Palaver

Immediate former Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade doesn’t deserve credit for accepting, albeit grudgingly, to hand over power to Mr Macky Sally. He simply saved his skin and embarrassment. Well, the writings were on the wall, literally. Across in Libya, he knew what happened to King of Kings, Muammar Gaddafi. He would not have liked to be smoked from a hole the Laurent Gbagbo way in Ivory Coast or even arraigned in the courtroom in a cage the Hosni Mubarak style. The likes of Robert Mugabe and Yoweri Museveni should read the signs of times too.

Those clamouring for the overhaul of the 8-4-4 system of education — mostly civil society and some grey-haired individuals whose encounter with the system are probably their grandchildren — are a perfect example of the outsiders who wept louder than the bereaved. The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) is against the move and so are the head teachers associations for primary and secondary schools. The universities are virtually silent. Reforms anthem could be the fad but becomes a folly if it is reform for its own sake.