Monday, June 11, 2018
Video - Fears over pay overshadow Nigeria's World Cup campaign
Nigeria kick off their World Cup campaign on Saturday, when they face Croatia in Group D. The players from the West African nation will be hoping to focus on their performances without having to worry about the possibility of not being paid properly. Team officials say they want to avoid a repeat of what happened during the last World Cup in 2014, when Nigerian players refused to train ahead of their match over a pay dispute. They have promised prompt payment of allowances this time, promises that officials failed to keep in the past.
UK to deport gay Nigerian asylum seeker
A Nigerian asylum seeker who fled to Britain to avoid prosecution for being gay is facing deportation after being held for six months in an immigration detention centre.
The threat hanging over Adeniyi Raji, 43, who received death threats on social media, highlights the increasing number of claims to the Home Office by individuals from countries where homosexuality is outlawed.
In Nigeria, homosexual acts are punishable by up to 14 years in prison. Gay marriage and displays of same-sex affection are also outlawed. After Pakistan and Bangladesh, it is the country that produces the largest number of asylum claims based on sexual orientation.
Home Office figures published last year show there were 362 such applications from Nigerians in the 21 months from July 2015 to March 2017. Of those, only 63 were allowed to remain in the UK after a tribunal hearing; the rest, 81%, were refused permission to stay.
Raji fled the city of Lagos and arrived at Heathrow airport in November. He claimed asylum and was immediately detained, being held at Harmondsworth and Tinsley House detention centres. He was recently given bail and released from detention.
“I decided to come to the UK to seek refuge and humanitarian protection [because] my life was in danger in Nigeria,” he told the Guardian.
“I was attacked on several occasions. [My] ex-wife caught me and my former partner in bed. As soon as she saw us, she immediately raised the alarm. People gathered and started beating us severely. After that, she divorced me.”
His employer in Lagos sacked him for being gay. “The Nigerian police started publishing my pictures and my name in the Nigerian national dailies,” he added. “They kept saying that anyone who has useful information that could lead to my arrest should come forward [so that I can] face the wrath of the land as a result of my sexual orientations.”
Threats against him on on social media in Nigeria included comments such as: “I really wish you were killed that very day …”, “You know gay practice is an abomination in our land …”, and “You better stop your gay practice, if not you could get yourself killed in this country”.
A first-tier immigration tribunal has rejected his asylum application. He is appealing against that decision.
Bisi Alimi, a Nigerian-born British citizen who runs a UK-based campaign supporting LGBT rights in his home country, criticised the Home Office’s treatment of gay asylum seekers. “They are often treated as liars. It becomes their responsibility to prove that they are gay and that that will put their lives at risk,” he said.
“In Nigeria, people put a tyre around your neck and burn you, and no one cares; or beat you until you die, and no one cares. The Home Office doesn’t believe in the impact of threats from non-state actors.
“Most of the time it’s difficult to prove [anyone is gay] because they live their private lives in hiding. Most don’t have a life history [of being openly gay]. There’s been an increase in the number of Nigerians seeking asylum in the UK on the basis of their sexuality.”
Raji’s solicitor, Bhaveshri Patel-Chandegra, an immigration specialist at the law firm Duncan Lewis, said: “The court has looked at his case and nullified all his evidence that he is at serious risk if removed to Nigeria but there’s been no evidence that his documents aren’t genuine.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The UK has a proud history of granting asylum to those who need our protection and each claim is carefully considered on its individual merits.
“We have worked closely with organisations and charities, including Stonewall, the UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group, and the UN high commissioner for refugees to improve our guidance and training for asylum caseworkers.”
The threat hanging over Adeniyi Raji, 43, who received death threats on social media, highlights the increasing number of claims to the Home Office by individuals from countries where homosexuality is outlawed.
In Nigeria, homosexual acts are punishable by up to 14 years in prison. Gay marriage and displays of same-sex affection are also outlawed. After Pakistan and Bangladesh, it is the country that produces the largest number of asylum claims based on sexual orientation.
Home Office figures published last year show there were 362 such applications from Nigerians in the 21 months from July 2015 to March 2017. Of those, only 63 were allowed to remain in the UK after a tribunal hearing; the rest, 81%, were refused permission to stay.
