Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Faces of 108 missing Chibok girls sculpted in Clay in Nigeria Art Project






 

 

 

 

 

 

The faces of 108 Nigerian girls who are still missing eight years after they were kidnapped by Islamist insurgents have been sculpted in clay in a collaboration between an artist, a group of potters and university students.

The artwork, titled "Statues Also Breathe" and conceived by French artist Prune Nourry, consists of 108 life-size clay heads, made by 108 students from all over Nigeria, and now on display at an art gallery in Lagos.

Boko Haram militants abducted around 270 teenage girls from a school in the northeastern town of Chibok in 2014.

The mass kidnapping initially prompted worldwide outrage, with the slogan #BringBackOurGirls trending on social media and prominent figures including then U.S. first lady Michelle Obama pressing for their return.

Since then, about 160 of the girls have been released, some after years of captivity, but the story has faded from the headlines.

Nourry collected photos of the missing girls from their families and passed the images on to the students who created the sculptures at a one-day outdoor workshop on the campus of Obafemi Awolowo University in Ife, southwest Nigeria.

A small group of women who were among the abducted girls and were later released took part, as did some parents of the missing women.

Nourry said it was a cathartic experience for all involved.

"For the students, for all of us who felt so useless when something so incredible happened and you cannot do anything about it, the fact of being able to at least give a little thing through sculpture, through what we know how to do, was healing," she said.

The young artists took inspiration from photos of Ife heads - terracotta sculptures made in the region centuries ago and considered to be among Nigeria's most significant cultural artefacts.

They used clay from the Ife area - the substance that, according to the Yoruba ethnic group's creation myth, was used to form humans - sourced by a community of local female potters, who also contributed to the creative process.

"These girls have been in distress for eight years," said Habiba Balogun, coordinator of the Bring Back Our Girls campaign in Lagos.

"I am really happy that a project like this has come up that is really going to elevate the level of discourse and understanding, and have a permanent record in the history of this our country about something tragic like this."

Reuters, by Estelle Shirbon

Related stories: Kidnapped Nigeria school girls forced to join Boko Haram

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Chibok girl kidnapped by Boko Haram found with baby

Tuesday, December 6, 2022

Service resumed for Abuja-Kaduna train service attacked by gunmen

Nigeria's state railway company on Monday resumed a popular train service between the capital Abuja and the northern state of Kaduna, suspended since in March after gunmen killed passengers and kidnapped several dozen.

Africa's most populous nation is battling insecurity in the north from armed gangs who attack villages and highways and kidnap people for ransom, and a long running insurgency that has killed thousands and displaced millions more.

The Nigerian military in October secured the release of the remaining 23 hostages from the train attack. President Muhammadu Buhari's government had said the train service would only start once all hostages were freed.

"We are starting afresh and I pray we will not have a re-occurrence of that ugly incidence by God's grace," said Ganiyat Adesina-Uthman, a lecturer who was travelling to Kaduna for the first time since March.

Passengers were required to provide national identification numbers, while armed security were on board the train. 

Reuters, by Abraham Archiga

Related stories: How I survived the Kaduna train attack hijacking and captivity

More than 160 passengers still missing from train attacked in Nigeria

Video - Rail staff killed in ‘unprecedented’ attack on train in Nigeria

 

 




Student charged with defaming first lady of Nigeria freed

Nigeria has freed a student charged with “criminal defamation” over a tweet he posted about the physical appearance of the country’s first lady.

Aminu Adamu was arrested at his university in northern Jigawa state on 18 November after Aisha Buhari filed a complaint and then remanded into custody until January.


He walked free after she dropped the complaint against him on Saturday. Adamu then met Buhari and apologised for his comments in a series of tweets. Student groups had called for demonstrations this week to protest against Adamu’s detention.

According to the court documents, Adamu commented on a photo of Buhari on Twitter, suggesting she had “embezzled money meant for the poor to [her own] satisfaction”. It was not clear whether he had intended to make a joke or to accuse her of corruption.

The 23-year-old student’s detention sparked widespread outrage in Nigeria, which suffers a multitude of intractable economic and social problems that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari has been unable to resolve.

