Nigeria may be on the verge of a second wave of COVID-19 infections, the health minister warned Thursday, as another official said the country expects to roll out a vaccine by April next year.
Osagie Ehanire, speaking at a news conference in the capital, Abuja, said 1,843 cases were recorded last week compared with 1,235 two weeks before that.
"We may just be on the verge of a second wave of this pandemic," he said. His comments came a day after South Africa said it had officially entered a second wave.
Ehanire, in a weekly briefing by Nigeria's COVID-19 task force, said the rise in cases was mostly driven by an increase in infections within communities and, to a lesser extent, by travelers entering Nigeria.
He said he had ordered the reopening of all isolation and treatment centers that had been closed because of falling patient numbers.
Nigeria, with a population of about 200 million people, has had more than 71,000 confirmed cases and nearly 1,200 deaths as of Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
Looking ahead to a vaccine, Faisal Shuaib, executive director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), said Nigeria planned to access one through the COVAX initiative backed by the World Health Organization.
"We are on course to access safe and efficacious COVID-19 vaccines in the first quarter of 2021," he said.
The health minister later in the briefing said Nigeria hoped to start with at least 20 million doses from the COVAX facility, initially covering health care workers and vulnerable people who would be most at risk if infected, such as the elderly.
On Thursday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged rich countries that have ordered more COVID-19 vaccines than they need to consider distributing excess doses to Africa.
Friday, December 11, 2020
Nigeria Warns of Possible New COVID-19 Wave
Global activists slam Nigeria for crackdown on protesters
Global activists and celebrities have hit out at the Nigerian government over a violent crackdown on peaceful protesters demonstrating against police brutality two months ago.
In an open letter addressed to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and made public in Lagos to coincide with International Human Rights Day on Thursday, 60 activists condemned the government for “unwarranted force against its own unarmed citizens”.
Writing under the auspices of Diaspora Rising, which calls itself an advocacy body formed to strengthen “bonds among members of the global Black family”, the activists called for the release of jailed protesters as well as the prosecution of security operatives responsible for shooting civilians in Lagos.
They also urged the government to lift a ban on public demonstrations.
Among the signatories were US activist Opal Tometi, actors Danny Glover and Kerry Washington, Swedish teenage eco-warrior Greta Thunberg, singer Alicia Keys, civil rights campaigner Angela Davis, US congresswoman Ilhan Omar, Nigerian American rapper Jidenna and Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr.
Tometi, a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement in the US and founder of Diaspora Rising, described Nigeria’s response to the protests as “very shameful”.
“Instead of showing up alongside [the people], the government went to suppress them, went to squelch the protest, and stamp it out,” she said.
Amnesty International has said security forces shot dead at least 10 people during a protest at Lekki Toll gate, the epicentre of the demonstrations, in Lagos on October 20.
But the military has denied using live ammunition, insisting soldiers only fired in the air to disperse the crowd that had gathered in defiance of a curfew.
However, the Nigerian authorities have said more than 100 people, including 43 security officers, were killed nationwide following days of street protests.
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The wealthy Nigerians buying citizenship overseas
Dapo has spent too long at home in Lagos, Nigeria. Back in October, protests against the SARS police unit kept him from going to his office. “First, we were told to stay at home because of the coronavirus. Then this,” he says.
A wealthy Nigerian, Dapo, who is in his late 30s, does not want to make himself identifiable by giving his surname and age, lest it draw unwanted attention.
He has had a “backup plan” for getting out of Nigeria for some time, he says. “I have Maltese citizenship. I can leave for there any time.” With one small obstacle – a 14-day quarantine upon arrival – Dapo could be permanently in Malta any time he pleases. He is not planning to go imminently, but describes it as his “plan b’’.
Dapo is one of a rapidly growing number of Nigerians who have bought so-called “golden visas” or foreign citizenships-by-investment this year. In his case it was Malta, the Mediterranean island where citizenship can be acquired for a minimum investment of 800,000 euros ($947,180) through the Malta Citizenship by Investment Programme.
Not that he has any special love for Malta. A record 92 countries around the world now allow wealthy individuals to become residents or citizens in return for a fee, sometimes as low as $100,000 but often several million dollars. It is billed as a “win-win”: The country gets much-needed foreign investment and, in return, the new citizens have new passports that open up more of the world to travel or live in.
Golden visas are the lesser-reported side of the Nigerian migration story. Every year thousands of Nigerians make their way to Europe via perilous crossings over the Sahara and Mediterranean. Now their wealthier counterparts are also making their way to Europe but via a different route.
A record year for golden visas
Whether rich or poor, the reasons for leaving one’s home country are often the same. Fear of political uncertainty at home and hope for better opportunities elsewhere. But 2020 has been exceptional.
Like Dapo, Folajimi Kuti, 50, was watching the #EndSARS protests from his home in Lagos in October. “I have children, they’re teenagers, and they’re asking me questions like, ‘How did we get here?’” he says, referring to the violence that accompanied demonstrations against the controversial Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
Kuti says he has believed for some time that social unrest would boil over in Nigeria, because of issues of poverty and police brutality. “It had been clear for the past two or three years that something was going to happen. It’s happened now in 2020 but, frankly, we’ve been expecting this outburst for a while so it wasn’t a matter of ‘if’. It was a matter of ‘when’.”
Citizenship or residency abroad has become appealing, he adds. As a financial adviser to the wealthy, Kuti knows the process of applying for one having walked clients through it before. Most of his work involves advising Nigeria’s growing number of millionaires about investments and wealth planning. But now they are asking about foreign citizenships and Kuti himself is tempted by the idea. “Just knowing that if you need to go you certainly could and move without any restriction.”
The rush for golden visas among rich Nigerians started before October’s SARS protests. At London-based Henley & Partners, one of the world’s largest citizenship advisory firms, applications by Nigerians increased by 185 percent during the eight months to September 2020, making them the second-largest nationality to apply for such schemes after Indians.
More than 1,000 Nigerians have enquired about the citizenship of another country through Henley & Partners this year alone, which Paddy Blewer, head of marketing, says “is unheard of. We’ve never had this many people contacting us”.
