Hosted by E.K.Bensah Jr, a Research & Communications Specialist, the show seeks to disrupt the African Rising narrative by demystifying;unpacking; and explaining ECOWAS;African Union; South-South Cooperation policies around Africa's integration.
Sunday, February 8, 2015
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Third Edition -- #Ecowas@40Podcast: #StopBokoHaram; #Mugabe; #AUSummit
Welcome to another edition of the
Ecowas@40Podcast, where we normally give you insights into all that is ECOWAS.
This week, however, ECOWAS has been trounced by the trending #AUSummit24, which
is not surprising as the January edition of the AU Summit concluded in Addis on
31 January, with the election of a new Chair in President Mugabe of Zimbabwe.
The ECOWAS@40Podcast is divided
into four parts. We start off with an overview of what stories are trending
under ECOWAS. We then move on to what ECOWAS and/or AU accounts are tweeting.
Third, we give listeners an ECOWAS Fact; and, finally, “What’s my ECOWAS Beef?”
where I offer candid views on a trending topic.
First, given the centrality of
the #AUSummit24 that commenced the week of 26 January, we were always going to
get an eclipsing of ECOWAS, primarily because the organisation was going to be
represented in Addis anyway to discuss how to #StopBokoHaram.
So, as one might expect, none of
the ECOWAS accounts tweeted anything at all during this auspicious time when
the #AUSummit was trending. Instead, a number of official AU twitter accounts
were tweeting. This included the official @_AfricanUnion; @AU_PSD; @DlaminiZuma;
@Erastus_Mwencha; and AUC_DPA, which all gave different renditions of aspects
of the AU Summit. What was perhaps most interesting about the AU Summit were
the tweets by non-AU accounts. Let’s take a look at some of them.
1.
World Economic Forum – 35 RT: “How empowering
women can help end poverty in Africa”
2.
AllAfrica.com – 14RT “African Union’s Plan to
Fight Boko Haram”
3.
Nation FM Kenya – 10RT “Broke AU seeks to wean
itself from handouts”
Still on AU-related matters, Mugabe was clearly trending:
1.
@UlrichjVV
– 60RTs with tweet “apologies on behalf of all egalitarian men! Mugabe at AU
Summit [says] “it’s impossible that women can be at par with men”
2. @DlaminiZuma
– 37RTs with tweet: “welcomed H.E. Robert #Mugabe to the @_AfricanUnion
Commission following his election at the
#24thAUSummit”
3. On
a lighter note, one Evita Bezuidenhout (@TannieEvita) tweets: “my
refugee-Zimbabwean housekeeperis thrilled Robert Mugabe is now also Chairman of
the #AfricanUnion. She says it will probably kill him.”
Closely trailing behind
#AUSummit24 is #BokoHaram:
1. One
ian bremmer(@ianbremmer) with no less than 818RTs tweets “Killed by Boko Haram
in Nigeria 2009:700; 2010:75; 2011:600; 2012:1650; 2013:3000; 2014:7700; last
month:3000+”
2.
Viven
Hoch tweets, with 21RTs “les islamistes de Boko Haram auraient assassin 90% des
habitants de la region de Baga
On ECOWAS:
1. Channels
Television, with 12RTs tweets : “ECOWAS Parliament gathers support for
Nigeria’s elections”
2. NTA
News tweets, with 14RTs, “INEC Meets ECOWAS Election Observation Mission”
3.
ECOWAS
FACT
Did you know that
ECOBANK is considered an agency of ECOWAS? It has nothing to do with the fact
that it is listed on the ECOWAS website, but everything to do with the fact
that one of the biggest shareholders from its inception in 1985 in Lome, Togo,
was what was known then as the ECOWAS Fund for Cooperation, Compensation and
Development (ECOWAS Fund), or what we now know as the Ecowas Bank of Investment
and Development – also located in Togo.
4.
What’s
my ECOWAS Beef?
Given the very important role of ECOWAS in combating Boko Haram, one would have thought the Ouedraogo Commission would have gotten more serious on SM. None of the ECOWAS accounts tweeted or even dared to re-tweet all that was happening under the #AUSummit. None at all! Yet the AU accounts – and there are a growing number, including the Vice; Chair herself; AU PSD; Dept Political Affairs, and now AU Foundation, etc – were regularly and constantly tweeting and re-tweeting every hour throughout the five days.
Given the very important role of ECOWAS in combating Boko Haram, one would have thought the Ouedraogo Commission would have gotten more serious on SM. None of the ECOWAS accounts tweeted or even dared to re-tweet all that was happening under the #AUSummit. None at all! Yet the AU accounts – and there are a growing number, including the Vice; Chair herself; AU PSD; Dept Political Affairs, and now AU Foundation, etc – were regularly and constantly tweeting and re-tweeting every hour throughout the five days.
Monday, February 2, 2015
Coming Up on 30th Edition: >> Talking points around Ecowas@40(1)
30th Edition:
Talking points around Ecowas@40(1)
We want to use the thirtieth edition of the Africa in Focus show to commence talking points around ECOWAS as it heads towards the celebration of its 40th anniversary
We will therefore be speaking to people who can help us offer a serious reflection on what Ecowas Community citizens ought to be thinking about as they equally reflect on how far ECOWAS has come.
To that end, we will speak to TWN-Africa’s Sylvester Bagooro who will speak to the issue of economic integration. That organisation’s efforts to stop Ghana signing the Economic Partnership Agreements may have fallen on deaf ears to the ECOWAS Chair, but efforts to stop its ratification are underway. As ECOWAS Member States enter 2015 with optimism that the Common External Tariff will inure to the benefit of the sub-region’s attempt at a Common Market, what are some of the challenges and red herrings the sub-region needs to look out for?
As the AU’s Peace and Security Council endorsed a deal to support the Lake Chad Basin Commission countries of Cameroon; Chad; Nigeria; Niger and Benin to form a Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) to rout and combat Boko Haram, we will be speaking to WANEP’s Alimou Diallo on the actual composition of the force, and what the sub-region should expect to see around ECOWAS’ peace and security efforts in 2015.
We shall thereafter speak to a retired ECOWAS Official Frank Ofei, instrumental for the revision of 1993 ECOWAS Treaty, to give us his expert views on what we really need to look out for around ECOWAS’s integration efforts – beyond peace and security. What are its successes, it failures; its potential to help uplift the sub-region to a prosperous West Africa?
Finally, we will speak to AU Commission Official Komla Bissi to offer us an insight into what is considered one of the AU’s most successful programmes – the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, which enjoins Member States dedicate 10 percent of their budget to agriculture. What are NEPAD Planning Commission Agency & the AU’s next steps for CAADP’s implementation?
Join us if you can at 1pm on 3 February, 2015.
Guests in the studio:
Sylvester Bagooro, Programme Officer, Political Economy Unit, Third World Network-Africa
On the line:
Frank Ofei, retired Ecowas Official @13h20
Alimou Diallo, West Africa Network on Peacebuilding(WANEP) @13h40
Komla Bissi, Senior Adviser, Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme(CAADP), African Union Commission @14h15
Kobby Blay, EbolaWatch @14h40
#PODCAST>>EPISODE#29: Perspective Retrospective (1): Health, & Tourism
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