The EconomistFebruary 3rd 2018 Middle East and Africa 4112 tism and mismanagingthe economy. Last
year Atiku Abubakar, a former vice-presi-
dent and serial party-switcher, defected
back to the opposition People’s Democrat-
ic Party (PDP). Other ruling-party bigwigs
are weighing up whether to defect, bide
their time until the next election in 2023, or
challenge Mr Buhari in a primary.
The pivotal figure is Bola Tinubu, a for-
mer governor of Lagos state, whose domi-
nation of politics in Nigeria’s south-west
won Mr Buhari the presidency when they
formed a coalition ahead of the contest in
- Mr Tinubu, no spring chicken at 65, is
thought to want the top job himself.
But Nigeria’s main parties cling to a con-
vention that ensures the presidency ro-
tates between northern and southern poli-
ticians after two terms. If Mr Buhari is
eased out after one term, he should be re-
placed by another northerner. If so Mr Ti-
nubu’s first shot at the presidency would
be in 2023, so people think he would rather
throw in his lot with Mr Buhari than back a
different northern politician who might
want to serve two terms.
Nor is the opposition standing still. Mr
Abubakar has a huge war-chest and he is
formidable on the campaign trail. But his
wealth and party-hopping are viewed
with suspicion. “The greatest asset Buhari
has right now, politically, is the incompe-
tence of the opposition,” says Chris
Ngwodo, an analyst. If the incumbent
wins the backing of Mr Tinubu again, their
electoral machine will be hard to beat. 7Jihadist chick litHow to please your holy warrior
“G
REET your husband with a smile
when he comes and a smile when
he goes.” So says a new magazine aimed
at women in the Middle East. “Don’t
dabble in his work,” it continues, and
certainly don’t hector him. “Can you
imagine all the bloodshed and bones he
sees every day? Your fussingonly in-
creases the pressure.”
The magazine, launched in December,
is called Beituki(“Your Home”). The
publisher isal-Qaeda, which seems fed
up with the way otherjihadists empower
their women. Al-Qaeda’s scribes tell
female members to stay indoors and be
good brides. “Make your house a para-
dise on earth,” it advises. “Prepare the
food your husband loves, prepare his bed
after that and do what he wants.”
The magazine appears, in part, to be a
reaction to IslamicState (IS), which has
called women to the front lines. IShas
trained jihadistas to use weapons and
given women a role in spreading propa-
ganda online. Before the group lost Mo-
sul, waves of female suicide-bombers
threw themselves at Iraqi forces.
“Al-Qaeda fears the conflict has made
women too vocal, active and empow-
ered,” says Elisabeth Kendall of Oxford
University. “It would rather they focused
on etiquette indoors.” Beitukiis crammed
with tips for getting your holy warrior’s
attention. “Stealing is legal,” it teases,
“when you’re stealing your man’s heart.”
Flirt “like a butterfly”, it suggests, and
wear dashing clothes.
Unlike a women’s magazine pub-
lished by the Taliban, Beitukidoes not
feature gun-toting women. Instead it
shows designer homes furnished with
mahogany chairs and neat stacks ofdishes. Love letters from “Um Abdullah”
to her husband, an unnamed jihadist, are
decorated with cherubs’ wings and
hearts. It even runs an agony-aunt col-
umn for frustrated jihadist brides.
In addition, al-Qaeda is rolling out
women’s institutes to spread domesticity.
Its Syrian offshoot, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham,
runs “Daughters of Islam” centres, which
advertise on pink billboards. They have
distributed tensof thousands of black
abayas, or full-bodycoverings.
The history of Islam is full of strong
women. Nusaybah bint Ka’ab fought
alongside the Prophet Muhammad.
Aisha, the Prophet’s favourite wife, rode
to war on a camel. Al-Khansa’a, a 7th-
century poet, claimed to be “the greatest
poet among those with testicles, too”.
That seems a far cry from Beituki’s vision
of women confined to the home. “We-
ren’t you thrilled when your husband
told you he was going to join the jihad fo r
God,” it asks, “even though you knew
that perhaps he might never return?”That and other advice from al-Qaeda’s women’s magazineC
OMPARISONS with dark chapters in
Jewish history tend to elicit the knee-
jerk Israeli response ofasur le’hashvot, the
Hebrew for “you can’t compare”. But a gov-
ernment plan to deport more than 34,000
African migrants to Rwanda is provoking
more hand-wringing than usual, not least
because Israel itself was created by refu-
gees and survivors of the Holocaust.
The government has proposed a plan to
offer financial incentives including the
payment of $3,500 to African migrants
who agree to leave Israel “voluntarily” and
go to Rwanda or Uganda. It said that those
who do not agree to leave may be expelled
by force or imprisoned.
In response activists in Israel are pro-
mising to hide Africans threatened with ex-
pulsion in their homes. They have named
their campaign to provide shelter the
“Anne Frank Home Sanctuary”, after the
Dutch-Jewish girl who hid with her family
from the Nazis in Amsterdam. Opposition
to the plan has also made it onto the air-
waves. A popular television programme
has cut actors’ names from its credits, list-
ing them instead simply as “grandson of a
refugee from Russia” and “granddaughter
of a refugee from Iraq”.
Adding to pressure, a group of Holo-
caust survivors has written an open letter
to Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime
minister, saying: “We who know what it is
to be a refugee, what it is to be without a
home and a state that will protect us from
violence and suffering, cannot understand
how a Jewish government is capable of de-
porting refugees and asylum-seekers to a
journey of suffering, pain and death.”
The governmentobjects strenuously. It
insists thatits deportation policy adheres
to international law, adding that refugees
will not be sent back to war-torn or repres-
sive countries such asSudan and Eritrea. In
any case, it argues, none of the deportees
qualifies for political asylum. But rights
groups say Mr Netanyahu’s government
has obstructed asylum-seekers with red
tape. Of15,000 applications processed, just
12 were approved.
The government has relented a little. It
is reducing the pace and scope of deporta-
tions. Only unmarried men will be ex-
pelled. Hoping to minimise embarrass-
ment, Rwanda, a close friend of Israel, has
also said it will not accept migrants re-
moved against their will. (Israel’s minis-
ters, though, insist thatthe arrangement
with Rwanda still stands).Africans in IsraelLet my people stay
JERUSALEM
A controversial plan to deport African
migrants is dividing Israel