Focus on Africa
Will Mozambicans in Cabo Delgado vote?
Mozambicans will vote for a new president this week, who many hope will bring peace to a country that has faced a jihadist insurgency in the north for almost seven years. How are security challenges impacting campaigning and voting?
Also, did you know that for a year, Nigeria has not had any ambassadors representing the country abroad? What is the diplomatic impact?
And we hear how climate change is affecting wine production in South Africa.
Presenter: Charles Gitonga Producers: Bella Hassan and Rob Wilson in London. Blessing Aderogba was in Lagos Senior Producer: Karnie Sharp Technical Producer: Jack Graysmark Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi
- Broadcast on:
- 07 Oct 2024
- Audio Format:
- other
Hello and welcome to this podcast from the BBC World Service. Please let us know what you think and tell other people about us on social media. Podcasts from the BBC World Service are supported by advertising. Hey, I'm Ryan Reynolds. At mid-mobile, we like to do the opposite of what Big Wireless does. They charge you a lot, we charge you a little. So naturally, when they announced they'd be raising their prices due to inflation, we decided to deflate our prices due to not hating you. That's right, 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. $45 up from payment equivalent to $15 per month, new customers on first three month plan only, taxes and fees extra, speeds lower above 40 gigabytes of detail. Hey, I hear you think podcasts are all about true crime, huh? Well, wise guy, the iHeartRadio app's got all kinds of podcasts. We got stuff you should know and stuff they don't want you to know. We got Bobby Bones, Big Boy and Lou Lader. We got SpongeBob, Binge Pants and exotic erotic story time. We got doe boys, two dudes in the kitchen, green eggs and Dan. Hey, we got ElfQuest. We got podcasts for everything on the iHeartRadio app for free. If you don't download that, well, that's not just a true crime, my friend. That's criminal. Hello, I'm Charles Guitonga and here's what's coming up for you on this edition of Focus on Africa. Nigeria's president, Bola Tinobu, is yet to replace the ambassadors who are recalled a year ago. We'll get insights and some advice from a former Nigerian ambassador. If I were in the ministry right now, if I were foreign minister, what I would do would be to persuade the past that be the president, that the missions in our key trading partners would be open. Well, I mean the ambassadors should be appointed to our different trading partners. While the others can wait, but unfortunately, this has not been done. And how the art of winemaking in South Africa is having to adapt to climate change. It's Monday, October 7. First, we go to Mozambique. The country is set to hold crucial presidential and legislative elections on October 9. That's in the next two days. The polls come at a critical time as the Southern African nation faces a number of economic and security issues. The outcome will greatly impact Mozambique's future as citizens hope for stability and positive change. So why are Mozambique elections so important? And what key issues should you know about? Here's an explainer from my colleague, Bola Hassan. [MUSIC] Mozambique is preparing for elections on October 9. There are four main presidential candidates, but most analysts expect the ruling party, Frelimo, to remain in power. Frelimo has governed the country since its independence in 1975. One of the biggest issues surrounding this election is the ongoing conflict in Capo Delgado, a northern province where Islamic State-linked militants have been carrying out attacks since 2017. This region is home to some of the world's largest gas reserves, and the insurgency here has forced over 1 million people to flee their homes. The ongoing conflict has disrupted massive gas projects that could have transformed Mozambique's economy. The country has also been ranked as one of the most climate vulnerable countries in Africa. Devastating cyclones have regularly hit it. In addition to all of this, Mozambique is still reeling from a financial scandal known as the Tuna Bond scandal, which involved over 1.5 billion US dollars. The money, borrowed by state-owned companies, was meant to be used for building efficient fleet and improve maritime security. However, much of it has disappeared due to corruption and mismanagement. Top officials, including government figures, were implicated. Mozambique maintained that it was the victim of a conspiracy among shipbuilders, corrupt officials and banks. The scandal triggered criminal investigations from Mobutu to New York, while senior Frelimo politicians were charged for their involvement dealing a blow to the party's image. With climate challenge, an unresolved Islamist insurgency in the North, and the ongoing economic troubles, this election remains highly significant. Thanks, Bella. So those are the issues at stake. This is also an important election for Mozambique, because it marks a shift away from the leadership of people involved in the country's liberation struggle, leading up to its independence from Portugal in 1975. Take the presidential candidate from the ruling Frelimo party, for example, 47-year-old Daniel Chapo. It's a first time Frelimo is fielding a candidate who was born after independence. If you want to dig into the politics, I'd recommend checking out an episode of the Africa Daily podcast, where they looked at this in-depth. We, however, are going to hone in on a different issue, the question of insecurity, especially in the North and Cabo del Gado province, when insurgency has been raging. To find out about its impact on the election, I've been speaking to Adriano Nuvunga, political science lecturer at the University of Eduardo Monlane in Maputo, and the director of the Center for Democracy and