British doctor forgives kidnappers that held him captive in Nigeria

A doctor said he has forgiven the kidnappers who captured him and his wife in Nigeria and killed their friend.

Dr David Donovan and his wife Shirley were working as Christian missionaries to improve healthcare in Africa when they were seized by militants.

Optician Ian Squire was shot dead, before the rest of the group were safely released after 22 days.

Dr Donovan said he and his wife were thankful for their "second chance".

They were running four healthcare clinics set up by their charity New Foundations in the Delta area of Nigeria when they were captured on 13 October 2017.

Dr Donovan, 58, said the group had been due to leave their compound when the kidnappers struck.

He said the armed gang cut power to the compound before launching the kidnap attempt, which he called a "nightmare scenario".

Intimidating and unpredictable

Dr Donovan, who used to work as a GP at the Riverside Practice in March, Cambridgeshire, said: "They took us by boat towards the Atlantic into quite a flooded area of the jungle.

"At that time of the year it is the rainy season so there isn't any land at all, so it is completely off the map."

Dr Donovan and his wife have moved to Coldstream, Scotland, since their release and written a book about their ordeal, which is due to be released next year.

The GP said they had learned to forgive their captors, and even held Bible classes with three of them.

He said: "Initially [they were] very intimidating, extremely unpredictable due to drugs and alcohol, very adrenaline fuelled, extremely violent, extremely intimidatory.

"They were broken men, absolutely broken, and it is not my position to judge them."

The Donovans gave a talk at St Wendreda's Church in March to thank people who had prayed for their safe return.

Dr Donovan said he and his wife are "seizing the day".

BBC

Former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria dissects Nigeria in new book

Former United States Ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell, has recommended reformation of Nigeria’s military and other security agencies as solution to the country’s problem of insurgency and for her development.

Campbell made the recommendation recently when the United States Consulate General Lagos launched in his honor, a book titled: Nigeria: What Everyone Needs to Know which he co-authored with Matthew T. Page. Addressing the media at the Ikoyi residence of the Consul, Campbell said based on his observations, people he has talked to and NGOs’ submissions, the consensus is that Nigeria’s security service abuses is a driver of recruitment by Boko Haram. 

Other recommendations made by the former envoy include infrastructure development and combating of corruption. Campbell also decried the electoral system and processes in Nigeria saying while the people of Nigeria spend long hours on queues in the hot sun trying to cast their votes in elections, voting is done in 10-15 minutes in the United States of America. Nigeria: 

What Everyone Needs to Know, in part, deals with what everyone needs to know about Islam and Cuba. John Campbell said his new book asks 72 questions and provides 72 answers dealing with what everyone needs to know.

“The book consists of 72 questions and answers. We were guided by questions we were asked – and by questions we wished we were asked. Some examples of the questions we came up with: 

How did the slave trade impact on Nigeria’s development? 

What will Nigeria’s economy look like in fifteen years? 

What makes Nigerian Christianity unique? 

What is a day in the life of a politician like? 

Why has communal conflicts killed so many Nigerians? 

Where is the Nigerian diaspora, and why is it so influential? 

Will Nigeria’s oil run out, and if it does, what happens? 

“Matthew and I each drafted the answer to 36 questions – and then we swapped drafts, questioning and editing each other’s work. Then we sent selected questions and answers to experts for feedback. We then put the book together. The questions are arranged chronologically – the book opens with questions related to Nigeria’s history – like the slave trade – and closes with questions related to Nigeria’s future. “But, our hope is that readers will use the table of contents to find the questions they are interested in at any particular moment. For example, under the question, How does Nigeria contribute to world culture? There is discussion of the domestic film industry – Nollywood -and also music,” Campbell said.

Regretting the state of perennial electric power failure in the country, Campbell queried where all the money spent on electricity in Nigeria since 1999 has gone to. “Corruption – private gain at the expense of the public – is widespread. Fourteen billion dollars has been spent on electricity since 1999 -where are the results?” The former envoy regretted that Americans do not pay sufficient attention to Nigeria. 

Paying attention to Nigeria is important, said Campbell, because “what happens here (in Nigeria) directly impacts on the United States. Yet, I get frustrated that Americans do not pay sufficient attention to Africa in general or Nigeria specifically. The visit by the First lady, Melania Trump, is positive because many Americans will focus on Africa. 

I do regret that she is not visiting Nigeria or South Africa, the continent’s countries of greatest strategic importance to the United States. For outsiders, Nigeria is a complicated place.” Narrating his itinerary and career in Nigeria, Campbell said: “I first went in 1988 from my post in Geneva. I set out to try to understand how Nigeria works. I have lived there more than seven years.

I was Political Counselor at the U.S. embassy, then in Lagos, from January 1988 to July 1990. I was responsible for political reporting during those years of military government. I returned to Nigeria as American ambassador in 2004. My tour ended in 2007. 

During those two periods, I visited 35 of the 36 states. I was able to talk to everybody – from presidents to cardinals to chiefs to rag-pickers. I retired from the U.S. Department of State when my tour in Nigeria ended, in 2007. I was briefly recalled in 2008-09 by the Office of the Inspector-General to inspect our missions in Mexico and Iraq. Since then, I have had no formal ties to the U.S Government. 

“I have also been able to look at Nigeria from an academic perspective: I was a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University during the 1990-91 academic year and later a visiting professor at the University of Wisconsin, 2007-2008. I have been at the Council on Foreign Relations since 2009, working mostly on Nigeria and South Africa. 

“I was asked by Oxford to do a book on Nigeria for its What everyone needs to know series. The series’ audience is primarily American, British, and other educated non-specialists around the world. The book might also be of particular interest to Nigerians, if for no other reason than how two foreign friends see the country. 

The series avoids jargon and political science language. Academic apparatus – footnotes, etc. – are kept to a minimum. The former U.S ambassador then narrowed his discussion to the content of his new book. “I invited Matthew Page to be a co-author. He has had a long and distinguished career as an Africanist in various agencies of the U.S. Federal Government. His knowledge of Nigeria is exhaustive. “The book is divided into seven sections: History, Economics of Oil, Religion, Politics, Security Challenges, Nigeria and the World, and Nigeria of the Future. 

“For each section, we developed questions. That meant trying to decide what “everyone needs to know.” What is the bottom line?” 

What does everyone need to know? 

First, the Challenges: Chinua Achebe said: “Whenever two Nigerians meet, their conversation will sooner or later slide into a litany of our national deficiencies. 

The trouble with Nigeria has become the subject of our small talk in much the way the weather is for the English.” From our perspective, the general socio-economic challenges include the following: 

There is over-reliance on subsistence agriculture and petty trading; the percentage of those living in poverty is increasing; climate change is having a serious impact on Nigeria: the Sahara is moving south, sea levels in the Gulf of Guinea are rising. 

There is also a population explosion: In Zamfara, the statistically average woman has 8.1 births; in Rivers State, 3.8. Nigeria’s is a flawed democracy bedeviled by multiple insurgencies: Boko Haram. There is conflict in the Middle Belt over land and water use, often in an ethnic and religious context, and with criminal elements, i.e., cattle rustling. 

Nigerians widely criticize their government for mismanagement; corruption is structural. The bottom line is this – most Nigerians must fend for themselves. 

Specific challenges 

There is lack of infrastructure, and basic social services are inadequate, said Campbell. “Examples are in the fields of health/medicine, generation of electricity (the country generates about the same amount of electricity as Edinburgh). 

Education, especially primary, does not prepare adequately a modern workforce. Lack of clean water promotes disease. Infant mortality rates are slightly better than Somalia (a war zone), worse than South Sudan.” In spite of all these, authors contend that Nigerians are survivors: “They survived boom and bust cycles mostly associated with international oil prices; they survived three decades of military rule; Nigerians survived catastrophic Civil War that left more than two million dead. 

Nigeria’s promise 

“Nigerians show resolve, industriousness, and optimism about the future. 

There is great capacity for peaceful co-existence and informal conflict resolution. A sense of national identity may have started to develop, and there is a popular commitment to democracy. This is clearly seen in the efforts Nigerians make to vote. “Press and media are largely free, and there is an entrepreneurial culture. 

“Throughout our book, Matthew and I emphasize the optimism we have about Nigeria’s future by highlighting ways in which the country can unlock its great potential, whether by focusing on infrastructure development, combating corruption, reforming its military and opening up more opportunities for women to participate in politics, or in a host of other ways.

