign born population have increased since 2001, reaching over 7.3 million people (13.8% of the resident population) in 2011 compared to almost 4.6 million in 2001 (or 9.3%). Across Eng-land, London had the highest proportion of foreign born residents in 2011 (36.7% or almost 3.0 million) while the North East had the lowest (5.0% or 128,573 people). Almost 900,000 people in the UK ei-ther cannot speak English well or cannot speak it at all. It is likely that there are older people amongst them and evidence shows that there is a dearth of translation services. Examples of best practice are un-derstandably localised in areas with more ethnic diversity. However, this raises ques-tions about whether minority ethnic groups living in less diverse areas would benefit from good practice shown to be working elsewhere. About two-thirds of the popula-tion in England reported having a religion, and it is likely that a number of them would have specific requirements at the end of life (which currently are not always met). Robust and relevant intelligence is criti-cal, particularly as growing evidence sug-gests that a significant number of people living with advanced disease miss out on palliative care and end of life care. For example, older patients, the poor, and spe-cifically those from BAME communities, are less likely than younger patients, white patients, and more affluent groups to use appropriate specialist services including

inpatient hospices. This situation exists in the UK despite palliative care being free at the point of delivery from the NHS and the independent charitable sector. Potential explanatory factors for the low uptake of palliative and end of life services includes lack of referrals, lack of knowl-edge about services or about what pallia-tive care involves and religious traditions and family values in conflict with the idea of palliative/hospice care. Other factors in-clude structural barriers such as geographi-cal location of inpatient hospices and so-cial segregation, previous bad experiences when in receipt of care and demographic/epidemiological characteristics of BAME populations. The Public Health England report rec-ommends that service providers and com-missioners recognise the growing need for improved end of life care for BAME com-munities and that they learn from examples of best practice, some of which are high-lighted. While the report acknowledges that bet-ter training is needed for health and social care professionals to enable them to pro-vide appropriate care to BAME groups, it also notes the importance of avoiding as-sumptions and stereotypes and listening to patients and their families about their needs and preferences at the end of life.Professor Julia Verne, Clinical Lead for Public Health England’s National End of Life Care Intelligence Network said: “This report shows that there are examples of excellent practice both in the UK and in-ternationally. We need to learn from these to ensure that end of life care is both equi-

table and accessible to all. “This can mean addressing practical issues, such as providing adequate transla-tion services where these are needed, and understanding how quality of care varies from one area to another. For example, the report shows that examples of best prac-tice are localised in areas with more ethnic diversity. We need to ensure that learning from these areas is shared across the UK.

“Above all, we need to listen to what BAME communities need and remember that every individual is different.” The evidence-based report “Palliative and end of life care for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups in the UK” de-scribes the current demographic profile of the BAME populations and reviews the current evidence on palliative and end of

life care provided to them. Written by researchers Natalia Calan-zani, Dr Jonathan Koffman and Professor Irene J Higginson at the Cicely Saunders Institute at King’s College London, the report was commissioned by Marie Curie Cancer Care and Public Health England to provide evidence for key stakeholders and policy makers planning future care for BAME groups. The report also had val-ued contributions from the Department of Health, Help the Hospices, Leicestershire Social Care Development Group, the Na-tional Council for Palliative Care and the Race Equality Foundation. This report shows that, similar to the White British population, BAME groups are also ageing and will represent a sub-stantial number of people in need of pal-liative and end of life care in the future. It also highlights that care which is currently being provided is often far from adequate. Authors present recommendations from the literature and develop further recom-mendations based on the evidence with the aim to improve care for BAME popula-tions in the UK. In England and Wales it is predicted that by 2026 there will be over 1.3 million people from BAME groups aged 65 and over, compared to just over half a million in 2001. By 2026 almost half a million will be aged 70 and over. With this ageing pop-ulation, there is an urgent need to address reasons for low levels of use of palliative and end of life care services by BAME communities.

With Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) groups aged 65 and over set to treble in the next 25 years, a PHE-commis-sioned report highlights the growing need to make end of life care more accessible and appropriate.

A report, Palliative and End of Life Care for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Commu-nities in the UK, commissioned by Marie Curie Cancer Care and Public Health Eng-land from the Cicely Saunders Institute at King’s College London, published today, highlights that the end of life care needs of BAMEcommunities are varied, grow-ing, and despite examples of good practice, overall not adequately met.

In England and Wales it is predicted that by 2026 there will be over 1.3 million people from BAME groups aged 65 and over, compared to just over half a million in 2001. By 2026 almost half a million will be aged 70 and over. With this ageing population, there is an urgent need to address reasons for low levels of use of palliative and end of life care services by BAMEcommunities.


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President Barack Obama is on a one week trip to Africa, dur-ing which he will visit Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania.

The following is an extract from a White House briefing issued in advance of trip:

We see Africa as one of the most important emerging regions in the world, and a place for the US to significantly increase our engagement in the years to come. There are growing economic opportunities there for increased trade and investment and increased engagement by US businesses.

Trade and Investment

We, frankly, have heard a high demand signal from the US private sector for us to play an active role in deepening our trade and investment partnerships in Af-rica. And I think one of the things you’ll see on this trip is we’ll be incorporating events that bring in the private sector in each of the countries that we’re visiting. And we’ll also be bringing a number of members of the President’s economic team from our new US Trade Representa-tive USTR, Mike Froman, to representa-tives from OPIC, from the Export-Import Bank, and including Raj Shah, our AID Director, who also plays a role in these issues. So trade and investment and the eco-nomic opportunities on the continent are going to be an important part of the agenda; also democracy and democratic institution-building.

Democracy and Institution Building

Each of the countries that we’re visiting are strong democracies, and the Presi-dent has made it a priority to support the consolidation of democratic institutions

in Africa so that Africans are focused not just on democratic elections, but institu-tions like parliaments, independent judi-ciaries, and strengthening of the rule of law -- both as necessary elements of a democratic government, but also as nec-essary elements of development. Because when you have the assurance that comes with the rule of law, it is easier for com-panies to invest and for economies to take off.

Young People

I think you will also see a focus on young people. Africa has an extraordinarily large youth population, and it’s impor-tant for the United States to signal our commitment to investing in the future of African youth. And this, too, is a part of unleashing development on the continent because if you have young people who are able to access opportunity and able to shape the direction of their countries, that’s going to be in the interest of Africa and the United States as well.

Development Agenda

And you’ll also see the President speak-ing to the key pillars of our development agenda, which has focused on economic growth and also on issues such as food security and global health, where we’ve really shifted to a focus on capacity-build-ing on the continent. So it’s not simply a model of assistance, it’s a model of ca-pacity-building so that Africans are forg-ing solutions to their own challenges. All of this, I think, adds up to a US en-gagement and leadership on the continent that is focused on unleashing African eco-nomic growth, democratic progress, and ultimately that will have a positive impact on a range of issues, including peace and

security issues - because if we’re working and partnering with strong economies and strong democracies, we’re going to be better able to deal with the security challenges on the continent as well.

President Obama’s hero status in parts of Africa has not been matched by his po-litical influence if one uses the previous Bush administration as a yardstick. The George W. Bush government played a role in the signing of the peace agreement that brought an end to decades of civil war in Sudan, showed a lot of interest in bringing an end to the wars in the Congo region and helped bring about an end to the civil war in Liberia, helping to ensure Charles Taylor’s resignation and eventual prosecution. The United States President’s Emer-gency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a $15 billion commitment to tackling HIV/AIDS, was launched under President Bush. By comparison, Obama’s only sig-nificant intervention in Sub-Saharan Af-rica so far has been to ramp up the United

States’ military presence. The countries President Obama will visit were carefully chosen to take in sub-Saharan Africa’s three major regions, yet avoid areas thought to present an unac-ceptable security risk and those consid-ered political ‘hot potatoes’. The three most populous nations on the continent – Nigeria, Ethiopia, and the Republic of the Congo — all have serious governance and security issues, and none is a model of the rule of law. In what is certain to be viewed by some as a snub, Mr Obama will not visit Kenya, his father’s birthplace. The White House will almost certainly be concerned about charges of crimes against human-ity brought by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Kenya’s recently elected president, Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto, in connection with violent clashes that erupted in the wake of the country’s 2007 general election. Ignoring the US President’s obvious association with a nation in which many of his family continue to reside, a spokes-

NewsNews

Africa welcomes Obama and a cast of manyObscene cost of trip may be trivial compared to potential to bolster US trade opportunities

President Obama will visit nations in the west, east and south

President Obama will visit nations in the west, east and south

By Alan Oakley

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man for Kenya’s government offered a dispassionate reaction to the White House’s apparent rebuff, commenting: “It’s for the Americans to decide where Obama goes. There are 54 nations on the African continent and he’s only visit-ing three, so I don’t see the real big deal about not going to Kenya.” President Obama visited Ghana early on during his first term in office. He used the brief 2009 stay to advocate home-grown governance and stronger institu-tions and remedies across the continent. Ghana was chosen to illustrate an African country that enjoys political pluralism and a growing economy. Plans for a sub-sequent trip to Africa were abandoned in the light of pressing foreign policy mat-ters in Afghanistan and North Korea and the United States’ financial meltdown. On the subject of US finances, some estimates put the cost of Obama’s Africa trip at between $60 million and $100 mil-lion. Hundreds of Secret Service agents; 24-hour monitoring of Air Force One’s airspace by a squad of jet fighters flying in shifts; a ship stationed offshore with emergency luxury accommodation and a fully-staffed medical centre; 56 support vehicles, including 14 limos and some-thing like 3 truckloads of anti-ballistic grade glass to reinforce hotel windows doesn’t come cheap. Ben Rhodes, Barack Obama’s depu-ty national security adviser for strategic communication told the Washington Post. “The infrastructure that accompanies the president’s travels is beyond our control. The security requirements are not White House-driven, they are Secret Service-driven.” The US President’s expensive trip also runs the risk of paling into insignificance given the reportedly deteriorating health of Nelson Mandela. If the South African former-leader dies during Obama’s visit to the continent, which cannot be ruled out, nothing Obama says or does is likely to warrant more than a footnote anywhere

in the world. Jonathan Berman, a senior fellow of Columbia University’s Vale Center and senior advisor at the consulting firm Dal-berg is comfortable with the cost of the trip, calling it “money well spent” in view of the potential gains for US commercial enterprises. The US is still nursing the wounds of being usurped by China as Af-rica’s leading trade partner as far back as 2009. Obama’s trip to Africa comes as China engages the continent even more aggres-sively. The Asian nation is pouring bil-lions of dollars into Africa, running oil and mining firms. Africa ranks second—behind emerging Asia—as the fastest growing region of the world. The Inter-national Monetary Fund forecasts that sub-Saharan Africa will grow at a rate of 5.4% this year, about 50% faster than Latin America, and infinitely more than Europe, which is currently expected not to grow at all or even contract. Moreover, Africa’s growth is not from a small base. Africa today is a $2 trillion economy, roughly the same as Brazil or India (where few would regard a presi-dential visit as wasted). Of course, Africa is not one country—its many individual nations mean the growth, risks and op-portunities vary widely. However, few would deny that West Africa, East Africa and South Africa each hold significant growth opportunities for US companies. It’s wise of the White House to have the President visit all three, drawing guests from the whole region and not just the host countries. Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, will be in Africa at the same time. Bush has made multiple visits to Africa since leaving office, and will be in Zam-bia next week, where he is working with his global health initiative to renovate a cervical cancer screening and treatment centre. While the 44th and 43rd president are not scheduled to meet, first lady Mi-chelle Obama and her predecessor, Laura

Bush, will attend the African First Ladies Summit in Tanzania on July 2. President Obama will be in Senegal on Thursday and Friday, arriving in South Africa on Saturday. Whilst there, he will spend the weekend taking part in a host of activities, including a meeting with the

nation’s leaders and a visit to Robben Is-land, where Nelson Mandela spent a ma-jority of his prison term. He will spend Monday and Tuesday in Tanzania, and is expected back in Washington on July 3.

NewsNews

The US President and First Lady visited Ghana in July 2009The President and First Lady meet with patients at the La General Hospital in Accra during their 2009 visit to Ghana

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Foreign investment in SA dropsForeign direct investment (FDI) flows into South Africa decreased by 24% between 2011 and 2012, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad). The Unctad World Investment Report re-leased on Wednesday shows that South Africa recorded a decline from $6bn (R60.6bn) in 2011 to $4.6bn (R46.46bn) in 2012. Unctad said this was largely due to net divestment in the third quarter of 2012 as a foreign mining company offloaded its stake in a local subsidiary. However, South Africa was Africa’s third-largest recipient of FDI inflows in 2012, after Nigeria and Mozambique. Although the decrease in FDI repre-sented a 24% year-on-year reduction, it was above the pre-recession average of $3.9bn (R39.39bn) a year. Furthermore, South Africa experienced far more FDI inflows in greenfield new investments, particularly in the renew-able energy sector. FDI flows into South Africa repre-sented 9.1% of Africa’s total inflows in 2012.South Africa’s total FDI inward stock stood at $139bn (R1.4trn) in 2012, repre-

senting 35.6% of gross domestic product (GDP), compared with 9.9% in 1995.South Africa’s stock of FDI in Africa stood at $18bn (R181bn). In 2012, FDI flows into Africa in-creased by 5% to $50bn (R505bn). Jorge Maia, head of research at the In-dustrial Development Corporation, said South Africa should not be concerned yet. “Even though you did have a decline last year, obviously the global conditions remain very difficult. Most of the regions of the world experienced a decline in FDI flows. South Africa was not alone there,” he said. Maia said there were reasons South Africa lagged behind Nigeria and Mo-zambique. “In Nigeria there is a lot of inflows going into extractive industries, natural industries and the oil industry,” he said. Mozambique was also attracting in-vestment into its natural resources. “The bulk of the big investment is fo-cusing on specific natural resources such as gas fields and coal fields,” he said. Maia said South Africa’s performance was good in a year that most citizens viewed as difficult one. “We are compet-

ing in a very fiercely competitive global environment. Countries are scrambling for FDI and in Africa you’ve got so many countries looking for FDI,” he said. “We will have to play the game very

cleverly. We have to make sure that we have an attractive investment environ-ment in this country otherwise, we will lag behind.”

