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Tag: AU

  • Doctor flays AU’s, Fed Govt’s ill-treatment  of health workers who fought Ebola

    A doctor, Omen Ikorobia, who helped in the fight against Ebola scourge in Nigeria, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, has taken to his Twitter handle to flay the African Union (AU) and the Federal Government for not honouring medical workers who fought the disease four years ago.

    The medic regretted that Dr Stella Adadevoh was not recognised for the role she played in stopping Liberian diplomat, Patrick Oliver Sawyer, from leaving the hospital and spreading the disease in Lagos.

    He dedicated the medal of honour he received from the AU without ceremony to those who died fighting the disease.

    In the tweet, which got over 6,500 likes and 3,700 retweets, Ikorobia said: “Four years later, African Union has remembered to present me and my colleagues with Medal of Honour for stopping Ebola in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

    “I dedicate this to Dr Stella A. Adedevoh and Justina Ejelonu. You guys are the real heroes; you died for us all.

    “Adadevoh stopped Sawyer. He made calls; she also made calls, pulling the right strings to stop him from plunging into the population and spreading the deadly virus.

    “She contracted Ebola in the process and died a most painful death. It was like self-sacrifice. She had organ failures, kidney shutdown, multiple seizures and strokes, profuse bleeding, heart failure and later on death. She died for Nigeria.

    “Adadevoh has not been properly honoured by her country whereas every year politicians troop into Abuja to share national honours for doing practically nothing, whereas real heroes are ignored.

    Read Also: No Ebola case in Nigeria, says FG

    “Nurse Justina Ejelonu worked with Stella and contracted the disease in the line of duty. She died without doing anything for herself or her family. No one remembers her.

    “We arrived Abuja after six months of risking our lives in West Africa to stop the menace few days after Dr Goodluck Jonathan had lost the presidential election in 2015. No one paid any attention to us any longer. All the initial plans to honour us were thrown out of the window.

    “The new government took no interest whatsoever, and till today, not even a handshake from a local government chairman, not to talk of monetary anything.

    “Politicians share billions each time they are leaving office after mindless self-help to the national purse. Yet, those who worked for the nation are never rewarded. This government has not as much as said a word to us, much less of recognising our contributions.

    “The day we arrived Sierra Leone, everyone was happy; they said we were from Nigeria and we had the magic. They sent us to worse hit areas and we went to duty patriotically. We did our best and Ebola stopped. The country took the whole accolade without even saying a word to us.

    “The African Union has casually tossed medals to us without any ceremony. I went to PH to pick up my piece from a junior staff of the state ministry of health who asked me to sign off on a piece of paper and be gone.

    “There were only two persons in the room. Nobody bothered with me. It was even the staff who told me that some people who picked up the medal earlier had tested it and that it was not even real gold so is probably worthless.

    “I spent my money and time to pick a piece of garbage after risking my life for Africa. I felt like a fool while leaving dejectedly.

    “This reminds me my experience in the field. An American passed out while we were on duty and I helped to resuscitate him. He was later diagnosed of Ebola and I quarantined myself. Few days later I developed fever and noticed blood in my toilet.

    “I asked my colleagues to send a letter to African Union that I may have contracted the deadly disease. Till today I never got any response. I stayed in self quarantine for 21 days without a word from Africa that I was fighting for.

    “My contemporary was airlifted to USA in a matter of moments but I survived by the grace of God or sheer luck. Never spoken to. Never tested. Never nothing. Being African is shitty. I don’t know if am a survivor or not. I just know that my life is worth nothing.

    “I dedicate this medal, though probably worthless to healthcare workers from Africa who died for their continent but were never appreciated or even recognised.

    “I live in hope that one day our land shall experience the kind of leadership that would value those who sacrifice for her and reward those who make genuine efforts.

    “For now, am just in severe pains

     

  • AU calls for accelerated action on child marriage

    The Africa Union (AU) rose from its 3rd Specialised Technical Committee on Social Development, Labour and Employment (STC-SDLE-3) held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in April, to call for accelerated action on Africa Fit for Children Campaign to end child marriage in Africa.