Many, like Kuti, saw political problems ahead and wanted an escape plan. Others were focused on coronavirus: What if the pandemic overwhelms Nigeria?
“There is a lack of primary healthcare capacity that would be able to manage with either a second wave or whatever happens in, say, 2025,” says Blewer. “Let’s say there is COVID-21 still going on in 2025 that is of an order or magnitude worse. It’s, ‘Do I want to be based here and only based here, or do I want an alternative base of operations where I believe I will be safer and I will be able to run my global businesses’.
“And, I think, that’s what COVID has driven.”
It was in July, when the number of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria escalated, that wealthy Nigerians started looking more seriously at citizenship abroad, experts say. “Those with medical conditions that could not fly out – a lot of them are buying passports just because if there is any problem they can fly out,” says Olusegun Paul Andrew, 56, a Nigerian entrepreneur and investor who spends much of the year in the Netherlands.
“Flying out” of Nigeria is hard and not just because of the coronavirus pandemic. Just 26 countries allow Nigerian passport holders visa-free entry, many of them part of West Africa’s ECOWAS arrangement. Both the United Kingdom and Europe’s Schengen zone require Nigerians to obtain visas ahead of travelling.
For the wealthy, this is too much hassle. “They don’t want to be queueing for visas for any EU country or whatever,” says Andrew. Instead, why not purchase the citizenship of a country with visa-free access to Europe?
To Europe, via the Caribbean
Bimpe, a wealthy Nigerian who also does not wish to give her full name, has three passports. One Nigerian, which she says she never uses, and two from Caribbean nations: St Kitts and Nevis; and Grenada.
The St Kitts and Nevis passport, which cost her $400,000 via a real estate investment programme, was useful when she travelled between London and New York on business as it allows for visa-free travel to the UK and Europe. But now that she has retired in Abuja, Bimpe, whose husband has passed away, wants her three adult sons to have the same opportunities to travel and live abroad.
“My kids were interested in visa-free travel. They are young graduates, wanting to explore the world. So that was the reason for my investment,” she explains.
Her investment to gain a Grenada passport for herself and her sons took the form of a $300,000 stake in the Six Senses La Sagesse hotel on the Caribbean island, which she bought in 2015 through a property development group called Range Developments. Like most countries offering their citizenship for sale, Grenada allows real estate investments to qualify for a passport.
Bimpe’s family has lived overseas before – spending nine years in the UK between 2006 and 2015. Of her three sons, she says: “One, for sure now, is never going to leave Nigeria. He loves it here. The second one lives in England. He’s been in England long enough to get British residency. My youngest – for him, living abroad is a very, very attractive option. He’s not very happy [in Nigeria]. He went to England very young – at age 12 – and he’s had a problem adjusting since. He’s been back in Nigeria five years and he’s still not settled.”
Now aged 26, Bimpe’s youngest son is looking at settling in the UK or in the US where, thanks to his Grenada citizenship, he qualifies for an E-2 visa, something not available to his fellow Nigerians since President Donald Trump’s ban on immigrant visa applications in February. Bimpe believes his career opportunities in acting – he studied Drama in the UK – are better abroad, and therefore considers the Grenada citizenship to be a worthwhile investment.
Neither Bimpe nor her sons have ever been to Grenada even though their investment allows them to stay on the Caribbean island, once known as The Spice Island. “I intend to go. I would like to go,” she says. “Just when I did [the investment], it was soon after my husband died and I wasn’t in the mood for travel and then I got my passport but there was no good reason for travel due to the pandemic.”
The Six Senses La Sagesse is being constructed by Range Developments, whose founder and managing director, Mohammed Asaria, says it is not unusual for investors never to visit. In fact, since there is no obligation for citizenship investors to visit Grenada, interest in the scheme has ballooned among Nigerians.
“We have between high single figures and low double-digit sales of hotel units on a monthly basis to Nigerians. The average investment is just under $300,000,” says Asaria. “It’s a big market for us. And it’s going to get bigger. There are 300 million people [in Nigeria].” Of these, more than 40,000 are millionaires and, therefore, potential customers for golden visas, according to the Knight Frank Wealth Report.
It is a similar story across the Caribbean. Arton Capital, a citizenship advisory group, says demand from Nigerian families for Antigua and Barbuda citizenship is up 15 percent this year compared with the last.
St Lucia has also seen a record number of Nigerians applying in 2020. “It’s more than it’s ever been over the past four years,” says Nestor Alfred, CEO of the St Lucia Citizenship-by-Investment Unit.
The citizenship market is not exclusive to the Caribbean, but these are the cheapest and they maintain that all-important visa-free access to Europe that their clients are hankering after.
Tax incentives
“I’m rich but I’m not a Donald Trump. I wasn’t looking for a tax escape,” says Bimpe.
Investing in a foreign citizenship is not illegal for Nigerians, but the issue of wealthy citizens moving their assets overseas is a thorny one in Nigeria, where about $15bn is lost to tax evasion every year, according to the country’s Federal Inland Revenue Service. Much of that money finds its way to the Caribbean, as was highlighted in the leaked documents that formed part of the Panama Papers in 2016.
The tax benefits of an overseas citizenship are undoubtedly attractive. Citizens can become tax residents of countries like Dominica, where there is no wealth or inheritance tax, or Grenada which offers “corporate tax incentives”. In Europe, Malta has long been courting hedge funds with its light-touch regulations.
Being a citizen of a country with a more stable currency is also appealing to the wealthy. “Second citizenship helps with capital mobility. Pull up a graph of the Naira. If you look at the Naira for the last 10 years it’s been a horrible journey,” says Asaria. Better, therefore, in the minds of the wealthy, to own assets in euros or even East Caribbean dollars which are pegged to the US dollar.
“Businesses are struggling, inflation on the rise, insecurity, and a host of other issues. These issues have prompted an increase in citizenship or residency-by-investment from wealthy Nigerians in a bid to secure a better future for their families in developed countries,” says Evans Ahanaonu, a Lagos-based representative for High Net Worth Immigration, a citizenship advisory firm. Grenada and Turkey are popular for clients wanting quick access to Europe, he adds, while some go straight for the UK Innovator Visa which means setting up a business in the UK.
