Courtney Morgan - Can Nigeria's renovated railway unite north and south?

The railway linking the economic powerhouse of Lagos and the conflict-hit north of Nigeria has reopened after more than 10 years. The BBC's Will Ross made the 31-hour train journey and asks whether the train line can help unite this divided country.

Nigeria's railways are making a comeback after virtually grinding to a halt.
The first sign of progress is the reopening of the long defunct rail link between Lagos in the south and Kano in the north.
"This is my first experience on a train since I was at school in the early 1990s. I heard about it through BBC Hausa service so I'm giving it a try," says a Lagos-based businessman, as the train rumbles along at a steady 45km/h (28mph).
"Credit to the government, although we need a better service," he says.

Another passenger shrugs at the 1,100km (685 mile) journey to see his relatives in Kano. He will have just more than a day with his family before having to catch the weekly return service.
"This is a development. I once spent five days travelling by train from Lagos to Kano. The engine would be removed from the train and it be taken for a service whilst we would stay on board," he says.
The state-owned Nigeria Railway Corporation says the rehabilitation of 1,126km of track has cost 24bn naira (£98m; $153m).
With a one-way ticket starting from 1,930 Naira (£7.50; $12), it is far cheaper and, some say, safer than travelling by road.
"Last year an armed robber attacked us on the road. There was shooting but thank God we escaped. I feel safe on the train," says passenger Bukola Ogunbanjo.
En route, we pass abandoned relics of the once thriving railways - rusty, dilapidated carriages and goods wagons as well as crumbling stations.

Women traders at Agege Station in Lagos

The first steam engine to have worked in northern Nigeria sits at Minna station in Niger state. It was built in Leeds in the UK in 1901.

At that time, the British colonial powers were keen to expand the railway mainly as a way to make money through agriculture and mineral exports.
Palm oil dominated. It was wanted as lubricant for the machines in Britain's factories whilst palm kernels were used to produce soaps and margarine.
Colonial reports show that 18 million gallons of palm oil were exported from southern Nigeria in 1908.
For the same year, the British colonial authorities budgeted £2m for expansion of the rail network.
By 1913, £6m worth of Nigerian palm tree products alone were being exported every year to Britain.
In order to harness the agricultural potential in the north, the railway was extended to Kano and Nguru.

 

A rusting engine sits abandoned on the platform at Minna Station in Niger State

Sir Bryan Sharwood-Smith was a young employee in the colonial administration in 1927 and gives this insight into the train journey north.
"We lurched and jolted onward, sleeping a little, but never for long, until daylight brought the twin blessings of a cool breeze and an attendant with early morning tea," he recalls in his book, But Always As Friends.
He helped supervise 500 locally recruited labourers constructing the railway in the north, and became the governor of northern Nigeria in the 1950s.
By the time of independence in 1960, Nigeria had about 3,500km of railway track.
That figure has barely changed in over half a century, although most of the track has been rendered redundant, as political turmoil and massive corruption have taken their toll.
There have been false starts but now the Nigerian government says a modern, extensive network is on the way.
"Policy flip-flops were the main reasons for the delays in sorting out the railways. As governments changed, their approaches to the same problem were sometimes markedly different and were not decisive," says transport infrastructure consultant Rowland Ataguba.
"But the last six years have witnessed the most concerted capital investment in the railways by the government in decades.
"Over $10bn has been committed to the railways in this period," says Mr Ataguba.
'Become friends'

“I really hope I can fight Boko Haram because I've noticed what they've done to so many families”

Israel, 21 Police trainee and passenger

Most of the contracts will go to Chinese firms. Last year, the government signed a $1.49bn contract with the state-owned China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) to build a railway between the commercial capital Lagos and Ibadan.

The train journey offers a real chance to see Nigeria's diverse landscape. After slicing through the hustle and bustle of Lagos, the landscape turns green and in some areas the thick bushes touch the sides of the carriages.
Each hour we head north it becomes drier and harsher.
The city of Kano is in the mostly Muslim north. With illiteracy high and poverty deep, it is fertile ground for the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, which is seeking to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria.
The group has been blamed for the deaths of some 1,400 people in central and northern Nigeria since 2010.
On board I met 21-year-old Israel, a Christian from the south, heading to join the police academy.
"I really hope I can fight Boko Haram because I've noticed what they've done to so many families," he says.
The conflict has deepened the divide between the mostly Muslim north and largely Christian and animist south.
But in addition to boosting trade, some think this train can help unite Nigeria.
"I see all of us as passengers - Nigerians, northerners, southerners, Christians, Muslims. Everybody is the same - we are just one," says a man on his way to visit his family in Kano.
"Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo - with the help of the train we become friends."

Courtney Morgan - Can Nigeria's renovated railway unite north and south?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21453383

another awesome video discussing the possibility of a railroad uniting north and south Nigeria!

Courtney Morgan - Nigeria: Foreign workers abducted in Bauchi state

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21493291

Awesome video explaining the kidnapping in Nigeria.

Courtney M. Nigeria foreign workers abducted in Bauchi state - police

Seven foreign workers have been seized and a security guard shot dead by gunmen who attacked a construction company site in northern Nigeria, officials say.

One of the workers seized was Italian, one was Greek and two others Lebanese.
But UK officials could not confirm a report that another was British.
No-one has admitted the abductions but the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram, has staged a series of attacks in northern Nigeria.

Is Mali's Captain Sanogo losing control of the ship?

Since he led the March 22, 2012, coup, Captain Amadou Sanogo has been the real power in Mali. But is the French military intervention shaking up the power dynamic in the capital of Bamako?

By Leela JACINTO       

As French aircraft pounded Islamist targets at the start of the French military mission in Mali over the weekend, the man who vehemently opposed a foreign intervention was visiting wounded Malian soldiers in hospitals.
Wearing his trademark fatigues capped with a green beret and carrying a wooden baton – a new sartorial addition rumoured to hold magical powers – Captain Amadou Sanogo was shown on state TV talking to soldiers on hospital beds.
Speaking to reporters at the hospital, the 39-year-old army captain who led Mali’s disastrous March 22, 2012, coup appeared to starkly change his tune. This time, he was positively welcoming.

France launches strikes in Mali

“We’re congratulating ourselves for having the French by our side. They’re playing a major role in air support in today’s operations. Right now, I’m talking to you as a happy man,” said Sanogo before graciously adding, “I want to say thank you to all our partners.”
It’s questionable whether Sanogo today is a happy man or if he’s genuinely happy about the presence of foreign troops in the West African nation.
“It’s forced,” says Gregory Mann, associate professor of history at Columbia University. “Sanogo has to change his tune. When he made that trip over the weekend, he was just trying to remain relevant.”
Overnight celebrity
Over the past nine months, Sanogo has been the ultimate political authority in Mali.
In the days following the March 22, 2012, coup, which ousted a democratically elected president, the young army officer turned into an overnight celebrity, dominating the airwaves on state television, addressing Malians in their native Bambara in a populist mix of nationalist and anti-elitist discourse.

