19 September 2022
Jidahists/Coastal West Africa: Intelligence gathering, building community resilience and other such measures are necessary for stemming the spread of jihadism to coastal West African countries, but they won’t be enough. Beyond traditional counter-terrorism practices, comprehensive nation building interventions are necessary. “Local grievances and governance deficits are the key causes of political extremism.” Terrorism cannot be defeated, the problems and conditions that produce it can be resolved.
https://theconversation.com/how-coastal-west-africa-can-stem-the-jihadist-wave-190009
Nigeria/Lecturer strikes: All in all, 57 months have been lost since 1999 due to industrial action. The strike that started on 14th of February 2022, is the 17th in 23 years. It “always comes about as a result of under-funding”. The very short article points to three The Conversation articles about the issue.
https://theconversation.com/nigerias-endless-lecturer-strikes-insights-from-some-essential-reads-190805
Burundi/Uganda: The Burundian culture ministry is displeased that the Burundian sacred drum has been used at the Nyege Nyege festival in Uganda on the banks of the river Nile. The festival was attended by around 12,000 visitors. It is not the first time that the Burundian authorities have proven very sensitive about the country’s holy traditions.
BBC Africa Live 19 September 2022. 15:30
Ghana/E-levy: The highly unpopular 1.5% tax on mobile money transactions introduced in May was meant to tax higher earning segments of the informal sector – that were thought to be under-taxed. That transactions below 100 cedis per day were exempted from the tax was meant to shield lower-income earners. But the article’s authors’ research has shown that “the tax burden is highest on the lowest earners”. The tax is regressive: earners in the lowest earning quintile pay 8% (men) resp. 6% (women) of monthly earnings in the lowest earning quintile, while earners in the highest quintile pay less than 1% (men and women) of earnings.
https://theconversation.com/new-data-on-the-e-levy-in-ghana-unpopular-tax-on-mobile-money-transfers-is-hitting-the-poor-hardest-189671
18 September 2022
Global Warming: The climate crisis is affecting Africa heavily though it has contributed very little towards causing it. The Global North needs to assume responsibility and start paying reparations – is the opinion of the new Unicef goodwill ambassador, Vanessa Nakate from Uganda.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/17/vanessa-nakate-climate-activist-africa-cop27