Teachers strike in 19 states across Nigeria

Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) has directed teachers in 19 states of the country to commence an indefinite strike following the refusal of the states to implement an agreement on payment of 27.5 percent Teachers Enhanced Allowance.

The National Executive Council (NEC) of the NUT which met in Asaba, Delta State Thursday, lamented that interventions by critical stakeholders have not yielded the needed result.

A communiqué jointly signed by NUT President Comrade Michael Alogba, Secretary General Obong Obong and National Publicity Secretary Suleiman Gambari said the strike would be indefinite until affected states commence payment.

The states affected are Benue, Cross River, Abia, Ebonyi, Enugu, Ekiti, Osun, Ogun, Oyo, Edo, Nasarawa, Zamfara, Plateau, Taraba, Borno, Kogi, Niger and Sokoto.

The communiqué observed with "dismay and increasing frustration, reluctance and foolhardiness of some state governments to pay the 27.5 percent Teachers Enhance Allowance and in some cases refusal to pay the N18,000 minimum wage discriminately against teachers. "The NEC-in-session therefore called on its state wings where state governments have continued to dishonour the union and higher authorities in the country by refusing to pay 27.5 percent Teachers Enhance Allowance and N18,000 minimum wage to the teachers, to commence a stay-at-home strike with effect from the 1st of June 2013. Where such strike is allowed to take place, such state wings are not allowed to suspend the strike until the demands are met or at the instance of the national headquarters of the union."

Daily Trust

Nollywood actress Omotola Jolade-Ekeinde is in Forbes 100 most influential people in the world

Nollywood actress, Omotola Jolade-Ekeinde, has been named amongst the 100 most influential people in the world, describing the 34 year old as "Africa's most renowned leading lady." The TIME Magazine made the announcement yesterday.

Jolade-Ekeinde was named in the 2013 icons category of the list alongside young Pakistani activist; Malala Yousafzai, US first lady Michelle Obama, Burmese pro-democracy activist; Aung San Sun Kyi, RnB diva; Beyonce, Justin Timberlake and controversial Italian footballer; Mario Balloteli.

LEADERSHIP Columnist, Fethullah Gulen also made the list under the leaders category.

Others in the category are Duchess of Cambridge; Kate Middleton, Chinese tennis champion; Li Na, three times Oscar award winner; Daniel Day-Lewis.

Writing a profile on the actress who recently launched a reality show about her life on M-NET; TIME's movie critic, Richard Corliss, described Omotola as the "Queen of Nollywood."

Fondly called OmoSexy by her fans, she has made 300 or so movies, from the 1996 Mortal Inheritance to the 2010 super production Ijé, shot partly on location in Los Angeles.

Married to an airline pilot she met on a flight from Lagos to Benin, Jalade-Ekeinde brings a juggler's grace to her roles as actress, singer, reality-show star, mother of four and philanthropist (the Omotola Youth Empowerment Programme)" the profile reads.

Corliss said of Omotola's recent claim in an interview that she will never go to Hollywood, saying that "success hasn't spoiled Africa's most renowned leading lady. Rather than going Hollywood, Omotola wants to stay Nollywood."

According to Collins, Nollywood is the world's most productive English-language film industry not Hollywood. "The world's most productive English-language film industry is not Hollywood but Nollywood. The teeming Nigerian cinema grinds out some 2,500 movies a year, mostly direct-to-DVD quickies mixing melodrama, music and an evangelical Christian spin. (Think Bollywood via Tyler Perry.)" he said.

Jolade-Ekeinde is the only Nigerian on this year's list same way President Goodluck Jonathan solely represented Nigerian face in 2012.

Others on the current list selected under different categories include US president Barrack Obama, newly-stalled Pope Francis I, Somalian president Hassan Sheik Mohamud, US Senator Rand Paul, Malawain president Joyce Banda, Jay-Z, Jennifer Lawrence, Joe Biden, Abdullah Ocalan, Aamir Kan, Tadashi Yanai, among several others.

Leadership

Kidnapped French family freed in Nigeria

The French family kidnapped in Cameroon in February have been freed in Nigeria, where they had been taken by members of the Boko Haram Islamist sect, Cameroon's President Paul Biya announced on Friday.

The three adults and four children of the Moulin-Fermier family, who were kidnapped near Cameroon's Waza nature reserve on 19 February, were handed over to Cameroonian authorities overnight, Biya said.

They are in good health, according to reports.

The Nigerian and French governments played an important role in the release, officials have said, without giving more details.

France in February said it would not hold direct talks with the kidnappers and President François Hollande later said that no ransoms would be paid for any French hostages now being held.

Nigeria took the same line.

Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, not far from the Nigerian border, some time after it took place.

