African press review 10 June 2015

Nigeria’s new ruling party took of with a wobbly start as backbenchers elected house leaders in a coup. A voodoo sex-trafficking Nigerian network has been dismantled in Spain, the African Union breaks new ground in effort to find alternative funding to a foreign-raised budget and there’s a roof at last for some Kenyan children who were going to school under a tree.

In Nigeria the press is reacting to the shaky start of the country’s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party in the National Assembly.

Punch reports that the party is threatening sanctions against lawmakers who voted in an internal ballot to pick Senator Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara as Senate president and speaker of the house of representatives respectively.

The paper explains that the two MPs were not the officially anointed candidates for the posts. The APC, had shown preference for Senator Ahmed Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila – for the two top positions in the National Assembly.

According to the paper, the APC’s leadership is faced with the grim reality of trying to “enforce discipline” within its fold.

This, in itself, is potentially a volatile road to travel, holds The Punch, after President Muhammadu Buhari refused to be dragged into the battle. Buhari, in a statement signed by his Special Adviser (Media and Publicity) Femi Adesina, restated his earlier stance that he did not have any preferred candidates for the Senate and the House of Representatives leadership positions and that he was willing to work with whomever the lawmakers elected.

The Nigerian Tribune takes up the smashing in Spain of a sex trafficking ring which used voodoo rituals to force Nigerian women into prostitution.

Six traffickers were arrested and four of the victims working for them in the Spanish holiday island of Mallorca freed.

Police said the traffickers used the women's nail clippings and locks of hair to convince them that they had been placed under a spell "so they would do everything asked of them, under the threat of death to them or their family", according to the newspaper.

South Africa’s Mail and Guardian is full of praise for a gesture by International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane which could change the African mindset towards the African Union.

She pledged R1,000 of her own “hard-earned” money on Tuesday to boost the body’s ability to fund its own programmes at a fund-raising dinner to be hosted by President Jacob Zuma and the chairperson of the African Union Commission Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma in Sandton this Wednesday.

The dinner is to be held on the margins of the 25th ordinary summit of the African Union (AU) which is being held in Pretoria and Johannesburg.

The Mail and Guardian says that, while the AU has been preaching African independence and talking tough against what the continent’s leaders see as an attempt by former colonialists to continue controlling Africa, the organisation still relies heavily on international donors for funding.

To resolve the problem, AU Commission President Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma has proposed a formula requiring countries to contribute to the organisation’s budget according to their wealth. The Mail and Guardian says these would include a tax on air fares and some form of levies on the oil and resources industries in countries which have such resources.

The paper says sponsors of the new funding strategy expect Africa’s industrialists and business leaders to demonstrate the generosity shown earlier this year when pledging large amounts of money to help the AU fight the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

In Kenya Standard Digital tells the saga of children at an early childhood development and education centre who are soon to enter a classroom after years of learning in the shade of the branches of a tree. According to the paper, this is after the MP for their Chemagel Patrick Ntutu issued a cheque worth 850,000 Kenyan shillings (7,500 euros) so they can have a roof ver their heads.