Archive for nigeriang

Stock performance contradicts positive outlook

14/08/2010 No comments

Stock performance contradicts positive outlook

The
current market performance at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE)
contradicts the projected positive outlook by some finance analysts.

Resource Cap
Limited, a portfolio management firm, in a report in July, forecast
that “performance at the nation’s capital market in the remaining
trading days of the third quarter of 2010 will be positive following
the signing into law of the Asset Management Corporation Bill.” The
company projected that the market All-Share Index, a measuring
parameter, will end the quarter at 30,000 basis points. Some
stockbrokers had also predicted the same trend for the third quarter.
However, since last week intervention by the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC), the NSE has recorded over N173 billion losses. At the
close of proceedings on Wednesday, the Exchange market capitalisation
which plunged on Tuesday by N63 billion further depreciated by N78
billion; reflecting a 1.25 per cent decline while it closed at N6.121
trillion from N6.199 trillion.

The All-Share
Index, yesterday, also shed 1.25 per cent or a loss of 318.89 units
from Tuesday’s figures of 25,350.98 basis points, to close at
25,032.09. A total of 23 stocks appreciated in value, higher than the
23 stocks recorded the preceding day; while 45 stocks depreciated in
value, lower than Tuesday’ 48. A stockbroker, who spoke under
anonymity, said the market may experience more downturn because
“investors are now shying away from the market since no one can predict
the outcome of the SEC independent investigators.” “Stockbrokers and
their firms are also cautious because we don’t know who is next to go,”
he said. The SEC, last Thursday, appointed independent investigators,
Aluko & Oyebode, a law firm; and KPMG, an accounting firm, to
investigate the allegations of financial mismanagement at the Exchange.
The jointly independent investigators have since commenced work.

‘Leadership imbroglio’

Commenting on the
current market performance at the close of Wednesday’s trading,
Analysts at Proshare Nigeria Limited, an investment advisory firm,
said, “The leadership imbroglio ravaging the Nigerian Stock Exchange
continues to have severe consequences on the equity performance. This
would be against expectations from some quarters that the assumption of
the Interim Administrator of the NSE will tame the consequential effect
that would follow; that is yet to be seen.” Meanwhile, they said the
downturn recorded on Wednesday could be attributed mainly to heavier
declines recorded in some blue chip and banking stocks. “We hope to see
the expected positive impact of the reported measures aimed at
restoring investors’ confidence in the market being put in place by the
interim management of the NSE, even as the team solicits for
cooperation of market operators for moving the market to stability,”
they said.

Unaudited results

At the Exchange’s
floor yesterday, Intercontinental Bank Plc presented its financial
accounts to market operators. The bank’s unaudited financial result for
the second quarter ended June 30, 2010 shows a 49.49 per cent decline
in turnover, from N85.065 billion to N42.968 billion. Its profit after
tax also fell by 102.07 per cent from (N109.333 billion) to N2.268
billion. Total net asset for the period in review depreciated by 0.71
per cent, from N380.344 billion to N377.628 billion.

Click to Read more Financial Stories

Money

Second round of financial crisis looms

14/08/2010 No comments

Second round of financial crisis looms

Finance experts say
overall economic activity appears to have lost the momentum of its
rebound during the second quarter of this year, thus bringing concerns
that a second round of financial crisis is beginning to spread across
global economies.

“The current budget
deficits and planned cuts in spending in most developed countries may
pose further challenges to sustainable global economic recovery,” said
a report on the review of the Nigerian economy by Access Bank
yesterday.

“Recent economic
data from developed economies indicate a disturbing situation, with
unemployment rates remaining high, amid further weakening in
manufacturing activities and consumer sentiment. The threat to global
economic recovery appears to be broadly entrenched and real,” the
report added.

It said that
improvement in oil GDP is a key feature that would support the nation’s
overall economic expansion in the face of these uncertainties while
sustained growth in non-oil sector, especially agriculture, wholesale,
retail trade and services, remained the major driver of growth.

