NAIJAFEED

Tuesday, November 8, 2022

TikTokers sentenced to lashing in Nigeria for mocking official

Two TikTok stars in Nigeria have been sentenced to a whipping and forced to clean the court after they used social media to mock a government official.

Mubarak Isa Muhammed and Muhammed Bula were found guilty of defaming Abdullahi Ganduje, governor of the northern state of Kano.

The pair's lawyer said they would not challenge the judgement.

Nigeria has seen a growing number of social media stars who use comedy to comment on social and political issues.

Mubarak Isa Muhammad and Muhammad Bala were arrested last week after posting their video - in which they mocked the governor for alleged land grabbing, corruption and sleeping on the job - to TikTok and Facebook.

Prosecution lawyer Wada Ahmed Wada said the men had defamed the governor and that their action was capable of disturbing public peace.

They pleaded guilty and asked for leniency, but the judge ordered them to be given 20 lashes each, to pay a fine of 10,000 naira (£20) and to clean the court premises for 30 days. They were also ordered to publicly apologise to Mr Ganduje on social media.

Their lawyer, Bashir Yusuf, told the BBC they would not challenge the judgement, given it was a ''non-custodial'' sentence - meaning those convicted would not be jailed.

Nigeria has seen a rapid increase in TikTok users in recent years, particularly among young people.

These users sometimes mock public figures, including government officials, by clipping images or videos, often to create comedies that attract massive followers to their accounts.

Kano State, a Muslim-majority part of northern Nigeria, is among about a dozen states in the region that practise the Sharia legal system alongside the country's secular laws. Only Muslims can be tried in Sharia courts.

BBC, By Ishaq Khalid

Outspoken Atheist, Arrested in Nigeria for Blasphemy, Hasn’t Been Seen Since

Monday, November 7, 2022

Gunmen release children kidnapped from Nigerian farm

A group of 21 children who were abducted by gunmen last week from a farm in northwestern Nigeria's Katsina state were freed and reunited with their families on Saturday, police said.

Kidnapping has become endemic in recent years in Katsina - the home state of President Muhammadu Buhari - as roving gangs of armed men abduct people from schools, hospitals, roads and farms and demand ransom cash from their relatives.

Three of the captives' parents told Reuters the children, aged between 8 and 14, were released after parents paid a ransom of 1.5 million naira ($3,400), but police spokesman Gambo Isa denied a ransom had been paid.

"They have been reunited with their families," Isa said in a message shared via WhatsApp late on Saturday.

The three parents who spoke to Reuters asked not to be named for fear of reprisals from authorities, who do not approve of ransom payments, or from the bandits themselves.

"They said if we don't pay the ransom between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. yesterday (Saturday) they will move into the deep part of the forest with them and then we will never see them," one father said, adding that some parents had to turn to relatives to help raise their share of the money.

Parents said more than 30 children were kidnapped on Oct. 30 while harvesting crops at a farm located between Kamfanin Mailafiya and Kurmin Doka villages in Katsina, but some managed to escape.

Police and the parents said all the remaining captives were now free.

Reuters, by by Libby George

Nigeria to explore nuclear energy for electricity

President Mohammadu Buhari has said Nigeria would explore nuclear energy to generate electricity.

He also expressed unwavering commitment of his administration to energy mix through acquisition of nuclear power.

The President spoke at the just concluded International Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Power in the 21st Century held in Washington DC.

According to him, the Federal Government has activated the Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission, NAEC, as the national focal agency charged with the responsibility of developing the framework and technical pathway to explore, exploit and harness atomic energy for peaceful applications for the socio-economic development of the country.

He said Nigeria had also established the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority as an independent agency of government to ensure the safety of humans and the protection of the environment in the process of development, deployment and use of nuclear power.

Buhari, who spoke through the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Sen. Adeleke Mamora, said like most other nations on the continent, Nigeria, with a population of over 200 million people, had a serious energy supply deficit, making it compelling for the government to critically look towards other energy options that were affordable, more environmentally friendly and sustainable.

Consequently, he disclosed that Nigeria had taken a decision to fully explore and harness nuclear energy resources for the generation of electricity, which would contribute to the country’s energy security through an appropriate energy mix

‘‘With the Small Modular Reactor, SMR, technology evolving, Nigeria sees this as a future game-changer in the nuclear industry and looks forward to a greater engagement with the IAEA and other global partners in the coming months and years to discuss the possibility of deploying SMRs in the country.

‘‘Several countries in Africa have genuine aspirations for industrialization and growth but the lack of reliable and sustainable base-load energy constitutes serious impediment.

‘‘Despite all the good policies formulated by African countries, the attainment of real growth and development has remained a mirage due to energy inadequacy. The possibility of nuclear power is now providing African countries with a better alternative for energy generation.

‘‘In this regard, Nigeria is currently engaged in discussions with some countries and vendors for our nuclear power project. Two potential sites for Nigeria’s nuclear power plant have been identified and necessary processes are being undertaken under the Integrated Nuclear Power Programme of Nigeria with the IAEA,” Buhari said.

While expressing Nigeria’s appreciation to DG Grossi and the entire staff of the IAEA as well as the leadership of the Nuclear Energy Agency, NEA, and other partners for arrangements put in place for the conference, the President assured of Nigeria’s full support and cooperation towards the attainment of the goals and objectives of the conference.

Vanguard, by Emmanuel Elebeke

Sunday, November 6, 2022

Director Ryan Coogler Premieres Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in Nigeria

Some cast and crew members of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, are in Lagos, Nigeria, ahead of the first-ever Marvel Studios’ premiere on 6th November.

