Is this Nigerian teen the next women's golf prodigy?

A single moment can change the trajectory of our lives. For Nigerian Iyeneobong "Iyene" Essien, that moment came when she was just five years old. She remembers the day her dad took her to a golf course in Abuja, where she saw a boy teeing off. Intrigued by the sight, she asked her dad if she could pursue the sport.

"(My father) was pretty surprised by my question," she said. "He asked me if I really wanted to play this sport and I said, 'yes,' and he got me a coach and I started playing golf."
The rest was history.
Essien entered her first competition the same year and proved to be a natural, placing first in her age group. "I found that really cool," she said.


By age 11, the golfer was representing Nigeria at international competitions across the US, UK, and Africa including Morocco, Botswana, and South Africa. Now 16, she is the No.1 ranked junior girls' golfer in Nigeria and has won more than a dozen trophies after placing in various competitions.

"I'm really proud of representing my country because I'm making a name for myself and for my country," she said.

In late July, Essien clinched second place in the Under 19 Girls division at the Champion of Champions World Championship in Northern Ireland. "It was a really good experience for me," she said. Finishing five strokes behind first, Essein says she is proud of how she played.

"Everything happens for a reason -- even though you come second or third, it means that you're getting closer and closer to first," she said, noting the experience of playing on a world-renowned course was a win in itself. "The fact that I could play on the same course as Rory Mcllroy played on and be in the same vicinity of all that history was really very important to me."

As she continues to make a name for herself and her country, Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari is taking notice. Following the tournament, the president's adviser released a statement saying Buhari, "joins all Nigerians in celebrating this great teenager who is doing so much for the country."
"It was really unexpected, and I appreciate it," Essien told CNN in response.

Following her dreams

 
Time and time again, Essien has proven she isn't afraid of a challenge. While she often finds herself competing against older players, she says it actually "gives me even more motivation just to do better."
She says her positivity and drive is inspired by one of her greatest role models, Tiger Woods.
"He has shown a lot of resilience in the game," she said, noting his efforts to push through a series of injuries and career setbacks. "He just keeps playing golf and he really loves the sport, even though he's not winning."

Essien is not the first Nigerian golfer to have to look elsewhere for role models. Georgia Ohoh, the first Nigerian to play in the Ladies European Tour, previously told CNN she had to turn to tennis to find inspirational athletes.

That's in part because golf is far from the most popular sport in Nigeria. According to the Nigerian Golf Federation, there are only 58 courses in the country. In 2012, it was estimated there were only about 200,000 golfers out of a population of than 200 million people (by comparison, more than 25 million Americans played golf that same year).

Essien says the absence of a more established golfing program has been challenging, particularly when it comes to financing.

She says her family has been "instrumental" in funding her career, but it's been a "struggle" and believes, "if I had a huge pot to work with, I would have done more competitions over the years than I did and won more trophies."

Wanting to pursue more opportunities, Essien, who was born in the state of New York but raised in Nigeria, moved back to the US in 2021 to enroll in the Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut.

"The competition is high (in the US)," Essien said. On an average day, the teenager says she typically practices for three hours after class, and it can be difficult to navigate the delicate dance between pursuing a professional career and being an "average" teen.

"Sometimes I actually really want to go hang out my friends and just relax and be a teenager basically. But there are also priorities. I have to remember that if I want to be in a higher place in golf or in school then I have to put in the time in the work," she said.

Inspiring the next generation

 
In addition to becoming a golf pro, Essien wants to pursue a degree in engineering with a specialization in artificial intelligence.

"I hope to get a golf scholarship to a (top) university... and if it becomes possible, I hope to play in the LPGA," she said.

With a budding career ahead, she also hopes to pave the way for other Nigerians for follow in her footsteps.

"I hope my achievements and where I am right now in golf can actually motivate Nigerians who want to play golf," she said, leaving aspiring golfers with this piece of advice: "work hard and keep a good mentality because everything happens for a reason and in due time, everything will go your way." 

By Jackie Prager 

CNN

Nigeria's Buhari worried over large scale crude oil theft

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari expressed concern on Friday over large-scale crude oil theft, saying it was affecting the country's revenues "enormously".

Nigeria lost $1 billion in revenue during the first quarter of this year due to crude theft, the oil regulator has said.

