Video - Security stepped up after Boko Haram attack on College in Northern Nigeria

Nigeria is stepping up security at schools in Yobe state. Dozens of students are in the hospital following an attack on their college that left at least 50 dead. The army says the students were shot as they slept by Boko Haram fighters.

Boko Haram attack college - Dozens dead

Suspected Islamist gunmen have attacked a college in north-eastern Nigeria, killing up to 50 students.

The students were shot dead as they slept in their dormitory at the College of Agriculture in Yobe state.

North-eastern Nigeria is under a state of emergency amid an Islamist insurgency by the Boko Haram group.

Boko Haram is fighting to overthrow Nigeria's government to create an Islamic state, and has launched a number of attacks on schools.

Classrooms burned

Casualty figures from the latest attack vary, but a local politician told the BBC that around 50 students had been killed.

The politician said two vanloads of bodies had been taken to a hospital in Yobe's state capital, Damaturu.

A witness quoted by Reuters news agency counted 40 bodies at the hospital, mostly those of young men believed to be students.

College provost Molima Idi Mato, speaking to Associated Press, also said the number of dead could be as high as 50, adding that security forces were still recovering the bodies and that about 1,000 students had fled the campus.

A Nigerian military source told AP that soldiers had collected 42 bodies.

The gunmen also set fire to classrooms, a military spokesman in Yobe state, Lazarus Eli, told Agence France-Presse.

The college is in the rural Gujba district.

In May, President Goodluck Jonathan ordered an operation against Boko Haram, and a state of emergency was declared for the north-east on 14 May.

Many of the Islamist militants left their bases in the north-east and violence initially fell, but revenge attacks quickly followed.

In June, Boko Haram carried out two attacks on schools in the region.

At least nine children were killed in a school on the outskirts of Maiduguri, while 13 students and teachers were killed in a school in Damaturu.

In July in the village of Mamudo in Yobe state, Islamist militants attacked a school's dormitories with guns and explosives, killing at least 42 people, mostly students.

Boko Haram regards schools as a symbol of Western culture. The group's name translates as "Western education is forbidden".

Boko Haram is led by Abubakar Shekau. The Nigerian military said in August that it might have killed him in a shoot-out.

However, a video released last week purportedly showed him alive.

Other previous reports of his death later proved to be unfounded.

BBC

Nigeria's answer to amazon.com

There’s an old saying in Nigeria that one can outfit an entire home in a single drive across Lagos, buying everything from cutlery and furniture to food and decor from the thousands of hawkers that aggressively sell their wares along -- and in the middle of -- the congested city’s potholed streets.

Now Nigerians have another option for comprehensive shopping. It’s a website called Jumia, and because it’s based online, shoppers don’t have to brave mind-numbing traffic to get their goods as the budding retail portal handles nearly all the schlepping with its nationwide network of 120 delivery trucks.

Jumia co-founder Tunde Kehinde sat down with International Business Times at the company’s massive Lagos campus earlier this month to discuss the company’s humble beginnings, its massive growth and the goals and challenges that lie ahead for the site, which is the country’s most popular online retailer.

Jumia is not a name known to many Westerners, but it can best be described as Africa’s answer to Jeff Bezos’ multibillion-dollar Amazon empire, though its tale of ascendancy tracks to a much shorter timeline.

Officially launched under the name Kasuwa in June 2012, the company that was later rebranded as Jumia has definitely captured the attention of investors, as top firms including J.P. Morgan Asset Management and Summit Partners have already backed the start-up to the tune of tens of millions of dollars, though Kehinde declined to discuss its balance sheet.

“We launched in a small conference room in Lagos with initial funding from Rocket Internet, a German tech incubator, and we simply went about getting as many local suppliers as we could and building a quality team to create an amazing shopping experience,” said Kehinde, a tall, mild-mannered man who wore dark-blue traditional batik clothing for our interview.

From that low-key start, the company has quickly grown to become a major player in the continent’s retail industry, currently offering more than 100,000 different products from computers and books to makeup and clothing to consumers in six countries across Africa.

The company -- which grows and changes at lightning speed, meaning this information will likely soon be outdated -- currently promises to deliver any item in its 90,000 central warehouse in the Ikeja district of Lagos to any location in the city within a single day, and anywhere in the entire country within five days.

It’s a lofty guarantee, and one that seems to be working fairly well for the company.Though circumstances and travel difficulties occasionally make it impossible for Jumia to fulfill their promise, the company's commitment to fast service despite the challenges mirrors co-founders Kehinde and Raphael Afaedor’s visionary approach to the African market.

Big plans

If Kehinde's dreams come to fruition, Jumia will soon serve the shopping needs of every West African nation and beyond. And if any company can pull off such a feat, it appears Jumia is the best placed to do so, as it has exploded from five employees to more than 500 in the short period since its launch, and its Lagos nerve center is now the largest e-commerce campus in Nigeria.


Kehinde’s parents are both entrepreneurs, and he says that he “was almost destined at some point to start [his] own business.” He and Afaedor are both native Nigerians who travelled to the United States to get top-flight educations -- they both graduated from Harvard Business School -- then returned to their home country to take advantage of the nation’s burgeoning business and tech climate.

“The vision of the company is to be the biggest and best retailer -- online or offline -- in West Africa within the foreseeable future,” Afaedor said while sitting in the orange-dominated, fluorescent-lit offices of Jumia’s Lagos headquarters. “To get there, we’re going to have to open up more categories of goods and have more physical locations so when people think of shopping in their country, they think of Jumia.”

Afaedor sees Jumia at the vanguard of a growing tech commerce industry in West Africa and Nigeria in particular, where many startups have launched in recent years that offer services similar to popular Western websites such as eBay, Seamless, Fresh Direct and Hotels.com.

“The good thing is you’re seeing more innovation, more entrepreneurs and more job creation with all these ventures coming,” he said.

Challenges remain

Despite the bullishness of Kehinde and the international investors who have backed Jumia, the company faces a range of obstacles on the road to becoming the singular, indispensable African online retailer its founders want it to be.

One is the question of its ability to make good on its guarantee to deliver high-quality, well-priced products within set timeframes to any place within its metastasizing distribution areas.

Ife, a Lagos businesswoman who asked to be referred to only by her first name, said that her limited experiences with Jumia have not quite lived up to its promises.

When asked in an unrelated interview if she had dealt with the company, she said her boss once ordered a smartphone and several tubes of toothpaste from the website, and when it arrived at their office a day later the package instead included more toothpaste than he had requested and no smartphone. Never mind the fact that she says the price was “was like 10 times higher than it would have been around the corner” at a locally-owned store.

But Ife says the company’s impressive costumer service team -- Kehinde says Jumia employs 85 customer service agents -- resolved her issue “quickly and efficiently” and that she will definitely use the site again, as she chalked the snafus up to “growing pains” and said she was satisfied overall. She also said most of her friends have nothing but good things to say about Jumia.

Kehinde acknowledges that other hindrances lie ahead, not least of which are the complications inherent in trying to fulfill Jumia’s promise of delivering any item to any place in Nigeria within five days, and other similar pledges in other nations served by the online marketplace.

“Fortunately, most of the orders we get right now are centered in urban areas that are easy to get to, but for the harder-to-reach areas we partner with DHL and other third-party providers,” he explained.

“For the most part you can get there if you have a bike of some sort or a car that can maneuver; it’s just about knowing the local terrain. If we’re not able to get you your item within our delivery promise, we’re learning to deal with customer expectations and let them know in a text or email if there may be a more convenient delivery time available.”

Despite these relatively minor frustrations, it appears that Jumia is on track to continue to grow into one of the most important and dominant retail operations in Africa. What once required a trek to the market now only requires the click of a mouse or the submission of a form on a smartphone app.

“To be honest, we’ve grown so fast I don’t know if we ever took the time to reflect on it,” Kehinde said. “But we just go day by day to continue building an amazing shopping experience.”

Written by Connor Adams Sheets

IBT

Being gay in Nigeria

LAGOS, Nigeria -- Life in Nigeria, one of the world’s most anti-gay nations, is a daily struggle for Adeola (not his real name), a closeted, working-class homosexual man living on the outskirts of Abuja, the nation’s small, central capital.

Adeola has been called names, insulted and ostracized over assumptions about his sexuality, so he shields his true self in fear that coming out would only attract more intense abuse.

Meanwhile, some young, wealthy gay Nigerians who spend most of their time in the louche, Westernized Victoria Island section of Lagos -- the massive, quickly modernizing megalopolis on Nigeria’s southwestern coast -- are able to live a quasi-open life despite the virulent homophobia that rules in much of the rest of the country.

For Adeola, a portly man in his thirties who earns a modest living as a cook at a catering company in Abuja, that life of openness is difficult to imagine.

Adeola said he worries about discrimination every time he walks out the door, especially in light of a law passed this year that, should it be signed by President Goodluck Jonathan, would make the sheer act of being gay punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

“It’s extremely difficult because everyone sees you as abnormal,” Adeola said while running errands at a busy Abuja shopping center. “Everything has to be in secret.”

