African press review 3 February 2012

We begin with Egypt’s AlMasry Alyoum, which features the news of jail sentence handed down to the arab world’s most famous comic actor. The 72 year old Adel Imam was sentenced to three months in jail with hard labour for “defaming Islam” in some of the roles he played.

Mr. Imam is considered Egypt’s biggest film star with 40 years of box office hits and theatre plays under his belt. The news of the sentence, reports the daily, are a part of a wider trend of religiously motivated trials. Egyptian telecom tycoon and political liberal Naguib Sawiris also faces trial on a charge of showing contempt for religion in a case brought by another Islamist lawyer.

Sawiris, a prominent figure in Egypt's Coptic Christian community, was accused of showing contempt by tweeting a cartoon seen as insulting to Islam.

Senegal’s Le Quotidien’s front page prominently features the country’s minister of foreign affairs with his fist raised in anger. The title reads “The anger of Madicke Niang”.

The Foreign Minister was clearly aiming his anger at the French and American governments’ reaction to the news that Abdoulaye Wade is seeking his own reelection.

Alain Juppé declared to the French parliament that France wished for a “generational power transition” in the country.  US Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns, said that Wade's insistence on running again "undermines the spirit of democracy,"

"It is unacceptable. We don’t have to receive lessons in democracy from France or the United States", the private daily quotes the Senegalese foreign minister as saying.

All Africa publication reveals that to assist with his controversial bid to seek a third term of office, President Wade has retained an Atlanta-based law  lobbying firm. For a hefty 76,000 euros retainer and 38,000 monthly fee, "a team of lawyers and professionals" was hired to analyze Wade's "authority to seek a third term" ,

It also drew-up a White Paper and developed "an agreed upon protocol" for presenting the findings in the United States and Senegal. Clearly, a high-powered lobbying effort by the outgoing president.

Dossier: Sharia wars - Boko Haram v the military in northern Nigeria

Is China taking over the African continent? The East African quotes the Rwandan president Paul Kagamé, as saying the new 152 million euro African Union headquarters donated by China to Africa is a reflection of the continents' bigger problems.

At a monthly press conference in Kigali on Thursday, Kagamé said that while the Chinese donation is a welcome gift, African countries should focus on working towards economic independance that allows them to be in charge of their own affairs. He went even further by calling the Chinese donation “pathetic".

“The continent of Africa is very rich in terms of all kinds of resources and Africa being where it is today is a problem," he said. "Maybe you can see it in terms of this donation but the problem is much bigger than that..”

Nigeria’s Daily Trust leads with the capture of Boko Haram’s alleged spokesman Abul Qaqa by the State Security Service yesterday. Abul Qaqa, who frequently made statements to the press after attacks by the group was arrested in the biggest catch yet in the bid to tame the sect, which had been waging a campaign of deadly bombings and shootings in the country for nearly two years.

The paper quotes a security source who hailed the capture as “a landmark feat and the biggest arrest made by security forces since after the death of the leader of the sect Mohammed Yusuf in 2009”.

And finally, in South Africa’s Times, personal chef to Madiba (the tribal name of Nelson Mandela), Xoliswa Ndoyiya unveils her cookery book Ukutya Kwasekhaya: Tastes from Nelson Mandela's Kitchen.

The cookbook contains a collection of more than 60 recipes that Ndoyiya has prepared over the last 19 years for the former South African leader. When asked what’s the secret of her famously delicious meals, she says: " Yes there is a secret – it's love. I cook food with love."

So, if we ever want to become a personal chef, “all you need is looove”…