GO Benin

Nicephore Soglo, Former President of Republic of Benin, Responds to the Recent Statement of Goodluck Jonathan in Cotonou

In the context of good neighbourly relations between states that share common borders like Nigeria and Benin, it is normal that exchanges and visits at high level take place regularly. This is also a good sign of the excellence of secular, historical, cultural, social and economic relations forged by the peoples of Nigeria and Benin as well as their leaders, during their common history.
I would have liked to believe that the brief visit in Benin Friday, March 18, 2011, by the Head of State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency Goodluck Jonathan was part of that framework, but for his astonishing statement that strongly stroke the national opinion and the political class.  I quote:
"I congratulate the people of Benin for the presidential election held without violence and would like to invite candidates and voters to accept the election results, and avoid violence and war. Nigeria will not accept violence or war at its doorstep. "
Unquote
In this very sensitive period where the people of Benin is facing enormous difficulties before, during and after the presidential election on March 13, 2011, this injunction to politicians and voters and, as a hole, to the people of Benin, is unacceptable.
Benin is admittedly a small country, but it is a great nation, proud of its history and its independence.
If the Head of State of Nigeria during his visit on March 18, 2011 had sought to hear the different actors of the Beninese political scene, starting with the former Heads of State and to provide advice to each other in order to avoid a looming crisis, his mission would have been highly appreciated by all the people of Benin. He would not only have acted as a friend and neighbour, but would certainly have accomplished a useful and preventive work, especially in his capacity as a regional leader and current Chairman of ECOWAS.
It is unfortunate that this injunction was made in the presence of the Head of State of Benin guarantor of its dignity and integrity. The Republic of Benin is a member of ECOWAS, the AU, as well as the UN and other international organizations.
As a former Chairman of ECOWAS who while in office, contributed to the settlement of the fratricidal war in Liberia, I would have hoped that His Excellency Mr. Goodluck Jonathan had not had to take sides in the current political situation in Benin .
It is as though, not content to use the influence conferred upon them by the demographic and economic weight of their countries, the French President, British Prime Minister or the Chancellor of Germany, intervened in the internal life of The Holland, The Kingdom of Belgium and Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
Can one ever imagine in the United States of America, the Government of New York state summoning the state of Massachusetts or the Connecticut ; or the state of California summoning any of the states of Nevada, Arizona ; or the state of Texas summoning those of Louisiana or Arkansas. ?
The European Union and the American Federation would not survive.
Our dream is that as soon as possible, ECOWAS become a federation such as Brazil that it surpasses in terms of population, and assume a major role in the political, economic, international fields.
Thank you.
Mr. Dieudonné Nicephorus SOGLO
Former President of the Republic of Benin,
Former Chairman of ECOWAS
Vice-President of the African Forum
former Heads of State and Government

Copyright, Blaise APLOGAN, 2010,© Bienvenu sur Babilown

Toute republication de cet article doit en mentionner et l’origine et l’auteur sous peine d’infraction

Tintin: Heroic Boy Reporter or Sinister Racist?

Lawyer Ahmed L'Hedim, center, shows a journalist the book Tintin in the Congo at the Palace of Justice in Brussels. A Congolese man, Mbutu Bienvenu, right, is trying to get a controversial Tintin book banned in the cartoon star's home country of Belgium.

Virginia Mayo / AP

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1 ship with stranded crew brought to Benin coast

Staff Correspondent

The seamen stranded offshore Benin started coming to mainland of the West African country, said a foreign ministry official yesterday.

“One ship was brought to the shore yesterday but it could not be known how many seamen were on it,” said Saida Muna Tasneem, director general of the external publicity wing of the foreign affairs ministry.

According to earlier information, there were 27 seamen on board the eight ships. Another ship was traced having two more seamen aboard bringing the total to 29, she said.

These ships are around ten miles off the port of Cotonou, seamen said.

Meanwhile, the Department of Shipping agreed to bear the airfare of the seamen for their repatriation except for three. Those three were sent by the shipping agent KSF which agreed to pay for them, she said.

The foreign ministry from Dhaka is trying to buy e-tickets for them, Muna noted.

The development followed negotiations of Bangladesh's chargé d'affaires in Morocco, Lutfar Rahman, with the Benin foreign ministry and the port authorities. He arrived at Benin on April 28…

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Senator Sani Yerima, tufiakwa!