Adeola’s fears are supported by statistical evidence: A study of 39 nations published by the Pew Research Center in June deemed Nigeria the least-accepting nation of the lot for gays, with 98 percent of survey respondents saying society should not accept homosexuality, inching out ultraconservative Jordan by a single percentage point.

An Accepting Bubble

Six upper-class gay professionals who met with the International Business Times at a Victoria Island restaurant last week say that because they mostly stay within that neighborhood’s fairly tolerant bubble, they are largely able to avoid Adeola’s constant state of fear. Still, they, like everyone else interviewed for this story, asked to be assigned pseudonyms because of the harsh penalties that can result from being identified as gay in the press.

“I’ve been very fortunate in Lagos because I’ve been around people who understand these things, who are accommodating, who understand, are very enlightened and don’t judge,” said Olawale, the owner of a high-end baking company, between sips of his Long Island iced tea.

Fatima, a Lagos content manager, has had a somewhat different experience. Although she grew up in the sprawling city, she attended private school on Victoria Island and was isolated from the poverty and chaos of the mainland during her youth. But after attending a London university, she returned to her home country and said she was shocked when she visited a friend’s home on Lagos mainland for the first time. It was her first exposure to what locals call “the real Nigeria.”

Fatima is not gay per se -- she describes her sexuality as “fluid” and said she is open to relationships with men or women -- but she mostly dates women. She said her first real lesbian experience was when she was 18 and in London, where she fell in love with a Trinidadian girl: “great skin, great hair, very pretty, great cook.”

The relationship didn’t work out, but it was obvious to her then that her sexuality didn’t fit neatly in the “straight” box. Over the years, she has repeatedly attempted to talk to her parents and siblings about her relationships, but found them unwilling to have an open conversation about her orientation or her love life.

“I think it’s easy hanging out with your friends, but it’s more difficult with your family. I’m not really close to my family because of it,” she said. “Not because they’ve done anything mean to me, but because I fear that they would. I’ve had friends whose parents kicked them out or disowned them because they told them they were gay.”

Criminalizing Homosexuality

Being gay in Nigeria has long meant hiding in the shadows of society, but fear and anxiety among most members of the nation’s gay community have grown markedly since May 30, when the Nigerian Senate passed a bill making the simple act of being homosexual a crime punishable by as long as 14 years in prison.

Jonathan has not yet signed or vetoed the bill -- which was previously passed by the Nigerian House of Representatives -- nor has he sent a clear signal of which side he will eventually take on the controversial measure.

The bill, coupled with legal restrictions on gay marriage, is actually lenient compared with the situation faced by gays in the Muslim-dominated north of the nation, where Shariah Islamic law makes homosexuality a capital offense punishable in some areas by stoning to death.

Even though the measure is not yet officially on the books, it has already had a chilling effect on gay life in Nigeria, according to Aisha, a lesbian friend of Fatima’s.

“Prior to the law, there was a sort of ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ thing going on,” Aisha said. “It was frowned upon -- just don’t do anything in anyone’s face.” But now, she said, there is a widely held, albeit premature, belief that “it’s illegal and it carries a sentence” of more than a dozen years behind bars, which further intimidates Nigeria’s gay population.

Although Fatima considers Abuja to be “like gay central of Nigeria,” the place she said she would go to “hook up with a girl, several girls, in one weekend,” that side of gay life isn’t accessible to many homosexual residents of the capital who aren’t as well-heeled as her.

Adeola said that due to the discrimination he faces in Abuja, he uses underground channels and word-of-mouth to find other gay people to interact with or date. “It’s just about networking. Someone you’re sure is gay introduces you to someone else who is, who introduces you to someone else who is, and so on,” he said.

Still, Adeola has been threatened and insulted on numerous occasions. “I have lots of name-calling, but no violence. They call me feminine names. For instance, if your name is Oliver, they’ll call you Olivia,” he explained.

Kingsley, a straight friend of Adeola’s who has witnessed anti-gay discrimination of others firsthand in Abuja and surrounding areas, said that such sentiments are sadly quite common in Nigeria. Although he is not gay, he did not want his real name to be used because he associates with gay people.

“There are people like me who accept them, but then there are lots of people who once they find out someone is gay, they refuse to have any kind of contact with them,” Kingsley explained as we sat in his sedan, waiting out one of Abuja’s notorious “go-slow” traffic jams. “Name-calling happens a lot. They will make fun of the person, say things like ‘This guy’s homo,’ stuff like that, ‘Faggot.’”

And Kingsley said the fear of being tormented for their sexuality infiltrates the social lives of his gay friends. “They don’t stay in groups, they’d rather remain not mixing with other gay people, because they don’t want other people to be able to say, ‘Those guys are gay,’” he said.

Fear Of The Unknown

Kingsley is rare among straight Nigerians in that he has a well-developed sense of the nuances of human sexuality, and he has chosen to understand and accept the gay community rather than deride it for its otherness.

A large proportion of Nigerians draw their intolerance of homosexuality from religious and cultural traditions ranging from fundamental Christian and Islamic teachings to centuries-old tribal norms. But even some highly educated, fairly secular and otherwise progressive Nigerians simply consider homosexuality to be transgressive or against nature, and therefore refuse to accept it.

Typical is Azu, a well-traveled, affluent Lagos businesswoman who simply doesn’t believe that a person can be born gay. “Every woman or man is born to be attracted to the opposite sex, but I don’t know, if maybe there’s a change in [gay people’s] brains somehow, there has to be a reason,” she posited over drinks. “Being gay is something that develops in a later stage of your life, but whether we believe it or not, all girls are attracted to men growing up.”

Azu said she has had several gay friends over the course of her life and that she does to this day, but she still describes gay individuals in condescending terms that illustrate her views on their sexual orientation.

“I haven’t met that many gay people, but I find the guys a bit stranger than the girls because it’s hard to comprehend a guy acting like a woman. ... For gay guys, it’s a bit more crazy when they go ‘Eh’ or how they eat,” she said. “I had a gay friend who used five times as much makeup as I did, but I liked him because he was like a puppy dog.”

Aisha said people often question her “decision” to be gay, and that she believes their attitudes represent a critical misunderstanding of the nature of homosexuality. She said she was deeply disturbed when a colleague at the governmental office where she works who is not aware of her sexuality said in a discussion once, “Gays should all be killed,” but that such violent remarks are rare in her world, where casual ignorance is much more common.

“One guy said, ‘I don’t mind when two ugly girls get together, but I mind when two beautiful girls do,’” Aisha said. “A lot of people feel like it’s a personal offense if you don’t accept a man’s advance, no matter if you’re gay or straight, because the penis is God’s gift to humankind.”

Hope Amid The Despair

Persecution of gay Nigerians still leads to violence fairly often, particularly in the country’s more rural states. In January, four men were arrested, stripped naked and paraded along a public street in Imo State on suspicion that they were homosexual, as noted by OnlineNigeria News. And in August, an Ogun State man was brutally beaten for allegedly being gay, as reported by the same site.

And the laws aimed at criminalizing gayness and same-sex marriage threaten to codify a new paradigm of heightened intimidation and marginalization for the nation’s gay residents.

But for urban Nigerians with enough money, there are some hopeful signs in the face of so much discrimination and misunderstanding.

Kingsley said that in Abuja “things are getting better” as people in the urban center appear to be less concerned with persecuting gays. “You’re OK until the authorities catch you in the act of sleeping with or making out with the same sex,” he said. “Only then will they go after you. It’s only certain individuals who actually bother you or discriminate against you.”

Aisha pointed to another promising trend, in which Abuja and certain parts of Lagos can be much safer for moneyed gays than elsewhere in the country, although limitations exist and endure.

“Abuja is the gay capital of Nigeria for the rich kids, but you can’t just go into the market totally out. You’ll get discriminated against and they’ll act out,” she said, adding that in more distant, isolated areas of the country, “there’s widespread ignorance. If you go to the poor areas, someone will do something about their hate.”

And a small but growing number of openly gay activists speak out regularly in support of gay rights in Nigeria without being slammed with lengthy prison terms, although they are still often harassed and attacked by individuals for their outspokenness.

Fatima said that despite all the challenges, life as a homosexual Nigerian can approach normalcy for members of her economic class.

“If you’re economically independent, you can be fine being gay in Nigeria,” she said. “If I walk into a restaurant and say, ‘Shut it down, I’m having dinner with my girlfriend,’ they’re not going to say, ‘Oh, 14 years.’ Money talks.”

Written by Connor Adams Sheets

IBT

Nigerian wins World Muslimah beauty pageant in Indonesia

Obabiyi Aishah Ajibola, 21, won the World Muslimah 2013 title on Wednesday.

Twenty finalists showed off Islamic fashions and worked to demonstrate religious values during the contest.

The pageant was held before the upcoming Miss World competition, which has drawn protests from hardline Indonesian Muslim groups.

Finalists in World Muslimah were chosen from more than 500 who took part in an online selection process.

One of the rounds involved contenders comparing stories of how they came to wear the hijab (Muslim headscarf) - a requirement for all those taking part.

The finalists hailed from countries including Bangladesh, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria and Brunei.

In the run-up to the final, contestants underwent three days of "spiritual training", waking before dawn to pray together and to study the Koran.

