African press review 20 May 2015

We begin with continuing speculation in the Nigerian press about the fate of the more than 200 Chibok girls whose kidnapping by Boko Haram revealed the barbaric designs of the Islamic sect to the world in April last year.

Vanguard quotes Borno State governor, Kassim Shettima, as saying that the students were probably being held in bunkers, inside Sambisa Forest.

The Nigerian Tribune is also monitoring the story and reports that Governor Shettima was speaking in Abuja, Tuesday while presenting a paper at a two-day post election conference on security and governance.

According to the paper there is mounting pessimism about the condition of the girls since there are no traces of the girls in the large swathes of the terrorist lair liberated by the military. The Governor’s argument is that the dreaded sect, having operated in the large expanse of the forest for so many years unchallenged, were probably able to build a bunker, large enough to accommodate many hostages in the area.

Punch reports that anxiety has gripped ministers and other top government officials in Abuja ahead of the last meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) under the Goodluck Jonathan administration scheduled to hold on Wednesday.

The apprehension was triggered by a report credited to the Minister of Information, Patricia Akwashiki, that President Goodluck Jonathan would dissolve his cabinet during a “valedictory session” of the FEC on Wednesday.

The FEC is the highest decision-making body of the Federal Government and it consists of the President, the Vice President, all ministers, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the National Security Adviser, the Head of Service of the Federation and some top presidential aides.

In South Africa, the press is reporting an embarrassing confession by South Africa’s Minister of Defence and Military Veterans Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula that the army needs more white soldiers.

City Press says that she made the statement during a press conference on Tuesday morning just before her budget speech in Parliament.

Mapisa-Nqakula suggested that the army would apply targeted recruitment measures, maybe even put out feelers at universities. Part of the process to reach the required demographics would be to keep the “old guard”. Army officials currently retire at the age of 60, but part of the process to correct the demographic figures would be to extend this to 65 years, according to the Johannesburg newspaper.

The Defence Minister’s remarks are bound to breed renewed speculation about the management skills of the South African army’s new black-dominated command and create anxiety in black empowerment circles wary about the return to the fore of security services by military professionals of the much dreaded apartheid regime.

Mail and Guardian continues its exploration of African ideas and experiences through the interactive column entitled “Talking Heads”, which is a Pan-African knowledge-sharing platform created to dispel negative narratives about Africa.

Its latest guest is Nigerian researcher Simidele Dosekun, a Gender and African studies researcher at King’s College London. She delves into what she describes as a new style of femininity among young, privileged women in Lagos, Nigeria.

Through live events, audio casts and videos, Talking Heads brings the continent’s thought leaders, social disruptors and change makers on a public platform to the public to share their ideas and experiences, demanding we think differently about who and what it means to be African.