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Saturday, April 28, 2018

Nigerian president's US visit to focus on security, economy

29 April 2018 - 08H20 GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Tokun Lawal and Biodun Iginla, France24, Lagos, Nigeria

LAGOS -

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is to meet President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday, the first African leader to be received by Trump's White House administration.

All eyes will be on Trump after he earlier called African nations "shithole" countries, a damaging remark he has since denied.

Trump's relationship with the continent suffered a further setback in March when former secretary of state Rex Tillerson was fired while in Nigeria on his first trip to the continent.

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As a result, the visit revealed little about Trump's Africa policy.

Buhari's visit comes after Trump met German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday and French President Emmanuel Macron last week to discuss the contentious Iran nuclear deal and biting trade sanctions.

According to a White House statement, the talks will focus on fighting terrorism and insecurity, economic growth and democratic development in Nigeria, set to hold presidential polls in February next year.

Nigeria is entering its ninth year fighting Boko Haram extremists, who have devastated the northeast of the country and killed over 20,000 people in a bloody quest to establish an Islamist state.

Buhari is also battling a so-called herdsmen crisis, a sectarian conflict hardening along religious lines that has claimed scores of lives this year in escalating violence.

"I think both sides have a clear agenda in this meeting and it's security and economic issues. They both have something to gain," J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa Center at the Washington-based Atlantic Council, told us at France24.

"On President Trump's side, it's definitely putting that controversy behind him," Pham said.

"On President Buhari's side, it's having the prominence of being the first African leader received at the White House in this administration."

- Improved relations -

In spite of Trump's remarks, Nigeria's relationship with the United States has improved since he came into office, according to Lauren Blanchard, African affairs specialist with the Congressional Research Service.

"(The visit) is intended to signal that the United States continues to see Nigeria as one of its most important partners on the continent," Blanchard said.

"Cooperation has improved over the course of President Buhari's tenure but not as fast as both sides would like," she added.

Buhari, who like Trump has a tendency to make gaffes, had lambasted former President Barack Obama shortly after coming into office for refusing to sell Nigeria weapons to fight Boko Haram.

"Unwittingly, and I dare say unintentionally, the application of the Leahy Law Amendment by the United States government has aided and abetted the Boko Haram terrorists," Buhari said during a visit to Washington.

Under the legislation, the US is prevented from offering weapons or training to countries where there is credible information of human rights abuses by authorities.

In contrast, Trump's administration has gone ahead with the reported $496 million sale of up to a dozen Super Tucano aircraft, a plane with surveillance and attack capabilities, set to be delivered in 2020.

The deal has recently come under scrutiny in Nigeria, a country with endemic corruption, where lawmakers are accusing the president of illegally withdrawing funds to purchase the planes.

- Re-election momentum -

While no major trade announcements are expected, Trump and Buhari will also be talking about ways to deepen economic cooperation.

"There is the security element and the economic element that dovetails with Trump's agenda to push American business," said Pham.

Buhari, who is seeking re-election in 2019, is likely to play up his administration's agriculture reforms and underline his commitment to democracy.

This trip will also be used by his government to underscore that Buhari is fit for office after a series of health scares during his tenure.

"It undercuts the 'Baba go slow' narrative," said Pham, referring to a nickname given to Buhari for his slow pace in office. "It's a build-up to his re-election campaign."

The 75-year-old former military ruler was Nigeria's first opposition challenger to defeat an incumbent in a largely fair poll.

His election as president triggered a wave of optimism for oil-rich Nigeria, which has Africa's biggest population but wrestles with rampant corruption and poor governance.

Friday, April 20, 2018

No time for golf as Merkel braces for tough talks with Trump

April 20, 2018 19H:15 GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Isabelle Roussel and Biodun Iginla, BBC News and Reuters, Berlin

BERLIN - German Chancellor Angela Merkel faces difficult talks next Friday with U.S. President Donald Trump at a time when Washington and Berlin are at odds over a range of issues from trade to Iran, her transatlantic coordinator said on Friday.

FILE PHOTO: Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President Donald Trump hold a joint news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington, U.S., March 17, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo

The cautious Merkel has failed to establish a good personal rapport with the brash Trump, and the mood music of her one-day working visit to the White House is likely to contrast sharply with that of French President Emmanuel Macron’s three-day state visit to the United States that also takes place next week.

Despite their big differences in age and political views, Macron, 40, a cerebral centrist, gets on well with the 71-year-old right-wing Republican U.S. leader, whereas Merkel, 63, and Trump did not even speak for over five months before March 1.

“The visit definitely won’t be easy,” said Peter Beyer, a member of Merkel’s centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), who has just taken over the role of transatlantic coordinator at a time of growing U.S.-Europe tensions.

However, he dismissed any suggestion that Merkel would get inferior treatment to Macron, who arrives in the United States on Monday, or to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has played golf with Trump.