Development. Security in Mozambique is stable. We have an insurgency in Northern Cabo del Gado. The insurgency is very localized in the Northern part of the province of Cabo del Gado, but the rest of the country is stable. It has different sort of challenges, but the security-wise, it is okay. So, insecurity in Cabo del Gado province, do the rest of the people in the rest of the country. Is this something that they talk about, think about, because certainly they do hear about it quite a lot in the news? Obviously, they do. They do. They know it. They look at it more from the humanitarian perspective. About 1 million people are now in the question of IDPs. So, that is one of the biggest humanitarian crises since the signing of the peace agreement in 1992. They also do talk about it from the perspective of the domestic mobilization of resources. As you know, that region is home for Mozambique's well-de-class gas reserves. Now, the insurgency is sitting in between the people of Mozambique and harnessing that resource for domestic mobilization. So, that's where the issue becomes a top-top issue. So, let's go back to the people they are the most affected by the Islamist insurgency. Will they be getting a chance to vote in the election? This is a major question. There are two issues related to this. Number one, the electoral institution has come out to say that it does not have the necessary budget to make sure that everybody will be able to vote. So, they are in budget deficit, which is a major concern. You know, Mozambique is massive country, population is widespread, and it needs heavy logistics to meet everybody so that they can exercise their constitutional rights of participating in this election. So, there is this issue. The second issue is, as you have indicated, the capital that war. Remember, in 2019, in one or two districts, people were unable to vote. And we expect a similar pattern in the northern district, Pacomia, Palma, all the way to the border with Tanzania, which are the areas affected by the violent extremism. As I'm speaking now, there are military activities there that will not only affect the communities in those districts, but also, and fundamentally, it will affect the IDPs. There has been an effort to register IDPs to be able to vote, but the reality is that those people, in a situation of IDPs, they face extra obstacles to be able to meaningfully participate in the election. And would there be concerns that militants may as well target the electoral process? There is no doubt about that. In 2019, we have experiences of that happening, where, in the ill stage of the insurgency, people were prevented from casting the vote due to insecurity as the military activity was threatening the integrity of the election there. And we indeed do expect that with the expansion of the attacks by the international forces and the Mozambican forces to violent extremists, they can indeed organize to make it difficult for the people to participate as a form of retaliation to the ongoing targeting by the international forces. So the insurgency in Cabo del Guard, why has it been so difficult to solve? And what is it that the next president of Mozambican can do to bring a solution to this? That insurgency in the North is so difficult to solve because it's a governance issue. You mentioned about extremist groups. They are assigned to be extremist because of the horrendous crimes that they have committed, but those young people there, they are a product of a failed governance related to unlawful, non-developmental and elite-centric extractivism of the resources. So unless the next president sets governance right in terms of improving transparency, improving inclusive national and local dialogue through democratic means, and also allowing that local district, they have a fair share of the national resources that conflict will not end, regardless of the bombardments that the current government is making with the support of the Wendy's government. Okay. Thank you, Adriana, for coming to the program. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Thank you. That's Adriana Nwunga in Mozambique. What does it mean for a country to be without ambassadors? Well, Nigeria has been without them for over a year. Last year, President Bolatinubu recalled all Nigeria's ambassadors who are representing the country's diplomatic missions, embassies, and consulates globally, and he has yet to replace them. In April this year, 12 consuls-general and 5-chajé d'affaires were assigned to 14 countries. However, in May, the Minister of Foreign Affairs attributed the delay to appointing new ambassadors to a lack of funds. I've been speaking to Professor Kinjide Oshun Tocun, who is a Nigerian academic and a former ambassador to Germany from 1991 to 1995. For a country like Nigeria, an important actor on both the African and global stage, how unusual is this? It is. It is. It is rather unusual. But I think there are circumstances that could lead to such a gap in diplomatic representation at the very top. But it doesn't mean that we don't have missions. We have missions, our missions are open, and there are important messages to be passed between governments and governments. Our missions are ready for business. Has this ever occurred before in Nigeria's diplomatic history? No, really. There may have been instances where we did not have ambassadors in one country or the other, but not a blanket situation like this. So why has it taken then so long to replace these ambassadors after the previous ones were recalled? It is because there is a new government and the circumstances prevailing in the country, particularly the economic circumstances, are required that a thorough reform in representation be made and a thorough assessment of the economic well-being of the country is being made. So it's partly economic. The situation is because of the