Branding of Children As Witches to Be Criminalized

A UK-based anti-child abuse charity organisation, AFRUCA, is working with UK groups to make branding of African children as witches a criminal offence in the United Kingdom.

AFRUCA Founder and Director, Debbie Ariyo, who disclosed this in London over the weekend at an event to mark the organization's 10th anniversary said children brought to the UK from Africa were often branded as witches and victimized by their guardians.

"We are working with UK's National Working Group to stop this practice and make branding of children as witches a criminal offence", she said, disclosing that most of its victims and victims of other child abuse practices were from Nigeria.

Debbie stated that the AFRUCA project in Nigeria, which would be launched in December this year, was established to "address issues of child abuse and exploitation at source", anticipating that the organization's operation in Nigeria would be "phenomenal".

She disclosed that the organisation had trained more than 4,000 parents on the best parenting practices that would stop their children from being taken to care homes, lamenting that a huge number of parents have lost the custody of their children to care services due to bad parenting.

In her remarks, Ekiti State first lady, Mrs Bisi Fayemi, lamented that appalling cases of child abuse and exploitation happen on a daily basis, and urged those who could make a difference to act to "stop the culture of impunity" by the perpetrators.

She said Ekiti State had taken the lead in the implementation of gender policy which outlaws discrimination against women and children, and promotes their rights and needs and enhances their chances in life.

Mrs Fayemi, a well-known activist for the less privileged in the UK, commended AFRUCA for its work against child abuse and child exploitation, saying that the organisation has helped many victims to heal and rebuild their lives.

Daily Trust

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Video - Nigerian primary schools in dire state

Primary schools in Nigeria are in a dire state as they greatly suffer from a lack of resources and unqualified educators to teach young pupils.

In Lagos State, home to Nigeria's most populous city, Lagos, more than 1,000 primary schools are dilapidated lacking basic classroom furniture, electricity, and running water.

Part of the problem is that primary education in Lagos State has suffered from decades of under-investment while the population of those that need to be taught increases.

Babatunde Fashola, governor of Lagos State, is trying to close to close the gap on years of neglect. Under his governorship, more than 2,300 new classrooms have been built and many renovated.

Al Jazeera

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Video - Floodwaters submerge Lagos

A day of heavy rains causes flash floods in Lagos, Nigeria.

Unfortunately, Reuters reporter Lindsey Parietti isn't aware that Lagos is no longer (hasn't been for quite a while) the capital of Nigeria, it's Abuja.

 

How Nollywood Could Thrive More With Online Video Streaming

Online video viewing is growing rapidly, there is no doubt that majority of Global Internet bandwidth in the near future will be used to stream video over many different Internet connected devices like smartphones, tablets, PCs and connected-TVs. According to a recent report from Gartner Research,online ads are now more engaging than most other ad forms and are projected to rise 22% within the next 12 months. Online ads are predicted to gradually surpass every other form of advertising including TV which is now the biggest. This shows that online media including online video is evolving and will soon stand to compete with the video we watch on our TV sets.

As far as Nollywood’s (video) business is concerned, their main distribution channels are CD and DVD sales, other smaller channels are sales of rights to African movie channels and lately some movies are being shown in cinemas first before being released on DVDs and CDs. With every business, the distribution reach and number of distribution channels can ultimately affect the bottom-line. Nollywood should pick up online streaming as a small revenue source to bring in some extra sales for now, because in the future, online streaming could turn out to be the major revenue source for the movie industries around the World.

Online video streaming/downloading used to be the threat to major movie studios and TV networks and is still so till today, but with the rise of Netflix, Hulu in the US and iLoveFilm in the UK, also with Youtube getting into the professionally produced video content business, so many producers are thinking twice about fighting this unavoidable shift. Hulu for example, is on-course to pay around $300 million to its content partners in 2011 alone, and the amount is bound to increase next year. Youtube which started as a small startup project with short free user generated videos during the days when online video business seemed not be commercially viable due to cost of bandwidth and scaling (before cheap cloud data services like that of Amazon) is now Google’s cash cow after search advertising. They have now shown many aspiring online video businesses the way to make money from online video.

