Zambia: Corruption index highlights perceptions

Nigeria : Bauchi governor softens on stoning sentences More News

LAGOS, 19 December (IRIN) - The governor of Nigeria's northern Bauchi State on Wednesday directed Islamic court judges not to press charges of adultery against divorced women who become pregnant unless their former husbands complained. Under the controversial Islamic or Shari'ah legal system introduced by the state along with 11 others in Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north, divorcees convicted of adultery face death by stoning.

But governor Adamu Mu'azu said on state radio a divorced woman who is pregnant within five years of separating from her husband could be bearing his child according to the Shari'ah code. For this reason he said it was for the man to file a complaint if he thought the woman had committed adultery.

At least five people, including three women and two men have been sentenced to death by stoning under Shari'ah law in different parts of northern Nigeria since 12 states adopted the strict version of the law in the past two years. None of the sentences has been carried out. President Olusegun Obasanjo's government has declared them unconstitutional and pledged not to allow their execution. Safiya Husseini, a 35-year-old divorced mother, who was the first to receive the stoning sentence, was acquitted by an appeal court in Sokoto State on 19 March.

Another woman, Amina Lawal, who was given the death sentence in Katsina State same day Husseini was acquitted, saw her verdict upheld by a higher court in August. This drew outrage from local human rights groups and the international community. Two former lovers, a man and a woman, are also going through the appeal process in Niger State after getting the maximum sentence for adultery. A 54-year-old man in Jigawa State is also facing a similar sentence on a charge of raping a nine-year-old girl.

The application of Islamic law in Nigeria's largely Muslim north has heightened tension with southern non-Muslims, mainly Christians and a minority followers of traditional faiths. Thousands of people have died in Africa's most populous country of 120 million people in ethno-religious violence linked to the advent of strict Shari'ah in the past three years. -keralamonitor.com

Zambia: Corruption index highlights perceptions

JOHANNESBURG, 19 December (IRIN) - A report by Transparency International Zambia has highlighted public perceptions about corruption in the country, but its veracity has been questioned. Transparency International Zambia executive director Christine Munalula told IRIN: "We wanted the perceptions of the general public on the prevalence of corruption in institutions they have daily dealings with: the police, schools, local courts, passport office etc.

"Our government has committed itself to fighting corruption, we wanted to use it [the survey] to monitor whether corruption is [perceived to be] getting better or worse." Hospitals and clinics, the Lusaka city council, Zambia Revenue Authority and the customs office were all perceived to have a high level of corruption. The public also did not believe that corruption levels had lessened, she added. French news agency AFP reported that Zambian police had reacted sharply to the report, dismissing it as biased.

"They [Transparency] already formed that opinion even before the survey was commissioned," AFP quoted police spokeswoman Brenda Muntemba as saying. Munalula, however, has defended the report. "It gives an indication to the relevant departments as to how the public perceives them so they can respond and develop strategies to change that perception.

"The police have reacted very strongly over being the ones identified as most corrupt but the purpose [of the survey] was not to embarrass them but to give them an indication of how the community perceives them. If the population they are serving sees them as corrupt they should investigate strategies of changing that perception," she noted. Financial institutions such as commercial banks, "ranked very low" in the survey, Munalula added.

"Older and less educated people are, in most cases, the most vulnerable victims of corruption," the report said. While petty corruption was most commonly manifested in "getting school places, pension payments ... and at [police] roadblocks".

The report noted also that "in general, most respondents believe individuals enter politics not to serve the country but to fulfil their own personal agendas, such as self-enrichment". The full report will soon be available on the internet at:
http://www.transparency.org/ keralamonitor.com