Wednesday, April 12, 2017
Video - Much-anticipated Nigerian Basketball League finally begins after several delays
Nigeria's long-awaited Basketball League has finally started after repeated delays. The Nigerian Basketball Federation had been forced to postpone the competition as it had yet to conclude contractual agreements with sponsors. The women's league got under way on Monday, while the men's is set to begin on Thursday. The federation has announced several changes to the league. It says the 2017 season will consist of 28 regular games, with four rounds of action. For the players, the start of the league is welcome news.
Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Video - Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya look to invest in coal-fired power plants
After years as the only country with a heavy investment in electricity from coal, South Africa may be joined by Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya over the next five years. All three plan to add just under 3 GW of coal-fired power plants. Kenya has been heavily reliant on hydro- and geothermal power sources for decades. But as droughts become more frequent, and energy demand rises, planners see coal as an ideal source of cheap, reliable, affordable electricity. Our Business anchor Ramah Nyang spoke to the head of the country's energy regulator.
Monday, April 10, 2017
Video - Campaigners in Nigeria urges world not to forget Chibok girls
Recently marked three years since the kidnapping of hundreds of schoolgirls from Chibok. Three years on, and many have since been released. But others remain in captivity. To commemorate the anniversary, Bring Back Our Girls campaigners gathered in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. There, they planted trees and ties symbolic ribbons around them. The campaign says people need to be reminded of plight of the girls who remain in captivity. It's believed around 200 girls remain in the militant's clutches.
Nigerian government plans to end open defecation in Nigeria by 2025
It said the roadmap has already been adopted by the National Council on Water Resources as a veritable tool of fighting the menace.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Water Resources, Engr Suleiman Adamu, at the Wide Open Defecation Free celebration in Obanliku Local Government Area, Cross River State, Nigeria.
He said that the programme has been incorporated into the annual plans and budgeting processes for phased implementation at the national level while states are expected to do same.
He added the Partnership for Expanded Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (PEWASH) and the Open Defecation Free (ODF) Roadmap will eliminate open defecation.
“To achieve ODF, means without exception, all households and institutions have ended the practice of open defecation; they have cleaned their environment and have constructed basic or modified toilets. That is the case of Obanliku LGA we are celebrating today.
“Nigeria is reported to be a country with the highest number of people practicing open defecation in Africa estimated at over 46 million people and more than two-thirds of the population are without access to basic sanitation facilities,” he stated.
Adamu said that efforts in time past to address the situation has yielded minimal results, maintaining that: “A critical look at the situation shows that it cannot be business as usually and that all hands must be on deck in tackling this challenge.”
Also launched to address this issue was the PEWASH, a national collaborative instrument for the improvement of access to water supply and sanitation in Nigeria.
Nigeria through the PEWASH strategy targets eliminating open defecation by 2025 in line with the ODF Roadmap and achieving 100 per cent access to rural water supply and basic sanitation by 2030.
In his reply, the Executive Governor of Cross River State, Senator Ben Ayade, represented by the State Commissioner for Water Resources, Ntufam Oji, commended the Federal Government’s efforts at ending open defecation in Nigeria.
He stated that the feat achieved by Obanliku as ODF status was a collaborative efforts of the Federal, State, Local Government as well as other stakeholders in the sector.
According to him, the practice of not defecating in the open has helped the communities in the Local government area and this has improved the health status of the entire LGA.
“The state will try as matter of priority to pay its counterpart funds of the programme so that the achievement could be replicated in other LGAs of the state,” he said.
Also, the Executive Director of Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) Chris Williams stated that WSSCC has been a key partner in Nigeria’s WASH sector.
Chris said that WSSCC has supported Sanitation programme in Nigeria with a grant of $5 million through the Global Sanitation Fund.
“With this feat achieved in Obanliku LGA, WSSCC will keep on supporting Nigeria in the fight of ending open defecation in the country. Nigeria will be considered in the second tranche of $5 million so as to replicate the feat in more LAGs of the country,” he said.
