Focus on Africa

Why Algeria's President is not a uniting figure

Algeria's incumbent President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has been re-elected with almost 95% of the vote. Election officials reported that less than 6 million of the country's 24 million voters turned out to vote raising questions about Tebboune's popular support. We'll get analysis.

Also, the Nigerian woman in Canada who allegedly made threats against other Nigerian ethnic groups in the country.

And how did African athletes fare at the 2024 Paralympics?

Presenter: Audrey Brown Producers: Bella Hassan, Kaine Pieri, Stefania Okereke and Patrcia Whitehorne. Technical Producer: Jack Graysmark Senior Journalist: Karnie Sharp Editors: Alice Muthengi and Andre Lombard

Duration:: 34m
Broadcast on:: 09 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary, not available in all states or situations. Hello, I'm Audrey Brown, and today in Focus on Africa from Nigeria, allegations of online hate leads to charges against a woman in Canada. What does it tell us about the state of Nigerian unity? Issues, how divided we are as a people. I think the only time the engineers come together to celebrate the identity is when we are playing football. You know, at the international level, we are paid to be winning. Non-mending with the goalkeeper, where are the goalkeeper? He's from Iainibo, personally, I was the person of Europe, I presume. And the Paris Paralympics are over. Who are the standout African stars? You look at the legends of the Paralympics and Raara Talili from Tunisia is right at the top of the list. She competes in the F-41 class, that's her athletes of short stature. And she won gold in both the shot put and the discus. And that is her fifth shot put title in a row. Raara Talili is really the symbol of Tunisian Paralympics sport, and in many ways, African Paralympics sport as well. It's Monday, the 9th of September. First, we go to Algeria. There were elections on Saturday in Algeria, and today results already. The winner is incumbent President Abdul Magid Tebun. He didn't just win, he won almost all of the votes, like up to 95% of them. No wonder his rivals are complaining. We'll see what happens next with that. But Salina Bill, who is usually in Cairo for the BBC, was in Algeria's to report on these elections. A bit of background, Algeria is a former French colony, which won its independence after a very long and bitter war, the consequences of which are still felt today. It is also an oil and gas-rich powerhouse with diplomatic heft on the continent. In the early 1990s, an Islamist party started winning elections. The army stepped in and cancelled them, resulting in a civil war that only ended in 2002. Abdul Aziz Butiflika, who became president in 1999, is credited with ending what Algerians call the Black Decade. In 2019, Mr. Butiflika was deposed in a wave of protests over political repression and economic hardship suffered by the people. He died in 2021. Mr. Tabun became president. And from the results, he is set to remain in that position for the next five years. So did the results come as a surprise? Salina Bill says no. Even before the vote started, everybody or most of the people here knew that Mr. Tabun, the current president, is going to easily secure a second term and is going to stay in power for another five years. So when the election authority announced the results, and it said that Mr. Tabun got more than 94% of the vote, that came as no surprise to anybody. This partly explains why we haven't seen many voters inside the polling stations. I mean, it has been the quietest election I've ever covered. There were far more security personnel outside than people casting the votes inside. So who did turn out to vote? We're particularly interested in how young people reacted to the election. Young people are pretty disappointed in this country. I mean, I talked to them right after announcement of the results. I asked a few of them, did you vote? And all of them said no, we didn't. And no one in our family or friends did vote because we know that it's not going to change anything. We know the coming five years will be no different from the past five years. There are a few people who said, though, that Mr. Tabun or the current president is kind of the best choice they have at the moment because all the other options are not pretty promising. But what we've seen inside the polling station kind of goes in the same line of thought with that because I haven't seen many young people at all. So it has been pretty quiet and this quietness tells a lot. Is it worth asking whether the elections took place in an atmosphere, an attitude of free and fair in the run-up, you know, and even the circumstance under which other parties were able to campaign? Is it worth asking that given that there's a 94% results for the incumbent? I think the whole scene that preceded the elections kind of paid the way for this percentage because