MALI Mali's perfect storm of woes creates a perfect militant breeding zone

The coup unleashed a perfect storm of woes, including international condemnations, regional sanctions and the fall of northern Mali to a motley mix of Islamist groups. Nevertheless, Sanogo had a 65% favourable popularity rating, according to a May 2012 independent poll.
The subsequent swearing in of interim transitional president, Dioncounda Traoré, and the appointment of a civilian prime minister, Cheick Modibo Diarra, did nothing to change the power dynamic – as was apparent when soldiers, acting under Sanogo’s orders, ousted Diarra in December 2012. The ouster came months after a mob of pro-Sanogo youth forced their way into Traoré’s office in May, beating the interim president and leading to his medical evacuation to France.
Real power in southern Mali, as every Malian knew, rested in Kati, the sprawling military barracks outside Bamako, where Sanogo was based.
But the French intervention in Mali is seeing a change in Bamako’s power dynamics.
“Those images of Sanogo visiting wounded soldiers in Bamako, Kati and [the frontline central Malian town of] Sevare show that he’s attempting to stay relevant and by going to Sevare, he does not want to be seen as being stuck in Kati,” said Bruce Whitehouse, an anthropologist at the Pennsylvania-based Lehigh University.
Sanogo’s status falls in Mali’s changing power triumvirate
Last week’s French intervention in Mali is shaking up what analysts call “the triumvirate of power” between Sanogo and the interim president and prime minister.

FRANCE 24 REPORTS FRANCE 24 Who are the rebel groups holding northern Mali?

Overriding Sanogo’s misgivings, President Traoré issued an urgent appeal to France for military assistance after al Qaeda-linked militants seized Konna, a strategic central Malian town.
“Traoré comes out of the French intervention a lot stronger and he has more room for manoeuvre,” explained Mann. “He has now proved strong enough to ask for military aid and to receive it. Neither he nor [Prime Minister Django] Cissoko remain prisoners to the threats of the military.”
The fact that the French mission was widely welcomed in Bamako and across Mali, was a further blow to Sanogo and his nationalist discourse.
“Sanogo was confronted with a fait accompli,” said Mann, referring to the French intervention. With the Islamists heading south, “it was very clear that the Malian army does not have the capacity to withstand an Islamist onslaught.”
A weak, unprofessional army with a collapse of command-and-control
The Malian army’s weakness is by-now legendary.
The March 22 coup was sparked by military frustration over then President Amadou Toumani Touré’s failure to support the Malian army’s operations against Tuareg mercenaries returning flush with weapons from the anti-Muammar Gaddafi uprising in Libya.

Click on map to enlarge

But days after the Malian coup, the entire north – a region the size of France – fell to Islamist hands as the army simply melted away.
The post-coup breakdown of command-and-control has raised questions about battlefield coordination between the Malian and other West African troops fighting under the regional ECOWAS [Economic Community of West African States] mission.
Over the past few days, the Malian military’s lack of professionalism has raised concerns of human rights abuses in frontline towns and villages, where French and Malian soldiers are fighting rebels.
The Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) is currently investigating cases of alleged summary executions by Malian soldiers of individuals believed to have links with the Ansar Dine Islamist group in the Mopti-Sevare region.
In an interview with the French daily, Le Monde, Florent Geel, head of FIDH’s Africa division, said the organisation was apprehensive because of the Malian army’s lack of preparation. “The Malian army is not properly trained, especially in international law,” said Geel.
How Washington helped create Sanogo
The Malian army’s lack of professionalism comes despite substantial international military aid and training in the pre-coup era.
While France, the former colonial power, has been Mali’s largest military aid provider, the US alone has poured $1 billion into Mali during the past decade in development aid as well as military training to battle al Qaeda’s North African offshoot, AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb).
More embarrassing for Washington though has been the USA’s unwitting help preparing some of the Malian putschists for last year’s coup.
Sanogo himself has had six training missions in the US from 1989 to 2010, according to the US State Department, including stints at Camp Pendleton, California, and the Defense Language Institute at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.
“I’d say the US is not happy with the outcome of that training so far,” said Mann in a wry understatement.
Among Malian military circles, Sanogo is viewed as a worldly English-speaker. A Malian military source told the Associated Press that Sanogo worked as an English language instructor at a military college.
But according to Mann, Sanogo “speaks a minimal form of English and he’s not the brightest of students. He’s clearly crafty and charismatic and he speaks forcefully. In [his native language] Bambara, Sanogo speaks in a very direct way that resonates with the soldiers”.
It’s not however clear how well Sanogo resonates with the rest of the Malian population and, for that matter, how the latest onslaught could affect his popularity ratings.
“His popularity has diminished over the past seven months,” said Whitehouse, noting the declining security situation and rumours that Sanogo had to be bribed to step down as de facto head of state after the coup.
But like most experts, Whitehouse is not willing to predict the end of Sanogo’s influence – certainly not at a time of war. “It depends on the situation on the ground. Given his diminished political stature, the international community may not need to engage with him after the military stage is over. But if things change on the ground, it’s conceivable the international community will just have to talk with him.”
In other words, the man who brought about the downfall of his country, may be down now, but he’s not out.