Central Bank of Nigeria’s Cashless Policy Extends to more States

Ghana Gas Owes Sinopec, $750m Project Halts

The Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) cash-less policy is to commence in the Federal Capital Territory (Abuja), Abia, Anambra, Kano, Ogun and Rivers States effective July 1, 2013. The policy, which is currently operational in Lagos State, aims at reducing the amount of physical cash circulating in the economy, and encouraging more electronic-based transactions payments for goods, services, transfers among others. The policy is aimed at driving development and modernization of the payment system within these States as all individuals and corporates will be encouraged to adopt electronic payment and banking options. The following modalities will thereby apply in the above mentioned States from July 1, 2013: The cash-in-transit lodgment and cash evacuation services will no longer be available to customers or merchants; 3rd party cheques above N150,000 shall

NOT be eligible for encashment over the counter. Value for such cheques shall only be received through lodgments into customer’s account; For individual account holders, charges will apply when daily withdrawals and deposits are in excess of N500,000;For corporate account holders, charges will apply when daily withdrawals and deposits are in excess of N3,000,000 The applicable charges under the policy are for deposit- individual 2% on excess; corporate 3%. For withdrawal- individual 3% on excess; corporate 5% on excess. Exemptions have however been granted on lodgments and withdrawals for accounts operated by Embassies, Diplomatic Missions, Multilateral Agencies, Aid Donor Agencies, Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government (revenue collections only), Microfinance Banks (MFBs) and Primary Mortgage Institutions (PMIs).

Construction work at the $750 mil-lion Atuabo gas processing plant in the Western Region of Ghana has stalled due to lack of funds to pay contractors working on the project. According to report, state-owned Ghana National Gas Company (Ghana Gas), re-portedly owes Chinese construction com-pany, Sinopec, more than $400 million, resulting in some sub-contractors abandon-ing the project site.

The situation has been compounded by a vessel which arrived in the country to carry out post-offshore survey on the offshore pipes also leaving the project site. According to official sources, the main contractor has not been able to pay $30 mil-lion it owes the sub-contractor and that the post-offshore survey vessel left after sev-eral postponements of the dates the main contractor promised to pay.


9

The fi rst meeting of Trade min-isters known as the Developing Eight (D-8) countries recently took place in Abuja, Nigeria to implement the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) and improve intra-trade relations among mem-ber countries . The D-8 countries include include Ni-geria, Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey, Bang-ladesh, Iran, Pakistan and Egypt. The Nigerian Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, commenting on the need for such an alliance averred that “if you look(ed) at the eight countries, they are countries of a sizeable proportion of the world’s GDP, and if they can come together and imple-ment the Preferential Trade Agreement, it will be a win-win situation for every country. He added that “the D8 countries have come together as developing economies to help and support each other, to make sure that through trade they can deliver sus-tainable and inclusive economic growth. The idea is to look at certain items which are imported by different countries or pro-duce based on competitive advantage.” In pointing out the imperatives of the group, he noted that “as a result of the cur-rent global fi nancial, economic and sov-ereign debt crises which have adversely affected many countries, most countries have realised trade and investment are the most powerful tools for achieving inclu-sive and sustainable economic growth and

development.” Underlining the importance of a meth-odology, Mr. Agagnga pointed out that Nigeria, on its part, would work closely with other D8 countries to strengthen and improve mutually benefi cial trade rela-tionships among member countries within the next fi ve years. Consequently, he proffered the need for country and regional strategies to be de-veloped based on areas where each coun-try enjoyed comparative and competitive advantages. Nigeria would also develop her own strategies on similar lines one of which would be to examine appropriately import substitution relative to trading with any of the member countries. “There are three most important things that D8 member countries need to work on immediately. The fi rst thing is to al-low our business men and women to have easy visas which will make it easier for them to move across member countries to do their businesses. “The second thing is to have a better and friendlier environment for customs in terms of operations. “The third thing is to have a Preferential Trade Agreement across member coun-tries in the areas where we have competi-tive and comparative advantage.” Speaking specifi cally about Nigeria, the Honourable Minister said, “Our emphasis will be on improving the quality, volume and value of trade by moving away from exporting raw materials to exporting semi-processed and fi nished goods so that we can create jobs locally.”

Also speaking on the D-8, Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru called on the Organ-ised Private Sectors of the D-8 countries to take advantage of the Preferential Trade Agreement to boost trade and investment among member countries. He pointed out that “the Trade Ministers Council Meeting, as the highest policy making body of the Preferential Trade Agreement, is expected to consider the re-port of the Supervisory Committee on the PTA and the junior offi cials’ trade meet-ing, which took place on Monday.” In his opening remarks, Dr. Seyed Mousavi, Secretary-General of D-8 said

that the meeting would look to practical approaches toward increasing intra-trade among D8 countries. He said, “One of the core objectives of the D8 Roadmap is to increase the intra trade of D-8 countries to at least 15 to 20 per cent of their total trade in the world by the end of 2018. Mr Aganga noted that “at the moment, the value of intra trade between D8 coun-tries as of 2012, is about $150 billion, but our target is $500 billion in the next fi ve years.” By the ‘Abuja Declaration’, the D8’s Preferential Trade Agreement will also at-tempt to make sure that Africa forms an integral part of the global chain through various trade developments.

Boko Haram leader is from Niger Republic

1st D-8 Trade Ministers confab holds in Nigeria

According to a report by the Nigerian Senate joint committee, the leader of the Boko Haram sect which has terrorised the northern part of Nigeria has been reported be from neighbouring Niger Republic. The man, identifi ed as Abubakar Shekau, was initially thought to have been an indigene of Shekau village in Yobe state of Nigeria until the visit of the committee to the Borno state governor, Kashim Shettima who told them that Shekau hailed from Niger Republic. The senate joint committeee stated this in its report investigating the violent attacks witnessed in Baga town, Borno state. The report also noted that the Boko Haram sect was comprised of some Chad-ian and Cameroonian nationalities but was dominated as much as 80% by Kanuris from Niger Republic. The sect had ter-

rorised the country from common armed robberies in Maiduguri to brazen terrorist methods of daring and brigandage holding the country to ransom with attacks on cities like Kano, Kaduna, and Abuja; all in the northern part of Nigeria Shekau who became leader of the group in 2009 after his predecessor, Mohammed Yusuf, died in 2009 in police custody re-grouped the sect. It is noted that he has hardly made public or open appearances since then but he is known to have made recorded videos where he claims responsi-bility for attacks and mocks the efforts of the Nigerian government. The Baga town incident, by the Senate report stated that “the death toll of 185 was exaggerated but there may be more than 37 deaths. This is possible as there is no docu-mentary evidence from either the natives or the military to ascertain fi gure quoted.”

Peter Olorunnisomo

Peter Olorunnisomo

Abubakar Shekau (wanted Boko Haram Leader)

Members of the D-8 with President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK Friday, 28 June 2013 – Thursday, 4 July 2013 WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK Friday, 28 June 2013 – Thursday, 4 July 2013 WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK Friday, 28 June 2013 – Thursday, 4 July 2013 WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK Friday, 28 June 2013 – Thursday, 4 July 2013

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Mike Abiola, Editor in Chief of African Voice reports on his visit to the State of Osun in Nigeria to witness

the offi cial launch of Opon Imo, a tablet of knowledge. Education is a critical tool for devel-opment, yet most leaders in Africa ignore this fact and instead squander resources on white elephant projects with no direct bear-ing on human capacity building. Osun, a state in the southwest of Nigeria is one of the benefi ciary territories of the free education scheme of late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. But over the years, education has not enjoyed such pronged focus from previous administration. So, when an administration comes in with a de-termination to revolutionise education, it is imminent that the region is again about to witness another historic achievement remi-niscent of the Awolowo days. The launch of (Opon Imo), tablet of knowledge is aimed at creating world class learning conditions for the next generation. The offi cial launch proved to every doubt-ing Thomas that it is, indeed, possible to

equip students with this powerful, educa-tional tool. My visit afforded me the opportunity to travel by road to the venue of the launch in Ilesha via Gbongan - Ife Road and back to Osogbo. The trip allowed me time to inter-act with the people of the state who are the direct benefi ciaries of the innovative policy. Everywhere, across the state, the impact of governance is being felt. The governor of the State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola is seen as a God-sent at this period in the life of the state in view of his approach to administration and the public value of the dimension of projects he is embarking on. The Aregbesola led government is embark-ing on several projects geared towards cap-turing the hearts, needs, and empowering the minds of the young ones. Opon Imo is just one of such developmental projects. Ogbeni Aregbesola’s purposeful, pas-sionate and focused committment on de-velopment through education is targeted at the youths. The strategy in ‘catching them young’, and preparing them as responsible leaders of tomorrow will account, in part, for the reason his administration is revamp-

ing and giving a massive boost to the edu-cation sector. The administration’s commitment to raise the living standards of the people and through education has been a priority. And through the instrument of an educa-tion summit to crystallise the agenda, it has clearly been demonstrated that the state is determined to attain achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Highlights of the steps taken include the construction of state-of-the-art schools with modern facilities, free uniforms, el-ementary school free meals, payment of registration fee and WASC examinations, bursary, scholarship awards and, now, the e-learning project. The concerns of many Africans, Nige-rians, and indigenes of Osun state in the diaspora asking why challenges facing the continent cannot be tackled by educational empowerment of the people as a means is being answered. It is therefore noteworthy to witness the developmental agenda of Osun state of in enriching lives positively,

and prescribed for replication by every se-rious- minded leader in Nigeria and Africa as a whole to lift the people out of degrada-tion and poverty. The almost three-year old administra-tion of the governor rendered, on his fi rst 100 days in offi ce, employment of 20,000 youths through the Youth Empowerment Scheme, OYES and a further 20,000 em-ployed in the second year. This is a record - breaking initiative among government in Nigeria. With the introduction of calisthen-ics into schools, the state is grooming a generation of physically robust and men-tally sound students for leadership. Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola brought into Osun state governance a revolutionary step in the teaching methodology of delivering education using technology as a veritable tool to impact on the peoples’ aspirations and learning processes. It is instructive for purposeful and vi-sionary leadership in Africa to inculcate technology to drive development.

By Mike AbiolaEmpowering minds and imparting lives in Osun

Governor of the State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola holding up a copy of Opon Imo (Table of Knowledge)

Governor, State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, his wife, Sherifat and his son Kabiru Aregbesola

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Governor Rauf Aregbesola said his admin-istration embarked on the project to build a knowledge-based society and digital-driven economy to build human capacity to gain competitive advantage. Governor Aregbesola while address-ing the gathering at the offi cial unveiling ceremony said Africans should no longer accept the tag of a continent without hope or future, insisting that with the launch of Opon Imo, Nigeria and, indeed, the entire black continent has sent a signal of its ar-rival on the world stage of development. Aregbesola said there could be little ar-gument that Opon-Imo is a veritable tablet of knowledge that levels the learning play-ing fi elds for all students from different so-cial backgrounds. The tablet will allow stu-dents to learn at their own pace, wherever and whenever they choose, saying that it provides robust and uniform learning con-tent for them, offering a feedback mecha-nism for monitoring of their performance. According to him, “this little device will greatly facilitate our free education policy by saving the state a lot of money that would have had to go into procuring text books on annual basis. “The Tablet of Knowledge is a stan-dalone e-learning tablet that provides the

high school pupils with the contents re-quired to prepare for school leaving exami-nations. It provides three major contents categories, textbooks, tutorials and practice questions. According to him, among other things that make Opon Imo ground-breaking is its stand-alone customised content, which works regardless of data networks, making it suitable for developing countries with unreliable networks. He said: “Indigenous and customised content like multimedia content that has 56 tutorials and e-textbooks covering 17 subjects, over 40,000 practice questions and answers, seven extra- curricular books. Opon Imo can track academic progress of the pupil. “First of its kind, stand alone education-al tablet, using indigenous content. It will save the state of Osun an estimated N8.4 billion ($53 million) annually in textbook procurement costs.” The Deputy Governor of Osun State, Grace Titi Laoye-Tomori, who is also the Commissioner for Education, said the digitalisation of education in the state is a demonstration of government’s effort to re-vamp education. She described Aregbesola as a special gift, who is passionate about

the development and progress of the state.How is this possible in a nation without regular supply of electricity? But as African Voice probed further, one of the offi cials of the government and commissioner respon-sible for Information, Honourable Sunday Akere, said independently-powered, com-munal solar charging systems are installed in the schools for convenience. The device can also be powered by electricity at home with six hours of battery life. Akere said, plans are being concluded for a manufac-turing plant for the Opon Imo in Osun. Osun has proven how progressive gov-ernment policies can benefi t its people. Joy knew no bounds as the unveiling and hand-ing out of Ipon Imo to students reverber-ated from the venue of the launch in Ilesha and throughout the state as citizens were glued to television sets to watch the offi cial launch broadcast across the country. Indeed, Osun is witnessing a new dawn. In the words of Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka, “the electronic device would af-ford the pupils in the state the opportunity to learn faster than their counterparts in other parts of the country. Prof. Soyinka said Aregbesola has revolutionised the ed-ucation sector. Osun school children have

every reason to be proud and to be moti-vated”. The UNESCO Director General, repre-sented by the Country Director, Professor Hassana Alidou, said the world education and cultural organisation is ready to part-ner with any government like Osun, which puts education on the front burner. “The tablet will contribute immensely to bringing about learning in the state. I will challenge the benefi ciaries (students) to ef-fectively use this powerful opportunity to extend their reading and learning capacity.“The tablet will be for me too a life-long learning opportunity. The message that is included in the tablet is a message of a fa-ther who loves his children. It is a message that all parents would love to communicate to their children”. In leaving the state, a feeling of pride en-gulfed me and was particularly glad to have witnessed history in the making. Those of us in the Diaspora should not get disillu-sioned with the seeming ‘rot’ in Africa but demand that purposeful leaderships with well-guided aspirations for development emerge. Rauf Aregbesola the executive Governor of Osun is one of such leaders that the continent must take a cue from.

State of Osun students in callisthenics display to celebrate this Year’s Children’s Day at Osogbo City Stadium

Dignitaries at the launch: Former Governor of Osun Bisi Akande, Deputy Governor Titi Laoye - Tomori, Governor, State of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, his wife, Sherifat and Nigeria’s Speaker House of Representative Aminu Waziri Tambuwal.

State of Osun students display copies of Opon Imo

Drama presentation on the importance of learning

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News

Barclays threatens to cut last Somali transfer accounts

Zuma cancels trip as anticipation grows over MandelaSouth Africa’s president Jacob

Zuma has postponed a planned trip to neighbouring Mozambique following a visit on Wednesday

evening to the bedside of Nelson Mandela, who remains critically ill. The move adds to fears worldwide that the man considered to be father of a demo-cratic South Africa is not expected to sur-vive his current bout of ill-health, although media reports that the former president is being kept alive artificially remain uncon-firmed. The sense of anticipation and forebod-ing about Mandela’s fate has grown since late Sunday, when the South African gov-ernment declared that the condition of the statesman had deteriorated. A tide of emo-tional tributes has built on social media and in hand-written messages and flowers laid outside the hospital and Mandela’s home. On Wednesday, about 20 children from a day care centre posted a hand-made card outside the hospital and recited a poem. “Hold on, old man,” was one of the lines in the Zulu poem, according to the South African Press Association. In recent days, international leaders, ce-lebrities, athletes and others have praised Mandela, not just as the man who steered South Africa through its tense transition from white racist rule to democracy two decades ago, but as a universal symbol of sacrifice and reconciliation. In South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province, where Mandela grew up, a traditional lead-er said the time was near for Mandela, who is also known by his clan name, Madiba. “I am of the view that if Madiba is no longer enjoying life, and is on life support systems, and is not appreciating what is happening around him, I think the good

Lord should take the decision to put him out of his suffering,” said the tribal chief, Phathekile Holomisa.“I did speak to two of his family members, and of course, they are in a lot of pain, and wish that a miracle might happen, that he recovers again, and he becomes his old self again,” he said. “But at the same time they are aware there is a limit what miracles you can have.” For many South Africans, Mandela’s de-cline is a far more personal matter, echo-ing the protracted and emotionally draining process of losing one of their own elderly relatives. One nugget of wisdom about the arc of life and death came from Matthew Ruszn-yah, a 9-year-old boy who stopped out-side Mandela’s home in the Johannesburg neighbourhood of Houghton to show his appreciation.

