Friday, June 5, 2015
Video - SaharaTV's Adeola Fayehun confronts President Mugabe in Nigeria
Adeola Fayehun’s ambush of ageing Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe has catapulted the queen of Nigerian satire, already a star in many countries in Africa, into the international spotlight.
In a clip which has received 270,000 views on YouTube, Fayehun and her colleague Omoyele Sowore question Mugabe as he makes his way to and from new Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari’s inauguration on 29 May.
Sowore initially disarms Mugabe by asking: “Mr Mugabe, how are you?”
Smiling uncomfortably, he replies: “I am well, thanks”.
“Well, you know they also want elections in your country, when is it happening next in your country?” Sowore asks.
“In my country? Well, we had our elections…” He tapers off as an aide comes to his rescue.
After Buhari’s speech, as Mugabe made his way back to the car Fayehun delivers the next barrage of questions.
“Mr President, don’t you think it is time to step down?” “Is there a time limit?” “How’s your health?’ “When will there be change in Zimbabwe?” “Is there democracy in Zimbabwe?”
She ends the clip looking for her next victim, asking: “Is [South African president] Jacob Zuma here?”
While many Africans across the continent have been aware of the refreshing talents of Fayehun, who has presented around 150 episodes of her weekly satirical news show Keeping It Real since it launched on Sahara TV in November 2011, it took the daring ambush of Robert Mugabe for her to be noticed in internationally.
After the incident, The Telegraph’s chief political correspondent Colin Freeman wrote: “compared the BBC’s John Simpson or CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Adeola Fayehun from Nigeria is not exactly a global name in the world of television reporting. This week, though, she made broadcasting history as she did something that few African reporters have ever dared do: ask one their ageing dictators when the hell he is going to quit.”
Nigerian-born Fayehun is based in New York, where she has teamed up with Sowore, who launched the website Sahara Reporters in 2006 to encourage citizen journalists to report on corruption and mismanagement in Nigeria.
Fayehun’s talents helped launch Sahara TV’s hugely popular online comedy programme, the Dr Njakiri Damages Show. When Sowore later asked Fayehun if she was interested in hosting a news programme she jumped at the offer.
And Fayehun’s style has proved popular: pithy, well-researched social commentary and news combined with sharp satire and a dollop of comedy. All the ingredients that have seen hits like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report in the US become the favoured mediums for the delivery of political information and entertainment.
Guardian
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Video - PDP trying to reinvent itself after loosing presidency
Goodluck Jonathan's PDP party once dominated Nigerian politics. It had control of the presidency, the parliament and most states, but recent elections saw them kicked out of power at almost every level. Is the PDP ready to play its role in opposition?
69 dead in fuel tanker explosion in Nigeria
Sixty-nine people have been killed and 35 people injured after a fuel tanker crashed into a busy bus stop in Southeast Nigeria.
"There is a likelihood that the number will go up," said Umar Abdou Mairiga, Nigeria's Red Cross coordinator.
The state fire service responded to the accident where 12 buses were destroyed but no major buildings were affected in the city of Onitsha.
The accident comes as Nigeria struggles with a nationwide fuel shortage after fuel industry companies claimed the Nigerian government owed them$1 billion in unpaid bills.
Fuel prices have increased with the shortage, and at accidents such as this, often people run forward to try to siphon as much fuel from the spill in buckets as possible. It is unclear if that was the case this time.
In 2012, over 100 people died as they tried to collect fuel from an overturned tanker that caught fire in nearby Rivers state.
The injured have been taken to area hospitals.
CNN
"There is a likelihood that the number will go up," said Umar Abdou Mairiga, Nigeria's Red Cross coordinator.
The state fire service responded to the accident where 12 buses were destroyed but no major buildings were affected in the city of Onitsha.
The accident comes as Nigeria struggles with a nationwide fuel shortage after fuel industry companies claimed the Nigerian government owed them$1 billion in unpaid bills.
Fuel prices have increased with the shortage, and at accidents such as this, often people run forward to try to siphon as much fuel from the spill in buckets as possible. It is unclear if that was the case this time.
In 2012, over 100 people died as they tried to collect fuel from an overturned tanker that caught fire in nearby Rivers state.
The injured have been taken to area hospitals.