Nigeria is unable to meet some of its financial obligations to its citizens due to the oil theft, Buhari told government workers who are requesting a pay increase to help deal with double-digit inflation.

"On your request for a salary review, I wish to urge you to appreciate the revenue constraints being presently faced by government which is caused mainly by the activities of unscrupulous citizens through the theft of our crude oil, a major contributor to our revenue base," Buhari said.

Crude theft poses an existential threat to Nigeria's oil industry, the local head of Shell (SHEL.L) has said, resulting in the shutdown of two of its major pipelines.

Nigeria is currently battling to stabilise its ailing currency , to curb surging inflation and boost growth after the economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Annual inflation (NGCPIY=ECI) in Nigeria hit a 17-year high in July, data showed on Monday. read more

Buhari also blamed the war in Ukraine for the rise in global food prices and high transportation costs for goods and services.

He instructed security agencies to speedily clamp down on those involved in oil theft in the Niger Delta, adding that Nigeria was also strengthening cooperation with its neighbours to stop criminals syphoning away stolen crude by sea.

"We will not allow a few criminals to have unfettered access to the nation's oil supply," Buhari said. 

By Felix Onuah

Reuters

Related story: Nigeria loses 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day to theft, says FG

Gunmen in Nigeria kidnap four Catholic nuns on highway

Gunmen abducted four Catholic nuns on a highway in Nigeria's oil-producing Imo state in the southeast, a local convent said on Monday, in the latest sign of widespread insecurity making road travel unsafe.

Armed gangs have been kidnapping people, including priests, for ransom from villages and on highways mainly in the northwest and the practice has spread to other parts of the country, increasing insecurity in Africa's most populous nation.

Zita Ihedoro, secretary general of Sisters of Jesus, the Saviour Generalate, said the four were abducted while travelling from Rivers state to Imo for a thanksgiving mass on Sunday.

"We implore for intense prayer for their quick and safe release," Ihedoro said in a statement.

In the northwest, Nigeria's military has started an air offensive to eliminate the armed groups responsible for kidnapping citizens from villages and towns in the region.

Reuters

Related story: Video - Is Nigeria's security crisis out of control?

 

The deadly virus Nigerians fear more than COVID-19: Lassa fever

The moment Victory Ovuoreoyen heard he had Lassa virus, he thought it was the end. The tradesman could barely walk and feared for his life when admitted to the Federal Medical Centre in the city of Owo in southwestern Nigeria. He ran a fever, was vomiting and had severe diarrhoea.

But after four days in an isolation ward, the emaciated patient can now sit upright on his hospital cot, one of the few patients in the infirmary strong enough to speak. “Before I fell ill, I could not count my bones like this. I lost so much weight,” he says, pointing at his clavicles clearly showing under his loose mustard-coloured shirt.

Doctors have assured the 48-year-old man that he will recover from the illness, an acute haemorrhagic disease similar to Ebola. He is lucky. Although 80 percent of those infected do not get very ill from the virus and most cases go undiagnosed, the death rate among those who end up in hospital is 15 percent, according to the World Health Organization. With an incubation period of between two and 21 days, severe symptoms can start showing a week into the illness. By then it could be too late.

Lassa fever lowers the platelet count in the blood and its ability to clot, causing internal bleeding. Fatal organ failure can follow within days.

Early symptoms include head and muscle aches, sore throat, nausea and fever. Initially, they are indistinguishable from the symptoms of malaria, a common disease in the region. The laboratory of this hospital in Owo is the only one in the state that performs the Lassa diagnostic blood tests and the results are only available after two days. This combination of factors often leads to Lassa being discovered at a late stage, which makes it harder to treat.

Owo, an agricultural market centre 300 kilometres (186 miles) from the Nigerian capital Abuja, is the epicentre of the Lassa outbreak that began early this year, causing more than 160 deaths. At its height in March, the 38 beds in the isolation ward did not suffice and 10 more cots were added for suspected cases. In this part of Nigeria, people fear the Lassa virus far more than the coronavirus. With good reason: Ondo, the state where Owo is located, has since 2020 recorded 171 deaths caused by Lassa, versus 85 from COVID-19, according to the Infection Control and Research Centre at the hospital.
 