Ms Ajibola, 21, cried and recited a verse from the Koran when her name was called as the winner. She was awarded 25m rupiah ($2,200, £1,360) and trips to Mecca and India.

She had said in an interview before she won that she was just trying "to show the world that Islam is beautiful".

Eka Shanti, who lost her job as a TV news presenter for refusing to remove her headscarf, started the pageant three years ago.

She told Agence France-Presse news agency they held the pageant days before the Miss World final "to show that there are alternative role models for Muslim women".

"But it's about more than Miss World. Muslim women are increasingly working in the entertainment industry in a sexually explicit way, and they become role models, which is a concern," she said.

Indonesia is the world's most populous Islamic country.

The Miss World grand final had been scheduled for 28 September at a venue near Jakarta, but is now being held in Hindu-majority Bali after strong protests by Islamic groups.

Miss World organisers have criticised the Indonesian government for not supporting the event.

BBC

Nigeria wants to ban fish imports

The Minister of Agriculture in Nigeria has proposed a ban on the import of fish and sea food. The government wants to boost local industry, but a ban will not be easy to enforce.

Nigeria barred from US visa lottery

Nigeria and some other countries will no longer be eligible to participate in the America Diversity Visa lottery programme.

Information from the United States Department of State sighted on Sunday said Nigerians and citizens from few other countries were not eligible for DV-2015

The department said Nigeria was excluded since over 50,000 Nigerians had immigrated into the United States in the last five years.

The department listed other countries not eligible as Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China (mainland-born), Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador and Haiti.

Others are India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, South Korea, United Kingdom (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and Vietnam

However, many African countries would continue to enjoy the programme.

Some of them are Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Cote D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Djibouti, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia and Ghana.

Others are Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles and Sierra Leone.

Diversity visas are said to be distributed among six geographic regions, while no single country could receive more than seven per cent of the available space in any year.

Already, advertsiements for the 2015 US DV lottery have started with several businesses inviting Nigerians to apply for the program.

Applications for the 2015 US DV lottery is expected to take off from October 1, 2013.

In 2012, 14,769, 658 persons were said to have qualified worldwide for the US DV lottery among the 19, 672, 269 which applied.

PUNCH

Video - Shell negotiating compensation for oil spills in Nigeria

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell may have to pay millions of dollars in compensation for some of the worst oil spills in Nigeria's history. A pipeline owned by the company burst twice in 2008, causing massive damage.

Video - Reforms boost Nigeria's cement industry

Economic reforms helped large scale industries get off the ground in Nigeria, like cement, creating much needed employment. Government used to spend more than a billion dollars a year importing it, but that has changed in the space of few years.

Video - Nigeria's growing aviation industry

More than 10 million people travel through Nigeria's 22 airports every year, and that number is set to increase rapidly in the coming years.The country is working on a major overhaul of its airports in order to deal with the increased traffic, and is getting some help from foreign investors to be able to follow through.China has given Nigeria a huge loan to build new international terminals, and there is training and investment going on in virtually every area of the aviation sector.

Video - Thousands flee Nigeria to Niger due to Boko Haram violence

Thousands of people have fled violence in northern Nigeria and crossed into neighbouring Niger following fighting between the security forces and armed groups in north-eastern Nigeria, close to the border with Niger. Images and soundbites of relief operations in various areas in Niger.

Nigerian teenager survives flight in wheel well of airline

A young teenager dashed across a runway at a Nigerian airport, hid in the wheel well of a jet and survived a 35-minute domestic flight, the airline and aviation authorities said Sunday.

Passengers and crew had alerted the pilots that a boy was seen running to the plane as it was taxiing to take off Saturday from southern Benin City, Arik Airline spokesman Ola Adebanji said. The pilots alerted the country's aviation agency, he said.

The incident highlighted the growing concerns about airport security in Nigeria, which is fighting an Islamic uprising mainly contained in the northeast of the country, where there is a state of emergency.

"We are worried by the incessant security lapses at our airports," Arik Airline managing director Chris Ndulue said.

The West African country also has a history of major aviation disasters and security challenges.

Despite the possible presence of the boy, the pilots opted to continue with their takeoff, Federal Aviation Agency of Nigeria spokesman Yakubu Dati said.

"Immediately upon the departure of the aircraft, FAAN's security did another sweep of the area and found nothing unusual," Dati said.

When the plane arrived in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital, a boy aged 13 or 14 jumped to the ground from the wheel and was detained by Arik personnel, Adebanji said. He said the teenager probably survived because the flight was short and the plane probably didn't rise above 25,000 feet (7,620 meters).

Most stowaways don't survive. The body of a suspected stowaway fell from an Air France plane over Niger, also in West Africa, in July and was discovered lifeless in a western suburb of the capital, Niamey, officials said. The plane was coming from Burkina Faso's capital, Ouagadougou, and was scheduled to continue to Paris.

In September 2012, a man's body landed in a street in southwest London. He was eventually identified as Jose Matada, 26, of Mozambique, who an employer said had expressed an interest in moving to Europe for a better life. Police thought at first he was a murder victim, but soon determined his lifeless body had fallen from a plane preparing to land at nearby Heathrow Airport.

Last year, Nigeria gained a coveted U.S. safety status that allows its domestic carriers to fly directly to the U.S.

AP

Health workers strike across Nigeria

Health services are to be paralysed indefinitely in public institutions throughout the country as the workers have been ordered to down tools from today.


The Joint Health Sectors Unions (JOHASU) gave the directive Tuesday following the expiration of a 21-day ultimatum given to the government on August 1 and the failure of the Minister of Labour or his representative to turn up for a meeting scheduled for Monday to amicably resolve the issues in dispute.


This information was contained in a statement made available to journalists Tuesday in Abuja and signed by the National President and Secretary-General, Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), Ayuba Wabba and Marcus Omokhuale respectively, their counterparts in the National Association of Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), A.A. Adeniji and W.G. Yusuf-Badmus; Nigerian Union of Pharmacists, Medical Technologists and Professions Allied to Medicine (NUPMTPAM), Faniran Olukayode and M.O. Akinade.


The other signatories are Mrs Ladi Iliya and Peters Adeyemi of Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and acting President and General Secretary of Senior Staff Association of Universities, Teaching Hospitals. Research Institutes and Associated Institutions (SSAUTHRIAI), B. Akinola and M.O. Akinade respectively.


The associations said the industrial action, which is to affect federal tertiary health institutions from today, will be joined by workers in states and local government health institutions from midnight on 28 August.
“While we sincerely apologise for the inconveniences this action may cause Nigerian citizens, the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, should be held responsible,” they said.


The issues for which the workers are agitating are non-skipping of salary grade level CONHESS 10; the National Health Bill; consultancyand specialist allowances as well as Call/shift duty and other professional allowances.
However, after 13 months of adjudication, the National Industrial Court ruled on July 22, that the skipping of CONHESS 10 was legal and that the purported circular by the Ministry of Health and Head of Service of the Federation stopping it was illegal, null and void and of no effect.


JOHESU argued that the import of the ruling was that members would continue to skip CONHESS 10; that those earlier appointed as consultants would continue to enjoy the status along with other benefits and that the withdrawal of their letters of appointment was irregular.




Further, the group contended that shift duty, administrative non-clinical and call duty allowances should remain as they are but that negotiation should commence towards a review of the allowances.
“Also, it was held by the court that issues already agreed upon are accrued rights and should be implemented without delay in line with collective bargaining agreement,” they said.

This Day

Video - Boko Haram leader possibly dead

The leader of the armed group Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, may have died of gunshot wounds some weeks after a clash with soldiers, the Nigerian military has said.

Wild Fusion harnessing the power of the internet to revolutionize business in Nigeria

In 2008, Abasiama Idaresit returned to Nigeria, after studying for a degree in Information Systems & Management at the London School of Economics. He had one thing in mind: to see how the Internet could help transform the business landscape in Nigeria. That, in fact, was the focus of his dissertation -- the impact of technology on small businesses.

"I've always loved the Internet; wanted to see it change a lot of things in Africa -- marketing, operations..." he tells me, at his office in Lagos.

He started peddling his dreams. Without success. "For the first eight months I didn't make a dime," he recalls. "People literally chased me out of their offices."

By Internet-age standards in Nigeria those were early days. Facebook was just picking up, and no one had heard of Twitter; Internet advertising was almost unheard of at that time.

But Abas kept at his proselytising.

Baby M was a small business that catered to the needs of new mothers and their babies. It operated out of one store in Ikoyi, Lagos, near where Abas lived, and also had a network of sales agents who combed the streets of Lagos in search of customers. Monthly revenues were in the region of one thousand dollars.

Abas tried to convince Baby M's proprietor to give him a chance to show how the Internet could help her advertise cheaply and find new customers. At first she wasn't very keen. Until Abas offered a money-back guarantee in the event that he failed to fulfil his promise.

With nothing to lose, she gave him N40,000 (approx $250) -- his debut earning as an internet marketing consultant.

The results were phenomenal. Within three months, says Abas, Baby M's revenues grew from $1,000 a month to $100,000 a month, immediately overwhelming her capacity to fulfil orders.

