NAIJAFEED

Friday, April 19, 2024

Tunde Onakoya attempts to break chess marathon record

Under the beaming lights of New York's iconic Times Square, Nigerian chess master Tunde Onakoya is attempting an ambitious challenge to break the record for the longest chess marathon.

He aims to play for 58 consecutive hours and raise $1m (£805,000) for charity in the process.

The money, he says, will support chess education for millions of children.

Hundreds of supporters have shown up to cheer on the chess master, including Nigerian Afrobeats star Davido.

The Nigerian community in New York has rallied behind their compatriot, providing Mr Onakoya with music and energising him with supplies of classic Nigerian dishes, including the beloved national staple, jollof rice.

Back home in Nigeria, people are throwing their support behind Onakoya as they watch him try to conquer the record on Twitch, a video-streaming service.

"Mr Onakoya is a symbol of excellence and resilience that distinguish Nigerians both at home and abroad... Go, make history, and inscribe our name in gold," Nigeria's Vice-President Kashim Shettima posted on X.

"Lagos is rooting for you," Lagos state governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu told Onakoya, adding that his attempt was "a powerful testament to how greatness can emerge from anywhere".

By 03:00 on Friday New York time (07:00 GMT), Mr Onakoya had played for 39 hours and raised more than $42,000.

After crossing the halfway point, he said achieving the record was "looking possible now".

He is set to play until at least 20:00 New York time on Friday, which will see him clock 58 hours and surpass the world record, recognised by Guinness World records, of 56 hours, nine minutes, and 37 seconds, which was set by Norwegian duo Hallvard Haug Flatebø and Sjur Ferkingstad in 2018.

Mr Onakoya, 29, credits chess with saving him from the overwhelming poverty he faced growing up in Lagos's infamous floating slums.

His NGO, Chess in Slums Africa, teaches children from poor communities chess and helping them with their education.

Mr Onakoya is also a board member of the US non-profit The Gift of Chess, which works to transform lives through chess and is targeting to distribute one million chess sets to underserved communities by 2030.

By Gloria Aradi, BBC

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Woman rescued 10 years after kidnap by Boko Haram in Nigeria

Nigerian troops have rescued a pregnant woman and her three children 10 years after she was abducted by Boko Haram militants when she was a schoolgirl in the town of Chibok.

Lydia Simon was rescued in Gwoza council area, about 95 miles (150km) east of Chibok, from where 276 schoolgirls were seized in April 2014. As many as 82 are still missing a decade after the high-profile mass kidnapping.

Announcing the news on Thursday, the Nigerian army did not give details of the rescue other than to say Simon was found in the community of Ngoshe.

Chibok and Ngoshe are in Borno state, birthplace of the 15-year old insurgency that has since spread to neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger, uprooting about 2 million people across the region.

The army statement said Simon was five months pregnant. It was accompanied by a picture of her and her three children born in captivity, who appear to be between the ages of two and four. She has yet to be reunited with her family.

The Chibok abduction was the first of a series of mass school kidnappings in Nigeria, shocking the world and triggering a global social media campaign tagged #BringBackOurGirls. Ten years on, many of the abductees, now adults, have been freed or escaped, but jihadist groups and bandits continue to target schools for mass abductions.

Since the Chibok attack, more than 2,190 students have been kidnapped, according to the Lagos-based geopolitical risk consultancy SBM Intelligence. It said mass abductions had become “an increasingly favourite sport for Nigeria’s teeming armed groups”.

As many as 57 of the women from Chibok escaped in the hours after their kidnapping by jumping off the trucks used to abduct them. In May 2017, 82 others were released after the government reportedly paid million-dollar ransoms. Those who returned in recent years were mostly found abandoned in the forests.

Some Chibok parents and security analysts have said there is little evidence to show there is a special military operation to free the remaining women. It is not known if they are all still alive.

Some of the recently freed women were either raped by the insurgents or forced into marriages, according to Chioma Agwuegbo, an activist who was part of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign.

“We have heard their stories about the amount of trauma and violence they have faced. Somebody who was kidnapped 10 years ago is not returning as the same person,” Agwuegbo told Associated Press.

The cause has largely been forgotten by many of the politicians and celebrities who championed it. On 14 April, the anniversary of the abduction, the local activist collective that began the campaign and held rallies for years in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, said it was still seeking justice for the missing women after “this decade of shame”.

Simon’s rescue was symbolic of the enduring hope that pervaded her home town, said the Abuja-based analyst Idayat Hassan, a non-resident fellow with the Africa programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

“It’s symbolic that 10 years after, we still got another of the girls,” Hassan said. “It keeps our hope alive.”

Simon’s family are waiting to be reunited with their long-lost relative, as are the villagers of Chibok.

“The government has not told us anything [and] we are waiting for an official call,” said Yakubu Nkeki, the chair of the Chibok girls’ parents’ association.

By Eromo Egbejule, The Guardian

Kidnappings in Nigeria rise 10 years after Chibok girls abducted

Analysts skeptical about improvement of local crude refining in Nigeria

Nigeria has been Africa’s largest or second-largest oil exporter for years, but relies heavily on imports to meet local energy needs. The government is trying to change that, saying the country’s four moribund oil refineries will be revived and put back in operation.

This week, authorities also announced a new policy that oil producers must sell a share of their crude oil to local refiners before they are permitted to export crude.

Nigeria’s petroleum regulatory commission announced the new Domestic Crude Oil Supply Obligation (DCSO) during a meeting with industry players. It's part of an amendment to Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry Act of 2021.

Under the policy, Nigerian oil producers are allowed to export crude only after meeting their supply obligations to local refiners.

The measure will take effect in the second half of the year, but it does not specify what quantity of crude must be supplied to local refineries.

Authorities said the objectives of the guideline are to bolster Nigeria’s refining capacity, improve the oil industry and earn foreign exchange.

Public affairs analyst Jaye Gaskiya said it was the right move. "In the current situation globally, this is actually going to turn out much more beneficial to both the producers and refiners in the country," Gaskiya said. "Essentially this is designed to ease the problem of supply to the local refineries so that they don't become redundant. The second thing is that it is also designed in such a manner to ease the pressure on the naira," which is the currency of Nigeria.

According to the regulations, payments for crude to domestic refiners can be made in dollars, naira or a combination of both.

Nigeria relies heavily on imports to meet the population’s energy needs. Analysts say refining crude oil locally could reverse this trend.

But oil and gas analyst Toyin Akinosho said he had concerns.

"In principle, I do not have a problem with it, but we need to be very careful about the foreign exchange implications and also the volumes that are going out," he said. "My challenge has always been, if you are overzealous about certain regulations, you can burn your fingers. In an era of very low forex [currency trading] and this being the major avenue for inflow into the country, you have to find a way of managing it."

The new measure includes penalties for oil producers who divert crude oil or refiners who fail to meet payment obligations.

But Gaskiya said there were some loose strings to the rule.

"The regulation says it is on the basis of willing buyer and willing seller, and that's quite tricky," Gaskiya said. "A situation where you have the suppliers, for instance, being unwilling, what are you then going to do as the regulator? So those are the things that the regulator needs to be on the lookout for."

The refineries in Nigeria, including the latest one built by Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, will have a combined processing capacity of 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day when rehabilitated.

While experts have doubts the new guidelines will be effective, authorities are optimistic Nigeria is getting closer to its goal of having a self-sufficient energy sector.

By Timothy Obiezu, VOA

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