    According to 2018 UNICEF statistics on child marriage, Sub- Saharan Africa currently has the highest levels of child marriage globally, having overtaken South Asia, and that about four out of every 10 girls in Africa are married before the age of 18.

    The campaign, according to the draft report of the ministers’ meeting, is aimed at promoting, protecting and advocating for the rights of women and girls in Africa.

    It recommends the AU to facilitate dialogue with religious, traditional leaders, youth, and community stakeholders to implement concrete actions to be taken to accelerate an end to child marriage. The AU to provide set of guidelines to member states when undertaking evaluation country visits in order to properly analyze the progress made by member states in their national strategies and programmes on ending child marriages and as part of the AU Campaign’s 5-year strategic plan (2019 -2023), an institutional mechanism for cooperation between the African Champion on ending marriage– President Edgar Lungu, Special Rapporteur and Goodwill Ambassador on ending child marriage should be set up so that they can have synergy and strengthen their work with government institutions and civil society organisations.

    In addition, it recommends that “support should be extended to member states beyond monitoring and evaluation visits, to also include guidance on social protection services to communities in rural areas, who in many cases are most affected by child marriages.

    The meeting was attended by delegates from over 40 member states among them Algeria, Angola, Botswana, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cote D’Ivoire and Nigeria.

    With the theme: “Poverty eradication through strategic investments at national and regional levels towards social development, labour and employment in Africa,” the meeting also adopted the draft AU disability strategic framework, draft plan of action on ending attacks and discrimination against people with albinism while requesting the AUC to appoint a special envoy for people with albinism in Africa.

     

  • AU endorses Buhari’s unity band

    The African Union (AU) has endorsed the Buhari Unity Band (BUB), a not-for-profit initiative that articulates President Muhammadu Buhari’s commitment to peace and unity in fighting corruption and bringing aggrieved ethnic, religious and political groups together for national progress.

    In a letter presented in Abuja, the nation’s capital, to BUB’s Convener Dr. Abayomi Oyekoya, the Nigerian Representative of the African Union Economic, Social and Cultural Council (AU-ECOSOCC), Dr. Tunji John Asaolu, said the AU found the BUB initiative apt in promoting sustainable development, peace and unity in Nigeria “towards the attainment of the AU Agenda 2063”.

    The letter reads: “We endorse the BUB and also approve your request to organise the AU Agenda 2063 Ambassadorial Award in collaboration with AU-ECOSOCC. By this endorsement, we encourage and invite well-meaning Nigerians, government agencies, corporate bodies, African music and entertainment industries to support the BUB in all its activities.”

    BUB’s Director of Communication and Media, Dr. Kunle Hamilton, stated this at the weekend on the heels of the official launch of the initiative at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

    The statement urged Nigerians to subscribe to the initiative.

    “Those who wear the band will be called Nigeria’s unity ambassadors,” Hamilton said.

    Commenting on the BUB endorsement by the AU, Oyekoya said: “On behalf of the Board of BUB, I thank the AU-ECOSOCC and the AU Representative in Nigeria for this recognition and honour.

    “No matter what naysayers and looters of Nigeria say or do, we have no other country to run to. Therefore, we will continue to articulate the passion and commitment of President Buhari who, in his own words, insist that Nigeria’s unity is settled and not negotiable.”

  • AU ‘okays template on tariff liberalisation’

    To realise the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), the African Union (AU) has approved a Template on Tariff Liberalisation for member-states to prepare the AfCFTA Schedules of Tariff Concessions.

    If implemented, there would be no revenue losses.

    According to the summary of the AU summit attended by Ministers of Trade, the approval recognises the designation of Sensitive Products and Exclusion List on the basis of the following criteria: food security, national security, fiscal revenue, livelihood and industrialisation.

    AU said: “Member-states wishing to enter into partnerships with third parties should inform the Assembly with assurance that those efforts will not undermine the AU vision of creating one African market.”

    The AU Commission (AUC) was requested to work “with the assistance of technical partners, to undertake an assessment of the requirements for the establishment of a future common market, including steps to be taken as well as their implications and challenges, for consideration by the AU Ministers of Trade”.

