Oil region in Nigeria threaten to quit peace talks

Negotiators representing militants in Nigeria’s oil region in talks with the government said they’ll pull out of the process if some demands aren’t met by November, accusing President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration of not doing enough for peace.

The efforts of the group, known as the Pan-Niger Delta Forum, “to help Nigeria climb out of recession through stable oil and gas production have not been met with tangible reciprocal action by the federal government,” Edwin Clark, its leader, said in a statement emailed on Tuesday.

A list of 16 demands, including the withdrawal troops from the region and the clean up of oil spills, presented for implementation “without delay” at the group’s meeting with Buhari last year was ignored, according to the statement. The negotiators “may consider pulling out of the ongoing peace process” by Nov. 1 if these demands aren’t met, said Clark.

Nigeria is suffering its worst economic downturn in a quarter century after oil prices fell in 2015 and output was hampered by a resurgence of militant attacks on pipelines in the Niger delta. The armed groups, including the Niger Delta Avengers that claimed most of the attacks, nominated the community leaders last year to represent them in talks with the government and agreed to a cease-fire.

Bloomberg

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Former Nigeria President's house looted by police

Former president of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, lost properties running into millions of naira when his residence in the administrative capital, Abuja, was burgled over a period of time.

The Premium Times news portal in an exclusive report said three police officers detailed to guard the premises had ‘conducted a systematic looting over a period of three months beginning from around March 2016.’

The ex-President’s spokesperson is said to have confirmed the incident adding that the said officers had been arrested. The implicated men are said to be two sergeants and an inspector.

They are said to have stripped the house bare over the period and were selling these items – some of which were customized materials – to traders in a popular second-hand market at Abuja.

Mr. Jonathan who is said to have visited the property after the looting according to the report, spoke directly with the Inspector General of Police with respect to the matter.

The 59-year-old former governor of Bayelsa State, is said to have occupied the house in his capacity as Vice-President for about a year. He moved to Aso Rock – the seat of government – as Acting President following the death of his boss, Umaru Musah Yar’Adua in 2010.

He won a substantive term after seeing out Yar’Adua’s tenure. He beat Muhammadu Buhari in polls held in 2011. But lost a second term bid to Buhari in 2015. His government came under flak for rising Boko Haram attacks and issues of widespread corruption.

The Premium Times portal listed some of the looted items as follows:

1. Traditional attires and bowler hats of the Niger Delta region: about 20 bags.
2. Customized suits: about five bags.
3. About 10 bags of Niger Delta styled women attires.
4. Bundles of Ankara materials, known as ‘Atamfa.’
5. About 10 sets of northern Nigeria styled three piece apparel.
6. Bag containing clothes with the opposition PDP logo sewn on each one.

Other electrical appliances that were stolen and sold by the officers were:

1. 36 Plasma televisions.
2. About 25 refrigerators.
3. Five sets of furniture.
4. Two sets of sitting room chairs.
5. Several air conditioner units.

Africa News

Google CEO visits Nigeria

Google boss Sundar Pichai joined members of his executive team on his first visit to Nigeria as the company launched YouTube offline for Nigeria to help users save on data costs.

“What a great honour to have had our CEO @sundarpichai join us for #GoogleforNigeria today,” it tweeted via its verified handle @googleafrica.

Pichai who announced a series of products for the country, including YouTube Go, a platform where users with slow Internet can preview and save videos, also announced plans to train 10 million Africans.

This means that YouTube users in the country can now download any video in a range of different resolutions so that they can watch it later without an Internet connection.

Although, the cost of data is expensive and at times the Internet is very slow, Nigeria, with about 93 million mobile Internet users, making it the highest in Africa, is the second country after India to have the YouTube Go capability.

The move is certain to increase YouTube’s growing Nigeria base, which the platform is keen to court; it held the first YouTube sub-Saharan Africa awards last year and prominent Nigerian bloggers have been featured in advertising campaigns around the country.

According to Google, owners of YouTube since 2006, the number of hours of video content being uploaded in Africa has doubled for the past two years, while viewing time on mobile phones is grown 120% year over year.

According to Caesar Sengupta, Vice President of product management, Google will also launch a partnership in September with Japanese mobile manufacturer Freetel to provide 13,000 Naira (about $40) Android phones for the country.

Another feature that was launched for Nigeria was the Lagos Street View.

Imagery of 10,000 kilometres of Lagos roads, including Eko Bridge, Carter Bridge and the National Museum, are now available on Street View.

The tech giant is also set to launch Google Impact Challenge in Africa in 2018 as innovators from non-profits will be able to share ideas on how they can impact their communities and beyond.

“We ask non-profits from around Africa to nominate the best ideas and we allow local people to vote for what they think is the best idea. Nongovernmental organizations nominate themselves and people get to vote and choose where the funding goes to,” announced Pichai.

Google set up the challenge and visits regions across the world asking locals to share innovation that could help their communities and beyond. The winners will get a grant of $5 million to develop the concept.

Google grants arm will also train 100,000 African software gurus focusing mainly on Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.

PM News