“We came because we care about Mandela being sick, and we wish we could put a stop to it, like snap our fingers,” he said. “But we can’t. It’s how life works.” His mother, Lee Rusznyah, said Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison under apartheid before be-coming South Africa’s first black president in all-race elections in 1994, had made the world a better place. “All of us will end,” Thabo Makgoba, the Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, said in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday. “We just want him to be peacefully released, whatever he’s feel-ing at this moment, and to be reunited with his Maker at the perfect time, when God so wills.” The archbishop said: “Ultimately, we are all mortal. At some stage or another, we all have to die, and we have to move on, we have to be recalled by our Maker and Redeemer. We have to create that space for

Madiba, to come to terms within himself, with that journey.” On Tuesday, Makgoba visited Mandela and offered a prayer in which he wished for a “peaceful, perfect, end” for the anti-apart-heid leader, who was taken to the Pretoria hospital to be treated for what the govern-ment said was a recurring lung infection. In the prayer, he asked for courage to be granted to Mandela’s wife, Graca Machel, and others who love him “at this hard time of watching and waiting,” and he appealed for divine help for the medical team treat-ing Mandela. Visitors to the hospital on Wednesday included Mandela’s former wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. The couple divorced in 1996. Mandela, whose 95th birthday is on July 18, served a single five-year term as presi-dent and afterward focused on charitable causes, but he withdrew from public life years ago and became increasingly frail in recent years. He last made a public appear-ance in 2010 at the football World Cup, which was hosted by South Africa. At that time, he did not speak to the crowd and was bundled against the cold in a stadium full of fans. On April 29, state television broadcast footage of a visit by Jacob Zuma and other leaders of the ruling party, the African National Congress, to Mandela’s home. Zuma said at the time that Mandela was in good shape, but the footage — the first public images of Mandela in nearly a year — showed him silent and unrespon-sive, even when Zuma tried to hold his hand. “Let’s accept instead of crying,” said Lucas Aedwaba, a security officer in Pre-toria who described Mandela as a hero. “Let’s celebrate that the old man lived and left his legacy.”

The world’s media clings to Jacob Zuma’s every word in vain hope positive news about the condition of Nelson Mandela

A group of aid practitioners are urging the UK government to stop Barclays bank closing the last account in Somalia which allows its citizens overseas to send money back home. Barclays is the last major British bank to still provide such money transfer services in Somalia. Over 100 academics, researchers and aid workers, including Somalis both at home and in the diaspora have written to Mark Simmonds of the Foreign and Common-

wealth Office (FCO), asking the UK government to find a solu-tion. They say that the money transfer service is a crucial “lifeline” for an estimated 40% of the Somali population – about 3.8 million people – who rely on the transfers from the estimated one and a half million Somalis living overseas. Somali authorities said last year that around one-third of the coun-try’s GDP enters Somalia through “hawala” or small money transfer businesses. Barclays plans to close its ac-count with Dahabshiil, the largest

money transfer business providing services to Somalia, on 10 July. The letter’s signa-tories want the UK government to ask Bar-clays to extend its termination deadline for at least six months. Barclays told Dahabshiil it was “a com-mercial decision due to the risks of the sec-tor in which you operate”. “The decision to exit our business re-lationship with you is not a negative re-

flection of your anti-money laundering standards, nor a belief that your business has been unwittingly been a conduit for fi-nancial crime,” the bank said. Abdirashid Duale, CEO of Dahabshiil, said Barclay’s decision could have dire consequences, leading to money transfers pushed underground and into the hands of “unregulated and illegal providers”. “Barclays’ decision to terminate its re-lationship with Dahabshiil results from changes in Barclays eligibility criteria, which have affected a large number of Barclays’ customers in the Money Service Business sector, including Dahabshiil,” Mr Duale explained. The Somali Money Services Associa-tion (SOMSA), a UK umbrella group of transfer services, has confirmed that 12 of its 17 members have already lost their ac-counts in the UK, including at Barclays and HSBC. The letter to the FCO says Barclays – the last UK bank providing services to money service businesses (MSBs) – is to withdraw services from up to 250 remit-tance companies. “Somali MSBs provide fast, reliable

and trusted transmission of funds from the diaspora (estimated at around 1.5 million people) to their relatives at home,” said the letter. “In addition, many other diaspora groups from Horn of Africa – in Ethiopia, Kenya and South Sudan – send remittances to their family members using the same companies.” Barclays’ decision follows last year’s imposition of a $1.9 billion (£1.24 billion) fine on HSBC by US authorities for poor money laundering controls. HSBC said last autumn it would leave the money-service sector entirely. Meanwhile, Royal Bank of Scotland says it has been reviewing its cus-tomers more frequently to ensure they meet compliance standards. The UK Serious Organised Crime Agen-cy has also identified MSBs generally as a potential money laundering risk. But SOMSA said in a statement: “The key issue is the damage to flows of cash to the vulnerable Somali people, who depend on remittances for their livelihood; and the likely threat of this action to economic and political stability in fragile parts of the So-mali region.”

US Somalis protesting the banking sector’s clamp-down on money transfers last year

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Ten hour Texan fi libuster defeats abortion bill

Berlusconi guilty on “bunga bunga” sex charges

Democrats in Texas successfully blocked a new bill extending abortion restrictions this week when a mammoth 10 hour “fi libuster” speech by state senator Wendy Davis meant some Republican backers of the bill were unable to vote before the midnight deadline. Although complaints of rule violation meant her speech was cut short about two hours short of the deadline, allowing the Republican-controlled Senate to begin voting, insuffi cient votes were cast by the closing hour of midnight, 25 June, for the motion to be carried. The bill called for stricter standards for abortion clinics, banning abortions after 20 weeks. Republican backers said the measures would protect not only women’s health but that of the foetus itself, based on disputed research that suggests pain is felt by a foetus after 20 weeks of development. Opponents said it would force nearly all Texan abortion clinics to close or be re-

built. 50 year-old Davis, who began speaking at 11:15 a.m., was prevented by procedural rules from deviating off-topic or taking a break by eating, leaning against her desk, sitting down or using the toilet. Republicans tried to disrupt her by charg-ing that she meandered off-topic and, at one point, received help adjusting a supportive back brace. Davis spent the whole afternoon and evening reading testimony and messages decrying the legislation, reciting previously suggested changes to the bill and refl ecting on her own life history as a single mother at 19. She said the bill would have cut off her own access to a local Planned Parent-hood clinic. “I was a poor, uninsured woman, whose only care was provided through that facil-ity. It was my medical home,” said Davis, several hours into her speech. Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst, the Tex-an Senate president, suspended the fi libus-ter after roughly 10 hours, despite shouts of “let her speak” from supporters. Filibustering, better known in the UK as “talking out the bill”, is a parliamentary

procedure in which opponents of a bill at-tempt to obstruct it by delaying the vote beyond the deadline. Although used since Ancient Rome and not unknown in the UK, it features especially frequently, and often

to great effect, in US senatorial politics. After the session, Davis said on social media that it was “an incredible victory for Texas women and those who love them.”

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been sentenced to seven years in jail by a Milan court, after being found guilty of paying for sex with a 17 year-old girl. Berlusconi, 76, was found guilty of paying for sex with former teenage nightclub dancer Karima El Mahroug, nicknamed Ruby Rubacouri (“Ruby the Heartstealer”), during the alleged “bunga bunga” sex parties at his private villa near Milan in 2010. Berlusconi has always denied any wrong-doing and says he is being persecuted by left-wing politicians, stating that the pur-ported sex parties were only dinner parties wherein the female guests performed “bur-lesque” shows. El Mahroug, a Morrocan and the granddaughter of former Egyptian

president Hosni Mubar-ak, denies having sex with Berlusconi. Concluding the two-year trial, the three judges, all female, also convicted him of abuse of offi ce by arranging to have El Mahroug released from police custody when she was detained in a separate theft case. As a result, he has also been banned from public offi ce.The verdict against the

controversial politician, who is also a pow-erful businessman and the owner of AC Milan, added to the complications facing current Prime Minister Enrico Letta, whose fragile left-right coalition – only in power since August – is supported by Berlusco-ni’s centre-right People of Freedom (PDL) party. A number of PDL members have urged Berlusconi to withdraw his backing for the government, and now he may be more tempted to do so if he thinks it is giving him no legal protection. Nonetheless, the case is far from over and Berlusconi will not be heading to jail yet. With two appeals possible, it could be years before a verdict is fi nal and Berlusconi’s lawyers have already announced they will fi le an appeal against the most recent ruling, with counsel Niccolo Ghedini calling it “completely illogical.”

Senator Davis, 50, defeated the bill by speaking non-stop for 10 hours

The former PM will now appeal against the ruling

USA

ItalyQatar

Emir hands over power to son

Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani looked to ensure a smooth succession last week when he handed power to his son, Crown Prince Sheikh Tamim, in a rare abdication by a hereditary Gulf Arab ruler. “The time has come to turn a new page in the journey of our nation and have a new generation carry out responsibilities ... with their innovative ideas,” announced Sheikh Hamad, who overthrew his own father in a 1995 palace coup. Gulf political analysts have said they an-ticipate no signifi cant policy changes after the handover. Sheikh Tamim has already

been involved in running the state under his father’s direction.

Although Qatar only has a population of two million, it is the world’s largest export-er of liquefi ed natural gas and a key player in Middle Eastern diplomacy. Under Sheikh Hamad, the U.S. allied-country has been a high-profi le supporter of the Arab Spring uprisings, but remains an absolutist monarchy itself. Sheikh Ha-mad has cracked down on dissent at home: in February a Qatari poet was jailed for 15 years for criticising the emir and attempt-ing to incite revolt. A Qatari offi cial said that the transition of power, once announced, took immediate effect.

CRIMECRIMECRIMECRIMECRIMECRIME

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A man who brutally attacked, raped and left a woman locked in a cupboard for 15 hours has been found guilty on Tuesday 25 June, in a landmark double jeopardy his-toric case at the Old Bailey. Wendell Wilberforce Baker, 56 was convicted of the rape of Hazel Backwell, 66 which took place in January 1997 at her home address in Litchfi eld Avenue, E15. He will be sentenced on Friday 28 June.The investigation, known as Operation Starfi eld, began after retired Mrs Backwell - who has sadly since died - was raped in the early hours of 23 January 1997. She had woken up to fi nd Baker standing on a chair in front of her wardrobe. Startled and frightened at fi nding Baker in her room, she asked him what he was doing. Baker shouted at her not to look at him and he jumped down off the chair and pulled the blankets over her head. Her

hands were tied up with fl ex and Baker be-gan hitting Mrs Backwell before later rap-ing her. After Baker subjected her to the rape she was locked in a cramped cupboard for 15 hours where she was unable to stand properly. Mrs Backwell desperately called out for help and was eventually found by a friend who happened to be passing. Police have no doubt she would have died had she not been found. An investigation began at a borough level and DNA samples were taken from the victim and sent to the national DNA da-tabase. No match was found. In January 1998 Baker was arrested for a burglary in Hackney. On arrest he gave a saliva sample which was sent to the na-tional database. Baker was charged with burglary but later acquitted of the offence. The law at that time stated that DNA of an individual could only be retained if they were convicted of a recordable offence. The burglary sample should therefore have been destroyed, but remained on the data-base and showed a clear match with DNA from the rape. There was only a one in 17 million chance that they were not from the same person. On the basis of the DNA match, Bak-er was arrested on 15 October 1998 and charged with the rape of Mrs Backwell. He refused to provide a fresh DNA sample, so - as permitted by law - a sample of his hair was taken and used to provide a sec-ond DNA sample, which also matched that taken from Hazel Backwell. However, as Baker had been arrested and charged with the rape only on the ba-sis of the saliva sample from the burglary, which should have been destroyed, the de-

fence argued that the match should not be disclosed to the jury. The rape trial was discontinued by the Judge on 19 June 1999 and Baker was ac-quitted of the rape of Mrs Backwell. The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) ap-pealed the Judge’s decision but lost. The case was taken to the House of Lords in December 2000 and an appeal was granted but this did not change the fact that Baker had been acquitted. In 2001, prompted in part by the House of Lords judgment, the then Home Secre-tary Jack Straw announced plans under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) 1984 to retain all genetic samples on the database indefi nitely, even when a suspect was acquitted. Sadly Hazel Backwell died, aged 72, in 2002 before seeing a change in the law that

would allow her case to be heard before a jury. After new legislation regarding the dou-ble jeopardy rule became effective in 2005 (meaning individuals could be tried twice, in certain circumstances, for the same spec-ifi ed serious offences), offi cers from the Homicide and Serious Crime Command (HSCC) Special Casework Investigation Team were assigned in October 2007 to re-investigate the rape, as it fulfi lled the crite-ria for double jeopardy. However, when offi cers tried to obtain the original case fi les, they found they had not been retained. The MPS approached the court, the CPS and the House of Lords, none of whom had retained copies of the case papers. On 30 July 2009, BBC Panorama broad-cast a programme on double jeopardy and referenced the rape of Mrs Backwell. In 2010, offi cers established that the original defence solicitors had retained a set of case papers which he obtained from them by court order. The authority of the Director of Public Prosecution had to be obtained for police to further investigate Baker. He was then re-arrested for the rape of Hazel Backwell on 14 September 2011. He gave a DNA sample which matched the sample from the rape. He was charged with the offence and remanded in custody. Detective Chief Inspector Christopher Burgess, head of the Specialist Crime Re-view Group, said: “This was a horrendous and brutal assault on a lone female in her home. Baker subjected Hazel to a fright-ening and terrifying attack and callously locked her in a cupboard where she feared she may never be found.

