Election in Mali: On the Road to Peace or a Pathway to Crises?

President Dioncounda Traore, Mali's interim leader has met with members of two northern Tuareg separatist groups apparently for the first time in a build-up for peace to secure the elections scheduled to be held on Sunday. This move provoked anger among many in the country's south due to the rising ethnic tensions.

The aim of the election is to unify the nation after a March 2012 coup allowed Tuareg rebels and their al Qaeda-linked Islamist allies to seize the West African nation's desert north. France intervened earlier in the year, displacing the militants who have continued with brittle sporadic attacks.

The Tuareg rebels last month agreed to take their fighters off the streets in exchange for a promise of negotiations with the new government after the elections. This allowed the Malian army gained entrance into their controlled-territory. The rebels after the French-led intervention had simmered down captured some of the Islamists who outsmarted them in a 10-month long attacks.

Representatives of the MNLA and its ally, the High Council for the Unity of Azawad, was to meet with military officials to review progress in implementing the preliminary peace deal signed in neighbouring Burkina Faso. "We spoke of peace and reconciliation," Ibrahim Ag Mohamed Assale, head of external relations for the Tuareg MNLA rebels, said following the closed-door meeting at the presidential residence late on Sunday.

But many in the capital Bamako viewed the unannounced visit with the president, during which Traore broke the Muslim holy month of Ramadan's traditional daytime fast with the Tuareg leaders, as an affront. "Dioncounda may forgive them, but the people will not," said Bamako resident Youssouf Toure. This statement makes the peace after election in doubt especially if the candidate that emerges the winner is not accepted by an aggrieved party.

Light-skinned Tuaregs like the Sudanese-Arabs have been blamed for attacks on black Malians in the northern city of Kidal and for the abduction of four election workers and a deputy mayor in another northern town last week. Two of the Tuareg delegation are named in arrest warrants for alleged crimes committed during the occupation of the north. The Tuaregs had also vowed to expel all blacks from their vicinities before the peace deal; signalling a fear of another South-Sudan-Sudan-Darfur encounter.

Nigeria: More Investment Coming for Phones' Data Despite Insecurity and Erratic Power Supply

With recent moves in the adoption of rapid data-carrying smartphones, phone companies are planning to invest at least $5 billion in Nigeria. Nigeria is combating myriads of crises affecting mobile communications. The most central threat to the carriers comes from Islamist militants called Boko Haram as well as erratic power supply. The insurgents target phone company installations and well have killed thousands as well as destroyed massive properties.

The number of Nigerian smartphone users has been projected to increase to more than 35 million in 2017 from 5.6 million at the end of last year, according to researcher Informa. About 10 percent of Nigerian wireless subscribers use smartphones today. “Voice will remain the major chunk of revenue, but data is where the growth is,” Airtel’s Ogunsanya said. His company says its Nigerian business will expand at 10 percent or more this year.

The threat of bomb attacks is almost the biggest challenges facing wireless operators in Nigeria. Some days before Christmas in 2012, two suspected Islamist militants killed themselves in separate bombings that rocked offices of Airtel and MTN Group Ltd. (MTN) in northern Nigeria. MTN added 1,175 3G sites in Nigeria in 2012, almost triple its installations the previous year, while doubling capital expenditure in the country, according to the company. MTN also operates in Yemen, Iran and Afghanistan,

“It’s becoming increasingly challenging to operate” in areas where rebels are active, Segun Ogunsanya, CEO of Bharti Airtel Ltd. (BHARTI)’s Nigerian unit, said by phone. “We are not security experts,” he told Bloomberg. Nigeria remains Africa’s most populous country and is expected to grow by 7.2 percent this year, versus an average of 5.6 percent for sub-Saharan Africa, according to the International Monetary Fund. It is a major market in Africa with a population of about 160 million.

Nigeria's mobile market is also the continent’s biggest, at 114 million subscriptions. That will grow to more than 200 million subscriptions by 2017, researcher Informa Telecoms & Media predicts. The militants continue to threaten the existence of the service providers.

MTN, Nigeria’s biggest mobile-phone provider, in April said it secured a $3 billion loan to invest in the country. Globacom Ltd., the No. 2 carrier, is investing $1.25 billion to upgrade and expand its network in Nigeria. No. 3 Airtel has invested $1.2 billion in Nigeria since 2010. Emirates Telecommunications Corp. (ETISALAT), the fourth-largest carrier in the country, said its Nigerian unit has secured a $1.2 billion loan for expansion.

The numerous and fearsome attacks have drastically reduced since the declaration of the state of emergency by President Goodluck Jonathan in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states but the Islamists did not give up though; this time, mainly targeting students. Phone services which were suspended to break the communication links of the insurgents have also been restored following improvement in the security situations of these states.

We will Help Bury PDP if the Leadership Wants to Kill It ~Murtala Nyako

Governor Murtala Nyako of Adamawa state revealed that if the desire of the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is to kill the party, with injustice and unfair practices, state governors as dutiful members, would remain to help bury  the party.

Former military President General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (rtd) speaking in Minna, Niger state, yesterday after a closed-door meeting with the governors that was also attended by former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd) described the governors of Niger, Sokoto, Adamawa, Jigawa and Kano as patriots working to save the nation’s democracy.

The governors had earlier on Sunday visited former president Olusegun Obasanjo at his house in Abeokuta, Ogun state for 'consultations on how to save Nigeria.' Nyako said in Yola yesterday that five of the northern governors were in Abeokuta and Minna for consultations with the two former presidents on very important matters, saying, “We visited the most accomplished Nigerians ever and would remain so for a very long time and to consult with them on very important matters.”

Nyako further said that the visits were part of the consultations the five concerned governors were making and to also inform the two former presidents about their discomfort in the PDP and their plans ahead of the 2015 elections. He, however, expressed regret that the PDP was facing serious internal problems that are threatening its existence as a formidable political party.

Nyako said he had no plan to leave PDP in spite of the present challenges facing the party. He said that as an elder in the party, he would not abandon it even if his loyalists did, debunking the news making rounds in Adamawa state that he is planning to leave the party for the All Nigerian People's Party (ANPP) which is also part of the yet-to-be-registered APC formation.

The governor explained that it was in the quest to find solutions to the problems that made him and four other concerned governors to visit Obasanjo and other stakeholders that have the interest of the party. He said: “As a beneficiary of PDP, I am committed like others to stay with the party and give necessary pieces of advice that would move the party forward. But if the party’s national leadership is bent on killing the party, with injustice and unfair practices, as dutiful members of the party, we would remain to help bury it.”

The governor said hopefully, the ongoing consultations would yield positive result to save the PDP at the end. According to him, “If the advises being provided by the concerned members are heeded, good. But if the advises are ignored, then like others, we would have no option than, being good children of the PDP, to remain in the party up to the time it would collapse or die finally so that we could go and bury it.”