    The results expected from this decision include: 90 per cent non-sensitive tariff lines under scenario 1 would account for considerably less than 90 percent of the value of imports, whichever option is chosen. It will be below 15 per cent of the value of imports in option 1 and above 60 per ce nt in options 2 and 3.

    This implies that under scenario 1, the first tariff phasedown would entail a relatively marginal and non-substantial liberalisation of ECCAS imports compared to scenario 2 (accounting for not less than 90 percent of the value of imports, whatever the option).

    The nine per cent sensitive tariff lines liberalised but over longer time frames under scenario 1 would amount to significantly more than nine percent of the value of imports, whatever the option considered. It will be over 35 per cent of the value of imports in option 1, slightly less than 16 per cent in option 2, and 14 per cent in option 3.

    This implies that a non-negligible share of the liberalisation efforts by ECCAS countries would be done in a second phase, potentially delaying and diminishing the expected benefits from trade liberalisation; a tariff line approach would lead to rather unambitious liberalisation and potentially limited gains for ECCAS member-states. It will be important that liberalisation favours industrialisation, intermediates and possibly green products are liberalised early in the implementation phase of the AfCFTA reform.

    It was also agreed at the summit that “the tariff line approach for liberalisation of goods under the AfCFTA agreements could lead to at least four important consequences:The risk that less will be offered to African counterparts than what has been agreed with the members of the European Union under EPAs (generally 80 per cent of imports to be liberalised); b) The risk of censure through the World Trade Organisation (WTO) -the necessity to liberalise substantially all trade; c) Uneven liberalisation efforts across countries and regions (90 per cent of tariff lines resulting in different values of imports to be liberalised across countries and regions); d) Limited economic gains from unambitious liberalisation (limiting tariff revenue loss rather than substantial trade creation and additional revenue gains).

    AU ministers responsible for trade were requested “to: submit the Schedules of Tariff Concessions, and Schedules of Specific Commitments on Trade in Services in line with agreed modalities to the July 2019 and January 2020 Sessions of the Assembly, respectively, for adoption; and conclude the negotiations on Investment, Competition Policy and Intellectual Property Rights, and submit the draft legal texts to the January 2021 Session of the Assembly for adoption through the Specialised Technical Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs.”

    On the post-2020 partnership with the European Union (EU), The Nation learnt that a decision was taken that Africa should speak with one voice in the various platforms of partnership with the EU, urging the Commission to ensure cohesion between the post-Cotonou Agreement and the Post-2020 Continent-to-Continent Partnership, so that continental priorities, as articulated in Agenda 2063 and other related instruments.

    At the end of the summit, the expected impact of these decisions were highlighted. They include: GDP Growth –Higher growth rates under the high ambition Scenario; Export Growth–Higher growth rates under the high ambition Scenario; ECOWAS Exports–Higher growth rates under the high ambition Scenario; Revenue Loss- higher losses under the high ambition scenario; Real Incomes–Higher growth rates under the high ambition Scenario; and that small countries in ECOWAS will also experience growth.

  • Buhari’s group urges EU, AU to caution Atiku

    The Buhari Campaign Organisation (BCO) has urged the European Union (EU) and the African Union (AU) to prevail upon the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Alhaji Atiku Abubakar to jettison his plan of going to court to challenge President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election.

    In separate letters addressed to the heads of EU and AU Observation Missions in Nigeria, the support group noted that the international bodies must act fast to save the country’s democracy from what it described as Atiku’s inequitable conduct despite the reports of fairness in the just concluded polls by the international observers.

    In the letters made available to reporters in Abuja yesterday by its Director of Communications and Strategic Planning, Mallam Gidado Ibrahim, the BCO said Atiku ought to have congratulated Buhari instead of yielding to PDP’s politics of bitterness.

    The group noted that Buhari’s magnanimity in victory, which was demonstrated in his appeal to his supporters not to humiliate the opposition, was enough reason for Atiku to shed his obstinacy and congratulate the President on his re-election.

    It stated: “We are writing to inform you of the undemocratic tendencies of the presidential candidate of the main opposition party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, who has chosen to take the electoral process in Nigeria backward after a peaceful and credible presidential and National Assembly elections conducted penultimate Saturday.

