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Presidency: How Zambia President, Kaunda, Accurately Predicted My Political Future – Jonathan

Published

11 months ago

June 17, 2023

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Former President, Goodluck Jonathan has revealed, for the first time, how the late first President of Zambia Dr Kenneth Kaunda and foremost Pan-Africanist gave accurate prophecy on his political progression by predicting 17 years ago that he would become President, at a time nobody thought that such prospect was possible.

Jonathan stated this in Pretoria South Africa on Saturday in his keynote speech at the Second Kenneth Kaunda Public Lecture organised by the Kenneth Kaunda Children of Africa Foundation. Dr Jonathan also charged African leaders to aspire to live up to the ideals of Kaunda who he said was a leading voice in Africa’s quest for freedom and unity, adding that the quality of leadership on the continent needed to be improved to ensure that the efforts of founding fathers like Kaunda towards Africa’s freedom, peace and development were not in vain.

He further urged African nations to forge functional partnerships and work towards the successful implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement to enhance development and economic freedom for the continent.

Speaking of Kaunda’s prayers and prophecy on his political future at the time he was Governor of Bayelsa State, the former President noted that it happened during the late elder statesmen’s two-day visit to Bayelsa in 2006, following an invitation he extended to him to participate in his government’s work against the scourge of HIV/AIDS.

Jonathan said: “I must say it now that Kaunda in the early days of my political career, captured my political trajectory to the presidency in an accurate prophetic revelation that has continued to amaze me till this day.

“In 2006 when Kaunda had ended his visit to us in Yenagoa and was returning to Zambia, I remember seeing him off to the Port Harcourt Airport in neighbouring Rivers State. As he stood up and was about to board a vehicle that would convey him to the aircraft, he turned back and said to me, “Young man, you will be the president of this country one day.”

Jonathan said further that when this happened, he and his Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Ambassador Boladei Igali, who was with him “simply looked at each other in amazement, because the presidency was never in our dreams, at that time.”

The former President noted however that he “later saw the prediction fulfilled in my life… So I can say that KK (Kenneth Kaunda) was the man who saw tomorrow as it related then to my political future and fortune, as I eventually became the President of my country, four years after that wish.”

Corroborating the former President’s assertion, the chief executive officer of Kenneth Kaunda Children of Africa Foundation, Sunday Musonda confirmed that he was with Kaunda during the visit, saying: “I was with Dr. Kaunda during that visit to Nigeria.
One point I clearly remember was when KK blessed you (Jonathan) and said you would be President of Nigeria one day.”

Speaking on the continent’s political history, Jonathan encouraged Africans to reflect on the defining virtues that motivated leaders like Kaunda to make significant contributions to the continent’s development.

He stated: “As a young man then, my knowledge of African history was shaped by transformational leaders like Kwame Nkrumah, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Julius Nyerere, and, of course, Kenneth Kaunda. The stories of their resilience and passion for nation-building formed the basis of contemporary African history. Their strides and sacrificial lifestyles toward their continent have produced many benefits for the continent.

“In their prime, these leaders envisioned a continent of hope where its people would be free from every guise of bondage. They committed their lives to actualising their dreams of independence for their countries. The likes of Kaunda could have opted to take sides with the oppressors and feed fat on their spoils, at the expense of the freedom of the people who were in bondage. But they chose the altruistic path of pursuing justice, hope, freedom, and good governance for their people.”

He further noted that the major issues confronting the continent today are insecurity, weak economies, disunity, poverty, climate change, and poor governance.

Making a case for good governance on the continent, Dr. Jonathan said: “Leadership has become a major source of conflicts and wars in most of our countries. The leadership recruitment process and our inability to effectively manage political transitions have resulted in avoidable conflicts. Elections in some countries have become a source of instability, largely reflecting the kind of leaders we have in authority.

“My charge to my fellow brothers and sisters in the continent is for us to seek to redefine leadership and governance in the continent. We need a leadership process that guarantees the fundamental freedoms and rights of the citizens and delivers a good life to them.