Senator Sani Yerima

Senator marries 13yr old

Who is the pedophile? Senator Sanni Yerima of Zamfara State, who married a 13yr old from Egypt as his fourth wife and paid $100,000 (about N15 million) to her family as bride price.

Will he be expelled from the Senate?

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Senator Sani Yerima, tufiakwa!

 Thu at 2:45am

Baby-boomer Sani Yerima has just taken delivery of his fourth wife. As a Muslim, we cannot accuse him of bigamy. A fourth wife is just it for a Muslim who has enough harvest in his barn to cater for such indulgence. The Muslim religion allows for up to four wives.
So, in the case of Yerima, we ought to be clinking glasses in animated celebration. But there is a snag. Yerima's wife is also his daughter or even grand daughter. She's a 13-year-old Egyptian girl, a soft-spoken, pliant and innocent virgin. That's the person that appealed to Yerima most; that captured his dirty heart and captivated his depraved sense of love. Even Pharaoh with all his shortcomings would not have approved of this act of savagery.
Taking a starry-eyed 13-year-old as wife is a pastime only fit for maniacs. It is the stuff of decadent minds. But Yerima is not new to such dissolute acts. Recall he was governor of Zamfara State for eight years, from 1999 to 2007. He was the chief proponent of Sharia law. He introduced the Islamic legal code in his Zamfara State. A man of such near-manic passion to please his God ought to be a repository of morals, a beacon of rectitude and exemplar of the finest virtues of civility. Not so for Yerima.
As governor, he got the hand of Citizen Jangebi chopped off in the name of justice. Jangebi's offence was grave, very grave. He was convicted by a Sharia court for stealing a cow. Yes, a cow, which as at then was not more than N60,000 in the market. That's a grave offence, my dear. And for stealing such rare quadruped specie, Yerima got Jangebi's hand amputated. Yerima defended his action amidst a swirling tide of public outrage. Yet, while he was governor, there was rumour of billions of Naira flying out of government coffers into private pockets. It ceased to be rumour when former boss of the anti-crime agency, EFCC, Nuhu Ribadu, singled out Yerima for lampooning.
While tendering the report of the investigations carried out by the EFCC on serving governors during ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo regime, Ribadu told a bewildered National Assembly that the variant of corruption in Yerima's Zamfara was of the primitive genre. "It was a case of direct stealing", a seething Ribadu told his audience. And this is my quarrel with Yerima's moral self-glorification. A man who would crucify a fellow man for stealing N60,000 has showed up to play the role of officiating minister at the funeral when the same man cannot account for billions of Naira put under his care. Yerima's case file is still at the EFCC. I hope he hasn't forgotten that. But that's by the way.

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Copyright, Blaise APLOGAN, 2010,© Bienvenu sur Babilown

Tout copier/collage de cet article sur un autre site doit en mentionner et l’origine et l’auteur sous peine d’être en infraction.