If convicted, Aminu could have faced up to two years in prison, according to Nigeria’s penal code.

Amnesty International had urged the authorities to release him, reporting that his family and friends alleged he being was held incommunicado and subjected to severe beating, torture and other forms of ill-treatment.

“The heavy-handed mistreatment of Aminu Adamu Muhammed is a clear attempt to strike fear into the hearts of young Nigerians who use social media to hold the powerful to account,” Amnesty said.

Allegations of mistreatment against detainees are not uncommon in Africa’s most populous country, despite it having had a stable democracy since 1999 after decades of military dictatorships.

President Buhari, a former army general who was elected as a civilian leader in 2015 and 2019, is stepping down next year after two terms allowed by the constitution.

Voted into office on a promise to crack down on corruption, Buhari leaves mounting problems to his successor, from rampant insecurity to an economy in shambles. Mass youth-led protests over police brutality and bad governance have been violently suppressed under his watch.

The Guardian, by Jason Burke 

Related story: Student in Nigeria Arrested After Calling President's Wife Fat on Twitter

Presidential candidate Tinubu says presidential vote to test democratic gains






 

 

 

 

 

 

Ruling party presidential candidate Bola Tinubu said on Monday Nigeria's February election would be a significant step in consolidating democratic gains at a time when some other governments in the region have been ousted by military coups.

In a country with a long history of electoral fraud and a built-in advantage for the ruling party, Tinubu is the frontrunner for the All Progressives Congress party to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari, who is stepping down.

In an address at the Chatham House think-tank in London, Tinubu cited a worrying trend of attacks on personnel and infrastructure of Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in some parts of the country.

"The next election, which will take place in the first quarter of 2023, can be considered as especially significant in Nigeria's quest for democratic consolidation," said Tinubu.

He indicated that Nigerians in the diaspora abroad would not be able to vote, saying Africa's most populous nation was still building confidence in its voting system, 23 years after the end of military rule.

"INEC is still yet to assure us, during this election, that electronic transmission (of results), the technology being used for accreditation and total vote count, is reliable, dependable and assuring in our democratic process before we introduce complicated elements of mail-in ballots and so forth."

Nigerian democracy has also been marred by widespread corruption and an Islamist insurgency in the north.

Tinubu, 70, has been criticised at home for refusing to take part in television debates and not granting media interviews. On Monday, he referred most questions to his campaign team.

He promised to grow the economy by more than 7% annually, double the country's GDP in the next decade, expand agricultural output and continue with some of Buhari's policies.

Back in Tinubu's home state of Lagos, his main rival, People's Democratic Change candidate Atiku Abubakar, told a rally that his government would set aside $10 billion to help small businesses run by women and youth.

The money would come from privatising state oil refineries, Abubakar said.

Reuters, by MacDonald Dzirutwe


Monday, December 5, 2022

How I survived the Kaduna train attack hijacking and captivity







 

 

 

 

Nigeria's reopening of a vital high-speed train link nine months after an audacious hijacking is bringing back traumatic memories for some of the survivors, who are struggling to recover from their ordeal.

Gunmen mined the track between the capital, Abuja, and the northern city of Kaduna on the evening of 28 March, forcing the train carrying 362 passengers to stop.

Shots then came from all directions as the attackers surrounded the train, which had armed policemen on board, and managed to abduct 62 of the passengers. At least nine people died in the chaos and confusion.

Among those kidnapped was Hassan Usman, a barrister based in Kaduna, and his wife.

He told the BBC that the bedraggled group of abductees - made up of 39 men, 18 women and five children - were forced to trek for four days to the remote area where they were to be held captive, walking in the heat without food and only being given occasional water to drink.

The 47-year-old became the de facto spokesperson for the captives, some of whom were held for five months, and has since set up a WhatsApp group for the survivors so they can give each other comfort and support.

Seeing the smartly dressed lawyer today, it is hard to comprehend that he was the shaggy haired man in grey overclothes who pleaded for the government to heed to the demands of the abductors as other hostages beside him were flogged in a video released in July by the militants.