economic problems that we have. And please don't forget that we have embassies in modern 100 countries, and this requires a general funding. And it requires being funded from foreign reserves. If the reserves of the country are a bit low, then there is a problem. We don't want to send missions abroad and not be properly funded. You said, though, in your previous answer that the missions are still there, where are they drawing the funding? If the missions are still there, but what does it mean to have a mission present, but not to have an ambassador? And what does it mean financially? Well, the ambassador is the top of the mission. And when you send an ambassador abroad, you send him with his family. And if you don't have your own residences or buildings, you will have to rent. And this requires a lot of money because he has to be seen to be living in a very good area. Now, if you send an ambassador to Tokyo or Washington or London, luckily in those countries that have mentioned, we have residences, we have our own buildings, but then he still requires to pay. And if he has children below the age of 18, to be educated at the expense of the country's ex checker. So this requires considerable amount of funding in hard currency. It's not that we will not eventually post ambassadors abroad, but for now, it is better to have missions headed by heads of mission at Interi, which is Chippa. I'm just wondering, because yourself, you've been an ambassador before to Germany for Nigeria between 1991 and 1995, is the only place where Nigeria could have saved money given the economic situation that you're describing? It's not. But let me tell you a little bit about the positions of ambassadors in contemporary times. The positions are actually super floors. I'm saying this as an academic. If there are serious problems to be discussed between one country and the other, between the president or prime minister of one country and the other, it may not even go through the ambassadors. If there are serious things to be discussed, it's only two heads of countries will call each other or lower than that, the ministers will speak directly to each other. The position of an ambassador is a traditional position. And if a country can have for this luxury for the moment, it can delay it. And this is what is happening. Do you mean to say then, professor, that the lack of ambassadors or Nigerian ambassadors in this country, some of which are quite close allies of the country, has no diplomatic impact at all. Whatever business needs to be done can still be done, whether they are appointed or not. What I'm saying is that those missions are headed by what you call head of missions are in theory. It doesn't mean that the missions are closed. Eventually ambassadors will be appointed and things will go on as before. If a mission were to be closed, then we are talking about something different. We have more than 100 missions all over the world. If I were in the ministry right now, if I were foreign minister, what I would do would be to persuade the past that be the president that the missions in our key trading partners should be open. Well, I mean, the ambassadors should be appointed to our different trading partners while the others can wait. But unfortunately, this has not been done. An ambassador today once appointed, what is it that they do? What is the value that they bring to the country? Now, are you asking me this as an academic or as a former ambassador? Both. Try create a balance for us, professor, because you've done both. Well, as an academic, I'm sure my former friends in the diplomatic service will not like what I'm saying. I'm saying that the position of an ambassador is actually superfluous. It goes back to the history of a change of ambassadors. Ambassadors in the past, you know, because this thing started in Europe where other princes or brothers of the king or queen, and whatever it says, it's almost done. Right now, no ambassador, even the extraordinary and plenty potentially, no ambassador can really commit in this or a country to save the world. Whereas in the old days, the position of ambassadors were really critical. The position today is a traditional position. You know, there are so many things that are traditional. Trying the flag is a traditional recognition of sovereignty. It doesn't mean that if you don't fly the flag, somebody will not appreciate the flag that you are a sovereign country. The position of an ambassador is a traditional position. It's a very important position. It shows the prominence of the country sending an ambassador abroad. I have seen situations where ambassadors of some countries were living in Pernury because their own government were not funding them, have witnessed this, and don't think we will want to be in that kind of position. It's better to make sure that when we send ambassadors abroad, he will be funded, and an ambassador is very effective. If you can have social interaction, if you can invite members of the community where it's serving, to participate in this house, to deal with us, you know, doesn't have money, it cannot do this. This is what I'm saying. Yeah, so in the position that Nigeria has been without ambassadors in all of these countries, is there anything at stake in terms of relationships with those countries or relationships with multilateral organizations such as the African Union or the United Nations, for example? I don't think so, but I'm sure people in the current government are considering sending ambassadors abroad, particularly to key institutions that you have mentioned, and to key trading partners. We have about 52 missions in Africa, you know, that are headed by ambassadors. If we don't have ambassadors in third countries right now, it will not diminish or irritate from the importance of Nigeria in Africa. It will only mean that those missions are headed