The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and the UN on Tuesday pledged to develop capacity of the Somali security forces to eliminate all forms of human rights violations.
Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission for Somalia Francisco Madeira reiterated the urgent need to boost the capacity of the security forces, both at the federal and regional states level, to curb the vice.
“AMISOM is happy to support the Somali national security forces, the regional states and the Federal Government of Somalia to ensure the elimination of all forms of violence against women and children including conflict-related sexual violence,” Madeira said in a statement issued in Mogadishu.
The AU envoy was speaking at a joint AMISOM-UN trainer of trainers meeting on the prevention of conflict-related sexual violence for the Somali national security forces, attended by participants from both federal and state governments.
Both the AU and the UN pledged to continue mobilising resources and providing specialized training to the Somali security forces during the transition period to prepare the officers for the handover of security responsibility.
Madeira described sexual violence as a crime against humanity and violation of women and children’s rights.
Madeira noted that the mission has taken measures to end sexual and gender-based violence by working to prevent its occurrence, facilitating response to incidents and advocating for the availability of resources to meet the needs of survivors.
He said the deployment of women protection and child protection officers to AMISOM is a significant step to ensuring that the security forces and the government of Somalia are supported accordingly.
Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General Peter de Clercq described conflict-related sexual violence as a critical protection concern in Somalia, which needs to be tackled decisively.
“As part of the transition plan, Somali security forces need to be ready and able to address all security issues including human security, hence, understanding how to address conflict-related sexual violence is vitally important,” de Clercq said. (Xinhua/NAN)
The Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen said it launched a missile at Jizan Economic City in southern Saudi Arabia, Houthi-run al-Masirah TV reported on Tuesday.
It was not clear if the missile had reached its target and there was no immediate comment from Saudi officials.
The Houthis have launched several missiles at Saudi cities in recent months, most of which have been intercepted by Saudi air defence forces.
Earlier, Saudi Arabia’s air defence forces said they intercepted a missile launched toward the kingdom’s southwestern Jizan region by Yemen’s armed Houthi movement.
The Houthi-run al-Masirah TV said earlier that a Badr 1 missile had targeted Jizan Economic City, where Saudi Aramco is building a 400,000-barrel-per-day refinery that is expected to become fully operational in 2019.
There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
The Iran-aligned Houthis, who control Yemen’s capital Sanaa, have fired dozens of missiles into the kingdom in recent months, part of a three-year-old conflict widely seen as a proxy battle between regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Most of the missiles have been intercepted by the Saudi military.
A military coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates intervened in Yemen’s war in 2015 to unseat the Houthis and restore the internationally-recognized government in exile.
The Western-backed coalition has made no major gains in an offensive launched a month ago to wrest control of Yemen’s Hodeidah port from the Houthis, leaving it without the decisive increase in leverage it had sought against the group in U.N. sponsored peace efforts. (Reuters/NAN)
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Everywhere in Liberia, the social crisis has reached its terminal stage. There is massive unemployment with no prospect of increasing the productivity of labor through productive economic activities in key sectors of the economy. The living standards of the mass of people cannot withstand the shock being produced by the general rise in the prices of goods and services. The low supply of foreign currency in the economy has made the Liberian dollars a mere paper on the desk of a public school teacher. Due to lack of productivity in the industrial sector of the economy, almost 95percent of consumer goods are imported into the country from external economies.
The constraints on economic growth and development (low human development, poor healthcare delivery system, infrastructural deficit, fragile security, abuse of the rule of law, high cost for electricity, etc.) in conjunction with the global capitalist crisis of overproduction have hampered capital investment in small, medium and large private investment in the economy. Petty traders are losing the monetary power to purchase wholesale commodities to sell as retail due to the volatility of the exchange rate. Those who struggle to remain in business retrieve the loss by hiking the prices of the commodities – a market condition that is affecting ordinary consumers who are involved with informal economic activities to prevent their extinction.
The current foreign direct investments, especially in the extractive sector of the economy are scaling down operations (cut in wages, laying-off workers, decline in the purchase of goods and services, etc.) due to the fall in the prices of the traditional commodities (iron ore and rubber). The revenue of government has dwindled as a result of the acute limitation and bankruptcy of the private sector which the government depends on for the mobilization of capital. Thus, government’s capital spending on social programs has astronomically fallen as a budget of US$570million has an 89percent recurrent expenditure – a spending which predominantly caters to the wage bill (US$310million) of the government.
