Nigeria has highest number of children out of school in the world

Nigeria has the largest number of children in the world who are not being educated, the government has said.

Acknowledging the scale of the problem the education ministry's permanent secretary Adamu Hussaini said it was "sad to note" that Nigeria had 10.5 million children out of school.

This is the first time senior officials have admitted the size of the problem.

Cultural factors have been blamed but critics point to a lack of money going to publicly funded schools.

The UN's children's agency, Unicef, has been campaigning on this issue as well as a number of other groups.

On a visit to the country last week, education activist Malala Yousafzai met acting president Yemi Osinbajo and asked him to declare what she called "an education state of emergency in Nigeria".

Mr Hussaini said those most affected were girls, street children and the children of nomadic groups and added that economic prosperity can only be achieved with an "inclusive and functional education system".

But BBC Hausa editor Jimeh Saleh says the failure in the education system is due to a lack of government funding, rather than any cultural factors as suggested by the ministry.

"Government funded schools in Nigeria have practically collapsed over the years because of poor funding leaving children from poor homes with nowhere to go but the streets," he says.

Unicef estimates that 60% of Nigerian children not attending school live in the north of the country.

BBC

Shell shuts down major oil pipeline in Nigeria

Anglo-Dutch energy giant Shell said Tuesday it has shut down a key crude supply pipeline in Nigeria’s restive south because of a leak.

Shell subsidiary the Shell Petroleum Development Corporation of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC) said the Trans Niger Pipeline (TNP) was shut on July 21 at B-Dere in Ogoniland.

“Efforts are ongoing for a joint investigation visit to determine the cause of the leak and repair of the pipeline,” the company said in a statement. The volume of production shut-in was not disclosed. The TNP feeds the Bonny Light export terminal, which has a production capacity of 225,000 barrels per day of oil. Militants and oil thieves in the region have repeatedly attacked the pipeline. Community unrest forced Shell to quit oil production in Ogoniland in 1993 but the company still runs a network of pipelines criss-crossing the area. 

A spokesman for the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) pressure group said it was not responsible for the latest shutdown. “We are not involved in the incident we only heard about it. Our position however remains that Shell is not welcome on our land,” Fegalo Nsuke told AFP. He called on Shell to address the issues of environmental degradation, neglect, injustice and under-development before considering the resumption of production in Ogoniland. 

“If they want our oil, they have to take care of the people,” he added. MOSOP founder Ken Saro-Wiwa was executed with eight other activists by Nigeria’s then-military government in November 1995 on trumped-up murder charges at a secret trial. Many believed his conviction was politically motivated because of his opposition to Shell’s presence in Ogoniland, where there have been repeated oil spills. In 2015, Shell agreed to pay £55 million ($72 million, 61 million euros) in compensation to more than 15,500 people in Ogoniland and agreed to start a clean-up of two major spills.

Vanguard

Boko Haram ambush oil convoy in Maiduguri, Nigeria

Authorities in northern Nigeria say roughly 10 military personnel have been killed and a similar number of university workers are unaccounted for after Boko Haram extremists attacked their convoy.

The secretary of the Hunters Association in Borno State, Bunu Bukar, says members of the self-defense group saw the bodies of military personnel after the ambush Tuesday.

The military and self-defense group were providing security for oil exploration workers in northern Borno state. Bukar says the convoy had been traveling between Magumeri and Gubio towns.

Nigeria’s military has not immediately commented on the ambush.

Boko Haram’s eight-year insurgency has killed more than 20,000 people and continues to carry out deadly attacks despite the government’s declaration late last year that the extremists had been “crushed.”

AP

5 dead in building collapse in Lagos, Nigeria

A four-story residential building collapsed in Nigeria's largest city and killed at least five people, emergency officials in Lagos said Wednesday.

Authorities said at least 15 people had been rescued from the rubble of the building that collapsed Tuesday afternoon.

Government officials did not immediately say what caused the collapse in a poor neighbourhood of the sprawling city of about 21 million people. Rescue efforts continued overnight and into Wednesday morning.

An Associated Press photographer at the scene saw the body of one adult pulled from the rubble. It was not clear how many people were living in the building.


Hundreds of people gathered at the scene where rescue workers and heavy machinery were sifting through the rubble.

Building collapses are not uncommon in the West African powerhouse where corruption is rampant and infrastructure often poor.

Lagos, Nigeria's commercial hub, is said to be Africa's largest city.

Times Colonist

Video - U.N. says Nigerian government must intensify efforts to free remaining girls

The United Nations has called on Nigeria to intensify its efforts to find and free the remaining girls abducted by Boko Haram. A U.N. panel of experts has been assessing discrimination against women in the West African nation. It's recommended that the government ensure young women are able to return to school without fear of stigma due to their abduction.