    “In spite of reports by foreign observers acknowledging the polls as free, fair and peaceful, the opposition party and its candidate have chosen to discredit the entire process and make the Observation Missions look as if they are biased in their assessment of the just-concluded presidential poll. Apart from blatantly refusing to congratulate the winner of the said poll, President Muhammadu Buhari, the PDP and its candidate have taken the battle to court apparently to cause distractions with a view to slowing down the wheels of governance in the country.

    “The PDP is still inciting the Nigerian public against the government of the day, irrespective of the fact that President Buhari had been magnanimous in victory. He has pledged to run an all-inclusive government and has even urged us, his supporters, not to gloat or humiliate the opposition, an enjoinder we have adhered strictly to the letter. We deem it fit to draw your attention to this brazen attempt to frustrate the democratic process, hoping that you will intervene by calling the PDP and its presidential candidate to order and ensure that the tenets of democracy are adhered to in the ongoing electoral process in Nigeria.

    “Atiku should follow former President Goodluck Jonathan’s example. Nobody’s life should be sacrificed for any politician’s ambition. He should abide by the agreement signed by all presidential candidates with the National Peace Committee to accept the results of the just-concluded presidential poll in good faith. Nigeria has in the past witnessed enough shedding of the blood of innocent Nigerians. If Atiku wants to help Nigerians, he should work with the Buhari-led government for a prosperous nation. He should not set Nigeria aflame with his inordinate ambition and insatiable taste for power.”

  • Our Girls; Adeyanju; AU; corruption; thugs

    Our Chibok Girls were kidnapped on April 15, 2014. Inexplicably our Dapchi girl-child, 15, Leah Sharibu is not released.

    Who is DejiAdeyanju? Google him. Is it true that he is held by an arm of the authorities for 50 days? Can this happen to a human rights activist in 2019 with elections this weekend?

    Our research economists need to get to grips with the need to assess and publicise the cost of corruption in Nigeria. Have you ever thought about the road corruption in Nigeria and its cost in the loss of billions of hours and damage to millions of lives on a daily basis?

    A very simple case study follows…. In 1976 the short-lived but at the time visionary Lagos-Ibadan Expressway brought Lagos closer to Ibadan, just one hour instead of the Sagamu nightmare or having to go through Abeokuta. But it did not last because the road was, through a moral and monetary corruption, allowed to quickly collapse structurally through criminally negligent and prosecutable zero maintenance practices even though huge sums were being raked in from tolls on the users of the deteriorating road.  All this conspired to force traffic jams and new increased time separation of Lagos from Ibadan to 3-12 agonising hours. It took five hours to get to Lagos last Sunday afternoon!!! Corruption driven roads collapse destroying the private and work lives of citizens. Hundreds of kilometres of road, initially corruptly poorly built and corruptly certified by consulting engineers under the thumb of thieving politicians believed to be demanding 30-70% of the contract sums for ‘party purposes’ as good have caused a nationwide collapse of the road network during the last 30 years. Every year we hear of budgets to redo these corruption-driven rubbish roads. No heads ever roll for signing off these badly constructed substandard roads. Just more billions down the drain. Shamefully Nigeria seems permanently retrogressive. The political class has largely led us backwards or in reverse.  The longest lasting roads are those built in the 50s and 60s. We had railways in the 50 and 60s. I was travelling from Ibadan to Zaria in 1969 for NUGA games by train and Lagos-Ibadan in 45minutes on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Not now. Those roads and railways built in the 70s and beyond just have not lasted because of political myopia, over centralisation, anti-democracy policies and base corruption of political heart and mind.  You know the Romans built roads adding to them annually and they have lasted 2000 years. Nigeria takes forever to build any small rubbish road and spends forever before rehabilitation of the same road just like with its refineries.  The cancer of corruption is in money, maintenance and execution of projects and policies. Meanwhile we rot on the Lagos-Ibadan road, not expressway so long overdue for delivery.  Google China- Pakistan Road to see real roads.