“In 1960 at independence, Nigerians expected that theirs would soon become a great power, giving Africans a seat at the highest international table. Maybe it is just going to take longer than they expected. Ambassador Campbell, the Ralph Bunche Senior Fellow for Africa policy studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Matthew T. Page, Associate Fellow in Chatham House’s Africa Program, in the book, provide a rich contemporary overview of Nigeria, delving into the country’s recent history, politics, culture, corruption, war against terrorism, and human rights issues. Chief Tat Osman of U.S. Consulate’s Political Section hosted the event celebrating the release of the new book.

Vanguard

Nigeria to be the world's poverty capital for a generation

Nigeria is making little progress in eliminating poverty.

New reports by global development institutions show that human capital spending in Nigeria—the poverty capital of the world after recently overtaking India—is among the worst in the world.

In the second ever Commitment to Reducing Inequality (CRI) index compiled by Development Finance International (DFI) and Oxfam, Nigeria placed bottom in a ranking of 157 nations. The CRI Index ranks the commitment of national governments to reducing the gap between rich and poor citizens by measuring three factors considered “critical” to reducing the gap: social spending, tax policies and labor rights. Nigeria ranked bottom of the index for the second consecutive year.

The report says Nigeria’ social spending (mainly on health, education and social protection) is “shamefully low.” And those meager levels are reflected in reality as Nigeria is home to the highest number of out-of-school children. Nigeria also scores poorly on labour rights (133 out of 157) but recent progressive tax policies—such as a tax amnesty scheme—were noted and expected to reflect in the next index.

While the CRI index measures current realities, the World Bank’s first ever Human Capital Index (HCI) predicts future expectations but it is just as grim: ranks Nigeria 152nd out of the 157 countries.

The index measures “the amount of human capital that a child born today can expect to attain by age 18.” That prediction is based on five indicators: chances of a child reaching age five, healthy growth, expected years of schooling, quality of learning available and the adult survival rate.

Nigeria’s HCI value of 0.34 (countries are scored between zero and one) is lower than the global average (pdf) of 0.57. It’s also lower than the regional average and the average for nations in Nigeria’s income bracket. As such, the report predicts that “a child born in Nigeria today will be 34% as productive when she grows up as she could be if she enjoyed complete education and full health.”

Reducing inequality and developing human capital is crucial to any efforts to eliminate poverty in Nigeria but data shows it is an area where successive governments have been lagging: the number of Nigerians living in extreme poverty increased by 35 million between 1990 and 2013 alone.

For its part, Nigeria’s government under president Buhari has launched social intervention programs, including cash transfers to its poorest people, in a bid to reverse its extreme poverty problem. Nigeria’s efforts at reducing poverty will have to yield immediate and long-term results given it’s ballooning population: the country is set to become the world’s third largest by 2050.

Nigeria’s petro-economy, which has typically been buoyed by rising oil prices has remained in the doldrums even after exiting a five-quarter recession last year. But the longer-term dire outlook of both reports reflect the poor planning and mismanagement by successive governments over many years.

Quartz

MultiChoice opens film school in Nigeria

MultiChoice Talent Factory Academy, West Africa, officially opened on Monday in Lagos, with the objective of providing Africa’s next generation of film and television storytellers after a 12-month training programme. Speaking at the launch of the Academy, Lagos State Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mr. Steve Ayorinde, commended MultiChoice Nigeria for giving youths selected from across the country an opportunity to understand the film production.

Ayorinde said: “What MultiChoice did deserves huge commendation and these 20 students need to acknowledge the fact that stakeholders in the entertainment industry in Nigeria and across the continent expect a lot from them.”

Also speaking at the launch, Ghanaian Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Dr. Ziblim Iddi, congratulated the 20 students selected for the inaugural edition of the Academy and charged them to be committed. On his part, Managing Director, MultiChoice Nigeria, John Ugbe, said: “The film and television industry is the pioneer of creative industries in Africa and is particularly relevant as a tool for shaping the African narrative. “We have been telling authentic and well-produced stories that only Africans themselves can tell. But there is a lot of raw talent that need to be nurtured and polished. “The Academy will give such talent the opportunity to hone their skills, thereby increasing the pool of world-class talent. It is also about teaching the business of film and television.

“We are fortunate to have the calibre of broadcast partners that we do in M-Net and Africa Magic, who believe in this project and have been on it with us from the very beginning.”

Vanguard

Boko Haram releases 833 children

A militia group fighting against the Islamist militant group Boko Haram in northeast Nigeria has released 833 children from its own ranks, some as young as 11, the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF said on Friday.

UNICEF spokesman Christophe Boulierac said the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) was formed in 2013 by vigilante groups in Borno state to fight Boko Haram which itself gained international notoriety for kidnapping schoolgirls in the town of Chibok.

The CJTF signed an action plan in September 2017 to end child recruitment, and the release of the children, 40 percent of whom were 15 or younger, was its first formal release.

“This is a significant milestone in ending the recruitment and use of children, but many more children remain in the ranks of other armed groups in either combat or support roles,” UNICEF Nigeria Deputy Representative Pernille Ironside said in a statement.

The released children were among 1,175 boys and 294 girls who had been identified as being associated with the CJTF in the city of Maiduguri, UNICEF said, although the total has yet to be verified and could include another 2,200 or more children.

It said that it had supported the social and economic reintegration of more than 8,700 children released from armed groups since 2017, helping trace their families, returning them to their communities and offering them psycho-social support, education, vocational training and informal apprenticeships.

Boulierac said that the CJTF included children who were “pursuing military objectives” but also lots in support roles, so their reintegration into society might be easier than those released from an armed group like Boko Haram.

That Islamist group has kidnapped thousands since it began an insurgency in 2009 aimed at creating an Islamic state in the northeast.

Nigeria’s government has said since December 2015 that Boko Haram has been “technically defeated”, 20 months after the kidnap of the 270 Chibok girls.

Yet attacks continue in the northeast, while Islamic State West Africa, which splintered off from Boko Haram in 2016, holds territory around Lake Chad.

Reuters

Video - Floods in Nigeria ruin crops for 100,000 farmers

Nigeria’s agriculture minister is warning there could be a shortage of rice, the country’s staple food.

The warning came after devastating floods hit large parts of the country, destroying crops just as farmers were getting ready for harvest.

Al Jazeera's Ahmed Idris reports from some of the affected areas.

Former VP Abubakar to run against Buhari in presidential election

Nigeria's main opposition has chosen former Vice President Atiku Abubakar as its candidate for the 2019 elections as it seeks to remove President Muhammadu Buhari.

The nomination of Abubakar, 71, by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), sets the stage for what is expected to be a fiercely contested poll in Africa's largest economy.

Abubakar hopes to replicate Buhari’s 2015 feat, when the latter became the first opposition candidate in Nigerian history to defeat a sitting president.

Abubakar, who had been the country’s vice president between 1999 and 2007, left the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party in November and re-joined the PDP.

Buhari, 75, has already been selected by the ruling party as its candidate.

Next year's presidential race appears to have tightened in recent months, with the APC hit by a wave of defections over Buhari's leadership style.

Abubakar comes from the Muslim-majority north and his nomination follows an unwritten rule in Nigeria that the presidency should alternate every two terms between a candidate from the north and south.
Fall in popularity

In 2015, Buhari's victory over former President Goodluck Jonathan was marked by a wave of optimism, which seems to be in decline now.

In May, his approval rating plummeted to 41 percent from a peak of 80 percent in October 2015, according to NOIPolls, a Nigerian polling service.

There have also been concerns about his fragile health, his economic policies, the extent of his claims about better security, as well as the targets of his campaign against corruption.

However, Niyi Akinsiju, coordinator of Buhari Media Organisation, told Al Jazeera that Buhari's chances of re-election are "very high".

"He has developed a trusting relationship with the people who have confidence in his fidelity and integrity in the exercise of power," he said.

The PDP is hoping Abubakar will be able to leverage Buhari’s dwindling fortunes.

"Atiku Abubakar is seen by a majority of Nigerians as the candidate with the magic solution to the crisis plaguing our nation," PDP spokesman Kola Ologbodiyan told Al Jazeera.

"He has a respectable pedigree within the political class across party leanings," he said.

The country's electoral commission has cleared 19 candidates to challenge Buhari in the February election.

