Info or Intox?

In a previous post I talked about the elections for 2020 in the region ...  However we never realised the world would see a pandemic in the meantime, COVID-19 has brought bitter hardship to many.

Guinea went to their polls on Sunday, it got a little heated but nothing too bad.  However today there has now been a video circulating and according to the BBC Minister of Foreign Affairs Mamadi Touré denounced as "completely false" a video circulating online claiming to be a recording of a phone call made by President Alpha Condé conceding defeat to his rival Cellou Dalein Diallo.

This weekend on Sunday 25th October, the small archipelago state of Cabo Verde off the west coast of Senegal will go to the polls.  With a population of 600,000 or so, it would be hoped that the information coming from there is correct!  However they have suffered due to the pandemic as most of their income is from tourism and finally managed to open their airspace on 12th October,a day they reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases since the outbreak of the pandemic.

At the end of the month, Sunday 31st October Cote d'Ivoire will go to the vote.  This election has become a conflictual debate due to the running of the third term of President Outtara.  However, it appears the population forgot that he had put in his former Prime Minister, Gon Coulibaly to replace him.  Sadly Gon Coulibaly died on 8th July 2020 so the President found himself standing again.  There have already been demonstrations in pockets of the country against the 3rd term, intox is spreading and a small minority of the population seem to have forgotten the events of 2010-2011.  Most of the population would like to continue in peace!

Just three weeks later, it's Burkina Faso's turn on 22nd November, like Cote d'Ivoire it can go to a second round.  Burkina has had a few years of terrorism now with the jihadists trying to take over this beautiful country.

December 7th is the day the hotly contested seat of President in Ghana is up for grabs.  12 candidates have just been accepted by the electoral commission.  Word is that on the ground things are tense with people ready to go to the polls.  Ghana seems to be very much a two party nation between the NDC & NPP but a third party 'PPP' with a female candidate Brigitte Dzogbenuku is rallying voters around her.  After Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson of Liberia, it would be a positive move to have a fresh female face leading a country in the sub-region!

With the Nigerian #EndSARS movement taking an awful twist today with several shot and killed at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos, the region is getting somewhat edgy!

18,366 Kilometres by Road

If you're afraid of flying, getting home to see Mum in Nigeria when you live in the UK, can't be easy!

A year ago I was contacted by Chinedu for help and advice about a trip to Nigeria from the East Midlands, UK.  I was a bit confused by the situation, here I was telling a Nigerian how to get home, but he'd never been home or attempted a long overland journey!  There were so many questions, particularly in regards to being fearful of completing the trip; however many times I promised him he would love it, he was convinced he was about to travel to hell.



He made the trip, had some wonderful experiences, met a lot of people, travelled many thousands of kilometres and finally made it home, taking scrupulous notes along the way!

The result is a wonderful book of his experiences, the reality of obtaining visas, dealing with transport and having the time of his life.  He didn't just go to Nigeria by road but he returned by road too!

I've never plugged a product on this blog, but Chinedu deserves as many sales as he can get, it's on Kindle as well as a beautiful paperback copy that's sitting proudly in front of me!

https://www.amazon.com/18-366-Kilometres-Road-Adventure-ebook/dp/B01M8MB3J9

Proud to have been able to help him, hoping to see him on a trip south soon!

A very sad story ...

Then the story of M; I don't know where to start with her, she claims to be Beninoise/Togolaise, she doesnt speak French very well and then I started speaking in English to her, she understood me perfectly but replies in 'her' French.

She has been living on the beach for 3yrs she says, her parents died 3yrs ago and she has been alone ever since. She told me her father died in Cote d'Ivoire and her mother in Benin. However I don't think it's the whole truth I immediately felt she was Nigerian with her surname & the fact she knew Lagos well when we talked about it, her father worked there. I suspect she's been trafficked here ... I 'interviewed' her in English as Eric + Diouf dont speak a word, we went very slowly but after 4hrs I had the basics although there's a lot of missing information and we all felt that she was hiding something; the story doesn't quite add up. I have a good schoolfriend from Nigeria and called her to verify that the surname she'd given was in fact Nigerian as I suspected; my friend was great and came straight back to me to agree with me.

I was convinced she's not 13 but 11 or 12 - mentally we think she's ok but physically she wasn't good, been peeing blood for over a year she said and has been raped several times by the same two men when she slept in the market - she only went there when it rained on the beach. I was going to go with her and Eric to a school where we think she was enrolled, I find it strange that a '13' yr old cannot remember which school she went to 3yrs ago - hence our suspicions ... I was not happy I was leaving as there was a lot to be done with her .... we had hoped that that afternoon she would go to Abidjan to a laboratory to get a thorough health check. She was so sweet ... clung onto me and opened up more with me than the guys - why did I have to fly so soon???!!!