originally there were 16 people aiming to hunt for presidency. The election authority excluded or disqualified most of them. So we ended up having Mr. Adam Majitabun, the current president, who is competing against a socialist, who is Mr. Yousif Oshish, and then Islamist, who is Mr. Adliley Haseni. But out of those people who have been disqualified by the election authority, I talked to one of them and she said that this is a political exclusion. It's not about the law, it's not about the technicalities of the election. This is more or less kind of making the race like an empty space for Mr. Tabun to win or turning the election into a one-horse race because the election authority said we disqualified these candidates because they didn't file all the documents required by the law. But again, the lady I spoke to, whose name is Zibidah Sol, she's a lawyer and party leader, she said that this election was meant to hand a very easy win to Mr. Tabun. The general election is about restrictions on freedoms and tightly controlling to give no room to the opposition. We are not allowed to speak in public to explain to voters our plans. All these factors were not encouraging. I think the current authority doesn't want a real competitive election that can bring solid change. And that was Zibidah Sol. So you spoke to people who were at the heart of a popular uprising that led to the downfall of Abdulaziz Butaflika, who'd been in power for a very long time. What did they say to you? Let me take you back to 2019 first because I was there right after Mr. Butaflika stepped down. And I've seen the euphoria and the optimism that sparked the scene here in the heart of downtown Angiez. I could see people full of hope having big dreams of starting a new chapter based on democracy and freedom and transparency. And they were very, very hopeful at the time. I remember that very well. Now, five years on, I speak to some of the people who took part in the Iraq or the uprising. And one of them tells me that I'm always thinking about leaving the country. Another one tells me, how can you have free and fair elections when journalists and protesters and human rights activists can go to jail over a Facebook post? So if you put these two pictures side by side, you can tell how much of a difference has happened over the past five years. I'm not convinced with elections. Results have been decided in advance. There was no competition. We knew a second term for the president was guaranteed. A dream of leaving the country. I have nothing to look forward to here. I just want to leave. Nothing can make me change my mind. Mr. Tebun is the safe choice. He continues with the same old path and programs. This approach has its pros and cons. To effect a change here, it will take 20 to 30 years. And those are voices from Algeria. Sally, what impact might these results have on Algeria's role in North African politics and its relations with neighboring countries? I mean, the relationship with Morocco has always been tense over Western Sahara. I'm not really sure this is going to change in the next five years because the Western Sahara for Algerians and for Morocco as well, to be honest, is a very important cause. So I think those in charge, they have to address the local problems as well. It might be more of a priority now for them because of the level of discontent I've seen in the streets. It's not just discontent. It's more or less indifference because I haven't seen many posters and banners, for example, around the Algerian capital in any Arab city that is getting prepared for presidential elections. You'd see posters and banners all over the city, around every corner, in every street. But that was not the case here. People were not really interested. They like the official stance of the government when it comes to the Western Sahara and has been supporting the Western Sahara's. When it comes to local issues, they are very discontent. And the time Algeria has to address some issues abroad, I think it might be more of a priority to fix the problems inside at the moment. So what would the next five years look like for Mr. Dibun and for Algerians? What does he need to do immediately and will he? He promised to create more jobs. He promised to work on sustainable economic development, especially in remote areas. A lot of young men and women here have no jobs. Unemployment rates are high. People are complaining about inflation rates. They struggle to make ends meet. So I believe economic development will be a big challenge for him because if that discontent is to continue, it will be pretty serious because already a lot of Algerian young men are jumping into dinghis and taking the risky trip via the Mediterranean to hit European shores, hoping for a better life. So if the economy is not to be changed for the better, these risky trips will keep going from Algeria to Europe, which is a very, very serious matter that needs to be addressed. What strikes you about the country? It's