Point One

 Burkinabe authorities, mid-last week, let go 11 Nigerian soldiers they had taken into custody for alleged violation of that country’s airspace. The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) C-130 transport aircraft that was impounded along with the military personnel was also released. Freedom came for the soldiers and aircraft following high-level diplomatic engagement by the Nigerian government with Ouagadougou. Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf Tuggar, on Wednesday, met with Burkina Faso junta leader, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, in the country’s capital. Tuggar, who led a Nigerian delegation, said at a parley with pressmen that the visit was at the instance of President Bola Tinubu. It was on the heels of the Ouagadougou meeting that the freedom deal was announced. Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Kimiebi Ebienfa, confirmed on Wednesday night that the aircraft and personnel had been released. The C-130 NAF aircraft carrying nine passengers and two crew members got impounded on 8th December fo...

Military coups, in countries where stuff happens, ordinarily are vicious power grabs by armed usurpers to displace sitting governments. These, of course, don’t belong with civilised people. They are a function of political underdevelopment and peculiar to backwater regions of the world. Even in Africa, categorised in the Third World, there is a region notorious for volatility and designated the coup belt. Office holders against whom coups are staged get typically shortchanged and could be in mortal danger, depending on the ruthlessness of those staging the coup against them. There, however, seems to be some novelty to coup making in Guinea-Bissau – a notoriously unstable country in West Africa that has experienced four coups since independence from Portugal in 1974, besides multiple attempted coups. Sandwiched between Guinea and Senegal, it is one of the world’s poorest and most fragile countries with a population of approximately 1.9million. Its poll results are often contested, and t...