Oby Ezekwesili, 55, a two-time minister and former vice president for Africa at the World Bank, is among other standout candidates.

She is the cofounder of the #BringBackOurGirls group to raise awareness about more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by armed group Boko Haram in 2014.

"Governance keeps worsening. So we the citizens have decided to get into the political arena to make things right," Ezekwesili said.

Kingsley Moghalu, former UN official and deputy governor of Nigeria's central bank, is also in the race.

An optimistic Moghalu even points to recent history for an "upset victory" for a non-mainstream candidate. "It happened with Trump. It happened with Macron," he said.

Hamza al-Mustapha, controversial security chief of the country's former military ruler, Sani Abacha, is also in the race. He has never held any political position.

In July, 39 registered political fronts, including the PDP and a splinter group from within the ruling party, signed an agreement to form the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP).

The splinter group of disaffected APC members led by Buhari's former ally, Buba Galadima, criticised the president's tenure as "a monumental disaster".

Ahead of his election in 2015, Buhari promised to tackle Boko Haram as well as fight corruption, revive the economy and provide jobs.

"He has stabilised the economy, reduced the Boko Haram insurgency from an invading army to opportunistic terrorists. His fight against corruption has reduced acts of brazen corruption and bureaucratic impunity," Akinsiju said.

Nigeria, Africa's top oil producer and the continent’s biggest economy, entered its first recession in 25 years in 2016, mainly caused by lower oil prices and attacks in the Niger Delta crude production region.

It emerged from recession in early 2017, but economists say growth remains sluggish and inflation has remained high.

Buhari’s supporters claim he has stabilised the economy.

"The economy has witnessed an unprecedented, consistent decline in inflation rate over an 18-month period reducing from a high of 18.7 percent in January 2017 to 11.14 percent in July 2018," Akinsiju said.

But the opposition is confident the economic situation will dent Buhari’s popularity.

"Atiku understands this nation and its economy. He is a personality that can take charge of his environment and comes up with decisions that affect the people positively," Ologbodiyan said.

Al Jazeera

Oldest prisoner in Nigeria on death-row seeking pardon

Death-row inmate Celestine Egbunuche has been dubbed Nigeria's "oldest prisoner" amid a campaign calling for his release.

He is 100 years old and has spent 18 years in jail after being found guilty of organising a murder.

Small and slightly hunched over, he looks wistfully into space as he sits on a tightly packed bench inside a stuffy prison visitor's room.

Dressed in a white T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops, he lifts his head slowly - his way of acknowledging our presence.

But otherwise he remains quiet during our visit - in stark contrast to the rest of the room that is filled with loud chatter at Enugu Maximum Security Prison in south-east Nigeria.

His son Paul Egbunuche, 41, sits protectively close to him - and does the talking. He is in jail on the same murder charge.

They were both accused of hiring people to kidnap and kill a man over an alleged land dispute in Imo state.

Paul maintains their innocence. They were detained in June 2000 and eventually convicted and sentenced to death in 2014.

It has not been possible to contact the family of the man who was killed - even the Nigeria prison service has been unable to find them.

'Confused and childlike'

As prison officials look on, he tells me that his father isn't really able to talk much any more and is no longer aware of his surroundings.

"When you ask him something, he says something else. The doctor told me that it is his age, he has become like a little pikin [child].

"There are some times when he will ask me: 'These people here [inmates], what are they doing here?'"

Paul says he rarely leaves his father's side now; he has been his primary carer since his health began to deteriorate in prison.

These health problems include diabetes and failing eyesight - and Paul uses what he can to manage them.

"The only thing I'm using to manage him is food, unripe plantain, and they [officials] give him some drugs."

Birthday photo

Father and son share a cell with other death-row prisoners, who are separated from the general population.

"When I wake up in the morning, I will boil water and bath him," Paul says. "I'll change his clothes then prepare food for him. If they open up [the cell] I'll take him out so the sun will touch him.

"I'm always close to him, discussing with him and playing with him."

Paul says the other inmates sometimes help him care for his father and that many of them want his father to be released.

It was after his father's 100th birthday on 4 August that events were set in motion that may lead to his release.

A photo of Paul and a frail looking Egbunuche went viral in August after a local paper did a story about him turning 100 in jail. It sparked a debate about the length of time Nigerians spend on death row and the place of capital punishment altogether.

The latest figures from the Nigerian Prisons Service show that more than 2,000 people are on death row in Nigeria, many of whom spend years waiting to be executed.

The death sentence is not commonly carried out in Nigeria. Between 2007 and 2017, there were seven executions - the last one taking place in 2016, Amnesty International reports.

Poverty and punishment

However, the death penalty is still meted out by judges for offences like treason, kidnapping and armed robbery.

"You have people who have spent 30 years on death row, it's common," says Pamela Okoroigwe, a lawyer for the Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP).

"Governors are reluctant to sign [death warrants] and they're not willing to grant pardons - that's why we have a high number of death-row inmates."

Ms Okoroigwe says death row is a "punishment for the poor" and one that a growing number of Nigerians want abolished.

"Have you ever seen a rich man on death row?" she asks.

"How many people can afford to get a lawyer to represent them in court? A rich man who ended up in court can afford to get the best and he'll be free."

This sentiment is shared by Franklin Ezeona, president of the Global Society for Anti-Corruption (GSAC), the non-governmental organisation that brought Egbunuche's case to the public and has been petitioning for his pardon.

"If the man was the father of a governor or a minister, I don't think he would still be in prison," Mr Ezeona says.

"Poverty in most of African countries hinders justice."

He says it is unreasonable to keep people waiting for years on death row as "the trauma and the torture is too much".

'Everyone deserves a second chance'

Mr Ezeona says that he hopes that Egbunuche's case will prompt the government to review other cases and shine a light on the justice system as a whole.

"It will be good for the correctional system. It will show that with good behaviour, the government can give you a second chance."

"Everyone deserves a second chance."

And Egbunuche may get a second chance as he has been recommended for a pardon by Imo state's attorney general, Miletus Nlemedim.

It is now awaiting approval from Governor Rochas Okorocha.

Mr Nlemedim says numerous factors are taken into consideration when an inmate is recommended for pardon - age, time served and the approval of the prison staff.

The family of the victim has not been consulted about a possible release.

"What we do as a government is to try to remove ourselves from sentiment," he says.

According to Mr Nlemedim, the state's Ministry of Happiness offers the chance for reconciliation after a prisoner is released.

In this case Mr Ezeona says it may be unlikely to happen given the length of time that has passed and poor record-keeping.

Nonetheless, he is still confident Celestine Egbunuche will be pardoned.

"If we can't pardon a centenarian, who can we pardon?" he says.

Paul too is confident that his father will be pardoned - and is hopeful that he too will get a reprieve so he can care for him.

"It's good for him to be released. So he will die peacefully in his house rather than in prison," he says.

BBC

Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote is building the world's largest refinery in Nigeria

On any given weekday, commuters in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, are snarled in traffic for hours.

Container trucks and tankers take up several lanes of traffic on the major thoroughfares close to the city’s ports. Often these trucks have been parked on the highways overnight.

Cars and minivans snake along the remaining single lane, sharing it with pedestrians fighting off early-morning road rage as they slowly make their way from one end of the city to another. There is a palpable fear of accidents, or a spill. Much of Lagos is an environmental disaster waiting to happen.

It is here in this vibrant metropolis of 21 million people that Africa’s richest person, Aliko Dangote, is undertaking his most audacious gamble yet. Mr. Dangote is building a $12 billion oil refinery on 6,180 acres of swampland that, if successful,— could transform Nigeria’s corrupt and underperforming petroleum industry. It is an entrenched system that some say has contributed to millions languishing in poverty and bled the “giant of Africa’’ for decades.

Planned as the world’s largest refinery, Mr. Dangote’s project is set in a free-trade zone between the Atlantic Ocean and the Lekki Lagoon, an hour outside the city center. The site employs thousands, and upon completion — Mr. Dangote says in 2020; some analysts suggest more likely in 2022 — should process 650,000 barrels of crude oil daily.

That’s enough oil to supply gasoline and kerosene to all 190 million Nigerians and still have plenty to export. By the end of this year, the facility is expected to churn out three million tons of fertilizer. The production of diesel, aviation fuel and plastics will then follow.