Given the number of applications processed by the citizenship advisory firms interviewed just for this article, a conservative estimate would put the amount invested by Nigerians into citizenship schemes at more than $1bn this year alone.
Where rich and poor migrants meet
The loss of wealth from Nigeria has severe implications for levels of employment in the country. With wealthy businesspeople investing their capital outside Nigeria rather than in it, there is less funding for local businesses or government projects which might otherwise generate employment. This, in turn is causing more poorer Nigerians to want to move overseas as well, in search of better work opportunities, a trend backed up by the findings of a 2018 survey by Afrobarometer, the data analysis group.
Just before the pandemic struck, Kingsley Aneoklloude, 35, was able to make his way to Europe, but via a very different route.
He was working as a mechanic in his village in Edo State, one of the country’s poorer provinces which have been untouched by oil wealth, where he earned 1,500 naira ($3.95) a week.
The salary was poor but the final straw was police brutality. Aneoklloude was briefly employed as a local election monitor during the 2015 presidential elections. He says he was pressured by representatives of a political party to manipulate ballot papers, but refused, after which he became afraid for his safety. “I left because they were chasing me. Honestly, they come and chase me,” he says.
First, he went to Kano State in the north of Nigeria. Then, in December 2019, Aneoklloude made the dangerous journey to Europe via Niger, then Libya, “where there was a heavy war in Tripoli”, before crossing the Mediterranean.
While adrift on the Mediterranean Sea, his small boat was rescued by Open Arms, an NGO which helps refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean. Their ship docked in Lampedusa, one of the Italian Pelagie Islands, where Aneoklloude’s asylum application for Germany was processed.
Now in Potsdam, Germany, he is waiting to hear the outcome of his application for new citizenship and a job. “I have a nine-month contract for work, but they need the immigration officer to sign the contract before I start,” he explains.
At 35, Aneoklloude is just a few years younger than Dapo. Both have witnessed police brutality from different angles, and both saw the Mediterranean as their way out.
But now, with Nigeria’s economy officially in another recession, more will likely follow. It is a dangerous spiral: The more wealth taken out of Nigeria, the fewer jobs available to its poorest.
By Ollie Williams
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Thursday, December 10, 2020
Nigeria’s Top 10 Google Searches in 2020
Google provides a unique insight into the major moments and top trends of 2020 based on the most popular searches conducted in Nigeria.
Search trends information is gleaned from data collated by Google based on what Nigerians have been searching for and asking Google. The information goliath processes more than 40 000 search queries every second. This translates to more than a billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year worldwide.
This year’s trending searches show Nigerians’ keen interest in the world and people around them. COVID-19, entertainment and political figures captured the nation’s attention. From Coronavirus tips and treatments to Sky Sports News and Money Heist, Nigerians use search to find out about the things that matter to them. Here’s a closer look at Nigeria’s trending searches:
Top 10 Trending Searches
1) Coronavirus
2) US Election
3) Joe Biden
4) Google Classroom
5) ASUU
6) Zoom Live
7) Rema
8) Naira Marley
9) Rahama Sadau
10) Hushpuppi
Top 10 Trending People
1) Joe Biden
2) Rema
3) Naira Marley
4) Rahama Sadau
5) Hushpuppi
6) Laycon
7) Kamala Harris
8) Omah Lay
9) Maryam Sanda
10) Kai Havertz
Top 10 Trending Questions
1) Who is the new President of the USA
2) When is school resuming
3) How to make hand sanitizer
4) Who is George Floyd
5) How to make face mask
6) Who is Joe Biden
7) Who is Laycon
8) How to make cake
9) Who is Aisha Yesufu
10) How to make bread
Top 10 Trending Movies / TV Shows
1) Money Heist
2) Big Brother Naija
3) Miracle in Cell no 7
4) Ultimate Love
5) Mulan
6) The Old Guard
7) 365 Days
8) Citation
9) Danger Force
10) Extraction
By Jenna Delport
10 Nigerian troops killed in clashes with jihadists
Ten Nigerian troops were killed and one was taken hostage in clashes with IS-linked jihadists in northeast Nigerian Borno state, according to two security sources.
Clashes erupted on Monday when a team of soldiers stormed a camp of Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) in Alagarno village in Damboa district.
“We lost 10 soldiers in the fight and one was taken by the terrorists,” a security source told AFP on Tuesday.
The hostage was seized while fleeing to safety after the troops were outgunned, he said.
“It was an intense battle and the terrorists also suffered casualties but they were able to overwhelm the soldiers,” said a second security source who confirmed the toll.
The insurgents seized four vehicles, including a truck and an armored vehicle, the second source said.
Both sources asked not to be identified.
Alagarno, which lies 150 kilometers (90 miles) from regional capital Maiduguri, is a stronghold of ISWAP, which split from the Boko Haram jihadist group in 2016 and rose to become a dominant force.
ISWAP has increasingly been attacking civilians, killing and abducting people on highways as well as raiding villages for food supplies.
On Tuesday, ISWAP said its fighters killed seven Nigerian soldiers while repelling an attack in Alagarno forest.
“Clashes took place with a variety of weapons, which led to the killing of seven elements and taking an eighth prisoner,” the group said in a statement, according to SITE Intelligence, which monitors jihadist activities worldwide.
The insurgents seized “an array of weapons” and vehicles, the statement said.
ISWAP claimed it killed four Nigerian troops on the same day in a separate attack near the town of Gamboru close to the border with Cameroon.
AFP could not independently verify the claim.
At least 36,000 people have been killed and around two million displaced from their homes since the start of the conflict 11 years ago.
The violence has spread to neighbouring Chad, Niger and Cameroon, prompting a regional military coalition to fight the militant groups.
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Nigeria to access COVID-19 vaccine from Jan 2021, Okonjo Iweala assures
The statement quoted Okonjo-Iweala as disclosing this after a closed-door meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama in Abuja. “As long as one person has it in the world, no one is safe. And that is why poorer countries, lower-middle-income countries like Nigeria, need to get it as quickly as possible”, she was quoted as saying.