Release of the Committee of Support to Simon Pierre Adovelande

Since December 25, 2009, Mr. Simon Pierre Adovelande, National Coordinator of Benin's Program for the Millennium Challenge Account is undergoing an injustice and a flagrant violation of human rights from the Beninese government,  particularly from the head of State, President Boni Yayi.
As a matter of fact, on Friday, December 25, 2009, Mr. Simon Pierre Adovelande was arrested by National Police and placed in custody, a government statement; the command centre of the RAID, a section of the Benin National Police, specialized in repression of crime.
The official reason served to the public, shocked and appalled by such brutality, is the involvement of the person concerned in the management of a private limited company called Bezaleel Building Group (SA GBB), as Chairman of the Board of Administration and specialized in real estate. The real reason is reflected in the growing popularity of Simon Pierre Adovelande because of his moral values, discipline and professionalism in the implementation of MCA-BENIN ; and above all, in the increasingly persistent rumours of his claims for presidential elections in March 2011 that hinder the power and decided to break his curse.
In March 2000, Adovelande Simon Pierre and his friends have established the Bezalel Group Building (GBB), a company whose main object is to develop real estate business. In 2001 and in the framework of for a government housing program, GBB has won the tender in two areas of real estate that can accommodate about 1042 low-cost housing to be built on its own fund raising intiatives.
To this end GBB has had to resort to Shelter Afrique and the OPEC Fund, private institutions specializing in financing real estate in Africa. These two organizations have granted GBB loans in 2003 and 2004 totalizing 2.235 billion CFA francs of which 1.825 billion CFA francs have been disbursed for the implementation of 323 housing units fully sold, built and on which 203 have been delivered. It should be noted that these loans were not guaranteed by the Benin government
For commercial reasons, especially the plastering costs of disposal of certain types of housing by the government, GBB has made huge losses that do not allow it to meet its repayment obligations when due vis-à- vis its lenders..
It is clear from the foregoing that GBB, the Board of Directors of which Adovelande Simon Pierre is the Chairman, is in no way accusable of a criminal offense. The company is in temporary financial difficulty and at best liable to a business process with its partners, the aim of which should be research and commitment of ways and means to resume its activities and the repayment of loans made to it.
Instead, Simon Pierre Adovelande and Isaac AGOSOU, the Director General of GBB were arrested on December 25, 2009 (Christmas Day) and brought to the civil prison of Cotonou since December 29, 2009, arbitrarily, on the basis of counts fanciful, like common criminals. Upon their arrest, the government and the counsel for Shelter Afrique in Benin, tried with much media noise, to present to the public their version of the events, in the old style of African dictators of the 70s and 80s.
After questionings and hearings of the plaintiff and confrontations that have clearly shown that we are in a business process and that the charges against Mr. Simon Stone Adovelande are fully identified, he is still detained at the civil prison of Cotonou. Only the constant search for truth can justify detention of the accused, detention should also be an exceptional measure and freedom the rule, as stated in Article 118 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The plaintiff has, himself, admitted that if GBB-SA had consistently met its financial commitments in respect of creditors, this case would never have existed, which shows that we are in a purely commercial process.
On several occasions, before he was arrested Simon Pierre Adovelande had received several emissaries of the ruling regime in Benin, urging him to abandon his presidential ambitions. The complainant had until his arrest given no response to theses demands that continued even during his incarceration.
To all the friends of Adovelande Simon Pierre, who approached President Boni Yayi to intervene for his release, President Yayi has always denied his involvement in the affair, which confirms that his is really behind the whole machinery. Democracy and human rights are seriously threatened in Benin. For this reason we appeal to all groups and all associations of Human Rights to consider the case of Simon Pierre Adovelande and Isaac AGOSSOU who are deprived of their liberty since 25 December 2009 and detained in civil prison in Cotonou.
On behalf of the committee of support of Simon Pierre Adovelande,
France, Section
Raymond ADJAKPA-ABILE
Consultant & Director of Publication AfriQualité
adjakpa_raymond@yahoo.fr

Copyright, Blaise APLOGAN, 2010,© Bienvenu sur Babilown

Tout copier/collage de cet article sur un autre site doit en mentionner et l’origine et l’auteur sous peine d’être en infraction.

Statement at the Conclusion of an IMF Mission to Benin

Press Release No. 10/116
March 26, 2010

A mission from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) led by Joannes Mongardini, visited Cotonou during March 11-26, 2010. The mission held discussions on a program that could be supported by the IMF under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF), and conducted the 2010 Article IV consultation discussions.¹ The mission met with the President of the Republic, His Excellency Dr. Thomas Boni Yayi, the Senior Minister for Prospective, Development, Evaluation of Public Policy, and the Coordination of Government Action, Mr. Pascal I. Koupaki, Minister of Economy and Finance, Mr. Idriss L. Daouda, and other senior officials. It also held fruitful discussions with representatives of civil society, labor unions, donors, and the private sector.

At the end of the mission, Mr. Mongardini issued the following statement:

“The global economic crisis had a negative impact on Benin in 2009. Notwithstanding the authorities' countercyclical fiscal policies, real GDP growth slowed to 2.7 percent, compared with 5.0 percent in 2008. Inflation came down to an average 2.2 percent, reflecting lower food and fuel prices. Government revenues stagnated mostly because of lower trade activity. A strong fiscal adjustment effort in the second half of 2009 to align expenditures with available financing limited large expenditure overruns. However, domestically financed capital expenditures doubled, and the wage bill increased by 24 percent compared with 2008. These developments widened the overall fiscal deficit (excluding grants) to 7.0 percent of GDP, which was financed through additional budget support from the international community and domestic borrowing. On the external sector, cotton exports declined significantly reflecting lower international prices and workers’ remittances fell. As a result, the current account deficit, excluding grants, widened to 9.3 percent of GDP, compared with 7.0 percent in 2008. While the banking sector experienced some liquidity pressures in the first half of the year, as deposit growth decelerated, it overall weathered the crisis relatively well, and prudential ratios improved.”...