“The construction site is already a huge beehive of activities, with workers, local and foreign, hard at work. It is going to be the largest manufacturing plant of any sort in Lagos,” said Kayode Ogunbunmi, the publisher of City Voice, a Lagos daily newspaper and lifelong Lagos resident.

Indeed, some 7,000 employees are working around the clock on the site, many arriving by private ferry from the city center. Another 900 Nigerian engineers and technicians are being trained abroad for jobs at the refinery. Mr. Dangote, whose net worth is estimated at $11.2 billion, has had to build a port, jetty and roads to accommodate this project, along with new energy plants to power it all.

Nigeria’s government, despite being a longtime crude oil exporter, has four underperforming and frequently broken down refineries with a combined capacity of 445,000 barrels daily. Those refineries — two in the oil hub of Port Harcourt, one in Warri in the Niger Delta, and the other in the northern city of Kaduna — are all operating at less than 50 percent of capacity.

Which means that even though Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer, petroleum for everyday use must be imported. This has spawned fuel importers and diesel traders who have grown extremely wealthy. Nigeria’s government subsidizes fuel imports to keep pump prices low, and this has contributed to Nigeria’s well-documented culture of petroleum industry corruption.

“The failure to produce refined products over the last 25 years has created a huge architecture of graft and corruption around everything,” said Antony Goldman, the co-founder of the London-based Nigeria specialists ProMedia Consulting.

Mr. Goldman does political risk analysis in West Africa and has been working in and out of Nigeria for two decades. Corruption, he explained, stems from illegal refineries and the local criminal network that helps transport illegal crude out of the country. Both elements, he said, have not been sufficiently challenged by the government or law enforcement agencies, which has further contributed to Nigeria’s entrenched oil industry corruption.

“A refinery that actually works and can meet Nigeria’s refined product requirement? It’s a game changer,” Mr. Goldman added. But change, no matter how positive, is potentially destabilizing. “These are not people who relinquish things without a fight,” Mr. Goldman said of Nigeria’s fuel import merchants.

When Mr. Dangote initially unveiled his refinery plans in 2016, he said its aim was to challenge the status quo, which had seen the government spend about $5.8 billion to import petroleum products over the past year.

“This refinery is attacking the entire system,” he said. “You export jobs and create poverty here, so that’s what we are stopping,” he told reporters at the time.

Despite creating thousands of jobs, Mr. Dangote’s refinery hasn’t been universally applauded in Nigeria. The biggest issue is its Lagos location: The refinery is being built hundreds of miles from the impoverished Niger Delta, where the bulk of Nigeria’s oil is extracted.

Two undersea pipelines are under construction in the Delta and will carry petroleum about 340 miles to the refinery in Lagos.

The pipelines will be costly; but also far harder to sabotage than conventional aboveground systems. And security is key in the Delta region, where local rebel groups like the Delta Avengers have kidnapped foreign oil workers and blown up pipelines to protest regional pollution and poverty.

Amid Nigeria’s complex regional tensions, Mr. Dangote — a northerner by birth and Lagosian by decades of residence — is the one person, industry experts say, who could achieve a measure of détente in the region.

Yet critics — and Mr. Dangote has many — worry that his new refinery will allow him to essentially take over the Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. Why would a nation leave an entire industry in the hands of one company? they ask.

The “monopoly” question has swirled around Mr. Dangote for decades. Twice divorced and currently (and vocally) looking for a third wife, Mr. Dangote made his initial fortune operating near-monopolies in cement, flour and commodities across Nigeria, where regulatory oversight is relatively lax. Mr. Dangote’s companies, including pasta producers and property management, are found across Africa.

A decade ago, Mr. Dangote and other private investors tried and failed to buy the government-owned refineries. He was unavailable for comment, but previously told Reuters he does not apologize for his expansionist desires. “If you don’t have ambition,” he said, “you shouldn’t be alive.”

And for some in a tough business environment like Nigeria, a well-run monopoly is better than the current situation, where getting fuel remains an uncertainty. Indeed, despite oligarchy concerns, Mr. Goldman says he believes that Mr. Dangote’s past success actually bodes well for the refinery and Nigeria. “He has a record of success and delivery, and he doesn’t make mistakes on things like this,” Mr. Goldman said.

And Nigerians are tired of power cuts and overpriced gasoline.

“Most Nigerians see Aliko as a doer,” Mr. Ogunbunmi, the publisher, said. “Many quietly hope the refinery will help reduce uncertainties. Gasoline will be available, and possibly power.”

Beyond solidifying his own legacy, Mr. Dangote hopes his refinery will help diversify Nigeria’s economy while reducing its dependence on imported oil.

“We have other opportunities,” he said at the plant’s unveiling. “Agriculture is there. Petrochemicals are there, Nigeria has more arable land than China. If we finish our gas pipeline, it can generate 12,000 megahertz of power. That’s huge. That’s more than what we are looking for in Nigeria and we can supply the rest of West Africa.”

As his refinery nears completion, Mr. Dangote says he will soon focus on his next dream, owning Britain’s Arsenal football team. “Once I have finished with that headache, I will take on football,” he said. “I love Arsenal, and I will definitely go for it.”

New York Times

Video - Nigeria's amputee football team gearing up for World Cup in Mexico

Nigeria's National Amputee Football team is in a race against time to raise funds to enable its players take part in the Amputee World Cup slated for October 24 to November 5 in Mexico. The team missed three previous editions of the World Cup owing to lack of funds, but it's determined to make it this time around and the payers are training hard for the tournament.

Video - President, governors meet after party primaries fall-out in Nigeria

In Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari has been meeting several aggrieved governors from the ruling APC party to stem fall out. The country is expected to head to the polls in February next year. But claims of unfair party primaries is exerting a strain on cohesion in the ruling party.

Forgotten Nigerian martial art 'Dambe' is growing online

From Nollywood actresses to afrobeat superstars, August Udoh, has captured them all.

He's lauded as Nigeria's most talented celebrity photographer but it is the stories of those on the very margins of society that are important to him.

The fighters captured in series "Dambe" are ordinary working men. "They have normal jobs. Some are truck drivers, others mechanics," Udoh told CNN. But with one exception - their downtime is spent competing in martial arts sport dambe.

It's a traditional form of boxing where competitors fight with a single bounded hand for three rounds. As Udoh's series title suggests, this martial arts club is underground, its presence spread only through word-of-mouth.

"I had a security guard from the north who was talking about it and he showed me a video posted online," says Udoh. "I thought this is actually true - there is an underground fighting club that a lot of people in Nigeria don't know about."

One armed 'kill'

Dambe's history stems from the Hausa people in northern Nigeria and is thought to date back centuries. It was local butchers by trade who competed. The stronger punching hand known as the spear is traditionally tied with cotton and rope, while the other hand shields against opponent's punches.

Contestants can also kick - the fight ends when an opponent falls to the ground - referred to as a "kill".

Traditionally the cloth bound hand was dipped in resin and covered in shards of glass - this has been banned. Boxing gloves were introduced in some areas to make the sport safer. But many still consider it a brutal sport due to the injuries inflicted.

Viral videos

Long forgotten, the sport is gaining popularity thanks to dedicated YouTube channels such as Dambe Warriors, which launched last year and has garnered more than 57,000 subscribers and 15 million views.

While Udoh's images present the raw, unfettered energy of the art's young competitors, dambe is a poor man's sport. Fighters are almost certainly low income earners.

For them it's a chance to make money explains Udoh. Tickets for fights are often sold at around 500 Naira ($1.38) per person. "Usually the fight organizers make 50,000 Naira ($137) a day."

Victorious competitors can earn anywhere from $20 up to $500, which they can use to feed and take care of their families.

"As a fighter - champions earn a lot," Udoh said. "If you've won a lot of fights then you get paid more. There is a hierarchy thing where you attract high fees because you bring in the crowd."

Gifts are also given by fans. "People send money back to their parents, one fighter was given a house."

Nigeria's wealth gap

Udoh spent a week traveling around Niger and Ogun states talking to the boxers who compete. The photographs raise questions on the widening regional inequalities within the country - which has been widely criticized by humanitarian groups.

Those living in often wealthier states in the south have no concept of how their northern neighbors live explains Udoh. "I have friends who have not been out of Lagos since they were born - so they don't know."

"People don't realize every other state is not like Lagos," he adds.

The photographs are about shedding light upon such regional disparities Udoh explains. In 2012, he spent a month traveling around Kogi to capture the country's flood victims.