“The drop in crude
oil price was a major concern for Nigeria, with President Jonathan
urging a downward review of some key assumptions of the 2010 budget.
Factors to support crude oil price include the weakening of the US
Dollar against major currencies, increased flow of speculative money,
supply bottlenecks resulting from political instability in oil
producing countries, elevated demand from China, as well as
stabilisation in major economies.”

A flicker of hope

Similarly,
Financial Derivatives Company, a finance firm which offers treasury and
financial services, said the economic mood has since soured and double
dip is the phrase on everyone’s lips. The report said that economists
were still optimistic, adding that a poll by the Wall Street Journal
showed that economists are more optimistic than the general public.

“History shows that
whenever economists are more optimistic than the public, the good times
are around the corner. Economists views lead and public views lag
prosperity” the report stated adding that Nigeria has to spend its way
out of the slowdown.

“Aggregate spending
in budget 2010 could exceed N5 trillion. With the states, we expect N10
trillion. Absorptive capacity weakness could lead to fiscal spills and
leakages. The Senate has also approved N445 billion extra spending and
there is an expansionary budget supported by accommodative monetary
policy. All these are expected to catalyse growth,” it added.

Finance experts say the nation’s rising fiscal deficit, increase in
domestic borrowing, shrinking of credit to the private sector,
depleting foreign reserves, and an uncertain foreign exchange market,
cautious approach to the stock market by brokers and unyielding
investors to recapitalise banks are fall outs of the financial crisis.

Click to Read more Financial Stories

Money

Agency to prosecute three human traffickers

14/08/2010 One comment

Agency to prosecute three human traffickers

The three Nigerians recently arrested by marine
police in Akwa Ibom State while attempting to smuggle 55 nationals of
Benin, Togo and Burkina Faso to Gabon for onward movement to Europe,
will soon be prosecuted, officials of the National Agency for
Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP) have said.

The agency also said at least 85 persons involved in
human trafficking have been successfully prosecuted by the Agency since
2003 when it was established.

Speaking to journalists yesterday in Benin City,
Chuzi Egede, the Executive Secretary of the NAPTIP, said the 55
foreigners have since been re-united with their families through their
various embassies, just as he said that the agency has achieved 100 per
cent in the prosecution of arrested persons involved in human
trafficking.

“Only two weeks back, we received about 55 victims
who were rescued from the high sea by the marine police in Akwa Ibom
State and we have since reunited them with their families,” he said.
“All of them were from neighbouring countries of Togo, Benin, Burkina
Faso and the likes and, through their embassies, we have been able to
take them to their countries and the three Nigerians who were
trafficking them to Gabon are in our custody and as soon as
investigations are completed, they will be prosecuted in our law
courts.”

Rehabilitated victims

Mr Egede said the agency had successfully convicted
20 persons as at July this year, adding that the agency has
rehabilitated about 800 victims. The agency has rehabilitation centres
in seven zonal offices of Lagos, Benin, Enugu, Uyo, Maiduguri, Kano,
Sokoto and Abuja. “When we see victims, they are taken to these
shelters and they are rehabilitated and the experts are there to give
them all the care they want,” he said.

The agency’s Director, Counselling and
Rehabilitation, Lilly Oguejiofor, said the National Policy on
Protection and Assistance to Trafficked Persons in Nigeria has even
been adopted by other countries in West Africa for use in the
rehabilitation of trafficked persons within the sub-region.

Click to Read More Latest News from Nigeria

newstoday

PDP throws 2011 contest open

14/08/2010 No comments

PDP throws 2011 contest open

In what appears to
be a clear endorsement of the yet to be declared intention of Goodluck
Jonathan to contest next year’s election, the People’s Democratic Party
(PDP) yesterday said the contest for the party’s 2011 presidential
nomination is open to all aspirants.