Brixton Hill burglars sentenced

Rapist, Wendell Baker jailed

Victor Ellis aged 55yrs, of no fi xed address was sentenced to 4 years imprisonment on Friday 14 June 2013, for Burglary. Inner London Crown Court heard that Offi cers had received an emergency call to an address in Beechdale Road, SW2 on 29 October 2012 at 15:20hrs. A resident at the property, which had been divided into three fl ats, had called to say that two men were trying to break in. Offi cers arrived at the scene within min-utes, to fi nd the front door and three doors off the communal hallway had been kicked off in order to gain entry. Two suspects were in the property and upon seeing po-lice tried to escape. They ran towards the offi cer and after a short struggle they broke free. Offi cers gave chase and both were ar-rested a short distance away. The men were identifi ed as Victor Ellis and 28year old Leon Thompson of Fortrose Gardens SW2. Thompson was found to have socks on his hands and was in possession of jewel-lery and electrical equipment later found to be from the address.

Ellis was wearing gloves and also had jewellery, electrical goods and razor blades in his possession. He had a key which was found to be to a vehicle parked just a street away. Thompson was charged at 16:02hrs on 31 October with Residential Burglary at three fl ats. He made no reply to caution. Ellis was also charged at 16:18hrs with three counts of Residential Burglary. Both were remanded in custody to appear at Camberwell Magistrates. Thompson was sentenced on 24 May to a total of 44 months imprisonment for the burglaries and breaching a court order. DI Adam Guttridge said; “This was an excellent response from Police offi cers in Lambeth to a 999 call .They took deci-sive action to detain both burglars and the subsequent investigation has rightly re-sulted in lengthy custodial sentences. We will continue to target burglars through all means to prevent them causing misery. Local residents are reminded to make full use of property marking schemes avail-able through their Safer Neighbourhood Teams.”

A man was jailed on Friday 21 June, for possessing “lethal” fi rearms and ammu-nition. Ali Lamnouoir, 33 of no fi xed abode was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court to eleven years after admitting two counts of possession of fi rearms with intent to endan-ger life, two counts of possession of am-munition and one count of possession of a fi rearm (sound moderator/silencer). He pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court on Monday 20 May. Lamnouoir was arrested following an in-telligence-led operation in Brent Cross on 13 November 2012. Offi cers found an assualt rifl e, a hand-gun and large quantities of ammunition at the address in Brent Cross as part of the in-telligence-led investigation by the Trident Command. The operation was part of an investiga-tion into criminal networks by the Trident Gang Crime Command with the assistance from specialist fi rearms offi cers from CO19 and surveillance teams from SC&O11. A search warrant was executed at a stor-age facility based on the North Circular Road, NW2.

A storage container was found to contain a MG4A5 assault rifl e, a Biakal handgun, a silencer, 298 rounds of ammunition for the assault rifl e, three rounds of ammunition for the handgun, two clips for the assault rifl e and one clip for the handgun. Ali Lamnouoir had access and control of this storage container. The recovery was the result of Trident’s ongoing efforts to target gang members and organised criminals operating in the North London area.

Wendell Wilberforce Baker

Ali Lamnouoir

Wendell Wilberforce Baker

Man jailed for 11 years for firearms offences

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Sounds of Diaspora People of AmericaWWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK Friday, 28 June 2013 – Thursday, 4 July 2013 WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK Friday, 28 June 2013 – Thursday, 4 July 2013

Chris Brown has been charged with hit-and-run after he hit the back of an-other car while driving without a valid licence. The singer may face jail if the judge considers him to have violated the terms of a probation order resulting from his 2009 pre-Grammys assault on former girlfriend Rihanna.

Brown called the charges “ridiculous” on Twitter and posted a photo of the car he said was involved in the accident, saying it was “just a dirty car.” “It’s not a hit and run if u get out the car, exchange information (who has NO DAM-AGE to either cars). This is really ridicu-lous,” he wrote on Twitter. “I have a valid drivers (sic) license and I gave the woman the right info. She saw cameras and wanted to make a scene,” Brown said. “I will not stand for this bully-ing and yellow journalism!”The “Kiss Kiss” singer was sentenced to five years probation, 180 days of commu-nity service and domestic violence counsel-ling after pleading guilty to beating singer Rihanna on the eve of the 2009 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. Brown has been involved in a number of highly publicised altercations, including a night club brawl with rapper Drake last year and a fight with R&B singer Frank Ocean outside a West Hollywood record-ing studio in January.

Chris Brown is on probation for his infa-mous assault on Rihanna

Bobby ‘Little Boy’ Blue recalled to heaven at 83 Meal-ticket mania? Mama Jackson won’t lie down

One of the great Blues/Soul/RnB voices of the 20th Century fell silent on Sunday (June 23) when Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland passed away in Memphis. Though he possessed gifts on a par with his most accomplished peers, Bobby Bland never achieved the popular acclaim en-joyed by contemporaries like Ray Charles and B. B. King. But he was nevertheless a mainstay on the rhythm-and-blues charts and club circuit for decades. A prolific performer whose career be-gan in 1947, Bland produced a formidable body of work, but anyone seeking a point of entry might start with his towering 1961 LP, Two Steps From the Blues. Like most full-lengths of its era, Two Steps From the Blues was actually a collection of Bland’s previously released singles for Houston’s Duke Records from the late 1950s and ear-ly 1960s, but the LP boasts such perfect se-quencing and thematic cohesion that, taken in its entirety, it plays like a multi-tiered musical essay on love, lust and loss. Bland’s signature mix of blues, jazz, pop, gospel and country music was a good decade in the making. His first recordings found him working in the lean, unvarnished style of B. B. King, even to the point of employing falsetto vocal leaps patterned after King’s. Bland’s mid-’50s singles were more accomplished; hits like “It’s My

Life, Baby” and “Farther Up the Road” are now regarded as hard-blues classics, but they still featured the driving rhythms and stinging electric guitar favoured by King and others. It wasn’t until 1958’s “Little Boy Blue,” a record inspired by the homi-letic delivery of the Rev. C. L. Franklin, that Bland arrived at his trademark vocal technique. “That’s where I got my squall from,” Bland said, referring to the sermons of Mr. Franklin — “Aretha’s daddy,” as he called him — in a 1979 interview with the author Peter Guralnick. “After I had that I lost the high falsetto. I had to get some other kind of gimmick, you know, to be identified with.”

Bobby Bland has left a legacy of music to be savoured, cherished, and given renewed energy as living work. Whenever a voice as irreplaceable as Bland’s is lost, there are those who will take it as opportunity to rage at the tyranny of Autotune, TV talent show fodder and generally yell at the 21st cen-tury to get off their lawn. But the better and far more honest way to celebrate Bobby Bland is to purchase a copy of Two Steps From the Blues, put it on late some night and, as it washes over you, let yourself be reminded that all this was once new too.

Bobby Bland continued to tour even at the ripe old age of 83

It can’t be, can it? Yes, Tuesday marked four years since the tragic passing of Michael Jackson, the veritable King of Pop if only because he managed to appeal to the same demographic for 40 years while not losing the admiration of many of the fans he accumulated along the way. Say what you will about the likes of Cliff Richard; his appeal to adolescents has been limited for decades, while succes-sive generations of kids spun, kicked and slid to MJ right until his career was cut short on that fateful June 25 afternoon. Prince Michael Jackson, the eldest son of late pop star, is expected to testify

on Wednesday (June 26) in the wrong-ful death suit filed by his grandmother against concert promoter AEG Live, a Jackson family attorney said. Michael Jackson’s mother, Kather-ine, is suing privately held AEG Live, which was promoting Jackson’s “This Is It” concerts, for negligence in hiring Dr. Conrad Murray as his personal physician. Mrs Jackson’s suit lists Michael’s three children, all of whom are still minors, as co-plaintiffs. Mrs Jackson, along with Michael’s nephew ‘TJ’, is joint guardian of the children.Prince was 12 when Jackson died from an overdose of surgical anaesthetic Propofol while the singer rehearsed in Los Ange-les for a series of comeback concerts in London in 2009. The 16-year-old will follow expert witness Gordon Matheson, a physician, who testified that Dr Mur-ray had a conflict of interest while car-ing for Jackson because Murray’s heavy debts and monthly salary from AEG Live would bias his care of the singer. AEG Live has said it did not hire or supervise Murray and argues that Jack-son had prescription drug and addiction problems for years before entering into any agreement with the company.

Jackson matriarch Katherine, 83

Minor car scrape could send unrepentant Brown to jail

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Gospel

By Michael Adekoya


If you are not yet saved try one of the following: Jubilee International Church- meets at 2,30pm on Sundays at Kings Avenue, school, park hill. London SW4. Part of Jubilee International Churches worldwide. For informa-tion, you may call (020)8697 3354New Wine Christian Church- 11am holds meeting at Ringcross Tennants club, Lough Road, Holloway, N7. a member of the Icthus fellowship

worldwide. For more information call 020 7609 959 or 07957 757 663.Praise Tabernacle- 10:30am holds meetings at 620 Western Avenue (A40), park royal Business centre, opposite Warner Bros. Cinema Com-plex, W3. part of The Redeemed Christian Church of God. For infor-mation you may call 020 8993 3010 New Life Christian Centre - 10.30am & 6.00pm. meetings at Cairo New Road, Croydon. The church has

a bible school, primary, is involved in extensive mission work in Eastern Europe, Italy and India. For informa-tion you may call 020 8680 7671Ruach Ministries - holds meeting at 9am, 11am and 6pm. For information you may call 020 8678 6888International Central Gospel church - Battersea chapel, holds meetings on Sundays from 2.00pm. . For information you may call 020 8684 4934Jesus Arena International- Sunday service at 11.00am at Broadwater farm centre, Adams road N17 The Bible Life Church UK- They meet on Sunday mornings at 2.30pm at St Giles Centre, Camberwell

Church Street, London SE5Christ Apostolic church (Full Gospel & Pentecostal)Surrey Docks District 163 Ilder-ton Rd South Bermondsey London SE16 2UT. Tel. 020 7252 2086. Time of worship: Sunday English service 9- 11.30am. Yoruba service 11.30 -2.30pm. Prophetic counsel-ling: Monday, Tuesday & Thursday 12noon- 5pm, Saturday only 5- 7pm.Holy Cross Church International- Sunday 10.am- 1 pm at Crown House 71-73 Nathan way London SE28 0BQ Tel: 07904 234 126, 07809 381 886Times of service:Bible study: Thurs-days 8pm. Night Vigil: Friday Forth-nightly 12am

Sunday Service: Sundays 10am - 1pmWinners Chapel London- part of the Living Faith Church Worldwide, at Unit B1 Galleywall Trading Estate, South Bermondsey, London SE16 3PB meets Sunday 7am & 9am and 11am and Wednesdays at 7pm. For details call 020 7237 7894 CHRIST APOSTOLIC CHURCH GRAVESEND, ST. AIDAIN’S CHURCH, ST. AIDAN’S WAY, GRAVESEND, KENT, DA12 4AGTEL. 01474 355 841, 07956 38 38 70TIME OF WORSHIP: Wednesday Bible Study: 7:30pm to 9:00pmFriday, Night Vigil: 9pm to 11pmSunday Worship: 12:30pm to 3:00pm

Are you looking for a church?Not settled in any particular congregation? Perhaps now is the time to pray about it

CHRISTIANITY IS A LIFESTYLE“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were astonished and they realized that they had been with Jesus.” Acts 4:13.

Dear Reader, to the Jewish leaders, it was clear that Peter and John were not

educated. They were possibly il-literate and certainly “untrained.” Using a Greek word which is the source of our English word today, “idiots” would have been the ap-propriate word to describe these followers of Jesus Christ. The leaders felt that these two were certainly not qualified to under-stand the Law, the Prophets, or their traditions, let alone to teach or preach. After all, these early disciples had been simple fisher-men; yet it could not be denied that amazing things happened through them. Thousands had responded to Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost. Deliverance, healing, miracles were performed. In fact, standing next to them was a beg-gar who was healed of 38 years sickness. To these New Testament Chris-tians, Christianity wasn’t a lan-guage, it was a lifestyle…it wasn’t about making noise but being a voice…it wasn’t about information but about imparta-tion…it wasn’t about fame or promotion but the manifestation of the Holy Spirit...it wasn’t an empty word but an anointed and powerful word from the Lord. They were ordinary and they were unschooled, but they all had one common BWJ degree (Been With Jesus). They acted like Him, talked liked Him and they did the works He did (John 14:12 ). They hear from Him before they do anything. The Bible tells us two very im-portant things about Peter and John. They had been “with Je-sus,” and they were confident and

bold in their message. Daniel said, “The people that do know their God shall be strong and do ex-ploits.” Dan. 11:32. My friend, as a New Testament Christian, how confident are you right now? Peo-ple around you may be sceptical, placing limits on what God can do. You may feel that your prob-lems are too big, that God can’t help you, or that miracles can’t take place today. You may even feel inadequate or unworthy to be used by God, thinking that you don’t have the right talents, gifts, skills or background. But, as Peter and John proved, God can use an-yone - young or old, educated or illiterate, rich or poor, male or fe-male, black or white. Listen! God wants to use you, even use you in your home, in your street, among your family, relatives, friends, colleagues and co-workers. You may ask, “Writer, what must I do in order to be used by God or to experience His healing and miracles?” My friend, like Peter and John, you should spend time with Jesus. That is what it means to know God. Have you experi-enced new birth and given your life to Jesus? Do you have an intimate relationship with Jesus? Learn from Him. Make Him your Lord. Study God’s Word, and make it the standard of your life. Know His Word and what He has to say on any given matter, any is-sue or subject. It means to know God’s character because that never changes. It means to have personal encounter with Christ and know who you are and your authority as a believer. It means to be filled with the Holy Spirit, depending on His power because power and author-ity are not in words but in rela-

tionship. It means to come boldly, in prayer and faith, to the throne of grace …the secret place ...and stay there until you hear His voice, instructions and directives. Jesus said, “I have given you author-ity…to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.” Luke 10:19. Paul, the Apos-tle, said we should “reign in life” through Jesus Christ Rom 5:17. Authority, power and dominion come in relationship, not in words. Because of the relationship of a policeman or policewoman with the government of your land, he or she has the power to stop you and you must stop. Power to suc-ceed or to cast out demons is not in words but in relationship with Jesus. My friend, this message is a challenge to you and me in these last days. These disciples were not waiting to establish their own kingdom, striving to advertise themselves or their own minis-try…they didn’t seat in church and get fat and fat after they had received power of the Holy

Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Instead, they were demonstrat-ing the Kingdom of God every-where they went. They were just on their way to the prayer meet-ing when they met a man who had been paralyzed for 38 years. What happened? They gave this para-lyzed man, not silver or gold, but what they had – Jesus. They car-ried enough presence of God that healed the man who was dancing in the Temple praising God. When 5,000 men had been won to Christ with a single sermon in a single service, the religious authorities of the day feared them, the people loved them and everywhere they went, they brought the presence of God to the glory of God. They don’t have what we are praying for today - wealth - but they have the Holy Spirit in them. You may ask, “What was their secret?” It is not gimmicks, ma-nipulation, noise, inspirational speaking, exhortation words, pro-grams, discussions, advertising or marketing strategies. It wasn’t even the beauty of the auditorium

of their local church or by their own strength. Their secret was that they had been with Jesus. My friend, this is my prayer and the passion of my life. How about you? As you stay long enough in the presence of the Most High God in fervent prayer in faith, you will be anointed and empowered. You’ll hear and see! Deep things will be revealed to you. You’ll be bold, gain confidence and do ex-ploits. Listen! Never, ever, limit God. He is still doing great things through insignificant, unpopular, illiterate, unrecognised, low pro-file, humble and common people. Jesus started His church with ordinary and unknown people who are obedient and faithful to His commands. I see a new army of disciples who God is going to use mightily as we are coming to the end of all things. In God’s agenda, there is a day called, “The Day of His Power.” Psa 110:1-3. It is the day when God’s sons and daughters…the Church… will reign and rule in the midst of our enemies. It is a time of dominion when mortal men and women will walk like spirits. It is the era which God describes as, “Before they call, I will answer. While they’re still speaking, I will hear.” Isa 65:24. Listen! I see a great re-vival on the way. Jesus is going to use people who are presently in the pews of our churches and those who are yet to give their lives (but eventually will) to Je-sus. They will impact people, save souls, deliver and heal people and change lives! The first is going to become the last. My friend, God wants to use you. Are you pre-pared? Are you ready? You need personal encounter with Jesus to-day! Remain blessed!