‘It is so contagious’

Head nurse Josephine Funmilola Alabi checks the intravenous drip that administers Ovuoreoyen’s antiviral medication and treats dehydration, an issue severely ill Lassa fever patients must battle. Alabi is dressed in a white hazmat suit, surgical cap, face mask and face shield. Only dressed like this may she enter the “red zone”, as the isolation ward for highly contagious patients is called. She also wears disinfected rubber boots and two pairs of surgical gloves. Not a millimetre of her skin is left uncovered. “We take this virus very seriously. It is so contagious that we are only allowed to enter the ward with full PPE,” Alabi says, referring to the personal protective equipment that medical personnel caring for patients with highly infectious diseases wear. Four of the Lassa deaths in Nigeria this year were of medical workers.

Despite its widespread presence in West Africa, the disease remains little known in much of the world. The virus was discovered in 1969 in the northern Nigerian town of Lassa, about 1,000km (621 miles) from Owo. Since then, it has become endemic in at least five countries in West Africa. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, registers the highest number of cases, up to 1,000 a year. This year, in January alone, Nigeria recorded 211 confirmed cases, of which 40 patients died.

Lassa fever infects an estimated 100,000 to 300,000 Africans each year, of which thousands die, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Infected people can infect others through bodily fluids. The fever often causes miscarriages and can be passed from mothers to babies. It can remain in breast milk for up to six months. Like other viruses causing haemorrhagic fevers that have no cure and are easy to reproduce, scientists have warned that the Lassa virus could be used as a biological weapon.
 

‘Diseases don’t have boundaries’

The fever tends to strike in impoverished rural areas and food contaminated with rat droppings or urine is often the source of infection. Roasted game, known locally as bushmeat, can also be tainted if the slaughtered animal has been in contact with the rodents. The rats often enter people’s houses in search of something to eat when the rains stop. That is why Lassa fever typically peaks in Nigeria’s dry season, from November to April, although cases persist all year round.

It is not spreading over the world as rapidly as COVID-19 did, says clinical microbiologist Adebola Olayinka. But she warns that this may change. She is an expert in infectious hazardous diseases and coordinates Lassa fever research for the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control. “Look at the story of Ebola,” she says. “This existed in the Democratic Republic of Congo for decades, but in 2014 very quickly reached West Africa and then England and the US.”

No proven drugs or vaccines protect against Lassa fever, Olayinka says. Currently, the only pharmaceutical used against Lassa fever is ribavirin, an antiviral drug commonly used to treat Hepatitis C. But its effectiveness against the Lassa virus has not been thoroughly researched, and pre-clinical studies and expensive clinical trials are needed to prove the efficacy of the drug. She believes the lack of research into Lassa is because the virus rarely appears in the West.

“Look at the speed with which the COVID vaccine has been developed,” she says. “But if an infectious disease doesn’t affect the wealthy, it won’t get the same amount of attention.” A year after the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020 the Access to Medicine Index compiled an inventory of the research and development efforts of the 20 largest pharmaceutical companies. It counted 63 projects concerning coronaviruses, five covering Ebola and zero for haemorrhagic viruses spread by rodents like Lassa, mostly found in Africa and Latin America.

Yet the West is not invulnerable to Lassa. Earlier this year, a couple in England was diagnosed with the disease. The husband contracted it during a visit to Mali and then infected his pregnant wife. Their premature baby died of the virus in a Bedfordshire hospital. “The West needs to realise that a disease anywhere could be a disease everywhere,” warns Olayinka. “Diseases don’t have boundaries.”
 

‘They caught it on time’

In Owo, head nurse Alabi continues her rounds. On this particular day in April, 20 of the 38 beds are filled. This is the only treatment centre for Lassa fever in Ondo, a state half the size of Belgium with about 3.5 million inhabitants. A month earlier the ward was filled to the brim. And a couple of years ago so many people were infected that tents for patients were put up on the open grounds next to the bungalow where the Lassa ward is located.

Alabi asks patients how they are doing and checks an intravenous (IV) drip here and there. Apart from anti-viral drugs, patients also are treated with vitamins, antibiotics for additional bacteria infections and malaria medications if they also test positive for that disease. The staff is not supposed to stay in the “red” isolation zone for more than an hour at a stretch, to limit the risk of infection. But during an outbreak such as this year’s, doing rounds in an overcrowded ward can take two hours. “It is a risk you take, for the sake of the patients,” she says matter-of-factly.

