Nigeria issues fresh alert on heavy flooding in commercial hub

Nigeria’s commercial hub Lagos is at risk of heavy flooding this year and at least 8 million people might be affected by the disaster, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said on Tuesday.

“There have been predictions of flooding in certain areas of Lagos State,” said Ibrahim Farinloye, coordinator of NEMA’s Lagos territorial office, adding that millions of people are currently being instructed on how to manage the disaster and mitigate its effects.

Four local government areas have been identified as highly flood-prone areas, and about 13 are said to be probable, the official said about the prediction earlier made by the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency.

According to NEMA’s coordinator, the state is one of the high-risk areas of flood, which has become a perennial occurrence in many states across Nigeria. He further added that six of the probable areas have already experienced devastating flooding this year.

By Dinah Matengo

CGTN

Nigerian singer sentenced to death for blasphemy in Kano state

A musician in Nigeria's northern state of Kano has been sentenced to death by hanging for blaspheming against the Prophet Muhammad.

An upper Sharia court in the Hausawa Filin Hockey area of the state said Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, 22, was guilty of committing blasphemy for a song he circulated via WhatsApp in March.

Mr Sharif-Aminu did not deny the charges.

Judge Khadi Aliyu Muhammad Kani said he could appeal against the verdict.

States across Muslim-majority northern Nigeria use both secular law and Sharia law, which does not apply to non-Muslims.

Only one of the death sentences passed by Nigeria's Sharia courts has been carried out since they were reintroduced in 1999.

The singer who is currently in detention, had gone into hiding after he composed the song.

Protesters had burnt down his family home and gathered outside the headquarters of the Islamic police, known as the Hisbah, demanding action against him.

Critics said the song was blasphemous as it praised an imam from the Tijaniya Muslim brotherhood to the extent it elevated him above the Prophet Muhammad.

'Judgement will serve as deterrent to others'

The leader of the protesters that called for the musician's arrest in March, Idris Ibrahim, told the BBC that the judgement will serve as a warning to others "contemplating toeing Yahaya's path"."When I heard about the judgment I was so happy because it showed our protest wasn't in vain.

"This [judgement] will serve as a deterrent to others who feel they could insult our religion or prophet and go scot-free," he said.

Who is Yahaya Sharif-Aminu?

Few people had heard of him before his arrest in March.

An Islamic gospel musician, he is not well-known in northern Nigeria and his songs were not popular outside his Tjjaniya sect, who have many such musicians within their ranks.

How common are death sentences in Sharia courts?

Several sentences have been passed, including for women convicted of having extramarital sex - cases which have caused widespread condemnation.

But only one has been carried out - a man convicted of killing a woman and her two children who was hanged in 2002.

The last time a Nigerian Sharia court passed a death sentence was in 2016 when Abdulazeez Inyass, was sentenced to death for blaspheming against Islam during after a secret trial in Kano.

He was alleged to have said that Sheikh Ibrahim Niasse, the Senegalese founder of the Tijaniya sect, which has a large following across West Africa, "was bigger than Prophet Muhammad".

The sentence has not been carried out as a death penalty in Nigeria requires the sign-off of the state governor.

Mr Inyass is still in detention.

BBC

Life after coronavirus lockdown in Nigeria’s Chinatown

Nigerian and Chinese flags flutter in the morning breeze atop of the rampart of Chinatown in the city of Lagos. It’s a tall wall, modelled after the medieval Great Wall of China, painted red and fortified by bricks.

Its gate is half open, with three security officers with handheld thermometers checking temperatures of traders and customers coming in. Beside the gate, a water bucket, a bottle of hand sanitiser and liquid soap serve for routine handwashing while a few Chinese mingle in a terrace near the car park.

Inside the courtyard, only a few of the more than 200 shops selling trousers, shirts, perfume, laptops, ceramic coffee cups, shoes and travel bags are open. A handful of traders bargain with customers while others sleep or watch movies on their mobile phones. A few months ago, the scene would have been different: lively, noisy and crowded, traders say.

But things began to take a new shape when local authorities in Nigeria rolled out measures to curtail the spread of coronavirus, including restricting entry into the country for travellers from China and other nations around March. Traders say the restrictions, as well as a curfew and bans on interstate travel, nearly brought commercial activities to a halt in Chinatown.

The number of confirmed new coronavirus cases in Africa has topped the 1 million mark, with the death tally at more than 22,000, according to the World Health Organisation. Around 46,140 cases have been recorded in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, as well as more than 940 deaths.

Lagos, the largest city in Africa with over 20 million people, is the epicentre of the outbreak in Nigeria with early 20 per cent of the country’s Covid-19 cases.

For more than 15 years, Chinatown has become a hub for thousands of Chinese visiting the country. Its warehouses, restaurants and shops serve local traders as well, including Mike Echelom, who has been trading there for more than a decade.

Echelom, who sells clothes, says business has been a struggle for most. “The total lockdown was worse but partial easing of the lockdown has seen slow recovery. Customers are bargaining for less than cost price,” he said. “And traders, for lack of money, are forced to sell for survival and not for profit.”

But the “biggest impact”, says Julius Solomon, the director of external relations at Nigeria’s Overseas Chinese Service Centre has been the delayed return of thousands of Chinese traders and investors since Lunar New Year in February. The period of their travel coincided with Nigeria’s lockdown.

“Many of the traders and investors who travelled are still stuck back home in China. These are people who drive trading activities here. But none of them have returned to Nigeria and that partly accounts for reduced activities here,” says Solomon.