Kogi, a northern state was the worst affected by the 2012 floods. Some 623,900 people were said to have been displaced as a result and 152,575 hectares of farmland destroyed. Many of the victims homes and infrastructure have not yet been rebuilt says Udoh. The towns today remain virtually unchanged since the floods.

"I slept in [my] car for a month to take their pictures, there was nowhere to sleep" says Udoh. "I really felt their pain but there was nothing I could do."

Nigeria's recent September floods has killed nearly 200 people in the country and displaced around 176,000, according to Nigeria's Emergency Management Agency.

Udoh notes the power of his images stem from the stories behind them. He adds: "I want to convince people to look outside of Lagos by telling these stories with my pictures."

CNN

Female candidates reject feminism in Nigeria

When one of Africa's biggest pop stars, Tiwa Savage said she doesn't think men and women are equal during an interview on a Nigerian radio station, it generated fierce debate, one that mostly played out on the country's social media feeds.

"...I don't think that's how God created us, especially in the household anyway. So I think as females when we realize that...we can be strong in our career and stuff, but when we are home we have to realize that the man is the head of the house," Savage said in the interview.
Savage isn't the only Nigerian female celebrity polarizing audiences with her opinions on gender roles and feminism.

Nigeria's DJ Cuppy said in an interview with CNN in July: "I think it's amazing, young females doing what we've been told we can't do and I really feel like women are very powerful."

Feminists 'doing crazy things'

In the same interview, DJ Cuppy acknowledged the difficulties women in Nigeria face, saying "I had to leave Nigeria to realize my power because a lot of times as a woman you are constricted to what you can do and what you can achieve," she said.

To many Nigerian feminists, Cuppy's comments appeared in-line with feminist ideals. But a month later in an interview with a local radio station, she declared that she doesn't consider herself a feminist anymore.

"I don't like people who are hypocrites. People are out there speaking about women rights, but behind closed doors are doing crazy things," she said. 

"I would never come out as a feminist because I'm in a male dominated industry so I have certain scenarios where... I deal with men on a day to day basis and I realize they are always going to think they are better than women," she added.

DJ Cuppy went on to imply that constantly fighting for women's rights wouldn't necessarily lead to a desired change. 

"If I literally sat down all day and spoke about how hard it is being a woman I wouldn't have time to be here...because I would be somewhere in Alade market talking about how women need better rights," she said. 

This spurred many comments by Twitter users on topics of gender equality, class privilege and what some consider a fear of the word feminism itself.

The personal is political

 
But while these celebrities' views are no doubt powerful, they do not impact government policies that affect women. However, the views of women who aspire to be in political positions could have a policy impact on the fight for women's rights. 

So when Eunice Atuejide, a female presidential candidate in Nigeria's 2019 elections, proclaimed that she was "not a feminist," an even fiercer debate ensued. 

Atuejide said last week on a local radio station that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the Nigerian author of "Half of a Yellow Sun," is "an extremist." Adichie's book format essay, "We Should All Be Feminists," was given to every 16-year-old in Sweden. 

But Atuejide said: "I hope some of our women do not necessarily take on too much of the things she is saying because some of them could actually turn around and bite them in the bum."

Nigeria's 2019 election comes at a time where gender equality is a global goal the country is still struggling to achieve. The World Economic Forum 2017 Global Gender Gap report ranked Nigeria 122nd out of 144 countries listed. As of 2018, Nigeria still hasn't passed the 2011 Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill -- and has faced criticism for that failure.

In a number of Atuejide's tweets, the presidential candidate aired what some branded a myopic view of feminism by reducing the fight for gender equality to cooking. In one tweet, Atuejide asked "And who is a feminist? My friend who won't cook for her husband & kids cos of equality?"

Ayisha Osori, the Nigerian author of "Love Does Not Win Elections", responded with some damning statistics on the absence of women in Nigerian politics. "There are some states in Nigeria like Jigawa, Kebbi and Sokoto that, since 1999, haven't elected a woman for any positions. Federal, state, local -- no woman has been elected," Osori told CNN. 

"Only five female ministers and deputy governors in the country. We have no female governor, female president or [vice president]," she added.

Given these numbers, Atuejide's views on the importance of feminism are even more puzzling, according to Osori, who believes that Atuejide's decision to run is, in fact, a feminist one.

"Any woman who runs for any leadership role in a very patriarchal system like Nigeria, a country where the representation of women in politics is extremely low," Osori said.

"You are a feminist. Not even just by labels, but by what you are trying to achieve -- because you are basically saying, my voice counts, I count as a human being and I have the right to be in this position," she added.

Africa's feminist history

Presidential aspirant Atuejide, in another tweet expressed her "hate" for being called a feminist "because that word means too many things, many of which I don't like."

Some who question the meaning of feminism in Africa see it as irrelevant in African culture, viewing it as a western import.

Minna Salami, a social critic and founder of the pan-African feminist blog, MsAfropolitan, told CNN: "There is a history of feminist movements in Africa and one notable chapter in Nigeria was the Aba Women's Riots of 1929."

This particular movement was led by women in southeastern Nigeria as a revolt against policies imposed by British colonialists. 

Some who question the meaning of feminism in Africa see it as irrelevant in African culture, viewing it as a western import.

Atuejide, 40, a lawyer, is one of six women running for the highest office in Nigeria's 2019 elections.
Other female candidates are Olufunmilayo Adesanya-Davis, Elishama Ideh, Adeline Iwuagwu-Emihe, Princess Oyenike Roberts and Remi Sonaiya -- who also contested the 2015 presidential race and was the first Nigerian woman to run for president. Explaining why she took that unprecedented step, Sonaiya told CNN: "Just the state of the nation. The deplorable state of our public affairs, the inept running of government."

"It just struck me that we needed to have good people, people with integrity to get involved in governance. We were wrong to have left our affairs in the hands of people who really had no good intentions for the general populace." Sonaiya added.

While Sonaiya feels she got support from both male and female citizens, she also received some disapproval as a woman running for office.

"I remember once being on a radio program and one man called in and said 'come and just go back to your kitchen'. But then you remember that our President himself had said that his wife belonged to the kitchen and to 'the other room'. But this did not affect me one way or the other.
"I was focused on my running and I expected that there would be different opinions about what I was doing," said Sonaiya.

Sonaiya is referencing President Muhammadu Buhari's comments from 2016, when he said his wife belonged "to my kitchen and my living room and the other room."
This was as a response to her criticism of his leadership, where she suggested she might not vote for him in the next election. "He is yet to tell me but I have decided, as his wife, that if things continue like this up to 2019, I will not go out and campaign again and ask any woman to vote like I did before. I will never do it again," said Aisha Buhari.

Women's race for president

Three years after Sonaiya's run for president, more Nigerian women are following her lead. Although just not under the banner of feminism, or even gender. 

Atuejide campaign slogan is "A Nigeria For All" and she claims she has a plan to promote equality: "by allowing people to compete in the same conditions, " she said. 

"If there are more women than men that are able to do the job then more women than men will be employed and vice versa. And if there is a 50-50 situation that is what we get. But it won't be because of gender."

Some Nigerians online are wondering who Atuejide is hoping to appeal to during the elections. One Twitter user asked her: "Well, anti-feminists won't vote you because men are the head and women are the neck/tail. And feminists won't vote a woman who hates the word Feminism. So where does this leave you?" 

Atuejide does acknowledge that she faces challenges. "We have to deal with our religious ways of seeing things," she said. 

"We have to start making the men, women, children, the imams, the pastors and priests etc... understand that men and women are equal in the eyes of God. That is a challenge that I will have to deal with -- in terms of getting the average Nigerian to cast their vote for me."

Given the divided social media responses to these women's views on feminism, it is clear that feminism is still considered a controversial subject in Nigeria that will continue to be a hot topic for discussion.

CNN

Video - Boko Haram captive's mother appeals to the government for help

In Nigeria, the mother of a kidnapped teenager, Leah Sharibu, has appealed to the government to secure her release, ahead of the deadline given by Boko Haram. The 15-year-old was abducted in Yobe State in February, alongside 100 other girls, who've since been released. CGTN's Samson Omale has this exclusive interview with Leah's mother, Rebecca Sharibu.

Airport cleaner in Nigeria rewarded for returning lost valuables

Nigeria’s main airport operator, the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, has rewarded a cleaner who earlier this month found some valuables and returned them to the authorities.