Hospital beds with chipped enamel bars line the corridors of the “red zone”. IV bags hang next to the cots. Alabi explains that the patients lie in the hallway so that the staff can hear them when they weakly call for help. Disinfecting the medical staff’s protective boots and face shields occurs around the clock. Used gear goes into large vats of chlorinated water and is then put on wooden stands to dry in the tropical sun.

Around the corner, under the marquee covering the path to the clinic’s entrance, Dr Sampson Omagbemi Owhin holds a consultation with a patient, Olaide Akinyola. Seated on plastic chairs in the open air they discuss her recovery.

Akinyola, a 38-year-old primary school teacher, returned to the Lassa ward this morning for a check-up. She ended up in the treatment centre a month and a half ago after feeling ill for a couple of days. She originally thought the bleeding was from a heavy menstrual flow, but when she felt too dizzy to stand upright, she got tested for Lassa. Within hours of receiving a positive result, she was admitted to the clinic.

Akinyola was lucky, says her doctor: “They caught it on time”. She received a blood transfusion and was treated with ribavirin, which in this case appeared to have helped.
Information is a weapon

Being a teacher, Akinyola has easy access to information about the virus, she says. “That’s why I was not too scared when I was admitted here,” she explains. “I knew my chances were good since they caught the virus early.”

Information is an important weapon in the fight against Lassa fever, her doctor affirms. Even after a patient has been discharged from the ward, they can continue to suffer from bleeding for a long time. Haematologist Ohwin explains that, aside from persistent blood disorders, the virus has been found in semen two years later – a reason why recovered male patients are advised to use condoms during sex.

Later that day, 42-year-old Kayode Omolayo shuffles out of the patient exit of the Lassa clinic and heads towards the visitors’ area, a concrete floor covered by an orange aluminium roof shelter. The platform underneath is bisected by a ditch, separating the ill from the healthy. A metal sign in the grass directs visitors to the fenced-off area where, from a safe distance, they can greet the sick who have recovered enough to get out of bed.

After 10 days in the Lassa department, Omolayo is keenly aware of the need for hygiene at home. “The first thing I’ll do is clean everything from top to bottom and check for rat droppings,” she says.

At the Lassa ward, head nurse Alabi steps out of the red zone into the station where protective gear comes off and plastic barrels are placed to disinfect footwear and face shields that will be reused. As she carefully peels off the layers, the 50-year-old shares her concerns about the future.

According to the nurse, NGOs supporting the fight against diseases like Lassa fever are finding it increasingly difficult to raise funds. That means the bottled water for the staff to rehydrate after hours in sweaty moon suits has been cut. The delivery of personal protective equipment is slowing down. Most Nigerians cannot afford the $1,000 fee for treatment, and she fears that the medical centre might run out of money to offer the current free care.

In the meantime, the staff is gearing itself up for another wave. The smile on Alabi’s face disappears as she squints through her rectangular glasses and states solemnly: “The next deadly Lassa outbreak is only a matter of time.”

By Femke van Zeijl

Al Jazeera

Journalist who reported on massacre of Nigerian Christians to stand trial for “cyberstalking”

A journalist who wrote an article accusing the Nigerian government of failing to protect Christians threatened by armed militants was arrested and will be tried on charges of “cyberstalking.”

Luka Binniyat, a Catholic human rights reporter, is facing prison after writing an article in which the Nigerian government was criticized for its inaction in the face of an ongoing threat to Christian communities.

In the article, Binniyat reported on charges that Kaduna State’s Commissioner of Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, had mischaracterized the massacre of unarmed Christians as a “clash” between villagers and herdsmen.

Binniyat is set to stand trial before a Nigerian magistrate on Sept. 6. on charges of cyberstalking, aiding, and abetting the offenses of cybercrime, charges which he denies.

Arrested for reporting on massacre

Binniyat told CNA that his arrest was based on a complaint filed by Aruwan, over an article titled, “In Nigeria, Police Decry Massacres as ‘Wicked’ but Make No Arrest,” that was published Oct. 29, 2021, in the Epoch Times.