CNN
Monday, June 1, 2015
Top bankers in Nigeria arrested for $30 million dollar fraud
Nigeria's anti-corruption agency has arrested six senior central bank officials over an alleged $30m (£20m) currency fraud.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) also held 16 private bank workers for the "mega scam".
The suspects stole "tonnes of defaced naira notes", which were meant to be destroyed, it said on its website.
Newly-installed Nigerian President Muhammudu Buhari has pledged to make tackling corruption a priority.
The suspects allegedly filled boxes supposed to contain damaged currency with bits of newspaper cut into the shape of naira notes, before sending them to branches of the Central Bank of Nigeria for destruction, according to the EFCC.
The actual banknotes were held back so that they could be reused, it adds.
The EFCC said the fraud had contributed to the failure of the government's policy of reducing inflation in recent years.
BBC
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) also held 16 private bank workers for the "mega scam".
The suspects stole "tonnes of defaced naira notes", which were meant to be destroyed, it said on its website.
Newly-installed Nigerian President Muhammudu Buhari has pledged to make tackling corruption a priority.
The suspects allegedly filled boxes supposed to contain damaged currency with bits of newspaper cut into the shape of naira notes, before sending them to branches of the Central Bank of Nigeria for destruction, according to the EFCC.
The actual banknotes were held back so that they could be reused, it adds.
The EFCC said the fraud had contributed to the failure of the government's policy of reducing inflation in recent years.
BBC
Nigeria hit by bomb attacks after inaugeration of new president Mohammadu Buhari
Bombing attacks killed nearly 30 people in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri over the weekend, according to reports.
At least four people were critically injured -- with one losing an arm -- when an improvised explosive device detonated in the Gamboru Market in Maiduguri on Sunday, according to Nigerian media.
The blast occurred less than 24 hours after a suicide bomber detonated in a mosque at the Monday Market in the same city, killing 26 people and injuring 28.
Militant Islamic group Boko Haram is suspected of the attacks, which follow Friday's inauguration of President Mohammadu Buhari. A former military officer, Buhari won Nigeria's late-March election over former President Goodluck Jonathan and last week said he would move the Nigerian military's command and control center from Abuja to Maiduguri "until Boko Haram is completely subdued."
Buhari condemned the weekend attacks and expressed condolences to the families of the victims.
Reports indicate that barely 12 hours prior to Saturday's mosque explosion, the Nigerian military repelled Boko Haram gunmen from portions of Maiduguri, which is the capital of Borno state in the country's northeast, in a firefight that killed 16 people. The insurgents also reportedly attacked the village of Malari, which is in the same province, with rocket-propelled grenades, car bombs and anti-aircraft weapons, killing 15.
Boko Haram has since 2009 sought an Islamic government in Nigeria, targeting Maiduguri several times, including in a failed assault on the city earlier this year and through multiple suicide bombings, many utilizing young women as perpetrators . Experts have speculated the group might be using abducted children to conduct some of the attacks.
UPI
At least four people were critically injured -- with one losing an arm -- when an improvised explosive device detonated in the Gamboru Market in Maiduguri on Sunday, according to Nigerian media.
The blast occurred less than 24 hours after a suicide bomber detonated in a mosque at the Monday Market in the same city, killing 26 people and injuring 28.
Militant Islamic group Boko Haram is suspected of the attacks, which follow Friday's inauguration of President Mohammadu Buhari. A former military officer, Buhari won Nigeria's late-March election over former President Goodluck Jonathan and last week said he would move the Nigerian military's command and control center from Abuja to Maiduguri "until Boko Haram is completely subdued."
Buhari condemned the weekend attacks and expressed condolences to the families of the victims.
Reports indicate that barely 12 hours prior to Saturday's mosque explosion, the Nigerian military repelled Boko Haram gunmen from portions of Maiduguri, which is the capital of Borno state in the country's northeast, in a firefight that killed 16 people. The insurgents also reportedly attacked the village of Malari, which is in the same province, with rocket-propelled grenades, car bombs and anti-aircraft weapons, killing 15.
Boko Haram has since 2009 sought an Islamic government in Nigeria, targeting Maiduguri several times, including in a failed assault on the city earlier this year and through multiple suicide bombings, many utilizing young women as perpetrators . Experts have speculated the group might be using abducted children to conduct some of the attacks.
UPI
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