Africa
Africa needs to end poverty to earn respect globally — Adesina
Africa needs to end poverty to earn respect globally — Adesina
Africa will not earn respect globally until we end poverty at scale, says Dr Akinwumi Adesina, President, African Development Bank, AfDB.
Mr Adesina stated this on Tuesday, in Lagos at the 40th Anniversary Lecture of The Guardian and the Public Presentation of the Guardian Federalist Papers titled, “Federalism is the Answer.”
Speaking on the topic of the lecture, “For the World to Respect Africa,” Adesina said for way too long, Africa had allowed poverty to linger pervasively in the midst of plenty.
According to him, poverty, is abnormal, especially when resources are vast and when it has been pervasive for so long.
He said Africa should not become a museum of poverty, adding that to reverse this trend, there must be a public accountability component.
Expressing disappointment in the continents current state, Adesina said poverty must not become the comparative advantage of Africa, despite housing half of the world’s gold and one-third of all the minerals in the world.
“Our governments must realise that it is their responsibility to lift all their people out of poverty and into wealth as fast as possible.
“It is doable. We have seen clear examples of such progress in other regions of the world, especially in Asia over the past three decades.
“There is no reason why acute poverty cannot be eradicated in Nigeria and across Africa. We have to become a continent that grows inclusive and well distributed wealth.”
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Using South Korea as an example, Adesina said the country moved from GDP per capita that was $350 in the 1960s when it got independence, to approximately $33,000 in 2023.
This, he said, is the kind of quantum leap that Africa needs rather than attempting to alleviate poverty.
“We must really ask ourselves, when will we make the shift that South Korea made from being a country that was one at the low end of the development ladder to a rich, industrialised nation that it is today?
“We simply must turn the tide. Ultimately, we must put ourselves in a position where we also can give. that is how Africa will earn respect,” Adesina said.
Speaking on resources, Adesina said there was something fundamentally wrong in the management of natural resources.
He noted that if natural resources continued to be mismanaged, Africa would remain stuck.
“Consequently, in the midst of plenty, majority of people remain poor. I have urged African governments to stop securing loans backed by their natural resources.
“That is because those natural resource backed loans are not transparent. They are expensive and make debt resolution very difficult.”
The AfDB president said the resources of a country do not belong in the pockets of powerful and rich individuals but for the benefit of the people of that country.
Africa needs to end poverty to earn respect globally — Adesina
Africa
S’Africa: Prison warden in court for stabbing girlfriend 25 times
S’Africa: Prison warden in court for stabbing girlfriend 25 times
A Department of Correctional Services (DCS) warden allegedly stabbed his girlfriend over 25 times in front of her 9-year-old son in South Africa.
The suspect, Kakuhle Mpongoma, made an appearance in the Mthatha Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, March 4, 2025, where he was charged with attempted murder.
According to the National Prosecuting Authority, Mpongoma also faces assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm charges.
The 39-year-old is employed as a warden at the Wellington Facility.
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Explaining the merits of the case, Eastern Cape NPA spokesperson Luxolo Tyali said the accused allegedly st@bbed his girlfriend more than 25 times all over her body and assaulted his girlfriend’s domestic worker.
“The girlfriend is currently in the intensive care unit (ICU) in the hospital and unable to talk,” Tyali stated.
“The attack on the two women last weekend was allegedly witnessed by the couple’s nine-year-old son.”
The NPA said the matter was adjourned to March 11, 2025 for a formal bail application. Tyali said the State plan to oppose the application.
S’Africa: Prison warden in court for stabbing girlfriend 25 times
Africa
Ghanaian lawmakers reintroduce controversial anti-LGBT bill
Ghanaian lawmakers reintroduce controversial anti-LGBT bill
A group of 10 MPs in Ghana have resubmitted a controversial bill that would impose some of the toughest restrictions on LGBT rights in Africa.
The bill prescribes a three-year jail term for people who identify as gay, and five to 10 years for promoters and advocates.
The legislation was passed by parliament last year, but the former president, Akufo Addo, declined to sign it into law before leaving office in January, citing legal challenges.
It has been widely condemned by both local and international human rights groups, with some describing it as draconian.
The original bill expired at the end of the previous parliament. It’s unclear whether the speaker of the new parliament will admit the bill for consideration.
Gay sex is already punishable by up to three years in prison in the conservative West African country.
President John Dramani Mahama has said he would prefer the bill to be state-sponsored, ensuring broader support and consultation.
“I do think that we should have a conversation on it again so that all of us, if we decide to move that bill forward, move it forward with a consensus”, he said.
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Supporters claim the legislation would help preserve what they consider to be Ghanaian culture and family values.
However rights groups have decried the legislation as draconian.
“The anti-LGBT rights bill is inconsistent with Ghana’s long-standing tradition of peace, tolerance, and hospitality and flies in the face of the country’s international human rights obligations,” said Human Rights Watch researcher Larissa Kojoué last year.
“Such a law would not only further erode the rule of law in Ghana, but could also lead to further gratuitous violence against LGBT people and their allies.”
Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi, a Ghanaian trans woman and LGBT activist, told the Reuters news agency the bill’s reintroduction was “disheartening and hard to process” but insisted LGBT activism would continue.
The bill’s potential impact on Ghana’s economy is a significant concern.
The country’s former finance minister warned that passing the bill could result in Ghana losing up to $3.8bn (£2.9bn) in development funding from the World Bank and affecting its $3 billion (£2.3bn) IMF support programme.
Opposition lawmaker John Ntim Fordjour told Reuters the country no longer needed to fear economic sanctions, citing the election of US President Donald Trump.
“The global political climate is favourable for conservative values as demonstrated in the bold conservative pronouncements of President Donald Trump,” he said.
The bill was first introduced to parliament in 2021 but has faced many delays.
Ghanaian lawmakers reintroduce controversial anti-LGBT bill
BBC
Africa
No sheep for Eid, king tells Moroccans
No sheep for Eid, king tells Moroccans
King Mohammed VI has asked Moroccans to abstain from performing the Muslim rite of slaughtering sheep during Eid al-Adha this year due to a sharp drop in the country’s herd.
The shortages are blamed on seven years of drought.
Eid al-Adha, which falls in June, commemorates the willingness of Prophet Ibrahim, or Abraham, to sacrifice his son on God’s command.
Muslims mark the event by slaughtering sheep or other animals and the meat is shared among family and donated to the poor.
But herds in Morocco have shrunk by 38% in a decade due to dry pastures, according to official data.
Meat prices are rocketing, and 100,000 sheep are being imported from Australia.
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Performing the rite “under these difficult circumstances will cause significant harm to large segments of our people, especially those with limited income,” King Mohammed VI said in a speech read by the minister of religious affairs on national television on Wednesday.
His father, Hassan II, made the same appeal back in 1966 when Morocco also suffered a long drought.
Explaining the challenge in a recent interview, Morocco’s agriculture minister, Ahmed Bouari, said “the need to secure water for priority sectors, such as driving and industry” meant that agriculture was the worst-hit, “with most irrigation areas subject to strict regulations and water rationing”.
Import tax and VAT on cattle, sheep, camels and red meat were recently lifted to help stabilise prices across Morocco.
No sheep for Eid, king tells Moroccans
BBC
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