Raji fled the city of Lagos and arrived at Heathrow airport in November. He claimed asylum and was immediately detained, being held at Harmondsworth and Tinsley House detention centres. He was recently given bail and released from detention.
“I decided to come to the UK to seek refuge and humanitarian protection [because] my life was in danger in Nigeria,” he told the Guardian.
“I was attacked on several occasions. [My] ex-wife caught me and my former partner in bed. As soon as she saw us, she immediately raised the alarm. People gathered and started beating us severely. After that, she divorced me.”
His employer in Lagos sacked him for being gay. “The Nigerian police started publishing my pictures and my name in the Nigerian national dailies,” he added. “They kept saying that anyone who has useful information that could lead to my arrest should come forward [so that I can] face the wrath of the land as a result of my sexual orientations.”
Threats against him on on social media in Nigeria included comments such as: “I really wish you were killed that very day …”, “You know gay practice is an abomination in our land …”, and “You better stop your gay practice, if not you could get yourself killed in this country”.
A first-tier immigration tribunal has rejected his asylum application. He is appealing against that decision.
Bisi Alimi, a Nigerian-born British citizen who runs a UK-based campaign supporting LGBT rights in his home country, criticised the Home Office’s treatment of gay asylum seekers. “They are often treated as liars. It becomes their responsibility to prove that they are gay and that that will put their lives at risk,” he said.
“In Nigeria, people put a tyre around your neck and burn you, and no one cares; or beat you until you die, and no one cares. The Home Office doesn’t believe in the impact of threats from non-state actors.
“Most of the time it’s difficult to prove [anyone is gay] because they live their private lives in hiding. Most don’t have a life history [of being openly gay]. There’s been an increase in the number of Nigerians seeking asylum in the UK on the basis of their sexuality.”
Raji’s solicitor, Bhaveshri Patel-Chandegra, an immigration specialist at the law firm Duncan Lewis, said: “The court has looked at his case and nullified all his evidence that he is at serious risk if removed to Nigeria but there’s been no evidence that his documents aren’t genuine.”
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The UK has a proud history of granting asylum to those who need our protection and each claim is carefully considered on its individual merits.
“We have worked closely with organisations and charities, including Stonewall, the UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group, and the UN high commissioner for refugees to improve our guidance and training for asylum caseworkers.”
Friday, June 8, 2018
Video - Healthworkers return to work in Nigeria as negotiations with government continue
A Union of Paramedics who led a one and half month long strike to force a pay rise have agreed to resume work while negotiations continue with government. The protest had crippled health care service delivery and escalated fatalities across government hospitals in Nigeria.
Nigeria FIFA ranking drops to 48th ahead of 2018 World Cup
The west African country also dropped to the seventh place in Africa.
Nigeria were on the 47th spot and sixth position respectively in the FIFA rankings and continental football in April and May.
An official statement on FIFA's website on Thursday said the recent flurry of pre-FIFA World Cup friendlies left its mark on the latest rankings.
Nigeria's Super Eagles were beaten 1-0 by the Czech Republic on Wednesday, during a last pre-World Cup friendly played in Austria.
Last Saturday, the team also saw a defeat by the Three Lions of England. The match, played at the Wembley Stadium, ended 2-1.
Nigeria had played a 1-1 draw on home soil against DR Congo on May 28.
Nigeria's World Cup opponents Argentina, Croatia, and Iceland are on fifth, 20th and 22nd positions respectively in the FIFA rankings.
Nigeria will face Croatia on June 16 at the football's greatest showcase.
Thursday, June 7, 2018
The story behind Nigeria's World Cup jersey craze
The kits are a genuine fashion item: there are a couple versions but the favorite features an unripe-lime green in the body with white-and-black sleeves and jagged vertical stripes that are meant to resemble the wings of the team’s mascot, the Super Eagles (but look a little bit like Mario Kart turbo pads). The jersey looks less like a traditional soccer kit than a hyped-up sneaker—particularly the coveted Nike design seen on Acronym’s version of the Vapormax. And the response has been fitting: the jersey has been near-unanimously considered the coolest of this year’s crop ever since it was unveiled in February, and it’s turned from a piece of athletic gear to rarest-provenance streetwear.
