Nigeria's main opposition party has called on its MPs to block all legislation including the 2014 budget.
This would remain the case until "the rule of law" was restored in oil-rich Rivers state and "Nigeria in general", the All Progressive Congress said.
The Rivers state governor fell out with President Goodluck Jonathan last year and defected to the APC.
Mr Jonathan's party has lost its majority in the lower chamber of parliament following other defections.
Analysts say the row centres around Mr Jonathan's undeclared intention to contest elections in 2015 for the governing People's Democratic Party (PDP).
Nigeria is one of the world's biggest oil producers, with Rivers state supplying about 40% of all the country's oil, according to business information firm Ngex.
'De facto military governor'
The row between Rivers state Governor Rotimi Amaechi and President Jonathan's supporters has paralysed politics in the state, with the police stopping the local state assembly from meeting in its building.
The APC accuses the state police chief of taking sides and exacerbating tensions - it wants his removal, as demanded by Nigeria's federal House of Representatives last year.
"The culture of lawlessness and impunity" in Rivers was being promoted by the presidency and the state's police chief Joseph Mbu, the APC national executive committee said in a statement.
It went onto describe Mr Mbu as "the de facto military governor of Rivers State and sole administrator of the PDP in the state".
Mr Mbu has denied taking sides in the political dispute.
The APC's call to block legislation will also affect the confirmation of ministers and the security chiefs recently appointed by the president.
MPs returned from recess last week and were due to start considering the budget, which has never been blocked before.
BBC Nigeria analyst Aliyu Tanko says if it is not passed within the next couple of months, it will start to affect government business as there will be no money for salaries and other projects.
The PDP said the APC's directive was "as a clear and direct call for anarchy".
It is the latest crisis to hit Mr Jonathan, whose leadership has recently come in for high-profile criticism from within the PDP, including from former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who called on him not to seek another term in office.
Mr Jonathan moved from the vice-presidency to the presidency in 2010 after his predecessor, Umaru Yar'Adua, died in office.
He won presidential elections the following year.
The PDP has won every national election since the end of military rule in 1999.
BBC
Friday, January 24, 2014
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Mob throws stones at trial of school principal and 6 others accused of homosexuality
There was pandemonium at the Upper Court 4 in Anguwan Jaki, Bauchi State, yesterday, as an angry mob almost lynched seven suspected homosexuals brought to court for trial.
One of the suspects was identified as the Principal of a Government Secondary School in the state.
The development forced security personnel at the court premises to rescue the suspects by firing gunshots in the air and using teargas to disperse the mob.
The suspects are Ibrahim Marafa, Shehu Adamu, Yusuf Adamu, Aliyu Dalhatu, Abdulmalik Tanko, Usman Sabo and Hazif Sabo Abubakar.
The angry mob hurled stones at the van carrying them as it sped dangerously back to prison. A few people sustained injuries in the process.
The suspects faced charges of allegedly engaging in gay activities in Bauchi State, an action that contravenes the Islamic laws which the state is operating.
Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Haruna Mohammed, said the suspects were arrested by the Bauchi State Sharia Commission.
The atmosphere around the court was tense as the suspects came out of the court with the mob reigning abuses and pelting them with stones.
Earlier, inside the rowdy court, counsel to the Sharia Commission, Danlami Ayuba, told the court that one of the suspects was identified as Ibrahim Marafa, the Principal of Government Secondary School, Mainamaji.
When the case was slated for hearing, counsel to the suspect, Abdul Musa, said he was not ready and sought for bail for his client to enable them study the charges. The bail application was rejected by the counsel to the Sharia commission.
The presiding judge, El-Yaqub Aliyu, refused to grant the bail and adjourned the case till Monday to enable the prosecutors present their witness.
Similarly the State Sharia Commission counsel paraded six other suspects. When their case was mentioned, the presiding judge cautioned the Sharia commission’s counsel to ensure that they had proper evidence on the accused persons before arraigning them.
Vanguard
Related stories: Video - Nigeria's anti-gay law denounced
Video - CNN covers anti-gay law in Nigeria
One of the suspects was identified as the Principal of a Government Secondary School in the state.