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BENIN: Cholera kills at least five, with scores infected

Photo: microbiologybytes

Cholera - Vibrio cholerae

COTONOU, 2 February 2010 (IRIN) - In Benin cholera has killed five people in the past two weeks in a rare dry-season outbreak.

Health officials detected the first cases of the diarrhoeal disease on 13 January in the town of Bonou – 90km east of the economic capital Cotonou – where 66 cases and four deaths were recorded up to 29 January, according to the Health Ministry’s director of sanitation Laurent Assogba. 

Three cases, one resulting in death, have also been recorded in Cotonou, he said.

Cholera generally spreads during the rainy season when flooding can contaminate water sources. The World Health Organization (WHO) says cholera in the dry season is uncommon but it does occur.

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Ghana's economy may be bigger than estimated - Government Statistician

The Ghana Statistical Service has confirmed the economy may be much bigger than it is presently estimated. Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which measures the total value of goods and services produced, is presently estimated at about $22 billion. Head of Research at Standard Bank of Africa Stephen Bailey-Smith is quoted by Bloomberg as saying the bank’s research indicates the GDP figure may have to be revised upwards by about 15 percent. This would put the current GDP at about $33 billion. Government Statistician Dr. Grace Bediako would not go into specifics, even though she agrees there is some underestimation. Speaking to Joy Business, Dr Bediako said the service is still collating data and would soon come out with a new GDP figure for the economy. Read more

Farmers call on govt to ban importation of rice

27 Jan 2010
Tamale, Jan. 27, GNA - Government has been asked to ban the importation of rice into the country and encourage the production and consumption of the foodstuff locally. Mr. Mohammed Adam Nashiru, President of the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana, a civil society organization, who made the call, suggested to the authorities to increase tariff on imported rice, to create market for locally produced rice to increase the income of farmers to support the economy. The leader of the Association was speaking at a meeting of rice farmers from the Tamale area, on Tuesday. Mr. Nashiru said the Upper West, Upper East and Northern Region Regions (the three Northern Regions) last year produced 500,000 metric tones of rice and could meet the local demand for the staple. He expressed worry that lack of interest and political will by successive governments to support rice production had led to low production of the crop in the country.   More story

United Nations Development Programme (New York) Benin:UNDP Helps to Set Up Solar Villages

Until recently, the villages of Hon and Koussoukpa, like many others, (100 kilometers from Cotonou, Benin's economic capital) got their light from oil lamps and candles, suffering all the damage to health and the environment. The darkness also emphasized the sense of danger and rural isolation.

Today, solar energy supplies 308 households in Hon and Koussoukpa. It is easy for residents to light their homes, charge their mobile telephones and even access educational community television .

The project is the result of a partnership between UNDP, the Association béninoise pour l'éveil et le développement, the Global Environment Facility's microfinance programme and Barefoot College, an NGO. UNDP plans to expand the initiative to a number of villages in Benin, creating rural electrification centers using solar energy or renewable energy sources.

In a few days Koussoukpa will enjoy full solar electricity coverage when another 500 hundred households get solar energy. To ensure that the initiative is continued and equipment maintained, training will be provided to students and local tradespeople.

There are also plans to create a research and development centre for solar electricity technology in partnership with the University of Abomey Calavi in Cotonou.

In Koussoukpa, each subscriber pays a monthly fee of 1,500 CFA francs (US$3.50). The subscription is managed by a committee responsible for operating the network and for maintaining and replacing equipment (solar panels, batteries, etc.)

In Hon, two residents, Julienne Loko and Azouassi Togbé, have been trained to install and maintain the solar network. After a six-month stint in India, they now know how to install and maintain solar panels. They work on an almost full-time basis in the electronic workshops built for the villages.

In Benin, despite the enormous potential for development of solar energy, rural electricity coverage still stands at just 3 percent. Given the high cost of linking up to the conventional electricity, photovoltaic solar energy is one of the most realistic technological alternatives available to isolated areas.

Furthermore, global electrical energy coverage has increased from 25.7 percent in 2006 to 27.9 percent in 2008 and should reach 40.09 percent in 2011, according to Government projections.

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