Okonjo-Iweala is currently the African Union Special Envoy on mobilising international economic support for the continental fight against COVID-19 and Nigeria’s candidate for the Office of the Director-General of the World Trade Organization. She disclosed that the international initiative involved the World Health Organization, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), GAVI and the international community, to get vaccines delivered to developing and poorer countries, in an affordable manner and quickly.
According to her, the Pfizer vaccine and the AstraZeneca were presently being negotiated so that poor countries don’t have to stand in a queue behind rich countries. The former finance minister described Africans as blessed, for not having the same incidence rate of COVID-19 like other continents, but warned African nations against complacency.
Okonjo-Iweala recalled that a platform called the COVAX facility had been developed with 186 countries on board, saying that the side interested in serving the poor countries had 92 countries, for which resources have been raised to try and get the vaccines to them quickly. “So, the Pfizer vaccine, the AstraZeneca, those are being negotiated now so that poor countries don’t have to stand in line behind rich countries. “So, we hope they are starting by the end of January. We will be able to reach these countries, including most of the African countries, Nigeria included, will be able to get access to some of these vaccines. “Initially, it will be for frontline health workers, followed by some other target groups – older people, those with underlying conditions and then, from there, the rest of the population. I think the COVAX facility can cover maybe 20-23 per cent of the population by the end of next year,” Okonjo-Iweala said.
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Nigeria Shell employees causing oil leaks for profit: Dutch TV
Nigerian employees of the Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell ordered the deliberate vandalisation of oil pipelines for personal gain, a documentary in the Netherlands has reported.
Dutch television documentary programme Zembla, together with Dutch environmentalist organisation Milieudefensie, reported in a programme to be aired on Thursday that “multiple witnesses declared that SPDC, a subsidiary of Shell, caused the oil leaks”.
“According to sources, Shell employees profit from these intentional oil leaks by pocketing money from clean up budgets,” Zembla said in a press release summarising an 18-month investigation of various leaks between 2010 and the present day.
Zembla added the SPDC, along with the Dutch embassy in Nigeria, were aware of the accusations but had failed to address them.
Oil spills in Nigeria have a decades-long history, making companies like Shell, whose headquarters is based in the Netherlands, a frequent target of criticism and protest from human rights and environmental groups.
Millions of litres of oil have leaked into the Niger Delta since Shell began oil extraction there in 1958. Zembla said the “greatest oil disaster in the world is unfolding in the Niger Delta”.
Shell says that 95 percent of leaks are as a result of sabotage. It denies responsibility for the leaks, which it blames on local criminals and organised gangs.
Accusations ‘credible’
However, residents in the Ikarama in the Nigerian state of Bayelsa told Zembla that Shell employees encourage local youths in the villages to sabotage pipelines in the area and then split funds allocated for the cleanup.
“If a clean up is necessary, these same youths are then hired to perform it,” Washington Odeibodo told Zembla.
A former Shell security guard, who claimed to have been responsible for sabotaging pipelines in the past, said Shell supervisors and employees “split the money from the clean up”.
“The recovery department from Shell sabotages the pipelines. If the clean up will take seven months, they’ll stop after only three months,” he added.
According to Zembla, one saboteur said they committed the vandalism “out of hunger”.
In May, Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics said 40 percent of people in the West African nation live in poverty, in a country that has Africa’s biggest economy.
Cees van Dam, a professor of International Business and Human Rights at the University of Rotterdam, said allegations in Zembla’s report were “credible”.
“In the Netherlands, this would certainly be considered a criminal offence. Intentional destruction of property, intentional environmental pollution, these are serious issues that no single company would accept from its employees,” he said according to the statement.
Who knew?
The documentary-maker claimed it was in possession of documents confirming SPDC was aware of the allegations.
However, Shell had so far not responded to queries about steps taken to address the issue.
“SPDC takes these kinds of accusations very seriously. If we find any evidence that supports these accusations, we will report it to the Nigerian authorities,” SPDC said according to Zembla’s statement.
Zembla said the Dutch embassy in Nigeria was also aware of the accusations, which were highlighted for two years, and confirmed by the European nation’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
According to Zembla, former ambassador to the country Robert Petri, who left at the start of 2019, was recorded on video promising residents of Ikarama he would share the information with Shell.
The documentary-maker said “nothing came of the commitment”.
Responding to a query from Zembla, the ministry said: “Because of the premature departure of Robert Petri as ambassador to Nigeria, he hasn’t been able to follow through on his commitment.”
The ministry added his replacement was totally unaware of the allegations against the Shell workers.
Yet, Zembla said correspondence between an embassy official and the ministry showed the issue was being discussed earlier this year.
“Second Embassy Secretary from the Dutch post in Nigeria had been corresponding about these accusations as late as May of this year. When asked about this, the ministry supposed that their commitment had ‘slipped through the cracks’,” Zembla added.
“The ministry also stated that it was only after being questioned by Zembla that the current ambassador even broached the subject with Shell,” the statement said.
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It is time to end impunity in Nigeria
October 2020 will be remembered in history as the month in which the true scale of the moral bankruptcy, institutional decay and lack of accountability in Nigerian politics and governance was revealed.
Mobilising under the EndSARS umbrella movement, peaceful Nigerians who took to the streets of Lagos to stage demonstrations against police brutality were slaughtered by Nigerian security forces in an episode which came to be known as the Lekki massacre.
These Nigerians were calling for the abolition of the federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), which had long engaged in the unlawful arrests, torture and extrajudicial killings of youth.
Initially, the government responded to the demands of the growing movement by disbanding SARS. But as it became clear that this move was of little significance and the protests persisted, the Nigerian government decided to resort to its tried and tested tactic of violently repressing political activism.
On October 20, security forces opened fire on protesters at the Lekki toll gate in Lagos and killed at least 12 peaceful protesters. The world watched as the slow and agonising death of a young Nigerian was livestreamed on Instagram.
Subsequent videos of the massacre shared online and investigations by various media organisations have provided evidence that the massacre was indeed committed by government forces.
It is not the first time the state has used such brutal force against ordinary citizens with deadly consequences. This is because those in charge have enjoyed wide-ranging impunity both at home and abroad. This has to change.