A public policy think tank, Center for Policy Action and Research (CePAR) recently predicted a USD 41million shortfall in the approved 2018/2019 budget due to the increment in the exchange rate from USD1 = LD140 (government’s set rate for collecting domestic revenue for fiscal year 2018/2019) to USD1.00 = LD156.00 as government collects 40percent of its domestic revenue in Liberian dollars. The group has recommended that the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning intervenes by recasting the budget and making the projected loss as contingent revenue which can be allocated in case of substantial fall in the exchange rate. Predictably, the pompous and self-proclaimed bookish “Know-it-all Minister of Finance would arrogantly not listen.
Into this explosive national scene in Liberia, steps in George Manneh Weah as President of the war-torn and Ebola-ravaged African country. His ascent to power was greeted with deep embitterment from members of the intelligentsia who Plato described as the “Philosopher King” in his magna opus “The Republic”. They are appalled that a country with so much socioeconomic and political challenges could at this time produce as President a man with zero sophistication in contemporary political leadership. But what could they have done to stop the wreck of the republic when President Weah was the choice of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf who was convinced that the ex-striker of AC Milan was the only option among the many presidential candidates who could have pardoned her wholesale exploitation and plunder of the people and their resources?
After six months of the Presidency of Mr. Weah, the economic malaise in the country has geometrically accelerated as we described above. Apologists of the CDC –led government are placing the blame on Ellen Johnson Sirleaf whom President Weah is shielding instead of bringing her before the judgment seat of history to account for her stewardship of the republic. The apologists of the regime are arguing that the depreciation of the Liberian Dollars is as the result of surplus bank notes that Ellen Johnson Sirleaf infused into the economy to attract for personal use the small amount of foreign currency in circulation. According to the proponents of this argument, Madame Sirleaf in the latter stage of her government got the approval of the 53rd National Legislature to print 5billion new Liberian bank notes. On the contrary, she printed more than such amount of the new bank notes in Lebanon. This claim cannot be out rightly dismissed taking into consideration the character of the individual in question but the regime is exerting no political will to investigate and prosecute Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. This brings pundits to the conclusion that the regime is nothing but a basket of hypocritical deplorables.
The mass of the people on the other hand are blaming President Weah’s vague pro-poor agenda for lacking the ingredients to assuage the economic logjam which is taking a toll on the nation and thus plunging her into the abyss. Most of them are lamenting that they elected George Weah to change their living conditions instead of always finding excuses to justify the rapidly growing economic crisis stultifying the republic. For us, we know such claim about the economic mishaps is being overstated. The social crisis which Liberia is experiencing is not the brainchild of President Weah or any other individual. The economic conundrum in the homeland is an extension of the crisis of a socio-economic system (Neo-Colonial Capitalism) that has exhausted its progressive stages and is now in its senile decay globally.
But as students of the dialectics, we were taught not to rule out the subjective role of an individual in history. Just as the subjective role of a vanguard revolutionary socialist party is an imperative to achieving or not achieving the objectives of the working class struggle against capital and all its superstructures, the subjective role of the President can prove decisive for mitigating or escalating the current social crisis in Liberia. This is why it is prudent to conclude that although President Weah did not create the current economic paralysis on the home-front, his actions and inactions have expanded it to an intense, insecure and unpredictable level.
When President Weah was inducted into office on January 22, 2018, the economy was already in free fall. Pundits anticipated the formation of a cabinet with the brightest, competent and qualified minds and technocrats to overhaul public service and place the economy on the path of recovery. Unfortunately, President Weah proved his gross limitation by appointing incompetent, inexperience and unqualified individuals to pivotal posts in public service. In addition to the many inexperience and semi-literates that were appointed on the basis of political patronage, are henchmen (Emmanuel Shaw, Charles Bright, Koukou Dennis etc.) of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) of war crime convict Charles Ghankay Taylor – a situation that has a negative foreign policy implication for a country that depends on off budget supports from Western Countries to deliver basic social services to the mass of people.
Also, in wanton disregard to the social crisis which is predominantly persecuting the mass of the people and consigning them to the dungeon of poverty, diseases and ignorance, President Weah took the lead to simultaneously build three exotic private properties after refusing to declare his assets- a violation of the Code of Conduct for Public Officials. Members of his cabinet have elected to emulate him. Nathaniel McGill, the Minister of State and Presidential Affairs took a loan of US$200,000.00 to purchase a villa on the Robertsfield Highway in Margibi County. Sam Manneh, the Presidential Press Secretary recently used his Facebook account to show to the public the architectural design of his flashy two-story building.