a beautiful country. Algiers is one of the most beautiful Arab cities that I've seen. It has an amazing coast via the Mediterranean. It has brilliant European architecture, especially in downtown. It has a lot to it than oil and gas and it should be having more resources to bring in more money to the government and to the people. But this is not the case, unfortunately. Tourism here is very limited. The country is heavily dependent on its fueled resources, which shouldn't be the case. It has a lovely coast, which means there might look into their marine wealth as well. But the way that governments or successive governments have been handling the economy, it says a lot about their view of their country. They are not putting really a broader vision to diversify their sources of income. And this is what Mr. Taboon and his officials have been promising to look into other resources. But nobody here is sure that this won't be the case. The BBC's Salina Bill in Algiers. She should be held accountable for threatening harm and debt. This Amaka patience Sannabaga's case should be an eye-opener to all, to stop the hate speech. The country should unite and focus on its common enemy, which is bad governance. These are some of the comments we read from Nigerians on X Twitter. It's an interesting case involving a Canada-based Nigerian woman being charged with inciting violence against other Nigerians. The cases reveal divisions between Nigerians going back decades. It has also revealed the power of social media platforms to disseminate and sometimes inflame situations. I've been discussing all of this with Kritis Upong, who's one of the managers and head of operations for premium times, a newspaper in Akwai, Bombay state in Nigeria's southeast. Kritis began our conversation by giving me more details about the events that led to Amaka Sannabaga being charged in a court in Canada. Quite recently there was this video that went viral. You could hear a voice. I didn't know her. Most people didn't know who owns that voice. Until a federal official came up and said, "Look, this is the person who owns this voice." She published her photograph on Twitter. So being that a federal official had come up to identify this person. It cleared any doubts if the video was fake. In that video, apparently they were having a virtual meeting on TikTok. And what was the context within which she was making this statement? Was it a meeting? She said, "Look, enough of all these heads against the e-boots." Apparently she was responding to some other messages online, which probably were targeting the e-boots, where she comes from. I don't know what remarks she was referring to. So there she was making these statements inciting violence against specific groups of Nigerians. And she's identifying herself or talking about herself, perhaps in the context of being imbo. So which official from which country is with Nigeria that identified her, said it was her? You know, there's these Nigerians in Diaspora Commission. I mean, it's a commission that handled her face of Nigerians in the Diaspora. Abhika Daviri, a lady. So she came up on Twitter and identified this woman. In fact, she also gave her an information that some Nigerians in Canada were reporting art to the authorities. To the authorities in Canada? In Canada, yes. That's right. That's when the media houses in Nigeria picked up the story from there. So how did Nigerians react to this? The federal official, Abhika Daviri, you know, she posted a photograph of this woman and also said, "Look, this is our name." But there were other Nigerians, you know, particularly those from the South East who came up and said, "Look, you refuse to see other remarks that were made against the evils." So they were attacking her and said, "You are doing this because this person is an evil person, but when other people, the Eurobars or people are based on Legos, we're making anti-evil remarks. You didn't see all those things." You know, so often we're pointing to tweets where people allegedly met from anti-evil remarks. But of course, she defended ourselves. She said, "Look, I don't know what's going on here, but because this is in the days for us, we have to come in." So tell me this, was this the first time that the commissioner on the diaspora commission had actually out of somebody in this way for making remarks like this? Or is this the first time that it's happened? Is this the first time that such remarks were actually made? She's been quite active about issues affecting Nigerians in the days for us. Has she called out people before? I'm not certain about this. As far as I know, I've not seen it on this before. And we've not seen this magnitude of this kind of speech. We have not had this magnitude of remarked before. Give us a background to the tensions that this incident highlights between different communities in Nigeria. Specifically, I suppose in this case, Ibo, Yoruba and people from Benini's extraction. Nigeria