South African Gospel


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Africa Newsround Newsround WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK Friday, 28 June 2013 – Thursday, 4 July 2013 WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK Friday, 28 June 2013 – Thursday, 4 July 2013

At least 37 gold miners were killed and many others injured in the Central African Republic (CAR) when a pit in which they were working collapsed after heavy rains, the country’s presidency has announced. The incident occurred last weekend at a gold mine in Ndassima, about 270 miles

east of the capital, Bangui. The area lies within the control of the former rebels of the Seleka alliance, who ousted president Francois Bozize in March. President Michel Djoto-dia has declared three days of national mourning. “The toll of 37 is provi-sional as there were many injured,” said Prosper Ndouba, spokesman for the president’s offi ce, adding that 10 injured miners had been rescued but there were

an unknown number of bodies still buried after the accident. The CAR has endured decades of in-stability and unrest, yet the former French colony is also rich in gold and diamonds. However, much of this resource is smug-gled out of the country clandestinely. The World Trade Organisation estimates that the mining sector accounts for about 7% of the country’s GDP.

At least 15 people have been killed in a grenade attack in a remote vil-lage in north-east Kenya, near the borders of Somalia and Ethiopia, ac-cording to the Kenya Red Cross and local offi cials. More than 20 people were injured in the attack about 18 miles from the town of Banisa, in Mandera county. It follows fi ghting last week between two clans in the same area – Degodia and Gari – which left at least six people dead. Hundreds are re-ported to be fl eeing. Police have now deployed more offi c-ers to the region. An offi cer in Mandera was quoted by AFP news agency as say-ing: “Those killed were in one of the IDP (internally displaced people) camps where people displaced in recent attacks have been staying.” No group has so far come forward to say it carried out the attack. Community leader Ibrahim Hussein, who has been taking part in attempts to de-fuse the violence, appealed to both clans to lay down their arms. “We will not allow people, particularly

women, children, the elderly to be killed in a senseless manner,” he told the BBC. The epicentre of the fi ghting is about 500 miles from the capital Nairobi, a re-mote area in which residents usually rely on vigilante groups for security. Many homes have weapons to deter invaders, while herders often carry guns to protect their livestock as there is almost no police presence. “More than 20 people have lost their lives, hundreds are fl eeing their homes, the police and the military are just watching, they are doing nothing,” Ibrahim Issack, a resident of Mandera said.

Apartheid-era activist and former World Bank managing director Mamphela Ramphele offi cially launched South Africa’s fi rst new political party since 2008 in Pretoria this week. Agang, meaning “Let’s Build” in Ses-otho, are hoping to challenge the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in next year’s elections. The ANC have been the sole ruling party of South Africa since 27 April 1994, when Nelson Mandela won 63% of the over-all vote, a day still celebrated in the post-Apartheid state as an annual public holi-day. Yet the hitherto undefeated party have in recent years faced criticism over their

failure to tackle persisting issues of corrup-tion, unemployment and inequality. In 2008 an ANC splinter group founded the rival Congress of the People (COPE) party, but have only had a limited electoral impact. Ramphele, 65, the former partner of Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko, said that South Africa “has reached a cross-roads.” “I for one do not want to think about where we will be in fi ve years time unless we change course,” she announced at the Agang launch event. Ramphele has said that she has been “in conversation” with the Democratic Alli-ance (DA), South Africa’s offi cial opposi-tion, but believes Agang “can reach much further than where the DA can reach, be-cause we are not bringing any baggage to the party.” Archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu, a critic of the modern-day ANC, has given his blessing to the party’s launch. “I have known Dr Ramphele for more than 30 years as a brave and principled leader who has been ready to take costly stands for social justice,” he wrote last week. “If Dr Ramphele formally enters the elec-tion race next year, and goes on to attract suffi cient votes to become a parliamentar-ian, there is no doubt that South Africans will benefi t from her experience and her knowledge – and from hearing her voice. “She is an African woman – I happen to think women make better politicians than men – and she is entering our political dis-course on a clean slate, so to speak.”

South AfricaKenya

Central African Republic

President Djotodia has declared three days of mourning

First new political party in 5 years launches First new political party in 5 years launches

At least 37 killed as gold mine collapses

Mamphela Ramphele hopes to make an impact in next year’s elections

Kenya’s remote Mandera county, where the attacks have taken place

President threatens again to cut off South Sudan’s oil pipelinesSudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has threatened again to stop oil fl ows from South Sudan unless it stops supporting rebel groups operating across their shared border. Khartoum fi rst said two weeks ago it would close within 60 days two pipelines carrying oil exports from landlocked South Sudan to Port Sudan unless the south cut ties with Sudanese rebels. The south de-nies doing so, and accuses Sudan in turn of backing insurgents on its soil. “They [South Sudan] only want to imple-ment the oil deal,” Bashir told his National Congress Party last weekend. “As long as these people do not execute all agreements by 100%, no barrel of oil will be piped to Port Sudan.”

The two neighbours agreed in March to restart oil fl ows and end the hostilities plaguing them since South Sudan became an independent state in July 2011. Under the deal, both sides were supposed to boost bilateral trade, improve border security and set up a buffer zone along their disputed boundary, having come close to war in 2012. But, in violation of the deals, both ar-mies are still reported to maintain troops and tanks inside the zone. Recent satellite images show that South Sudan’s army still have checkpoints or camps in at least nine locations near the southern side of the border. Sudan’s forces have positions in at least fi ve places where tanks or artillery could be seen.

Korto Momolu African Fashion

Korto Momolu (pronounced Cut • Toe – Mo • Mo • Lu) A fashion designer and stylist. Korto was

born in Monrovia, Liberia and lived there until 1990 with her parents and siblings. They left due to civil war and settled in Canada where Korto pursued her passion and studied fashion design at the L’Academies des Couturiers Design Institute in Ottawa, Ontario. After graduation, she moved Arkansas with her husband to live and raise their daughter and began producing chic women’s wear and accessories infl uenced by her African roots and inspired by rich fabrics. After working as an independent fash-ion designer and continuing her education at the renowned Parsons School of De-sign, Korto followed her dreams and won a place on the 5th season of Bravo TV’s hit show Project Runway. Throughout the show, Korto stood out as a designer who embraced color and diversity and dis-played such extraordinary talent that she was awarded the fan favorite prize. Dur-ing the season fi nale of Project Runway, Korto presented her spring 2009 collection at Bryant Park during New York Fashion Week and ultimately ended the season as 1st runner up. After Project Runway, November 13th was named Korto Momolu Day in Lit-tle Rock, Arkansas and Korto continued

to present her collections and sell her ac-cessories. Since ending her season Korto was asked to appear on Project Runway All-Stars. After her appearance, Korto partnered up with Madera Exotic Woods to design The Saba Collection- an exclusive line of fashionable eco-friendly jewelry. Branching into fi ne jewelry and keeping things eco friendly she also launched a line of fi ne jewelry called “Green Love” during her spring 2011 show at New York fashion week. Highlighted as top 5 designer to watch by New York Magazine for fall 2010 collec-tions at new york fashion week, Korto has been featured in Southern Living maga-zine, People magazine, Essence magazine, Kouture magazine, LA Times, Ladybrille.com, InStyle.com, and Washingtonian magazine. Momolu has had editorials in Southwest Airlines Spirit magazine, Kouture maga-zine, Iconography magazine as well as ap-peared on the cover of Celebrate magazine, Celebrity Parents magazine and Little Rock Family magazine along with her daughter. TV and radio appearances include the Mo-nique show, Regis and Kelly, The Wendy Williams show , My Black is beautiful, The Tom Joyner morning Show and most recently on CNN International’s African Voices.recently on CNN International’s African After Project Runway, November 13th

was named Korto Momolu Day in Lit-tle Rock, Arkansas and Korto continued

The Tom Joyner morning Show and most recently on CNN International’s African Voices.recently on CNN International’s African

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African Fashion Sara Karay

Kenyan Designer, Sara Karay has made her mark on the Kenyan fashion industry since releasing her debut collection

last year. The young fashion designer who is also a student at the United States International University in Nairobi, does an excellent job in blending earth elements with mother nature’s destructive elements. The inspiration behind her collections is not the common seasonal categories: Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring but instead classical elements: Earth, Air, Fire and Water.

Her style is infamous and unpredict-able as she aims to stand out. Constantly evolving and moving away from the Ken-yan trend of incorporating solely Ankara fabric in her work, Sara Karay is different from her peers in the industry. Sara Karay’s design aesthetic ranges from prints, espe-cially animal print and tribal prints, and loud but tasteful colors to subtle hues. Sara Karay is currently working on including menswear into her collection and expanding her brand to a swimwear line as well.expanding her brand to a swimwear line as well.

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Arts

Out & aboutEvents calendar What’s On & When

Edinburgh Fringe: Mecca missing offeringsWatching the television during the Ram-adan month features at different points muslims all over the world visiting Mecca on pilgrimage. It is a cultural call to the Is-lamic world on what to focus on as a be-liever. It is a fulfillment of a tenet. In similar guise, the Edinburgh fringe festival commands the same zeal. While it is not a compendium of performances it fulfills the calls of performance spread across all facets of the arts in one form or the other. It calls the presenter and the viewer to parley and ‘moderates’ the agree-ment of both: one to what has to be offered and the other what has to be met. The crucible to the organisers is the vin-tage quality and representation that has to be guaranteed. At some point in my earlier reportage (Edinburgh Fringe: Whose Jour-ney?), I had acknowledged the imbalance that exists by the inadequate representation of richest art and cultural continent in the world – Africa. Performances of dance, poetry, music, theatre et al that is a cultural identity of most of over two thousand ethnicities in Africa will readily attest to this. Plays such as Sizwe Bansi is dead, The Trial of Dedan Kimathi, Langbodo, The King Must Dance Naked, Kurunmi, etc to mention a few have

no place resting in local theatres archived by cobwebs when much of the world grav-itates to untested notions of other artistic grandiloquence. “I came, I saw, and I conquered”. Yes, I did. My venture to the fringe was not merely to lead-role in the Nigerian ver-sion of Chaucer’s The Miller’s Tale aptly titled Wahala Dey O! But also to soak in as much of the culture, the ambience, the colour, the taste, and the brew of all per-formances and genres that was on offer as much as I could. No doubt, I couldn’t lap it all; but what I did, I took away with me in the treasure chest of my mind. I saw the Korean performance, the Spanish, the American, the English, et all in multiple diversities of creativity and realized how wasted the world would be without creativity manifest in forms of art. I was witness to people wait on long queues for sold out performances and the patience on their faces bore an assurance that they knew what they were waiting for was worth the price they paid. I was witness to the thronging of peo-ple in the streets that reminded me of Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. I was wit-ness to the crowd that mobbed the books stands at the book fair and could feel the

charged ions in the air of people with over a million peculiar usage of one language to say things that only the minds of others can capture. I was witness to a city where all the inhabitants were submerged to the flow of

influx when a whole month of worship and adoration of art forms became the celebra-tion of humanity: and cultures brought their offerings. Yet there was one whose offer-ing was not enough, as what it brought was lapped out with a thirst for more. Encore.

Peter Olorunnisomo

Peter OlorunnisomoEtisalat Nigeria inaugurates prizes for African fictionThe management of Etisalat Nigeria, one of the national mobile communication car-riers, a leading telecoms giant in Africa, re-cently added another dimension to its poli-cy for supporting the growth of the creative writing industry in Nigeria and much more so in Africa. Before now, the company has been supporting literature through the children genre. The main prize is aimed at recognis-ing and celebrating members of the African literary community. Though the creative writing sector warmed up to the news of the resurgence of the African Writers Series, early in the year, which was at one time chaired by a late icon of African literature, Profes-sor Chinua Achebe, that the midwifing of works by an increasing entry of new writ-ers on the African bloc did not reflect the situation was not in doubt. As though to calm the frayed nerves of many lovers of African fiction and fill up the vacuum created by the recent death of legendary writer, Prof. Chinua Achebe, the prize value will also see to the challenge to African writers to meet the standard so benchmarked by such writers as Achebe. It is necessary to note that the prize beats that of the prestigious Bridport Prize for poetry among others in setting notable standard and establishing the challenge. The Etisalat Prize for Literature is the first ever pan-African prize celebrating first

time writers of published fiction books. The prize will bring together high profile writ-ers, book critics and academics from across the continent and beyond to identify new writers of African descent. The prize, launched in line with the com-pany’s vision of promoting passions, nur-turing talent and providing a platform for communicating ideas, will serve as a plat-form for the discovery of new creative tal-ent across the African continent, for bring-ing much needed awareness and acclaim to the art of Fiction writing, to applaud and reward new writers while encouraging fur-ther participation and invariably promote the burgeoning publishing industry in Af-rica. The first edition of the Etisalat Prize for Literature was recently announced at an opening ceremony in Lagos, Nigeria. The prize accepts submissions from writers of African citizenship. It is specifically direct-ed at first time writers of published novels. The winner of the Etisalat Prize for Lit-erature receives £15,000, a Samsung Gal-axy Note and a Montblanc Meisterstuck. In line with the vision of promoting upcoming writers, Etisalat will sponsor a book tour to three African cities. The winning writer will also embark on the Etisalat Fellowship at the University of East Anglia mentored by Professor Giles Foden (author of The Last King of Scotland) which will include sig-nificant opportunities to meet other writers,

publishers and most importantly work on their second book. Shortlisted writers will win a Samsung Galaxy Note and also go on a book tour to two major African cities. The Etisalat Prize for Literature is unique in that it also aims to promote the publishing industry at large and will there-fore purchase 1000 copies of all shortlisted books which will be donated to various schools, book clubs and libraries across the African continent.