FAAN Managing-Director, Engr. Saleh Dunoma, at a short ceremony presented a Commendation Letter and Plaque to Miss Ishai for her honesty.

Mary Ishai who works for Lakewood company, a cleaning contractor at the Abuja airport found and returned different cash sums, passports, ATM cards and bag claim tags.

“She found the following valuable items in the toilet: $2,000, $140 Canadian, eight pieces of coins, N21,850, two international passports, four ATM cards, four bus cards and baggage claim tags. The owner, an employee of Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Imade Uhunwagho, has since collected his valuables,” FAAN said in a tweet of September 11.

Her story comes on the back of a similar action by two guards at Nigeria’s Muratala Muhammed International Airport.

The two, junior security guard Achi Daniel and his supervisor Francis Emepueaku, according to the federal airports authority, returned a forgotten bag with large sums of money and expensive items. The two, work at the multi-level car park at the Lagos airport.

Their action has been lauded by most Nigerians including President Muhammadu Buhari who is quoted as saying: “Honesty remains the best policy. We must exhibit such behaviour in whatever position we find ourselves, whether high or low.

“Nigeria will no longer be a byword for corruption and plundering of public resources. That is the path we have chosen to take, and our country will eventually get to a new shore,” he added.

“If the money was in multi-millions of foreign currencies I would still have returned it,” Mr Daniel told Sahara Reporters. “No amount of money would make me to take what doesn’t belong to me,” he retorted to calls that he should or could have kept the money.

According to him, despite attempts by the owners of the bag to reward them with money, they refused the offer insisting that they “were just doing their job.” Reports say both men have been awarded by their security company with education scholarships worth 250,000 Naira ($686).

Africa News

Video - Nigerian authorities warn of possible disease outbreak due to floods

Nigeria's Centre for Disease Control is warning of possible outbreaks of water-borne diseases like cholera and malaria. A national disaster has been declared after heavy rains caused widespread flooding in more than 10 states. At least 100 people have died and more than 3-hundred thousand displaced.

Video - "Emekas Money" a Nigerian story on corruption

In Nigeria, one organisation has launched a book aimed at tackling corruption. It's being marketed for young people, with the idea of shaping mindsets from an early age. "Emeka's Money" tells the story of a corrupt government official and the negative impact his actions have on society.

Pirates kidnap 12 swiss crew members from commercial ship

Twelve crew members of a Swiss commercial ship have been taken hostage by pirates who attacked the vessel as it sailed off the coast of Nigeria.

Massoel Shipping said in a statement Sunday that the ship MV Glarus, with 19 crew on board, was attacked as it was carrying wheat from the Nigerian commercial capital Lagos to Port Harcourt.

Reuters news agency reported late Sunday the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) had identified the nationalities of the kidnapped crew. It said seven crew members were from the Philippines and others were from Slovenia, Ukraine, Romania, Croatia and Bosnia.

Nigerian officials said the 12 were still unaccounted for.

Massoel Shipping said the vessel was attacked around 45 nautical miles southwest of Bonny Island early Saturday.

"It is understood the pirate gang boarded the Glarus by means of long ladders and cut the razor wire on deck to gain access to the vessel and eventually the bridge," the company said. "Having destroyed much of the vessel's communications equipment, the criminal gang departed, taking 12 of the 19 crew complement as hostage."

Piracy has been rising in the southern Niger Delta region in the past few years, along with the number sailors kidnapped for ransom.

According to a study published by the EOS Risk Group in July, the number of kidnappings in the region rose from 52 in 2016 to 75 last year. In the first half of this year, pirated kidnapped 35 sailors, it said.

VOA

Video - Nigeria's ruling and opposition parties accused of favoring rich aspirants

In Nigeria criticism is mounting against two of the country's main political parties, the ruling APC and the opposition PDP, allegedly for skewing political contest in favour of the rich. APC and PDP are set to hold party primaries in the coming weeks but they are being accused of limiting the participation of the majority-poor by charging steep fees for fresh entrants.

Relaunch of Nigerian airline suspended

Nigeria is suspending the relaunch of its national airline just over two months after it announced the new venture, the country's aviation minister has said.

The government had planned to launch the prestige project in December to make good on a promise by Muhammadu Buhari when he ran for president in 2015. He will seek re-election in February.

"I regret to announce that the Federal Executive Council has taken the tough decision to suspend the national carrier project in the interim," Hadi Sirika, junior aviation minister, said on Wednesday on Twitter after the weekly cabinet meeting.

"All commitments due will be honoured," he said. No reason was given for the decision.

In a separate statement, Sirika said: "The suspension was strategic and had nothing to do with politics."

The airline relaunch was announced in July as part of a plan to improve the country's infrastructure, which has suffered due to decades of neglect and underinvestment. The government maintains that improvement will require private investment.

A private operator was sought to manage the airline, according to a document seen by Reuters news agency.

The operator would enter a public-private partnership with the government, which would own no more than five percent.

The chief executive of Ethiopian Airlines said in August the airline was a frontrunner to set up and manage the carrier.

Nigeria Airways, the original national airline, operated for 45 years until 2003. Air Nigeria, its successor, ran from 2005 to 2012.

Al Jazeera

Video - Nigeria may declare national disaster as flood death toll rises to 100

Authorities in Nigeria say more than 100 people have been killed in the floods across the country in the past two weeks. Heavy rains have caused the country's two major rivers -- the Niger and Benue -- to overflow. Dozens of communities have been completely submerged, thousands of people displaced and vast swathes of farmlands destroyed. Rural areas are the worst hit. The government is urging residents living along waterways to relocate to higher places. It's also considering declaring a state of emergency to free up funding and ensure a more effective response. Nigeria is battered by floods almost every year. Analysts blame it on a lack of proper town planning, blocked waterways and poor drainage.

Video - Nigeria floods displaces more than 30,000 people

Nigeria's Emergency Management Agency estimates more than 100 people have been killed, and 30 thousand displaced by flooding in the past two weeks alone.

The battle to dispel black magic behind sex slavery in Nigeria

BENIN CITY, Nigeria, Sept 18 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When Florence broke out in lesions on her face, she was convinced it was because she had crossed a black magic curse cast on her as she left Nigeria to work in Russia's sex trade.

Florence is one of a rising number of women lured in recent years from impoverished lives in southern Nigeria to Europe with the promise of lucrative work, many ending up selling sex.

Although some of the women knowingly entered into contracts for sex work, few realised they would be trapped like slaves for years, with their traffickers colluding with madams to ensure black magic curses, or juju, stopped them escaping.

For belief in juju to kill or maim is deeply rooted in Edo state, the home of about nine in every 10 Nigerian women trafficked to Europe, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC), with a battle now waging to end witchcraft's hold over trafficking victims.

Florence, 24, said she had not known she was headed for sex work six years ago when she agreed to a loan to fund a trip to work in Russia in a deal brokered by a pastor from her church.

Before leaving her home in Benin, the capital city of Edo, she was taken to a juju priest who used her hair and clothing to make a spell to bind her to her traffickers then she was taken to Lagos where she was raped before being sent to Russia.

"They took my pants. They took my bra. They took my hair from my armpits and also from my private parts," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"(The madam) used those items she took from me to take as vengeance against me."

She was convinced that juju was to blame for facial lesions that erupted in 2016 after she refused to give her captors any more money after paying them 45,000 euro ($53,000) and fled back to Nigeria.

SPELLS AND CURSES

Florence's fear of black magic if she disobeyed her traffickers, went to the police or failed to pay her debt is typical for many women trafficked from Nigeria, experts say.

Many end up enslaved after signing a contract to finance their move, leaving them with debts that spiral into thousands of dollars and take years to pay off.

Between 2014 and 2016, there was an almost 10-fold increase in the number of Nigerian women arriving in Italy by boat - about 11,000 - with at least four in five becoming prostitutes, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

But law enforcement officials and campaigners are hoping the intervention this year by Oba Ewuare II, leader of the historic kingdom of Benin, could end this burgeoning trade.

In March, the Oba summoned the kingdom's juju priests to a ceremony at his palace and dismissed the curses they had placed on trafficking victims - and cast a fresh curse on anyone who went against his order.

Since then, anecdotal evidence from people involved in the trade suggests the trafficking has slowed although it is too soon for firm data to be collated.

Patience, 42, who has supplemented her income as a hairdresser by selling girls into overseas sex work for about 16 years, said the leader's ceremony had stopped the trafficking.

