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Falana: Obama hasn’t added value to Africa

Lagos lawyer Femi Falana (SAN) has said American President Barack Obama’s current tour of three African countries has not added value to the continent.

Obama is on tour of three African countries – Tanzania, Senegal and South Africa – to promote trade and development as well as deepen democracy on the continent.

The US President also met with some young African leaders, entrepreneurs and activists at various Town Hall meetings in Dakar and Cape Town, where he motivated the future African leaders to take their destiny in their hands.

But Falana noted that the Obama administration has not added anything to the policies he inherited from the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations. The frontline lawyer criticised the American President for lacking commitment to arrest capital flight from African countries to the West and other parts of the world.

He noted that this would have guaranteed the development of Africa.

Falana described Obama’s African perspective as reactionary.

He said the protests, which greeted him in South Africa, were justified.

Falana added: “It is symbolic that the first African American President is being challenged in Africa for not fulfilling his promise to stop the United States’ Government from violating the human rights of oppressed people all over the world.”

July 3, 2013
Africa should say no to terrorism – Obama

Despite the alarming rate of violence being perpetrated by the Islamic sect, Boko Haram, US President Barack Obama has stated that America is tired of fighting wars and may not intervene directly.

He said this during a Town Hall meeting with young African students and leaders in Soweto, South Africa. It was part of activities lined up for his three-nation African visit.

Reacting to a question from a Nigerian via satellite bordering on a US intervention in the Boko Haram crisis, Obama said the US was going to be less direct in its involvement in global conflicts. He said, “There are some extremist groups that would not compromise or work through a democratic process. And we have to also be realistic about that and what we want to do is partner with African countries to figure out how we can help.”

On that score, Obama said, “We can provide advice and training and in some cases, equipment, but, we would love nothing more than for Africa to collectively say no to extremism, say no to terrorism, to say no to sectarianism, which in the case of Boko Haram, for example, is an example for essentially a religious rationale for this kind of violence.”

Debunking a notion of America’s eagerness to expand its military reach, Obama who expressed weariness over the death of American soldiers said, “Every week, I’m writing letters to the families of fallen soldiers. Sometimes, I go to Arlington National Cemetery where our heroes are buried and I hug those families and feel their sobs on my shoulders.

“This idea that we want to get more involved militarily around the world is simply not true. First of all, it costs a lot of money. And the United States, just like every country around the world, has to think about its budget. And where we intervene often times, it’s not always very effective because unless you’ve got a local population that is standing up against terrorism, we end up being viewed as interlopers and intruders. So, on the African contest, what we want to do is to build African capacity. We want the African Union and other regional organisations to build up that capacity to send in peace-keepers, to be able to nip terrorist cells that may be forming before they start and gain spring.”

He, however, said the US would confront attacks on its embassies and citizens. “What we won’t do,” Obama said, “is just stand by if our embassy is being attacked or our people are in vulnerable situations. And we expect countries to work with us to try to deal with some of these threats. This is a global issue.”

Obama also urged the youths to take charge of their future, especially the economics. He said; “I want to make sure that as countries come to Africa, they are benefiting Africa. If somebody’s building a road in Africa, make sure they’re hiring some Africans. If there’s going to be manufacturing taking place of raw materials, locate some of those plants here in Africa. So, I do want to make sure that as you enter into government or business, whoever you’re dealing with, make sure you get a good deal that will benefit the people here and can help to spur on broad-based development. And hopefully, that’s the kind of relationship you’ll be able to develop with the United States of America.”

The US President also harped on the need for African entrepreneurs to strive to operate on a global scale, saying that six of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world were in Africa.

“We’re in a global economy with a global chain,” Obama said. “And I don’t want Africa to continually be at the bottom of the supply chain. You produce the raw material so cheap and then all the way up the chain somebody else is making all the money and creating the jobs and the value. So, part of your generation’s challenge will be making sure that first of all, you have a transparent, accountable, non-corrupt, open government because economic development is not going to happen in the absence of that kind of certainty.”