The development forced security personnel at the court premises to rescue the suspects by firing gunshots in the air and using teargas to disperse the mob.
The suspects are Ibrahim Marafa, Shehu Adamu, Yusuf Adamu, Aliyu Dalhatu, Abdulmalik Tanko, Usman Sabo and Hazif Sabo Abubakar.
The angry mob hurled stones at the van carrying them as it sped dangerously back to prison. A few people sustained injuries in the process.
The suspects faced charges of allegedly engaging in gay activities in Bauchi State, an action that contravenes the Islamic laws which the state is operating.
Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Haruna Mohammed, said the suspects were arrested by the Bauchi State Sharia Commission.
The atmosphere around the court was tense as the suspects came out of the court with the mob reigning abuses and pelting them with stones.
Earlier, inside the rowdy court, counsel to the Sharia Commission, Danlami Ayuba, told the court that one of the suspects was identified as Ibrahim Marafa, the Principal of Government Secondary School, Mainamaji.
When the case was slated for hearing, counsel to the suspect, Abdul Musa, said he was not ready and sought for bail for his client to enable them study the charges. The bail application was rejected by the counsel to the Sharia commission.
The presiding judge, El-Yaqub Aliyu, refused to grant the bail and adjourned the case till Monday to enable the prosecutors present their witness.
Similarly the State Sharia Commission counsel paraded six other suspects. When their case was mentioned, the presiding judge cautioned the Sharia commission’s counsel to ensure that they had proper evidence on the accused persons before arraigning them.
Vanguard
Related stories: Video - Nigeria's anti-gay law denounced
Video - CNN covers anti-gay law in Nigeria
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Eko Atlantic - The Elysium for the super rich of Lagos, Nigeria
Welcome to Eko Atlantic, a city whose "whole purpose", its developers say, is to "arrest the ocean's encroachment." Like many low-lying coastal African countries, Nigeria has been hit hard by a rising sea-level, which has regularly washed away thousands of peoples' homes. To defend against the coastal erosion and flooding, the city is being surrounded by the "Great Wall of Lagos", a sea defence barrier made of 100,000 five-ton concrete blocks. Eko Atlantic will be a "sustainable city, clean and energy efficient with minimal carbon emissions," offer jobs, prosperity and new land for Nigerians, and serve as a bulwark in the fight against the impacts of climate change.
At least that's the official story. Other facts suggest this gleaming city will be a menacing allure to most. In congested Lagos, Africa's largest city, there is little employment and millions work and scavenge in a vast, desperate informal economy. Sixty percent of Nigeria's population – almost 100 of 170 million people – live on less than a dollar a day. Preventable diseases are widespread; electricity and clean water hard to come by. A few kilometres down the Lagos shoreline, Nigerians eke out an existence in the aquatic slum of Makoko, built precariously on stilts over the ocean. Casting them as crime-ridden, the government regularly dismantles such slums, bulldozing homes and evicting thousands. These are hardly the people who will scoop up square footage in Eko Atlantic's pricy new high-rises.
Those behind the project – a pair of politically connected Lebanese brothers who run a financial empire called the Chagoury Group, and a slew of African and international banks – give a picture of who will be catered to. Gilbert Chaougry was a close advisor to the notorious Nigerian dictatorship of the mid 1990s, helping the ultra-corrupt general Sani Abacha as he looted billions from public coffers. Abacha killed hundreds of demonstrators and executed environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who rose to fame protesting the despoiling of the country by Shell and other multinational oil corporations. Thus it's fitting for whom the first 15-story office tower in Eko Atlantic is being built: a British oil and gas trading company. The city proposing to head off environmental devastation will be populated by those most responsible for it in the first place.
The real inspiration for Eko Atlantic comes not from these men but the dreamworlds of rampant capitalism, stoked by a successful, thirty year global campaign to claw back gains in social security and unchain corporations from regulation – what we now know as neoliberalism. In Nigeria, oil wealth plundered by a military elite spawned extreme inequalities and upended the economy. Under the IMF's neoliberal dictates, the situation worsened: education and healthcare were gutted, industries privatized, and farmers ruined by western products dumped on their markets. The World Bank celebrated Nigeria; extreme poverty doubled. The most notorious application of the power of the Nigerian state for the interest of the rich came in 1990: an entire district of Lagos - 300,000 homes – was razed to clear the way for high-end real-estate development.
As elites in Nigeria and elsewhere have embraced such inequality as the very engine of growth, they have revived some of the most extreme forms of colonial segregation and gated leisure. Today, boutiques cannot open fast enough to serve the Nigerian millionaires buying luxury cars and yachts they'll be able to dock in Eko Atlantic's down-town marina. Meanwhile, thousands of people who live in communities along the coast expect the new city will bring displacement, not prosperity, says environmental activist Nnimmo Bassey. To get their way, the developers, backed by industry and politicians, have trampled over the country's environmental assessment process. "Building Eko Atlantic is contrary to anything one would want to do if one took seriously climate change and resource depletion," he says.
The wealthy and powerful may in fact take climate change seriously: not as a demand to modify their behaviour or question the fossil-fuel driven global economy that has made it possible, but as the biggest opportunity yet to realize their dreams of unfettered accumulation and consumption. The disaster capitalists behind Eko Atlantic have seized on climate change to push through pro-corporate plans to build a city of their dreams, an architectural insult to the daily circumstances of ordinary Nigerians. The criminalized poor abandoned outside their walls may once have served as sufficient justification for their flight and fortification – but now they have the very real threat of climate change as well.
Eko Atlantic is where you can begin to see a possible future – a vision of privatized green enclaves for the ultra rich ringed by slums lacking water or electricity, in which a surplus population scramble for depleting resources and shelter to fend off the coming floods and storms. Protected by guards, guns, and an insurmountable gully – real estate prices – the rich will shield themselves from the rising tides of poverty and a sea that is literally rising. A world in which the rich and powerful exploit the global ecological crisis to widen and entrench already extreme inequalities and seal themselves off from its impacts – this is climate apartheid.
Prepare for the elite, like never before, to use climate change to transform neighbourhoods, cities, even entire nations into heavily fortified islands. Already, around the world, from Afghanistan to Arizona, China to Cairo, and in mushrooming mega-cities much like Lagos, those able are moving to areas where they can live better and often more greenly – with better transport and renewable technologies, green buildings and ecological services. In Sao Paulo, Brazil, the super-rich – ferried above the congested city by a fleet of hundreds of helicopters – have disembedded themselves from urban life, attempting to escape from a common fate.
In places like Eko Atlantic the escape, a moral and social secession of the rich from those in their country, will be complete. This essentially utopian drive – to consume rapaciously and endlessly and to reject any semblance of collective impulse and concern – is simply incompatible with human survival. But at the moment when we must confront an economy and ideology pushing the planet's life-support systems to breaking point, this is what the neoliberal imagination offers us: a grotesque monument to the ultra-rich flight from responsibility.
There are, however, alternatives, like one proposed for the Makoko slum, the home of a quarter-million Nigerians – the same number who are intended to inhabit Eko Atlantic. Nigerian architect Kunle Adeyemi has designed what amounts to a counter-point, a floating settlement of which a school has already been built – making it only the second school that Makoko has ever had. The floating structures – made of low-cost wood and buoyed by recycled plastic barrels – have solar panels, sloped roofs to harvest rainwater, and compost toilets to solve dire sanitary needs.
Nnimmo Bassey thinks the floating settlements are just the thing to help the sustainable development of under-served communities across Nigeria's coastlines. "It is a structure that suits the environment, is easy to replicate and appropriate to peoples' lifestyle, and is sensitive to the challenges of sea level rise," he says. "It would help create what we need: communities for people, not gated anti-people communities."
The project is animated by a very different vision: that we must share rather than hoard, reduce inequality rather than increase it, and encourage the resiliency of everyone rather than the escape from the worst for a few. That the needs of the most vulnerable, rather than the desires of the most wealthy, must be the starting point of any effort to truly combat the climate crisis.
