Obama and the Israeli Lobby: Challenging the Game

For years, Israel has always been the determinant of America's action in the Middle East. No President of the United States, the surviving Superpower, has successfully challenged Israel and her powerful lobby group, AIPAC (American-Israel Public Affairs Committee) but Barack Hussein Obama did. Publicly, in a joint news conference, he told Binyamin Netanyahu that the best and speedy solution to the Palestinian crisis will come if Israel reverts to the 1967 borderline. Again, the appointment of Chuck Hagel proves that the President knows what he is doing; never going to compromise the security of Israel but not going to genuflect for her or succumb to Israel's whims and caprices. Read More

The Drones: Reforming the Robots

Drones have generated hot debates around the world and have resulted into increased nightmares for many since they became President Obama's weapons of choice. The precision at which an attacking drone can target enemy combatants without civilian casualties must be looked into. On surveillance drone, it intrudes into the privacy of nations and has made a nonsense of and given total disregard to sovereignty. Time now for the drone debate and reform in the United States. Read More

Coming Victory for the Rebels in Syria?

The Syrian rebels have been resolute; short of major weapons but tried all to manufacture theirs. Armed will locally made crude weapons, they continue to face the heavy firepower from government forces. Their resilience looks like it is yielding positively with the recent capture of the Taftanaz airbase, the largest in Northern Syria in the Idlib Province. This will shore up their fighting clout due to the capture of some major weapons.

Influenza in the US

Influenza is becoming a major headache in the United States. The disease has reached an alarming rate and gradually becoming a national disaster. Read More

France and Mali: The Operation Begins

Malian soldiers have captured the key town of Konna from Islamists rebels in a major offensive backed by the French Army. The French President has said the aim of the French Army is to give life and hope to the government of Traore in Mali and this seems to be yielding positive results. Read More

Central African Republic and the Rebellion

If the agreement reached between the rebels and the government of the Central African Republic is anything to go by, then the country could be on her way out of the current fiasco. The United Nations has offered to engage more forcefully, politically, financially and diplomatically with the country and the rebels. Read More

Africa: The Angles to the stories

While South Africa is battling with various strikes, brutality and an unknown future, Kenya is brewing up in tribal conflicts in preparation for election and having sleepless nights over al Shabab in Somalia. Rwanda on her own has rejected the deployment of drones to Congo in a war she is accused of supporting the M23 rebels. Central African Republic is facing a hot contest from the rebels hell-bent on deposing the President. Nigeria has Boko Haram to deal with. Mali has become a country of bombs and land of destructions. Read More

Kenya and Technology

Kenya continues to add more medals to its giant technological stride in Africa. Safaricom finally has the iPhone 5 in stock. Unlocked (free to use on any network) 16 GB versions of the phone are now available in Safaricom shops at KSh. 109,999. CIO East Africa announced in September last year that Safaricom had plans to stock the device.

Nigeria and the Lions: Death of Tourism

                                Photo Courtesy: allafrica.com

Report released in London indicated that various species of lions in Nigeria and other countries in West Africa face increasing decline and are most probably on the verge of extinction in few years if nothing is done to redress the ugly trend.

While countries in East Africa are waking up everyday to the benefits of  tourism and making all attempts to stop the extinction of lions and other wildlife animals.

West Africa is completely sleeping. Nigeria's tourism can earn her billions of naira in foreign exchange  but the easy oil cash which encourages corruption is preventing all investments in the sector.

 The Yankari Games Reserve is almost dead. With the Islamists in Mali now and Boko Haram in Nigeria, one wonders if any tourist sector will survive in West Africa because all the regions that these two operate in are the best for wildlife and tourism; Northern Nigeria and Northern Mali

Growing up in Africa

The elections of both Sierra Leone and Ghana show a brighter side for Africa. The two countries are models to copy from. Despite all the catastrophes in Nigeria, Somalia, Mali, DR Congo, Central African Republic, Egypt not excluding the building political turmoil in Kenya, Africa with these two can boast of better days ahead. Read More

US and Afghanistan: A Future Ready

The United States' President, Barack Obama and Hamid Karzai have discussed the kind of future that is possible for Afghanistan. The US troops as known will not totally withdraw in full as more needs to be done on the Afghan security forces.A good percentage of US troops will remain in Afghanistan for training and advisory purposes. Read More

France and Mali: State of Emergency Declared

The government of Mali has declared a state of emergency to allow the French troops perform perfectly in the country. The Islamists linked to al Qaeda has been destroying the historical artefacts and monuments in Mali. The UN has already given ECOWAS the go-ahead to combat the rebels but no action has been taken. The coming of France is a relief to Traore and his regime. Read More

From Israel to Palestine

Palestinian youths discuss their ordeal and treatment in Israeli jails. Read More

Aljazeera and US

For a long period of time, Aljazeera has tried all its best to break into the media outfit of the United States. She continues to display the demand in her online news centre calling for citizens to demand Aljazeera in the United States. Despite being a land of media freedom, the US is averse to Aljazeera. Why? The history of Aljazeera is that of Western antagonism but along the line, she dropped this aspect and became kind of objective on Western actions especially that of the United States. Now, it has a breakthrough into the US news market. Read More

Palestinian shot dead by Israel

A Palestinian farmer has been shot dead in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical sources say.

