Africa highlights: Buhari accused of plagiarising Obama, Zimbabwe urges calm over bond notes

1. Buhari uses parts of an Obama speech in one of his addresses
2. Number of refugees from South Sudan passes one million mark
3. Zimbabwe's central banker tries to ease bond note worries
4. Campaign to lower data costs in South Africa gains momentum
5. Tanzanians freed from kidnappers in DR Congo
6. Nambian sprinter wins gold in Rio
7. Get Involved: #BBCAfricaLive WhatsApp: [phone]
8. Email stories and comments to [e-mail] - Friday 16 September 2016

Scroll down for Friday's stories

That's all from the BBC Africa Livepage today. Keep up-to-date with what's happening across the continent by listening to the Africa Today podcast or checking the BBC News website.  

A reminder of today's wise words: 

Coffee and love taste best when hot."

Sent by Kuma Hora Finfinnee in Oromia, Ethiopia

Click here and scroll to the bottom to send us your African proverbs.  

And we leave you with this photo from our top pictures of the week.

It's of supporters of Gabon's opposition leader Jean Ping, who is challenging the recent election results, holding up their hands smeared in white paint as a sign of peace in the capital, Libreville, on Saturday.

AFP

Man who named dog 'Buhari' asks for case to be dismissed

A Nigerian man from the southwest state of Ogun who was charged in connection with naming his dog Buhari, allegedly after President Muhammadu Buhari, has asked the court to dismiss the criminal charges against him, the AFP news agency reports. 

Joachim Iroko's lawyer argued that he had a "legal right" to name his pet whatever he wanted because the name was not exclusive to anyone. 

Mr Iroko was due in court on 19 September. 

A spokesman for the Ogun state police told the AFP that Mr Iroko was "not arrested for naming his dog Buhari but the conduct surrounding the attitude or the actions of the man." 

He reportedly was having issues with his neighbour who took offence because his father is also called Buhari. 

Mr Iroko's lawyer also said that the dog has gone missing, "maybe it is with the police, we still don't know," he said.

How much does mobile data cost?

The hashtag #datamustfall was trending in Johannesburg earlier today as South Africans took to Twitter to comment about the cost of internet access (see earlier post).

We've been crunching the numbers and making comparisons and it turns out that South Africa has some of the cheapest broadband access in the continent:

Figures for 500 MB prepaid mobile data:

• South Africa:  $9/month (1.5% of average income)
• Kenya: $5.70/month (5.9% of average income)
• Nigeria: $12.20/month (5.4% of average income)
• Liberia: $20/month (59% of average income)
• US: $48.90/month (1.1%  of average income) 
• UK: $16.45/month (0.47% of average income)                                                                           

Source: Measuring the Information Society Report, ITU (2015)

AFP

Making furniture for kids, Kenyan style

Kenya's entrepreneur Wanjiru Waweru Waithaka is the founder of FunKidz, a range of furniture for children. 

She says she saw the gap in the market when she was shopping for her son. She felt that the children's furniture on sale was neither safe nor inspiring and thought she could do better.

Being a designer and architect she thought she could take advantage of the gap in the market to produce quality furniture that promoted creative play and learning. 

Ms Waithaka was among women entrepreneurs honoured by US First Lady Michelle Obama at a State of Women Summit dinner in June. 

Watch her story below:

The designer making furniture for kids, Kenyan style

Alain (Ali) Bongo live in Abidjan

Earlier, we reported about the Gabonese president's previous career as a disco performer.

At the moment, President Ali Bongo is fending off accusations that his re-election in last month's vote was rigged, but in the 1970s, then known as Alian Bongo, he was trying to make a name for himself on the music scene.

The Medias Miroir website has dug up this advert from when he was appearing at the upmarket Hotel Ivoire in Ivory Coast's main city, Abidjan:

Médias Miroir

Helping refugees flee South Sudan for the safety of Uganda

Twenty-three-year-old South Sudanese student Betty Asha has told the BBC how she managed to get 2,300 of her compatriots out of the country and to Uganda for safety.

Ms Asha is herself living in Uganda.

BBC

With the help of sponsors from the US she hired four lorries to cross the border and pick people up from the town of Yei, the BBC's Siraj Kalyango reports.

She travelled to the border to coordinate the evacuation, and the people are now living as refugees in Uganda.