has been one unfortunate country because of the leaders here. We've not really had it good at all, I must say this, because of the suffering amongst Nigerians. So people generally, there is that despondency, that feeling of, "Look, who should we hold for whatever has been found on us?" So as you see, these ethnic distrust and attack on people especially on Twitter, you know, social media. Now, I think the Ibo's generally have not been treated fairly well. They have this sense of, "Look, we have been highly marginalized. We've not been reintegrated into the Nigerian system after the civil war." And they may be right in a way because, you know, they are not the only people who are affected by the poor covenants in the country. Let's just take a step back into Nigeria's recent history at this point. The country became independent from Britain in 1960, and the decade that followed was a turbulent one. There was a coup and a civil war known as the Bayafran War. It began in 1967 and ended in 1970. In that time, deep divisions were sown between the Ibo ethnic group, which wanted to establish a breakaway state called Bayafra. The federal government, which was accused of furthering the interests of the Northern House Afro-Lani and Western Yoruba groups, went to war. These tensions stemmed from colonial legacies, political power struggles, and regional inequalities. And they continue today. Back to Kletus. You wouldn't be surprised because that is what is expected in any decent society. I mean, it's better for us to appear in court, defend ourselves. Ultimately, I think Nigeria is really trust the justice system in Canada. So the belief that if she has done anything wrong, she'll go in for it. But if she hasn't, she'll be free. I mean, if it were to be Nigeria, there would have been an accusation of manipulation. Hey, someone manipulated the police to arrest her, even if it were not to be true. What impact do you think this has on Nigeria's sense of itself and Nigeria's in their identity as Nigerians? It shows how divided we are as a people. So unfortunate. It's a call for action, not just on the part of government, but the media as well. Let us report things that would promote our unity and then let us as a people campaign for good covenants. I mean, if Nigeria were to be okay, you wouldn't be having all these ethnic dignity. It raises fundamental questions about the Nigerian identity. So you see someone outside telling people, "Look, I'm a Yoruba. I'm an Iboo. I'm an outside person." Not necessarily a Nigerian, but I think the only time Nigerians do come together to celebrate the identity is when we are playing soccer, when we are playing football, at the international level, and we are paid to be winning. Non-minding, or is it Gokipa? Where are the Gokipa? Is from Iainibo, personally, outside person or Yoruba person? In some communities, the words that people use against others are often seen as justification to visit violence in those people. And you see, it's not words have consequences and they can hurt. So I was just wondering whether in this case, that could be possible. It's scary. And I don't think people will begin to attack the Yorubas. Or the other way around as well. I mean, other attacking Iboos, because they feel like they were being attacked first with these words. The intention has already been there. So now that there's a greater challenge, which is the economic hardship. So probably, I think that the economic situation has overwhelmed the remark that this woman made. Thank you very much. Nigerians are not unique in this regard, but there are so many of you. So the noise on social media is very loud, isn't it, when it does happen? The social media is a place where people go through events, their angers, and all those things. But in the streets, a lot of persons may not be aware of this. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Pritos Obong, one of the managers and head of operations for premium times, a national newspaper in Nigeria. This is Focus on Africa from the BBC World Service. Deep in the ocean, an orca pod is on the hunt. These aren't your average orcas. These guys are organized. Marketing team, did you get those social media posts scheduled for the CO migration? Hi, I captain. We even have an automated notification for all pod managers when they go live. They use Monday.com to keep their teamwork sharp, their communication clear, and their goals in sight. Monday.com, for whatever you run, even orcas, go to Monday.com to dive deeper. Hey, I'm Ryan Reynolds. Recently, I asked Mint Mobile's legal team if big wireless companies are allowed to raise prices due to inflation. They said yes. And then when I asked if raising prices technically violates those owners to your contracts, they said, "What the f*** are you talking about? You insane Hollywood s***." So to recap, we're cutting the price of Mint Unlimited from $30 a month to just $15 a month. Give it a try at mintmobile.com/switch. After 