NEWS

NEWS ACROSS THE GLOBE

 

2019 ELECTION: FALANA THREATENS TO DRAG PDP, OTHERS TO COURT

 

Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), has threatened to drag the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and other parties to court over the sale of aspirant nomination form in the 2019 election. The famous lawyer insisted that previous court judgments have prohibited such payment. His reaction followed PDP’s decision to sell nomination forms for N12 million to its presidential candidates for the 2019 election, that is so serious.

Falana blamed President Muhammadu Buhari for his inability to change the guidelines despite expressing disappointment that he took a loan of N27m to buy the APC nomination form during the 2015 elections. He told Punch: “The conditions for contesting elections from local government, to the House of Assembly, governorship, House of Representatives, Senate and presidential levels, are all in the constitution.“There are decisions of the court to the effect that the Independent National Electoral Commission and state electoral commissions cannot collect fees from candidates who are contesting elections. “Therefore, the parties cannot decide their own rules. They cannot impose prohibitive rules that will restrict the participation in the contest of an election to moneysacks. “Of course, we may have to sue the political parties if they continue this illegality.“I believe any citizen, who meets the requirements outlined in the Constitution, is qualified to contest any election. Political parties cannot add to the constitutional requirements.”says the SAN.

AFRICA’S NEXT CIVIL  WAR COULD BE IN CAMEROON

On May 20, Cameroon's national day, citizens in the capital of Yaounde marched in parades, and President Paul Biya congratulated members of the armed forces on their commitment to peace and safety. At the same time, in the country's unstable Anglophone regions, separatists kidnapped a mayor, killed two police officers and intimidated people who tried to celebrate the holiday.

Such incidents have human rights activists worried that Cameroon could soon be the site of Africa's next civil war.

“We are gradually, gradually getting there,” said Agbor Nkongho, an Anglophone human rights lawyer and director of the Center for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa. “I’m not seeing the willingness of the government to try to find and address the issue in a way that we will not get there.”

Since late 2016, Cameroon has faced an increasingly violent uprising in the bilingual country's minority Anglophone regions, where English speakers say they have been marginalized by the French-speaking majority for decades. When peaceful protests started 18 months ago, government forces opened fire on protesters and looted and burned down villages. Now an armed separatist movement is gaining traction, kidnapping government officials and killing gendarmes.

Some observers say the situation has already reached a point where it could be considered a civil war.

“If you look at what is going on now, you can call it a civil war,” said John Mukum Mbaku, a professor at Weber State University in Utah and a nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution. “The government is shooting down defenseless villagers, and many have decided to defend themselves and are fighting back.”

A presidential election looms in October, with Biya expected to run again. Akere Muna, an Anglophone presidential candidate and prominent lawyer, hopes that better governance could keep the country unified. But he said the government has only ignited tensions and dismissed Anglophone calls for more autonomy.

Muna said he recently visited an Anglophone village that is normally home to 6,000 people. Only a handful of people were left, he said. “If [Biya] gets reelected, the country will become ungovernable,” Muna said. “By the day, it's getting worse.”

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