"I didn't hear directly from his mouth but, through the radio and television. The Oba has stopped everything," Patience told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in her home in Benin, where she lives with her husband and four children.

"Whenever I go out, I meet girls who beg me to take them to Europe but I refuse because I don't want to die. Everybody is afraid."

David Edebiri, the second highest ranking chief in Benin, said he believes the Oba's involvement, inspired by repeated bad press in the international media, has reduced trafficking and could help bring more traffickers to justice as many women involved were previously too afraid of juju rituals to testify.

"It has been very, very effective and that if even anything is going on now, it must be a very minute dimension. Not as it was before (when) it was becoming everybody's game," he said.

ESCAPING POVERTY

But with unemployment in Edo at 20 percent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, women especially are hard pressed to find work. Living standards are low with large families to feed and few outlets to earn.

Nigeria has the most extreme poor people in the world, according to The World Poverty Clock, with almost half of its 180 million population living on less than $2 a day.

So many women, like Betty, say the crackdown on traffickers taking girls for sex work in other countries - often with the knowledge of their families - is unlikely to stop the industry.

When Betty touched down in Nigeria from Belgium two years ago, she knelt on the tarmac, raised her hands, and thanked God she was home after five years of being trapped in sex work repaying debts.

Now Betty, 29 and single, can't wait to get back to Europe.

She has not found work since returning to Benin. She avoids her mother, a fish seller, who is distraught about her daughter's fall from grace.

"When I was in Europe, I was like a celebrity ... I did a lot of things for my family," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, recalling life before she was deported from Belgium.

"I was their hope, their joy. I was giving my parents feeding money. My elder brother's children, the four of them, I was also paying their school fees," said Betty from the one-bedroom home she shares with her brother's seven-strong family.

She said it was now difficult to stay in Nigeria,

"If I have my way, I will definitely go back," said Betty, who paid about 50,000 euros ($58,000) to a Nigerian madam in Europe over five years to work in the sex business.

Betty, who did not want to reveal her surname, said she earned thousands of euros in Europe, selling her body several times a day from street corners and a rented flat.

DANGEROUS WORK

It came with its risks.

She injured her back after jumping out of a speeding car to escape one punter. Her flatmate disappeared after going to meet a client.

Florence also spoke of the dangers involved, recalling arriving to meet a client and finding 15 men waiting and always checking out which doors and windows could be escape routes.

But some women and their families remain willing to take the risks for the money that can support whole families in Nigeria.

Victor Irorere has two daughters, aged 18 and 21, who have both lived in Europe for at least four years and he knows work "with their bodies" but he relies on their earnings.

"They help me ... They often send money," said Irorere, 47, a bricklayer and father of 11, as he waited outside a juju priest's shrine in Benin, a live chicken struggling in his hand, to pay for a good luck spell for his daughters.

Kokunre Eghafona, a professor of sociology at the University of Benin who researches human trafficking, said the Oba's curse was not stopping but just changing patterns in the sex trafficking trade.

With traffickers and juju priests terrified of the misfortunes that might befall them as a result of the Oba's curse, girls and young women are instead raising their own funds to finance their journeys to Europe and beyond.

The United Nations this year recorded a sharp fall in the number of migrants reaching Europe by sea, with the biggest change in the once-busy channel between North Africa and Italy.

But experts said this was because traffickers have found a new market.

Middle Eastern countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE and Oman, are now the new destinations of choice for Nigerians selling sex, according to Nduka Nwanwenne, Benin zonal commander of Nigeria's anti-trafficking agency (NAPTIP).

He said many of the girls are tricked into believing that they will be going to work as house maids and nurses, only to be forced into sex work, while others are going willingly.

"But you know when it comes to willingness, a victim is still a victim. There are some that don't know the extent of what they are going to do there. They don't know the extent of exploitation," Nwanwenne told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

($1 = 0.8556 euros)

Reuters

Related stories: The illegal sex trafficking trail between Nigeria and Europe

Video - Nigerian women trafficked to Europe for prostitution at 'crisis level'

Kidnapped International Red Cross aid worker murdered in Nigeria

A female aid worker abducted in Nigeria's troubled northeast region has been killed, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Monday.

Saifura Hussaini Ahmed Khorsa, 25, was kidnapped by suspected Boko Haram militants in March this year alongside two other ICRC aid workers during an attack on a military facility. 

At least three Nigerian aid workers were killed and three others were injured in the attack.
The ICRC condemned the killing and said it was "devastated" by the news.

"We are devastated by the murder of our colleague Saifura," said Eloi Fillion, head of ICRC delegation in Abuja.

"Saifura moved to Rann to selflessly help those in need. Our thoughts are with her family and other loved ones at this incredibly difficult time," he added.

The ICRC said it will not comment on the "motives or the details" surrounding the nurse's death, and called for the immediate release of the two aid workers still held by the group. 

"We urge those still holding our colleague Hauwa and Alice: release these women. Like Saifura, they are not part of the fight. They are a midwife and a nurse. They are daughters, a wife, and a mother -- women with families that depend on them," said Fillion.

"Their families and friends miss them dearly and will not give up the hope of seeing them again soon. There is no ideology or religious law that could justify doing any harm to them," he added.

Khorsa was working in the UNICEF clinic in Rann with internally displaced people in a remote town outside Maiduguri, in Nigeria's troubled north east region. 

Her death comes as a local publication reported it had obtained a video that showed the aid worker being shot by the militants.

In the video, the insurgents alleged the Nigerian government ignored messages and audios it had sent showing that the aid workers were still alive, according to the report.

The report also stated that the kidnappers threatened to kill the two remaining health workers and kidnapped schoolgirl Leah Sharibu, who remains in Boko Haram camp because she reportedly refused to denounce her Christian faith.

Around 3,000 aid workers, most of them Nigerian nationals, work in Nigeria's northeast.
Boko Haram fighters who have waged a decade-long war in the region regularly attack such camps with gunmen and suicide bombers.

CNN

Using an app to tackle food waste in Nigeria

"Going without food for any person, for any child - it's destabilising, it shakes you to your core. I remember being a child and going without food and being able to have just one good meal in a day."

Oscar Ekponimo's drive comes from a childhood fuelled by hunger. When his father got sick and couldn't work, the whole family went hungry.

But now this tech entrepreneur in Nigeria's capital Abuja thinks he has the answer to the problem of food inequality.

He's the inventor of an app called Chowberry which connects people to supermarket food that would ordinarily end up in the bin.

It has already been taken up by 35 retailers, NGOs (non-government organisations) and other organisations in the country.

At a supermarket in Abuja, a sales assistant unloads shelves filled with semolina, a type of milled flour, into shopping trolleys. He's preparing the products for collection by Thrifty Slayer - a charity that has bought these discounted items via Chowberry.

Discount products

As we stand in one of the aisles, Oscar takes out a tablet to show me how the technology works. "We have a system on this app that allows retailers to put information about products that are about to expire.

"These products are deeply discounted because the products are reaching the end of their shelf life.

"The food would ordinarily be thrown away by the retailers, but with our system they have a way of saving their losses," he adds.

"At the same time NGOs are able to take this food at a very reasonable price and acquire more food for distribution."

Currently anyone can order food at a discount online, although there are 15 charities with priority access who are able to to order larger quantities.

Chowberry has a list of their preferences and sends them updates when it receives the type of food the charities need for their food distribution programmes.

The supermarket that Oscar is showing me round was an early adopter of Chowberry when it launched two years ago.

"Some of the shops we work with have said they've managed to save 80% of what they used to throw away," he tells me.

A study commissioned by the United Nations indicates that globally, one-third of food produced for consumption is lost or wasted.

This amounts to 1.3 billion tonnes a year. UN figures also suggest that one in nine of us across the globe go to bed on an empty stomach - despite there being enough food in the world.

Oscar's ability to relate to the problem is at the heart of his mission to reach those living on extremely low incomes, right at the bottom of the pyramid.

"They don't have access to smartphones, so the connecting entity is the NGOs," says Oscar.

Thrifty Slayer is one of the many charities and NGOs that buys discounted products for its food distribution programmes through the Chowberry app.

Its programmes are funded by selling donated second-hand clothing online but Ijeoma Nwizu, Thrifty Slayer's founder, says Chowberry helps the charity's funds go much further.