Tyranny on display
Just two days after the massacre, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari issued a chilling televised statement. In his junta-style address, vividly reminiscent of his tenure as a military dictator in the 1980s, Buhari showed no sympathy for the slain protesters and did not even acknowledge that the massacre had taken place. Instead, he made it clear that the government’s “restraint” was not a “sign of weakness”, and that the international community had no business “rushing to judgement and making hasty pronouncements”.
The eventual proliferation of digital evidence of the massacre attracted unprecedented levels of global scrutiny. The Nigerian government, however, maintained its denial and proceeded to issue a series of statements, branding any media coverage of the massacre as “fake news”.
Individuals involved in the EndSARS protests have also been targeted and detained. There have even been reports of EndSARS supporters in the diaspora, being placed on no-fly lists and financial platforms used to support protests being deactivated.
Investigative reports from reputable international news outlets such as CNN have corroborated and verified witness accounts of the Lekki massacre. They have highlighted the presence of spent ammunition at the scene of the crime.
Traced to be of mixed origin, these ammunitions proved to be a match with those registered in Nigerian government stockpiles. In response, the Nigerian government has threatened CNN with sanctions without providing any evidence that the Lekki investigation was inaccurate.
Global condemnation of the massacre by international organisations, eminent politicians and notable celebrities have followed Buhari’s address, with many intimating that prosecution from the International Criminal Court (ICC) was likely, and desirable. The ICC’s chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, even said that she was “keeping a close eye on developments”, and the ICC is now analysing material received.
Yet, the Nigerian government’s confident and global display of dismissal and impunity clearly demonstrates an entrenched belief that its behaviour cannot be constrained by international law, and it is not hard to see why.
The failure of international law
We are living in an era characterised by the sustained desecration of the rules-based international system, the crippling of international institutions and the rise of authoritarianism. But that does not fully explain the negative trajectory of Nigeria’s behaviour in recent times. To understand Nigeria, one also has to consider the failure of the international community to respond decisively to the government’s increasingly reckless and tyrannical behaviour.
In the past, the ICC has consistently failed to demonstrate the culpability of the Nigerian government in previous instances where crimes covered by the Rome Statute had clearly been committed. The ICC has carried out preliminary examinations of situations in Nigeria on numerous occasions, and for almost every year between 2011 and 2018. However, the court has been unable to establish a case against the government for numerous reasons.
The ICC has officially noted that Nigerian authorities have hindered the prosecution of crimes when their own security forces were involved, and it is clear that the government has been consistently unable or unwilling to prosecute those responsible.
Take the Nigerian government’s shooting of peaceful protesters in October 2018, for example. In this instance, Nigerian security forces opened fire on peaceful protesters belonging to the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN) in Abuja, killing 39 and injuring more than 100 people.
Even though the entirety of the shooting was caught on camera, and a subsequent New York Times visual investigation corroborated the victims’ accounts, not a single individual was held responsible for the massacre. This is because by 2018, the government had mastered the strategy of evading ICC jurisdiction – open an internal investigation into an incident, suppress its findings and everyone walks scot-free.
The so-called judicial inquiry set up to investigate the Lekki massacre was meant to repeat this trend, but protests by invited panellists against the signing of non-disclosure agreements as a prerequisite to participation, seem to have botched this gambit. The internal investigation is now under way in a more transparent manner, but the public needs to keep up the pressure to ensure that its findings are not suppressed and the judicial process is carried out in full.
Pot calling the kettle black
Nigeria’s ruling elite have been encouraged in their denial of the Lekki massacre by the failure of their closest allies to – at the very least – caution them in light of its consistent excesses over the years.
Take the United Kingdom for example. In light of the Lekki massacre, concerned citizens in the UK demanded some form of reprimand from their government.
An electronic petition calling on the UK government to unilaterally impose Magnitsky-type sanctions on those responsible for the Lekki massacre was signed by more than 220,000 people. Unsurprisingly, however, the UK government failed to issue any more than feeble statements. Perhaps it was heeding Buhari’s “advice” not to make hasty pronouncements?
While the use of British weaponry or ammunition in the Lekki massacre has not been proven yet, the UK, as a state party to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), still has an obligation to stop arms exports to actors that may use them in ways that breach international humanitarian law – like Nigeria.
Article 6.3 of the ATT explicitly states that “a State Party shall not authorize any transfer of conventional arms … if it has knowledge at the time of authorization that the arms or items would be used in the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, attacks directed against civilian objects or civilians protected as such, or other war crimes as defined by international agreements to which it is a Party”.
Yet, in light of the numerous excesses of the Nigerian government the UK has provided at least $57m worth of export licences to Nigeria since 2015, which covers the provision of arms and ammunition. The UK government has even engaged in training activities for the Nigerian police force, and provided equipment and supplies to SARS units from 2016 to 2020, as evidenced by the admission of the UK’s minister for Africa.
The revelation that UK assistance was channelled to these deadly SARS units is deeply disturbing and raises fundamental questions about moral accountability. Entertaining the ideas that the UK deliberately assisted SARS units when they were known to have committed extra-judicial killings, or that it was unaware of the end use of its assistance, are equally disturbing. However, searching for moral currency in a government that has consistently aided Saudi repression in Yemen would be a rather spurious exercise.
The Nigerian government’s display of dismissal and impunity in light of the Lekki massacre should serve as a wake-up call to the international community. The idea that Nigeria’s behaviour cannot be constrained by international law and norms, is sustained by the moral bankruptcy of its allies and their blatant disregard for the same. The government continues to push the envelope in determining what is permissible or circumscribed, and those responsible for the massacre must be held accountable this time around. Otherwise, we are likely to witness even more brutal public assaults on personal and political freedoms, regardless of the intensity of international scrutiny.
By Olamide Samuel
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Wednesday, December 9, 2020
'He said Victor was shot': Brother grapples with loss after Nigeria protest deaths
After a sleepless night, he said he went out to find the body but roads towards the upscale neighbourhood were blocked and he heard shooting so turned back.
Elisha, 24, said he later saw pictures of his 27-year-old brother on Facebook, draped in a Nigerian flag and covered in blood. After that, the trail went cold.
