BABILOWN~Mawolè

Bénin : Sept Indices du Racisme Régionaliste

Le Manque d'Intégrité, Cause Première de la Corruption –Osei Bonsu

Le Président de la Conférence épiscopale catholique, Monseigneur Osei Bonsu, a attribué la recrudescence de la corruption dans le pays au manque d'intégrité chez les personnes occupant des postes de responsabilité. Selon lui, la nation livrera un combat perdu d’avance contre la corruption si on ne fait pas attention à la nomination ou à l'élection de personnes intègres aux postes de responsabilité. Monseigneur Osei Bonsu a fait ces remarques lundi lors du lancement d'une campagne nationale anti-corruption par le Centre pour la Liberté et l’Intégrité en collaboration avec des enquêteurs privés de l’ONG TIGER EYE à Accra. Dans son discours, le Révérend Osei Bonsu, a déploré ce qu'il a décrit comme le népotisme croissant et les commissions occultes dans le paysage politique. Le procureur général et ministre de la Justice, Marietta Brew Appiah Oppong qui représentait le président de la république, a déclaré que le Ghana n'a pas encore perdu la bataille contre la corruption telle qu’il est prédit dans certains milieux.

Quant à lui, le juge Francis Emile Short, un ancien membre de la Commission des droits de l'homme et de la justice administrative, a déclaré que le niveau de pauvreté dans les pays africains tels que le Ghana est continuellement aggravé en raison de la corruption. S'exprimant lors du lancement, le juge Francis Emile Short a déclaré que les Africains ont embrassé maintenant la corruption comme une norme plutôt que comme quelque chose qui est inacceptable. Amené et Trad. par Binason Avèkes

Ghana: 400,000 Laptops for Tertiary Institutions

Nana Oye Lithur, Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection on Thursday said Government had accelerated the pace for equipping tertiary educational institutions with laptops, as part of the E-education project. She said government aimed at distributing over 400,000 laptops to both students and lecturers of tertiary institutions by the end of 2016, to inculcate Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the country's educational system. Nana Oye Lithur said under the Better Ghana Agenda, ICT serve as a critical tool to aid both students and lecturers with the needed skills to build a modern economy. She said other components of the E-education projects include training teachers in ICT, as well as establishing ICT laboratories for clusters of schools. .

Nana Oye Lithur said this at the "Girls in ICT Day" forum in Accra, which was on the theme; "Mainstreaming Girls in ICT - The Critical Missing Link in Development". The Minister said ICT represented an important contribution to the mainstreaming of gender considerations in Ghana and that such an initiative was a great step. She said the initiative was an indication of Ghana's preparedness to empower women and girls in all sectors of the society, especially those traditionally classified as the preserve of men continued

U.S. State Dept accused of enabling Islamists Boko Haram

by Leonardo Blair Newscast Media LAGOS—A Nigerian human rights lawyer, Emmanuel Ogebe, has accused the U.S. Department of State of enabling Islamist militant group Boko Haram by mischaracterizing their actions in that country which have resulted in the death of more than 1,000 Christians and other civilians since 2012. Ogebe, special counsel for Justice for Jos is engaged at the International Criminal Court on crimes against humanity in Nigeria and is lead author of the 2012 report by Jubilee Campaign. He was also among a group of regional experts on Northern Nigeria and that country’s Middle Belt who drew attention to the pre-genocide occurring in those areas at a Congressional briefing in Washington, D.C., last Thursday. “Sadly the latest human rights report has taken it a step further with the State Department essentially advocating the establishment of Islamic law courts in Nigeria, a demand no one else in Nigeria is making, except the jihadist terrorists themselves,” explained Ogebe.

“One did not think it possible for the U.S. position to degenerate any further but there seems to be no depth that the State Department will not sink lower still to. Now they have gone from making ransom demands to making ideological demands consistent with the theology of Boko Haram,” he added. On Monday, CP contacted the Department of State for comment but was told the relevant spokesperson, Hilary Renner, was unavailable. The Jubilee Campaign was also expected to send the Department of State their analysis its recently released country report on Nigeria. continued

Nigeria: JTF Kills Top Boko Haram Commander

The military Joint Task Force (JTF) in Borno State, Operation Restore Order, Friday , killed a top commander of the Boko Haram sect, Mohammed Chad, in Maiduguri, the state capital, during a joint special operation with the men of the State Security Services (SSS). Chad, who had been on the wanted list of the JTF, was said to have been killed in the Ruwan Zafi ward of the town at about 3am on Friday. The killed Boko Haram commander was said to be a successor to one Ba'ana Assalafi, a Boko Haram commander who was killed during a shoot-out with security agencies in Sokoto last March Military sources in the state fingered Chad as the mastermind of the multiple attacks and killings at Sanda Kyarimi Secondary School, Maiduguri where a teacher was shot dead and three female students were injured on March 18. The JTF spokesman in the state, Lt. Col Sagir Musa, confirmed Chad's killing in a statement made available to newsmen yesterday.

"This special operation led to the death of a notorious Boko Haram terrorist, aka Mohammed Chad, an indigene of Marte, Borno State that has been on the wanted list of the JTF. Intelligence indicated that he was involved in the planning and execution of many terror attacks in and outside Borno State. "The killed suspected commander, is also believed to be the successor to Ba'ana Assalafi, a key Boko Haram commander that lost his life during a shoot out with security agencies in Sokoto," Sagir said in the statement continued

Nigerian Artists Plan Anti-Piracy Task Force

ABUJA — Music piracy is so prevalent in Nigeria that most people do not consider buying original copies of the albums they want.  Nigerian musical artists say the practice is killing what could be a booming industry and they are gearing up to fight back.   The country has copyright laws, but by shopping in the markets, you would not know it.  Newly-released Hollywood movies sell for less than $3 and CDs cost about 95 cents. Ranking Deezed is the president of Performing Musicians and Employers Association of Nigeria.   The organization has about 100,000 members.  He said the Nigerian music industry has the potential to become an economic success - like Nigeria's "Nollywood," the third-largest film industry in the world. “Artists are increasing.  Talents are increasing.  In fact, studios are increasing," Deezed noted.  "We have producers that have studios in their homes.  But then the market is what’s the problem.” What happens in the markets, he said, just about cuts out any chance the artists have of making a profit from their music.  Original CDs are released and sold for a little over $3.  But if the music is good, he says, the market is swiftly flooded with copies sold wholesale for less than 25 cents.

We learned of some companies, or let me say pirates, in Lagos that duplicate almost like 10 million copies in almost like a week or so.  So that is really bad,” he said. Dezeed said his organization is setting up a task force to catch music pirates and turn them in to authorities.   In northern Nigeria, Copyright Commission law enforcement director Amadu Augustin Aleo said his organization has caught 170 people copying CDs or stealing music and marketing it as their own in the past six months. continued