Arcadia Foundation

Former Honduran president Manuel Zelaya said Thursday that new corruption charges brought against him by Honduras’ newly elected government amount to political persecution.

Zelaya said in a statement from the Dominican Republic that the charges undermine efforts to promote national reconciliation following his ouster.

He said the charges “seek personal revenge and worsen the political persecution against me, forgetting national reconciliation.”

Honduras’ anti-corruption prosecutor is seeking to charge Zelaya with allegedly diverting $1.5 million in welfare funds to his campaign for a referendum on reforming the constitution.

Zelaya was recently appointed the head of a new political council in Petrocaribe, founded by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in 2005 as he prepared to begin a life of relative obscurity in exile in the Dominican Republic. Through this appointment, Chavez has ostentatiously incorporated Zelaya to his payroll. Many analysts agree that the appointment by Chavez was more than a gesture of friendship.

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The son of Togo’s late dictator has been re-elected president, election officials said, extending the family’s four-decade rule in the west African nation.

Faure Gnassingbe succeeded his father, President Gnassingbe Eyadema, who died five years ago after ruling since 1967.

President Gnassingbe had 1.2 million votes, according to preliminary results released by the country’s election commission Saturday.

His main challenger, opposition leader Jean-Pierre Fabre, got nearly 700,000 votes, the commission reported.

“The opposition will contest the results” in court and on the streets, Union of Forces for Change representative Kofi Yamgnane told reporters Sunday.

Indeed they did. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered at the opposition party headquarters in Lome, the capital.  The opposition’s insistency the election was stolen has further raised political risk amidst fears of a new wave of violence in Togo. Protesters in Lomé have already been met with tear gas.

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If you ask most Ghanaians how they would like to see their country in the next thirty years, undoubtedly, their answer would be to see less corrupt and more prosperous. Indeed, Ghanaians do deserve to have a country as such and indeed, they are starting to see such prosperity today.

It appears as though Ghana will retain 38% of its domestic oil revenue, an advisor to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr. Joe Amoako-Tuffuor has stated, quoting a Daily Graphic report from March 6, 2010.

With the country’s current GDP at well over $18 billion, Dr Oteng-Adjei said the total revenue to the government and the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) in respect of royalties, income tax and interest payment on oil and gas exploration would be $1 billion per annum, at an average crude oil price of $60 per barrel.

With oil, telecoms and alternative investors pouring in to the country, we mustn’t take a blind eye to the gaping holes in their sustainable development plan, one of which, being ongoing corruption in governance.

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