Earlier in his address to the youths, Obama said, “no matter how old you grow, I say to you today. “Don’t lose those qualities of youth – your imagination, your optimism, your idealism, because the future of this continent is in your hands. And if you keep your head pointed towards the sun, if you keep your feet moving forward, I promise you will have no better friend and partner than the United States of America.”

Obama also spoke on the need to tackle food insecurity and environmental challenges like global warming across the continent. The Town Hall meeting which was organised by the Young African Leadership Initiatives had contributions from youth leaders across the African continent.

June 30, 2013
Obama hails Mandela’s ‘inspiration’

United States President, Barack Obama, has praised Nelson Mandela as “an inspiration to the world,” during his visit to South Africa.

BBC says he was speaking in the executive capital, Pretoria, after talks with President Jacob Zuma.

Mr. Mandela, South Africa’s first black president, has been critically ill for nearly a week.

Mr.Obama said he would not visit the 94-year-old in hospital, but would meet his family in private.

The White House said the decision had been made “out of deference to Mandela’s peace and comfort and the family’s wishes”, but that Mr. Obama and his wife would offer the Mandela family “their thoughts and prayers at this difficult time.”

Mr .Zuma said the former leader remained “stable but critical”, but said he had “every hope that he will be out of hospital soon.”

Meanwhile, riot police have clashed with protesters outside a university in the Johannesburg township of Soweto, where Mr. Obama is due to speak to students.

June 29, 2013
Obama storms S/Africa with message for Africans

President Barack Obama of the US last night landed in South Africa, the second stop in his three-country tour of Africa,with a message he hoped would draw on the lessons of the hospitalised Nelson Mandela’s own life.

The former South Africa president is spending his 21st day in a Pretoria hospital for treatment of a recurring lung infection.

His ex-wife, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, after a visit to him yesterday, said the former leader had made “a great improvement” in recent days, but was “still unwell.”

Mr.Obama told reporters on board Air Force One yesterday that the major lesson from Mandela’s life is “that if we focus on what Africa as a continent can do together and what these countries can do when they’re unified, as opposed to when they’re divided by tribe or race or religion, then Africa’s rise will continue.

“And that’s one of the central lessons of what Nelson Mandela accomplished not just as President, but in the struggle to overcome apartheid and his years in prison.”

Mr Obama said he did not expect to see Mandela on his sickbed.

“We’ll see what the situation is when we land. I don’t need a photo-op, and the last thing I want to do is to be in any way obtrusive at a time when the family is concerned about Nelson Mandela’s condition. I’ve had the opportunity to meet with him. Michelle and the girls had an opportunity to meet with him. Right now, our main concern is with his wellbeing, his comfort, and with the family’s wellbeing and comfort,” he said.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela,speaking to reporters outside Mandela’s former home in the Johannesburg township of Soweto said: ”I’m not a doctor, but I can say that from what he was a few days ago, there is great improvement.”

But, she added, he remained “clinically unwell”.

While well-wishers and journalists crowded outside the hospital in the capital, Pretoria, where Mandela is being treated, a few blocks away, hundreds of demonstrators protested against Obama’s visit, some burning U.S. flags.

Nearly 1,000 trade unionists, Muslim activists and South African Communist Party members marched to the U.S. Embassy, shouting slogans denouncing Obama’s foreign policy as “arrogant and oppressive”.

Muslim activists held prayers in a car park outside the embassy. Leader Imam Sayeed Mohammed told the group: “We hope that Mandela feels better and that Obama can learn from him.”

South African critics of Obama have focused in particular on his support for U.S. drone strikes overseas which they say have killed hundreds of innocent civilians, and his failure to fulfil a pledge to close the U.S. military detention centre at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, housing terrorism suspects.

Protesters said the first African-American president should not try to link himself to the anti-apartheid figure.

“Mandela valued human life … Mandela would condemn drone attacks and civilian deaths; Mandela cannot be his hero; he cannot be on that list,” said Yousha Tayob.

Not far away at the Pretoria heart hospital, some of the people paying tributes to Mandela had words of praise for Obama who met Mandela in 2005 when he was still a U.S. senator.

Nigerian painter, Sanusi Olatunji, 31, had brought portraits of both Mandela and Obama to the wall of the hospital where flowers, tribute notes and gifts for Madiba, as Mandela is affectionately known, have been piling up.

June 29, 2013
Obama can’t skirt tough issues in Africa

PRESIDENT OBAMA’S tour of Africa this week has been defined as much by the countries he is skipping as those he is visiting. Among those excluded from the itinerary are Kenya, the homeland of Mr. Obama’s father, where the newly elected president and vice president are under indictment by the International Criminal Court; and Nigeria, the continent’s most populous country, which recently was accused by the State Department of “gross human rights violations” in its campaign against Islamic extremists.

Mr. Obama instead is visiting South Africa, whose iconic leader Nelson Mandela appears near death; and two small, untroubled nations, Senegal and Tanzania. That’s in keeping with the themes of the trip outlined by the White House: the promotion of U.S. trade and investment in a continent where economic growth is picking up and support for democratic institutions. Mr. Obama also wants to encourage a new generation of African leaders, though he may find himself eulogizing, in Mr. Mandela, one of the greats of the past.

As African leaders frequently note, the president’s outreach is overdue. It has been four years since his previous, 20-hour visit to Africa as president, a stretch during which he has made multiple visits to Asia and Latin America. During that time China has made a major push to extend its influence in Africa and, in some important ways, has succeeded: At $200 billion, its annual trade with the continent is twice that of the United States. During regular visits by its presidents, including one by new leader Xi Jinping in March, Beijing has been showering governments with billions in aid, with no apparent political strings.

Mr. Obama can’t match that largesse, but he could, directly or otherwise, draw distinctions between the forms of engagement offered by China and the United States. The president will hold an interactive town hall meeting in South Africa, something Mr. Xi would never hazard. Mr. Obama’s support for democracy offers an opportunity for contrast with China’s unqualified backing for strongmen like Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe and Omar Hassan al-Bashir in Sudan.

What the president should not do is use his tame schedule to dodge the continent’s toughest problems. These include not only lingering dictatorships but the rise of Islamic terrorist groups in northern Africa and continuing conflicts in Sudan and the Congo, which Mr. Xi visited. In an interview earlier this year, Mr. Obama wondered why the United States should consider intervention in Syria, rather than Congo. Since then, his administration successfully co-sponsored a U.N. Security Council resolution that mandated the dispatch of a 3,000-strong U.N. “intervention brigade,” including troops from South Africa and Tanzania, to carry out offensive operations against Congolese rebels. That was the right call. Perhaps Mr. Obama can now explain why he believes such outside intervention is merited in Congo, but not in Syria.

– Washington Post

June 28, 2013
Obama calls Mandela a ‘personal hero’

President Barack Obama, whose tour of Africa this week includes a stop in South Africa, yesterday said his thoughts were with the nation’s citizens as anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela remains critically ill.

“He is a personal hero, but I’m not unique in that regard,” Obama told CNN Chief White House Correspondent Jessica Yellin in Dakar, Senegal, the first stop of his African tour.

“I think he’s a hero for the world and if/when he passes, we know his legacy will linger on throughout the ages,” the president said.

Obama’s visit to South Africa on Saturday will include a visit to Robben Island, where Mandela spent a majority of his prison term. The White House schedule does not include a visit with the anti-apartheid icon.

After South Africa, Obama heads to Tanzania, his last stop before he heads back to Washington.

June 28, 2013
‘Mandela opened his eyes, smiled after being told of Obama’s visit’

President Barack Obama’s imminent visit to South Africa excited ailing former President Nelson Mandela, his daughter said yesterday.

Zindzi Mandela said she said to her father: “Obama is coming. He opened his eyes and gave me a smile.”

She was speaking after relatives and chief members of Mandela’s clan gathered for a meeting at his rural home in Qunu, Eastern Cape province, yesterday morning.

Among those who arrived at the homestead were his grandson Mandla Mandela and other family members, Thanduxolo Mandela, Ndaba Mandela, and Ndileka Mandela.