Soyinka launches Memoirs For Our FutureInternationally renowned playwright and Africa’s first Nobel Laureate Pro-fessor Wole Soyinka will launch the publication of the Anthology “Memoirs for Our Future” to an audience compris-ing of mainly young people ages 12-21 and their families - all designed to herald the 2014 Open Door Series edition that would mark Soyinka’s 80th anniversary under the banner WS80. The event which is scheduled for Saturday, 20th July, 2013 at 3pm will take place at The Africa Centre, 38, king Street, WC2E 8JT. Attendance of the event is free and targeted at young children and their families. The organ-isers have advised that booking should be done in advance through www.ws79-memoirsforourfuture.eventbrite.com and further information can be got by making contact through calls to 07944 579 530 / 07558 549 599 and e-mail to [email protected]. The event is a forerunner to the cel-ebration of Professor Soyinka’s 80th birthday come 2014. The Open Door Series, an initiative of Zmirage Multimedia Ltd is primarily aimed at using art, culture and litera-ture as tools for the fostering of youth-ful minds towards national development and improved leadership for the future.


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Arts

The Test of Ola Rotimi’s Our Husband Has Gone Mad AgainOla Rotimi’s comedy, Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again, found its way into Lon-don albeit not for the first time, and onto stages of the George Wood Theatre, The Broadway in East London and in Edgware for a run. It is, perhaps, a test of the waters that such a tested play set in the period of Nigeria’s early years after independence brought back scenery and issues that would have been thought to be buried in the pages of history but are still relevant today. This is one of the hall marks of Ola Rotimi whose plays have been known to possess strong doses of satire touching on social themes in the Nigerian society. Not that it is only rel-evant in that society, but that it speaks for almost all developing societies particularly of African extract that have been touched by westernisation in one way or another. Rotimi’s preferred fabric here is to put the daily lives of people on canvas and paint their capacities for aspiration and adapta-tion in the different colours of challenges that they face. The political role of a man in society is reflected in the cultural expectation of achievements, hopes, wealth, and leader-ship outside the traditional infrastructure but into the promises of western democracy. Why the hero of the play, RahmanLejoka-Brown - an ex-combatant is chosen as the pivot of the satirical comedy is best known to Rotimi but it is certainly a most workable and acceptable choice given the status that military men had at the time and even now. It is significant that the soldier transforms into a politician and does not stay retired

after his de-commissioning neither does he stay within the cultural roots of the farming enterprise which would perhaps be as high yielding in wealth and value to society.Keeping his Islamic religious beliefs on the hand and harvesting wives, he main-tains his ancestral home more like a mu-seum of heritage, and hangs his fate on the balance of a charmed snake that must see him through political goals. His wives have defined reasons for coming into his life and they all have added value to his status and political aspirations. But the hero is simply a man. He has an ego to protect, learn the trickery of women some more or stumble through them, oper-

ate within the limited specialty of his mili-tary training as a tool for his political ma-chinery, and learn that a harem of women is about as resourceful for a coup as a barrack of soldiers. The audience will no doubt be engrossed in the suspense and deliberate tease of the domestic tension in a house where jeal-ousy, rivalry, marital subservience and responsibility, cultural education, western education, and a mash of cultural values brew a drink probably worse than the lo-cally distilled gin, ogogoro or akpeteshie, for Lejoka-Brown to quench his thirsts. While I will not forebode what would hap-pen, one may rest in the assurance that his

military experience in Burma and in the Congo would serve him well here. Though the retailing of the plot is not my mission, it serves very well to show the lengths that Ola Rotimi went to bring seri-ousness into un-seriousness and yet achieve filling a hall of people with laughter every so often. It is the mark of a master satirist, an icon of his generation. And he is late.With the play going on stage in the different parts of London and enjoying good attend-ances, it has served to show that African plays indeed have a void to fill to entertain and educate Africans in diaspora and in-deed people of other cultures. The impact it would have in appropriately explaining and re-educating people from other cul-tures cannot be underscored. Yet this gap is unfilled and the yearning a latent one to be tapped into. While reports gathered about the shows stated that there was quite a turnover of ac-tors and actresses in the roles which does prove that there is a rich gathering of tal-ents in the underground, this could pose quite a challenge for the artistic direction and achieving a distinctive, creative ren-dition of the play to speak for the African theatre in London. Comments received would not com-pare it to the classicus watched several years back neither did it draw gasps of un-believable ingenuity. But the applause of a play with local flavour selling laughter so cheaply, the appreciated efforts of the cast, crew, producers and promoters endearingly always brought each show to an end.

An ancestral homestead for the diaspora in Igbale-Aiye

By Peter Olorunnisomo

When, out of the blues, a king joins up with other kings of cultural and heritage affiliation to found a homeland, not for their immediate subjects but for their subjects lost, dead, and far flung to the corners of the earth, then it is a call for home-coming. So it is that the Olofin II, Olofindji Akande, a king in the Republic of Benin, envisioned a sense of re-unification of the Yoruba nationhood without borders where all that could find their ancestry and those departed as a result of the slave trade could be re-united to their past and the their present. Whereas this may seem quite wacky but the cultural altruisms of the Yorubas does not accept the alienation of one’s heritage whether physically or spiritually. This, however, takes for granted that the trauma of the trans-Atlantic slavery has never truly healed as their are still so many people pin-ing for their spiritual and physical heritage for their physical lives to have meaning. The Olofin II has thus attempted to pro-vide this succour to give a new beginning and a future by building an independent city between two countries, Benin and Ni-geria, named Igbale-aiye. Igbale-aiye, in the Yoruba language could be translated to mean ‘the place of rest for the world’- the Yoruba world.

And when this is tied into the concept of ‘the departed souls find rest at home’, then it becomes an ancestral habitation for all generations living or dead.In the English parlance, it is christened the African Renaissance City, and designed as “home for all nations, black people in par-ticular, and irrespective of nationalities”, “to become one and free” from the nation state borders created by colonialism. It is “in tribute to departed and enslaved African Ancestors”, a documents on the project states. “Quietly starting from the scratch with several culture-related events spread across the year, African Renaissance City is de-signed to cover border areas of Republic of Benin and Nigeria, with as much as 600, 000 acres expected to be taken across the two countries.

Already notable personalities such as Bish-op Desmond Tutu, Prof. Wole Soyinka, American civil right activist, Rev Jesse Jackson, Late Ambassador Segun Olusola, Giles and Yvette Saverd-Forget, among others have been inducted into the African Renaissance consciousness during the last five years of the project.” “It’s a concept that started 30 years ago,” the founder, the Olofin II profferedas he led over three hours procession of the 2013 edi-tion of the African Renaissance convention titled Humanism at the Benin rural area of Akpotokou, near Ilara, a border town be-tween Ogun State and Republic of Benin. About an hour earlier, the Olofin II had, on behalf of African Renaissance, honoured over 10 people including royal fathers from the border towns and some young enthusi-asts of the projects.

Also, posthumous honours were given to Ambassador Segun Olusola and a Beninese Erin Ilu Rabiu Asabi Adeaga. Among top dignitaries and multitude of pilgrims at the entrance of the future city where the ceremony held were familiar faces such as a monarch, the Fadesewa of Simawa, Ijebu, Oba Gbenga Sonuga, Thomas Atanda Idowu, Arolagbade II of Dinyin and former Director-General, Voice of Nigeria (VON) Chief Taiwo Alimi. The concept, the Olofin II stated, was inspired by what he described as the needs for Africans to have a centre of spiritual convergence. He therefore sees African Renaissance as the Blacks’ “Vatican City”, where people across nations will feel at home, except that unlike the Roman city, “African Renaissance is not based on one religion; its home for all faiths.”

And in seeking support for the project, the Olofin II disclosed that “it has the recogni-tion and support of UNESCO.” At the period of the visit, there were activities spread across three days, involv-ing visitors from the African continent and the Caribbean. However, the only visible structure was what looked like the entrance to the future city; a huge plaque, erected as one makes a roundabout at an ongoing road construction designed for the city.

By Peter Olorunnisomo

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Omotola Makes TV Debut In the USBy NEHRU ODEH

Nigeria’s screen goddess, Omo-tola Jalade Ekeinde’s appear-ance on the world’s movie cir-cuit takes shape as she makes

her debut in a television drama series, Hit The Floor, in the United States today. She will be starring alongside Holly-wood A-list actor, Kimberly Elise and hip-hop superstar Akon. Written and produced by James LaRosa, Hit The Floor is an American drama televi-sion series which follows Ahsha, a girl who joins the NBA cheerleading team the Los Angeles Devil Girls, unaware of the treach-erous and tempting world that follows. The story is built around the Los Ange-les Devil Girls, a preeminent dance team in professional basketbal. The show will be on VH1, Monday night at 9pm. Omotola, who was in April named one of

the most influential people by Time Maga-zine made this known via her facebook page and twitter handle. “Okay! Finally its on Monday,9pm! #Hit-TheFloor ! My U.S Tv Debut! God is good y’all,” she said, posting a stunning photo-graph she took with Elise on facebook.No sooner had the multi- talented and mul-tiple award winner broke the news than her colleagues, friends and fans across the world expressed their admiiration, support and joy. @Tonya_King, who wrote the script for the drama series, tweeted from Los An-geles. United States: “SO thrilled/lucky 2 have THE Omotola in my episode!” @SarahEFahey, also part of the movie’s production team. tweeted: “Can’t wait for the rest of you to see @Realomosexy in next weeks episode of @HitTheFloor.” @Noah Tsika, Assistant Professor of Media Studies, tweeted from New York: “Don’t miss the great Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde (@Realomosexy) on @HitThe-Floor, Monday, 9pm. The series is lucky to have her. #NollywoodIcon.” When the news of the actress’ US TV de-but broke last February, it was reported that the TV series would be known as Bounce.“Bounce has all the elements we know VH1 viewers love; a world very much on the pop culture radar, an incredible cast and compelling, addictive storytelling. These are all set against a glamorous backdrop where amazing dance numbers organically break out as part of the story. We wanted to create a scripted series at VH1 in which music is a strong narrative force, and we have found that with Bounce,” said Jeff Olde, VH1′s Executive Vice President, Original Programming and Production, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter at the time. With this TV appearance, Omotola, who made her movie debut in 1996 with the box office hit, Mortal Inheritance, has nothing more to prove concerning her fast rising international status as an actress and musi-cian. Aside starriing in over 300 Nollywood

movies, Omotola made her breakthrough on the international scene by starring on the award winning films, Ije and Ties That Bind. Reporting for Leadership Newspaper, entertainent journalist Anthony Ada Ab-raham takes a look at her journey to fame and her recent naming as TIMES MAGA-ZINE’s one of the most influential person-alities on earth. She came like a silken drape, with in-nocent smiles that encompasses the earth. Christened Omotola Jalade Ekeinde, some call her Omo Sexy. When she was born to the Shola Jalade family of Lagos on February 7, 1978, lit-tle did they know that their daughter would make a mark in the movie industry. Her innocent countenance and humility is something lots of people and industry watchers have continued to talk about.She is one of the leading actresses, a singer and a philanthropist. Though her original career ambition was to work as a business manager, and while awaiting her results from University, she

began modeling to earn a living. She has never looked back since she debuted in Nollywood in 1995, staring in over 300 as-tounding films, selling millions of copies so far.

Early LifeOmotola attended Chrisland School Ope-bi (1981-1987), Oxford Children School (1987), Santos Layout: Command Second-ary School, Kaduna(1988-1993), a brief stint at Obafemi Awolowo University and finally Yaba College of Technology Yaba (1996-2004), where she studied Estate Management. Times Most Influential Person Recogni-tion When the news went viral that the world’s most productive English-language film in-dustry Nollywood not Hollywood has been recognised and that She was recently hon-oured on the 2013 TIME 100 Most Influ-ential People In The World List alongside Michelle Obama, Beyonce and Kate Mid-dleton, it didn’t come as a surprise because she has paid her dues.


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The teeming Nigerian cinema grinds out some 2,500 movies a year, mostly di-rect-to-DVD quickies mixing melodrama, music and an evangelical Christian spin. (Think Bollywood via Tyler Perry.) Em-ploying a million Nigerians, Nollywood enthralls millions more who come for the thrills, the uplift and the artful agitations of Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde — the Queen of Nollywood.

PhilanthropistOmotola became a United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Ambassador in 2005 going to missions in Sierra- Leone and Liberia. Omotola has been active in the ‘Walk the World’ project and participated in the Walk the World campaign in Liberia with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. Omotola is known as a fierce Human Rights campaigner and her philanthropy efforts are centered on her NGO project, called the Omotola Ekeinde Initiative for Youth Empowerment. The undertaking brings hundreds of youths together for the Empowerment Walk and Con-vention. Omotola lent h e r

voice in 2010 to the Rewrite The Future Campaign of Save The Children UK and became an Amnesty International cam-paigner in 2011. She has participated in campaigns in Si-erra- Leone (Maternal Mortality) and her recent campaign of The Niger Delta in Ni-geria, where she shot a video asking Shell and the Government to Own Up, Clean Up, Pay Up and take responsibility of the Oil spills in the Niger- Delta.

NollywoodAfter receiving numerous high-profile awards, launching a music career, and amassing an enviable fan base, the press has revered the Screen Nation ‘Best Ac-tress’ as The African Magic. She is the first African celebrity to receive over 1million Likes on her Facebook page. Today, she is not only noted for her in-comparable showbiz accomplishments, but is also applauded for her remarkable humanitarian efforts. Over the years, Omo-tola has been a pioneer in the Nollywood film industry, successfully be-coming the most watched actress in Africa.

From the 1996 Mortal Inheritance to the 2010 super production Ijé, shot partly on location in Los Angeles, the thespian who wedded her airline pilot husband aboard a flight from Lagos to Benin, brings a juggler’s grace to her roles as actress, singer, reality-show star, mother of four and philanthropist. Success hasn’t spoilt the Africa’s most renowned leading lady. Rather than going Hollywood, Omotola wants to stick with Nollywood.