The chairman of the
party, Okwesilieze Nwodo, who disclosed the party’s position after its
National Executive Committee meeting on Thursday, however, cautioned
that the party has not completely abandoned its zoning arrangement.

Asked if the party
had done away with zoning, he said, “When former President Olusegun
Obasanjo emerged, he chose a Northern Muslim, Atiku Abubakar, as his
vice president. When the (former party) chairman resigned, he was
replaced by another chairman from the South Eastern zone. Our Senate
President, Speaker, Deputy Senate President and Deputy Speaker are from
different zones of the country. How then can PDP be said to have
abandoned zoning or rotation?” Mr Nwodo pointed out that the party had
not always adhered to the arrangement in the past. He said it was only
rigid about rotating power to the southern part of the country in 1998
because of the annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election.

But in 2003 and 2007, the contest was thrown open to all aspirants, irrespective of their zone.

“If our late
president were alive today, we wouldn’t be contesting his right to run
for a second term under our national constitution. It was his
entitlement,” he said. “This will, of course, not exclude any other
aspirant from any part of the country from contesting the presidential
primary, as it has become the custom of our party.”

Later, Solomon Lar,
the founding chairman of the party, told the News Agency of Nigeria
(NAN) that Mr Jonathan will be serving out the terms of the
Yar’Adua/Jonathan joint mandate.

According to
reports, a proposal on the zoning arrangement was presented by Mr Nwodo
and it was unanimously adopted. The chairman had proposed that Mr
Jonathan, currently serving out the joint mandate of the
Yar’Adua/Jonathan ticket, had the right to run for a second term under
the party’s national constitution.

“In the zoning
formula, we did not envisage that a serving president will die in
office. Today, Jonathan, by the dictates of the party constitution, is
serving out the term of the mandate given by the people of our dear
country. That being the case, the party believes rightly that Jonathan,
who is part and parcel of the mandate, has a right to contest the
remainder of their joint ticket in 2011,” he said. Ibrahim Shema, the
governor of Katsina State, had moved a motion for the adoption of the
continuity of the mandate and was seconded by a member of the PDP Board
of Trustee, Tony Anenih.

A source, who asked
to remain anonymous, told NAN that the motion did not receive any
opposition, adding that the party granted a waiver to people from
Bauchi, Borno, Yobe, Abia and Niger States, who intend to return to its
fold.

Dangerous primaries ahead

In a reference to
supporters of the zoning arrangement, Mr Nwodo noted that “reforms are
sometimes hard to accept, especially when we are called upon to abandon
old ways of doing things. In preaching these reforms, we may have hurt
the sensibility of some of our members. We, thereby, present our
unreserved apology. But we, however, continue to appeal that these
reforms be accepted by all our party members.” In his address, Mr
Jonathan pleaded with members of the party to exercise decorum in the
months ahead, as the party prepares to conduct its primaries.

“Wherever two
people stay, they must disagree. Husband and wife must disagree.
Siblings belonging to the same parents must disagree, and as a party,
we must disagree, but what makes us strong is that we have the ability
to resolve our differences.” He also appealed to members to hold
dialogues instead of switching parties.

“When you have
crisis, the faction that is disgruntled will first of all give their
votes to another person. Even though they will regret later, but in
anger they will dash their votes out. But by God’s grace, we will be
resolving our crisis internally. We will not argue it in the public.”

Other party matters

Mr Nwodo announced
that sections of the party constitution, especially those that affect
delegates in the party’s primaries and convention, will be amended in
line with the provisions of the recently-passed 2010 electoral Act.

Though the
resolutions of the NEC meeting will be made public today, sources at
the meeting said the online registration of members was suspended in
the interim.

The source, who
declined to be named, also said that the council accepted the return of
the Abia State governor, Theodore Orji, to the party. However, he only
narrowly got its waiver to contest in 2011 under the party platform.