A South Africa Press Association correspondent said the meeting followed an “urgent call” reportedly made by the former president’s children and quoted Napilisi Mandela, an elder in the Mandela family, as saying the meeting was being called “to discuss delicate matters.”

The 94-year-old remains in a critical condition, South Africa’s government said Tuesday as relatives gathered at his home for a family meeting that local media reports described as “urgent.”

The anti-apartheid campaigner and democracy icon has been in hospital with a lung infection since June 8. His condition was downgraded over the weekend from “serious but stable” to “critical.”

Obama is due to arrive Senegal this night, his first stop in a tour of Africa, before heading to South Africa on Friday.

Officials have said it is up to Mandela’s family to decide if the former leader is well enough to meet the president, and no meeting is scheduled.

United States Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes said: “On the Mandela question, I should have added, we, of course, while we’re in South Africa, are going to be very deferential to the Mandela family in terms of any interaction that the President may have with the Mandela family or with Nelson Mandela. Ultimately, we want whatever is in the best interest of his health and the peace of mind of the Mandela family. And so we’ll be driven by their own determinations in that regard.

“We’ll be in touch with them. The President wants to support them in any way. He’s supporting them with his thoughts and prayers as it is. And if he has an opportunity to see the family in some capacity, that’s certainly something that we may do. And he’ll be going to Robben Island as well, which I think will be an important and powerful symbol at this time when the world has Nelson Mandela in their prayers.

“I would just add that the President has always seen Nelson Mandela as one of his personal heroes. And he was honored — well, first of all, his first political activism, when he was in college, was driven by the Anti-Apartheid Movement and the inspiration of Nelson Mandela. And carrying that forward, he was honored to meet him in Washington in 2005. He was very moved that Nelson Mandela called him after the 2008 election and spoke to him several times in the years.

“The First Family… will visit Robben Island and have the opportunity to take in the remarkable history there and pay tribute to the extraordinary sacrifices made by Nelson Mandela in his pursuit of freedom for the people of South Africa as well as so many other figures in the anti-apartheid movement.”

In an interview with CNN on Monday, Mandela’s other daughter, Makaziwe, said she believed her father was “at peace with himself.”

Asked if the family should “let him go,” she said they wouldn’t because he had not asked them to.

Tuesday’s news of Mandela’s unchanged condition deepened the sense of gloom among a 50-strong crowd of well-wishers gathered outside the Pretoria hospital where Mandela is being treated.

Mingling with television reporters, they strained to hear the details of reports on the health of a man they knows as “Tata Mandala” – Father Mandela.

The perimeter wall of the hospital is now plastered with goodwill messages. Early Tuesday, more than 100 white doves were released – a symbol of peace for the Nobel Peace Prize winner.

“It’s a mix of emotion, because he’s feeling pain. But on the other side we want him to survive”, said Nhlanhla Mhlong. “If he cannot survive then we want him to be released from the pain.”

It is a deeply painful time for those closest to Nelson Mandela.

Mac Maharaj was jailed alongside Mandela at Robben Island. Now, as one of the former leader’s official press spokesmen, he must field calls about his friend’s frail health.

“I have to make a conscious effort in this job to put aside my feelings,” Maharaj said.

June 26, 2013
Why Obama can’t visit Nigeria, by U.S. Deputy NSA

Fresh facts emerged yesterday that security challenges facing the nation might have accounted for Nigeria’s exclusion from American President Barack Obama’s three-nation shuttle to Africa.

But the exclusion will not affect bilateral relations between the United States and Nigeria.

Obama said the trip would focus on trade and investment, democratic institution-building, young people and unleashing economic growth.

The clarifications were made at a joint briefing by American Deputy National Security Advisor, Mr Ben Rhodes.

The briefing was addressed jointly by the Senior Director for African Affairs, Grant Harris, and Senior Director for Development and Democracy, Gayle Smith, on President Obama’s upcoming visit to Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania.

The text of the briefing was made available to reporters yesterday in Abuja by the Information Office of the Public Affairs Section of the US Embassy.

