‘The Assurance I Will Give You Here’….Attahiru Jega, Nigeria Electoral Commission Chair at CSIS

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Ambassador Campbell, Attahiru Jega, Brookings Institution, CSIS Africa Program, elections in Africa, Ford Foundation, Goodluck Jonathan, INEC Nigeria, Johnnie Carson, Kingsley Moghalu, Nigeria, Nigeria election, NYSC

CSIS launched its Nigeria Election Forum, with support from the Ford Foundation, yesterday on the theme of ‘Preparing for Nigeria’s 2015 Elections: Key Challenges and Priorities.’  Attahiru Jega, the Chair of Nigeria’s Electoral Comission (INEC) was the keynote speaker and took up well over half of the allotted two hours.  A panel of Nigerian civil society activists followed, alas I had to return to work and was not able to hear their remarks.

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SAIS Tackles Kenya at 50 – PT 1: Historians’ Perspectives (and a startling claim on Kenyan-Somali Relations)

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Derek Peterson, Emma Hunter, Johnnie Carson, Kenya, Kenyan Somali relations, Kikuyu, Mau Mau, Mozella Brown, SAIS Kenya Conference, Syracuse University, Timothy Parsons, USAID

The ‘Historian’ Panel

As I’ll be presenting on a topic relating to Kenyan history at the 2013 meeting of the African Studies Association in November, I thought it prudent to pop in on the ‘Kenya at 50‘ conference taking place at SAIS today and tomorrow.

I just caught the majority of the first panel – ‘Historian’s Perspective’ (my MA is in history) and hope to make it back to at least one more conference event (hence the part I in the title of this post).

John Kerry’s First Africa Visit as Sec. of State

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Africa Union, AU Golden Jubilee, Boko Haram, John Kerry Africa, Johnnie Carson, Sudan - South Sudan relatons

John Kerry has just completed his first trip to Africa as Secretary of State.  He briefly touched down in Ethiopia to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the founding of the Organization of African Unity (now known as the African Union).  Kerry’s time in Ethiopia appears to have passed relatively unremarkably and the African part of the trip itself appears to be an afterthought, sandwiched between travels in the Middle East (he also met with the Egyptian president while in Ethiopia).

The press that Kerry did receive has focused on two issues.

• The Secretary met with key players from both Sudan and South Sudan.   Kerry has been engaged in Sudanese affairs for a while now, so this indicates a willingness to become involved in situations in which there is a preexisting comfort level (this probably bodes ill for high-level US engagement in countries like Zimbabwe, the Central African Republic, Guinea, etc.)

• The Secretary apparently cautioned Nigerian security forces on the need to refrain from human rights abuses while combatting Boko Haram militants.  While this isn’t as bad as Johnnie Carson’s ‘choices have consequences’ meddling comment, I do think it was unadvised.  Nigeria’s excesses may indeed be fueling Boko Haram’s insurgency, but the AU’s Golden Jubilee is not the proper forum in which to deliver these remarks.  High level US engagement in Africa has been traditionally sparse.  Why criticize a strong ally, one of Africa’s most powerful nations, at a forum that has convened the whole continent?  I’d rather see strong remarks directed to Togo, Chad, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Cameroon or other nations with major governance issues and more explicit authoritarianism.

Do any readers know when Kerry first visited Africa?

Johnnie Carson Rides off into the Sunset, Encourages US Corporations not to Cede Ground to China

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AGOA, Charlie Rangel, Congress Africa, Ed Royce, Gregory Meeks, Johnnie Carson, Johnny Isakson, Keith Ellison, The Africa Society

This evening, the Africa Society hosted “A Salute to Ambassador Johnnie Carson.”  The Event Chair was Congresswoman Karen Bass, and an array of African and US dignitaries were on hand to wish Ambassador Carson the best as he enters retirement.  Corporate sponsors, including Chevron and General Electric, funded a delicious culinary spread.  I gorged myself on ravioli, salmon, and roast beef.  The actor Tim Reid served as the master of ceremonies.  In the current tortuous political environment, Africa certainly seems to be something that can bring together both sides of the aisle.

Republicans offered the following tribute to Ambassador Carson: