Leadership

Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame hosted Professor Kingsley Chiedu Moghalu, the President of the African School of Governance (ASG), at Urugwiro Village in Kigali.

The meeting underscored President Kagame’s commitment to fostering transformative governance and leadership across the continent, both as Co-Founder of ASG and as President of Rwanda, Host Country of ASG.

The African School of Governance, unveiled in October 2024 and based in Kigali, aims to equip emerging African leaders with the knowledge and skills necessary to drive the continent’s development. The institution will offer graduate programs in policy, research, governance, leadership, and management, designed to nurture the next generation of visionary African leaders.

President Kagame highlighted the importance of ASG, noting that the institution will “carry the aspirations of the African continent”. The Rwandan leader recalled that ASG was conceived because, although there have been several initiatives to develop the African continent rapidly and there have been some results, the tangible outcomes from these initiatives have been inadequate relative to the pace of change needed.

ASG was founded in the expectation that, through its teaching, research and advocacy, “something convincing, that would change the lives of Africans in reality, will emerge”.

He believed that this missing link lay in a mindset-shift amongst Africans about their identity and confidence in a competitive world coupled with a capacity for effective governance in African countries based on knowledge and skills to turn good intentions into concrete reality on the ground. The ASG’s mission is to provide this missing link.

Professor Moghalu briefed President Kagame on the accreditation process for ASG, now virtually complete and a decision expected shortly, recruitment of faculty and academic support staff, plans for pan-African student recruitment from across all African countries, a planned “Grand Launch” of ASG in January 2025 ahead of the targeted opening of the institution’s doors to full-time and executive Master of Public Administration (MPA) students in September 2025, and resource mobilization plans for the university.

“It is an honor to have had audience with the Rwandan President and Co-founder of African School of Governance H.E Paul Kagame this afternoon. I deeply appreciate his vision and support for the school and his commitment to Africa’s progress and transformation,” said Prof. Moghalu after the meeting with the Rwandan leader, expressing gratitude for President Kagame’s strong support.

The African School of Governance is poised to become a pivotal institution in addressing Africa’s leadership and governance challenges, fostering good governance, and advancing sustainable development.

BM Security has announced the appointment of Michelle Morgan as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective September 2, 2024.

Morgan succeeds Neil Morgan, who has held the CEO position for the past eight years and will transition to the role of Chairman of the Board.

With over seven years of experience in the security services industry, Michelle Morgan previously served as the Executive Director of BM Security, where she oversaw the company’s technology division, BM Systems.

Her leadership was pivotal in advancing the company’s digital transformation initiatives, ensuring that BM Security remains at the forefront of technological innovation in the sector.

In making the announcement, Neil Morgan expressed his enthusiasm for Michelle’s new role, stating, “We are thrilled to have Michelle take on the role of CEO. Her deep understanding of our company’s values, combined with her expertise in technology and innovation, makes her the ideal candidate to lead us forward.”

As he steps into the Chairman role, Neil Morgan will leverage his extensive experience to provide strategic direction and guidance to the Board. His focus on standards, certifications, and capacity development is expected to enhance corporate governance within the organization.

In response to her appointment, Michelle Morgan remarked, “I am honored to be appointed CEO of BM Security. I am excited to build upon the strong foundation that Neil and the team have established and to lead the company into a new era of growth and innovation.”

Before her tenure in the security services industry, Michelle worked as a broadcast journalist for several media outlets, including Citizen TV, Ebru TV, and K24, from 2012 to 2017. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Relations, Advertising, and Applied Communication from Middlesex University in London, United Kingdom.

The Democratic Republic of Congo‘s parliament should reject a draft law that authorities could use to discriminate against Congolese citizens on the basis of their parents’ national origin, Human Rights Watch said today.

The law would exclude from presidential office and senior institutional positions any Congolese with one parent of non-Congolese origin. Consideration of this bill during an election year heightens concerns that the authorities would use the law to prevent specific people from running for office, in violation of international legal protections on democratic participation and non-discrimination. The legislation, known as the Tshiani or “Congolity” bill was first introduced in 2021 but was withdrawn after widespread objections. It is now placed on the agenda of the current ordinary session of the National Assembly, the Congolese’s parliament lower chamber, which may debate it during the three-month ordinary session that began in mid-March 2023.