A health ministry official said the 22-year-old man was hit by Israeli army fire near Jabaliya refugee camp, in the north of the coastal territory.

US and Afghanistan: Discussing a Future

President Barack Hussein Obama has welcomed his counterpart from Afghanistan, Hamid Kazai to the White House to discuss the future of Afghanistan. The United States has until 2014 as her deadline to stay in the country. There would be bilateral arrangement and agreement on security, peace talks with the Taliban, Afghan elections and other allied matters because the current level of Afghan combat readiness and control of insurgency is still not fully recommendable. Read More

Freedom: Shaking up the Shura in Saudi Arabia

The agitation for freedom around the world is beginning to yield dividends. Women are crucial to the development of  a nation and any attempt to subvert their freedom is creating a loophole for doom. The realisation of this has made King Abdullah move to a revolutionary stance by appointing women into his cabinet.

For the first time, Saudi Arabian women will advise the king on policy and legislation. King Abdullah appointed 30 female advisors to the all-male Consultative Council. They will have a separate entrance to the chamber and sit apart from the men. Read More

Noises from Nigeria

The recent interview granted the erstwhile President of Nigeria, President Olusegun Obasanjo by CNN and the uproar it generated within the government circle is nothing but mere noises as usual. Obasanjo's outburst of the endemic corruption in the Jonathan administration is not untrue but the basis of that outburst can be questioned likewise that of the government handling of the Boko Haram menace. Obasanjo traveled to Britain to launch a foundation for African children, one wonders how many African countries he visited before going to Britain. Is his action not a kind of writing his own continent off?

Besides, the whole saga between the strong man of Owu and the Otu-oke don revolves around 2015; who gets what, when and how. Abati, the media spokesman of the President, Goodluck Jonathan  is the worst of all. He came out publicly to say his boss needs no lecture from anybody on how to tackle insurgency. One begins to wonder if the United States' counter-terrorists experts requested for by his boss are coming just to sleep with no advise and ways of actions. Saying his boss has the best way to tackle the Boko Haram insurgency is confirming his own stupidity and the regime's ineptitude.

Education and Africa: What Future?

The government of Mali has ordered the closure of schools around Bamako due to the attacks of the Islamists. Mali is not the only one in this quagmire. In Northern Nigeria, Boko Haram has made education so uninteresting in a region in diehard need of learning and enlightenment. The activities of the Boko Haram sect has turned schools into fearful environmernts. DR Congo is having sleepless nights. Despite the unilateral ceasefire of the M23 rebels, no one knows what to come next.

Joseph Kony continues to recruit child soldiers, thereby creating a bleak and militarised future for these young ones in Uganda. Central African Republic is having lots of nightmares due to rebels' activities which, just like Mali, could soon totally affect education. Somalia for decades have no functioning educational system. Though Kenya is recording giant strides in learning and innovation but with the various tribal wars, it is just a matter of time before the deja vu of 2008 is witnessed and youths result  into weapons handling.

Africa lost out in the heinous slave trade, became retarded with colonialism, got stagnant with neo-colonialism and now destroying itself with leadership greed in the globalisation age. Without the education of its youths, Africa can never meet up with the global pace. The leaders are not in any way interested in this.

 Their main concern and issue is how to perpetuate themselves in power and keep on embezzling as if the 'thrones' are their families' properties. It is high time African youths stood up and fight this dieing future wholeheartedly otherwise we will be snail when the world becomes an eagle tomorrow. They have succeeded in infesting our minds with tribalism and carry out the divisive religious campaigns with great dexterity so our voice will never be one and united. Ours is the future and the time is now.

France and Mali

French President, Francois Hollande has made known the intention of his government to support the government of Traore militarily in mali if the Islamist Rebels did not halt their advance.Hollande said the 'Islamists are trying to deliver a fatal blow to the very existence of this country'. He also said France will only work within the authorisation of the United Nations. Long before now, the United Nations has given the regional body, ECOWAS, a green light to stem the tide and advance of the rebels but so far, no cogent action has been taken.

Afghanistan: Lesson of Foreign Wars

                            Afghan President: Hamed karzai
Photo Courtesy: Google Images

The Pentagon and White House are stylishly speeding up withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. The United States has always made the noise of not negotiating with terrorists. An idea she has rammed into the throats of many who never knew how indirectly desperate she has been to talk to the Taliban. Now, the meeting of Panetta and Karzai proves that Washington is wearied. From Vietnam to USSR's Afghanistan down to Somalia, back to Iraq and US' Afghanistan today, no major power has successfully won any foreign interventionist war outrightly. Napoleon Bonaparte and the French Army should have been an everlasting lesson but Washington is drunk in the euphoria of being the only superpower. Iran should be off her table.

The Dilemma in Syria

                                Photo Courtesy: Google Images

The headache in Syria happens to be double now. The first surrounds Assad's usage of chemical weapons if the regime is about to completely fall and no alternative exists. Another is the hysteria about the post-Assad era. Who will get hold of the chemical weapons? In the event that the weapons fall into wrong hands, how can they be tamed? That will definately be a death trap for any foreign troops just like Somalia. It seems the best open alternative now is to talk Assad out of power.