Most of the party’s governors spoke vehemently against the waiver,
demanding that he goes back to his ward and register, as stipulated by
the party’s constitution. It took the intervention of President
Jonathan to sway the council.

Click to Read More Latest News from Nigeria

newstoday

Chukwu, Lawal defend Eagles after Korea loss

13/08/2010 No comments

Chukwu, Lawal defend Eagles after Korea loss

Despite slumping to
a 2-1 defeat to South Korea in an international friendly match played
Wednesday at the Seoul Olympic Stadium in Korea, former Super Eagles
handler, Christian Chukwu and ex-player, Garba Lawal, have defended the
outcome of the game.

For Chukwu, who was
once at the helms of affairs as chief coach of the national team;
friendly matches should not be seen as a do or die affair but as
avenues to try out new players and give them a platform to express
themselves.

“Of course, victory
is always sweet but in this case I think we should be concerned about
the major purpose of the match which I believe is to start the
rebuilding process of the national team,” he said.

He added that the
match has availed the coaches opportunity to see one or two players
that can fit into different positions when the situation demands.

Good attempt

Similarly, Lawal
said the Eagles did their best, particularly the duo of Osaze Odewingie
and Obafemi Martins while also praising the efforts of some of the home
based players that got a chance in the game.

“They did their
best. For me, I don’t care about the result I am happy that we are
making good use of the FIFA window just like other countries. If we
continue like this then we can begin to reap the benefits in time to
come,” he said.

Others who also
shared the same position include former assistant manager Joe Erico,
former players Dosu Joseph and Yisa Shofulwe, who all argued that
friendly matches should not be seen as a must win game.

The game

Korea dominated the
game and were the more cohesive team, while the Osaze Odemwingie-led
Super Eagles struggled to play as a unit and relied more on the
individual brilliance of Odemwingie and Martins.

Russia-based
striker Solomon Okoronkwo made his full international debut, while
several players from the domestic league also had their chance to excel
at full international level with Valentine Nwabili of Enyimba showing
promise at left fullback.

Korea captained by
Manchester United ace Ji-Sung Park went in front after 18 minutes
through Bit-Garam after sustained pressure on the Nigerian defence.

Nigeria drew level
in the 26th minute through Locomotiv Moscow striker Odemwingie, before
Korea regained their lead just before the break when Hyo Jin darted
into the box before firing past goalkeeper Dele Aiyenugba.

Korea came close to increasing their lead in the 49th minute but the post came to Aiyenugba’s rescue.

Israel-based shot
stopper Aiyenugba was at his best when he pulled off a fine save off a
fierce shot from outside the box on 79 minutes.

Brown Ideye would
have restored parity for the Eagles on 59 minutes but he scoffed his
shot from inside the box after a good combination play that involved
the lively Odemwingie and Martins.

A defensive error, by Danny Shittu right inside the six-yard box, almost gifted the Asians a third goal in the 85th minute.

Both teams played out a 2-2 draw in a 2010 World Cup group match in
South Africa. It was a result that qualified the Taejuk Warriors to the
knockout stage of South Africa.

Click to Read More Sports Stories

Sports

Amodu asks NFF to apologise over Lagerback

13/08/2010 No comments

Amodu asks NFF to apologise over Lagerback

Former Super Eagles
manager, Shuaibu Amodu, yesterday, urged the Nigeria Football
Federation to apologize to Nigerians for hiring his successor, Lars
Lagerback.

Lagerback took over
from Amodu months before the Mundial, and led Nigeria to a first round
crash, and has not returned to the country after the tournament.
Lagerback’s agent has said the Swede would not return to keep with his
job. Speaking at a forum organized by the House of Representatives
Sports committee to review the devastating outing and general fading
performance of the country’s football, Amodu said NFF members who took
the decision of bringing in the new coach, took a “hasty and
irresponsible” decision and deserve to say sorry to fans. “I expected
people who took that decision to apologize to Nigerians for taking that
unreasonable decision,” he said.