“Congo’s authorities could easily use the proposed Tshiani law to unlawfully prevent Congolese citizens from running for political office,” said Carine Kaneza Nantulya, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Besides being discriminatory, passage of this law could herald new repression and violence.”

The bill is widely seen as an attempt to sideline Moïse Katumbi, who heads the opposition party Ensemble pour la République (Together for the Republic) and is considered to be one of President Felix Tshisekedi’s potential opponents in the presidential election scheduled for December 2023. Katumbi, a Congolese politician, businessman, and former governor of Katanga province whose father is Greek, announced his candidacy for president in 2022.

In 2016, the Congolese justice minister opened an apparently politically motivated investigation against Katumbi. In 2018, the government of then-President Joseph Kabila barred Katumbi from reentering the country to register his candidacy, effectively denying him his right to run for president. He returned in 2019 after the courts overturned his conviction as part of Tshisekedi’s decision to set up confidence-building measures to reduce political tensions.

A number of foreign diplomats, United Nations officials, Congolese organizations, and prominent individuals have spoken out against the proposed law. There have also been demonstrations across the country, including in the eastern provinces of North-Kivu, Ituri, and Katanga, and the western provinces of Kongo-Central, as well as in Kinshasa, the capital, to oppose the bill.

In an April 5 statement, the organization Voix des Sans Voix (Voice of the Voiceless) said the proposed law would be used to exclude certain people from the political competition and that the parliament should reject it to “avoid political tensions that could lead to human rights violations.” The Association Congolaise pour l’Accès à la Justice (Congolese Association for Access to Justice) said the law “risks generating frustration and possible violence.”

In his April 8 Easter message, Kinshasa’s archbishop, Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, said that “a draft Congolity bill, on the eve of the elections, divides us more than it unites us. We urgently need gestures and laws that bring us together, rather than acts and provisions that set us against each other.”

A delegation of ambassadors, members of the European Union, met with the president of the National Assembly to express their concern about the proposed law.

Bintou Keita, head of the UN peacekeeping mission in Congo, in her address to the UN Human Rights Council in March, expressed concern “about the rise in the political discourse of xenophobic and racist messages that constitute a danger to national cohesion, peace, and security.” She called for an inclusive electoral process and said that no Congolese should be excluded on the basis of their origin, that of their parents, or their spouse.

In January, two government ministers made speeches in an apparent political mobilization video that played into the biases reflected in the draft law. In a clip that went viral on social networks, Hydrocarbons Minister Didier Budimbu said that Congolese should not vote for a candidate whose father and mother are unknown, referring to Katumbi as a “bat.”

Foreign Trade Minister Jean-Lucien Bussa said that anyone born of a foreign father should be considered the “enemy of the Congolese.” Tshisekedi condemned Bussa’s statement but has yet to comment publicly on the proposed nationality law after its reintroduction before the national assembly.

Such statements by government officials, given Congo’s painful colonial history and cycle of abuses and internal conflicts, foster an atmosphere that encourages institutional discrimination. Government officials have a duty to refrain from speech advocating violence, discrimination, or hostility toward any individual or social group, particularly if that speech is used to carry out discriminatory official policy, Human Rights Watch said.

Under both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, treaties to which Congo is a party, everyone is guaranteed equal and effective protection against discrimination based on descent or national or ethnic origin, or other status.  Article 25 of the ICCPR provides that “[e]very citizen shall have the right and the opportunity, without any of the [discriminatory] distinctions … and without unreasonable restrictions: … To take part in the conduct of public affairs … and to be elected at genuine periodic elections.”

“Every Congolese citizen should be able to stand for election without discrimination and fear of intimidation on the basis of their ethnicity or their parent’s nationality,” Kaneza Nantulya said. “The Congolese authorities should take their commitment to democracy and human rights seriously and, as they did in 2021, reject any exclusionary notion of Congolese identity.”