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Social media giants Twitter announced today that it is officially entering the African tech space and Accra will be its headquarters. 

For the Silicon Valley based company, Ghana was chosen ahead of other countries because it is seen: “as a champion for democracy, Ghana is a supporter of free speech, online freedom, and the Open Internet, of which Twitter is also an advocate.”

Ghanaian President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo hailed this move by saying: "The choice of Ghana as HQ for Twitter’s Africa operations is EXCELLENT news. Gov’t and Ghanaians welcome very much this announcement and the confidence reposed in our country."

Nana Addo added that: "this is the start of a beautiful partnership between Twitter and Ghana, which is critical for the dev’t of Ghana’s hugely important tech sector."

However, this exciting news seem to have caught the ire of some Nigerians who think the headquarters should be based in their country. 

Citing their population advantage and their thriving tech industry, it shouldn't have been a difficult decision in choosing Lagos or Abuja as the headquarters. Pulse Ghana

SaharaReporters learnt that the humanitarian workers have life insurance and the agencies would rather pay insurance claims to their families than save them from Boko Haram through ransom negotiations.

A top source added that the Nigerian government, which itself still has several highly priced abductees with Boko Haram, has asked the agencies to secure the release of their workers – although they are Nigerians.

One of them is Garba Idris, a staff member of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, who was abducted on Saturday, January 2 along the Damaturu-Maiduguri Road, in Borno State.

The second humanitarian worker in captivity is yet to be identified.

The insurgents had attacked some commuters near Matari village between Minok to Jakana road on the said day before picking Idris.

The terrorists had also ambushed vehicles conveying commuters near Matari village between Minok to Jakana highway, and the Boko Haram fighters held Idris, aka Alooma, a Senior Protection Assistant with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, during the attack.

A source said the terrorists, clad in military uniform, had placed a roadblock with three Hilux pickup trucks and motorcycles.

“Witnesses said while searching the passengers, Idris attempted to throw away his Identity card but one of the insurgents sighted him. He was then asked to step down from the vehicle along with two others. The rest were allowed to continue the journey.

“The other two passengers were later released on the ground that they are very poor people and of no use”, the source had disclosed.

Unconfirmed reports stated that the terrorists also abducted scores of the passengers on that journey.

Speaking with SaharaReporters on Monday, a top UN official confirmed that two staff members had been with the Boko Haram insurgents but there is no payment of ransom and no negotiation, which are both in line with the standard rules of operation of the organisations.

He said, “They (the Boko Haram) typically don’t release aid workers without collecting ransom which only the government can pay as aid agencies on principle don’t. So they make a spectacle of it by executing and releasing the video.

“So that Damaturu-Maiduguri Road had been closed to all UN staff since November when the situation escalated but the two aid workers abducted were on personal travels when armed fighters stopped their vehicles and identified them during search.

“The government feels they are aid workers and the aid agencies should pay the ransom and not the government. Recall that the International Committee of the Red Cross helped the government to negotiate the Chibok girls’ release. But the government dropped the money.

“So when the ICRC staff members were abducted and the government was asked to step it, they told ICRC to use their connection to free their staff. ICRC didn’t pay and the woman was killed.”  By Sahara Reporters

Tanzania’s new female president is fast gaining a no-nonsense reputation as a tough customer against graft, picking up from where her late predecessor John Pembe Magufuli has left off.

One of Samia Suluhu Hassan’s first major decisions since being sworn into office in March to complete the remainder of Magufuli’s second five-year term has been to wield the axe against those in her government suspected of corruption and the mismanagement of funds in state institutions.

Those who know her personally say her soft-spoken nature belies a tough interior.

In a speech late last month, the 61-year old Suluhu known affectionately as Mama, put this soft-spoken and gentle mien to one side and riled against corruption which in the opinion of many Tanzanians nibbled at the system despite Magufuli’s muscular stance against the practice.

She was receiving a damning report from the Controller and Auditor General’s office fingering draft in the Tanzania Ports Authority.

Soon after heads began to roll as Suluhu true to her words of reining in corruption wielded the axe.

One of the first to fall was TPA senior engineer Deusdedit Kakoko who was incriminated over the gross mismanagement of of the port’s finances.

Suluhu is reportedly very angry that expressed over KSh 160 million of the taxpayers’ money had gone missing from the port’s coffers, apparently unaccounted for.

A day after appointing Thobias Mwesiga as director-general of the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) on April 5th, she revoked his appointment.

Tanzania’s sixth and first female president also took swift action when an audit report on the Tourism ministry covering the 2019/2020 financial year suggested that TSh 34.98 billion allocated to the Tourism Development Levy Fund had been misused.

The director-general of the Tanzania Tourism Board (TTB), Devotha Mdachi has since been suspended, pending further investigations into her alleged role in the missing monies at the agency.

With these moves, perhaps President Samia Suluhu Hassan is already answering questions by observers on whether she was wearing Magufuli’s shoes and looking for new ones.

For all his traits, Magufuli was reputed as a fierce fighter of corruption. One analyst said like her predecessor, East Africa’s first female president “can’t be in the same room with the corrupt.”

If this is anything to go by, those in key positions in Tanzania under her watch may be bracing up for “long, sleepless nights”.

Already she is receiving approbation from the public. Backing her declared war on corruption, Lusho Ayi wrote: “Thumbs up Mama, show them that even a woman can run a corrupt-free nation.”  Suzan O /APA

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