The former national
team coach said it was a “disgraceful performance” that the Super
Eagles failed to win a match in South Africa and also failed to justify
the $1.5 million paid to Lagerback for the period he worked. Toeing a
familiar argument of past Eagles handlers, Amodu said his frank
position on issues often pitched him against football authorities but
that he cared less about losing the job. “You can take my job away, but
you cannot take my knowledge,” he said.

Coaching not the problem

The former Eagles
coach said the cause of the rapidly declining status of Nigerian
football, was not by coaches, foreign or local coach but by the
administrative system within the country. “The problem with our
football is not with a foreign or indigenous coach, but our system and
mind set,” he said. He blamed the problems on the lack of continuity in
the appointment of sports ministers and other key officials, who do not
have enough time to articulate their programmes. He also called for
adequate planning and budgetary allocation to sports while saying that
local coaches should be adequately remunerated and given time to
achieve results.

Click to Read More Sports Stories

Sports

Brazil offer fascinating glimpse into the future

13/08/2010 No comments

Brazil offer fascinating glimpse into the future

Brazil coach Mano
Menezes offered a fascinating glimpse into the future with the 2-0
friendly win over the U.S. — and if first impressions count, the team
should be entertaining hosts in the 2014 World Cup.

It remains to be
seen how many of those who started at the New Meadowlands stadium on
Tuesday will be in the team that takes the field for the opening game
in Brazil in four years time but the new faces on show certainly played
like they were capable of performing on the biggest stage.

None shone more
than 18-year-old Neymar, a player who many in Brazil had urged Menezes’
predecessor Dunga to take to South Africa this year.

The Santos forward,
sporting a spiky Mohican haircut, began on the left wing but floated
into the middle when the space opened up and also switched flanks to
keep a largely bewildered U.S defence even more befuddled.

The slightly built
Neymar’s superbly taken header to open the scoring was an illustration
that as well as superb control and energetic pace, he also has the
striker’s ability to convert chances however they may fall to him.

Nothing is certain
in football but few would bet against Neymar being a well known name,
with one of Europe’s top clubs, by the time the next World Cup comes
around and he certainly is not short of confidence.

“I had some nerves
early on, with this being my debut,” he told Reuters, “But it got
easier when the ball began to roll and of course the goal settled me,”
he said.

Likewise it is hard
to imagine playmaker Paulo Henrique Ganso not going on from his
impressive debut to make his mark on the international scene.

He may look like a
scrawny schoolkid but Ganso, another from the current outstanding crop
at Santos, put the most famous shirt in football — the gold and green
one with number 10 on the back — and delivered a performance that was
as notable for its calm composure as for its technical proficiency.

Real Madrid’s Kaka,
out with injury, is the current owner of Pele’s old jersey, but he will
need to get back to his very best to fend off the challenge from Ganso
who is very much an enabling playmaker, prompting others and opening up
spaces.

But he also possesses a wicked shot as he showed when he hit the post from 25 metres out against the Americans.

“The (number 10)
jersey is certainly a heavy one in terms of responsibility but it is up
to me now to go away and work hard and try to earn another call-up,” he
said.

With Pato close to
his lively best in attack, after a season plagued by injury and Robinho
showing signs of his quality as well, Menezes’ new team, featuring just
four players who were in South Africa, already looks to be taking shape
and certainly has indicated it’s character.

“Personality is not something you can really give a team,” said Menezes after the game.

“Either you have it or you don’t. This performance was a sign that they have it,” he said.

Click to Read More Sports Stories

Sports

Same name but different era for Newcastle

13/08/2010 No comments

Same name but different era for Newcastle

Newcastle United
returns to the Premier League without their customary big-name
managers, high-profile signings, and unlikely ambitions after a healthy
dose of realism from a year spent in the second division.

