Gabon: Bongo is set for his third term… [and the dynasty continues]

“The Minister of the Interior, Lambert Noël Matha, announced the temporary closure of land and sea borders, but not air, from Friday August 25 at midnight until Saturday August 26, 2023 at midnight due to the holding general elections” (Africa24TV, 25.08.2023).

Tomorrow in Libreville there is set for another election. As the family enterprise of Bongo continues. The familiar affair and scheduled election held just to legitimize another term for Ali Bongo. A man who has fiercely attacked the opposition and silenced his critics.

While he has lived lavish and gotten medical treatment abroad. He has taken planes and been away for months. In the last term people was worried that he was dead and deceased while getting treatment outside the republic. There was even a failed coup d’etat plot against him too.

So, it is not like Ali Bongo or his cronies are that beloved in the nation. They are having an iron grip and there is no end in sight. Bongo and his allies are able to do so because they have the funds and the military might to pursuit this end.

It has now been 14 years under Ali Bongo after 42 years under his father Omar Bongo. They are prolonging the agony and just showing their disregard of the people. The incumbent inherited the office and acts with privilege. That’s why he didn’t even have the courage or the balls to participate in the televised debate with fellow presidential candidates. No, he has vague reasons and dipped out.

Surely we have seen this man is fatigued and the health deteriorating. His now the sort of fella that would fall asleep at the United Nations General Assembly or be a sleeping buddy at the African Union Heads of State Summit. That’s just how things goes and it reflects badly on Gabon.

The incumbent should know it is bad when people wish he was dead. The rumours went crazy in 2019 and that was also the year of the failed coup. Therefore, this man isn’t rock solid or beloved as a Head of State. No, but he can hold the grips of power, because the army and the authorities allows him to be in office. The moment the army or the authorities turns on him… that’s when the buck will stop.

Tomorrows election at this point is procedure. It is just protocol to give Bongo another term. The ones who thinks differently is very naive. There is little to no incentive to change this. No matter who goes against him. They are bound to loose. Jean Ping has tried and never succeeded. The Republic could have Jesus as a competitor against Bongo and he would loose. That’s how these elections are and we cannot fool ourselves.

The Dynasty of Bongo will continue in Libreville. The people are promised a new era by Bongo. We all know nothing new will arrive under his reign. There is no reason for him to change or deliver anything. His gotten away with it for years and why suddenly start now? Why should he care now after all these years? Who believes him after ruling since 2009?

That’s why we know the gimmicks and the sloganeering. It is done for the headlines and to give people hope. Though there is no reason to have so. Especially when you know the groundwork, the system and the state is all configured to ensure another term for Ali Bongo. His there to stay and no one will really challenge him.

We know the authorities are all set to announce and proclaim Ali Ondimba Bongo the victor. The rest is formalities and only play for the public to see. Just to make a little bread and circus before the ordinary days returns.

This President, His Excellency won’t serve in the best interests of the nation or the citizens. No, he serves himself and his family, which has been ruling this nation for close to 60 years now. That’s who he is and to think otherwise isn’t cutting it.

Has won this election. Not because of his achievement, character or policies. He has won it by default and by the state who has facilitated everything for him. It is all built around and surrounded by him. There is no other way out. Bongo will rule the nation until his last breath. There can be demonstrations and public outcry like in 2016. However, it won’t matter and the authorities won’t shed a tear of the pain, suffering or the demise of civilians. The only thing that matters is that the dynasty continues. Peace.

Gabon: Jean Ping – Communique de Presse (25.08.2023)

Palestine: Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Exparitates – Press Statement (24.08.2023)

Burkina Faso – Niger – Mali: Communique de Presse Conjoint (24.08.2023)

Zimbabwe: Election Resource Centre (ERC) and Zimbabwe Electoral Support Network (ZESN) Alert (24.08.2023)

A memo on the Harmonised Elections in Zimbabwe

There will be questions and a hill of doubt after the dust is settled. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commision (ZEC) and authorities actions during the last 48 hours are the reason for it. Not only the additional day of voting. No, the whole charade and the manner of the election was held.