    President Al Sissiof Egypt takes over the African Union chairmanship. This AU Summit seeks cooperation across the board in health care, economic development and progress. NEPAD is changing its name to African Union Development Agency along with other reforms. The AU Free Trade Agreement is moving forward without Nigeria. The AU is seeking increases in education and health budgets to meet UN guidelines of 15% for health and 26% for education to stem the tide of displacement, economic migration and lift millions out of poverty. Did Buhari or Osinbajo attend on behalf of Nigeria or were they on the campaign trail? Charity begins at home, I suppose.

    If you kill someone directly or allow or encourage anyone under your control to kill someone, then you are a murderer and the sentence for murder is life in prison or death. If you kill someone to take political advantages or political power in your village, community or nationally, you are not only a murderer entitled to a death penalty or life imprisonment, but you are also a coup plotter. You are murdering to divert the course of democracy and change the government against the will of the people-a coup by any definition. The punishment for coup plotting is prison or death. Violence, intimidation and bribery are also part of punishable efforts to divert the course of the democratic process -a coup.  The crime of murder is not diluted because it is done in the name of politics. The dead remain dead. The injured remain injured. An orphan status is permanent and made easier because it is the result of political murder.

    Many politicians have been seen with thugs and many citizens have already suffered at their hands. Thugs recruited to divert the course of democracy often become politicians themselves.  Any politician with thugs deserves to be disqualified in a modern ‘free and fair’ electoral process in Nigeria@2019.  Unfortunately idle youth have a job of begging at events and during the political cycle. If not given free money, which some politicians have to steal from the public purse to give to thugs and run campaigns, the thugs quickly resort to rowdiness and the destruction of nearby infrastructure and destabilise the democratic process.

    A free and fair and violence free election is not a Nigerian impossibility but a political developmental necessity. It happened before. You must help. Do not encourage thugs, murder, violence, intimidation and please Vote ‘I LOVE NIGERIA’ KNOWLEDGEABLE CANDIDATES this Saturday February 16-SDG 16.

  • Congo rejects AU call to delay final election results

    Congo’s Government on Friday rejected a call by the African Union ( AU ) to delay the final results of the recent elections following reports of vote rigging.

    “This is a scandalous statement that we don’t support. You cannot give injunctions to the constitutional court from abroad,” government spokesman Lambert Mende told dpa.

    “The court will deliver its verdict and will publish the final results this weekend,’’ Mende said.

    The spokesman was responding to an AU statement released on Thursday after the bloc met in Ethiopia and concluded there were “serious doubts on the conformity of the provisional results” proclaimed by the electoral commission.

    “Accordingly, the heads of state and government called for the suspension of the proclamation of the final results of the elections.’’

    The AU supported runner-up Martin Fayulu’s appeal to Congo’s highest court to order a recount, a matter it is now deliberating.

    Several international media outlets reported on Tuesday on leaked voting data that showed that Fayulu had in fact won the polls on Dec. 30, and not another opposition candidate, Felix Tshisekedi, as the electoral authorities had said.

    Read Also: AU urges Congo to delay final election result

    Fayulu has suggested Tshisekedi and President Joseph Kabila did a back-room deal after early results showed Kabila’s chosen successor, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, finished third.

    Western powers have not congratulated Tshisekedi, and France has expressed concern over the official results which saw Tshisekedi win 38.57 per cent of the vote to Fayulu’s 34.8 per cent.

    The influential Catholic Church has backed Fayulu’s assertion that Tshisekedi didn’t win, and even Congo’s neighbours in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have urged a recount.

  • AU, AFRIMA honours Gov Ambode

    •Ghana to host next three editions of AFRIMA

    For his contributions and support towards the growth of arts and culture in Africa, Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, has been recognised by the African Union Commission, AUC, and the International Committee of the All Africa Music Awards, AFRIMA, with the special award of Supporter of the Arts at the recently concluded 5th AFRIMA, the annual music awards held in Accra, Ghana, penultimate Saturday.