US to sell warplanes to Nigeria in fight against Boko Haram
The Trump administration will move forward with the sale of high-tech aircraft to Nigeria for its campaign against Boko Haram Islamic extremists despite concerns over abuses committed by the African nation's security forces, according to U.S. officials.
Congress is expected to receive formal notification within weeks, setting in motion a deal with Nigeria that the Obama administration had planned to approve at the very end of Barack Obama's presidency. The arrangement will call for Nigeria to purchase up to 12 Embraer A-29 Super Tucano aircraft with sophisticated targeting gear for nearly $600 million, one of the officials said.
The officials were not authorized to discuss the terms of the sale publicly and requested anonymity to speak about internal diplomatic conversations.
Though President Donald Trump has made clear his intention to approve the sale of the aircraft, the National Security Council is still working on the issue. Military sales to several other countries are also expected to be approved but are caught up in an ongoing White House review. Nigeria has been trying to buy the aircraft since 2015.
The Nigerian air force has been accused of bombing civilian targets at least three times in recent years. In the worst incident, a fighter jet on Jan. 17 repeatedly bombed a camp at Rann, near the border with Cameroon, where civilians had fled from Boko Haram. Between 100 and 236 civilians and aid workers were killed, according to official and community leaders' counts.
That bombing occurred on the same day the Obama administration intended to officially notify Congress the sale would go forward. Instead, it was abruptly put on hold, according to an individual who worked on the issue during Obama's presidency. Days later, Trump was inaugurated.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said this past week that he supported the A-29 deal to Nigeria as well as the sale of U.S.-made fighter jets to Bahrain that had been stripped of human rights caveats imposed by the Obama administration.
Under Obama, the U.S. said Bahrain failed to make promised political and human rights reforms after its Sunni-ruled government crushed Arab Spring protests five years ago.
"We need to deal with human rights issues, but not on weapons sales," Corker said.
The State Department said in a 2016 report that the Nigerian government has taken "few steps to investigate or prosecute officials who committed violations, whether in the security forces or elsewhere in the government, and impunity remained widespread at all levels of government."
Amnesty International has accused Nigeria's military of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the extrajudicial killings of an estimated 8,000 Boko Haram suspects. President Muhammadu Buhari promised to investigate the alleged abuses after he won office in March 2015, but no soldier has been prosecuted and thousands of people remain in illegal military detention. Nigeria's military has denied the allegations.
The A-29 sale would improve the U.S. relationship with Nigeria, Africa's largest consumer market of 170 million people, the continent's biggest economy and its second-largest oil producer. Nigeria also is strategically located on the edge of the Sahel, the largely lawless semi-desert region bridging north and sub-Saharan Africa where experts warn Islamic extremists like the Nigeria-based Boko Haram may expand their reach.
The aircraft deal also would satisfy Trump's priorities to support nations fighting Islamic uprisings, boost U.S. manufacturing and create high-wage jobs at home. The A-29 aircraft, which allow pilots to pinpoint targets at night, are assembled in Jacksonville, Florida.
"It's hard to argue that any country in Africa is more important than Nigeria for the geopolitical and other strategic interests of the U.S.," said J. Peter Pham, vice president of the Atlantic Council in Washington and head of its Africa Center.
Once Congress is officially notified of the sale, lawmakers who want to derail it have 30 days to pass veto-proof legislation. That's a high hurdle given Corker's support. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, also said he backs the sale.
"We've really got to try to do what we can to contain them," McCain said of Boko Haram.
In Trump's first phone call with Buhari in February, he "assured the Nigerian president of U.S. readiness to cut a new deal in helping Nigeria in terms of military weapons to combat terrorism," according to Buhari's office.
A Feb. 15 White House statement that provided a summary of the call said "President Trump expressed support for the sale of aircraft from the United States to support Nigeria's fight against Boko Haram."
Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said in mid-February he was "leery" of the sale because of the Nigerian military's impunity. Cardin said this week he's not trying to block the deal.
