NAIJAFEED

Monday, November 16, 2020

Soyinka to Release Third Novel in December, 48 Years After

Wole Soyinka's third novel, 'Chronicles of the Happiest People on Earth', is set to be released on December 1, 2020, 48 years after his last prose fiction.

This was made known on Twitter by his son, Olaokun Soyinka. A description of the 524-page book by its publisher, Bookcraft Africa reads: "The novel tells the story of a pact and an alliance formed between four friends, to make an impactful change in their nation. Now in the late stages of adulthood, against an evolving political landscape and a change of government, they drift apart, reunite, navigate complex familial relationships, and increasingly gain recognition in their professions -- all the while, their paths interweave with those of prominent religious, community and government leaders, and the tide begins to turn against them, with dire consequences.

"It is a dramatic and engaging read, laced with humour and extraordinary characters. The read also provides a realistic perspective on the state of affairs in Nigeria, with a depth of commentary. In Soyinka's expert hands, the apparently disparate strands are woven together with a master story-teller's aplomb. Chronicles of the Happiest People on Earth is a great and unputdownable read from start to finish."

The Nobel Laureate, known for his poetry and plays, published two novels, 'The Interpreters' in 1964 and 'The Season of Anomy' in 1972.

By Nathaniel Bivan

Daily Trust

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Nigeria to build new museum for looted art

Nigeria intends to build a new museum over the next four years that could exhibit looted Benin bronzes currently displayed in European and American museums, officials said Friday.

Many Benin bronzes -- a group of more than a thousand prized metal plaques and sculptures looted in 1897 by British troops from the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin, in modern-day Nigeria -- are at the British Museum and the Ethnological Museum of Berlin.

The possibility of having the objects returned to Benin City in Nigeria's southern Edo state and shown at the future Edo Museum of West African Art has long been a dream for many.

"I am elated," Theophilus Umogbai, curator of the existing National Museum in Benin, told AFP.

"The museum will serve as an identity symbol of the rich cultural arts traditions of Benin people."

Museums in Europe and America have wrestled with a tangle of legal and ethical problems concerning objects taken during the colonial period.

Even in well-documented cases of pillaging, the law often prevents countries from giving them back -- as is the case with the British museum, which could however loan the Benin bronzes to the new Edo museum.

"This project will help us reconnect our past glory to our present realities," Edo state's governor Godwin Obaseki said, announcing the project at an event on Friday.

He said he hopes the overall project "should be far developed if not totally completed" by the end of 2024.

The 10,000-square foot (930-square metre) museum is being designed by David Adjaye, the award-winning architect behind the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, in Washington.

The Ghanaian-British architect hopes that the building in Nigeria will have "a place on the world stage."

"It is not just enough to give back objects that were taken but to also collaborate and make this a world class centre."

In addition to the museum, an archaeological excavation project will begin in 2021, at a site adjacent to the palace of the Oba, Benin's traditional ruler.

The British Museum and the Legacy Restoration Trust have already secured the equivalent of $4 million of initial funding, according to a statement from the London museum.

Hartwig Fischer, director of the British Museum, said that the new Nigeria museum "will surely become one of the most significant museum initiatives in the coming decades."

Last month, French lawmakers voted unanimously to return artefacts to Benin and Senegal -- although it remains a small number compared to the estimated 90,000 artefacts the country holds from all over Africa.

AFP

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Gunmen attack school in north Nigeria

A group of unidentified gunmen attacked a polytechnic in Nigeria’s northern state of Kaduna, abducting a lecturer and two children, local police said Sunday.

Mohammed Jalige, a police spokesperson in Kaduna, who confirmed the incident to Xinhua on the phone, said police operatives have been deployed to secure the area, track the perpetrators and rescue the victims.

The gunmen invaded the Nuhu Bamali Polytechnic in the Zaria area of the state late into the night on Saturday, said Abdullahi Shehu, an information officer for the polytechnic, adding the victims were taken away with force.

The gunmen shot sporadically into the air to scare the students and teachers after they forced their way into the school.

The lecturer, who teaches at the School of Engineering, Department of Electrical and Electronics of the polytechnic, was later taken away from his residence to an unknown destination.

Shehu said the father of the two abducted children was injured by the gunmen and was receiving treatment at a hospital.

CGTV

Friday, November 13, 2020

Dangote Refinery to employ over 250,000 Nigerians

The management of Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals has disclosed that the 650,000 barrels per day project will create jobs for not less than 250,000 Nigerians when completed and fully operational next year.