    In her letter to Governor Ambode, Mrs. Amira Elfadil, Commissioner for Social Affairs, AUC, noted “this recognition is in accordance to the pivotal role the Government of Lagos State played as the Official Host City of AFRIMA awards in 2016 and 2017 which impacted on the overall AFRIMA objectives of using the awards platform to unify the African continent, while celebrating its music and cultural uniqueness.”

    The Lagos State Commissioner for Tourism, Arts, and Culture, Lagos State; Steve Ayorinde, received the award on the governor’s behalf and congratulated AFRIMA, AUC, and the government of the Republic of Ghana.

    “I am pleased to be receiving this special recognition on behalf of the Art loving governor of Lagos State who sent his apologies for not being able to make it tonight, but also sent his warm courtesies, because to him Ghana is also home,” said Ayorinde.

    “We have a saying in Lagos, we say ‘One Lagos’, and he knows that in Ghana too, it is One Ghana”.

    The special recognition is a unanimous agreement by the AUC, International Committee of AFRIMA and a 13-man AFRIMA Jury- made up of African music, media and culture experts from the five regions of Africa (2 representatives each); one from Europe and North America respectively (representing the diaspora) and a representative from AUC to recognize individuals who have contributed to the creative economy of Africa.

    Other honorary awardees include internationally recognised South African singer, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, who received the 5th AFRIMA Legend Award, and Ghana’s music veteran, Teddy Osei, founder of the famous Osibisa group, an Afropop band created in 1969. Similarly, winners also emerged from the popularised 36 awards categories (regional and continental), where music artiste had to battle it out in each genre to emerge winner of the 23.9k gold-plated AFRIMA trophy.

    Lagos hosted the four past editions of AFRIMA before this year’s edition which held in Accra. The Ghanaian government also promised to host the next three editions of the music fiesta during a courtesy visit by AFRIMA to the Ghanaian president which had the Ghana chief of staff to the president and the honorable minister for tourism in attendance.

    Speaking at the courtesy visit, AFRIMA president, Mr. Mike Dada, commended the government of Ghana for hosting the event which had been hosted by Lagos state government for the past four editions.

    “We really appreciate the government of Ghana, and our guests and media practitioners from all over Africa have also confirmed the great hospitality received from the people of Ghana, during their stay in ACCRA, the capital city of Ghana all through the period of the awards ceremony.”

    AFRIMA, in partnership with African Union, is a music property that recognises and rewards the work of African artistes. AFRIMA also stimulates conversations among Africans and between Africa and the rest of the world about the potential of the creative arts.

  • AU, AFRIMA honours Ambode

    For his contributions and support towards the growth of arts and culture in Africa, Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, has been recognised by the African Union Commission, AUC, and the International Committee of the All Africa Music Awards, AFRIMA, with the special award of Supporter of the Arts at the recently concluded 5th AFRIMA, the annual music awards held in Accra, Ghana, penultimate Saturday.

    In her letter to Governor Ambode, Mrs. Amira Elfadil, Commissioner for Social Affairs, AUC, noted “this recognition is in accordance to the pivotal role the Government of Lagos State played as the Official Host City of AFRIMA awards in 2016 and 2017 which impacted on the overall AFRIMA objectives of using the awards platform to unify the African continent, while celebrating its music and cultural uniqueness.”

    The Lagos State Commissioner for Tourism, Arts, and Culture, Lagos State; Steve Ayorinde, received the award on the governor’s behalf and congratulated AFRIMA, AUC, and the government of the Republic of Ghana.

    “I am pleased to be receiving this special recognition on behalf of the Art loving governor of Lagos State who sent his apologies for not being able to make it tonight, but also sent his warm courtesies, because to him Ghana is also home,” said Ayorinde.

    “We have a saying in Lagos, we say ‘One Lagos’, and he knows that in Ghana too, it is One Ghana”.

    The special recognition is a unanimous agreement by the AUC, International Committee of AFRIMA and a 13-man AFRIMA Jury- made up of African music, media and culture experts from the five regions of Africa (2 representatives each); one from Europe and North America respectively (representing the diaspora) and a representative from AUC to recognize individuals who have contributed to the creative economy of Africa.