BBC

Today, the UN refugee agency said that the number of refugees who have left South Sudan since the civil war began in December 2013 has topped one million.

Since the flare up in fighting in July 143,000 South Sudanese have crossed into Uganda.

Highlighting Uganda's and Africa's arts scene

Patience Atuhaire

BBC Africa, Kampala

BBC

The ninth edition of the Bayimba International Festival of the arts has opened in Uganda's capital, Kampala today.

The festival is the highlight of the Kampala arts scene. It brings together artists from across the continent and beyond. The live music performances provide the biggest attraction. 

Organisers also conduct a talent search in the run up to the festival. 

The festival will run throughout the weekend. 

BBC

BBC

Al-Shabab's Eid celebrations

BBC Monitoring

News from around the globe

The Somali militant group al-Shabab has posted a whole series of photos on their Radio Andalus website about the third day of Eid celebrations in the town of Jilib, in the Juba region of southern Somalia.

They show fighters taking doing acrobatics and taking part in games at the Maalin Adan Hashi parade ground - and a goat all dressed up for the occasion:

Radio Andalus

Radio Andalus

Radio Andalus

Many of the games seem to be comic turns to entertain the crowd, like this one involving a glass being held on someone’s head:

Radio Andalus

Radio Andalus

Nairobi's taxi wars

Kenya's capital, Nairobi, has become a battleground for competing taxi firms that get their business through a smartphone app, the Guardian newspaper reports.

Uber is well known, but there is also Little Cab.

The company is backed by Safaricom, which runs Kenya's biggest mobile phone network, and the successful mobile money service M-Pesa.

The two have been engaged in a price war and Uber slashed its prices recently to compete with Little Cab.

This may have some benefits to the consumer but there is an argument about whether this is the answer to Nairobi's transport problems.

BBC

Readers' reactions to plagiarism accusation against Buhari

We reported earlier that Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari has been accused of plagiarising a speech by US President Barack Obama.

He was launching a behaviour change campaign dubbed "Change begins with me". 

Many people have shared their reaction on our Facebook page:

Is anyone suing Buhari for plagiarism? Please, we don't have money in the country to fund his legal fees. He should just ask for forgiveness and let us move on."

Johnson Uzuegbu

First it was Melania Trump who plagiarised Michelle Obama's speech and now Buhari plagiarises Obama. There must be something special about the couple's diction and the gift of the gab."

John Gicanga

So what's the big deal? Famous lines from great people are used over and over again by others. The message conveyed is the most important thing."

Hon Johnson Bankole Ikusika

I think there are no original thoughts different ways of presenting the same concepts."

Ifak Stamm

AFP

Zimbabwe bank governor urges calm over bond notes plan

The plan by Zimbabwe's central bank is to issue what it calls bond notes to deal with the shortage of dollar cash has been met with skepticism in some quarters.

Zimbabwe dropped its own currency in 2009 after a bout of hyper-inflation.

The central bank says the notes will be backed by a US dollar loan, but critics fear that this opens the way to the government printing its own money and therefore re-igniting inflation.

The Herald newspaper reports that the bank's governor John Mangudya has tried to calm fears by saying that the new bond notes would only come in small 2 and 5 dollar denominations.

"The bank has heard and taken note of the public’s concerns, fear, anxiety and skepticism of bond notes which all boils down to the general lack of trust and confidence within the economy," he said.

In recent months there have been a series of demonstrations against the introduction of bond notes:

AFP

What you need to be a top drone racer

Some are calling drone racing the sport of the future with the drones, or quads, as the racers call them, flying around obstacle courses at up to 160km/h (100mph).

Christian Parkinson has been to meet two of the South African racers taking part in next month's drone world championships to find out what the sport is all about and what skills you need to get to the top.

Drone racing - sport of the future?

British-Nigerian Skepta wins major music award

The musical genre, known as grime, got a boost last night as Skepta won the Mercury, one of Britain's top music awards.

Skepta, whose real name is Joseph Adenuga, was born in London to Nigerian parents.

He got the prize for his album Konnichiwa, and his music tackles issues such as police harassment and anger at British politics.

In his acceptance speech he paid tribute to his parents and, to cheers, you can see his mum do a little dance:

Earlier this year, Skepta helped to build a playground in his dad's home village:

Another top UK grime star is Dylan Kwabena Mills, better known as Dizzee Rascal.

He was born in London to a Nigerian father and Ghanaian mother.