That feat attracted the attention of Google, which has since developed it into an Internet marketing case study.

Shortly after, Abas incorporated Wild Fusion, to do for other businesses what he'd done with Baby M.

Wild Fusion has since grown remarkably, from its founder's first $250, to over a million dollars in revenue in 2012. It is now on course to double that, in 2013.

It was the first Nigerian company to become a Google Adwords partner, and today provides digital marketing and online media-buying services to a client list that includes names like Unilever, Pepsi and Diamond Bank in Nigeria, and Vodafone in Ghana.

While global corporate spending on traditional mediums (TV, radio, print) has either declined or stagnated in the last few years, Internet advertising budgets have steadily grown, and will continue to, into the near future.

The shift is beginning to be noticeable in Nigeria, and everyone -- from banks to beer companies -- is now seeking to actively engage consumers on the Internet.

According to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Africa's 27 per cent average annual growth (2009 - 2013) in household Internet penetration is almost double that of the next fastest contender, Asia and the Pacific. Africa is also the world's fastest growing market for mobile broadband.

Wild Fusion has just opened a country office, in Nairobi, Kenya; its third, after Nigeria and Ghana.

It is also currently building its first proprietary technology, which it plans to license to small businesses and which will provide them with an easy-to-use interface for deploying online advertising.

In five years Abas envisions offices across Africa, and annual revenues of $100 million.

This Day

Video - Shanty home dwellers in Lagos threatened with eviction

Tens of thousands of people have been threatened with being made homeless in Nigeria, as the government plans to replace shanty homes in the capital Lagos with new and improved houses.They fear they will be evicted and cannot afford to live in the new buildings. Human rights group have criticised the government's plans, saying authorities have the obligation to prevent forced evictions.

Video - Nigeria beat South Africa 2-0 in football friendly

Uche Nwafor scored two second- half goals to earn Nigeria a comfortable 2-0 win over hosts South Africa in a friendly international at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Wednesday.

Nigeria were back in the country where they won the African Nations Cup this year and Dutch-based striker Nwafor, playing only his second international, scored with an audacious back heel to give the visitors the lead in the 49th minute.

Nwofor reacted quickest with his back to goal and improvised with some power to beat South Africa goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune.

He got his second goal in the 68th minute at the end of an swift passing movement involving Victor Moses and Ahmed Musa, whose quick movement cut through the home defence to set up an easy tap-in for the VVV Venlo forward.

Moses and Russian-based Musa were brought on at the start of the second half to inject more pace into the Nigeria attack.

"I knew the South Africans were planning on them starting so I kept them for an impact in the second half," coach Stephen Keshi told reporters.

South Africa created several chances but were let down by poor shooting, particularly after making space for themselves on the edge of the Nigeria box.

It was a sixth loss in eight outings for Bafana Bafana against the African champions, whose next assignment is a key World Cup qualifier against Malawi next month.

Nigeria need only draw on Sept. 7 at home in Calabar to win their group and qualify for the final round of African qualifiers.

"We need to get more rhythm and work more on our possession and tactical play. If we get that right and the attitude is there, we can progress," Keshi told a news conference.

Reuters

Nigeria is the first African country to ratify Arms Trade Treaty

Nigeria has become the first Africa country to sign and ratify the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Olugbenga Ashiru, has disclosed.

"Nigeria becomes the first African country to sign and ratify the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT).

"This landmark event represents our deep commitment to a treaty which establishes common international standards for the import, export and transfer of conventional arms.

"We remain resolute and unyielding in our efforts to uphold the principle of ATT and, in particular, ensure that small arms and light weapons are appropriately transferred and access denied to terrorist groups, pirates, bandits and the like," Mr. Ashiru said while signing the treaty.

He noted that Nigeria co-sponsored the treaty and coordinated the African group throughout the process of negotiation of the treaty.

According to the minister, the adoption of the treaty was a realisation of efforts that started in 2006, following the adoption of the United Nations resolution 61/89.

Mr. Ashiru explained that the resolution recommended the establishment of common international standards for the import, export and transfer of conventional arms.

The spokesperson for Control Arms, Anna Macdonald, in her remarks at the event, noted that throughout the negotiations on the ATT, Nigeria was a leader for the African continent.

"We are proud of Nigeria's leadership again today as Foreign Minister Olugbenga Ashiru simultaneously signs and ratifies this first ever global agreement regulating the transfer of arms and ammunition.

"Africa has long suffered the impact of an arms trade that is out of control. From Somalia to Mali to the DRC, weapons have been entering conflict zones and increasing the level of violence for decades.

"Other African countries must now step forward and follow Nigeria's lead. The continent needs an ATT that is in effect and implemented as soon as possible.

"With over 80 countries' signatures and several ratifications since the treaty opened for signature, there is momentum to urgently ensure the ATT becomes international law and starts saving lives.

"Fifty ratifications are needed for the treaty to enter into force, and we call on all states to get to work on their national legislation as soon as possible," she said.

Premium Times

60 dead in attacks in Borno, Nigeria

Despite the assurance by the federal government that it is winning the war against terrorism and has successfully dislodged members of the outlawed terrorist sect Boko Haram, 60 persons were killed by assailants suspected to be members of the Islamist group at the weekend in villages in Borno State.

The attacks, which also led to scores of others being injured, occurred between Saturday and Sunday in Ngom, Maisarmari and Mailari in Konduga and Mafa Local Government Areas of the state.

The rising spate of attacks, especially in Borno and Yobe States, may have formed the main item on the agenda during a meeting yesterday between President Goodluck Jonathan and some service chiefs and members of the cabinet behind closed doors.

In attendance at the meeting were the National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd); Minister of State for Defence, Mrs Olusola Obada; Minister of Police Affairs, Navy Captain Caleb Olubolade (rtd); Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim; Chief of Army Staff, Lt-General Azubike Ihejirika; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Dele Ezeoba; Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar; and the Director-General of State Security Service (SSS) Ita Ekpeyong. At the end of the meeting, none of the attendees disclosed what was discussed.

On the attacks on the Borno communities at the weekend, it was gathered that the sect members were enraged that some residents had been giving out information to the military that had led to the casualties within the Islamist group.

A source told journalists in Maiduguri yesterday that not less that 52 villagers were killed between Saturday and Sunday in Mafa and Konduga Local Government Areas.

At Ngom village, a border town between Mafa and Konduga, insurgents invaded the village and shot 12 persons dead on Saturday night.

A politician from the area, who confirmed the death of 12 villagers to journalists, said he learnt of another attack in Konduga where 40 persons were shot dead.

He said there were numerous persons injured in the attacks on the villages, with those who suffered severe injuries taken to hospitals in Maiduguri for treatment.

An official at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, who spoke off the record to journalists, confirmed that 26 persons who were brought to the hospital on Sunday were still at the hospital yesterday receiving treatment from gunshot wounds.

Boko Haram members had in the past launched attacks and killed villagers whom they accused of being informants to security agencies and youth vigilante groups who have hunted them down.

Last month alone, 45 villagers were said to have been killed in two separate villages in Borno State.

Another source told journalists that during the weekend attacks on the villages, there was no gunfire, insisting that members of the outlawed sect members attacked the three villages, killing 31 people, by slitting their throats in their houses and mosques.

He noted that the strategy must have been used in order not to attract the attention of security agents during the attacks.

A source with the Joint Task Force (JTF) also revealed yesterday that 12 persons were killed at Ngom while 19 other villagers’ throats were slit in surrounding villages on Sunday.

He said the killings compelled the task force to cordon off the road leading to Dikwa for several hours.

On the Ngom casualties, the JTF source revealed: “I cannot tell you details of the attacks, but it was certain that gunmen in military and police uniforms attacked Ngom village, 20 kilometres east of Maiduguri, the state capital. The incident occurred in the early hours of Saturday, before we were alerted on the village attacks and killings.

“On reaching the village, the gunmen had fled in their vehicles and motorcycles. But the village head told us that 12 of his people were killed. The victims’ hands were tied to their backs, before they were killed by slitting their throats.”

A resident of Mailari, Aisami Bukar, told journalists in Maiduguri: “We saw gunmen in military and police uniforms at dawn with some vehicles and motorcycles who proceeded towards our village on the Maiduguri-Bama Road, chanting God is great in Arabic when the gunmen started to kill some of us here in this village one by one, until 11 villagers were slain by slitting their throats.”

He added: “The following day at Maisarmari village, a different set of gunmen also invaded and attacked the village in the early hours of Sunday and killed eight more people while they were praying in two mosques at dawn, before soldiers rushed to the village at about 8 am.”

At the time of filing this report, no official statement had been obtained from JTF, as attempts to get its spokesman, Lt. Col. Sagir Musa, proved abortive.

In the meantime, the self-acclaimed leader of the sect, Abubakar Shekau, yesterday claimed responsibility for the recent attacks on some towns in both Borno and Yobe States.

Shekau, in a Sallah message to his followers while accepting responsibility for the attacks on Bama, Mallam Fatori, Gomboru-Ngala (in Borno) and Damaturu (in Yobe), said the military was being deceptive over its campaign winning against the terrorist group.

The leader of the sect, who also said his group was responsible for the killing of people in Biu, promised to continue on the killing spree until Borno, Yobe and the rest of Northern Nigeria is Islamised, even as he insisted that he was engaged in a war that victory was already assured as the war is holy and supported by God.

He boasted that the sect was too much for the Nigeria government to handle and even with the assistance of America and France, it was not a “winnable war” since it is a battle with God.

Shekau accused the JTF of merely gathering weapons and showcasing them to having been recovered from the sect, stressing that the military has not recovered anything from them and the sect was waxing stronger.

The sect leader stated that the military was deceiving people by saying they had finished with them, adding that members of the sect are still alive.

He called on people to join the sect and shun democracy and western education for Islam and the course of the Jihad.
He said: “The military is lying to the world about the battle we had with them; they lied that they had killed our members, but we are the ones that have killed the soldiers.

“We call on you all to repent and come to the ways of Allah. Forget about constitution and accept Shariah. We don’t have socialism, we don't know communism, we don’t want federalism, but we are Muslims.

“You soldiers have claimed that you are powerful, that we have been defeated, that we are mad people; but how can a mad man successfully coordinate recent attacks in Gamboru, in Malumfatori, slaughter people in Biu, kill in Gwoza and in Bama where soldiers fled under our heavy fire power.

“We have killed countless soldiers and we are going to kill more. Our strength and firepower has surpassed that of Nigeria. Nigeria is no longer a big deal as far as we are concerned. We can now comfortably confront the United States of America.

“Let the world know that we have been enjoined by Allah to kill the unbelievers just like how we were enjoined to slaughter rams during Eid-el Kabir.

“And we shall continue to kill those who strive to stand against the will of Allah by opposing Sharia. We don't mind if we die doing this because it is even a blessing for us to die in this cause and gain paradise. So we are winning on either side.

“It is never too late for you to repent and join us on the path of righteousness.”

In a related development, it has emerged that 20 soldiers went missing following the August 4 attacks on two military camps in Mallam Fatori.

The online news medium, Premium Times, quoted military sources as stating that the attackers, suspected to be members of Boko Haram, arrived the Section Four camp manned by the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) at about 5.30 am that day and took the soldiers by surprise.

“The insurgents came around 5.30 am, surrounded the camp and launched a surprise attack on the camp which gave them an edge over us. Our men were caught off-guard,” one of the sources said.

He added that as a result of the surprise attack, the Boko Haram insurgents overwhelmed the units they met on the ground and some of the soldiers were chased as far as Niger Republic.

Sources also said the soldiers were also surprised by the firepower of the attackers who reportedly also took away with them some weapons from the camp.

They however said members of the MNJTF later re-grouped and took back one of the camps, adding however that “the insurgents are still in control of one of the camps”.

THISDAY sources said because of the fear of ambush, soldiers on the ground were yet to launch a rescue mission for the over 20 missing soldiers who are still missing with their weapons.

The authorities have simply declared them “missing in action,” another source said. “But there is apprehension that the men have been killed,” he added.

Shortly after the attack, the JTF in Maiduguri issued a statement claiming that only two soldiers and a policeman were killed in the attack.

However, the JTF commander in the state, Major General Jah Ewansiah, reportedly informed the Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, when he visited the JTF headquarters on a condolence visit that 12 soldiers were killed in the attack.

This Day

Video - Child marriage law challenged in Nigerian senate

Human rights campaigners are calling for the Nigerian government to create a minimum age for marriage for women. In local law, once a girl is married, she is legally considered an adult, regardless of her age.

Firms contracted to build power plants across Nigeria

The federal government announced yesterday that it had shortlisted 386 firms for power plants across the country.

This is just as Vice President Namadi Sambo assured that by 2016, power generation would hit 20,000mw, even as he urged all Nigerians to support the government's transformation agenda.

Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents after the second joint meeting of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) and the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) at the Presidential Villa.

He said a total of 110 submissions were received from those interested in 10 power plants from which the joint evaluation committee endorsed 82 submissions, bringing the number to 386 expressions of interest in the various plants.

"We have about 46 consortia and were shortlisted for Bariam Power Plant, 44 for Benin Power Plant, 42 for Omotosho, 41 for Egbema, 41 for Omoku, 39 for Geregu, 37 for Calabar and 36 for Ogwurode, 30 for Olaojeand 30 for Oloronshogo, amounting to 386," the governor stated.

Suswam explained that there was need for the Ministry of Power to create the awareness that Nigerians were the ones to tackle pipeline vandalisation because "electricity is not Jonathan's electricity; it is meant for Nigerians. So, if you are sabotaging it, you are not sabotaging the federal government - you are sabotaging the entire Nigerians."

According to Suswam, "The reason for people to carry out this act of vandalism is within them, because it is something that is beyond explanation. Some people try to vandalize for all kinds of reasons; why they engage in this act of sabotage. I agree with you that many serious arrests have been made, just like the issue of crude oil theft that is going on in this country. I think the seriousness given to this by the federal government to make sure that they arrest whoever that is involved in this act of sabotage is something that should give comfort to Nigerians.

"Otherwise, the efforts and the huge amount of money being expended by government to ensure Nigerians enjoy constant supply of electricity is being sabotaged by some unknown individuals whose motivation is actually not known to anybody, except to say that this is an act of madness, otherwise any reasonable person should rejoice at the fact that the things that are given to Nigerians should be protected by all Nigerians . That is a challenge to the minister, to ensure Nigerians are sensitized and be more conscious of the fact that this electricity is not Jonathan's electricity; it is electricity meant for Nigerians. So if you are sabotaging it, you are not sabotaging the federal government; you are sabotaging the entire Nigerians".

For his part, the Minister of Power, Professor Chinedu Nebo, noted that the vandalisation of gas pipelines was politically motivated and disclosed that 460 megawatts of electricity was lost to the low water level of Kainji, Shiroro and Jeba dams.

The minister said, "I think it is instructive for the entire populace to know what has been happening recently. It is no news now that a couple of months ago, the western axis of the gas pipeline leading to the power plants in the west were cannibalized, resulting in very severe damage that caused a sharp drop in power supply. That is since being addressed and the damages are being repaired."

"Unfortunately a couple of weeks ago the Akoloma plant in the Easton axis was also vandalized, the damages as quiet extensive, but a crack team of experts went to work and restored it bringing out gas supply. And ensured that the shut down axis was open and then the Afam both four and six were onboard again.

"But unfortunately when people were rejoicing in parts of the country where power supply was stabilizing another sabtage was discovered a few day ago and Akoloma was also vandalized bt right now it also been addressed and it is hoped that as they finish the evacuation of the condensed stage that they will start pumping gas and we are hoping that the plant in Afam will be back running in a few days time. These are the reasons in aaddition to the fact that water level in Kainji, Shiroro and Jebba are quiet low right now and the water level needs to be properly managed so that the plants will operate optimally."

Leadership

Video - Half of the Yellow Sun film adaptation to premiere at TIFF

The film adaptation of the critically acclaimed novel Half of the Yellow Sun, written by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, will be premiering at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.

Former music producer Aswad Ayinde given 90 years jail sentence for fathering children with daughters

An Award winning Nigerian music director found guilty of fathering children with his daughters will spend the rest of his life in jail.

Aswad Ayinde, 55, of Paterson, NJ, was sentenced to 50 years in prison Friday after being found guilty in the second of five expected trials in which he is accused of repeatedly raping his six daughters, resulting in six children being fathered. Mr. Ayinde was found guilty in his latest trial of having intercourse with one of his daughters when she was as young as eight-years-old. The second sentence adds to the 40 year sentence Mr Ayinde received in a 2011 trial for sexually assaulting a separate daughter.

Mr. Ayinde is known for directing the music video for the Fugees 1996 smash hit 'Killing Me Softly.'

In a disturbing disclosure during his first trial, Mr. Ayinde's former wife said he was trying to create a 'pure family bloodline' by impregnating his daughters. He even claimed during a pre-trial hearing before the first trial that 'the world was going to end, and it was just going to be him and his offspring and that he was chosen.'

In this latest trial, it was revealed that Mr. Ayinde began having intercourse with his second daughter from the time she eight-years-old, impregnating her four times.

As repoted by Mail Online the sexual assaults happened for almost 30 years until Mr. Ayinde and his wife separated, officials said. They occurred in numerous homes across northern New Jersey, even while the family was under watch of state child welfare officials, according to NBC New York. Some of the rapes even took place in an abandoned funeral home.

The family moving as far away as Florida to avoid investigation after case workers removed multiple children from the Ayinde household in 2000, resulting in Mr. Ayinde being arrested for kidnapping for trying to take them from state custody in a medical center, NBC New York reported.

He pleaded guilty to lesser charges and received a year's probation - as he continued raping one daughter for at least another two years, according to officials.

The depraved father also beat and starved the girls using wooden boards and steel-toed boots for even 'minor transgressions,' Ayinde's wife testified at the first trial.

Some of the children Ayinde fathered with his daughters were born in the home, with at least two babies who died in the home having been buried without notifying authorities or obtaining birth certificates, NBC New York reported.