“We need to build and protect our political systems to serve the best interest of our people. We must learn how to manage our diversity and build an inclusive society.”

Jonathan emphasized that AfCFTA has provided a clear path to attaining economic freedom for African nations, adding that strengthening a common African market would help Africans build a prosperous and united continent.

He however warned that in order to make AfCFTA a reality, sustainable and of maximum benefit to Africa, “we need to address Africa’s infrastructure gaps especially transportation, air and rail networks, in order to ensure easy movement of goods and services within the continent. Also, our leaders need to work towards having a common medium of exchange to better optimise the gains of AfCFTA in the long term.”

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Related Topics:Goodluck Jonathan Jonathan Kaunda Zambia President

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Iran Hangs 53-year-old Woman, Six Others

Published

10 hours ago

May 18, 2024

Editor

Iran on Saturday hanged at least seven people, including two women, while a member of its Jewish minority is at imminent risk of execution as the Islamic Republic further intensified its use of capital punishment, an NGO said.

Parvin Mousavi, 53, a mother of two grown-up children, was hanged in Urmia prison in northwestern Iran along with five men convicted in various drug-related cases, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) said in a statement.

In Nishapur in eastern Iran, a 27-year-old woman named Fatemeh Abdullahi was hanged on charges of murdering her husband, who was also her cousin, it said.

IHR says it has tallied at least 223 executions this year, with at least 50 so far in May alone. A new surge began following the end of Persian New Year and Ramadan holidays in April, with 115 people including six women hanged since then, it said.

Iran carries out more recorded executions of women than any other country. Activists say many such convicts are victims of forced or abusive marriages.

Iran last year carried out more hangings than in any year since 2015, according to NGOs, which accuse the Islamic republic of using capital punishment as a means to instill fear in the wake of protests that erupted in autumn 2022.

“The silence of the international community is unacceptable,” IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam told AFP.

“Those executed belong to the poor and marginalised groups of Iranian society and didn’t have fair trials with due process.”

‘Killing machine’

IHR said Mousavi had been in prison for four years. It cited a source as saying she had been paid the equivalent of 15 euros to carry a package she had been told contained medicine but was in fact five kilos of morphine.

“They are the low-cost victims of the Islamic Republic’s killing machine, which aims at instilling fear among people to prevent new protests,” added Amiry-Moghaddam.

The group meanwhile said a member of Iran’s Jewish community, which has drastically reduced in numbers in recent years but is still the largest in the Middle East outside Israel, was at imminent risk of execution over a murder charge.

Arvin Ghahremani, 20, was convicted of murder during a street fight when he was 18 and is scheduled to be executed in the western city of Kermanshah on Monday, it said, adding it had received an audio message from his mother Sonia Saadati asking for his life to be spared.

His family is seeking to ask the family of the victim to forgo the execution in line with Iran’s Islamic law of retribution, or qesas.

Also at risk of execution is Kamran Sheikheh, the last surviving member of a group of seven Iranian Kurdish men who were first arrested between early December 2009 and late January 2010 and later sentenced to death for “corruption on earth” over alleged membership of extremist groups, it said.

Six men convicted in the same case have been executed in the last months almost one-and-a-half decades after their initial arrest, the last being Khosro Besharat who was hanged in Ghezel Hesar prison outside Tehran this week.

There has been an international outcry meanwhile over the death sentence handed out last month to Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi, seen by activists as retaliation for his music backing the 2022 protests. His lawyers are appealing the verdict.

AFP

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Israeli Leaders Disagree Over Post-war Gaza Governance Amid US Pressure

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10 hours ago

May 18, 2024

Editor

New divisions have emerged among Israel’s leaders over post-war Gaza’s governance, with an unexpected Hamas fightback in parts of the Palestinian territory piling pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Israeli army has been battling Hamas militants across Gaza for more than seven months while also exchanging near-daily fire with Iran-backed Hezbollah forces along the northern border with Lebanon.

But after Hamas fighters regrouped in northern Gaza, where Israel previously said the group had been neutralised, broad splits emerged in the Israeli war cabinet in recent days.