The group is visiting Nigeria for the first time to kick off continent-wide celebrations ahead of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever‘s release on 11 November.

‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, a sequel to the 2018 box office hit movie, ‘Black Panther 2, is an American action superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character.

The film is a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), written by Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole and directed by Ryan Coogler. It continues with the story of T’Challa, the king of Wakanda.

The movie stars Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Angela Bassett, Dominique Thorne, Isaach de Bankole, Dorothy Steel, and Michaela Coel.

On Sunday morning, some cast and crew members were present at a press conference held at Lagos Continental Hotel, where they fielded questions from the media.

In attendance were filmmakers and cast from the highly anticipated sequel to 2018’s Black Panther, including stars Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Tenoch Huerta Mejía, Winston Duke, as well as director Ryan Coogler.

Why Nigeria?

At the occasion, the film director, Coogler, recipient of four NAACP Image Awards, four Black Reel Awards and an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, justified why the cast and crew decided to kick off the continent-wide celebrations ahead of the film’s release in Nigeria.

Coogler, an African American, said Lagos has a lot of history and cultural significance for filmmakers. He also informed the ecstatic audience that he recently took a genealogy test that revealed his lineage.

‘‘If you know, like African American history, it’s tough for us to trace our genetic lineage due to some purposeful things that happened to us during the transatlantic slave trade.

So one of the things I spoke with the late Chadwick Boseman about when we first met and were getting ready to put his movie on was that he put me up on something called africanancestry.com, another company I like.

It was specific about finding out where you have a heritage to know. So Chad had done his own, and he explained how it is done. So when I did mine, it came back as having lineage to a part of Cameroon, but mainly Yoruba lineage. It was something that I held on to and always wanted to know, to travel to Nigeria for that reason.”

The 36-year-old filmmaker said different parts of Africa influenced the film; however, the Nigerian culture exudes a specific energy that is hard to ignore.

Soundtrack Album

Roc Nation Records, Def Jam Recordings, and Hollywood Records released the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever soundtrack album on 4 November.

In addition to the already-released Rihanna single “Lift Me”, co-written by Tems, the soundtrack features other Nigerian artists Burna Boy, Tems, Fireboy DML, Ckay, Rema, Tobe Nwigwe and Fat Nwigwe, amongst other African acts. The media asked the team why they featured several Nigerian and African artistes on the soundtrack album.

Responding, Coogler, who produced the album, said his team wanted a representation of various genres and music spaces on the album.

‘‘I mean, music is critical to film as a medium. The film is a combination of a lot of different mediums. For me, Sonic manipulation, I’m trying to get a form of sound design, production design at, like, all of these things, you know, all the artboards representing the music is a massive part of it.

‘‘And the music was a big part of the first field. We were able to line up a great collaboration. And we wanted to do something different on this particular project, where to get, you know, more into the continent. We want a representation from various genres and music spaces,’’ he said.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is one of the most highly anticipated films of the year. It is the sequel to Black Panther (2018), starring Chadwick Boseman, who died two years ago of Colon Cancer at 43.

It features Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett), Shuri (Letitia Wright), M’Baku (Winston Duke), Okoye (Danai Gurira) and the Dora Milaje (including Florence Kasumba) fight to protect their nation from intervening world powers in the wake of King T’Challa’s death.

As the Wakandans strive to embrace their next chapter, the heroes must band together with the help of War queen Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) and Everett Ross (Martin Freeman) to forge a new path for the kingdom of Wakanda.

The movie introduces Tenoch Huerta Mejía as Namor, king of a hidden undersea nation; the film also stars Dominique Thorne, Michaela Coel, Mabel Cadena and Alex Livinalli.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever hits theatres on 11th November.

Premium Times, by Jayne Augoye

Nigerian Roye Okupe creating an African comic-book universe

Friday, November 4, 2022

Nigerian police launch search for 21 abducted farm workers

Police in Nigeria are searching for 21 people abducted by gunmen while working on farmland whose owner is believed to have owed the alleged kidnappers coerced payments.

Katsina state police spokesperson Gambo Isah said on Thursday that the people kidnapped were teenagers working on a farm in the remote Faskari council area of the state when the gunmen “singled out the farm and abducted them”.

“According to our investigation, the bandits placed some levies on some of these farmers, and this particular one refused to comply with their demands,” Isah said. “That was why they went to their farm and kidnapped the workers,” Isah said.

Police and Nigerian soldiers from a nearby military outpost were working to find the abducted farm workers, who are ages 15-18, he said.

Residents in remote parts of the northwest and central regions of Nigeria targeted by armed groups have complained of gunmen requiring farmers to pay huge levies to work their farmland.

Katsina, the home state of President Muhammadu Buhari, has been one of the hot spots in the abduction scourge.

The groups initially consisted of young men from the Fulani ethnic group, whose members traditionally worked as nomadic cattle herders and are caught up in a decades-long conflict with Hausa farming communities over access to water and grazing land.

But experts say multiple armed groups are now taking advantage of the situation to practise banditry in those areas, too.

Nigerian security forces carry out aerial bombardments of the known hideouts of the armed groups. Authorities blame their continued operation on the cooperation of some local residents.

Most of those residents are farmers who say they risk getting attacked if they do not pay the levies imposed on their villages.

The police are “worried and disturbed that terrorists are placing levies on people”, police spokesperson Isah said. He said villagers must still “desist from cooperating and from whatever demands made by these terrorists”.