Rhodes said: “With respect to Nigeria, we certainly believe that Nigeria is a fundamentally important country to the future of Africa. We’ve put a lot of investment in the relationship with Nigeria through their leadership of ECOWAS, through the significant U.S. business investment in Nigeria and through our security cooperation.

“Obviously, Nigeria is working through some very challenging security issues right now. And in that process, they’re going to be a partner of the United States. We certainly believe we’ll have an opportunity to further engage the Nigerian government through bilateral meetings going forward. But at this point, we just were not able to make it to Nigeria on this particular itinerary.

“I will say that we purposefully designed the itineraries to be able to reach West Africa, South Africa and East Africa, and in West Africa, to visit Senegal, a French-speaking, Muslim-majority democracy that is an important partner of the United States and provides a platform for the President to speak to the broader region.”

June 26, 2013
Why Obama can’t visit Nigeria – US Deputy NSA

Fresh facts emerged on Tuesday that security challenges facing the nation might have accounted for Nigeria’s exclusion from President Barack Obama’s three-nation shuttle to Africa.

But the exclusion will not affect bilateral relations between the United States and Nigeria.

The U.S government said the trip will focus on trade and investment, democratic institution-building, young people, and unleashing economic growth.

The clarifications were made at a briefing by American Deputy National Security Advisor, Ben Rhodes.

The joint briefing was addressed jointly with the Senior Director for African Affairs Grant Harris and Senior Director for Development and Democracy Gayle Smith, on President Obama’s upcoming visit to Senegal, South Africa and Tanzania.

The text of the briefing was made available to journalists in Abuja on Tuesday by the Information Office of the Public Affairs Section of the U.S Embassy.

Rhodes said: “With respect to Nigeria, we certainly believe that Nigeria is a fundamentally important country to the future of Africa. We’ve put a lot of investment in the relationship with Nigeria through their leadership of ECOWAS, through the significant U.S. business investment in Nigeria and through our security cooperation.

“Obviously, Nigeria is working through some very challenging security issues right now. And in that process, they’re going to be a partner of the United States. We certainly believe we’ll have an opportunity to further engage the Nigerian government through bilateral meetings going forward. But at this point, we just were not able to make it to Nigeria on this particular itinerary.

“I will say that we purposefully designed the itineraries to be able to reach West Africa, South Africa and East Africa, and in West Africa, to visit Senegal, a French-speaking, Muslim-majority democracy that is an important partner of the United States and also provides a platform for the President to speak to the broader region.

“We are also looking at ways, at the President’s town hall in South Africa with young African leaders, to draw in through technology young people in Nigeria and in Kenya, among other places, so that the President is using this trip to speak to the broader African audience. We recognize we’d like to go to as many countries as possible.

“Time only permits us to go to these three. But we want to make sure that in each country we’re speaking to the broader region. And we’re going to make use of technology and other means to do so.

“And to the middle question, the Africans who have been frustrated — look, I think it points back to Andrea’s first question. This is a region that, frankly, has been underrepresented in our travel. And for all these questions of why the President is going to Africa, I think the question that we’ve been getting is why hasn’t the President been in Africa more?”

June 25, 2013
U.S immigration reform gains momentum

A bill to overhaul the United States immigration system has passed a key hurdle after the Senate approved a $38bn (£24bn) increase in border security.

After Monday night’s 67-27 vote on the bill, the centrepiece of which is a path to citizenship for undocumented migrants, is seen as likely to pass.

The tough border security measures and increased spending were needed to win Republican votes, analysts told the BBC.

The bill faces a tougher road in the more conservative House.

As the Senate voted on Monday, President Barack Obama urged Congress to act quickly on the legislation.

“Now is the time to do it,” Mr. Obama said at the White House before meeting business executives supporting immigration reform.

“I hope that we can get the strongest possible vote out of the Senate so that we can then move to the House and get this done before the summer break.”

The heart of the bill is a 13-year-long path to legal status for many of the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the US.

The bill also creates or expands visa programmes for high-skilled and agricultural workers.

The border security amendment by Republicans John Hoeven of North Dakota and Bob Corker of Tennessee would double the number of border patrol agents to 40,000 and fund the construction of 700 miles of border fencing.

June 25, 2013