Senior Nigerian officials stole billions of dollars including 2.1 billion dollars appropriated to buy weapons to fight against Islamist group, Boko Haram.

According to Nigerian finance minister Lai Mohammed, the money meant to curb the six-year Islamic uprising in which 20,000 people have been killed, was instead diverted to funding former president Goodluck Jonathan’s election campaign.

Mohammed said overall the thieves, about 55 in number and among them former governors, Cabinet ministers and government workers, stole $9 billion dollars from Nigeria’s treasury.

Mohammed made the allegations as he kicked off a ‘national sensitization campaign’, appealing to Nigerians to join the fight against corruption that is crippling what should be a rich nation with Africa’s biggest economy, population and oil production.

He said the looted 1.35 trillion Nigerian naira, stolen between 2006 and 2013, could have built 36 hospitals or educated 4,000 children through university. At the time the naira stood at about 150 to the dollar, half today’s value. Mohammed did not identify the 55 accused but said bankers and businessmen are among them.

Jonathan lost March 2014 elections to former military dictator Muhammadu Buhari, who has promised to halt corruption and the insurgency.

Buhari said Monday that a multinational force has driven Boko Haram into “fall-back positions” and uprooted them from all territory they held.

Mohammed denied that the war against corruption was a vendetta against the opposition. He said, “If we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria.”

Nigeria’s judiciary is critical to the fight, he said. Three different courts have granted bail to Jonathan’s former national security adviser, Sambo Dasuki, who is accused of being instrumental in the theft of the $2.1 billion and has said he diverted the money on Jonathan’s orders. But Buhari has said he will not allow Dasuki out of detention.

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In a marked departure from many of his colleagues across the African continent, President Macky Sall of Senegal is seeking to have the term of office in his country reduced from seven to five years, with a maximum two-five-year mandate.

The change is part of several proposals for constitutional reforms which are to be put to a referendum and according to the president’s office, the move is aimed at strengthening democracy.

Several African presidents have over time changed constitutions to extend their time in power.

The new constitution would not allow a president to run for more than two consecutive terms in office.

According to media reports, after reducing his term in office, Mr Sall is then expected to put himself forward for re-election in 2017 instead of 2019.

Other suggested amendments to the constitution include an upper age limit of 75 years.

The date of the referendum is yet to be announced.

Mr Sall, 54, was elected in 2012, defeating Abdoulaye Wade, who had controversially sought a third term in office.

Term limit debate flares across Africa:

• Rwanda held a referendum in December which voted overwhelmingly for the country’s current leader, Paul Kagame, to seek a third term and potentially stay in power until 2034.
• In October, a similar referendum has already made it legal for Denis Sassou Nguesso, in Congo-Brazzaville, to run again in 2016. He has been in power for 31 years. Protests against the constitution change were brutally repressed.
• Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power for nearly 30 years, is seeking re-election this month. Term limits were scrapped in 2005.
• Burundi has been engulfed in months of protests since President Pierre Nkurunziza announced last April he would run for a third term. Hundreds have died, there has been an attempted coup and a rebel movement has formed.
• Elections are due in DR Congo this year but they may be postponed, enabling President Joseph Kabila to remain in office.

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In yet another surprising move, Tanzanian President John Magufuli has banned mini skirts, media reports, indicate.

Following his sweeping victory last October, Magufuli has become an international hero due to cost-cutting measures introduced across the country.

Now, Magufuli has surprised the public once again, by banning mini skirts across Tanzania.

The move comes just a few months after the country banned ‘twerking’.

The provocative dance was banned following an announcement by Cultural Development Director Herman Mwansoko, who disclosed that twerking supposedly threatened original dances and impacted negatively on the new generation.

Magufuli seems to have followed in much the same vein, announcing that mini skirts and short dresses encourage the spread of HIV/Aids.

Tanzanian women have since been given three weeks to rid their wardrobes of the “offending” garments.

In an almost similar move, in the 1970s Ugandan dictator Idi Amin banned miniskirts and other offensive wear.

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Police in Koboko are holding an unidentified South Sudan national on charges of gun trafficking.

Earlier in the week, a group of three South Sudan nationals  were intercepted by authorities in the West Nile district of Koboko along the Uganda-DRC border, while in possession of guns believed to have been smuggled into the country, with intent to sell them on ‘black market’.

Addressing the press earlier today, police spokesperson Mr Fred Enanga said that the three accessed Uganda through unguarded border points, and that one had been shot, while his two colleagues escaped.

“We are watching his health condition in hospital and when he is fine, he will help us establish whether their business of gun trafficking has just started or they have been doing it for some time,” Mr Enanga said adding, “we also want to know to whom  these men were selling the guns.”

According to Mr Enanga, two SMG rifles and a pistol were recovered from the suspects.

Last year, police embarked on the task of recovering guns possessed by civilians illegally, an undertaking they have taken into the New Year.

“The police flying squad last week managed to recover guns in the districts of Rakai, Rukunjiri and in the West Nile,” Mr Enanga said adding that a four guns and 612 rounds of ammunition have been recovered in police operations in the last one week. Five suspects have also been arrested.

Many of the guns have been stolen from policemen and private guards who are either killed first of beaten by thugs who later make off with their guns.

Last week a total of four policemen were attacked and their guns stolen, and one officer, Muzamir Masaba lost his life.

And, in a related development police today announced measures on how to protect the lives of their officers.

“All area commanders are to see to it that the lives of these officers are protected by ensuring that they are dropped to their respective work stations daily and picked up after duty, routine patrols to check on the officers have also been put in place,” Mr Enanga said.

Police also called upon its officers to attach strict importance to the issue of self defence which includes using weapons and weaponless skills in order to save their lives.

In another development, police has started recruitment of 36000 special police constables to help in next month’s polls.

According to Mr Enanga, these will be deployed for a maximum of two months after which they will return to their civilian duties.

Interestingly, this comes during the time when sections of the public are piling pressure on police to disband the newly recruited crime preventers, on accusations of ‘being unprofessional’.

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