Kenya's mobile-controlled greenhouses

In Africa, despite many slogans and proverbs making references to farming, many young people find big city living more attractive, leading to a wave of urbanisation on the continent.

However, in Kenya, there is a band of young entrepreneurs who believe that when agriculture is paired with high-tech solutions on mobile phones, young people are seeing the benefits of staying in the rural areas to farm.

The BBC’s Lerato Mbele has been finding out more for Africa Business Report.

Kenya's mobile-controlled greenhouses

Buhari accused of plagiarising Obama's speech

AFP

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari is being accused of plagiarising part of a speech he gave while inaugurating a behaviour change campaign dubbed Change Begins With Me, This Day newspaper reports. 

The paper says Mr Buhari used the same words as those used by US President Barack Obama in a speech after winning the election in 2008. 

The report has highlighted this part of Mr Buhari's speech, (watch from 5.50). 

  He says:  

“We must resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship, pettiness and immaturity that have poisoned our country for so long. Let us summon a new spirit of responsibility, spirit of service, of patriotism and sacrifice. Let us all resolve to pitch in and work hard and look after, not only ourselves but one another.”

This is what Mr Obama said in 2008, although the quotes are from different sections of the speech:

Let's resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship, pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long...

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other."

Watch Mr Obama's speech.

One section comes in at 11.49 and then at 12.18: 

Read: Can Buhari get Nigerians to queue again?

The crocodile 'wedding' of the year

John Nene

BBC Africa, Nairobi, Kenya

What's thought to be one of the world's largest crocodiles - known as Big Daddy - is to get married, it's been announced.

He lives at the Mamba Village crocodile farm in the Kenyan city of Mombasa. 

Big Daddy - who weighs more than 1,000kg and is thought to be over 100 years old - has two mates, Salma and Sasha.

BBC

Big Daddy enjoys hanging out with Salma and Sasha

Mamba Village's David Mbatu is helping to organise the wedding.

He says Big Daddy has impressed people with his commitment to the two females, staying with them for 30 years.

The plan is to have flowers for the brides and a raw meat wedding cake, but will there be crocodile tears? 

Hear more from David Mbatu and Maimuna Siraj:

Big Daddy is to wed his two girlfriends of 30 years

Lagos and Heathrow airport bond over leaking roof

It started so innocently: A tweet by Nigerian entrepreneur Tayo Oviosu marveling at the unlikely sight of a bucket collecting water from a leaking roof at London's Heathrow airport. 

But then, the Lagos Airport Twitter account joined the conversation to offer some tips to deal with the leakage, prompting a response from the Heathrow Airport social media team:

The Heathrow team also offered to send some cakes and Lagos Airport hoped they might get something special:

Lagos airport sent a selfie this morning offering to send some sunshine to rainy London:

Lupita Nyong'o finally learns how to cook ugali

Kenya's award winning actor Lupita Ny'ongo, who's featured in the October issue of Vogue magazine, revealed in an interview last year that she didn't know how to cook Kenya's staple maize flour food called ugali.

She was roundly criticised on social media and even given tips of how to make it. 

Vogue shared a short video of the actor spending time with her parents. 

Part of it shows her cooking ugali with the guidance of her mother. 

At the end of the video, having produced the dish, she says: "I am very proud of myself."

Watch the video below. 

South Sudan refugees 'reach one million'

The United Nations says the number of people who have fled South Sudan because of the country's civil war has passed the one million mark. 

The total includes more than 185,000 people who have left the country following fresh fighting that began in July. 

More than 1.6 million people are also displaced within South Sudan. 

Estimates for South Sudan's total population vary between 10 and 12 million. This means that at least more than 20% are homeless as a result of the conflict.

The civil war broke out in December 2013, and continues to this day, despite a peace deal that was signed last year. 

AFP

Gabon's President Bongo's disco history

The big story in Gabon in recent weeks has been the disputed presidential poll result, with defeated opposition candidate Jean Ping challenging the re-election of President Ali Bongo.

But OkayAfrica has highlighted a less talked about aspect of Gabon's head of state.

It points out that in the 1970s he recorded a disco record - A Brand New Man:

It's not clear when his political ambitions overtook his musical ones.

But our colleague James Copnall just let the Africa LIve team know that Mr Bongo has been well known as a rapper on the campaign trail.

Watch the video, he starts rapping at one minute 30 seconds: