Sisters Nneka, Chiney and Erica Ogwumike are listed on the provisional roster for Nigeria's women's basketball team, the country's federation announced Tuesday on Twitter. It's possible they all could make the 12-player roster for Nigeria in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, although Nneka and Chiney are still awaiting official FIBA clearance.
"It's something I know my family would be very proud of," Nneka Ogwumike told ESPN Tuesday. "For it to happen would be such a blessing. To be able to do something big for a big part of our heritage would be fantastic. I'm hoping it will contribute to the growth we're experiencing for Africa in basketball."
Nneka, the 2016 WNBA MVP, and Chiney both are Stanford grads who were the WNBA's No. 1 draft picks in 2012 and 2014, respectively, and now play for the Los Angeles Sparks. Erica Ogwumike played as a freshman for Pepperdine and then spent the rest of her college career at Rice. She was drafted into the WNBA in 2020 but did not make a roster.
Eldest sister Nneka, 31, is a longtime member of the U.S. senior national team, winning gold medals with the American squad in 2014 and 2018 at the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup. But she was left off the U.S. roster for the Tokyo Games, which was announced June 21, surprising many and causing some controversy. She is the only MVP in WNBA history who has not made an Olympic squad, but that could change with FIBA's approval.
"It was more of a hurt than a shock, because I had experienced it before," Nneka said of also not being named to the U.S. Olympic team in 2012 and 2016. "But there are decisions made in this life that you can't control. I allowed myself to feel the hurt, but moving on, I decided, 'I'm going to try to put matters in my own hands."
Nneka contacted USA Basketball and told them she was interested in pursuing a chance to play with Nigeria. The Ogwumikes' parents, Peter and Ify, were both born in Nigeria and immigrated to the United States, where their daughters were born. The Ogwumike sisters have dual citizenship with the United States and Nigeria.
USA Basketball has released both Nneka and Chiney, which was required since both previously have competed for the United States in FIBA-sanctioned events. Generally, if players have done that after having reached their 17th birthday, they are not allowed to play for another country in a FIBA event. However, according to FIBA's regulations on player eligibility, the organization's secretary general may authorize a player to compete for the national team of his or her country of origin if this is in the interest of the growth of basketball in that country.
One of FIBA's pillars of emphasis currently is the growth of women's basketball worldwide, which could favor the decision for Nneka and Chiney getting to play for Nigeria. Erica Ogwumike committed to the Nigerian team last year; she had not played for Team USA in a FIBA-sanctioned event. Chiney Ogwumike began looking into the possibility of representing Nigeria about two months ago.
"The running joke was who was the family going to root for, because I was planning on playing against Erica," Nneka said of thinking she would be on Team USA. "But, you know, life unfolds in some beautiful ways: To be able to possibly share the highest athletic honor with not only Chiney, but my youngest sister."
Nneka has not been critical of USA Basketball, but said that when she didn't make the U.S. team, she did not want to wait on the possibility of perhaps being called on as an alternate U.S. player if someone was hurt between now and the Tokyo Games. She's been in that position before and said she doesn't see herself as a "second choice."
"I just wanted to bet on myself and also be a part of an organization that prioritizes me," she said of her hopes to play for Team Nigeria now. "My perspective was like, 'If it's not impossible, I'm going to go for it.' Because I believe I have Olympic status and I plan on being an Olympian."
Nneka said she wanted to be fully open with the Nigerian federation and USA Basketball about her hopes.
"I didn't want it to be secretive," she said. "It was something that I wanted to do, and I would hope that they understood. And they did. In these moments, being transparent, I think, is most important."
Along with FIBA clearance -- the Ogwumikes are not sure when a final decision will be made on that -- and being named to the Nigerian team, both Nneka and Chiney also have to be healthy. They have been sidelined with knee injuries; Nneka last played for the Sparks on June 1, and Chiney on May 28. At this point, both anticipate being able to play in Tokyo if they are on the team. Nigeria is scheduled to face the United States in an exhibition on July 18 at Michelob Ultra Arena at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Not long after, the Nigerian team is expected to be named.
"The way I feel now, I think I would be ready," Nneka said of playing in that exhibition game. "But if I'm not, I'll be ready for Tokyo if I'm able to get through the clearance process. The plan from the beginning (of her injury recovery) was for me to be ready for the Olympics."