Health workers killed during polio vaccinations

At least nine health workers were killed by gunmen in two separate shootings as they administered polio vaccinations in the northern Nigerian city of Kano on Friday.

By News Wires (text)

Gunmen on motorbikes shot dead nine health workers who were administering polio vaccinations in two separate attacks in Nigeria’s main northern city of Kano on Friday, police said.
No one claimed responsibility but Islamist militant group Boko Haram - a sect which has condemned the use of Western medicine - has been blamed for carrying out a spate of assaults on security forces in the city in recent weeks.
The shootings will hit efforts by global health organisations to clear Nigeria of polio - a virus that can cause irreversible paralysis within hours of infection.
“Gunmen opened fire on a health centre in the Hotoro district killing seven, while an attack on Zaria Road area of the city claimed two lives,” said police spokesman Magaji Musa.
“They were working for the state government giving out polio vaccinations at the time of the attack,” Musa added.
Boko Haram killed hundreds last year in its effort to impose Islamic law, or sharia, on a country of 160 million split roughly equally between Christians and Muslims.
The group is seen as the most serious threat to the stability of Africa’s top energy producer, and Western governments fear the country could become a base for operations of al Qaeda-linked Islamist groups in the Sahara.
President Goodluck Jonathan has highlighted links between Boko Haram and Saharan Islamists and said that relationship justified his decision to join efforts by French and West African forces to fight militants in Mali last month.
In 2003, northern Nigeria’s Muslim leaders opposed polio vaccinations, saying they could cause infertility and AIDS.
Their campaign against the treatments was blamed for a resurgence of the disease in parts of Nigeria and other African countries previously declared polio-free.
Polio, a virus that attacks the nervous system, crippled thousands of people every year in rich nations until the 1950s.
At least 16 health workers taking part in polio vaccination drives have were killed in a series of attacks in Pakistan in December and January.
Local Taliban militants said they did not carry out those attacks although its leaders have repeatedly denounced the vaccination programme as a plot to sterilise people or spy on Muslims.

ICC-charged Kenyatta cleared to run in Kenya poll

Kenya’s High Court cleared the way for Uhuru Kenyatta’s presidential bid on Friday by refusing to rule in a case seeking to bar the ICC-charged politician from running for next month’s poll.

By Leela JACINTO         

Four days after Kenyan presidential candidate Uhuru Kenyatta staunchly defended his candidacy in a televised public debate, the country’s High Court cleared the way for Kenyatta’s presidential bid - effectively dismissing arguments that his looming trial on charges of crimes against humanity disqualified him.
Dismissing the case against Kenyatta on Friday, the High Court maintained that it did not have jurisdiction over the petitions filed by various legal and human rights groups.
The court also cleared the way for Kenyatta’s running mate, William Ruto, to stand in the March 4 presidential and general elections.
Kenyatta and Ruto are among four Kenyans facing an ICC (International Criminal Court) trial for their alleged roles in orchestrating murder, rape and violence after the 2007 polls. More than 1,200 people were killed and over 600,000 displaced in the inter-tribal violence.
A former finance minister and son of Kenya’s founding father, Jomo Kenyatta, Uhuru Kenyatta is a leading candidate, with polls showing him running a close second to Prime Minister Raila Odinga in the presidential race.
Responding to the ruling, Kenyatta said it "affirmed what we have always held; (that) the people of Kenya -- and they alone -- have the power and the mandate to determine the leadership of this great country."
For his part, Odinga said he welcomed the ruling to allow "my main competitor.. to face me in a free and fair election whose outcome is determined by the people of Kenya."
Putting the focus back on the elections
Reading the decision on Friday, Justice Mbogholi Msagha said the court lacked the authority to decide who is eligible to run for president and that it was a matter for the Supreme Court to decide.
The ICC case has dominated the 2013 election campaign, putting Kenyatta on the defensive during Monday’s first-ever presidential debate.

