Friday, March 3, 2017
Video - Incubating tech and innovation in Kaduna, Nigeria
CoLab is the first tech hub in the northern part of Nigeria where developers and start-ups can work and grow. Located in Kaduna, CoLab's founder wants to explore the opportunities for tech in a state traditionally known for processing, farming, and cattle.
Triple suicide bombing in Nigeria
Three suicide bombers blew themselves up in Maiduguri, northeastern Nigeria, but failed to cause any casualties besides themselves, according to emergency officials.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) tweeted that the three had detonated their devices on Damboa Road—one of the main roads into the city—early Friday morning.
Three petrol bankers were burnt as a result of the bombings, which took place outside a gas station and opposite the regional headquarters of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
NEMA spokesman Abdulkadir Ibrahim said that one bomber had exploded next to a stationary tanker filled with fuel, setting two more tankers on fire and killing the other attackers, according to the AP.
Officials blamed the militant group Boko Haram for the attack, without specifying which faction. Boko Haram has been waging an armed insurgency in northeast Nigeria since 2009, aimed at establishing a hardline Islamic caliphate in the region. In 2016, the group split into two factions—one loyal to longtime leader Abubakar Shekau, and the other led by Abu Musab al-Barnawi, whom the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) appointed as Boko Haram’s leader in a decision rejected by Shekau.
There have been multiple suicide bombings in the region in recent months, but the incidents have failed to cause the large-scale casualties once common in Boko Haram attacks.
Seven suicide bombers blew themselves up on the outskirts of Maiduguri on February 17, apparently targeting a refugee settlement. Nigerian officials did not report any casualties besides the bombers. Shekau also claimed responsibility for the bombing of a staff mosque and campus gate at the University of Maiduguri in January, which killed a professor and a child as well as the two bombers.
“We are lucky. Today could have been another sad day for us in Maiduguri,” said Police Commissioner Damian Chukwu Friday, according to the AP. Chukwu said he assumed the intended target of the attack was a fuel depot down the road from the site of the explosions.
Offensives by the Nigerian military and a regional joint task force have pressed both factions of Boko Haram back. Shekau’s faction is reportedly confined to the remote Sambisa forest in Borno state, northeast Nigeria, while Barnawi’s is reportedly operating out of the Lake Chad Basin area.
A recent report to the U.N. Security Council claimed that both factions are running out of money and are unable to pay fighters’ salaries, and that many attacks perpetrated by the militants were aimed at stealing provisions. Depleted resources have resulted in defections from Boko Haram factions, according to the report.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) tweeted that the three had detonated their devices on Damboa Road—one of the main roads into the city—early Friday morning.
Three petrol bankers were burnt as a result of the bombings, which took place outside a gas station and opposite the regional headquarters of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
NEMA spokesman Abdulkadir Ibrahim said that one bomber had exploded next to a stationary tanker filled with fuel, setting two more tankers on fire and killing the other attackers, according to the AP.
Officials blamed the militant group Boko Haram for the attack, without specifying which faction. Boko Haram has been waging an armed insurgency in northeast Nigeria since 2009, aimed at establishing a hardline Islamic caliphate in the region. In 2016, the group split into two factions—one loyal to longtime leader Abubakar Shekau, and the other led by Abu Musab al-Barnawi, whom the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) appointed as Boko Haram’s leader in a decision rejected by Shekau.
There have been multiple suicide bombings in the region in recent months, but the incidents have failed to cause the large-scale casualties once common in Boko Haram attacks.
Seven suicide bombers blew themselves up on the outskirts of Maiduguri on February 17, apparently targeting a refugee settlement. Nigerian officials did not report any casualties besides the bombers. Shekau also claimed responsibility for the bombing of a staff mosque and campus gate at the University of Maiduguri in January, which killed a professor and a child as well as the two bombers.
“We are lucky. Today could have been another sad day for us in Maiduguri,” said Police Commissioner Damian Chukwu Friday, according to the AP. Chukwu said he assumed the intended target of the attack was a fuel depot down the road from the site of the explosions.
Offensives by the Nigerian military and a regional joint task force have pressed both factions of Boko Haram back. Shekau’s faction is reportedly confined to the remote Sambisa forest in Borno state, northeast Nigeria, while Barnawi’s is reportedly operating out of the Lake Chad Basin area.
A recent report to the U.N. Security Council claimed that both factions are running out of money and are unable to pay fighters’ salaries, and that many attacks perpetrated by the militants were aimed at stealing provisions. Depleted resources have resulted in defections from Boko Haram factions, according to the report.
Thursday, March 2, 2017
Video - Should Nigeria's president resign?
President Muhammadu Buhari flew to London in mid-January to be treated for an undisclosed medical condition.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is temporarily leading the country.
But opposition leaders say Buhari has been out of the country for too long and he should resign.
So what will this mean for Nigeria and the region?
