Ailing 82-year-old Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika handed in his resignation on live TV in one of his few public sightings in the last six years. Since he had a stroke in 2013, the leader, who was initially seen as a saviour, became an absentee president whose four terms in office were mired in corruption and allegations of vote-rigging.
Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio is fervently leading the country’s anti-corruption drive. Bio launched three Commissions of Inquiry, investigating malpractice in the government between 2000 to 2018 when former President Ernest Bai Koroma was in office. Bio pledged to support the Anti Corruption Commission, giving assurances that it will operate independently.
The Central Bank of Kenya officially gazetted the country’s new currency as legal tender. The new currency features images of Kenya’s wildlife, replacing the portraits of former presidents. However, it seems that a significant portion of the public feels that this is a move in the wrong direction.
South Africa: Corruption Watch announces project to hold police accountable. The new website will allow people to report police corruption.
The recent reports on the obscene amounts of ill-gotten wealth in the hands of Equatorial Guinea’s vice president, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, makes one despair over the many leaders who enrich themselves at the cost of their country and its people.
In Nigeria, you need as much as US$125 000 to buy a presidential nomination form. These exorbitant amounts are aimed to keep the highest political office in the hands of the monied, the connected and the corrupt.
The spokesperson for Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has stated that the leader has been “comfortably” re-elected despite opposition claims of evidence of electoral fraud in the run-off poll. More than a thousand supporters have been protesting the result.
Nigeria’s Minister of Finance Kemi Adeosun is under fire from the media and Nigerians after investigations by a Nigerian publication revealed that she forged her National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) certificate.
The dire state of the Kingdom of eSwatini’s economy has not slowed down its king’s spending and lavish lifestyle. King Mswati’s latest purchase is a further extravagance imposed on the country’s ailing economy.
Rafael Marques has been honoured with the International Press Institute’s World Press Freedom Hero Award, which recognises journalists who have made significant contributions to the promotion of press freedom, particularly at great personal risk.
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