KENYA Tana Delta Blues: A deadly mix of land grabs, ethnic strife and politics

Amid widespread fears that the March 4 elections would spark another deadly round of post-electoral violence, political platforms and promises have taken a backseat during the 2013 campaign.
“This matter should have been dealt with a long time ago and not days before the elections,” said Abdullahi Halakhe, a seasoned Horn of Africa analyst, in an interview with FRANCE 24. “Now that the court has ruled, it should put the focus back on the elections. If the court had blocked Kenyatta, it would have gone through a protracted appeals process, which would attract attention away from the elections.”
But at least one of the groups seeking to block Kenyatta's bid said it would take the case to the Supreme Court.
"For sure, we are ready for Supreme Court engagement," Ndung'u Wainaina, executive director of the International Center for Policy and Conflict, told Reuters. "Uhuru Kenyatta is not free to seek and hold public or state office."
A ‘calibrated narrative’ of international interference
The ICC case has put the international community in a delicate position over an issue that has polarised one of East Africa’s most stable nations and a key Western ally.

Unrest in Kenya KENYA Kenya’s mysteriously killed, disappeared Islamic clerics

On Monday, Kenyan Foreign Minister Sam Ongeri summoned EU ambassadors to relay his displeasure over statements by some European governments that they would have only essential contact with Kenya’s top leadership if Kenyatta wins the presidency.
Ongeri is a key Kenyatta ally.
In the lead-up to the March 4 poll, Kenyatta’s campaign has effectively cast international responses to the ICC case as a sign of Western interference in Kenya’s domestic affairs.
Last week, the top US diplomat for Africa warned Kenyans of the “consequences” of their “choices”. Although US diplomat Johnnie Carson did not name a candidate, his statement was widely viewed as a warning that a Kenyatta victory would affect the country’s relations with the international community.
Reacting to the statement, Kenyatta’s spokesman Munyori Buku said, "On March 4 the people of Kenya will go to the polls to make their choice, Johnnie Carson not withstanding - unless of course Johnnie Carson is campaigning for someone."
“I think the international community should be extremely circumspect because the ICC narrative is being carefully calibrated and choreographed,” said Halakhe. “Anyone making statements attacking Uhuru Kenyatta and William Rutto are viewed as supporters of Raila Odinga.”
Tribal politics in a volatile mix
Both Kenyatta and Odinga draw their support from their tribal bases and alliances with other tribal groups.
Kenyatta is a Kikuyu - the majority tribe that has dominated Kenyan politics since independence. Odinga, on the other hand, belongs to the Luo tribe, which has historically felt deprived of its share of Kenya’s political pie.
Five years ago, violence gripped this East African nation after current President Mwai Kibaki, a Kikuyu, was declared winner of the 2007 presidential election. His rival, Odinga, alleged electoral manipulation triggering ethnic clashes.
In a country where leaders have long exploited tribal loyalty to advance their political goals, analysts warn that the risk of ethnic violence following the March 4 poll is high.
In this combustible mix of tribal politics, the ICC case threatens to reinforce ethnic competition in a campaign that has focused on tribal alliances and voting blocs while paying scant attention to electoral platforms and promises.
“With the ICC case, the two candidates [Kenyatta and Ruto] are being portrayed as victims, while the victims of last elections’ violence, the people displaced, living in IDP [Internally Displaced Persons] camps are all forgotten,” said Halakhe.