“On the whole
people know it is a very different Newcastle team. It is one that can
stay in the Premier League and build on that to become just as big and
flamboyant as teams that have gone by,” Newcastle defender Mike
Williamson told Reuters. Guided by the understated former Tottenham
Hotspur assistant coach, Chris Hughton, Newcastle open their season at
the deep end with a trip to Old Trafford to face Manchester United on
Monday. ‘The Toon’ have been graced with soccer greats including Paul
Gascoigne, Peter Beardsley, Kevin Keegan, Chris Waddle, and Alan
Shearer in years gone by but under Hughton they have turned to youth
with a sprinkling of modest experience. “It’s a new era now and a very
different outlook that the fans have got to take. The majority of them
will be happy if we stay in the league and we build on it,” said
Williamson, a tall centre back signed from Portsmouth in January.

The club have some
exciting youngsters in big striker Andrew Carroll, new signing Dan
Gosling and Danny Simpson, who are chaperoned by the experience of Alan
Smith, Kevin Nolan, and most recently ex-Arsenal and England defender
Sol Campbell. Newcastle have six FA Cups, the last coming in 1955, and
a 1969 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup to their name, although more recently
they are remembered for an enthralling Premier League title race which
ultimately ended with Manchester United lifting the trophy in 1996.

Panic button

These days ensuring
top flight status is more of a concern. “First and foremost, the target
is to achieve the 40 points mark. I think that is probably the target
for half of the teams in the league, to secure their survival and then
build on it,” Williamson said. Hughton, twice caretaker manager at
Newcastle before taking the reins permanently in 2009, inherited a
relegated side up for sale and on the verge of crisis. A year later
they topped the Championship (second division) by 11 points to earn
promotion. “To pull a club that was on the verge of a crisis, on and
off the field, and to get the lads together and come back into the
Premier League at the first time of asking is a brilliant achievement
and he deserves a lot of credit for it,” Williamson, 26, said. “He has
a lot respect from the players. He is not a big, loud, aggressive
manager, who gives the hairdryer treatment. In general it is all about
tactics, he brings an element of calmness to the team and he always has
a focus in his mind, there are no panic buttons.”

After Manchester United, Newcastle round off August with a match at
home to Aston Villa before a trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers. Hughton
has outlined his plans of how to make this season a success, telling
the local Journal newspaper: “What we were able to do last season was
be very strong defensively. We scored a lot of goals, but we were
strong at the back. If possible, I want us to be even harder to beat
this season. The most important thing is we’ve got to give ourselves
every chance. We have to give ourselves a platform to build on and that
is at the back.”

Click to Read More Sports Stories

Sports

FIFA opens investigation into alleged North Korea punishments

13/08/2010 No comments

FIFA opens investigation into alleged North Korea punishments

FIFA have launched
an investigation into allegations that the North Korean World Cup coach
and players were reprimanded by the government after their early exit
from this year’s tournament in South Africa.

Last month, Radio
Free Asia said that the Korean squad, apart from two foreign-based
players, were subjected to “harsh ideological criticism” after they
lost all three matches and conceded the most amount of goals by a team
at the World Cup.

“We sent a letter
to the football federation to tell us about their election of a new
president and to find out if the allegations made by the media that the
coach and some players were condemned and punished are true,” FIFA
President Sepp Blatter told reporters on Wednesday.

“We are doing this as a first step and we will see how they answer.”

After starting only
their second World Cup brightly with a 2-1 defeat by five-times
champions Brazil, North Korea were humiliated 7-0 by Portugal and
easily beaten 3-0 by Ivory Coast.

Blatter said the
investigation was launched after FIFA executive committee member Chung
Mong-joon, from South Korea, had delivered new information on the issue.

Asian Football
Confederation President Mohamed Bin Hammam, who recently travelled to
the secretive communist nation, said he was hopeful the investigation
would prove conclusive.

“There was an unconfirmed report that these players have gone through torture or something like that, but I can’t confirm that.

