Rivers state pledges gunboats to navy in fight against oil theft in Nigeria

Nigeria's oil-rich Rivers state will provide six gunboats to the navy for patrols as part of efforts to help combat oil theft, which has plagued the region, its governor said on Wednesday.

Rampant oil theft from pipelines and wells has crippled Nigeria's oil industry in recent years, damaging government finances and stifling exports.

Rivers Governor Siminalayi Fubara told reporters in Port Harcourt, the state capital, that Nigeria's recent oil output surge to 1.8 million barrels per day was due to a combination of state-level initiatives and federal government efforts.

"We are donating in the next few days six gunboats to the Nigerian Navy, the closest agency to us in this war against oil theft, to check this scourge in the difficult terrain, and also deploy them for regional security," Fubara said.

"We are not just relying on the activities of the big national committees. We also have our internal mechanism to checkmate and discourage the vandalisation of these pipelines," he said.

The gunboats will enhance the navy's waterway patrols and response times, particularly near submerged oil export pipelines that are prone to attacks.

Fubara said the state and host communities are crucial to the fight against oil theft, emphasizing how their support in pipeline security and vandalism prevention has enabled the ongoing rehabilitation of the Trans Niger Pipeline, a key export link.

Beyond security measures, the state government is investing in education, healthcare, and infrastructure in areas prone to vandalism to provide alternative opportunities for young people.

"We are re-orienting them because we found out that the average age of the perpetrators of these crimes is about 15, 16 years," Fubara said.

By Camillus Eboh, Reuters 

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Senate seeks to criminalise corn exports to tackle hunger in Nigeria

Nigeria's Senate has passed a bill seeking to make it a crime to export large quantities of unprocessed corn in an effort to alleviate hunger in the West African nation, documents seen by Reuters on Friday showed.

Africa's most populous country is grappling with its worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation.
Economic hardship has worsened since President Bola Tinubu started austerity reforms, including devaluing the country's naira currency and ending a decades-old petrol subsidy, fuelling inflation.

The weak Nigerian currency has spurred informal exports of corn, rice and sorghum to neighbouring countries due to the exchange rate differential with the West African CFA franc.

Corn is a staple in Nigeria that is also used for animal feed, drinks and processed flour.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) forecasts a rise in Nigeria's 2024/25 corn exports to 75,000 metric tons from its 2023/24 estimate of 50,000 metric tons.

The Senate bill, which will need the president's assent to become law, will make it illegal to export unprocessed corn from a minimum of 1 metric ton.

Violators would pay the value of the corn in fines or face a one-year prison sentence.

A joint report by Nigeria's government and the United Nations said in November that more than 30 million people are expected to be food insecure next year, a one-third jump from this year.

The USDA estimates that Nigeria consumes about 12 million metric tons of corn a year, importing roughly 100,000 metric tons.

By Camillus Eboh, Reuters

Netflix cuts original Nigeria productions

Netflix has denied reports it is pulling out of Nigeria but local film producers and industry insiders told Semafor Africa the streaming giant has been cutting back on original productions.

“We are not exiting Nigeria,” wrote a Netflix spokesperson in an email.”We will continue to invest in Nigerian stories to delight our members.”

However two filmmakers who have worked with Netflix on Nigerian productions said some local filmmakers were told last month that their Netflix original projects were either being put on hold or shelved. The conversations with filmmakers were said to have come days after Netflix threw a glamorous “Lights, Camera… Naija!” party on Nov. 2 with a raft of Nollywood actors and celebrities at a venue in Lagos.

The devaluation of the local currency and runaway inflation are said to have made production costs unsustainable in the near term.

Filmmakers said they believe Netflix will continue to license Nigerian films, but likely only ones which already had some traction at local cinemas or elsewhere rather than investing in production.

Nigerian filmmaker Kunle Afolayan, whose comments are believed to have sparked the speculation, said he never suggested Netflix was exiting the country: “I clearly said they are cutting down on their exposure.”

Netflix signalled its Nigeria ambitions with the acquisition of Lionheart, a film produced in 2018 by industry veteran Genevieve Nnaji, as its first original in the country. The streamer has since commissioned and co-produced multiple original series and films in the years since, opening up a new medium for Nollywood’s deep bench of screenwriters and producers to complement theatrical releases.

The King’s Horsemen, a Yoruba language epic that premiered on the platform in 2022, became the first cinematic adaptation of a novel by Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka. Last year’s hit crime thriller The Black Book had the kind of global reach that appeared to signal to audiences that the world was ready for African storytelling and that it would be a big part of Netflix’s content future. 

Yinka Adegoke and Alexander Onukwue, SEMAFOR

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Gunmen kidnap at least 50 in Nigeria's Zamfara state

A gang of gunmen kidnapped more than 50 women and children in a raid on Kakin Dawa village in Nigeria's northwest Zamfara state, police and residents said.

Kidnapping for ransom by gunmen, known by locals as bandits, is rife in northwest Nigeria due to high levels of poverty, unemployment and the proliferation of illegal firearms.

Zamfara police said the incident took place on Sunday and that additional security forces were being deployed to the area.

Residents said dozens of assailants riding on motorcycles arrived in the village at around 1230 GMT, armed with assault rifles, and went from house to house kidnapping residents.

"Later we found out that they kidnapped more than 50 women, including married women and girls," said Hassan Ya'u, who escaped the attack but whose younger sister was taken.

"We are appealing to the federal and Zamfara state governments to send more soldiers and security personnel to fight those bandits," he said.

There is widespread insecurity in northwest Nigeria, while a 15-year Islamist insurgency has plagued the northeast of the country and gang and separatist violence affects the southeast.

"We are currently waiting to hear the kidnappers' demands for the release of the abducted individuals," said Abdulkadir Sadia, another resident of the village. "The entire community is in distress." 

By Ahmed Kingimi, Reuters