    Other honorary awardees include internationally recognised South African singer, Yvonne Chaka Chaka, who received the 5th AFRIMA Legend Award, and Ghana’s music veteran, Teddy Osei, founder of the famous Osibisa group, an Afropop band created in 1969. Similarly, winners also emerged from the popularised 36 awards categories (regional and continental), where music artiste had to battle it out in each genre to emerge winner of the 23.9k gold-plated AFRIMA trophy.

    Lagos hosted the four past editions of AFRIMA before this year’s edition which held in Accra. The Ghanaian government also promised to host the next three editions of the music fiesta during a courtesy visit by AFRIMA to the Ghanaian president which had the Ghana chief of staff to the president and the honorable minister for tourism in attendance.

    Speaking at the courtesy visit, AFRIMA president, Mr. Mike Dada, commended the government of Ghana for hosting the event which had been hosted by Lagos state government for the past four editions.

    “We really appreciate the government of Ghana, and our guests and media practitioners from all over Africa have also confirmed the great hospitality received from the people of Ghana, during their stay in ACCRA, the capital city of Ghana all through the period of the awards ceremony.”

    AFRIMA, in partnership with African Union, is a music property that recognises and rewards the work of African artistes. AFRIMA also stimulates conversations among Africans and between Africa and the rest of the world about the potential of the creative arts.

  • AU, AFRIMA release Nominees List

    •Public voting to commence Monday, August 27

    A total of 79 songs made it to the Regional nominees list out of 8,009 entries submitted for the 5th All Africa Music Awards, AFRIMA, scheduled to hold in November 2018. The list was last Tuesday unveiled by the African Union Commission, AUC, and the International Jury of AFRIMA, at the Eko Hotels & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.

    The released nominees list covers the five Regional Categories divided into Female and Male categories.

    Cameroon takes up four of the eight spots in the category for Best Female Artiste in Central Africa, followed by DRC (2), and Angola (2). In the category for Best Male Artiste in Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) takes the lead with five spots followed by Cameroon (2) and Chad (1). From Eastern Africa, the female category Kenya holds three spots while Uganda takes two with Ethiopia, Rwanda and Tanzania occupying one spot respectively. In the male category, Kenya and Tanzania maintain three nominations each, with Ethiopia and Uganda registering one nomination apiece.

    The Algerian female artistes occupy four out of the six spots in the category for Best Female Artiste in Northern Africa, with Tunisia and Egypt holding one spot each. The Male category has Moroccan artistes occupying four of the eight spots, Algeria (2), Egypt and Tunisia earning one nomination each. The Southern African region is dominated by South African artistes both in the male and female categories, with a total of nine spots, followed by Zimbabwe (3), while Swaziland, Namibia, Malawi, and Zimbabwe take one spot each.

    The Western region Male category is having great contenders between Nigeria and Ghana. Holding up 4 spots is Nigeria, closely followed by Ghana (3), while Guinea and Cape Verde hold 1 spot each. The Best Female Artiste in the Western region has Nigeria and Ghana in a tie of 2 spots respectively, with Benin (1), Mali (1), Senegal (1), and Cote d’Ivoire (1).

    The spokesperson for the International Jury of AFRIMA and the Programme Director, Cameroon TV and Radio, CRTV, Mr. Robert Ekukole (representing Eastern Africa) said: “The AFRIMA Nominees list we arrived at reflects and represents the top-notch creative expressions of music talents and professionals within the relevant regions and validity period. However, we also have a challenge where some artistes failed to enter for the awards and as such missed the opportunity to be evaluated or possibly nominated for AFRIMA.”

    The AFRIMA adjudication is carried out electronically via the proprietary AFRIMA Adjudication Software, which was designed by AFRIMA in 2014, has been deployed for use since the 2015 annual adjudication process.

    Public voting opens on the AFRIMA website, www.afrima.org, on Monday, August 27, 2018 to determine who wins the coveted 23.9 carat gold-plated AFRIMA Trophy in 38 categories.

    Other activities scheduled for the main awards events is the Africa Music Business Roundtable and the AFRIMA Music Village, a music concert and cultural festival that accommodates over 40,000 music lovers to witness live performances from African artistes.