Protesters objecting to police brutality and demanding wide-ranging reforms had held demonstrations across Nigeria for nearly two weeks when witnesses in the Lekki district of Lagos said soldiers and police opened fire on them on Oct. 20.
Rights group Amnesty International said 12 protesters were killed in two districts that night, prompting the worst unrest since Nigeria returned to civilian rule in 1999.
Both the military and police have denied the shootings. The government ordered state governments to set up judicial panels to investigate police abuse allegations. Witness testimonies to a Lagos judicial panel said the bodies were trucked away.
Victor's best friend, David Friday, said Victor went to Lekki because it looked fun, with food, drinks and a party atmosphere; a gardener and amateur comedian, he was not politically engaged.
"Right now, I am alone," said Elisha, a softly spoken 24-year-old. "There is nowhere to find him."
Few families have come forward publicly to demand answers about their loved ones, and activists say some are too afraid to reclaim the bodies of those killed that night, leaving them with painful questions about their fate nearly two months on.
The Lagos state government has said those who lost family members between Oct. 19 and 27 should go to Lagos State University Teaching Hospital to try to identify their bodies.
Elisha said he was turned away from the hospital three times, first for not having proper documentation, then because a hospital doctor had not accompanied him to the mortuary in nearby Yaba and finally because the chief doctor was not available.
He said he fears retaliation from the government, but will keep trying for the sake of his mother and three sisters in the southeastern state of Akwa Ibom.
"My mother wants my brother, just to take him home and bury him as we're supposed to do," he said.
Lagos State Health Commissioner Akin Abayomi said it was standard procedure when anyone died in "unnatural circumstances" for the state to keep bodies until relatives proved their relationship.
He said he could not say how many were there, how they were killed or how many families had collected their relatives' remains.
State government spokesman Gbenga Omotoso said the deaths were related to the "anarchy" around the Lekki incident, including "acts of violence which the perpetrators used the genuine protests to cover".
Whether Victor's body is there was between his family and the doctors, he said.
By Libby George
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Tuesday, December 8, 2020
Nigerian intelligence bought tool to spy on citizens
Nigeria’s Defence Intelligence Agency has acquired equipment that it can use to spy on its citizens’ calls and text messages, according to a report by the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, which researches digital surveillance, security, privacy and accountability.
The report, titled Running in Circles: Uncovering the Clients of Cyber-espionage Firm Circles, said a telecom surveillance company by the name of Circles has been helping state security apparatuses across 25 countries, including Nigeria, to spy on the communications of opposition figures, journalists, and protesters.
The Citizen Lab report also said Circles was affiliated with Tel Aviv-based NSO Group, an Israeli hacker-for-hire company, whose software, Pegasus, has allegedly been used by several governments to spy on dissidents by taking control of their smartphone, its cameras and microphones, and mining the user’s personal data.
Circles, on the other hand, is known for selling systems to exploit Signalling System 7 (SS7) vulnerabilities and claims to have sold the technology to several countries, according to the report.
SS7 is a system that allows one mobile network to connect with another.
“Unlike NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware, the SS7 mechanism by which Circles’ product reportedly operates does not have an obvious signature on a target’s phone,” explained the report.
The report indicated that Pegasus and Circles products could possibly be integrated.
But there is limited information on how the Circles system integrates with NSO Group’s flagship Pegasus spyware, though a former NSO Group employee told Motherboard that Pegasus had an “awful integration with Circles” and that Circles had “exaggerated their system’s abilities,” according to the report.
Nigerian governors using Circles’ product
According to the report, at least two entities in Nigeria have deployed Circles’ product.
“One system may be operated by the same entity as one of the Nigerian customers of the FinFisher spyware that we detected in December 2014,” said the report.
“The other client appears to be the Nigerian Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), as its firewall IPs are in AS37258, a block of IP addresses registered to “HQ Defence Intelligence Agency Asokoro, Nigeria, Abuja,” it added.
The report also referred to an investigation by online newspaper Premium Times, which concluded that the governors of two Nigerian states “had purchased systems from Circles to spy on their political opponents”.
“In Delta State, Premium Times reports that the system was installed … and operated by employees of the governor, rather than police,” said the report.
“In Bayelsa State, the governor reportedly used the Circles system to spy on his opponent in an election, as well as his opponent’s wife and aides.
“The investigation also found that the two Circles systems were imported without the proper authorisations from Nigeria’s Office of the National Security Adviser,” the report added.
Hacking software
Earlier this year, an Israeli court rejected a request to strip the NSO Group of its export licence over the suspected use of the company’s technology to target journalists and dissidents worldwide.
The case, brought by Amnesty International in January, called on the court to prevent NSO from selling its technology abroad, especially to repressive governments.
While NSO does not disclose its clients, the Israeli company’s cellphone-hacking software, Pegasus, has been linked to political surveillance in Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, according to Citizen Lab.
Last year, WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook Inc, sued NSO in a US federal court in San Francisco, accusing it of helping government spies break into the phones of about 1,400 users across four continents.
Targets of the alleged hacking spree included diplomats, political dissidents, journalists and senior government officials.
NSO denied the allegations, saying it only “provides technology to licensed government intelligence and law enforcement agencies to help them fight terrorism and serious crime”.
Al Jazeera
US Adds Nigeria to Religious Freedom Blacklist
The United States on Monday placed Nigeria on a religious freedom blacklist, paving the way for potential sanctions if it does not improve its record.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo designated the U.S. ally — for the first time — as a "Country of Particular Concern" for religious freedom, alongside nations that include China, Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
Pompeo did not elaborate on the reasons for including Nigeria, which has a delicate balance between Muslims and Christians.
But U.S. law requires such designations for nations that either engage in or tolerate "systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom."
Pompeo notably did not include India, which has a growing relationship with Washington, and was infuriated by a recommendation from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom to include the secular but Hindu-majority nation over what it called a sharp downward turn under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Other nations on the blacklist are Eritrea, Myanmar, North Korea, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
Areas of concern
Pompeo removed from a second tier watchlist both Uzbekistan and Sudan, whose relations with the United States have rapidly warmed after the ousting of dictator Omar al-Bashir and its recent agreement to recognize Israel.
On Nigeria, an annual State Department report published earlier this year took note of concerns both at the federal and state levels.