ReactionDorothy Njamanze - Indeed she deserves it. She has paid her dues in the film industry. We just have to say that more grease to her elbow. This is a sign of good things to come to us in the movie industry. I want to appreciate the industry for grooming talents and creating millions of jobs for people around the globe. Its really great. Francis Ajala - If you look at her back-ground you would understand where she’s coming from. She is just one of the few actress in Nollywood that doesn’t have extra-marital controversy hanging on their neck. She is a devout mother, housewife,

and intelligent actress. This does not come as surprise because she deserves more than this. Kudos my sister Omo Sexy. Uche Elendu - Though we have had criticism coming in from all angles. But its what makes us strong and profession-als. The movie industry it’s no longer the way it used to be. Many people now come in from even the revered Hollywood. We hope to see more of this. Last time it was Forbes. She is my colleague in the industry and a wonderful person. I wish her many more good things. Ene Oche - I love her films. Well I don’t know what people are happy about. But I know she is a good actress. Not everyone can cope with the role of a parent and a ce-lebrity. KennySam - She worked for it and she‘s appropriately appreciated by Time Maga-zine. We look forward to more awards and celebrations of our artistes not only in Nol-lywood but also in the music industry.

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK Friday, 28 June 2013 – Thursday, 4 July 2013 WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK Friday, 28 June 2013 – Thursday, 4 July 2013 WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK Friday, 28 June 2013 – Thursday, 4 July 2013 WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK Friday, 28 June 2013 – Thursday, 4 July 2013

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Mark Harper, Immigration Minister, highlighted the UK’s excellent offer to attract the best international students during a roundtable meeting with members of Plymouth University. He met international students, the university’s two Deputy Vice Chancellors, a representative from START, a charity which helps refugees in further education, as well as the local MP Oliver Colvile. PhD students from Morocco and Syria recounted their experiences of how being educated in the UK has benefi ted them and discussed continuing opportunities for foreign students in the country. Figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency show Plymouth University has seen a 10.4% increase in non-EU students on undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the year 2011/12, compared to the previous academic year. Immigration Minister Mark Harper said: Plymouth is a great example of growth in the university sector for the right rea-

sons. In the rest of the country we have also seen gains with the number of spon-sored student visa applications rising by 5%. This shows the UK continues to be in high demand, attracting the best students from around the world.He added: We have launched measures to encour-age the brightest by offering students the chance to stay on after completing their studies so long as they get a graduate level job earning more than £20,300 a year. At the same time we are committed to stamping out the abuse of the study visa route by installing a more selective sys-tem that works in our national interest. The Chairperson, House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora, Abike Dabiri-Erewa has claimed that the United Kingdom will pay dearly if its conservative government goes ahead with the planned 3,000 Pounds visa bond that will be required by some travellers from Nigeria. Mrs Dabiri-Erewa while speaking as a guest on Channels Television’s Sunrise

Daily demanded that a policy of reciproc-ity by the federal government on all Brit-ish travellers to Nigeria, adding that they should “even be made to pay a lot more.”According to the lawmaker, some level of politics is involved in this policy as she claimed the ruling Tory party which seeks re-election, might be using the immigra-tion policy to drive up sentiments ahead

of the polls to help, “but it’s probably go-ing to hurt them more” she warned. In a bid to curb its immigration cri-ses, the UK government is reported to commence the new visa bond policy by November on fi rst time travellers from countries considered as ‘high-risk’ such as Nigeria, Ghana, India and Pakistan.

Home Offi ce Immigration Enforcement offi cers raid

Two men arrested for sham marriage

News

Immigration Minister Mark Harper

Immigration Minister Mark Harper visited Plymouth University

Two men arrested for sham marriage UK abolished Right of appeal for family visit visas

Immigration Minister meets ‘brightest and best’ students coming to UK

The full right of appeal for appli-cants seeking entry to the UK as a family visitor has been removed. From 25 June, 2013, there will be no right of appeal against the refusal of a family visit visa application, unless the appeal is on human rights or race discrimination grounds. Immigration Minister Mark Harper said: Family visitor appeals make up more than a third of all immigration appeals going through the system, with many applicants using it as an opportunity to submit infor-mation that should have been included in the fi rst place. Removing the right of appeal will save £107 million over the next decade, mak-ing the process faster and cheaper for ap-plicants and allowing offi cials to focus on more complex cases, such as asylum claims and foreign criminal deportations.

The Home Offi ce claim previously, the right of appeal was being used by appli-cants to submit further information to sup-port their claim, instead of making a fresh application. Under the new system, anyone refused a visit visa may reapply as many times as they like and can provide additional infor-mation in support of their application. A decision will also be received much more quickly through this method – typi-cally 15 days in comparison to the appeal route, which can take up to eight months. With 46,000 visit visa appeals received last year alone, removing the burden of these appeals should allow visa staff to make decisions quicker and lead to an im-proved customer service. These changes were brought in as part of the Crime and Courts Act, which received royal assent in April. Home Offi ce Immigration Enforcement offi cers raid

Two men arrested for sham marriage Two men arrested for sham marriage Groom and a wedding guest arrested at Weybridge registry offi ce sham marriage raid. A groom and a wedding guest were ar-rested just moments before they were due to take part in a suspected sham marriage in Weybridge. The groom, an Algerian, was due to mar-ry his French bride. Acting on information that the relationship may not be genuine, Home Offi ce Immigration Enforcement of-fi cers swooped in on the ceremony at Wey-bridge Registry Offi ce at around 11.30 am on Tuesday 25 June. Enforcement offi cers also interviewed the guests present and found an Algerian man who had overstayed his visa. The 23-year-old groom and his 20-year-old wedding guest, both Algerians, were arrested and detained pending removal. Both had been in the country illegally hav-ing overstayed their visas and lived at the

same address in Weybridge. The operation was carried out with the full co-operation of the Superintendent Registrar. A sham marriage or civil partnership typi cally occurs when a non-European na-tional marries someone from the European Economic Area as a means of attempting to gain long-term residency and the right to work and claim benefi ts in the UK. According to Telegraph Newspapers, Humanist marriage move could open way to surge in sham weddings, claim regis-trars Moves to use the Government’s same-sexmarriage bill to introduce humanist weddings could lead to a surge in sham ceremonies and “demean the whole status of marriage”, registrars have warned. The Government’s Marriage (Same – Sex Couples) Bill is due to complete its committee stage in the Lords.

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News

Nigeria keeps powder dry pending formal visa bond proposalNigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs has said that the federal government is yet to be offi cially informed by the British government regarding the £3,000 bond it intends to fi x for Ni-gerians who intend to travel to the UK. Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru indi-cated that there was need for the govern-ment to receive a formal proposal from the UK in respect of the issue before tak-ing any action. Britain is putting in place a policy that would require visitors from Nigeria and fi ve other countries whose nationals are deemed to pose a “high risk” of immigra-tion abuse to provide the sum of £3,000 (about N750,000) before they can enter the country. “I don’t really want to say much about that because the Nigerian government has not had any formal communication

with the British government over the issue. We have to receive a proposal from them (and) look at it before we now know what to do,” Ashiru said. The chair of the Foreign Affairs Com-mittee in the House of Representatives, Nnenna Elendu-Ukeje, has described the policy as discriminatory and unaccept-able. In a statement issued on Monday (June 24) in Abuja, the lawmaker said such a policy would not be in the best in-terest of Nigeria and Nigerians, adding: “it is unworkable and impractical, as it was targeted at non-white Common-wealth countries.” According to Ukeje, the decision was political and breached an agreement en-tered into by Nigerian authorities and Prime Minister David Cameron. Ukeje added that the House Committee on For-eign Affairs would take a critical look at the policy as it affects Nigerians and come up with a way forward.

Olugbenga Ashiru is Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs

Theresa May’s pilot scheme aims to deter overstayers

Ghanaians told to ignore visa bond ‘rumour’Murtala Mohammed, Ghana’s deputy information minister has told Ghanaians to treat news of having to pay £3,000 to visit the UK as a guarantee for their return as a rumour. He added that this controversial issue was also not a subject of discussion during last week’s bilateral talks between Britain’s David Cameron and Ghana’s John Maha-ma, during the latter’s visit to the UK. According to Home Secretary Theresa May’s announcement on Monday, the in-tention is to make the immigration system more ‘selective’ and deter people from ‘overstaying’ once their visitor visa has expired. The scheme will be piloted from November, for people from India, Paki-stan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Ghana. But speaking on Joy FM in Ghana on Tuesday, Mr Mohammed said the UK

government has not offi cially communicat-ed this “policy”’ to the Ghana government. In the absence of any offi cial communica-tion, government considered it inappropri-ate to issue a response or seek clarifi cation from the UK Embassy. He said even the UK had not taken any fi rm decision on the policy. “We might as well treat it as a ru-mour,” he suggested. The minister said he was surprised at the reactions of some Members of Parliament on the matter, without fi rst checking with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Par-liament Committee on Foreign Affairs. Earlier, Member of Parliament for Tarkwa Nsuaem, Eugenia Kusi demanded that UK residents must be treated the same way when they want to visit Ghana. MP for Manhyia South, Dr. Mathew Opoku-Prempeh pushed for a formal statement to be read on the fl oor of the House to signal Ghana’s unhappiness with the new policy.

Olugbenga Ashiru is Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs

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CompetitionCompetitionTravel In association withTravel In association withTravel In association with

Arik Air plans for destination expansionBy Milton TellaArik Air is committed to expansion plans and has signed a firm con-tract with Bombardier for three CRJ-1000s and four Dash 8-400 NextGens. Based on the list price of the CRJ1000 NextGen and Q400 NextGen aircraft, the contract, an-nounced during the 2013 Paris Air Show at Paris Le Bourget, is valued at approximately USD297million. Arik Air currently operates four CRJ-900s and two Q400 NextGen aircraft. Bombardier is the world’s only manufac-turer of both planes and trains with it head-quarter in Montréal, Canada. The company is evolving mobility worldwide by answer-ing the call for more efficient, sustainable and enjoyable transportation everywhere. Arik’s commitment shows that the airline is planning to provide the best platforms possible to respond to the rapidly growing interest in the African destinations.“Africa was the second fastest growing tourism region in the world last year, after Asia, and these two regions are expected to lead global tourism growth again this year. This has naturally made tourism in Africa appealing to the tourism industry across the

value chain, especially as developed mar-kets become saturated.” says South African Tourism Chief Executive Officer, Thulani Nzima.Meetings Africa 2014 will expand on the theme of “Advancing Africa Together”. “We saw a surge in interest at Meetings Africa 2013, both in terms of new exhibi-tors and new buyers and we expect this growth to be sustained next year,” says Nzima. In total 2 884 delegates attended Meet-ings Africa 2013, which included over 350 buyers, 70 percent more than the number of buyers who attended last year’s show. These new international buyers represented 23 markets outside of South Africa. “The industry can expect an additional 61 410 business event delegates to come to South Africa in the next 12 months as a result of buyers’ attendance at Meetings Africa 2013. There was also a very strong contingent of African exhibitors at Meet-ings Africa, representing 12 destinations in total, all of whom reported a very produc-tive and busy Meetings Africa, writing new business as well as establishing exciting potential for business to come. It was very encouraging that 78 percent of the buyers this year were attending Meetings Africa for the first time, which shows that inter-

est in our region is growing considerably,” adds Nzima. Buyers at Meetings Africa were careful-ly vetted this year to ensure that only buy-ers who met the criteria and were serious about doing business were invited. South African Tourism remains committed to continually increasing the quality and the

number of qualified hosted buyers at next year’s Meetings Africa. “The South African National Conven-tion Bureau, South African Tourism’s busi-ness unit that organises and hosts Meetings Africa, has delivered exceptional results and has greatly boosted South Africa’s global competitiveness in pursuing a tar-

Aircraft Bombardier CRJ-1000



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Win A Return Flight TicketHOW TO ENTER

To be in with your chance to win a return ticket to Lagos, simply answer this question:

What are the aircraft colours of Arik Air?

a) Blue Ox blood White b) Red White SkyBlue c) White Ox blood Blue

Send your answer with full name, telephone number and postal address on an email to [email protected] or postcard to the Promoter: African Voice Newspapers Unit 7 Holles House Overton Road London SW9 7AP. Winner will be picked at random.

Terms and Conditions.

1.Competition is open to UK residents only aged 21 years or over. By entering this competition you areagreeing to receive marketing communications from Arik Air.2. The ticket prize is for a return economy flight from London Heathrow to Lagos for one passenger. (Taxes to be paid by winners).3. Winning tickets must be redeemed during off peak period. Black-out dates apply (including Easter, Sum-mer, Christmas – please check with Arik Air reservations).4. Competition closing date: Midnight 15th July 2013.5. Entry is restricted to one entry per person. No purchase is necessary. An independent person willrandomly pick one winning entrant from the pool of all eligible entries within 48hrs of the closing date.The winner will be notified within 7 days of the draw date by telephone or email.6. Travel insurance and travel documents such as valid passports and visas are the responsibility of thewinner.7. Prize is non transferable, non exchangeable and non changeable. There is no cash alternative offered.8. All expenses, including but not limited to, hotel accommodation costs, transfers from airport, fuel costs,parking, meals, beverages and items of a personal nature are not included in the ticket prize and will be theresponsibility of the ticket winner. Ticket prize excludes travel to and from departure airport in the UK.9. Once travel dates have been confirmed changes cannot be made.10. The prize is subject to availability and restricted travel dates to be advised to the winner at the time ofbooking.11. The promoter is not responsible for any delays or cancellation of the ticket or for any inability of theticket winner to take up the prize. The promoter reserves the right to suspend, change or terminate thecompetition at any time, and for any reason, without notice.12. Entry to the competition implies acceptance of all relevant terms and conditions by the entrants.13. To the fullest extent permitted by law, the partners in this promotion accept no liability for any loss,damage or injury caused by, or to, the prize winner or their guest whilst taking the ticket prize.14. If the winner cannot be located within 21 days of the drawing of the prize, then the runner-up from thedraw will be selected as the new winner.15. Events may occur that render the ticket prize draw itself, or the awarding of the ticket prize impossible,due to reasons beyond the control of the promoter and accordingly, the promoter may, at its absolutediscretion, vary, or amend the promotion and the entrant agrees that no liability shall attach to the promoteras a result thereof.16. The draw is not open to employees, agents, contractors of The African Voice or their families oranyone professionally connected with the prize draw.17. The Promoter is not responsible for the entrant’s submission of incorrect telephone numbers, e-mail orpostal addresses or for problems with entries caused by any factors outside their control.18. Ticket prizes are subject to availability and the Promoter reserves the right to substitute alternativeprizes of similar value. Promoter: African Voice Newspaper UK.19. Any other conditions will be advised at the time of booking.20. Promoter: African Voice UK, Unit 7 Holles House Overton Road, London SW9 7AP, England.