"Ultimately we hope that the sale goes forward," he said. "But there is progress that needs to be made in protecting the civilian population."
Congress is expected to receive formal notification within weeks, setting in motion a deal with Nigeria that the Obama administration had planned to approve at the very end of Barack Obama's presidency. The arrangement will call for Nigeria to purchase up to 12 Embraer A-29 Super Tucano aircraft with sophisticated targeting gear for nearly $600 million, one of the officials said.
The officials were not authorized to discuss the terms of the sale publicly and requested anonymity to speak about internal diplomatic conversations.
Though President Donald Trump has made clear his intention to approve the sale of the aircraft, the National Security Council is still working on the issue. Military sales to several other countries are also expected to be approved but are caught up in an ongoing White House review. Nigeria has been trying to buy the aircraft since 2015.
The Nigerian air force has been accused of bombing civilian targets at least three times in recent years. In the worst incident, a fighter jet on Jan. 17 repeatedly bombed a camp at Rann, near the border with Cameroon, where civilians had fled from Boko Haram. Between 100 and 236 civilians and aid workers were killed, according to official and community leaders' counts.
That bombing occurred on the same day the Obama administration intended to officially notify Congress the sale would go forward. Instead, it was abruptly put on hold, according to an individual who worked on the issue during Obama's presidency. Days later, Trump was inaugurated.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said this past week that he supported the A-29 deal to Nigeria as well as the sale of U.S.-made fighter jets to Bahrain that had been stripped of human rights caveats imposed by the Obama administration.
Under Obama, the U.S. said Bahrain failed to make promised political and human rights reforms after its Sunni-ruled government crushed Arab Spring protests five years ago.
"We need to deal with human rights issues, but not on weapons sales," Corker said.
The State Department said in a 2016 report that the Nigerian government has taken "few steps to investigate or prosecute officials who committed violations, whether in the security forces or elsewhere in the government, and impunity remained widespread at all levels of government."
Amnesty International has accused Nigeria's military of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the extrajudicial killings of an estimated 8,000 Boko Haram suspects. President Muhammadu Buhari promised to investigate the alleged abuses after he won office in March 2015, but no soldier has been prosecuted and thousands of people remain in illegal military detention. Nigeria's military has denied the allegations.
The A-29 sale would improve the U.S. relationship with Nigeria, Africa's largest consumer market of 170 million people, the continent's biggest economy and its second-largest oil producer. Nigeria also is strategically located on the edge of the Sahel, the largely lawless semi-desert region bridging north and sub-Saharan Africa where experts warn Islamic extremists like the Nigeria-based Boko Haram may expand their reach.
The aircraft deal also would satisfy Trump's priorities to support nations fighting Islamic uprisings, boost U.S. manufacturing and create high-wage jobs at home. The A-29 aircraft, which allow pilots to pinpoint targets at night, are assembled in Jacksonville, Florida.
"It's hard to argue that any country in Africa is more important than Nigeria for the geopolitical and other strategic interests of the U.S.," said J. Peter Pham, vice president of the Atlantic Council in Washington and head of its Africa Center.
Once Congress is officially notified of the sale, lawmakers who want to derail it have 30 days to pass veto-proof legislation. That's a high hurdle given Corker's support. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Armed Services Committee, also said he backs the sale.
"We've really got to try to do what we can to contain them," McCain said of Boko Haram.
In Trump's first phone call with Buhari in February, he "assured the Nigerian president of U.S. readiness to cut a new deal in helping Nigeria in terms of military weapons to combat terrorism," according to Buhari's office.
A Feb. 15 White House statement that provided a summary of the call said "President Trump expressed support for the sale of aircraft from the United States to support Nigeria's fight against Boko Haram."
Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said in mid-February he was "leery" of the sale because of the Nigerian military's impunity. Cardin said this week he's not trying to block the deal.
"Ultimately we hope that the sale goes forward," he said. "But there is progress that needs to be made in protecting the civilian population."
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