It pointed to the mass detention of members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, a Shi'ite Muslim group that has been at loggerheads with the government for decades and was banned by a court.
The group has taken inspiration from Iran, ordinarily a major target of President Donald Trump's administration.
However, Nigeria has been widely criticized for its treatment of the movement, including in a 2015 clash in which hundreds were said to have died.
The State Department report highlighted the arrests of Muslims for eating in public in Kano state during Ramadan, when Muslims are supposed to fast during daylight hours.
It also took note of the approval of a bill in Kaduna state to regulate religious preaching.
Improve or face sanctions
While the designations relate to government actions, the State Department has already listed Nigeria's Boko Haram as a terrorist group.
The militants began an insurgency in 2009 in northeastern Nigeria that has since spread to neighboring countries, killing more than 36,000 people and forcing 3 million to flee their homes, according to the United Nations.
Under U.S. law, nations on the blacklist must make improvements or face sanctions, including losses of U.S. government assistance, although the administration can waive actions.
Monday, December 7, 2020
Video - Nigerian Army general sees persisting terrorism in the country
Nigerian Army general sees persisting terrorism in the country that is likely to go for another 20 years.
U.S. removes visa reciprocity fees for Nigerians
The United States lowered the fee paid by Nigerian citizens to obtain a visa after it announced the removal of reciprocity fees for Nigerians more than a year after the West African country implemented a similar move.
“The U.S. Mission to Nigeria is pleased to announce the elimination of visa reciprocity fees, effective immediately. We thank @GovNigeria for its partnership in eliminating these reciprocity fees,” the U.S. Mission to Nigeria tweeted.
“Visa application fees remain at $160,” it added.
The fee, also known as the visa issuance fee, is charged in addition to the nonimmigrant visa application fee.
The US government had imposed the reciprocity fee in August last year after Nigeria failed to change its fee structure for US citizen visa applicants despite engagements on the same since early 2018.
However, shortly after that action, Nigeria lowered the fee paid by US citizens to obtain a visa in line with the government’s reciprocity policy following a recommendation by a committee.
The Nigerian government now required American citizens to pay $160 (currently just over 60,000 Nigerian Naira) down from $180 (about 68,500 Nigerian Naira).
Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the announcement as a “positive development”, adding that the removal of the fee came into effect from December 3.
It also clarified that the removal of the reciprocity fee did not mean that Nigerians applying for a visa to the U.S. would now not pay any visa fees.
By David Ochieng Mbewa
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Thursday, December 3, 2020
Nigerian 'baby factory' where men were hired to impregnate women before the newborns were sold is busted with ten victims rescued including four bearing children
A Nigerian 'baby factory' where men were hired to impregnate woman before their newborns were sold was raided by police on Tuesday, with ten victims rescued.
Police rescued four children and six woman - four of whom were pregnant - from the illegal maternity home, a spokesman said on Wednesday.
The operation was being carried out at a so-called 'baby factory' in the southwestern Ogun state by a woman already standing trial for human trafficking.
'Acting on a tip-off, our men stormed the illegal maternity home and rescued 10 people, including four kids and six women, four of whom are pregnant,' police spokesman Abimbola Oyeyemi told AFP news agency.
He said the women told police that the owner hired men to impregnate them and then sell the newborns for profit.
The 'factories' are usually small illegal facilities parading as private medical clinics that house pregnant women and offer their babies for sale.
In some cases, young women have been held against their will and raped before their babies are sold on the black market
Oyeyemi said two suspects, a physically-challenged man and the daughter of the owner of the clinic, were arrested in the raid.
'The operator of the centre is on the run but we are intensifying efforts to arrest her and bring her to justice,' he said.
Oyeyemi said the operator had been previously arrested for the same offence.
'She had been standing trial for human trafficking after her arrest early this year but she was on bail when she went back to her usual business.'
Police raids on illegal maternity units are relatively common in Nigeria, especially in the south.
Last year, nineteen pregnant women - aged between 15 and 28 - and four children were rescued from another suspected baby factory in Nigeria.
Investigators said at the time that the children were going to be trafficked and sold for £1,000 for a boy and £700 for a girl.
A majority of the women were tricked into leaving their home villages with promises of domestic work in Lagos before being forced into pregnancy, police said, while a few of the women joined the syndicate voluntarily believing they would be paid.
They never were, according to reports last year.
By Chris Jewers FOR MAILONLINE and AFP
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Wednesday, December 2, 2020
39 kidnapped victims rescued in north Nigeria
At least 39 people kidnapped early Monday by gunmen in Nigeria's northern state of Kaduna have regained their freedom later in the day, an official said.
The kidnapped victims were rescued hours later by Nigerian troops during a gun duel with the gunmen along the busy Abuja-Kaduna expressway, and one of the gunmen was killed, said Samuel Aruwan, a commissioner for Kaduna state ministry of internal security and home affairs, in a statement reaching Xinhua on Tuesday.
They were passengers travelling to Onitsha, a business district in the southeastern state of Anambra from northwest state of Sokoto when they were intercepted and kidnapped by the gunmen, said Aruwan.
He said one civilian died after being hit by a stray bullet fired by the criminals while troops evacuated the other injured person to a nearby hospital for treatment.
Aruwan said the troops were still trailing other fleeing bandits to areas said to be their enclave.
The northern region of Nigeria have witnessed a series of attacks by armed groups in recent months. There have also been recurring incidents of livestock rustling and armed banditry in the region.
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Nigerian Authorities Worry as Citizens Flout Coronavirus Rules
In Nigeria, authorities are worried that coronavirus infections may spike again, as millions ignore safety measures such as wearing face masks and social distancing. A jump in infections could force another lockdown, hurting the economy.
Nigerian butcher Martin Olaiya, 45, strongly strikes the blades of his cutting knives against the other in order to attract the attention of customers.
It has been months since the coronavirus pandemic lockdown was lifted and this Utako market in Abuja is again operating at full capacity.
But among many concerns of business owners like Olaiya, the coronavirus pandemic is the least of them.
"Market is really bad," he tells VOA. "We don't know what the coronavirus is; we haven't seen it. There's nothing that concerns Nigeria with that. God will not allow it."