“There is no time to be wasted on etiquette,” Beyer told us at Reuters of Merkel’s trip, adding: “To be honest, I can’t imagine the chancellor playing golf.”

“HARD WORK”

“I think one has to see the Macron and Merkel visits as one,” he said. “Macron will take care of the nice pictures and play his role. Merkel will deliver the hard work and play hers.”

Merkel and Macron are working closely to reform the euro zone and strengthen the European Union as it tries to maintain a united front - despite the impending departure of Britain, one of its biggest member states - in the face of an increasingly protectionist Trump administration and an assertive Russia.

An exemption from U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports granted to the European Union expires on May 1.

“The trade issue is definitely the most pressing problem,” said Beyer.

“It is illusionary to solve all problems by May 1. The goal must be on the one hand to reach an extension, and on the other the Europeans must of course be exempted from the U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum.”

Another hot topic will be a multinational Iran nuclear deal.

Trump has given the European signatories - Germany, France and Britain - a May 12 deadline to “fix the terrible flaws” of the 2015 nuclear deal, negotiated by the Obama administration, or he will refuse to extend U.S. sanctions relief on Iran.

“The agreement is not at all as bad as Trump paints it,” said Beyer. “The world is better with than without agreements.”

Merkel must also convince Trump that Germany is delivering in foreign and defense policy.

Trump is pressing the European allies to meet NATO’s target of spending two percent of economic output on defense, suggesting the United States may not defend countries that do not. Germany spent just 1.13 percent of GDP on defense in 2017.

“The Americans have certainly made clear that they expect more from the German military,” said Beyer.

“Merkel must make clear what Germany is already delivering,” he added. “This ranges from foreign missions from Mali to Afghanistan to humanitarian aid in Syria. Germany has committed and is committed to NATO’s 2-percent target.”

Monday, April 2, 2018

BREAKING: French rail workers begin months of strikes in test for Macron

03 April 2018 - 05H40 GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Natalie de Vallieres and Biodun Iginla, France24, Paris

PARIS -

French rail workers kicked off three months of rolling strikes Tuesday, part of a wave of industrial action that will test President Emmanuel Macron's resolve to reshape France with sweeping reforms.

The strike will cause chaos for France's 4.5 million train passengers, with stoppages planned two days out of five until June 28 unless Macron drops his bid to force a major overhaul at state rail operator SNCF.

Staff at Air France, garbage collectors and some energy workers are also staging separate walkouts Tuesday in a growing atmosphere of social strife 11 months after Macron came to power.

Pensioners, students and public sector workers have already taken to the streets in recent weeks protesting against the 40-year-old centrist's widespread reform plans.

"In the most tense social climate since the start of the Macron presidency, there is a real risk of the discontent crystallising," the regional Charente Libre newspaper warned on Monday.

The rail strike officially started on Monday evening but it begins in earnest on what the media have dubbed "black Tuesday".

Only one high-speed TGV train out of eight is scheduled to run and one regional train out of five, spelling problems for companies across the country as staff struggle to get to work.

"I regularly travel between Lyon and Grenoble for work. The strike is going to raise huge problems for me," lawyer Perrine Fontana, 27, told us at France24 at the main station in the southern city of Lyon on Monday.

"I can understand the railroad workers to a certain degree, but their strike challenges the personal and professional lives of many people."

Three-quarters of Eurostar trains to London and Brussels will run and Thalys trains towards Belgium and the Netherlands will operate almost normally, but there will be none at all to Spain, Italy or Switzerland.

At Air France, managers say 75 percent of flights will operate despite the fifth strike over pay in little over a month, but further walkouts are planned for April 7, 10 and 11.

- War on French 'strike culture' -

"We need to rid this country of its strike culture," Gabriel Attal, spokesman for Macron's Republic On The Move (LREM) party, told France Inter radio on Monday.

Macron says the SNCF, saddled with 46.6 billion euros ($57.5 billion) of debt, needs to make major changes as EU countries prepare to open passenger rail to competition by 2020.

It is 30 percent more expensive to run a train in France than elsewhere in Europe, according to his government, which wants to strip new SNCF hires of special rail workers' status guaranteeing jobs for life and early retirement.

Unions accuse Macron, a centrist ex-investment banker, of seeking to "destroy the public railways through pure ideological dogmatism".

They fear that plans to turn the SNCF into a publicly listed company, even with the state owning 100 percent of shares, could eventually lead to the rail operator being privatised -- something the government denies.

The rail strikes are being seen as the biggest challenge yet to Macron's sweeping plans to liberalise the French economy and make it more competitive.

He managed to pass controversial labour reforms in October, but the length and severity of the rail strikes are already earning comparisons with British prime minister Margaret Thatcher's showdown with coal miners in 1984.

The industrial action is a major test, too, of how much influence France's once fearsome unions -- whose membership has plunged to just 11 percent -- still carry.

Some 48 percent of train drivers and other staff are set to join Tuesday's strike, according to SNCF management, with its chief Guillaume Pepy warning entire lines could be closed.