African press review 19 April 2017

Praying Nigerians tell all about the miracle of prayers as their airliner with blades on fire lands safely. Kenya's ODM party suffers another set back as process to pick its candidates for the August 8 elections ends in chaos.

We begin in Nigeria where footage about a fire on a passenger airliner is causing a buzz in the country. Sahara Reporters publishes a video posted by a Nigerian twitter user, narrating how the domestic passenger plane she boarded on Tuesday was filled with smoke and nearly burst into flames 20 minutes after takeoff from Port Harcourt en route to Lagos.

Punch says it is able to report that one of the aircraft's blades caught fire, and for 35 minutes passengers started chanting prayers while others went screaming.

Another terrified passenger on the plane reportedly "quoted all the verses of the bible she could think of as the plane was moving up and down".Punch says the Aero Contractors aircraft eventually landed safely in Lagos.

Meanwhile, The Tribune relays the excitement of President Muhammadu Buhari at the re-opening of The Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja on Tuesday, and one day ahead of schedule after rehabilitation work on its runway and taxiways that lasted six weeks.

In Kenya, Standard Digital investigates tensions, confusion and anger which it claims have continued to dog the Orange Democratic Movement party primaries, ahead of the August 8 General Elections.

According to the publication, voting had been scheduled to take place across five counties on Tuesday.

But as it reports, the exercise failed to take off in many polling stations due to problems with voter registers, names of aspirants missing on ballot papers and late arrival of election material. Standard says similar hiccups were witnessed in seven other counties last week.

In South Africa where nine political parties seeking the removal of President Jacob Zuma from office are plotting their strategy to secure the parliamentary majority they need to secure the no-confidence motion.

BusinessDay reports that the Economic freedom Fighters party and the Inkatha Freedom Party filed papers on Tuesday in support of the application to the Constitutional Court for a secret ballot in the pending motion of no confidence against Zuma.

According to the economic newspaper, while, the country's highest court has set Friday as a deadline for the submission of all related petitions experts are making a strong case against the secret vote warning that secret votes by members of parliament are no democratic.

The respected South African academic Steven Friedman argues in a column published by BusinessDay that only ‘citizens are entitled to a secret vote because they do not represent anyone and so it is no one else’s business how they vote, unlike lawmakers who must tell their electorate where they stand on issues related to their mandate.

And in South Africa, the Star reviews the ravages of reckless and binge driving in the country during Easter. In the publication's words is to say the least "another Black Easter on South African roads, with at least 33 dead in Gauteng, more than 30 in KwaZulu-Natal and 22 in the Western Cape.

The Star quotes the Road Traffic Management Corporation as saying that it issued nearly 20 000 fines for various traffic offences across the country during the hectic travel weekend.