Video - Discussion on underage marriage and polygamy ongoing in Nigeria
In Nigeria, a senior Muslim cleric and former central bank governor has suggested Islamic marriage reforms. Muhammadu Sanusi has announced that men shouldn't take more than one wife if they can't afford to look after multiple spouses. His controversial comments come amid an ongoing debate on polygamy in Nigeria. Sophia Adengo has this story.
Nigerian engineer forced to take written test at New York airport
A Nigerian software engineer claims he was handed a written test by a US border officer at New York's JFK airport to prove his tech credentials, and Filipinos on social media criticise a proposed death penalty bill.
A software engineer from Lagos, Nigeria, is claiming that he was made to sit a written test by US airport immigration officers because they weren't convinced he was telling the truth about his skills.
According to social networking site LinkedIn, Celestine Omin, 28, landed in New York's JFK airport last Sunday after a 24-hour flight from Nigeria.
Mr Omin is employed by Andela, a tech start-up with offices in New York, Lagos, Nairobi and San Francisco.
The firm says it recruits "the most talented developers on the African continent" and connects them with tech employers in the US for potential job vacancies. Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg visited Andela's office in Lagos last year.
Mr Omin had reportedly been granted a short-term visa to work with First Access, a financial technology company in New York's Manhattan district.
After being asked a series of questions by a US Customs and Border Protection officer, he was taken into a room for further checks.
"Your visa says you are a software engineer. Is that correct?" an officer is reported to have asked Mr Omin.
He says he was then given a piece of paper and a pen and told to answer these two questions to prove he is actually a software engineer:
"Write a function to check if a Binary Search Tree is balanced."
"What is an abstract class, and why do you need it?"
Mr Omin told LinkedIn it seemed to him the questions had been "Googled" by "someone with no technical background".
He said later on Twitter that he was "too tired to even think", and told the officer they could "talk about other computer science concepts".
After he handed back his answers, he was told by the officer that they were wrong. He said he presumed he was required to provide "the Wikipedia definition" for the questions.
However, he was even more surprised a little later when the officer told him he was "free to go".
"Look, I am going to let you go, but you don't look convincing to me," said the officer, according to Mr Omin.
"I didn't say anything back. I just walked out."
He later found out that border protection officers had phoned Andela to verify his story.
A Customs and Border Protection spokesperson told the BBC: "US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers strive to treat all people arriving in the country with dignity and respect.
"While we are not at liberty to discuss individual cases due to the Privacy Act, our CBP officers enforce not only immigration and customs laws, but also more than 400 laws for 40 other agencies and have stopped thousands of violators of US law."
Nigeria is not one of the seven countries included in US President Donald Trump's temporary immigration pause. However, the African country has been struggling with the threat of terrorism in recent times, in particular from the militant Islamist group Boko Haram.
Mr Trump has repeatedly called for "strong borders" and "extreme vetting" since taking office on 20 January.
A software engineer from Lagos, Nigeria, is claiming that he was made to sit a written test by US airport immigration officers because they weren't convinced he was telling the truth about his skills.
According to social networking site LinkedIn, Celestine Omin, 28, landed in New York's JFK airport last Sunday after a 24-hour flight from Nigeria.
Mr Omin is employed by Andela, a tech start-up with offices in New York, Lagos, Nairobi and San Francisco.
The firm says it recruits "the most talented developers on the African continent" and connects them with tech employers in the US for potential job vacancies. Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg visited Andela's office in Lagos last year.
Mr Omin had reportedly been granted a short-term visa to work with First Access, a financial technology company in New York's Manhattan district.
After being asked a series of questions by a US Customs and Border Protection officer, he was taken into a room for further checks.
"Your visa says you are a software engineer. Is that correct?" an officer is reported to have asked Mr Omin.
He says he was then given a piece of paper and a pen and told to answer these two questions to prove he is actually a software engineer:
"Write a function to check if a Binary Search Tree is balanced."
"What is an abstract class, and why do you need it?"
Mr Omin told LinkedIn it seemed to him the questions had been "Googled" by "someone with no technical background".
He said later on Twitter that he was "too tired to even think", and told the officer they could "talk about other computer science concepts".
After he handed back his answers, he was told by the officer that they were wrong. He said he presumed he was required to provide "the Wikipedia definition" for the questions.
However, he was even more surprised a little later when the officer told him he was "free to go".
"Look, I am going to let you go, but you don't look convincing to me," said the officer, according to Mr Omin.
"I didn't say anything back. I just walked out."
He later found out that border protection officers had phoned Andela to verify his story.
A Customs and Border Protection spokesperson told the BBC: "US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers strive to treat all people arriving in the country with dignity and respect.
"While we are not at liberty to discuss individual cases due to the Privacy Act, our CBP officers enforce not only immigration and customs laws, but also more than 400 laws for 40 other agencies and have stopped thousands of violators of US law."
Nigeria is not one of the seven countries included in US President Donald Trump's temporary immigration pause. However, the African country has been struggling with the threat of terrorism in recent times, in particular from the militant Islamist group Boko Haram.
Mr Trump has repeatedly called for "strong borders" and "extreme vetting" since taking office on 20 January.
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