It was like ZEC wanted it to be hectic, bad and didn’t have the logistical support to hold a proper election. That how it can be perceived and it isn’t the look any in coming government to have. As the whole plot of ballot challenges, duplicated party candidates and other issues are showing the intentions form the get-go.

This ZEC wasn’t impartial or independent. No, it worked for one objective and one objective only. That to serve the state, the ZANU-PF and whatever else that secures victory for the incumbent President. Everything else is a side-show and the usage of Forever Associates Zimbabwe (FAZ) and Zimbabwe Republican Police (ZRP) to divert, distort and intimidate the population. Therefore, there is not many reasons to trust the outcome.

The ZEC can call for peace and say whatever it needs to say. However, we know there was more at stake and the ZEC wouldn’t risk to undermine the authority or the power of the incumbent. No, this game has been played before and is done so to perfection now. Even if the ZEC looks hopeless, inept and like it doesn’t know what it is doing. Nevertheless, that is done so you can talk about late delivery of ballots and lack of proper supervision at polling stations. While there will be talk of violence against opposition polling agents and also the arrests of CSOs Electoral Observation Monitoring Teams, which also happened during the polls. Just showing how the regime and ZEC wants to do this in darkness.

The ZANU-PF and ZEC aren’t interested in transparency or openness about the elections. They want nobody to look at it or talk about it. These ones in power wants their say and their tally announced. They will let the opposition get seats and get a few offices. We know that is just to make it seem legit, but the whole game is to secure the majority and the seats to give the President total control of the Parliament. Nothing is left to chance and the staff at ZEC knows this…

No one should be shocked or in awe by this in 2023. Elections under the reigns of ZANU-PF haven’t gotten better over the years. No, it is just getting worse and we should fear if there are riots, demonstrations or other public displeasure after the announced results. Because, the last election had a bloody end-game and a finalization. During the last term and the 2^nd Republic. ZANU-PF tried to dismantle and weaken Nelson Chamisa. They tried to undermine and takeaway his party from underneath him. However, him and his allies cleverly outmanoeuvred them. That’s why the CCC is taking seats and winning people’s hearts.

While the CCC and Chamisa is winning hearts. It isn’t getting a total victory or a landslide. No, matter what the will of the people. It is the will of the ones who appointed the ZEC that matters. The people are pawns and their ballots will be cooked. ZEC is preparing tabulations and counting, which will benefit the President and ZANU-PF. They will not even hide it, but do in plain sight. That is just what is happening here.

Elections held in darkness, on overtime and without proper logistics. An election held with intimidation and with FAZ playing the mind-games with electorate. That’s what is up. There is not sincere or honest about it. ZEC already showed that with the ballots and the court cases, which only gave political capital to the ZANU-PF. Therefore, we all knew the gig was up.

I wish I could be more hopeful and giddy. Nelson Chamisa seems like an astute leader and a man of principals. However, that doesn’t matter when the authorities and the current regime is rigging itself into power. They are willing to do anything to get their result. ZEC will announce Mnangagwa and give a full second term. ZANU-PF will have the majority of seats in Parliament and hold key offices across the Republic. Therefore, there is no surprises and only merciless involvement in the polls.

ZANU-PF will have it and Mnangagwa too. They wouldn’t allow anything else to happen. ZEC is just rubberstamping it and following procedure. While looking incompetent and inept. The ZEC has been and seems like a circus. That circus is made to play tricks on the citizens and the election monitoring teams as well. Alas, the trick has been seen before and we know why. It has been done so it easier to cook the results and announced their preferred candidates. That’s what is happening and we cannot expect anything else.

This sham, charade and lacklustre affair only shows what sort of vibe the ZANU-PF is on. They are doing this just because they have too. To show some sort of credentials and that they have “support”. While everyone knows it is ghosts, the dead and algorithms that will secure ZANU-PF victory. It won’t be the people or the citizens at large. If so… the ZANU-PF and ZEC wouldn’t need to organize an election this way. Peace.