Netanyahu came under personal attack from Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for failing to rule out an Israeli government in Gaza after the war.

The Israeli premier’s outright rejection of post-war Palestinian leadership in Gaza has broken a rift among top politicians wide open and frustrated relations with top ally the United States.

Experts say the lack of clarity only serves to benefit Hamas, whose leader has insisted no new authority can be established in the territory without its involvement.

“Without an alternative to fill the vacuum, Hamas will continue to grow,” International Crisis Group analyst Mairav Zonszein told AFP.

Emmanuel Navon, a lecturer at Tel Aviv University, echoed this sentiment.

“If only Hamas is left in Gaza, of course they are going to appear here and there and the Israeli army will be forced to chase them around,” said Navon.

“Either you establish an Israeli military government or an Arab-led government.”

US pressure

Gallant said in a televised address on Wednesday: “I call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make a decision and declare that Israel will not establish civilian control over the Gaza strip.”

The premier’s war planning also came under recent attack by army chief Herzi Halevi as well as top Shin Bet security agency officials, according to Israeli media reports.

Netanyahu is also under pressure from Washington to swiftly bring an end to the conflict and avoid being mired in a long counterinsurgency campaign.

Washington has previously called for a “revitalised” form of the Palestinian Authority to govern Gaza after the war.

But Netanyahu has rejected any role for the PA in post-war Gaza, saying Thursday that it “supports terror, educates terror, finances terror”.

Instead, Netanyahu has clung to his steadfast aim of “eliminating” Hamas, asserting that “there’s no alternative to military victory”.

Experts say confidence in Netanyahu is running thin.

“With Gallant’s criticism of Netanyahu’s failure to plan for the day after in terms of governing Gaza, some real fissures are beginning to emerge in the Israeli war cabinet,” Colin P. Clarke, director of policy and research at the Soufan Group think tank, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“I’m not sure I know of many people, including the most ardent Israel supporters, who have confidence in Bibi,” he said, using Netanyahu’s nickname.

Hostage ‘impasse’

The Gaza war broke out after Hamas’s attack on southern Israel which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

The militants also seized about 250 hostages, 125 of whom Israel estimates remain in Gaza, including 37 the military says are dead.

Israel’s military retaliation has killed at least 35,386 people, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry, and an Israeli siege has brought dire food shortages and the threat of famine.

Many Israelis supported Netanyahu’s blunt goals to seek revenge on Hamas in the aftermath of the October 7 attack.

But now, hopes have faded for the return of the hostages and patience in Netanyahu may be running out, experts said.

On Friday, the army announced it had recovered bodies of three hostages who were killed during the October 7 attack.

After Israeli forces entered the far southern city of Rafah, where more than a million displaced Gazans were sheltering, talks mediated by Egypt, the United States and Qatar to release the hostages have ground to a standstill.

“The hostage deal is at a total impasse — you can no longer provide the appearance of progress,” said Zonszein of the International Crisis Group.

“Plus the breakdown with the US and the fact that Egypt has refused to pass aid through Rafah — all those things are coming to a head.”

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Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger Finalise Regional Alliance Project

Published

13 hours ago

May 18, 2024

Editor

Junta-run Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have finalised plans to form a confederation after turning their backs on former colonial ruler France to seek closer ties with Russia.

Their foreign ministers met Friday in Niger’s capital Niamey to agree on a text establishing the Confederation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).

“The objective was to finalise the draft text relating to the institutionalisation and operationalisation of the Confederation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES)”, said Niger Foreign Minister Bakary Yaou Sangare as he read the final statement late Friday.

He said the text would be adopted by the heads of state of the three countries at a summit, without specifying the date.

“We can consider very clearly, today, that the Confederation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) has been born,” Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop said after meeting General Abdourahamane Tiani, the head of Nigerien military regime.

The third foreign minister at the meeting was Burkina Faso’s Karamoko Jean-Marie Traore.

The Sahel region has been subject to deadly jihadist violence for years, which they accused France of not being able to curb.

The three countries said late January they were quitting The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which they said was under French influence, to create their own regional grouping.

AFP