temporarily by and was added in third. It does not mean that Nigeria has not been adequately represented. If there are important things to decide, the foreign minister who is the principal agent of the president, will be sent out to go and carry out those important missions. Positions of ambassadors are more or less decorative. Is there how you felt, professor, when you're in Germany in 1991 to 1995, did you feel, you know, it was more of a decoration, like you're saying, it was superfluous? Yes, yes. There was no doubt about that. Decisions were going to be taken. They will read whatever brief you have sent to them in the oil office, in the presidency. Don't forget the foreign policy of the country is the policy of the president. Ambassadors, foreign ministers, and others are agents of the president. You will just be one of those people, you know, your own brief into the mix from which a decision will be taken. And when the decision is taken, you will be so informed by the traditional position that has been on and there is no need to stop it. But if any country really wants to save money, it will reduce the number of missions that it has. Many of our countries in Africa don't even have missions all over the world. There are countries, colleagues of mine, who had three poor or quadruple representation. They'll be accredited to Germany, to France, to Belgium, to the European, you know, all at the same time. Thank you, professor, for your input and for your thoughts. It's very, very interesting listening to you. Thank you very much. Here is an alternative view to the one we've just heard. It's from Emmanuel Remi Ayade, a professor of political institutions, governance and public policy. What does he think? I think that it's a mark of the sluggishness of this government in attending to a variety of challenges confronting it. And it has very negative implications for foreign policy implementation, as far as Nigeria is concerned, in some very important foreign countries and within international organization. Did he build about the expansion of the Security Council? It's ongoing. Then you see our opportunities. Then Nigeria is only to maintain ambassadors in strategic countries over the last four years. Many thanks to professors Akin Jide Ocean Tokun and Emmanuel Remi Ayade for their views. This is Focus on Africa from the BBC World Service. Explaining football to the friend who's just there for the nachos, hard. Tailgating from home like a pro with snacks and drinks everyone will love, any easy win. And with Instacart helping deliver the snack time MVPs to your door, you're ready for the game in as fast as 30 minutes. So you never miss a play or lose your seat on the couch or have to go head to head for the last chicken wing. Shop Game Day faves on Instacart and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three gross reorders. Offer valid for limited time, other fees in terms apply. Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. With the price of just about everything going up during inflation, we thought we'd bring our prices down. So to help us, we brought in a reverse auctioneer which is apparently a thing. Mint Mobile unlimited, premium wireless. Give it a try at midmobile.com/switch. $45 up from payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speed slower above 40 gigabytes in detail. We moved to a part of South Africa, the western Cape known for producing wine, which has been a significant part of the region's economy, cultural identity and tourism. However, this flourishing industry is under a growing threat as rising temperatures, shifting rainfall patterns and the increasing frequency of extreme weather patterns to shape the landscape of wine making. So how is this all impacting the industry in South Africa? Emma Carkeke is a vineyard consultant at VINPro, a non-profit organization that represents the interests of South African wine producers, sellers and wine-related businesses. So Emma, what kind of climatic balance do you then need to be able to produce a good wine as a region or as a country? That's a tough one to answer because what makes South Africa's wine growing regions so interesting is our really variable topography. We have really differing topography over different areas which creates these interesting different climates in each region. So every region is different in what it's used to but I think that what's making things tough if one has to look at it over the broader South African wine industry is just the rainfall events, the rainfall's erratic and we have heat spikes, so it's the variability. It's less constant conditions than we perhaps were used to in the past. So I think what would be an ideal climate isn't difficult question to answer. It's nice sort of even growing or ripening conditions, it's really good, nice cold wet weather in winter and then early enough and then warmer weather in spring but with a still a bit of rainfall so that we can keep the soil wet for longer so that it doesn't dry out too early in the spring season. Is South Africa unique to the rest of the continent and this changes in climate? Is it something that's happening now? How new is it or is it something that has been evolving over a long period of time? I think perhaps it has been evolving over a longer period of time but certainly events in the past in the shorter term have really been quite challenging. There is an increased degree of change and I think the biggest issue for us is just the unpredictability and the extremeness of the events that we're dealing with. South African wine growers are used to tough conditions and we have been adapting for a long time. We just really have to ramp up our adaptive practices and what's good about facing these challenges is that it forces innovation. We really do have to be innovative in how we think about planting new vineyards and what to