11 days of spectacular sport, the curtains have come down on the 2024 Paralympics in Paris. France was widely praised for how it ran both the Olympics and the Paralympics. There were 44 African countries taking part, some with just one competitor. Last time round, when the games were held in Tokyo, Africa won a total of 63 medals. This time, the total medal hall was slightly higher, and one country, Mauritius, made history. Millions of people around the world watched, and the hope is that this success will boost opportunities and participation of people with disabilities in sport. So how did the continent do and who stood out? BBC Sport Africa reporter Rob Stevens was just off the train from Paris when we spoke. Hello. Hello Audrey. How are you? I'm all right, thanks. Yeah, it's been a whirlwind few days. You've literally just got off the train from Paris. Where are you now? Yes, Audrey. I'm a Houston station just waiting to make a connection. It really feels like the end of the Paralympics is very much there. It was quite a quiet Paris this morning when I was getting my cab ride to the Gardenhall station. And I'm sad in a way to be returning, because it's been a brilliant 11 days of competition, and a great bit of time in Paris in terms of the games themselves. Paris really put on a show for both the Olympics and for the Paralympics as well. So I'm sad in a way that this kind of chapter is over. Well, in four years time, you'll be back again, not in Paris though, somewhere else. I've no doubt. Tell us about the achievements of the African athletes. How do they fare? Well, they've done probably, I'd say, a job of consolidation. They've done very well, but if you're looking at the bare bones, the numbers themselves in terms of numbers of medals, it was much the same from what it was in Tokyo. So in Tokyo, it was 63 medals, which were evenly split, 21 gold, 21 silver, 21 bronze. This time, they surpassed that, but only by a minimum standard, they got 64 medals overall. They did get more of those that were gold this time round. So that's 23 gold medals, 17 silver and 24 bronze. But I guess the challenges are still there for Africa to grow the number of participants, to grow the number of entries in the games themselves, and probably to have more entries in particular sports. I think it was three sports, three disciplines overall. They didn't have any African representation in it at all, and there were only one or two competitors in other certain events. So track cycling, for example, there was only one Ghanaian Frederick Asor. He was the only African in track cycling, whereas Philippa Johnson-Dreyer, she was the only African in the Para equestrian event. So Africa is very well represented in certain sports, like Para Athletics and Para Powerlifting. Those are the two main ones. But through a lot of the many other sports, there aren't so many competitors from Africa. Mr Asor's achievement, though, in the cycling was amazing. One of the first ever, or certainly the first African that we know, that has entered the velodrome, no? Yes, and it's just an achievement to get here in a way, because in terms of the training that he has back home in Ghana, he doesn't have access to a proper velodrome. There are only two in Africa. There's one in Egypt, and it's tough for him as well to ride with a guide cyclist, because he rides a tandem bike. So I think that's very much one of the trickier sports to grow in Africa, just because to get access to a velodrome itself is expensive. The bikes are expensive. The gear is expensive. He's very bullish. I read an interview with him where he said that if he had the same funding as they do for Team GB, or perhaps the Netherlands who are very strong in that sport, then he could compete on a more even playing field. But it's always the question of funding that is difficult. Just give us a breakdown of the countries that were there. Is that up from Tokyo? Well, there were 44 countries overall from Africa that were there. I don't have the precise figures from Tokyo, because there's a lot of data to go through. But 44 countries from Africa were there at the Games. Nine of them were only sending one representative. So that's a slight problem in terms of the number of entries, the number of competitors that are there. Several others had too. So quite a lot of African countries who were there sent rather small teams. Egypt and Morocco had the biggest continents that was boosted by their participation in team sports as well. The North African countries in South Africa who really have the largest number of teams there. And the medal can't really reflect the countries that had the bigger teams. Did they also get the more medals? The medal count was very much as it was in terms of Tokyo, in terms of the usual suspects. So Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, they were towards the top of the table and Morocco got the most medals. They got 15 overall. Algeria got the most gold, six overall. And