"We started feeding about 40 people, but then the community kept growing. Now we feed them and neighbouring communities - about 200 people every Sunday," she says.

"As the numbers of people we feed increased we started to look for ways to keep our costs low. The good thing about partnering with Chowberry is the availability of food in the quantities we need them."

UN figures show over 14 million people in Nigeria are classified as undernourished.

Hunger is a major problem according to Amara Nwankpa, director of public policy at the Shehu Musa Yar'Adua Foundation, an organisation campaigning for food security.

"I think the challenges we face with food supply and access represents an opportunity for innovators. We have no choice but to innovate our way out of this situation," says Amara.

"Most times I get emotional about it. I get a sense of fulfilment that a simple idea can reach people in a real way. But the feelings are mixed," says Oscar during a visit to Pyakasa, a small dusty town surrounded by mountains on the outskirts of Abuja where a feeding programme is under way.

On the days we are there, around 50 people, mainly women and children, were queuing for lunch. We were told that for most of them, this would have been their biggest meal all week.

"The challenge is to scale up, that's where our work is cut out for the next few years," says Oscar. "I'm in it for the long haul, as long as there's the value chain of food there will always be food floating around."

Food waste is a huge problem and this entrepreneur has global aspirations for his simple solution.

He hopes that once it makes inroads in Nigeria and across Africa, it will go on to transform the lives of people around the world.

BBC

Nigeria's undercover atheists

Denouncing God can be a dangerous thing in Nigeria, where religion is the rhythm of life.

Atheism, considered blasphemy by many, is a largely underground movement that's hard to quantify but increasingly reported among millennials.

Atheists come together in private on WhatsApp groups and use pseudonyms on social media sites to share ideas.

The Nigerian population of nearly 200 million is split almost evenly between Muslims and Christians with sizeable followers of traditional spirituality.

"As a clergyman, this makes me sad that today we have people in Nigeria going in for atheism," Gideon Obasogie, a Roman Catholic cleric tells A Jazeera. "The effect of this will be terrible. For one who says there is no God, he can do all kinds of horrible things … I feel this will lead to anarchy and chaos. The rise of atheism in Nigeria is not wonderful news."

In recent months, Nigerian atheists have registered three pro-secular organisations: Atheist Society of Nigeria, the Northern Nigerian Humanist Association and the Nigerian Secular Society.

"We need these organisations as a space for people to come out," says Mubarak Bala, who helped to register the groups.

Bala attracted media attention in 2014 after being admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Kano by his parents when they found out he was atheist.

He says his father and uncles held him down for 30 minutes and forced him to take medications given by the psychiatrist, who told him "everyone needs God".

"People began secretly contacting me, telling me that they too, don't believe in Allah. Even Christians told me they don't think Jesus is God and they just have questions about the whole religion thing," Bala said.

Most keep their beliefs secret.

Bala is the only atheist who allowed Al Jazeera to use his real name.

Al Jazeera travelled to three cities - Kano, Kaduna and Abuja - to meet some "undercover" atheists in their twenties and thirties.

Kenneth: 'My family told me I am possessed'

"I grew up a rebel. I grew up a black sheep in the family. If I go to church, I go because I am forced to go to church.

I've never believed anything, so at a point, the pastor of the church I was attending with my family told me that I am possessed with an evil spirit because I was always questioning God and the Bible.

As an atheist in Nigeria, you will be ostracised.

Up to today, I have many people who keep their distance from me simply because I ask a lot of critical questions about religion. Many of them don't even know I'm now an atheist."

Jiddah: 'I realised Islam didn't have my interest as a woman'

"I've always had questions, unanswered questions right from childhood.

It's not like I was the ideal Muslim girl, because I did a lot of things that Islam did not permit me to do such as wearing men's clothing - meaning trousers - going clubbing, having premarital sex.

Basically, I realised Islam didn't really have my interest as a woman. As a child at the Islamic school, I would always ask, 'Where is God? Why can't we see him or her?'

What I got was a beating, serious flogging because you shouldn't ask such questions.

The breakthrough came I guess when I met Mubarak [Bala]. I found him on Facebook and I sent him a friend request.

(Note: Before receiving death threats, Jiddah said she would use the site to criticise Islam and had 8,000 followers. She has now closed her account.)

Then, we began to talk about religion. Mubarak would say, 'It's just like me telling you there's a cat right here and you can't see it. Why would you believe anything like that?'

So gradually, I just rid myself of that belief in God and it's been liberating.

But it's heartbreaking because you really want to talk to your friends about these things and explain to them because you want them to feel what you feel. But you just can't."

Shehu: 'A scholar can declare you an apostate'

"In Islam, I used to see stuff that didn't correspond with reality. I tried to study Islam but I kept seeing more and more things that I just couldn't believe I was reading.

I went to school in Malaysia and learned about intellectualism and what I learned blew my mind. I was learning about science that broke down the myths of religion. Things just became clear.

I came out and told my father, thinking he would understand. It backfired.

We come from an Islamic royal family in northern Nigeria.

My dad, he went to the NGO I was working at. He was a board member and told them to fire me. So they did.

Then he brought a woman for me to marry so I could just conform and be normal.

My dad prevents me from telling anyone about my beliefs. Here in Nigeria, a Mallam - a respected Islamic scholar - can declare you an apostate as an atheist and order you to be killed, just like that. So I'm undercover."

Peter: 'Why is it that Christianity had to come through conquest?'

"My mother was quite religious. Every Sunday, we'd go to a Catholic church.

The religion, Christianity itself, came in through several tools. Slavery, colonialism and of course, the subtle colonialism, which is missionary style.

So my question has always been, why is it that something that I need had to come through in such an inhumane way? Why is it that it had to come through conquest?

Some people were put to the sword and they had to take it whether they liked it or not.

For my safety … if folks find out I'm an atheist, I could lose out on work opportunities (Peter is an IT professional). If people here in Nigeria find out I'm atheist, I think that would be the death of my reputation. Religion is a scam."

Freeman: 'The killings here over religion do not help'

"The killings that happen so much here in Nigeria over religion do not help.

I came back home one day from school and I learned that a lot of houses had been brought down by our people, Muslims, just thinking that they did that for God.

I watched somebody being burned to death on the road. I was coming back from school. I actually had friends, my Muslim friends, who went out to kill Christians and they asked me to join them and they actually believe they were doing it for God.

They said it's God's wish. They said that's what God wants them to do and that it's also what the Quran says. It really makes me upset."

Nasir: 'My father said I should leave or he'll kill me'

"I am against Islam entirely. Not just the way it's practised, but against it fully.

My parents, they know I don't believe in God.

My father is an Islamic scholar and one day he called me and my mum, and he asked if it was true, [if] what he was hearing about me being an atheist is true. I said yes.

So, he brought out a knife. He wanted to kill me. I was telling him, 'Wait let me explain to you.'

He said, 'How can you explain to me?'

I was scared actually and we were struggling, me and him. Then my mother seized the knife. My father said I should leave the house or he'll kill me at night. So I left the house and started living at my workplace.

My father sent me away and then a relative talked to him and told him I changed my mind and told him that I'm no longer an atheist. But my father knows that's not true.

Some of my relatives keep me away from their children because they say I will corrupt them."

Ayuba: 'It would break my mother's heart if she knew'

"My mother will call me and say, 'Have you been giving your tithes to the church?'

Like, if you don't pay, then you're stealing from God and God will punish you for that. So, it's like a way of indoctrinating people, trying to put fear in people.

I grew up in ECWA (Evangelical Church Winning All, formerly known as Evangelical Church of West Africa).

The whole story of the Bible and creation, I don't know. My mother, it would break her heart if she knew I am atheist."

"I told my father that I don't believe in prayers any more. He was grooming me to become a mallam, an Islamic scholar, like him.

He never encouraged me to go to Western schools. Even when I went to university, I just did it on my own.

He started preaching against me a few years ago.

He's an Islamic scholar so people listen to him. Him preaching against me, you know, someone could take action to harm me.

In his sermons, he would say, 'Just imagine, my son went to Western school so now he believes there is no creator. He thinks he is smarter than all of us and he gets his notions from a computer,' because he used to see me on the computer.

I see my father and other religious people as victims of their beliefs. I had to stop going to my family house."

These interviews were edited for clarity and length. 

All of the interviewees' names, aside from those in the introduction, have been changed to protect their safety. They also requested their ages were not published, out of fear of being identified.

Al Jazeera

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