Mr. Ayinde also fathered 12 additional children with an additional three women, according to court records

Ayinde's tortured daughters were home schooled and isolated from other children, so as to keep the family secrets hidden, the station added.

With his wife too afraid to confront him, Mr. Ayinde carried out his evil plan without hindrance even while directing the music video for the Fugees 1996 breakout hit 'Killing Me Softly, for which he won 'Best R&B Video' at the 1996 MTV Music Video Awards. The Fugees are also originally from Northern New Jersey.

Mr. Ayinde faces three more trials over the alleged assaults.

Vanguard

Multiple explosions in Christian district of Kano, Nigeria

A series of explosions have torn through a predominantly Christian district in Nigeria's largest northern city, Kano. It was not immediately what had caused the blasts.

At least ten people were killed and at least as many were injured late Monday when a series of bombs were detonated in Kano's Christian district, Sabon Gari, according to eye witnesses and Nigeria authorities.

The city of Kaduna has been closely linked with lethal religious violence. Yet on Sunday a Christian cleric was given a Muslim award. He had bailed Muslims out of jail so they could spend Ramadan at home. (22.07.2013)

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Kano lies in the country's Muslim north, where the Islamist al Qaeda-linked sect Boko Haram is staging an insurgency in an effort to impose Shariah, or Islamic law. About 40 percent of the Nigeria's 170 million citizens are Christian.

DW

Blessing Okagbare Sets New 100m African Record

Nigeria's Blessing Okagbare Saturday wiped out her London 2012 Olympic tears when she returned to the same venue at Olympics Stadium in Strafford and sensationally beat the world to win the 100m, setting a new African record in the process.

It was at the venue where she raised hopes of Nigerians but crashed them at the Olympics, getting to the final but placing last.

Before more than 80,000 spectators, the new Africa's Queen of the tracks first broke Gloria Alozie's 14 -year old record of 10.90 record when she returned in 10.86 seconds in the heats. She further lowered that in the final to produce what is now the talk in town, a sensational feat of 10.79 seconds.

"I see a world champion in her and I pray she makes it in Moscow during the World Championships. Setting a record is always a great thing. I congratulate her,"quickly reacted Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan who has been supporting Nigeria's elite athletes especially Okagbare.

It was a strange afternoon in what was the deepest sprint field of the second day of the London Anniversary Games.

Reigning world champion Carmelita Jeter withdrew from the final with a quad injury, according to Flotrack, after running a season's best 10.93 in her heat.

Jeter missed the U.S. championships in June due to a quad injury. With worlds just two weeks away, this is a situation to monitor.

Two-time Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce put up a very smooth world-leading 10.77 in her heat. But Fraser-Pryce was never a factor in the final, running a 10.94 for fourth place. The winner was Blessing Okagbare in 10.79 seconds.

Okagbare is also ranked fourth in the world this year in both the 200 and the long jump.

The fastest American on Saturday was a woman who didn't make the world championships team - Barbara Pierre. Pierre matched her personal-best 10.85 in the final, the same time English Gardner clocked to win nationals in June.

"Blessing is Nigeria's greatest sensation now and needs the support of the whole country,"celebrated Solomon Ogba, the President of Athletics Federation of Nigeria who was at the stadium yesterday.

"I congratulate Blessing and I thank Governor Uduaghan for all his tremendous support,"Amaju Pinnick, Delta's Sports boss said last night.

"Blessing is the pride of Africa at the moment and Nigeria is lucky to have such an athlete," Godwin Abigor, chairman of Warri Wolves and an ardent sports enthusiast said.

"She is absolutely sensational. She is unbelievable. Breaking African record two times in one event is sensational," Dare Esan, Editor of Complete Sports said.

Usain Bolt wrapped up the London Anniversary Games with a no-doubt-about-it anchor leg on the 4×100-meter relay at the Olympic Stadium on Saturday.

Bolt and his Racers Track Club won the event in 37.75 seconds, easily beating France (38.45). The 4×100 world record set by Bolt and Jamaica at the 2012 Olympics is 36.84. This was Bolt's first appearance at the Olympic Stadium since his triple gold performance at the 2012 Games.

Vanguard

Nigeria to withdraw troops from Mali

Plans are underway by the Nigerian Army to withdraw some of its 1,200 soldiers from the UN peacekeeping force currently operating in the troubled west African country, Mali. This was revealed by the Ivorian President, Alassane Ouattara.

Mr Ouattara who is the Head of Regional Group Ecowas, disclosed that the troops would be leaving for Nigeria to tackle the ongoing Boko Haram campaign in the country.

Mr Quattara however, did not confirm the number of troops that Nigeria will leave behind in Mali. Mali would be holding its general elections on 28 July.


The Nigerian troops form part of a force of 12,600 African troops that took charge from a French-led mission early July.

A combined troops of French and West African succeeded in driving militants out of northern Mali in February.

The UN force, with its French acronym Minusma has aligned with the Malian army to secure the forthcoming election. The troop is expected to grow up to 11,200, plus 1,400 police towards the end of the year.

Speaking at a summit of West African nations in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, President Ouattara said, the withdrawal was “because of the domestic situation in Nigeria”.

“They are not withdrawing everyone. A good part of the troops are going to be there,” he said.

Daily Post

Video - Nigeria's booming fashion industry

In Nigeria, the economy is booming thanks to the country s rich oil supplies, and now the country s fashion designers are wanting to ride the wave of economic prosperity with the hope of making Lagos an international fashion hotspot.

Bloomberg ranks Nigeria as most stressful country in the world

Overview

Bloomberg ranked countries based on the stressfulness of their living environments.

Methodology

Seven equally weighted variables were considered: homicide rates, GDP per capita on a purchasing-power-parity basis, income inequality, corruption perception, unemployment, urban air pollution and life expectancy. Income inequality was measured by the Gini Index, where a score of 0 represents perfect equality and 100 perfect inequality. Corruption perception refers to Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, which scores countries on a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 being the most corrupt. Urban outdoor air pollution is the annual mean concentration of fine particles smaller than 10 microns, measured in micrograms per cubic meter. Countries were allotted points for each variable based on their relative position in that category's ranking. The country with the least-stressful measure for each variable received 0 points, while the country with the highest stress level received 100 points. All other countries were scored on a percentile basis depending on their position between the two extremes. Points for the seven variables were averaged for a final score from 0 to 100, a higher score indicating a more stressful living environment. All data were the latest available. Only countries with data available for all seven variables were included.



Source(s)

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, International Monetary Fund, Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook, Transparency International, World Health Organization
Last Updated

May 10, 2013
Bloomberg

Related stories: Video - homeless battle in Makoko 

Africa's richest man speaks about the future of Nigeria

India has now become Nigeria's biggest crude oil buyer

India has overtaken the U.S. as the top buyer of Nigerian crude oil, a top Indian diplomat in Abuja has said.

Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria Mahesh Sachdev said recent statistics showed that India had been buying more of Nigeria’s crude than the U.S. over the last three months.

“India will continue to cooperate with Nigeria to improve its economy and it will also assist the country in capacity building of workers in both the public and private sectors,” Mr. Sachdev said, during a courtesy visit to the Governor of Niger state in northern Nigeria last Wednesday.

On the bilateral trade, he said the present figure stands at $10 billion, even as the total investment of India in Nigerian economy could be valued at $16.6 billion.

Mr. Sachdev disclosed that India would partner with the government of Kano state to establish a film city and also collaborate with the Niger state government to establish health care facilities as well as improve agriculture.

He also promised assistance in the state on the training of young people who wish to embark on vocational education.

Governor of the state Babangida Aliyu commended India for being one of the few countries that had kept faith with strengthening the work force.

According to him, this has helped Nigeria to develop in every ramification.

India has recently reduced its dependence on Iranian oil in the wake of the U.S. and European sanctions on the import of oil from the Islamic Republic.

The Hindu

Secondary schools in Northern Nigeria close after 42 students killed

Secondary schools in the north-eastern Nigerian state of Yobe have been ordered to close until September after a massacre at a boarding school.

Authorities said 42 people were killed in a gun and bomb attack by suspected Islamist extremists early on Saturday in the Mamudo district.

Witnesses said the assailants, believed to be Boko Haram Islamists, rounded up students and staff in a dormitory before throwing explosives inside and opening fire.

The gunmen "stormed the school around 5:30am and began to shoot at the students from different directions," said a spokesman for a military task force in the state, Lieutenant Eli Lazarus.

A senior police officer said the students were asleep when the attackers stormed their school.

It was the third school attack in the region in recent weeks, and the second in Yobe.

The government issued a statement ordering "all secondary schools in the state be closed down from Monday 8th July 2013 until a new academic session begins in September."

Boko Haram, which translates roughly to "Western education is a sin," has repeatedly targeted schools in the north-east as part of its four year insurgency.

One local resident said Saturday's attack was believed to be a reprisal for the killing of 22 Boko Haram members during a military raid in the town of Dogon Kuka earlier in the week.

The European Union condemned the Yobe school attack, as a "horrific murder by terrorists."


Calls for phone network to be restored

The state government also called on the military to restore local mobile phone services, saying a blackout was preventing residents from reporting suspicious activity.