Courtesy Arik Air

CompetitionCompetitionTravel In association withTravel In association withTravel In association withget of R6,2 billion in direct spend via busi-ness events over the next five years,” says Nzima.Meetings Africa 2014 takes place from 24to 26 February in Gauteng. INDABA 2014At this year’s INDABA an announcement was made by South African Minister of Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk of plans to modernise and expand the exhibition and to make it a truly Pan African platform. Minister van Schalkwyk also highlighted that government is committed to investing heavily to make INDABA the Pan African show it is meant to be with full participation from the rest of the African continent in-cluding the African Indian Ocean Islands. “A big focus of INDABA 2014 is on including more exhibitors from the rest of the continent. We are extending an invita-tion to product owners from across Africa

to be part of Africa’s only global travel trade show, INDABA, as we strive to work with our African counterparts to shape our continent’s future,” says Nzima. “This year, South African Tourism host-ed no less than 249 top quality international buyers at INDABA and we have already activated our strategic plans to grow this number even further in 2014 as part of our continued investment and commitment to this trade show,” says Nzima. “No doubt about it, it has been the South African industry’s commitment to INDABA that has made it the success that it is today, and the commitment of the trade to work together that has seen this industry flourish since the advent of our democracy. As we prepare to celebrate 20 years of democracy in 2014 I call on all of the industry to work with us to make next year’s INDABA the best yet,” says Nzima.

South African Tourism Chief Executive Officer, Thulani Nzima

African Travel MarketReed Travel Exhibitions (RTE) has announced the dates for a three-pronged approach in holding three key promotional events at the same time and at the same venue. The “Af-rica Travel Week” will be staged in Cape Town from April 28 to May 3, 2014 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. The three main events merged into one week of promotional activity for travel to Africa will be WTM Africa, IBTM Africa, and ILTM Africa, showcasing inbound and outbound travel, general leisure, luxury travel, business travel, and the MICE sec-tor. Reed is aiming to create a unified plat-form to promote Africa, which will make the Cape Town event THE place to be next year for all and sundry dealing with Afri-can tourism and travel. Richard Mortimore, the Managing Direc-tor of Reed Travel Exhibition, was quoted

in a media release saying: “Reed has been exploring opportunities in Africa for some time, and the success of our first launch event, ILTM Africa, has given us the plat-form to now introduce two more of our glo-bal industry brands to create ‘Africa Travel Week’ and make it the leading global event for the continent’s travel industry. ‘Because of the sheer size of the conti-nent and diversity of its travel offering, all three brands will help bring the world to Africa and promote Africa to the world’s leading source markets. RTE is committed to the African continent and its future as a global player in the leisure, business, and luxury tourism sectors.” WTM Africa, taking place between May 2-3, is expected to attract exhibitors from all categories of the leisure travel industry within sub-Sahara Africa as well as North African destinations, aligning itself with other RTE sister events like WTM, WTM Latin America, Arabian Travel Market, and International French Travel Market

Last month’s competition winner: Ajiri UdoroisiAnswer to the question: c) 90 minutes

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Swansea join race to sign Wakaso English Premier League side Swan-sea have joined the long queue of clubs interested in signing Ghana midfield star Mubarak Wakaso. The Wales-based club are prepared to splash €5million to be able to sign the mid-fielder from his Spanish club Espanyol. Swansea become the fifth club reported to be keen on signing the powerhouse mid-fielder. Apart from mild interest from Juventus, Wigan also has also been in contact with his current club Espanyol. Speculation in Italy suggests the Serie A champions Juventus are lining up a €7mil-lion (£6m) for the Ghana international while Inter Milan are also thought to be monitoring the situation. Everton have at the same time been cred-ited with an interest in Wakaso and Roberto Martinez, who has succeeded David Moyes as manager at Goodison Park, is rumoured to be a fan. But while the 22-year-old is pleased his star performances are being recognised, he knows a decision on his future rests with Espanyol. Wakaso said: “Espanyol will decide about my future. Juventus have been monitoring the ex-ploits of the former Elche and Villarreal player since the Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa. Wakaso, 23, has been a revelation in the setup of coach Javier Aguirre since moving to the Barcelona club last summer and he played 24 times scoring thrice in the just ended league season.

Mubarak Wakaso, Mali v Ghana 2013

FIFA remembers Marc-Vivien FoeEven the bustling world of football seemed to stand still on 26 June 2003. After 75 minutes of the FIFA Confederations Cup semi-final against Colombia at Stade Gerland, Cameroon’s Marc-Vivien Foe collapsed on the field and died a short time later. Today, 26 June 2013, is the tenth anniversary of the tragedy. “I have very precise but also very sad memories of the game in Lyon. Marc was taken to hospital, and we weren’t aware he was in such a bad way. When we were informed of his death immediately after the final whistle we were totally shocked,” recalled Mohamadou Idrissou, who played the full 90 minutes on the night, in a conversation with FIFA.com. Francisco Maturana, Colombia coach at the time, still retains emotional memories of what happened: “This day will remain for ever in the memory of everyone involved. I can remember the situation exactly: Marc lost the ball during a Cameroon attack, and his attempt to win back possession failed. He started to track back but fell to the ground, and our player Jairo Patino was at his side straightaway, trying to help. He immediately realised it was serious and called for help. When Marc was on the stretcher, you

sensed everyone was concerned. And when we eventually became aware he had died, we were all very sad and some of us cried. A moment like that stays with you all the time.” The referee, Germany’s Markus Merk, confessed when he ended his career in 2008 that it was the most difficult moment of his career by far. In subsequent matches, the respected official said, he had an uneasy feeling the minute he entered a stadium. Even a decade later, then Indomitable Lions coach Winfried Schaefer is still struggling to accept the tragedy, as he admitted to FIFA.com: “It was a devastating day for all of us, naturally for his family above all. His wife, his kids and his mother were at the stadium. Marc was a big personality, not only as a player, but also as a wonderful person. I’ve been in the game many long years now, but I’ve never experienced anything else like this. After the match I was in no position to help my players, because I needed help myself. When we heard the news, we broke down and cried.” Foe was only 28 but had represented a number of clubs as a professional, starting with Canon Younde in his home country, Lens and Lyon in France, and West Ham United and Manchester City in England. The 1.94m midfielder was respected and

admired by his team-mates, and was a gift-ed player out on the field. In 64 full interna-tional appearances, Foe scored eight goals and represented the Indomitable Lions at the 1994 FIFA World Cup™ in the USA and the 2002 edition in Korea and Japan. A broken leg meant he missed out on the 1998 tournament in France. The news of his sudden and wholly unexpected death in 2003 shocked the world of football and relegated events on the field to a peripheral role. Just an hour after the match in Lyon, hosts France faced Turkey in Paris in the second semi-final, but the thoughts of many were with Cameroon’s lost son. In unprecedented scenes on a football field, the crowd and viewers saw the players console and encourage each other as they struggled to hold back tears. When Thierry Henry scored the opening goal, the France star declined to celebrate, instead pointing to the heavens and dedicating the goal to his deceased colleague. Foe’s presence in spirit was tangible at the final, as the Cameroon and France players came together behind a huge photograph of the much-loved player and observed a minute’s silence. “Just coming out for the final was very difficult, but the French honoured the tragic death of our friend and colleague when both captains

lifted the trophy together for Marc,” observed Idrissou, recalling the magnificent gesture of France captain Marcel Desailly, who called Cameroon skipper Rigobert Song to him at the trophy presentation so the pair could raise the trophy together. Many banners paid tribute to Foe, one of them bearing this poignant message: “A lion never dies, he only sleeps.” “The tragic death of Marc-Vivien Foe came as a genuine shock to me. I felt great sorrow in thinking of him, his family, his loved ones and his team-mates. The over-riding feeling, however, was one of pow-erlessness in the face of fate, mixed with a sense of anger that death had chosen to make its presence felt in our sport, where it has no place. Sport is happiness, pleni-tude and well-being. Sport is life. It is not death. “I visited the Cameroon team in Lyon, where we prayed together, and I went to the funeral. It was a time of profound reflection, intense emotions and togetherness, paying our respects to a remarkable and highly re-spected young man who suffered a tragic fate. His death triggered a general aware-ness of the absolute necessity to intensify efforts to prevent sudden cardiac arrests from occurring when playing football.


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Norwich City step up Elderson chaseEnglish Premier League side Norwich City have stepped up their bid to sign Nigeria defender Elderson Echiejile. Elderson, 25, shone at the FIFA Confed-erations Cup in Brazil including scoring a goal against Tahiti in a group game. And according to two Portuguese sports newspapers ABola and Ojogo, Norwich have now renewed the interest they have had for the left back who has established himself with African champions Nigeria this year. Both newspapers said Norwich manager Chris Houghton, who himself was a full-back during his playing days with the likes of Tottenham Hotspur has been in constant touch with Portuguese club Sporting Braga over Elderson. Incidentally, Norwich will step up their pre-season with a friendly against Braga in Portugal in August. Elderson has a year left of his contract at Braga, who he joined from French club Stade Rennes in 2010. Last year, there were serious interests for the former Bendel Insurance of Benin star but Braga placed a high price tag on him. EPL side Fulham, German Bundesliga side VfB Stuttgart as well as Besiktas of Turkey are also in the hunt for the attack-minded Elderson. And while Elderson is on his way out of the Braga, the Portuguese club have se-cured the services of compatriot and U20 international forward Chidi Osuchukwu from Nigeria league outfit Dolphins. Osuchukwu has signed a four-year deal with Braga and he is expected to join the club immediately after the U20 World Cup in Turkey.

Mikel blasts misfiring strikersChelsea midfielder Mikel Obi has said Nigeria exited the FIFA Confederations Cup because the strikers were wasteful in front of goal. Speaking after the team’s 3-0 loss to Spain in its last group game, Mikel stated that the chances created by the team were too numerous but were simply not con-verted. “We came out to defeat the Spain and I think we even had a better possession against the world champions, but we sim-ply did not take our chances and they took theirs, so we paid dearly for our mistakes and are now out of the competition,” lashed out a disappointed Mikel. Mikel also described Spain as a fantastic side but had it been Nigeria strikers were potent enough, it would have been a dif-ferent result. The Chelsea star, who played the last two games with a slight fever, promised Nigeria will be back in Brazil next year from where the world will see the best of the reigning

African champions. Meanwhile, the Super Eagles have de-parted Brazil en route Lagos on Monday. The team are to stop over in Johannes-burg, South Africa, before landing in La-gos.

Some of the foreign-based players will not be part of the returning party as they jetted out to either join their clubs for pre-season training or plan for new bases for the coming season in Europe, which begins in the August.

Mikel - Eagles strikers were wasteful

Elderson Echiejile

Barcelona star Lionel Messi was this week in Senegal to help Qatar’s As-pire Academy’s anti-malaria cam-paign. The Argentina captain helped to distrib-ute mosquito nets to locals in a bid to re-duce malaria outbreaks in the area. Attending the official launch of the Soc-cer for Health world programme that kick-off in Dakar, Senegal’s capital the soccer icon was very emotional. In a chat with media Messi said: “I know my trip to Senegal is a difficult one because I see the suffering that malaria causes, but I know that we have a great chance to use the power of football to help save lives.“Every 90 minutes 180 children die from this horrible disease in Africa, but almost all of these can be avoided by using bed nets. “Football Combating Malaria is a very special project to me because I know it will help save thousands of young lives, and I’m delighted to be involved and throw my support behind it.” Emblazoned with Messi’s image, the mosquito nets was distributed to children and families from the rural localities of Mbour and Saly Portudal. International soccer star Lionel Messi took to his Facebook page to deny the al-legation of tax charges evasion earlier this month. “We have just known through the me-dia about the claim filed by the Spanish tax authorities,” read the statement in Spanish and English. “We are surprised about the news, be-cause we have never committed any in-fringement. “We have always fulfilled all our tax obligations, following the advice of our tax consultants, who will take care of clarify-ing this situation.”

Ghanaian youngster Nyarko signs for DortmundGhanaian youngster Evans Nyarko has signed for German giants Borussia Dortmund. The 20-year-old joins Bundesliga II side Fortuna Dusseldorf where he played for two seasons. The midfielder will start off his ca-reer with the Borussia Dortmund II side who play in the third-tier league of German football. Nyarko will be assessed there by the coaching staff before climbing up the ladder to the Bundesliga side coached by Jurgen Klopp. Ghana national team coaches will be monitoring the progress of the young-ster.


Messi’s anti-malaria campaign in Senegal

WWW.AFRICANVOICEONLINE.CO.UK Friday, 28 June 2013 – Thursday, 4 July 2013 ISSUE 488

African Voice Newspaper is published by African Voice Communications. Unit 7 Holles House Overton Road London SW9 7AP. Tel: 020 7274 3933Registered at the British Library as a newspaper. ISSN 1475-2166.Email: [email protected]

When Savadogo Abima, 17, stepped onto the football pitch to play for his club, Shadrach FC in Mafere south of the Ivorian commercial capital Abidjan , little did he realise that he was unto his last match. Playing against Bonoua Sport in the Regional Division as a defender for his team, he definitely would have had hopes ensuring that come-what-may he would not let any player go past him if he could help it. And that was exactly his role when he bumped against into his own keeper while both men were trying to deflect a dangerous air ball. On collision, he fell back to the field floor on his back and was unconscious. The referee called for help and he was quickly rushed to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead a few minutes later.

And at the FIFA Confederations Cup, a minute silence was observed and applause followed just before the match between Brazil and Uruguay got under way. The whole stadium was party to this gesture in honour and remembrance of Marc Vivien-Foe, the Cameroonian player who died on the field of play when he represented his country at the same competition years back. Cameroon, then, had the African Cup in her clutches. Vivien-Foe had played for Lens (France) and West Ham ((England) among other teams. In the same vein, a Nigerian, Sam Oparaji died on the field of play in 1989 at the Nigerian National Stadium while playing for Nigeria at the World Cup qualifiers. He had been playing professional football in Germany and was regarded a stalwart of the Nigerian midfield and defence.

Ethiopia sacks Federation’s Sec-Gen. Over W/Cup blunder

Following a spate of gaffes by African teams in the qualification series for the 2014 World cup in Brazil, one such affected country, Ethiopia, has sacked the General Secretary of its Football Fedration.Not only did the Ethiopian Federation admit to FIFA that they fielded an ineligible player but the fact that it could cost them the three points the country needed against Botswana when they played on June 8 and therefore a possible elimination from the series , was too much consideration to bear.While the Ethiopian soccer ruling body voted to sack Ashenafi Ejigu, they rejected the resignation offer of the vice president Berhanu Kebede, who also had a portion of the blame.

Despite for calls by the members of the FA and media for the whole executive crew to be relieved of their stewardships, the Federation’s president, Sahilu Gebremariam, was only speculated to submit his resignation by the forth-coming elections to the executive committee. He was reported to have said, “This was a massive blunder so we all should have resigned. ut we have responsibilities ahead so we voted to stay until September.”

SEE PAGE 31

Vivien-Foe (Cameroon) in remembrance matchBy Peter Olorunnisomo

Mikel blastsmisfiring

strikes

Ivorien player dies on soccer pitch

Documents

African voice newspaper issue 488