Many traders like Olaiya continue to doubt the coronavirus ever existed, and therefore are flouting safety rules.
Abuja resident Dorothy Iwuozo, who's shopping for groceries, is one of very few people wearing a face mask.
She says she's not happy that others are not taking responsibility.
"Look around you; you can count a number of people wearing face masks, people are touching meat, food stuff; they don't sanitize their hands," she complains.
Nigeria has recorded more than 67,400 cases of the coronavirus since its first one in February.
The Nigeria Center for Disease Control says the country reached its peak infections between July and August, and then recorded a downward trend.
But officials say coronavirus infections began rising again in November, as many countries began battling a second wave of the infection.
Chinwe Ochu, a director at the NCDC, worries that citizens, especially younger people, have stopped being vigilant.
"Males aged above 21 years and less than 50 years are more likely not to adhere to COVID-19 prevention protocols because they're usually the ones that don't have the severe symptoms," Ochu told VOA. "But these are likely to have the disease and transmit it to the vulnerable elderly groups or people with comorbidities who could die from it.”
COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Experts attribute the new rise in cases to the “End SARS” protests last month, which saw thousands of young Nigerians march against police brutality.
The use and sales of personal protective equipment have also dropped significantly.
Nigerian authorities are trying to avoid imposing strict lockdowns by urging citizens to adhere to COVID-19 guidelines.
President Mohammadu Buhari has warned the country's already fragile economy may not withstand another lockdown. Economics lecturer Anas Ibrahim agrees with the president.
"About 60 to 65 percent of the 46 sectors of in Nigeria now they're actually declined, they're not performing, they're not actually lucrative to boost the economy in order to create more job opportunities and a lot of revenue to the government," Ibrahim says.
Last week, Nigeria's bureau of statistics announced the country had plunged into a recession after its economy contracted by 3.6 percent due to coronavirus disruptions.
Authorities say they are hopeful that the economy will begin to recover early next year but that citizens must act responsibly.
By Timothy Obiezu
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Tuesday, December 1, 2020
Nigerian electricity commission busy restoring power after grid collapses on Sunday
Nigeria’s national electricity grid collapsed on Sunday, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) said in a statement.
Power outages in Nigeria, the most-populous nation in Africa, are common, but a system collapse is unusual.
TCN said it would conduct investigations to establish what caused the “multiple trippings” as soon as the grid was fully restored.
The nation’s power grid, along with the resulting precarious energy supply, is a key issue hindering growth in the continent’s largest economy.
Nigeria recently implemented its first power tariff increase in state-controlled prices since 2015. That doubled prices for some consumers, but the government and industry said it was needed to allow distribution companies to recoup costs and pay generating companies.
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Nigerian Comics Serve Afrofuturism Direct From The Source
The massive success of Marvel’s Black Panther in 2018 opened a lot of eyes to the creative and commercial potential of Afrofuturism – science fiction rooted in Black cultural experience and Black storytelling styles. That influence didn’t end at the water’s edge: it echoed back its ancestral homelands, inspiring new efforts to bring homegrown African visions to a global audience primed for exciting new content.
Several interesting new digital comics efforts spring from Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, entertainment hub (“Nollywood” is the world’s third largest film industry) and a hotbed of scrappy entrepreneurship. Because Nigeria can be a difficult market to penetrate for outsiders, much of the energy is coming from local startups who leapfrog legacy production and distribution methods, creating digital content for mobile phones favored by the young population.
Ayudeji Makinde is founder/CEO of ComicsDI, a startup digital comics company producing several episodic webcomics in various genres including a thriller, Lagelu: The Kingdom on Four Hills, Duro, featuring a mythical hero, and a pair of science fiction stories, The Futurology and Njeri. He says the industry has grown tremendously in the past 20 years, with publishers springing up as the global footprint of comics culture has expanded into Africa through events like the annual Lagos Comic Convention.
“I go to Lagos Comic Con every year,” says Makinde. “There are so many comic brands, it’s excellent.”
He believes the increasing global popularity of Afrofuturism is giving a boost to indigenous creators steeped in the cultures of the continent. “African Afrofuturism has the same attitudes and principles [as diaspora styles],” he says. “It’s a combination of fantasy and culture, looking to the future of African people. Coming from here, our understanding of the culture differs. We can craft it from our angle, in our unique voice.”
“We believe African comics and fiction stands as the future of global storytelling in mainstream media,” says Somto Ajuluchukwu, Founder and CEO of Vortex247, another Nigerian digital comics publisher and marketplace specializing in mythic fantasy (Land of the Gods), horror/mystery (Folk Tales), and superhero comics (Captain South Africa) from around the continent.
“We hope to be a propelling force and platform for this new age of entertainment content and create not just opportunity for individual creators with exceptional comics but a market place which would build an industry for young creators to monetize their stories and grow a fan base using our comics as a tool to export African culture and globalize our Afro lifestyle,” says Ajuluchukwu.
Like their counterparts in the US and around the world, Nigerian comic publishers have one eye on advancing their own medium with gorgeously-drawn, well-told stories and memorable characters, and one eye on the wider media potential of comics. The proximity to one of Africa’s biggest film production hubs helps, although many Nollywood feature films lean heavily on drama, action and practical effects without the big budgets that propel Hollywood blockbusters.
“We are currently in conversation with a few Nollywood and South African producers towards some adaptations, however most are still in the development stage for TV,” said Ajuluchukwu. “We also recently made a successful pitch to a mobile game studio based in Italy which would be adapting one of our VX Originals for an IOS mobile game.”
With animation becoming a growth industry around the continent, some properties are getting picked up for development as series or features. A highlight of the 2019 Lagos Comic Convention was an animated trailer for Malika: Warrior Queen - a popular graphic novel by Roye Okupe - from Lagos-based Anthill Studios.
For now, the biggest issues have to do with finance and infrastructure. Nigeria remains a rugged place to do business, although increased access to global online finance and distribution platforms is starting to help local creators and companies reach a broader audience.
“We have the skill, we have the creativity,” says Makinde. “Things are dragging because of financial issues, but creativity? The creativity is there.”
By Rob Salkowitz
Forbes
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