Nigeria's military cut phone service in much of the country's north-east in mid-May, in an effort to end Boko Haram's insurgency.

Satellite phones have also been banned, with the military saying insurgents use them to plan attacks, and landlines are rare.

A number of residents had initially expressed support for the phone cut if it could lead to peace.

Violence linked to the Boko Haram insurgency has left some 3,600 people dead since 2009, including killings by security forces, which have come under criticism for alleged abuses.

The current military offensive was launched after President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states on May 14.

He said at the time that the insurgents had managed to take control of a number of remote, border areas of the region.

Since then, the military has claimed major successes and say they have pushed the insurgents out, but the violence has continued, indicating the gains may be short-lived.

ABC

Related story: Video - Thousands flee Boko Haram violence

Nigeria's government website hacked by gay activist

An Irish hacker, angered by Nigeria's stance on homosexuality, has attacked Nigeria's official government website in an attempt to coerce President Goodluck Jonathan to veto a bill seeking to jail homosexuals.

The attack happened on Thursday night and normalcy only returned to the site at about 11.00 p.m. on Thursday. It is not known whether it was the government that regained control or whether the attackers simply suspended the attack.

The anti-gay bill, passed by Nigeria's National Assembly and generously supported by Nigerians, seeks to jail convicted homosexuals for 14 years.

"Nobody should live in fear of being jailed, when their only action is loving another consenting adult, regardless of gender," the Irish hacker, Paddyhack said.

A message left on the defaced website gave the president 72 hours to "renounce and veto this Bill... "

"Failure to follow our order will unleash a torrent of fury aimed directly at the direction of your administration, starting with some startling but unsurprising evidence of corruption in your ranks,"the hacker, who also claims to be a member of the global Anonymous group, said.

"No need to start destroying evidence. I already have it," the hacker declared.

The hacked website, Nigeria.gov.ng, is Nigeria's official website. It is the equivalent of UK's gov.uk and U.S' USA.gov. It is managed by Nigeria's information ministry.

The Thursday night attack was a continuation of an #opNigeria the attacker launched on July 1. Despite announcing his intention hours before hijacking the website, Nigeria's Information Ministry's web administrators appear unable to avert the attack.

"Just over two hours to launch of #OpNigeria," the attacker announced in his twitter diary.

The spokesperson of the ministry, Joseph Mutuah, could not explain the attacks when pressed for reasons the government is unable to provide appropriate security for its web infrastructure.

He likened it to armed robbers breaking into one's property. "They are hackers," he said.

The ICT department of the Information Ministry received N63.5 million from the national treasury this year. Of this amount, N10 million was set aside for the management of the website.


Nigeria cyber protest culture

Although the web profile of the attack suggests Irish origins, it is difficult to isolate the incident from Nigeria's growing culture of cyber activism.

Cyber warfare is fast becoming a major protest tool for Nigeria's social media community. Besides using the Internet to disseminate information, protesters use hacking skills to get government officials' attention to civil issues.

After playing a major role in the global Occupy Movement, the Internet anarchy group, called Anarchy, is lending support to clones in developing countries, including Nigeria.

Various clones operating in Nigeria have carried out operations against government Internet infrastructures as a means of protesting unfavourable policies, mostly as support for a protest in the social media community.

Early in January 2012, during the Occupy Nigeria protest, Nigeria Cyber Hack-activists, the lead clone of Anonymous, began a "Tell Them How You Feel" campaign. The group bombarded mobile phone lines of Nigerian politicians, lawmakers and top government functionaries - including the Vice president - with a million text messages each.

Thereafter, these phone numbers were published by the group on social media, inviting Nigerians to call or text them to denounce the policy.

Nigeria Cyber Hack-activist, believed to be made up of mostly young people, have been carrying out attacks on government Internet infrastructure since 2010. It was a means of protesting the lavish expenditure of the government on Nigeria's 50th anniversary - in the face of worsening poverty and infrastructure decay. The group launched attacks that crippled many government websites.

The group has a history of defacing government websites. In May 2011, they ruined several government websites, including the National Assembly's, in a campaign - Op-Nigeria - targeted at forcing government to cut waste and sign the Freedom of Information Act.

After the Occupy Nigeria protest, Nigeria Cyber Hack-activists announced it was planning an attack on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission's website in a bid to push the anti-corruption commission into arresting Messrs Femi Otedola and Mike Adenuga, earlier fingered as members of a cabal that have fuelled corruption within the oil industry.


But a day before the group's planned attack, the EFCC website was brought down.

No other group claimed responsibility for the attack.

The unannounced attack on EFCC's website suggested there were other hack groups operating in Nigeria.

In 2012 alone, up to eight hack groups, with focused operations on Nigeria, sprang up in the cyberspace - including Anonymous Nigeria, Ibomhacktivist, and the Op-Arik - used to taunt Arik Air, Nigeria's leading airline, for poor customer services.

The radical, faceless, and irrepressible groups threatened to upload stuxnet - a deadly computer worm discovered in 2010 - on Shell flow station in the oil rich Niger Delta after the government threatened them with treason and arrests.

They warned that Nigeria's cyber infrastructure was insecure and would overthrow it if the government does not meet their demands to stop corruption and political patronage in Nigeria, cut waste in governance, and prosecute members of the cabal.

Although the Nigerian government is yet to meet these conditions, the hackers have since gone under, remaining silent even on the latest attacks. It is now unclear whether the latest vandalization of Nigeria's cyber infrastructure is being carried out by them or foreign cyber-warlords.

Premium Times

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4,000 Nigerian refugees in Cameroon

Cameroon has received 4 000 refugees fleeing a Nigerian military offensive against Islamists in the north, the governor of the affected region said on Wednesday, bringing total refugee numbers from the conflict to at least 10 000.

Since mid-May, Nigerian forces have been engaged in a concerted crackdown against the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, bombing their bases, raiding neighbourhoods where they are suspected to be hiding and cutting phone lines.

The remote, semi-desert region where the operation is being carried out is sparsely populated.

“There are 4 000 refugees who have come in from Nigeria and we are working out a programme with the International Red Cross to set up a refugee camp for them near the town of Mokolo,” Cameroon's Far-North region governor Fonka Awa said.

Nigeria's military was not immediately available for comment. The local Red Cross said it was still investigating.

The figure was much lower than that given by Hamed Jaha, a member of parliament in Nigeria's Borno state, who said on Monday that 20 000 had fled from the Nigerian border towns of Ashigashiya and Ngoshe into Cameroon after army raids.

Last month, the UN refugee agency said it had registered 6 000 refugees from Nigeria in neighbouring Niger.

Boko Haram has become the biggest risk to stability in Nigeria, Africa's top oil producer and second largest economy, but rights groups and aid agencies fear that the longer the offensive against it goes on, the more the local population will suffer.

A government rights watchdog said this week that violence since President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in May had forced thousands of farmers to flee their land. It said the exodus could trigger a food crisis.

The National Human Rights Commission said it had credible reports of killings, torture, rape and arbitrary detention by security forces. Nigerian authorities have yet to respond.

Reuters

Related story: Thousands of Nigerians flee country due to violence

Video - National theatre of Nigeria faces closure

The Nigerian government is planning to turn the country's national theatre into a hotel and shopping mall. The proposals have upset actors, threatre groups and artists but the government says the plans will generate money and create employment.

Gilbert Chagoury poised to build city for the elite in Nigeria

Africa's cities are running out of land, prompting a real-estate developer here to erect what might be Africa's ritziest district on a beach long known as a haven for day laborers and beer tipplers.

The shacks that crowded the shoreline called Bar Beach are gone, replaced by construction tents. Families who squatted here were evicted. For the past four years, a Lebanese-Nigerian property developer has hosed sand into the ocean, creating new land for planned jogging paths, yacht jetties and condominiums with helipads for 250,000 opulent Nigerians.

The new Eko Atlantic township is emblematic of a booming business in Africa in which developers build walled-off cities for the very rich on a continent that is still the world's poorest.
Developer Gilbert Chagoury, founder of Nigeria's Chagoury Group, is the epitome of Africa's moneyed class: Aside from a friendship with Bill Clinton, whose 1996 presidential campaign he helped fund, Mr. Chagoury boasts an ambassadorship from St. Lucia to the Vatican and a gallery in the Louvre named after him and his wife, both contributors.

Flush with funding from French banks that are enticed by Africa's rapid growth, the 67-year-old Mr. Chagoury is aiming to cap his career with the most colossal real-estate project in West Africa.

"This is going to be the equivalent of Champs Élysées in Paris or Fifth Avenue in New York," says David Frame, managing director of South EnergX, a construction unit of Chagoury Group. He was standing on a gravel road that will be paved into an eight-lane boulevard, ending at a gated exit into the rest of Lagos.
Africa has the world's fastest-growing cities, according to the United Nations. Its current urban population of 450 million is expected to triple in the next four decades.
As vacant land vanishes in African cities, foreign investors are responding with the creation of new cities out of forests, grasslands and landfill. Investors expect to wring big profits from offering Africa's wealthy places to live, work and shop away from the crumbling infrastructure and squalor of old cities.

