DefenceWeb - Following are five big themes or events likely to make waves in emerging and frontier sub-Saharan Africa during 2012:
NIGERIAN ECONOMIC REFORMS
- Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan opened 2012 with a bold statement of intent, scrapping popular but hugely wasteful fuel subsidies as the first step in a long-awaited push to reform the economy of Africa's most populous nation.
The unexpectedly harsh move, which at a stroke doubled the price of fuel in the continent's biggest crude exporter, drew condemnation from unions and opposition politicians and sparked protests in the commercial capital, Lagos, Reuters reports.
Whether those demonstrations snowball into a significant challenge to Jonathan's authority will be crucial in determining the future of his wider reform push -- most notably a shake-up of the woefully inept power sector.
The subsidies' removal has the backing of Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and central bank governor Lamido Sanusi, who viewed them as a drain on the public purse that merely encouraged waste and shoved billions of dollars of government cash to a cartel of wealthy fuel importers.
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