In the article, Binniyat reported on the mass killings of Christians in two Southern Kaduna villages. In the community of Madamai, 38 Christians were massacred Sept. 28, 2021, by armed Muslim Fulani herdsmen. A day later, in the Christian village of Jankassa, about three miles south of Madamai, armed herdsmen killed four villagers, according to Binniyat’s report.

The Nigerian official, Aruwan, issued a press statement the following day saying that the violence was the result of “clashes” between local villagers and herdsmen. The statement stirred resentment among Christians both in Southern Kaduna and in other Christian areas in the Middle Belt of Nigeria.

Binniyat quoted a Nigerian senator who disagreed with Aruwan’s assessment that the massacre was a “clash” between villagers and herdsmen.

“The government of Kaduna state is using Samuel Aruwan, a Christian, to cause confusion to cover up the genocide going on in Christian Southern Kaduna by describing the massacre as a ‘clash,’” Senator Danjuma Laah, who represents Southern Kaduna Senatorial Zone in the Nigerian Senate, told Binniyat.

Suppression of the press

The arrest and upcoming trial of Binniyat, are an attempt to silence journalists who speak out about attacks on Christians in Nigeria, says Robert Destro, a law professor at Catholic University and a former Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor during the Trump administration.

“No politician likes criticism, but most understand that a reporter’s job is to find the facts and report them honestly,” Destro wrote in an email to Catholic News Agency.

“The stakes go up exponentially when a government is determined to hide the truth about official corruption by crafting an official political narrative or story that refuses even to acknowledge that certain problems exist. Poking holes in such official narratives can get you arrested — or worse,” he said.
Challenging the official “narrative”

Reporters such as Binniyat are challenging the government’s dominant narrative, Destro said.

“In Nigeria, the official ‘narrative’ is that the massacres of Christians in their homes and churches are the result of ‘clashes’ between peaceful cattle-herders who have been displaced from their traditional grazing lands by climate change, and farmers who object to their farms, villages, and towns being overrun by cattle,” Destro said.

“The reality is that Christians and other religious groups are attacked, without provocation or warning, by armed militants who kidnap, rape, plunder and kill. By calling these attacks clashes caused by climate change, the government simultaneously blames the victims, absolves the attackers, and has an internationally recognized excuse for doing nothing,” Destro added.

The Nigerian government, he said, rather than simply not protecting Christians, seems to be aiding and abetting the Muslim militant groups attacking them.

“Even a little digging into the facts on the ground shows that the government doesn’t simply turn a blind eye to the violence, it actively favors the attackers, many of whom are from favored religious (Muslim) and ethnic groups (Fulani),” Destro told CNA.

“When viewed from an ethnic and religious perspective, those murderous rampages through the countryside begin to look a lot like more like an organized land-grab which is designed to push local ethnic and religious groups off their land so that the invaders can control both the land itself and the resources it contains,” Destro added.

“Nigeria’s official narrative – which is parroted by gullible foreign governments like the United States, the UK, and the EU, is that there is nothing to see here but peaceful herders and farmers who are clashing because of climate change,” Destro wrote.

Binniyat and other members of the press need to be able to ask “who is supporting, financing, and protecting these criminals?” he said.

Speaking to the press in August after his trial was stayed until Sept. 6, Binniyat said he feared for his life.

“I am clearly a marked man, by the implication of my trial and I want the Kaduna state government to be held responsible should any harm come to me,” Binniyat said.

Human rights lawyer and Hudson Institute scholar Nina Shea says Binniyat’s arrest reveals the dire state of affairs in Nigeria.

“Kaduna’s Governor [Nasir El Rufai] has abjectly failed in his primary responsibility to protect every citizen in his state, and consequently we are now seeing a complete breakdown in the rule of law there,” Shea told CNA.

“Instead, he presides over a situation where journalists, like Luca, reporting on lethal violence, are themselves threatened and dragged into court under a cyberstalking law wielded as a weapon by a state

official who claims to feel threatened by the news report. Meanwhile, President Buhari stands idly by as large regions of what should be Africa’s most important country are taken over by terrorists, jihadists, and criminals,” she said.

By Douglas Burton

CNA