But those projects have come under fire from critics who point out that they will in no way alleviate the housing crisis hitting the majority of the population. In Lagos, few will be able to afford Eko Atlantic's glass tower condos.

Meanwhile, some of these gargantuan projects are struggling. Renaissance Capital Financial Holdings Ltd. of Moscow plans to build a city for 62,000 people on a coffee farm outside Nairobi, Kenya, and a similar-size project on a pepper field near Ghana's capital of Accra.
The coffee farm in Kenya is still just that, as Renaissance works out a dispute with shareholders. The project in Ghana is mired in a disagreement between local chiefs over who owns the pepper field.

China International Trust and Investment Corp. built a $3.5 billion city for 500,000 people near Angola's capital, Luanda. The suburb opened in 2011 but remains a ghost town, as the government strains to sell the $200,000 condos to a population whose per-capita income is $6,000 a year.

Mr. Chagoury hopes that Eko Atlantic will be different. Project executives point to Lagos's population of oil-rich elites, which is both larger than that of Luanda's and readier to pay top dollar for clean streets and modern infrastructure. They decline to say how much Eko Atlantic will cost, other to say it will be "in the billions" of dollars.

Their city, Lagos, is crowded and chaotic. Its population grows by nine people every 10 minutes, according to the U.N., which estimates that Lagos has 11 million people and is the world's fastest-growing megacity. The Nigerian government puts the city's total population at 21 million.
Even in posh neighborhoods, sewage bubbles up from open ditches. For want of office towers, hundreds of companies squeeze their headquarters into moldy midcentury ranch houses. At lunch, many companies turn off their lights to rest chugging electric generators. To escape choking traffic, many elites commute by helicopter or yacht.

What little housing there is for Nigeria's growing middle class is pricey. Average rent on a three-bedroom apartment in downtown Lagos is $3,624 a month, according to Dubai-based research firm Reidin. Landlords usually expect two years of rent in advance, preferably paid in U.S. dollars. It is a challenge for Nigeria's middle class, whose income averages about $600 a month, according to Renaissance Capital.

Buying is just as tough. City records on land ownership are a mess, stockpiled or missing. Swindles involving forged titles and the fraudulent sale of villas are common.
Home loans come with double-digit interest rates. In a country of 167 million people, there are only 20,000 mortgages, according to Nigeria's finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

To keep pace, construction activity expands by 13% a year, according to government statistics. Architect Ade Laoye estimates that Lagos needs at least needs 10,000 additional houses a year.
"We don't have the architects, electricians, bricklayers, engineers, the builders," Mr. Laoye says.
One person who does have resources is Mr. Chagoury, a Nigerian-born construction magnate. He got his first taste of city-making in the 1990s, when the government hired him to construct a small banana-shaped peninsula now dotted with million-dollar homes.

In 2003, Lagos's government approached Mr. Chagoury with a problem. Waves were crashing over Bar Beach, washing away some of the drug scene, but also flooding shore-side avenues and wetting the lobbies of important Nigerian companies.
He returned with an offer to build a sea wall without charge. In return, Lagos's government allowed his company to dredge sand from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean—and shoot it out of a hose to create 3.9 square miles of beach.

The square mile poured so far is a panorama of sand, resembling the Sahara. Manhole covers pop up several feet above the dunes as the skeletal beginnings of a drainage system. Near the ocean, cranes drop X-shaped blocks to make a sea wall.
Mr. Chagoury declined requests for an interview. But project executives say that they already have sold all but two of the several dozen building sites on the sandlot. Buyers plan an international school, high-rise condos, spas, headquarters for several oil companies, a conference center shaped like the sails of a boat and a U-shaped office tower called Unity.

Lower-end developers worry such endeavors will inflate the cost of building materials for years to come. An already stretched supply of bricklayers and cement mixers will leave to work here.
Developers like Michel El Chemor are unapologetic about catering to the top end of Nigeria's property market. He bought a plot from Mr. Chagoury for the site's first skyscraper: a $50 million, 24-story condo called Eko Pearl. It will peer out over a marina—and the smog and skyline of Lagos.

"I'm sorry to say, but it's chaos in Lagos," he says. "They're going to need to destroy what they had before and rebuild it, which will take a long time."

Wall Street Journal

Related story: Nigeria's growing middle class

Why President Barack Obama shunned Nigeria

The United States yesterday explained why President Barack Obama won’t visit Nigeria during his upcoming three-nation trip to Africa.

The reason, top US officials said was not unconnected to the current security challenges in the country.

The US government said Obama’s visit would focus on trade and investment, democratic institution-building, young people, and enhancement of economic growth.

American Deputy National Security Advisor, Ben Rhodes, made the clarification at a press briefing on Tuesday.

The briefing was addressed jointly with the Senior Director for African Affairs, Grant Harris and Senior Director for Development and Democracy, Gayle Smith..

The text of the briefing was made available to newsmen in Abuja by the Information Office of the Public Affairs Section of the US Embassy.

Rhodes said, “With respect to Nigeria, we certainly believe that Nigeria is fundamentally an important country to the future of Africa. We have put a lot of investments in the relationship with Nigeria through their leadership of ECOWAS, through the significant US business investment in Nigeria and through our security cooperation.

“Obviously, Nigeria is working through some very challenging security issues right now. And in that process, they’re going to be a partner of the United States. We certainly believe we’ll have an opportunity to further engage the Nigerian government through bilateral meetings going forward. But at this point, we just were not able to make it to Nigeria on this particular itinerary.

“I will say that we purposefully designed the itineraries to be able to reach West Africa, South Africa and East Africa, and in West Africa, to visit Senegal, a French-speaking, Muslim-majority democracy that is an important partner of the United States and also provide a platform for the President to speak to the broader region.’

Daily Post

About 200 Nigerian women trafficked to Russia for prostitution monthly

Nigeria’s ambassador to Russia has said that no fewer than 200 Nigerians girls are trafficked every month into Moscow.

Ambassador Asam Asam, who disclosed this in an interview in Berlin, said that the crime had declined in Western Europe following strict laws on illegal migration and joint efforts by the Nigerian government.

However, attention had shifted to Eastern Europe as the new destination for the trade.

“The major consular challenge we face in Moscow is the influx of trafficked persons from Nigeria. Not less than 200 girls are trafficked every month, and we have so many of them exposed to danger,” the ambassador revealed.

“Some are thrown out of the window and treated harshly. There must be a way of stopping these racketeering , these girls are not tourists, students or government officials yet they are given visas from the Russian embassy in Abuja.”

So far we have deported over 240 girls since 2012, you will be shocked, at the extent of resistance from the girls, we tell them Russia is not a destination for prostitutes yet they still come.”

According to him, the mission tries to curb the menace by arranging deportation for those caught, but the challenges are enormous.

“For instance a well known Russian human trafficker who has been in the trade for about 20 years was caught in Nigeria,” Asam said.

“The National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP) was on the verge of releasing her before I filed a protest from Moscow to the Comptroller General of Immigration.”

The ambassador said even some of the parents of those trafficked encourage their children

“I spoke to the mother of one of the girls and she said her daughter should remain in Moscow and try to survive the ordeal; this is very sad indeed coming from one’s parent.’’

He tasked the media on sensitising the public on the dangers of trafficking in Russia, saying: “This East European nation has become a new destination for them, and believe me it is a very big crime here.’’

Asam, however, said that other Nigerians who reside in that country were students and professionals in various fields of endeavour.

Nigerian Telegraph

Video - Uruguay beat Nigeria in Confed Cup

Diego Forlan marked his 100th international appearance with the winner as Uruguay beat Nigeria at the Confederations Cup.

The former Manchester United's strike brought to an end Stephen Keshi's long 18-match unbeaten run in competitve games.

Uruguay captain Diego Lugano opened the scoring in the first half with a scuffed finish from Forlan's cross.

Chelsea's John Mikel Obi equalised just before the break with a curled finish.

But Forlan ended a 12-game international drought with a powerful strike from the edge of the area early in the second half.

The win, Uruguay's first at the tournament, could have been more comfortable but Napoli striker Edinson Cavani was guilty of spurning a couple of decent chances.

Uruguay move level on three points with Nigeria in Group B, three behind leaders Spain.

They take on Tahiti on Sunday in their final group game, while Nigeria play Spain.

Meanwhile, in the first game of the group, Fernando Torres scored four goals and David Villa grabbed three as Spain completed a resounding Confederations Cup win over Tahiti.

Chelsea's Torres beat Tahiti goalkeeper Mikael Roche and waltzed past Roche again after David Silva's finish.

Villa then scored either side of half-time before the Spanish forwards sealed their hat-tricks from crosses.

Juan Mata made it 8-0 and Torres ran in a fourth after missing a penalty before Silva pinched a second late on.

Spain are not assured of their place in the semi-final just yet but they look odds-on to reach the last four after this record win in the competition.

And although the scoreline marked the gulf in class between the two sides, Tahiti once again won new fans with their willingness to get on the scoresheet rather than defend in numbers.

The defeat matched a record loss for the South Pacific islanders, who lost by the same scoreline against New Zealand in 2004, but their endeavour and undoubted class made this occasion far more than a straightforward thumping.

This Day