The choices before Lagos confront us all. While ours is not the first civilization whose elites have proved spectacularly indifferent to collective, ecological survival, it is up to us whether we will be the last.
Written by Markus Lukacs
The Guardian
Related story: Gilbert Chagoury poised to build city for the elite in Nigeria
Canada denies cancelling President Goodluck Jonathan's visit over anti-gay law
Canadian government has denied cancelling President Goodluck Jonathan’s visit to the country.
Canada through its embassy in Abuja debunked media reports that it cancelled a scheduled visit of the president because he signed the anti-gay law.
In an exclusive interview with our correspondent, the Canadian Counselor in Abuja, Ms. Alexandra Mackenzie said there was no scheduled visit of Jonathan to the country.
Responding to an inquiry from our correspondent, Mackenzie said, “Canada and Nigeria enjoy shared interest in expanding opportunities for economic, social and security cooperation between our two countries.
“No visit is scheduled. However, we look forward to the opportunities of welcoming President Goodluck Jonathan to Canada at a future date.”
Our correspondent, however, gathered that the two countries had for some time been exploring diplomatic channels to arrange a visit for President Jonathan to Canada before he signed the anti-gay law.
A source in government, who confided in our correspondent said, “It is true that the two countries are working towards the visit of President Jonathan to Canada, but the arrangement has not been concluded. You cannot cancel a visit that has not been scheduled. The arrangement is still on but no date has been fixed.”
Jonathan on January 7 assented to the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Bill 2013 which criminalises same-sex relationships in the country.
On January 14 when it became public that the president had signed the bill into law, the Canadian government openly expressed concerns over the law.
In a statement made available to journalists in Abuja by the Canadian embassy, Foreign Affairs Minister, John Baird, said the country would continue to speak against the criminalisation of gay marriage.
“We call on Nigeria to repeal this law and to promote and protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all Nigerians regardless of their sexual orientation,” Baird said.
PUNCH
Canada through its embassy in Abuja debunked media reports that it cancelled a scheduled visit of the president because he signed the anti-gay law.
In an exclusive interview with our correspondent, the Canadian Counselor in Abuja, Ms. Alexandra Mackenzie said there was no scheduled visit of Jonathan to the country.
Responding to an inquiry from our correspondent, Mackenzie said, “Canada and Nigeria enjoy shared interest in expanding opportunities for economic, social and security cooperation between our two countries.
“No visit is scheduled. However, we look forward to the opportunities of welcoming President Goodluck Jonathan to Canada at a future date.”
Our correspondent, however, gathered that the two countries had for some time been exploring diplomatic channels to arrange a visit for President Jonathan to Canada before he signed the anti-gay law.
A source in government, who confided in our correspondent said, “It is true that the two countries are working towards the visit of President Jonathan to Canada, but the arrangement has not been concluded. You cannot cancel a visit that has not been scheduled. The arrangement is still on but no date has been fixed.”
Jonathan on January 7 assented to the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Bill 2013 which criminalises same-sex relationships in the country.
On January 14 when it became public that the president had signed the bill into law, the Canadian government openly expressed concerns over the law.
In a statement made available to journalists in Abuja by the Canadian embassy, Foreign Affairs Minister, John Baird, said the country would continue to speak against the criminalisation of gay marriage.
“We call on Nigeria to repeal this law and to promote and protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all Nigerians regardless of their sexual orientation,” Baird said.
PUNCH
Government to add an additional 1,000 CCTV cameras in Lagos
The Lagos State Government Monday disclosed that it would soon begin the installation of additional 1,000 Close Circuit Television (CCTV), which it said, would help beef up security and crime monitoring in the state.
With the latest development, the number of security cameras, which are in operation across the state would be 2,200, out of which the federal government earlier deployed 1,000 and the state government 1,200.
However, Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN), disclosed the plans to install additional 1,000 CCTV at the public security system demonstration at the Lagos State Security Command and Control Centre, Alausa.
The governor, who witnessed the security system demonstration with some media executives, said the state government would expand existing camera and telephony infrastructure to support the deployment of the additional cameras to effectively cover the entire state to make it safe and secure.
