Nigerian kids 'Ikorodu Bois' get Hollywood invite after recreating movie trailer

The Nigerian kids famous for remaking multimillion-dollar music videos and movie trailers with household items may be heading to Hollywood.



Members of Ikorodu Bois nabbed the opportunity Wednesday after the group shared on social media their homemade remake of the trailer for the Netflix movie, "Extraction."

Undaunted by high-end productions, the Sanni brothers, Muiz, 15, and Malik,10 (with video-editing help from older brother, Babatunde), and their cousin, Fawas Aina, 13, filmed the trailer in their neighborhood in Ikorodu, a suburb in Lagos, using their ingenuity, the ever-present wheelbarrow, and some upcycled items.

Once uploaded, they told their followers to share and tag lead actor Chris Hemsworth and Netflix to get their attention. Produced by the American duo, the Russo Brothers, "Extraction" features Hemsworth as Tyler Rake, a mercenary tasked with rescuing the teenage son of a jailed drug lord who is abducted by a rival boss.

A couple of hours later, Netflix retweeted their post, saying, "LOVE THIS."

The video also caught the attention of Hemsworth, who retweeted the video, commenting, "EPIC."
But what really got their attention was the unexpected recognition from movie producers, the Russo Brothers, who shared the video and invited them to the premiere of "Extraction 2." In May, Joe Russo told Deadline that they had secured the deal to write a sequel.

"This is awesome! We would love to have you guys at the #Extraction 2 premiere...DM us and we'll get you there!" they said in a tweet.

The boys reacted with elation, saying the comments from the producers and Hemsworth were a dream come true.

"This is the day we've been waiting for all our lives," they said in a tweet reply to the invitation.

Babatunde Sanni, the 23-year-old who's the brain behind the group but doesn't appear in the video, said the trailer had taken them a month to make.

"Some days we shoot but end up re-shooting just because we wanted to do our best," Babatunde Sanni told CNN.

While the invitation marks a significant development for the kid sensations, it's not the first time their innovative videos have garnered notice.

Since creating their Instagram page in 2017, they have amassed more than 600,000 followers. Some of their content has gone viral, and they've collected kudos from big stars including actor Will Smith, Netflix "Money Heist" actor Alvaro Monte and rapper Roddy Rich.

Babatunde Sanni told CNN it was rewarding to see all their hard work pay off.

"We are so happy people are getting to know us globally," he said.

CNN

Nigerian doctors call off strike over lack of PPE

Nigerian doctors in state-run hospitals have called off a week-long strike over welfare and inadequate protective equipment as new coronavirus cases spike in the country.

The strike by the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), which represents some 40 percent of Nigeria's doctors, began last Monday but had exempted medics treating coronavirus patients.

The group's directors decided to suspend the strike action from Monday, June 22, by 08:00am local time (07:00 GMT), the association said in a statement.

NARD said the decision, which followed the intervention by state governors and others, was to give the government time to fulfil the outstanding demands.

The organisation had called the strike over a range of issues, including the "grossly inadequate" provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) and calls for hazard pay for those working close to the virus.

Other demands focused on improving general welfare and protesting dismissals or pay cuts for doctors in two regions.

Strikes by medics are common in Nigeria, where the health sector has been underfunded for years.

The authorities fear that any reduction in capacity could severely hamper its ability to tackle the pandemic as the number of cases continues to rise.

The main nationwide doctors union briefly staged a warning strike in commercial hub Lagos over police harassment of its members.

According to a tally by Johns Hopkins University, Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation of 200 million inhabitants, has recorded 19,808 COVID-19 cases and 506 related deaths since the first case of the virus was reported in February.

More than 800 healthcare workers have been infected by the virus, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.

Al Jazeera

Nigeria's plan to reopen airports hindered by multiple issues

Indications emerged on Thursday that Nigeria's plan to reopen its local airports for operations on June 21 is slowed down by multiple hurdles in the aviation sector, as the most populous African country strives to navigate the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Nigerian government shut down airports for commercial flight operations on March 23, as part of the measures to curb the spread of COVID-19. The government contemplated the reopening of the airports twice but ended up extending the exercise to allow for wider consultations.

Going by the prevailing situation, the plan to reopen the airports is "unrealistic" for now, the Nigerian Senate said after a meeting between lawmakers and local aviation workers on Thursday.