“I haven’t seen anything with my eyes or heard anything with my
ears. Maybe this FIFA investigation can clear the air.” Blatter, Bin
Hammam and Chung were in Singapore to launch the soccer tournament at
the inaugural Youth Olympic Games.

Click to Read More Sports Stories

Sports

Paul Kagame wins Rwanda poll

13/08/2010 No comments

Paul Kagame wins Rwanda poll

Incumbent Paul Kagame won 93 per cent of the votes in
Rwanda’s presidential election, final results showed on Wednesday,
after a campaign that critics said was marred by government repression.

A grenade was thrown into a rush-hour crowd in the
capital Kigali, wounding at least seven people. Analysts said the
attack appeared to be aimed at producing a political crisis.

Kagame, widely lauded for rebuilding Rwanda and
establishing peace in the aftermath of the 1994 genocide, won the last
election in 2003 by a similar margin. Wednesday’s results still have to
be signed off by the Supreme Court.

“We are very happy with the conduct of the electoral
process, from the campaign to the voting itself. We did not get reports
of intimidation from anywhere,” said Charles Munyaneza, executive
secretary of the electoral body.

Turnout for Monday’s election was more than 95 per cent in all the nation’s five provinces.

Kagame’s nearest rival, Jean Damascene Ntawukuliryayo
of the Social Democratic Party, won 5 percent. Prosper Higiro of the
Liberal Party garnered just over 1 per cent and Alvera Mukabaramba of
the Party for Peace and Concord 0.4 per cent.

Opponents said the other candidates were a democratic
smokescreen and stooges of Kagame’s Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). They
also said the campaign playing field had been uneven, with three
would-be opposition candidates prevented from registering to contest
the ballot.

One of them, Victoire Ingabire, head of the United Democratic
Forces party who faces charges of funding rebels in neighbouring
Democratic Republic of Congo and espousing genocide ideology, rejected
the result.

Grenade attack

Police spokesman Eric Kayiranga said seven people
including two children were wounded in a grenade blast outside a Kigali
bus park on Wednesday evening.

“It was thrown into the middle of a crowd. It was
rush hour and people were going home. Three suspects were arrested on
the spot,” he told Reuters.

The attack was “a terrible and cowardly act of
violence”, he added in a police statement. “There are no other security
concerns in Kigali or around the country,” he said.

Security agents quickly sealed off the area, denying
access to journalists. Eyewitnesses put the number of wounded at closer
to 20 and said bloodstains were visible on the roadside.

“Grenade attacks are never an attempt to overthrow
the government but rather to influence the political climate. At most
they could provoke the RPF to clamp down on civil liberties and thereby
create a political crisis,” said Rwanda expert Jason Stearns.

Another regional analyst who cannot be identified
said: “It does show that opposition to Kagame is unlikely to come via
the ballot box.” Human rights groups pointed to mounting violence
during the run-up to the election after the shooting dead of a local
journalist and the killing of an opposition official who was found
nearly beheaded in July. The government strenuously denied any
involvement.

“It was a climate of intimidation and exclusion of
the opposition and critical voices. It was a climate of fear,” Carina
Tertsakian, Rwanda researcher for Human Rights Watch, told Reuters by
telephone from London.

The European Union congratulated Rwanda for the calm
atmosphere on polling day and high voter turnout and said the election
marked a new stage in Rwanda’s democratic process and development.

But it said it was concerned by the pre-election incidents and called for swift and transparent investigations.

Kagame has been in control of the land-locked nation
of 10 million people since his rebel army swept to power in the
aftermath of the genocide of 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus
in 1994.

Despite being poor in natural resources, Rwanda is a rising star in
Africa for donors and investors with Kagame feted as a visionary leader
and African icon. The International Monetary Fund forecasts its economy
will expand by an average of 6 percent in the medium term.

Click to Read More Latest News from Nigeria

newstoday
« Older Entries   Recent Entries »