He says it was a harrowing experience for all the captives but particularly the women who had to deal with unhygienic conditions.

They had no sanitary pads and were forced to use rags. They all drank water from the small nearby lake where they were also allowed to bath.

"During the first few months, we were sleeping openly on bare ground which was sometimes wet, but when the rains started they made makeshift camps and allowed us inside only until the showers stopped," said Mr Usman.

The captives ate once a day at 11:00 - usually a soup made from corn flour and baobab leaves.

"We realised that the food items were being smuggled in and that getting supplies was a problem. They occasionally brought rice which we cooked with just palm oil and sometimes with beans," he said.

There were days when they were allowed a second meal at 18:00, but this was rare.

"The women did the cooking and the men did most of the chores like fetching water, firewood and washing the utensils."

'Boko Haram tried to recruit us'

For weeks, the identity of the kidnappers was unknown - with speculation that they were members of bandit groups notorious for kidnapping for ransoms in the north-west.

But Mr Usman confirmed growing suspicions that the gunmen were members of the Islamist Boko Haram militant group that usually operates in the north-east where it started its insurgency in 2009.

There have long been suggestions that the group, which says it wants to overthrow the government and establish an Islamic state, is expanding southwards.

"They told us that they were Boko Haram and they captured us to drive some of their demands from the government.

"Sometimes they gave us their phones to listen to most of what they preach," he said, explaining these included sermons from Boko Haram's first two leaders Mohammed Yusuf and Abubakar Shekau - who are both now dead.

"They even tried to persuade us to join their group and propagate their cause."

When any of the captives fell sick or needed medication, the militants would seek advice.

"They would always ask the professionals among us, the drugs needed to treat people and they mostly bought [them]," the lawyer said.

"Their charlatan doctors also administered injections to the sick especially for malaria and typhoid treatments."

At one point, the leader of the kidnappers suggested he take the younger captives to his house for better care, but the parents resisted, Mr Usman said.

'Destitute after ransoms paid'

While most of the victims of the train attack were released after their families and associates paid huge ransoms, the kidnappers held on to others to make demands of the government.

Some analysts suggest this may have included the release of militants held in prison - though this has never been confirmed.

Mr Usman said his family negotiated his release with the militants - though they have never shared the details of the agreement with him.

All he knows is that it was not a straightforward process and on the day he was to be freed it all went wrong.

"The soldiers patrolling along one axis refused to allow my people access to the meeting point to pick me."

This prompted the militants to make the torture video and he was only released the next day.

The ransoms some families paid have left them destitute - he said the sum for several of the captives was as much as 100m naira ($225,000; £184,000) each.

On the WhatsApp group, where the survivors now regard each other as one big united family, people recount their dire situations.

"Many cannot afford three meals a day, some were given a notice to leave by their landlords," said Mr Usman.

The lawyer bemoaned the lack of help given to the survivors, many of whom need trauma therapy.

"We have a Ministry of Humanitarian Services whose responsibility is to help such people - I think there is need for its intervention at the moment."

One of the women who was abducted sobbed as she spoke to me about her months in captivity.

The woman, who did not want to be named, vowed never to travel between Abuja and Kaduna again - by rail or road - as she was so traumatised by her experience.

Many thousands of people frequently commute between the two cities as government workers often cannot afford to rent in Abuja.

They chose to leave their families in Kaduna or states further north and travel home at weekends to see them.

The train, which opened in 2016, had been considered a safer alternative to the highway - the most notorious road in the country for kidnapping ambushes.

Other survivors admitted they would feel apprehensive about boarding the train again, but Mr Usman has welcomed the reopening of the 174km (108-mile) train link - due to happen on Monday morning.

His advice for the government is to ensure adequate security measures and 24-hour surveillance of the rail track.

Nigeria's defence chief Gen Lucky Irabor has sought to reassure them, saying that CCTV had now been installed and even he and the president would be able to "see everything happening on the line from their offices".

BBC, by Halima Umar Saleh

Related stories: Video - Rail staff killed in ‘unprecedented’ attack on train in Nigeria

More than 160 passengers still missing from train attacked in Nigeria