A recent Forbes article by Mfonobong Nsehe estimated Nollywood to be a $800 million industry. So, if Hulu could pay $300 million to content owners in a year, then, there is enough money in online streaming to take care of Nollywood. Well, I know Nollywood for now can not generate as much money online as Hollywood makes, but we are looking at margins here. Compare costs of producing a Hollywood movie and that of a Nollywood movie and you’ll find out that Nollywood doesn’t have to get close to Hollywood in revenues in order to earn bigger profit margins, in percentage of course. The major problem studios in Hollywood have with online streaming is the question, “if the web and digital would ever replace the huge money they make from video sales and payments from networks?” Online video has been stigmatized as a money losing business. Online ad sales couldn’t match the big amounts TV networks charged for placing ads. As far as Nollywood is concerned though, cost of production is relatively low as stated by the same Forbes article by Nsehe, therefore the revenues from online ads that seemed meager to Hollywood (Although they are now beginning to embrace online TV, at least in plans for the future), the same amount could be a huge bump up to Nollywood’s revenues.

The point I am trying to make here is, Nollywood is going to have a much easier time switching to digital streaming than Hollywood. The main problem is revenue and revenue from online ads wouldn’t be so bad for Nollywood due to cost of production compared to that of Hollywood, just compare the prices original DVDs of Hollywood and those of Nollywood sell for. With the rise of ecommerce in Africa, soon many Africans would be able to buy a movie or TV show episode with a simple click of the mouse or through their mobile phones and they would feel comfortable making such a transaction digitally since the amount isn’t so high.

Whenever I try to pitch my online video service to content owners, I find them reluctant to try online streaming, and those that have tried it tell me how disappointed they are with the earnings. Well, At a small scale, the compensation you get as a content owner may be small, but if you produce content good enough to be viewed over and over again and even be shared with the viewer’s friends through email and social media, then your views will explode and so will the earnings.

All in all, the good news is, even online ads will earn more in the future and more money making innovative online video startups will be created thanks to the likes of YouTube.

One thing content makers need to keep in mind is, quality is key.

Nigerian Films

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Nigerian actress sentenced to death by hanging

Friday was a sad day for Miss Rabi Ismail, an Hausa actress, as a 7-man panel of Justices of the Supreme Court, okayed her death by hanging.

The embattled actress, who was based in Kano state, was accused of drowning her boyfriend, one Mr. Ibrahim Auwalu alias Zazu, in 2002, after she allegedly administered sedative drugs on him.

The apex court held that having considered the proof of evidence tendered against the accused person by the Kano state Directorate of Public Prosecution, DPP, it found her guilty of culpable homicide punishable with death.

The deceased boyfriend of the actress was said to have lost his consciousness shortly after he finished eating a doped Eclairs sweet handed to him by the accused person.

Following a detailed investigation that was conducted into the matter by various security agencies in the state, the actress was accused of complicity and was subsequently charged to court by the Kano state DPP.

Consequent upon her arraignment and trial before a Kano state High Court in 2002, the accused person was found guilty of culpable homicide contrary to section 221 (b) of the Penal Code and was accordingly sentenced to death by hanging.

Dissatisfied with the verdict of the trial court, Miss Ismail went before the Kaduna Division of the Court of Appeal, pleading it to overturn the death sentence slammed against her.

To her dismay however, the appellate court upheld the decision of the lower court, adding that she should be hanged immediately.

As a last resort, the actress proceeded to the Supreme Court, begging it to save her life.

In its lead judgment prepared by Justice Francis Fedode Tabai, the apex court noted that the accused person failed to place sufficient evidence capable of convincing it that she did not murder her deceased boyfriend on December 25, 2002.

It equally held that having examined the confessional statements of the accused, the depositions of all the witnesses that were called in the matter, as well as records of trial within trial earlier conducted by the lower courts, it did not see any reason to interfere with the decisions of either the trial High Court or the Appellate Court.

Therefore, the 7-man panel of jurists found her guilty as charged and accordingly okayed her death sentence.

Reacting to the judgment, counsel representing the Kano state DPP, Ms. Binta Lawal, said the state was only interested in ensuring that justice was done for both the deceased man and the accused person, stressing that the death sentence handed to Miss Ismail would not be celebrated.

Vanguard

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