Nigeria is in Group B at the Tokyo Games, along with the United States, Japan and France. Another current WNBA player who previously played for USA Basketball, Atlanta's Elizabeth Williams, is on the Nigerian provisional roster, too, and went through a similar process to what Nneka and Chiney are now.
Williams played collegiately for Duke; current Blue Devil senior Elizabeth Balogun, who transferred from Louisville, is also on the roster, as is another former Blue Devil, Oderah Chidom.
In fact, all the players on Nigeria's provisional roster played collegiately in the United States, including Adaora Elonu, who won a national championship with Texas A&M in 2011.
"The last few years, I've had the experience of playing against Team Nigeria and seen the rise of it," Nneka said. "It fills me with a lot of pride. To be able to possibly have the opportunity to contribute, that's what I want to do."
ESPN
Wednesday, July 7, 2021
Monday, July 5, 2021
Nigeria gunmen kidnap 'nurses and infants' from hospital
Gunmen in Nigeria have abducted at least eight people from a hospital in the north-west of the country, police say.
The attack took place at the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Centre in Zaria early on Sunday morning.
Reports say the number of people taken by the group is higher and includes nurses and children.
There has been a recent spate of abductions from schools and universities for ransom.
Police said the gunmen, thought to be from criminal groups known locally as "bandits", opened fire on a police station in the city.
While they were engaged in the shootout, another group attacked the hospital.
"The attack on the police station was a distraction whilst another group attacked the dormitories of the health centre workers," a local resident told AFP news agency.
The group escaped with the victims into a nearby forest.
A hospital worker, who asked not to be named, told BBC Hausa that the gunmen had abducted at least 12 people, including three children under the age of three and a teenager.
A local government official said troops were stepping up efforts to find the victims.
Kidnappings are common across the country.
Authorities say recent attacks on schools in the north-west have been carried out by bandits, a loose term for kidnappers, armed robbers, cattle rustlers and other armed militia operating in the region who are largely motivated by money.
Since the well-publicised abduction in 2014 of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok secondary school by Boko Haram Islamist militants in Borno state, more armed groups have resorted to mass abduction of students.
No end in sight to wave of kidnappings
Analysis by Mayeni Jones, BBC News, Lagos
Once again the northern state of Kaduna finds itself in the eye of Nigeria's kidnapping storm.
This latest attack is shocking in that it reportedly involves three infants, but this is not the first time a hospital has been targeted.
In late April, armed gunmen took two female nurses from a hospital in Kajuru area of Kaduna state. Schools and universities in the state have also been repeatedly targeted by kidnappers since March.
The state governor told the BBC that he believes kidnappers have come to Kaduna from other states, because he's been vocal about his decision not to engage with kidnappers in any way.
But now even Governor Nasir El Rufai has succumbed to pressure from the kidnappers - he recently withdrew his son from a local school where he had enrolled him to promote confidence in public schools. He told the BBC that he'd decided to take his son out to protect other pupils. This latest move will embolden his critics who say his tough stance is counter-productive.
But kidnappings continue to take place, both in states where governors engage with kidnappers, and in states where they don't.
With few economic prospects for many young Nigerians, and with security forces struggling to stop the wave of abductions, it's hard to see how this kidnapping crisis will stop.
Related stories: Kidnapping in Nigeria on the rise
Gunmen kidnap Nigerian Bishop in Owerri
Nigeria pays $11 million as ransom to kidnappers in four years
Nigerian families struggle to survive as food prices soar
The number of people living in poverty in Nigeria – Africa’s most populous nation with 210 million inhabitants – was already among the highest in the world.
But as Nigeria has been battered by the double economic effect of low global oil prices and the pandemic, the World Bank estimates the country’s soaring inflation and food prices pushed another seven million people into poverty in 2021.
Food prices have increased more than 22 percent since the start of the coronavirus crisis, according to official statistics.
For many people, feeding their family has become a daily challenge.
“Every day, during consultations, there are five or seven children that suffer from malnutrition,” says Emiolo Ogunsola, head of the nutrition department at Massey Street children’s hospital in a poor district in Lagos Island.
“I bet in a few months or a year, more children will be malnourished.”
Even before the pandemic and the surge in food costs, Nigeria’s nutrition figures were alarming: One in three Nigerian children suffered stunted growth due to a bad diet.
As a result, close to 17 million children in Nigeria are undernourished, giving the country the highest level of malnutrition in Africa and the second-highest in the world.
Al Jazeera
Friday, July 2, 2021
Nigerian Women Lead Reintegration of Ex-Boko Haram Militants
The Nigerian government's efforts to reintegrate former Boko Haram militants has seen hundreds of fighters go through rehabilitation. But it also gets pushback from the conflict's victims, who want the militants to be held accountable. At a conference in the capital, women from the conflict-affected areas are getting support to head up reconciliation between the former terrorists and their communities.
Some 45 women from Nigeria's northeastern states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe file in for a two-day conference in Abuja.
They're here to discuss a sensitive subject - the reconciliation and reintegration of ex-Boko Haram fighters into their communities.
The conference is a joint initiative by the non-profit Center for Humanitarian Dialogue in Switzerland, U.N. Women and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). It’s designed to promote women-led community peacekeeping in the northeast, said Millicent Lewis-Ojumu, director at Center for Humanitarian Dialogue.
"We know and from experience have seen that when the women are involved in the conversations, peace building, in helping to resolve issues relating to how to reintegrate and rehabilitate former combatants or person's associated with Boko Haram, that they are very effective," said Lewis-Ojumu.
Since launching the safe exit program, “Operation Safe Corridor” for repentant fighters in 2016, authorities say the program has met with resistance from host communities.
The scheme was launched as part of a growing awareness for the use of amnesty to persuade terrorists to lay down their guns. Nearly 1,000 ex-fighters have been rehabilitated under the government's program.
But very few are successfully living in communities. Most of them eventually rejoin Boko Haram due to rejection.
Hamzatu Alamin is one of the participants at the conference. She started talking about reconciliation 10 years ago when her community was hit hard and young men were coerced into joining Boko Haram.
But she said her efforts attracted some unwanted attention.
"You can be arrested by state actors and accused of being an accomplice. And secondly, the boys (Boko Haram), if you make a mistake, you can be their target,” she said.
Women like Alamin here said they hope to improve their community's acceptance of former jihadists after the conference.
But attending the conference along with other women also lifts the burden of being negatively labeled with terrorists.
"I have been communicating with them. I am now able to say it freely because I know that even the government is communicating with them. The government and security forces are using many of the boys I communicate with as outlets to get the people they're rehabilitating,” she said.
Maria Quintero, program manager at IOM Nigeria, said women also need socioeconomic stability if the program is to succeed.
"The Nigerian women are very strong. What we have found as well is that they're very influential in the decision of the males. Women have a role to play especially when it comes to males coming back to the communities,” said Quintero.
More than 35,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since the start of the Boko Haram insurgency in 2009. Boko Haram, which opposes Western education, has frequently targeted schools.
By Timothy Obiezu
Related story: Nigeria's military investigates reports of Boko Haram leader's death
Nigerian lawmakers pass historic oil overhaul bill
Both chambers of Nigeria's parliament have passed a bill that overhauls nearly every aspect of the country's oil and gas production, putting a project that has been in the works for two decades one step closer to presidential sign-off.
Legislators have been hashing out details of the bill since President Muhammadu Buhari presented an initial version in September last year, but an overhaul has been in the works for some 20 years.
The chambers had been expected to vote clause by clause on the more than 400-page long report, but instead quickly approved the full package.
Each chamber made changes before approving the package, and the senate lowered the share of money for oil-producing communities. The chambers will need to meet again to work out the details, but members were optimistic that they would come to an agreement next week, after which it could go for presidential sign-off.
Analysts say its approval is essential to attracting a shrinking pool of capital for fossil fuel development.
Earlier in the day, senators entered a closed-door session with the petroleum minister and the head of state oil company NNPC for a briefing on the technical terms and details.
The last key controversies related to the share of wealth for communities in areas where petroleum is produced, and those in the northern and central parts of Nigeria where there is exploration but no production yet.
The house bill signed off on an increase in the share of regional oil wealth generated from production that host communities can claim from 2.5% to 5%, but the senate approved 3%.Communities had pushed for a 10% share.
Sources said disagreements with northern leaders were managed separately following several hours-long sessions between them and federal government officials early this week.
The package also includes a string of changes sought by oil majors, including amended royalties and fiscal terms for oil and gas production, and the transfer of state oil company NNPC's assets and liabilities to a limited liability corporation created by the bill. It also divided the stakes in the new NNPC Limited evenly between the finance and petroleum ministries, but would not allow for public share sales without further government approval.
Leaders agreed earlier this year to sweeten the terms for oil companies in an effort to attract much-needed investment in an era of shrinking global cash for fossil fuel production.
By Libby George and Camillus Eboh
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