Since that February reveal, the jersey’s picked up an alleged three million pre-orders (more on that later), sold out at Supreme box logo speeds, and is now reselling like one of those BOGO tees on the secondary market. Every day ultra-limited sneakers and items from hyped up streetwear brands trade back and forth on secondary platforms like Grailed or StockX, but it’s unusual for a soccer jersey to find its way onto the secondary market. In a World Cup cycle that’s also seen themed releases from Virgil Abloh and Kim Jones, one of the coolest pieces of tournament gear is a regular-degular jersey. How did that happen?
Since that February reveal, the jersey’s picked up an alleged three million pre-orders (more on that later), sold out at Supreme box logo speeds, and is now reselling like one of those BOGO tees on the secondary market. Every day ultra-limited sneakers and items from hyped up streetwear brands trade back and forth on secondary platforms like Grailed or StockX, but it’s unusual for a soccer jersey to find its way onto the secondary market. In a World Cup cycle that’s also seen themed releases from Virgil Abloh and Kim Jones, one of the coolest pieces of tournament gear is a regular-degular jersey. How did that happen?
Great design, to start. But once everyone caught on to the jersey’s appeal—especially in comparison to something like England’s jersey, plain white with a badge on the breast, which was revealed alongside Nigeria’s kit—the shirt was sent through the hype machine. Twitter users were enamored with the jersey and started spreading images of it around, it got picked up on streetwear blogs, and was worn by grime star and stylish man Skepta months before going on sale to the general public.
Then Nike came out and announced that three million people had already bought the jerseys before they were even released. As Quartz notes, analysts were skeptical of those figures since there wasn’t any apparent way to even buy the kits when that was announced—and three million is more than what Manchester United, the most beloved football club in the world, sold in all of 2017. Still, this didn’t stop the internet from going after these jerseys with serious hypebeast passion.
The Nigeria jersey provides a case study in how the streetwear internet works in 2018: cool-looking object gets hyped up endlessly until its coolness is a fact carved into stone. We’ve seen this happen countless times, sure—just not usually with a soccer jersey. But it does feel about time for soccer to have a moment like this. Remember that just a couple years ago Drake Instagrammed himself in a pink jersey from the Italian club Juventus, bumping sales for that particular kit. And soccer has been the inspiration for other designers in the fashion world: Gosha Rubchinskiy collaborated with Adidas on several kits and labels like Versace and Burberry have taken inspiration from the sport in recent collections.
The Nigeria jersey provides a case study in how the streetwear internet works in 2018: cool-looking object gets hyped up endlessly until its coolness is a fact carved into stone. We’ve seen this happen countless times, sure—just not usually with a soccer jersey. But it does feel about time for soccer to have a moment like this. Remember that just a couple years ago Drake Instagrammed himself in a pink jersey from the Italian club Juventus, bumping sales for that particular kit. And soccer has been the inspiration for other designers in the fashion world: Gosha Rubchinskiy collaborated with Adidas on several kits and labels like Versace and Burberry have taken inspiration from the sport in recent collections.
When Abloh released his collection of soccer gear with Nike he noted how the sport had a defined visual identity. “The great thing about the vocabulary and history of football is that aesthetically it has its own look,” he said.
The Nigeria jerseys seem to tap into what designers already knew: soccer is fashion, or at least a sport worthy of being mined for fashion inspiration and turned into luxury soccer scarfs or streetwear-adjacent jerseys. And so why shouldn’t a team have jerseys befitting that status? When the Super Eagles line up against Croatia in Russia next week, they’ll certainly be the best-dressed dudes on the field. And if and when they make their exit from the tournament, they’ll be able to cushion the blow by flipping their jerseys on eBay.
The Nigeria jerseys seem to tap into what designers already knew: soccer is fashion, or at least a sport worthy of being mined for fashion inspiration and turned into luxury soccer scarfs or streetwear-adjacent jerseys. And so why shouldn’t a team have jerseys befitting that status? When the Super Eagles line up against Croatia in Russia next week, they’ll certainly be the best-dressed dudes on the field. And if and when they make their exit from the tournament, they’ll be able to cushion the blow by flipping their jerseys on eBay.
Related stories: Nigeria Super Eagles World Cup kit revealed
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