Fashola, therefore, expressed optimism that with all these security equipments being put in place, there “will be no hiding place for criminals in the state anymore. Since 2008, my administration has demonstrated its resolve to do something about the poor state of security in the state.”
He explained that the state was now in a position where it had one camera “to cover about 10 square kilometres, noting that there is still room for improvement. Despite the equipment, there is no assurance that there would not be crime in the state as even in well developed countries.”
He acknowledged that there “will still be crime. With the equipment, it has made the job of identification easier. Providing security is the primary assignment of government and that government would not shirk from its responsibility.”
Speaking earlier at the forum, the state’s Commissioner for Science and Technology, Mr. Adebiyi Mabadeje, said the state government had concluded plans to purchase 10, 000 additional handsets for use by operatives of the Nigeria Police, Rapid Response Squad (RRS), Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LATMAS), Lagos State Ambulance Service and Lagos State Fire Service among others.
He said security equipment already deployed “to the state include 1,000 plus surveillance cameras, 66 base-stations on CDMA technology, microwave links, normal telephony capacity, network with 3G data capabilities, existing camera while telephony infrastructure has the capacity to carry 100,000 subscribers.”
He added that the cameras had been deployed in critical locations, such as Ikorodu Road, Oshodi, Agege Motor Road, Festac, among others, adding that 2,000 handsets had been deployed to members of the police and RRS.
He said video conferencing had been deployed by the state government “to enable quick decision making among security operatives.
The state government had taken ownership of the infrastructure in addition to the pool of surveillance cameras. The state government fueled all 66 base-stations and maintained the stations and the 1,200 security cameras.
“The state government has built a video wall for live feeds for effective monitoring of the cameras. Lagos State Government is in the process of purchasing a Video Analytics Solution for effective surveillance of areas covered by the cameras.”
This Day
With the latest development, the number of security cameras, which are in operation across the state would be 2,200, out of which the federal government earlier deployed 1,000 and the state government 1,200.
However, Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN), disclosed the plans to install additional 1,000 CCTV at the public security system demonstration at the Lagos State Security Command and Control Centre, Alausa.
The governor, who witnessed the security system demonstration with some media executives, said the state government would expand existing camera and telephony infrastructure to support the deployment of the additional cameras to effectively cover the entire state to make it safe and secure.
Fashola, therefore, expressed optimism that with all these security equipments being put in place, there “will be no hiding place for criminals in the state anymore. Since 2008, my administration has demonstrated its resolve to do something about the poor state of security in the state.”
He explained that the state was now in a position where it had one camera “to cover about 10 square kilometres, noting that there is still room for improvement. Despite the equipment, there is no assurance that there would not be crime in the state as even in well developed countries.”
He acknowledged that there “will still be crime. With the equipment, it has made the job of identification easier. Providing security is the primary assignment of government and that government would not shirk from its responsibility.”
Speaking earlier at the forum, the state’s Commissioner for Science and Technology, Mr. Adebiyi Mabadeje, said the state government had concluded plans to purchase 10, 000 additional handsets for use by operatives of the Nigeria Police, Rapid Response Squad (RRS), Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LATMAS), Lagos State Ambulance Service and Lagos State Fire Service among others.
He said security equipment already deployed “to the state include 1,000 plus surveillance cameras, 66 base-stations on CDMA technology, microwave links, normal telephony capacity, network with 3G data capabilities, existing camera while telephony infrastructure has the capacity to carry 100,000 subscribers.”
He added that the cameras had been deployed in critical locations, such as Ikorodu Road, Oshodi, Agege Motor Road, Festac, among others, adding that 2,000 handsets had been deployed to members of the police and RRS.
He said video conferencing had been deployed by the state government “to enable quick decision making among security operatives.
The state government had taken ownership of the infrastructure in addition to the pool of surveillance cameras. The state government fueled all 66 base-stations and maintained the stations and the 1,200 security cameras.
“The state government has built a video wall for live feeds for effective monitoring of the cameras. Lagos State Government is in the process of purchasing a Video Analytics Solution for effective surveillance of areas covered by the cameras.”
This Day
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