Jefferson Koijee, the Chairman of the Youth League of the ruling Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) and Mayor of the City of Monrovia is always seen in Monrovia lavishing in pomp and pageantry while the capital city is being taken over by garbage. Incompetent and mediocre playboys and playgirls who were appointed against the backdrop of their closed relationship with President Weah are frequently seen on social media with new suits, new pair of shoes and expensive phones throwing jibes at alternative voices instead of focusing on the herculean task at hand.
Within seven months of the Presidency of George Manneh Weah, there has been no comprehensive plan for economic recovery. The people have only been bombarded with the vague “pro-poor” cliché which has no ingredient for social transformation. Ardent followers of Liberian politics have asserted that President Weah’s distortion of the rule of law might be one of the reasons domestic, regional and foreign investments are not forthcoming. The Public Procurement and Concession Commission Act of 2005 was violated to award road contracts to companies without competitive bidding processes. The government recently negotiated and approved two controversial non-concessional loan deals (US$536million Eton and US$ 420million EBOMAF) as a mean of mobilizing capital to fund the road contracts.
Due to the shadiness of the loan deals, not only the opposition but also the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cautioned the government to manage within the confines of transparency and accountability the country’s debt portfolio. The IMF also admonished the government to take future loans from reputable bilateral and multilateral partners. These and other recommendations fell on infertile soil as the government went on to conclude the two bogus loan deals.
The republic is at the brink of socioeconomic collapse. This is a phenomenon we predicted. We were and are still convinced that the economic desolation that the country suffers did not require a chap like President George Manneh Weah taking it into the future. To have thought that an unenlightened and a semi-literate man could have produced any positive results as president makes us to wonder. For Ellen, she knew the limitation of this chap. But she committed the country to shady concession agreements. She took responsibility of the mysterious bankruptcy of the National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL). She bought shares in big hotels and gold mining companies. She has real estate properties in Morocco and other parts of the world. Her reprobate son (Robert A. Sirleaf) and some members of her cabinet treated the republic like a casino. Therefore, she could not sit idle and watch the emergence of a serious minded nationalist who would have placed not only her but also accomplices of her banditry before a judicial commission of inquiry.
For the few enlightened ones in the camp of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), they are quite cognizant of the gross incompetence of President Weah. But for them, politics is not about the social transformation of the society. They see politics as the shortest route to the primitive accumulation of wealth. Therefore they chose to stick with this man so that they may take advantage of his extreme excesses. For some of the lumpen masses who supported Weah’s presidential bid, they could not challenge him to explain how he was going to embark on his transformation of the country. Some who did received answers that were inscrutably inexplicit. Yet, a lack of specificity of political platform did not deter his convinced supporters from accepting as true, with an almost religious fanaticism, that their miraculous and marvelous messiah has the capacity, skills and aptitude to change the country’s horrible objective condition and make history.
They could not listen to the voices that predicted such a socioeconomic stalemate. The people collaborated with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and the nationally unconscious literate elements in the CDC to impose such a calamity on the republic. They created such a mess through their collective human actions. They must clean the mess through their very collective human actions. The latter would come based on their experience with the reality in the homeland. And the growing ferment in the homeland makes us convinced that the people are drawing revolutionary conclusions.
It is now the responsibility of the conscious vanguard to properly organize with the requisite revolutionary ideas and programs in order to direct the people’s actions on a platform of social transformation. This social transformation of the country and its people must encapsulate bringing “together the country socially and economically through education, culture, healthcare, language, and literature; with the development of industry, communications, and infrastructure; with a land reform to modernize the countryside; and through the creation of a strong, modern democratic state.” (Arturo Rodriguez 25, May 2016). To not do this is to sit passive and allow the national calamity to reproduce itself.
STRUGGLE OR PERISH!
Moses Uneh Yahmia is a student of the University of Liberia. He studies Political Science and Economics. He is a staunch member of the Movement for Social Democratic Alternative (MOSODA). He can be reached via moseswyalc@gmail.com
Employees of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, FRCN in Ibadan and Akure, South West of the country Nigeria, on Monday embarked on a peaceful protest within their premises to express their grievances at the organisation’s dwindling operations.
The staff of FRCN in Ibadan, came out in black outfits to register their grievances as some of the workers demanded replacement of obsolete equipment and operational vehicles.
Others complaints of nonpayment of outstanding allowances and also demanded expansion of manning levels to enhance promotion of staff, regular training for optimum performance as well as improved staff welfare.
Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalist, NUJ, FRCN Ibadan Chapter, Mr. Nofiu Busari explained that the reason for the peaceful protest was to draw attention of the management to the poor state of facilities in the organisation’s stations across the country.
Busari, who stated that the protest which was being held simultaneously across all FRCN stations in the country, said that workers will no longer tolerate a situation where staff use their personal funds to facilitate the running of FRCN.
According to him, “We want the Federal Government to hearken to our plea. Our facilities are over 16 years old. No doubt, salaries are being paid as at when due but we want to justify what we are being paid for.” He stated.
Chairman of the state council of the NUJ in Oyo State, Mr. Adewunmi Faniran also called on the government to urgently intervene in addressing the challenges bedeviling the organisation.
He said, “We are operating in a competitive environment but with little or no facilities to aid production. We have equipment here in Ibadan that had been in use since the 80s and 90s”
“We want the government without delay to look into our needs and I must emphasise that this protest is not targeted at anyone but for the benefits of members of staff” he said.
In the same Vain, FRCN staff in Akure, Ondo state also embarked on a peaceful protest as a result of the poor working conditions and obsolete equipment.
Chairman of FRCN Akure Chapel, Mr. John Ebiofini, said no improvement had been made on the equipment at the station since 16 years ago, adding that the equipment at the station could not cover the nooks and crannies of the state.
He said, “Today, due to deplorable condition of our outdated equipment, we cannot boast of covering Ondo State where we are located. We should be ashamed of ourselves being a Federal Government establishment that is supposed to set the pace for state and private broadcasting houses to follow suit,” he said.
In the wake of the geometrical progression of the exchange rate, compounded by the worsening living standards in the homeland, a looming crisis is on the horizon in Liberia. However, our friends on the campus in the geographic propinquity of Bernard Beach are either on “jolly jolly” or watching television soap opera, or in the state of denial. At least the ordinary people, who learn from experience, are seeing through the scheme and thus disassociating themselves from the so-called pro-poor chorus. The once duped people now agree with this writer and other progressive nationalists that the Weah presidency is sliding the homeland into political sclerosis and social disintegration.
Today, reality has slapped elements of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC). There is a looming tragedy. And the regime is on life support. There is a rising disillusionment in the people. As days pass, there is a huge influx of people who are getting disillusioned. The revolutionary potency of the people is getting clearer by the day. In the once traditional bases of the CDC, the deafening grumbling of the people might just metamorphose into a massive revolt. In this state of sclerosis, uncertainty and paralysis, the Weah government is exhibiting symptom of paranoia.
Well, we were told to pray for President Weah. We were told to keep quiet. We were told it is too soon. Before we started praying for him, he didn’t break his three houses to build new ones. As soon as we started praying for him, he broke three of his houses and is simultaneously building three palaces. Again, we were told to pray for his officials. Before we could pray, Nathaniel McGill didn’t get loan from LBDI to pay for his house. As soon as we started praying for him, he got a loan and purchased a house. The masses, on the other hand, have been heavily encroached on by poverty and mystery.
Additionally, when we didn’t pray the wage bill of the government was US$296 million. As soon as we started to pray for the government, the wage bill ballooned to US$ 310 million, and civil servants increased from 40,000 to 70, 000—no salient public administrative reason for such increment but has more to do with patronage and political accommodation with root in the inundation of the bureaucracy with pliant stooges to protect parochial interests. Before we could pray for President Weah, he didn’t employ fourteen of his girlfriends, a list which we circulated previously. Now, he has appointed 14 of them in critical sectors of the bureaucracy.
How is it a regime which basks with self-righteousness about liberating the people have not only held on to the value, taste and appetite of the people they democratically overthrew but have become bad imitators and ridiculous copy cats of said values. How can a liberating regime consciously choose to do business with fraudulent business establishments and give careerist deplorables places of pride in the current arrangement? It is only a regime which is conceived in fraud that will bleed the republic like the way Weah and his coterie of economic henchmen are doing.
Herein unveils the Weah government and its political leaning. It is essentially a regime which promotes black fascism. Unlike its Western variant which emphasizes racial superiority and centralized autocratic leadership, Black fascism is based on no social category but ruthless violence and force. Thus, it is in this context that the rise of police repression in Liberia that has its genesis in repressing critical voices, the independent media and the radicalized student community must be placed.
In addition, this ideology is heavily associated with intellectually dwarfish leaders in Africa like Idi Amin, Jean Bedel Bokassa and Mobutu Sese Seko type. It is from this tradition that President Weah emerges. On first site the regime will trade lies and prevarications in order to conceal its inadequacies. However, the time is coming when it will run out of lies and excuses, then open oppression will be the last weapon in its arsenal as the mass of people will begin to clamor against the untold hardship and poverty.
A bruised people, pitiful marketers, hungry students, lumpen masses, poor peasantry, frustrated professionals vacillating the homeland in search of livelihood. While elements of the government on the other hand, display vulgar wealth and gaudy costumes in the scandalous of factions. Here, there is a paradox which depicts the polarization of class society and the wholesale farce of bourgeois democracy. The collective wealth which is owned by all the people— is exploited by foreign capital which haunts for surplus profit. Since the national bourgeoisie is the office boy of foreign capital, it is then given crumbs. While the whole people, are left to eke out the soil for survival.
Our people are beginning to realize what we articulated during the height of the 2017 presidential election. The moment of epiphany will hit them and the naked reality will set in that the CDC-led government is not only driven by that irrational impulse—greed—it is a ridiculous fraud perpetrated on them.
Well, we have prayed; we have kept quiet; we have lavished the President with an honorary degree, and we have even closed our eyes on egregious excesses of the regime. Our prayers have not produced a single result; our quietude has exacerbated the worsening living conditions; our praises of President Weah has led to him disregarding the sacred Constitution that regulate our conducts; and we have been labelled as “enemies of the state” and told to “shut up.” Must we indulge this hardship and play indifference to the imminent danger that hovers over our country? Must we play lethargy and allow this man to transform the homeland into a gambling casino? If we do so, we are accomplices in the act of plunder. If we do so, we have chosen to let ourselves down and our country. We have two options: we can choose to accept this nightmare without doing anything—this path makes us candidate for victimization; we can choose to fight to oppose this national scandal and win over our country—this path guarantees a future for our country and it affords us another opportunity to create a nation in this space with a new nationalism and itinerary to unleash social transformation.
It is either we struggle or perish—there is no third way. Silence, in this current situation is a luxury. To remain silent in this cobweb of corruption will not insulate you when the disaster comes. It is better to fight to redeem the homeland than to sit idle and perish in poverty.
Kiadii studies Political Science with emphasis in Public Administration at the University of Liberia. He is the Secretary General of the Movement for Social Democratic Alternative (MOSODA). You can reach him through bokiadii@gmail.com.
Government has dismissed claims that it appointed kwaito musician Arthur Mafokate as ambassador of its #100MenMarch.
“Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) would like to place it on record that it has not invited Mr Mafokate to be part of the #100MenMarch. GCIS has not appointed him as an ambassador of the march and strongly condemns any mischievous association of the march with Mr Mafokate. The Sunday Sun associated Mr Mafokate with the #100MenMarch independently,” the GCIS said on Monday.
Launched last week by the GCIS, the #100MenMarch, which is set to take place on Tuesday, calls on men to take a stand against women and children abuse.
The call comes in the wake of reports from Statistics South Africa that the country has seen a 117% increase in the murder rate for women between 2015 and 2016/17.
On Sunday, the Sunday Sun newspaper published a story that Mafokate had pledged to attend the #100MenMarch.
Mafokate is facing serious charges of gender based violence, with his case currently with the courts.
“Government recognises that Mr Mafokate is facing serious charges of gender based violence and supports that the due legal processes unfold accordingly.
“The charges faced by Mr Mafokate and his alleged conduct are in direct conflict of the ethos of #100MenMarch and rallying call by Government and its partners to create awareness on violence against women and children,” said the GCIS.
While government said Mafokate is not an ambassador of the march, it reiterated that all men and women are welcome to participate in the march.
“Government would like to reiterate that all men and women are welcome to the #100MenMarch.The march has been supported by a variety of artists, NGO representatives and media houses, who have committed to the values of the cause of the #100MenMarch.
“Representative of rehabilitated gender based violence offenders will also attend the #100MenMarch,” the GCIS said.
The #100MenMarch will draw men from diverse sectors, racial, political and religious backgrounds taking a united stance to end violence against women and children.
“The voice of men is crucial in ending the scourge of violence against women and children. The march will serve as an invitation to all men and boys to respond to the ‘Send Me – Thuma Mina’ call and take a stand against the scourge of violence and abuse.
“All South Africans must act to ensure a safer society for women and children and must do more to prevent violence and abuse against women, support survivors of abuse and bring perpetrators to justice,” said the GCIS. – SAnews.gov.za