then if you're looking a bit further down the table, Nigeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, and South Africa all picked up two gold medals each. And then Namibia, Kenya, and Mauritius were the other three countries from Africa that got on the medal table. I must mention Mauritius because they created history. That was their first Paralympic medal. It was Giovanni Felipe in one of the sprint races, 400 metres in his discipline. So that's a piece of history there because 26 African countries went to these Paralympics without a medal and Mauritius were the only one to make that piece of history. Any standout African athletes for you? Yeah, I mean, you look at the legends of the Paralympics and Raara Talili from Tunisia is right at the top of the list. She competes in the F-41 class. That's her athletes of short stature. And she won gold in both the shopper and the discus. And that is her fifth shopper title in a row. So going all the way back to Beijing, 2008, when she was 18 years old, she has undefeated since then at the Paralympics. And in terms of the discus, it was her third in a row. And she won two silver before that. So she has eight Paralympic gold medals. That's a national record for Tunisia and 10 Paralympic medals overall. There are plenty of names to pick out, but Raara Talili is really the symbol of Tunisian Paralympics sport. And in many ways, African Paralympics sport as well. What stood out for you, which particular competition did you enjoy most, you think? The great thing was about Paris was the way that they sold the city. So the two that will stay with me forever would be watching the blind football in front of the Eiffel Tower, which was an absolute stunning backdrop. And the nuance of the sport is that you must be absolutely quiet during the game. But at times, there were points the fans couldn't contain their excitement in terms of when there was a save made or when the post was hit or when gold was scored and where they erupted and it kind of disrupted the players slightly. But the crowd were most well behaved. But the setting of that itself was incredible. And the skill on show from the blind footballers who all have visual impairments, the goalkeepers can see and there are guides behind the goals. It's really an incredible and intense sport to watch. The other one for me was the Para archery, which took place in front of the Hotel de Zambelides, which is the final resting place in Napoleon. Great history, great place to watch sport. The Para archery was incredible there. And final one, I must mention, is the way that they've drawn Palais to watch Para Taekwondo and wheelchair fencing. Again, an incredible arena and it's kind of a once-in-a-lifetime experience to watch high-level sport in those areas. So why do we just say it's the prognosis for sport for people with disabilities in Africa? The first edition of the African Para Games was held last year in Ghana. It had three sports. The idea is now to grow that event continentally in terms of adding more sports to it and particularly ones that are included in the Paralympic Games. So last time round there was amputee football, which is not a Paralympic sport. There was wheelchair basketball, which is a Paralympic sport, but which Africa did not have any participants in and there was wheelchair tennis. So basically the African Para Games needs to grow to have more sports included in it. So perhaps Para powerlifting, perhaps botch. A few other sports that African can get into and then use that to qualify more competitors for the Paralympic Games in future. The African Para Olympic Committee is launching new schemes to try and increase the profile of disability sport as well in terms of getting more funding, getting more sponsors on board. They believe that the talent pool is there, so it's drawing on that talent pool as well and getting them more involved in the sport and basically increasing the level of competition on the continent. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay. Bye. Go home and get some rest. I think you've been up early. Thanks very much. Okay. Bye. Cheers. Take care. That's BBC Sport Africa reporter Rob Stevens. Focus on Africa was put together by Bella Hassan, Stefania Okereke, Cane Peery and Patricia Whitehorn. Carney Sharp was the senior journalist in charge. Francesca Dunn and Jack Raisman were our technical producers. Andre Lombard and Alice Moudengi, our editors. I'm Audrey Brown and we'll talk again next time. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try it at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law, not available in all states. Mayor Conalando is the largest comic-con event that we produce in the US. We're able to bring celebrities and our executive level team members as well. Luxury hotels, Michelin restaurants, easy access through the airport. Orlando really can be that destination where you can innovate, collaborate, and look to the future. [BLANK_AUDIO]