Between 40,000-50,000 Chinese live in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, according to Zhou Pingjian, China’s ambassador. Some 160 Chinese companies employ more than 200,000 Nigerians, according to Ye Shuijin, the president of the China Chambers of Commerce in Nigeria.

In recent weeks however Nigeria’s authorities have started gradually easing restrictions to help boost the economy. Some markets in Lagos, including Chinatown, operate only on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

But recovery could take some time. The past few months has seen growing tensions between the local Nigerian and Chinese communities. A widely shared video on social media showed some angry Nigerian youths burning Chinese-owned shops and factories in neighbouring Ogun state after reports of racist attacks on Africans in China earlier this year. After that, Chinese reduced their presence in Chinatown and elsewhere to avoid potential trouble, locals say.

No such attacks, backlash or protests of the like were witnessed in Lagos Chinatown. Still, some Chinese were advised to stay away from public places and keep a low profile, according to Solomon. In part, that accounts for the reduced presence of Chinese at the reopened markets.

Rumours and fake news have also fuelled a false belief that Chinese were the main carriers of the coronavirus.

“Initially, so many of our buyers were really scared of coming here because of Chinese presence,” says Echelon. Even this morning, I still had to convince one of my customers that it is not unsafe to come around. Some buyers have completely avoided both this market and the Chinese people as well because of fear”.

There has been little evidence to suggest Chinatown was any less safe than elsewhere in Lagos. The atmosphere seems friendly, although it’s quiet. Here, there is a strict compliance to local health advisories, including the wearing of face masks.

Still, the pandemic is another blow for Chinatown, which has faced trouble since it opened in 2004. It was branded a hub for smuggled, fake and cheap Chinese products after authorities regularly raided it in its first decade.

That period saw the arrest of many traders. Shops were shut and those who had enough went back to China. The government said it wanted to limit smuggling and piracy – and protect the local textile industry from cheap Chinese goods. What followed was a ban on the import of Chinese clothes, and a massive exodus of traders from Chinatown to less targeted markets across Lagos and neighbouring Ogun state.

Since the vibrancy Chinatown was punctured, crackdowns rarely happen any more. But the losses are not easily reversible. Many businesses selling everything from ceramic coffee cups, mobile phones, laptop accessories, CDs and DVDs and stationary were either shut or forced to relocate.


Yet, one thing remained: that hurtful stigma, stacked against the great hope that marked the creation of the centre more than 15 years ago. It was to serve as one of the biggest symbols of China’s influence in Africa’s largest economy as well as a focal point for interaction between growing numbers of Chinese investors and Nigerians.

“We are really concerned with the fake products as that was the major reason why businesses in Chinatown had declined in recent times,” Liu Chang’an, the general manager of Chinatown told The Daily Sun, one of Nigeria’s top daily newspapers. “We are repositioning Chinatown to ensure that only genuine products are supplied and sold … and [it becomes] a hub for trade, investment, recreation, culture activities and food.”


South China Morning Post

Stranded Nigerian chess player returns home after four months

Nigeria's number one chess player, Oladapo Adu, is back to his home country after being stuck in Ivory Coast for four months and five days due to the coronavirus lockdown.

Adu had been stranded in the Ivorian capital Abidjan since 24 March, when flight restrictions and border closures left him stuck as he attempted to return home from the African Chess Championship.

"It’s nice to be back home - I feel relieved and happy this is all over. I have never had an experience like this in my life”, Adu told BBC Sport Africa.

Adu had travelled from the USA to Freetown, Sierra Leone, where he represented Nigeria at a zonal Chess Championship, which ended on 20 March.

But by this point the coronavirus outbreak had become a full-blown pandemic, leading to the ban on flights by countries and the closure of borders.

He had to stay with friends of another competitor from the tournament, Ivorian Simplice Delgundo, and later moved in with an Ivorian family.

"It was tough living with strangers in a strange land - having to depend on them for your survival," he said.

"But I am grateful to them. They took care of me for months even when it was not convenient for them."

Adu's return was finally secured through Nigeria’s ambassador to Ivory Coast, Mohammed Gana. He was prompted to intervene after several reports of Adu's case in the media.

He proceeded to arrange a return flight for Adu and 30 other stranded Nigerians in Abidjan.

"The ambassador said he was not aware of my situation until he got some pressure from Nigeria to get me out of Ivory Coast," Adu explained.

"He said my case had been on the news and he knew he had to intervene."

Adu, however, is said he was disappointed that the Nigerian Chess Federation had not spoken to him, despite enlisting him in the ongoing Online Chess Olympiad competition while still stranded in Abidjan.

“At the time I was enlisted, the Chess Federation did not even know of my whereabouts - I was still stranded in Abidjan when I was selected to represent Nigeria," he explained.

Nevertheless Adu is now participating in that online championship, which runs to 30 August.

The Nigerian Chess Federation did not respond to questions from the BBC.

By Juliet Mafua 

BBC

Nigeria extends second phase nationwide COVID-19 lockdown by four weeks

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has authorized the extension of a nationwide lockdown for four weeks as the country continues its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The latest extension is the third for the second phase of an eased lockdown meant to curb the spread of the disease in the West African country.

Local Channels TV announced on Thursday evening that the move was announced by Boss Mustapha, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, at a Task Force briefing in Abuja.

Nigeria is one of the worst affected countries in Africa by the COVID-19 pandemic, having reported 44,890 infections and 927 deaths.

The number of cases in the West African country is the third-highest on the continent, shadowed only by South Africa and Egypt.

By Jerry Omondi 

CGTN