Seven other French citizens are being held hostage in the Sahel region and Al Qaida has threatened reprisals against France because of its role in the anti-Islamist offensive in Mali.

Related story: Video - Manhunt in Nigeria for kidnappers of French family

Film exposing corruption in Nigeria's oil sector banned

The Committee to Project Journalists condemns a recent decision by the Nigerian government to ban the exhibition and distribution of a documentary film on corruption in the state's management of oil wealth, "Fuelling Poverty."

In an April 8 ruling reviewed by CPJ, the federal government-run National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) called the contents of the 30-minute film by Ishaya Bako, "highly provocative and likely to incite or encourage public disorder and undermine national security." The board, whose members are all appointed by President Goodluck Jonathan, warned Bako that "all relevant national security agencies are on the alert" to ensure that he does not exhibit or distribute the film.

Bako told CPJ that the board's refusal to grant his application, which he said he filed in November 2012, means no Nigerian cinemas or TV stations are allowed to air the film. He said he is contemplating appealing the board's decision. "I am so disappointed because all the information in the film is actually available on the Internet," Bako said.

"Instead of banning the documentary 'Fuelling Poverty,' authorities should look into the important questions it raises about corruption and impunity in the country's oil sector and at the highest levels of government," said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita from New York. "We urge Nigeria's National Film and Video Censors Board to overturn this censorship order."

Neither Patricia Bala, the NFVCB's acting director-general, nor spokesman Tanko Yunusa Abdullahi responded to CPJ's inquiries on how the board made its determination.

Bako, in partnership with the Open Society for West Africa (OSIWA), premiered the documentary in Nigeria in November 2012. It was screened at the 20th New York African Film Festival this month and has been nominated for Best Documentary at the 2013 African Movie Academy Awards to be held April 20.

Since the ban was issued, activists have been assertively sharing the film on social media, according to news reports. As of today it has more than 43,000 views on YouTube.

The film investigates the siphoning of Nigeria's oil wealth in the context of nationwide anti-government protests that swept the country in January 2012 after fuel subsidies were suspended. Its introduction is narrated by Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka.

The National Film and Video Censors Board censored 4,600 films between 1994 and 2005, and outlawed films with themes involving cannibalism, lesbianism, and indecent, obscene, or explicit sexual scenes, according to a joint report on Nigeria submitted last month by CPJ, PEN Nigeria, PEN International, and the International Publishers Association to the United Nations Human Rights Council. Censorship in Nigeria is administered by the National Film and Video Censors Board, the Nigerian Broadcast Commission, and state censorship boards.

CPJ

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Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote plans to build oil refinery in Nigeria

Africa's richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, plans to invest up to $8 billion to build a Nigerian oil refinery with a capacity of around 400,000 barrels a day by late 2016, the tycoon told Reuters on Tuesday, almost doubling Nigeria's refining capacity.

"This will really help not only Nigeria but sub-Saharan Africa. There has not been a new refinery for a long time in sub-Saharan Africa," Dangote said in a telephone interview.

The country currently has the capacity to produce some 445,000 barrels per day among four refineries, but they operate well below that owing to decades of mismanagement and corruption in Africa's leading energy producer.

Nigeria, the continent's second-biggest economy, relies on subsidized imports for 80 percent of its fuel needs. A surge in domestic capacity would be welcomed by investors in Nigeria, but it would cut into profits made by European refiners and oil traders who would lose part of that lucrative market.

Dangote said the country's ability to import fuel would soon be challenged. "In five years, when our population is over 200 million, we won't have the infrastructure to receive the amount of fuel we use. It has to be done," he said.

Past efforts to build refineries have often been delayed or cancelled, but analysts have said Dangote should be able to build a profitable Nigerian refinery, owing to his past successes in industry and his strong government connections.

The Dangote Group's cement manufacturing, basic food processing and other industries have helped lift his personal fortune to $16.1 billion from $2.1 billion in 2010, according to the latest Forbes estimate.

Nigeria has two refineries in its main Port Harcourt oil hub, one in Warri, and one in Kaduna that serve 170 million people. Not one of them functions at full capacity.

Analysts have said previous attempts to get refineries going have been held back by vested interests such as fuel importers profiting from the status quo. Dangote said this concerned him.

"The people who were supposed to invest in refineries, who understand the market, are benefiting from there being no refineries because of the fuel import business," he said. "Some ... are going to try to ... interfere."

Nigeria's government subsidizes fuel imports to keep pump prices well below the market rate at a cost of billions of dollars a year. Fuel subsidies are the single biggest item on the country's budget.

Dangote said making a new refinery run at a profit would work even if the government failed to scrap the subsidized fuel price that has deterred others from investing.

"We've done our numbers and the numbers are okay."

This Day

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