Zimbabwe: ZimRights Calls for the Release of ZESN and ERC Staff and Volunteers (24.08.2023)

24 August 2023

The Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights), is outraged at the unlawful arrest and illegal detention of members of staff and volunteers for the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) and the Election Resources Centre (ERC) and calls on the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) to release them without any further delays.

On the evening of 23 August 2023, armed police stormed the ZESN and ERC election data centres and offices, and in the process arrested members of staff and volunteers working on the ongoing 2023 elections and detained them unlawfully. At the time of the release of this statement, lawyers representing the two organisations have been denied access to the victims of this aggression in violation of their constitutional rights.

This development is very unfortunate coming on the day when Zimbabwe was holding its general elections under international spotlight. This raid adds to a litany of the increasing electoral transgressions that have been committed in the run-up to this election which include violence, threats of violence, voter intimidation, and failure by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) to make available relevant election material on election day to allow the people to exercise their right to vote.

A day before the elections, ZimRights released a policy and practice brief titled, ‘Facing the Fear: Confronting Threats to Personal Security and Peace in Zimbabwe ’, bemoaning the use of fear and terror in preventing the full exercise of the people’s rights in Zimbabwe. The policy brief called for behavioural change, especially by security institutions that are entrusted by the Constitution of Zimbabwe with ensuring the security of the people. True to the findings of this policy and practice brief, Zimbabwean police have once again won the trophy for embarrassing the nation, making a mockery of what is supposed to be a credible democratic process. Independent election observers play an important role in building a democratic culture. In general, civil society is the voice and sight of millions of Zimbabweans who depend on their independence and expertise to appraise and support democracy and hold the government to account.

Concerned with the personal security and welfare of the detained persons, as well as the credibility of the current election processes, ZimRights calls upon the ZRP to urgently release the detained persons, return the confiscated property, and allow ZESN and ERC to continue with their important work. ZimRights reiterates the call for security sector reform in Zimbabwe to ensure that the security services uphold the rule of law and protect the rights of citizens.

Issued by the ZimRights Information Department

info@zimrights.org.zw

A look into Bobi Wine’s response to Mzee on suspension of World Bank loans…

“It is you, Sir, who has left undone what you ought to have done, and did that which you ought not have done. There is no truth in you. Just take a long, hard look in the mirror” (Bobi Wine, 24.08.2023).

That Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine wrote a text and published it today. This is telling the importance, because Bobi Wine is the leader of the National Unity Platform (NUP) and the biggest contender for the Presidency at the moment. The 2021 elections if it wasn’t a rigged affair. It would have been his and he would have won it. However, we know the game is rigged and there is no true will of the people.

In this regard it is interesting to see what sort of retort Bobi Wine uses. Because, we know the drill and I have also retorted to President Museveni. Though this was a long awaited call, but a useful one.

Bobi Wine starts with this: “Gen Museveni, Your recent outburst about the World Bank withholding future assistance to Uganda is a clear indication of your ideological disorientation and policy nomadism that has characterised your four-decade rule. You wasted twenty-seven pages trying to distort history and divert reality, that an average reader was left wondering who is (or has been) in charge of Uganda” (Bobi Wine, 24.08.2023).

He is speaking facts, but you see how he calls him. That’s telling of the vision and how he perceives Museveni. His a General and not the President. A man of the guns and arms. Museveni was telling porkies and making a mockery attempt to swift blame elsewhere. However, that’s been his game since the start of his career. That is all Museveni knows and what he does to make himself look better.

Bobi Wine continues: “To date, you cannot account for the demise of the country’s textile, public transport, food processing, leisure facilities, agricultural cooperatives, and manufacturing capacity that made places like Jinja, Bushenyi, Masaka and Mbale shining beacons of the potential that our young country possessed. You have replaced Uganda’s public capital with miserable gimmicks like Operation Wealth Creation, replaced hitherto thriving agricultural cooperatives with non-starters called SACCOs. The NRA is not and was never the innocent, well-meaning, and foresighted actor that you portray it to be. It was and remains – as NRM – a corrupt, violent force that has played a major role in the delayed socioeconomic transformation of Uganda. Neo-colonialism is alive and well under you, Sir” (Bobi Wine, 24.08.2023).

Here again he issues the cold hard truth. The reality of what the reign of Museveni has brought. There is little to show for it and Museveni’s men has dismantled a lot of possible “value additional industries” across the Republic. That’s been done through incentives and with the hands of the neocolonial institutions after the Bush-War. As the subsidizes and the Co-Ops, and even vital agricultural boards was destroyed. So, Bobi Wine is right and Museveni is just trying to pin this all on them, instead of taking the blame himself for accepting the stipulations in office. Museveni has sold off and destroyed a lot potential for a quick buck. That’s why industries has failed and no real long-term policy has been enacted, which could have made a vast difference.

Bobi Wine further states: “Out of the nine men who have occupied the office of the President in the past 61 years since our supposed independence, you’re the undisputed champion of neo-colonial and neoliberal agendas. It is under your regime that the sale of public service infrastructure – under the guidance and encouragement of the same World Bank that you are blaming now – occurred. You have presided over the reckless liberalisation, extreme de-regulation, and sacrifice of our public sector at the altar of foreign interests. We can see through your hypocrisy” (Bobi Wine, 24.08.2023).

It is just rich reading this. The talking points and the way Bobi Wine describes things. This shows political maturity and deep understanding of things. It is commendable. The way that he debunks and says what Museveni contributed too. Which we all have seen and Museveni was a donor darling for a reason. He played and danced to their songs. Because that was easy money and he could eat of their plate. That’s why he accepted the stipulations and played with them. He didn’t have to work and still he could live lavish. Therefore, Bobi Wine undresses Museveni perfectly here.

Bobi Wine writes: “Your prioritisation of regime survival has destroyed, among other things, the district, national referral hospital system, and public health infrastructure generally. As a result, the formerly reliable hospitals in Iganga, Itojo, Mbale, Soroti, and Lira are now moribund, understaffed and under-equipped death traps that you replaced with equally miserable health centres. Your salvation lies in the fact that the United States Agency for International Development subsidises your failures by supporting critical public health needs, including catering for our military’s health and medical needs. So who is the neocolonialist here?” (Bobi Wine, 24.08.2023).

It is like Bobi Wine just shoots a hole in any argument or reasoning Museveni had in his piece. His just piercing through it. Making enough holes to call him a Swiss Cheese. Bobi Wine is cleverly telling the tale of how Aid, Loans and Grants are the saving grace of the regime. Which has been stated by plenty before him. This is nothing new, but special that someone of Bobi Wine says it this openly. As it undermines the story and the tales that Museveni wants about himself. Museveni wants to be supreme and the all-knowing leader. The man with all the answers, but like always he needs other people’s money to foot his bills. That’s why Bobi Wine’s words are so rich and detailed and utterly destroys the reasoning of Museveni.

Near the end, Bobi Wine wrote these fitting words: “Accordingly, it is the height of fiction and deceit, for you to make the deliberately false prediction that “in a few years” Uganda’s economy will hit the half-a-trillion dollar mark. A cursory look at the revenue collection challenges the URA has experienced over the past several quarters, and the high mortality rates of SMEs tells you everything you need to dismiss this baseless projection. The truth is usually brief, so I need not elaborate these self-evident points in the same way you wrote nearly thirty pages to explain your ‘successes’ after almost 40 years in power! That you even had to ‘highlight’ for the country your supposed successes should tell you everything you need to know” (Bobi Wine, 24.08.2023).

As I did discuss in my retort to Museveni. It showed that the lack of domestic revenue was a reason for the failure of progress and development. That’s why the World Bank loans, grants or aide hadn’t sufficiently created the purposed goals of investment or value of money. This is why it’s a well drafted and expose to say these things. Museveni knows his at fault, but easier to blame a neocolonial institution, than take blame himself. Because, he has had the time to do so and get things done in a proper manner. However, we all know that he prefers the get-rich schemes and eat of the plate of others. That’s what he has done and it’s the reason why the World Bank loans haven’t been enough.

Bobi Wine wrote a splendid piece here and shows political maturity. The ones underestimating him… they should fear him. He proves his calibre here and it should be respected. Bobi Wine could have taken plenty of avenues, but picked this one. Peace.

Philippines: President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. – Proclamation No. 327 – Declaring, Monday 11 September 2023, A Special (Non-Working) Day in the Province of Ilocos Norte (23.08.2023)

Ethiopia: Natnael Mekonnen talks of annihilating Amhara…

“If glass is contaminated and cannot be cleaned by washing, the only option is to break the glass” (Natnael Mekonnen, 23.08.2023).

We have heard similar stories from the Prosperity Party before and in regard to other regional states or ethnicities. This here sort of talk isn’t new under the reign of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali. At one point the PP official public record stated this: “to eliminate the fish we need to drain the sea” that was in correlation of the conflict and warfare in Oromia. Which meant the PP was ready to act in genocidal tendencies and wipe out an entire population. That’s the gist of things.

Now that the PP has another conflict and its spiralling out of control. We have seen this before and the rhetoric isn’t new. Just like the PP said these things about Oromia. There was similar statements and talk while the war in Tigray was going on. Therefore, the Prosperity Party is consistent in the talk of bloodshed, massacres and will to annihilate people.

In 2023 the Federal Republic should be better, but apparently the same means are used. The same tricks of the trade. The same evil is apparently in the open. Addis Ababa and the PP are not compromising. No, they have their offensives and their special missions, which inflicts more harm, plight and total destruction. They come with ammunition, guns, tanks and drones. The ENDF isn’t saving anything and leaving anything to chance. No, they are burning the place to the ground and to set yet another example.

The Amhara region is just entering their phase of Medemer Terror. They participated in the Medemer terror in the Tigray region. They cheered and was happy to be a part of it. The Amhara region enjoyed the spoils and the prominence. They thought they were unique and had a loyal ally in Abiy.

However, just like Abiy needed to make the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) into beggars and “yes-men”. He needs the extremists and the nationalists of Amhara to do the same. The PM needs to consolidate and takeover all power. He yearns for the control and the final say. As the PM don’t mind the consequences or the costs. The results and the end-game that matters to him. That the militias, the para-military and the ones who fought with him is bowing their knees to him. This is all his seeking and that they join his army on his conditions. That’s what the gist of the things are and they rebelled against him. Because, they didn’t want to be under the spell and be token solider of Abiy. No, the Amhara Regional Special Forces and Fano wanted more, they wanted a say and they thought they had the right for it. However, their alliance was short-sighted and only for personal gains of Abiy. As he got the TPLF to beg for mercy. Therefore, he could now swing the swords against the ones who fought with him.

With that in mind, Mekonnen says these words. As we know Abiy is a warlord and a man who thrives in conflict. He earns his political capital by killing, slaughtering and destroying regions. That’s how he shows force and get his will done. The citizens are paying the price. The ones on the front-lines are buried. The ones who dares to challenge him stops breathing too. There are so many victims and so many who has been scorned. This will be a generational curse and take decades to rebuild.

The violent years of Abiy will cause harm for the next generation and possibly the one after that too. As there are so many who has fought and so many who was injured. There was so many who died and the total costs of doing so will be paid by the next generation. That’s just how these things goes. The grandfathers fought so the their grandchildren can pay their debt.

Amhara is facing that now. The PP and the allies of Addis Ababa is ready to use the same rhetoric and talking points. They are talking of annihilating a region again. The Amhara people are now feeling and hearing the same they talked about Tigray or Oromia. That shows how fickle things are and how little value life has in Ethiopia. When leaders, the ones appointed or elected are speaking in this manner. This is endangering people and sending signals of genocidal affairs. That isn’t just worrying, but alarming. Which is tragic that this isn’t new, but just repeating itself.

The PP is a party of war and they are now brutally assaulting Amhara region just to prove a point. Peace.