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African press review 19 June 2015

Spend thrifts in Nigeria shiver as President Buhari places half of the presidential fleet on sale. And South Africa's press turns its anger at France as the standoff over the government's violation of its ICC statute boils over.

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News that President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the sale of nine aircraft from the large Presidential fleet due to the astronomic maintenance costs took many newspapers by surprise. Only ThisDay carries the scoop. It reports that Buhari ordered the immediate sale of the luxury jets after learning that the Federal government has been spending more than 5 million euros annually for the maintenance of the 16 planes in the Presidential fleet.

The newspaper says that while information about the planes placed on sale remains classified, they all have solid market value. ThisDay believes these may include two Dassault Falcon 7X jets purchased for 44 million euros in 2010, a Falcon 900 acquired for 30 million euros and a Gulfstream 550 costing 46 million euros.

President Buhari’s election and the changing of the political guard in Nigeria has inspired an interesting new book titled the Winding Road From Country to Nation by Bolaji Samson Aregbeshola reviewed for us by the The Guardian. The paper describes the publication as a compendium with every mark of distinction, which traces the country’s political evolution from the early 20th century through the botched Third Republic.

It underlines that the book also explores the dawn of a new era, political power changing hands for the first time in sixteen years from a dominant party to a vibrant opposition.
A sign of the times in Nigeria is clearly evident in the high-pitched battles taking place inside the country’s new ruling All Progressive Congress party.

Vanguard reports that leaders of the party are locked in a power struggle over who should become the Senate leader; the Deputy Senate leader; the Chief whip and the Deputy Chief whip. According to the paper, while the Senate President Bukola Saraki, favours allocations by zones, some leaders of the party, especially those from the South-West, want them filled by the party’s hierarchy.

Vanguard reports that the APC’s National Working Committee failed to agree on the modalities for brokering peace among aggrieved members of the party after a tense meeting in Abuja on Thursday. APC leaders are due to meet again this Friday in another attempt to end the embarrassing crisis, according to the newspaper.

In South Africa some papers have come out in defence of the government for failing to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir indicted by the ICC for atrocities committed in Darfur, despite being a signatory of the Rome Statute creating the tribunal.

The Star holds in an editorial that while it agrees that Bashir will have to face justice some day, it should not be in the ICC, which it claims is manipulated by Western powers. The Johannesburg-based newspaper, accuses the Court of pursuing a hidden agenda pointing out that at times it sought to neutralise African leaders that exercise independence in the interests of Africans, and who fail to protect Western interests.

It picks out France as the perfect example of Western countries manipulating the ICC. The Star accuses Paris of arming the rebellion that ousted ex-Cote d’Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo and imposing Alassane Ouattara described as a puppet. According to the paper, having bombed Gbagbo’s palace, the French justice minister and the newly imposed justice minister of Ivory Coast went to The Hague in October 2011 to ask that Gbagbo be transferred to the ICC, where he languished for 15 months without charge.

The Star explains that the ICC, which is primarily funded by France, Germany and the EU, used the 15 months to try to collect evidence against Gbagbo. In June 2013, the decision of the Pre-Trial Chamber was that there was not enough evidence to send Gbagbo to trial.

Instead of releasing him, according to The Star, the ICC set out for another seven months, even under an African chief prosecutor, trying to find evidence against him. It points out that Gbagbo was denied bail nine times, his trial date postponed over and over again. The reason, it argues, was to keep him remanded until after Cote d’Ivoire’s elections in October. The travesty of justice surrounding Gbagbo’s case is just one example of why Africa doesn’t believe in the ICC any more, concludes the Johannesburg-based Star.

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