Group Executive Director, Strategy and Capital Projects, Dangote Industries Limited, Mr. Devakumar Edwin, told reporters at the site that the company’s Refinery has potential to turn around Nigeria’s economy with the employment of thousands of Nigerians for direct and indirect jobs.

He said the huge unemployment rate of Nigerian youths and the need to make the country self-reliant in fuel consumption and attract much needed foreign exchange through export of the products were reasons that motivated the President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote to venture into manufacturing

The Dangote Group boss said he was very optimistic that the refinery will be a game changer for Nigeria and the rest of Africa.

According to him, the Dangote Industries Limited has succeeded in substantially reducing the high rate of unemployment in the country, with the conglomerate already recruiting youths from its various agricultural scheme and also into its other subsidiaries. Dangote Industries Limited is the highest employer of labour outside the federal government.

In the same vein, Edwin also assured that, other things being equal, Dangote Fertilizer plant’s products will hit the market this month.

Video - Aljazeera speaks with Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote

Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote is building the world's largest refinery in Nigeria

Video - Nigerian soldier filmed assaulting driver who overtook his car

A military officer just threatened a colleague's driver after wrongfully overtaking her on their way to Kaduna

He threatened d guy life & promised to deal with him.

In his words: "I will kill you and nothing will happen"

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Cc @AIT_Online @instablog9ja @bellanaija pic.twitter.com/HStyljioEv
— My name is Dare Kuti (@dkuti82) November 10, 2020

An unidentified Nigerian soldier has been caught on camera assaulting a driver for overtaking his car on the Abuja-Kaduna road, North-central Nigeria.

The incident, which happened on November 10, was captured in a video posted on Twitter by a sports journalist, Dare Kuti.

Mr Kuti told PREMIUM TIMES he witnessed the incident and that his colleague was being driven by the victim from Abuja to Kaduna when the incident happened.

“Oga abeg, wetin I do you?” the driver, apparently frightened, is heard in the video speaking in Pidgin to the approaching soldier.

The soldier forcefully opened the car door, stretched his right leg into the car and continually hit the driver. The victim could be heard screaming in pain.

The soldier jumped inside the front seat of the car and kept punching the man who appeared too frightened to fight back.

“You are talking to me? You are talking to me? Are you mad?” the soldier shouted as he kept punching the man who later fell off from the car and was on the ground, writhing.

The soldier kicked him again and then shouted, “God punish you! I will kill you and nothing will happen. You are an idiot!”

Some sympathisers are seen in the video begging the soldier to have mercy on the man, while others tried to help the victim up from the ground.

The soldier entered his maroon colour Honda car and drove away after the incident, the video showed.

PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday spoke with the driver who identified himself as Dauda Mustapha.

Mr Mustapha, a commercial driver who plies the Abuja-Kaduna route, said he overtook the soldier, after the latter drove roughly from a filling station into the road.

He said when they got to an unmotorable spot on the road, the soldier used his car to block his and then came down to assault him.

“My car no even touch him car! Him say why me I overtake-am,” Mr Mustapha said.

Mr Mustapha said the soldier beat him with a timing belt and also broke his car’s windscreen.

“I talk-am for my mind say till I die I no go forgive-am. I no know wetin I do-am. I get wound for my body. As I dey talk with you, headache dey wori me,” the driver said.

A spokesperson for the Nigerian army, Sagir Musa, did not respond to calls and a text message asking for his comment.

Nigeria has a deteriorating human rights record. With a weak criminal justice system, citizens, frequently assaulted by security officials, appear helpless.

“The government took some steps to investigate alleged abuses but there were few public reports of prosecutions of officials who committed violations, whether in the security forces or elsewhere in the government,” the U.S. Department of State said in a 2019 report on the human rights situation in Nigeria.

“Impunity remained widespread at all levels of government. No charges were filed in some of the significant allegations of human rights violations by security forces and cases of police or military extortion or other abuse of power,” the report said.

A few days ago, some soldiers in Ibadan, Nigeria’s South-west, were caught on camera flogging one woman in public whom they accused of “indecent dressing”.

In Delta State, Nigeria’s South-south, soldiers last month reportedly forced a medical doctor to swim in the mud for “violating curfew”.

Young people across various states in Nigeria recently protested for days against police brutality in the country.

“This is barbaric. I feel totally disgusted watching this. Scenes like these just fuels so much anger and hatred towards the establishment,” one Twitter user, Isidore Akpaetuk (@IsidoreAkpaetuk), commented on the video showing the soldier assaulting the driver, Mr Mustapha.