"Though you emphasized the need to unlock the airport, the fact remains that there are quite a number of issues that are begging for answers," Smart Adeyemi, chairman of the Nigerian Senate committee on aviation, told the Air Transport Services Senior Staff Association who raised some concerns experienced by local aviation workers due to the pandemic.

The representatives of aviation workers said at the meeting that there was a need for special financial intervention and provision of necessary protocols, protective systems in view of the COVID-19 pandemic before reopening the airports for operations.

In addition to this, most aviation workers in the country had not been paid their wages since the country was locked down by the authorities since March, the aviation union said.

Noting the aviation sector is key to the socio-economic development of any country including Nigeria, Adeyemi said the legislature was already in talks with the executive to address the general issues.

"The aviation sector cannot be compromised for any reason, given its importance to economic development. There must be mechanisms put in place to ensure safety and confront the challenges facing the sector before unlocking the airports," Adeyemi said.

In a similar development, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) on Thursday said the date earlier set for the resumption of flights is no longer feasible.

"We never said aviation is going to start definitely on June 21... This is not a feasible date to resume operations," Musa Nuhu, director-general of the NCAA, told the media in Abuja.

According to Nuhu, the NCAA would not approve the resumption of flight operations until it is satisfied that the operations can be carried out "in a safe and organized manner."

"We (the NCAA) will not be pressured to approve resumption because doing that without the appropriate checks would be disastrous," he said further.

As a precondition for reopening the airports, aviation expert Llitrus Ahmadu said there is a need for the government to ensure the proper provision of protective equipment and other protocols, including the re-certification of pilots, airworthiness of the aircraft, and payment of the workers' salary, among other multiple issues that are currently being raised.

Xinhua

Nigerian doctors stage 'indefinite' walk out, crippling Covid-19 response

Nigerian doctors in state hospitals have begun a nationwide strike, paralysing the country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic as cases continue to rise steadily.

Members of an umbrella organisation representing all doctors employed by the government announced an indefinite strike yesterday to protest low salaries, a lack of "hazard" pay for treating virus patients and the "grossly inadequate" provision of protective equipment.

The doctors also demanded an end to the harassment and assault of medical workers by security agents enforcing curfews.

The National Association of Resident Doctors, which represents about 40 per cent of the country’s physicians, said the government had been given two weeks notice of the strike action but had failed to meet their demands.

In a statement given in the capital Abuja on Monday, the group’s president said that some Covid-19 patients in treatment and isolation centres would be exempted from any strike action. However, if the Nigerian government does not meet its demands in the next two weeks, those centres will be hit by the strikes, too.

Covid-19 is spreading rapidly across Africa’s most populous nation with some 16,000 recorded cases of the virus and 420 deaths. However, the real number of cases is almost certainly far higher than the official statistics because of a lack of testing materials. Nigeria has carried out just 94,000 tests on its population of about 200 million since the virus started to spread in March, according to the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

There have also been several outbreaks of hundreds of "mysterious" deaths in the northern Nigerian states of Yobe and Kano since the outbreak began in March. Last week, the Nigerian health minister admitted that many of these deaths were probably due to Covid-19.

Nigeria already has worryingly few doctors for its population. The World Health Organisation recommends that countries have a ratio of one doctor to 600 people. Nigeria has one doctor for every 6,000 people. According to the Nigerian Medical Association, there are 72,000 registered Nigeria doctors but that more than 50 per cent of them practice outside the country.

Strikes by medical workers are frequent in Nigeria. Despite having Africa’s largest reserves of oil, the health sector has been left underfunded for decades. Many Nigerian elites, including the country’s President Muhammadu Buhari, prefer to fly abroad to London for medical treatment when they get ill.

So far the majority of Nigeria’s confirmed cases have been reported in Abuja, and Lagos and Kano, its two largest cities.

The Telegraph

Video - 20 soldiers, 40 civilians killed in attacks Nigeria's Borno state

At least 20 soldiers and more than 40 civilians have been killed, and hundreds injured in twin attacks in northeast Nigeria's Borno state, residents and a civilian task force fighter said. The attacks on Saturday, in the Monguno and Nganzai areas, came just days after armed fighters killed at least 81 people in a raid on a village in a third area, Gubio. Al Jazeera's Sara Khairat reports