plant and planting the right things in the right places, the right cultivars, the right rootstocks and implementing the right vineyard practices. What's the impact then on the quality of the wine that tastes the volume of how much can be produced? Well if we talk about in season, I think the last season as a reference we had extremely windy conditions in the growing season and it was very dry with a few heat spikes. It's hard for the vineyard managers or the viticulturists and the farmers to manage those events. One has to be really good with irrigation and your canopy management practices because you want to prevent a dehydration of the berries, of the great berries and you want to manage or keep your canopy in a good condition. So what can happen is that if those aren't handled correctly or you don't put the right practices in place, you can have dehydration and the berries lose, they end up being in a poorer condition, you get a bit of sunburn, a bit of shriveling and it can ultimately affect the alcohol content of the wine but that's in extreme cases and it can obviously affect the flavor profile of the wine because you ideally are looking for a constant slower ripening process with more constant conditions, more moderate conditions so that you can have a longer ripening process whereas if you have these very dry conditions and very hot weather, you don't get that, it sort of speeds up that ripening without allowing the grapes to develop or the fuller aroma and flavor profile that one is ultimately going for. You've been describing about how you are adapting to the issues in South Africa, what does that look like in terms of actual measures and what does that then mean for things like labor or the cost of producing the wine? My focus area is a project called the Gen Z project and in this project we are working to try and provide the wine growers with knowledge and answers on how better to adapt to changing climate and how to enhance or optimize their production so we have a lot of what we call interplanting demos so they are demonstration blocks within commercial vineyards across the winelands on different soil types in different climate climatic zones and we're really trying to evaluate the performance of different cultivars, varieties and root stocks in order to share that information with the farmers so that when they decide that they need to plant a new block they are equipped with all the information needed to make the right decisions when planting because the biggest part of having a grape vine that is buffered against climate change is the correct establishment of that vine and the correct selection of cultivar and root stock. What are cultivars? So the cultivar is the variety so Chiraz or Chardonnay, Sauviam Blanc-tavoir those are cultivars and within cultivars we have different clones so within our project we are also looking at different clones of varieties they have different traits within that cultivar so a clone of Chardonnay or a clone of Cabernet Sauvignon may ripen earlier than another clone or it may have a different grape or bunch morphology may have tighter bunches or longer bunches. There's small differences but they make a difference in terms of decision-making and especially in the flavor profile and the production. Some clones produce a bit more, some produce a bit less but maybe a higher quality. So that selection process is so critical in your decision-making when you establish a new vineyard because vineyards are incredibly expensive to establish. You only get your production over four years so it's a long-term investment so you have to make the right decisions at the beginning with all the information. I'll go back again to the adaptation measures that you've described. Does it mean more people working in a vineyard? Does it mean more costs for the people running the business and for somebody who likes to enjoy a glass or bottle of wine does it mean they will pay more? It may mean more, more costs involved or higher expenses on the growers part. There are mitigation strategies for example if you really want to manage your soil in the best way to harness the rain that we are having erratic rainfall so you really want to make the most of the rain that falls. You really need to build up your soil carbon in order to harvest that rain and to hold onto it and not lose it. And part of that is planting cover crops that may be a higher cost than normal or putting a mulch down, putting compost down or you know those kind of strategies can incur higher costs. I wouldn't say that there's necessarily two bigger impact on labor but they may ultimately be a carryover into the final wine price and from a South African point of view that really should happen anyway because the South African wines are extremely good value for money and yeah I think that farming inputs are becoming increasingly expensive every year the increases is huge but the wine prices don't adjust as much as the input costs do. And that's Vignette Consultant, Emma Karkik. Focus on Africa was put together by Rob Wilson and Bella Hassan in London. Blessing at the robot was in Lagos. The senior journalist overseeing the production was Karni Shapp and Jack Graysmark was the technical producer. Our editors are Andrew Lombard and Ali Smodengi. I'm Charles Gittonga. We'll speak again soon. Hey I hear you think podcasts are all about true crime huh? Well wise guy, the iHeart Radio apps got all kinds of podcasts. We got stuff you should know and stuff they don't want you to know. We got Bobby Bones, Big Boy and Lou Lader. We got SpongeBob, Binge Pants and exotic erotic story time. We got doe boys, two dudes in the kitchen, green eggs and Dan. Hey we got Elf Quest. We got podcasts for everything on the iHeart Radio app for free. If you don't download that, well that's not just a true crime my friend. That's criminal. [BLANK_AUDIO]