Thursday, November 30, 2017

Video - Nigeria's Kachikwu on Oil, OPEC Cuts, Prices



Nigeria Petroleum Minister Emmanuel Kachikwu discusses the possibility of a 9-month extension for OPEC, the hardest part of the discussions, Nigeria's contribution to the production cut and his outlook for prices.

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Video - Nigeria's statistics bureau forecasts faster growth next year



Nigeria's Bureau of statistics is forecasting a faster economic growth in next year, months after the country emerged from recession. Latest statistics shows the country's GDP growth doubled compared to the second quota.

Police chief says corruption has "drastically reduced" in Nigeria

The Inspector General of Police, IGP, Ibrahim Idris, said corruption has drastically reduced amongst police personnel despite several allegations of bribery and corruption against the force.

Mr. Idris made this known on Tuesday at a stakeholder’s workshop tagged “Speaking for the Nigerian Police Force” organised by CLEEN foundation held at Nicon Luxury Hotels, Abuja.

The forum is a two-day capacity building training on “Effectiveness Communication and Public Relations in Nigeria” under its Law Enforcement and Public Engagement project in Nigeria organised for Police spokespersons.

The IGP, who was represented by the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Habila Joshack, said Public Relations Department of the Nigeria Police Force is relentless on its effort to forestall further denting of its public image.

“Since the creation of Nigeria Police Public Relations department in 1961, it has evolved over the years with the trends of existing governments and has consistently worked towards the implementation of its mandate.

“However, the conduct of some police personnel has caused serious image for the Force whereby the duties of some police officers have been compromised because of some social maladies plaguing the country as whole. Chiefly, among these is corruption which permeates both the public and private sectors of the country”, he said.

The police chief, who is also accused of corruption by a senator, noted that some ”internal working mechanisms” have been introduced by the present police management and “it is yielding positive result to a large extent as incidents of corruption has drastically reduced in the Force.”

“It is common to hear allegations of corruption, incompetency, unprofessional conducts and other questionable practices that have nothing to do with normal police duty or maintenance of law and other being levelled against a few police officers.

“This is premised on our firm conviction that if the image of the Police Force is not good before the public, the effectiveness of the police towards fighting crime and reducing corruption (may be affected)”, he added.

In his reaction earlier, Benson Olugbuo, executive director, CLEEN Foundation, said his organisation had the mission to hold public institutions including the police accountable to the people.

“The foundation has the objective of promoting public safety, security and access to justice. And we do that through empirical research, legislative advocacy and publications in partnership with government, civil society and the private sector.

“We are working closely with the Nigeria police Force to consciously promote its image as well as build community relationship and trust for the institution with some of our projects which include the ‘stop the bribe campaign’, the police station visitor’s week, for the purpose of improving police neighbourhood relationship and by extension, building community trust”.

Apart from perceived endemic corruption in the police, the Nigeria Police Force was recently rated the worst in the world by the World Internal Security and Police Index International, WISPI.

The 2016 report rates the Nigeria Police Force the “worst” globally in terms of its ability to handle internal security challenges.

Tuesday’s event was attended by Emmanuel Ojukwu, Provost, Public Relations School of the Nigeria Police Force; Fatima Mohammed, National Human Rights Commission representative; the Market Women Association led by Hadiza Ishaku; and 32 police command spokespersons across the nation.

The representative of the market women association, Mrs. Ishaku, in her remarks appealed to the federal government to adequately equip the Nigeria Police to enable them tackle internal security challenges effectively.

Hundreds of migrants in Libya repatriated back to Nigeria

More than 200 Nigerian migrants stranded in Libya have been returned to their home country, Nigerian officials said.

The 242 migrants landed at Lagos airport on a Libyan airline flight at around 9pm local time on Tuesday. Among them were women carrying children and at least one man in a wheelchair.
Nigerian authorities say they worked on returning the migrants from Libya in collaboration with the International Organization of Migration. (IOM)

Some of the 242 men and women who returned had been in Libyan detention camps while some of them willingly approached the Nigerian embassy in Libya to return home because of hardship there, authorities said.


Abike Dabiri, SSA to President Buhari said the Nigerian government had been working with the IOM, and the Nigerian Commission for Refugees and Migrants (NCFRMI) and other local agencies for the past year to bring Nigerians back home.

Dabiri told CNN that around 5000 Nigerians have come back from Libya in the past year. She said: "The President has said any Nigerian who wants to come back should be brought back, so IOM has been helping out."

The NCIFRM said it has been processing on average between eight to 10 flights per month of Nigerians returning from Libya.

There were poignant scenes as the men and women touched down at Lagos Murtala Muhammad airport. One man, visibly moved, knelt down on the tarmac and made the sign of the cross as he got off the plane.

Nikki Laoye, an ambassador for NCFRMI who filmed the arrivals and posted them on her Instagram page, told CNN: "It was quite emotional seeing this. We heard about their ordeal in the desert, some of them were praying to die. No water to drink, thrown into jail and finally given the option to go back to their country."

"Many of them had traveled illegally through the desert trying to reach Italy via Libya before finding themselves in tight situations, thrown into jail for illegal entry or falling into the hands of wrong people and being sold into slavery/prostitution."

Laoye said the new arrivals would be profiled and registered by the Nigerian authorities. Some of them were taken to a shelter run by the NCIFRM in Lagos, where they can remain for up to 90 days.
She added that officials from Edo State, where a large number of the migrants are from, were also airside to take them back to the state.

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Video - One million Nigerians to learn programming skills by 2019



Authorities have launched an initiative to put Lagos at the frontier of technology on the continent. "Code Lagos" aims to train around one million people in computer programming by 2019. It's open to all residents in the city -- from primary schoolchildren to adults Badmus reports.