Nigeria reaches agreement with Labor union's 66% minimum wage demand

Nigeria’s biggest labor union reached an agreement with the government to increase the minimum wage by 66 percent, adding to inflationary pressures and reducing state funds for infrastructure.

The Nigeria Labour Congress called off its threat to hold a nationwide strike from Tuesday in the wake of the accord, spokesman Benson Upah said by phone from Abuja, the capital. A report on the agreement will be presented to President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday afternoon.

The accord comes before Buhari seeks a second term in presidential elections scheduled for February.
Raising the minimum wage to 30,000 naira ($83) a month adds to inflation pressures at a time when the government is being urged to stop capping the cost of gasoline and curb spending on subsidies. Price-growth, which has been above the authorities target of 6 percent to 9 percent for more than three years, has led the central bank to keep the benchmark interest rate at a record high of 14 percent since July 2016.

Buhari has already set aside 160 billion naira to provide for wage increases next year. That will weigh on the state’s ability to sustain its pledge of increasing investment in roads, ports and power that’s needed to spur growth, according to analysts including Cheta Nwanze, head of research at Lagos-based risk advisory SBM Intelligence.

“An increase in the minimum wage may provide a temporary lift to spending, but as we saw in 2011, it rarely brings about a sustained improvement in the economy,” said Razia Khan, head of macroeconomic research at Standard Chartered Bank Plc. “If anything, the risk is that it will serve as an additional drag on public finances.”

Bloomberg

Video - UN condemns recent violence on Borno communities in Nigeria

The United Nations has condemned an attack on villagers in Northern Nigeria by Boko Haram militants. The spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Jens Laerke appealed to the authorities to ensure the safety of vulnerable communities. On Wednesday, Boko Haram attacked several villages in Maiduguri, killing at least 15 people.

Video - Nigerian labour unions threaten strike reject $62 minimum wage offer

Nigerian labour unions have rejected the 62-dollar minimum wage offer by a forum of governors and have threatened to launch an indefinite strike next week. The current minimum wage is 18-dollars a month. Governors are worried about the impact a higher offer could have on the budget.

Trump's words used to defend killing of protesters by military in Nigeria

The Nigerian army appears to have used the words of President Trump to justify the killing of Islamic protesters.

On Friday (Nov. 2), the Nigerian army's official Twitter account tweeted a snippet of Trump's Thursday (Nov. 1) speech on immigration where he stated that the U.S. military should consider migrants throwing rocks as they would a rifle. The Nigerian army then went on to explain that they released the video to say "if President Trump can say rocks are as good as a rifle, who is Amnesty International?"

This came in response to growing scrutiny from human rights organizations, like Amnesty International, who've criticized the Nigerian government for its "horrific use of excessive force" when dealing with Muslim protestors. Days prior to the tweet, the Nigerian army fired bullets and tear gas into a crowd of Shai Muslims killing six protestors. This is not the first time conflicts between demonstrators — who routinely take to the streets to protest the imprisonment of Islamic Movement of Nigeria leader, Ibrahim Zakzaky — and armed forces have turned deadly.

"This violent crackdown on IMN protesters is unjustified and unacceptable," Amnesty International Nigerian Country Director, Osai Ojigho, said of the attacks. "They were perfectly within their rights to hold a religious procession and protest and there was no evidence they posed an imminent threat to life."

However, Trump is popular in Nigeria's Christian population for his talks against Islamic extremism. Using his controversial speech to justify their persecution of the IMN may help further sway the Nigerian popular opinion and invalidate the authority of Amnesty International.

The White House has yet to issue a response to the use of the president's comments.

Complex

Related stories: Video - Nigeria's Shi'ite Protests - death toll rises to 24

Nigeria arrests 400 Shia Muslims after deadly clashes

Using technology to tackle corruption in Nigeria

In 2012, Nigeria witnessed the worst flood in nearly five decades. Two million people were displaced and around 363 killed. Crops, homes, and entire communities were destroyed.

The central government swung into action and disbursed around $110m to affected states in October that year. Additional funding flowed from a public-private relief fund and the international community, including Canada, the European Commission, Japan, Norway and Sweden.

Back in Lagos, the team at BudgIT, a civil society organisation founded in 2011, watched closely. In September 2013, it sent a small research team to tour 12 affected states for a period of five months to find out whether the funds released were put to good use.

"We discovered that these funds went into the wrong hands and people never benefited," says Uadamen Ilevbaoje, who was part of the team.

Several decades of corruption have slowed progress in Nigeria, which is the largest oil producer in Africa. Public funds allocated for projects and services often go unaccounted for; mismanagement and corruption have fuelled inequality and poverty.

By the end of May, Nigeria became host to the world's largest population of people in extreme poverty with some 87 million in crisis, overtaking India's 73 million.

Across the country, but especially in remote areas, abandoned projects dot the landscape.

Citizens live without basic amenities like roads, housing, schools, potable water, hospitals and sanitation facilities.

In Maito village, in central Nigeria's Niger state, residents continue to use a dilapidated health centre with a roof covered by bats, despite the National Primary Health Care Development Agency having approved 22 million nairas ($60,600) for a better facility.

In the rural village of Akere, in the southwestern state of Ogun, schoolchildren learn under the shade of a tree and sit on bare floors in overcrowded classrooms, despite funding of $82,000 provided for refurbishment.

According to a UN report, roughly $4.6bn is spent on bribes in Nigeria each year.

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission reported that 60 percent of corruption cases in the country take place in procurement.

Poor transparency and accountability have allowed corruption to flourish, and a few civil society groups are trying to change the opaque environment.

Pressuring the government

In June 2014, BudgIT started the Tracka initiative to follow public projects and help communities ask serious questions that would enhance efficiency.

Tracka staff extract capital projects from the budget and design a pamphlet containing the project title, amount and phone number of public officials for each of the 22 states where it operates.

Armed with these details, tracking officers who have been recruited and trained visit the communities, hold town hall meetings with communities and help them ask government agencies and legislatures to complete projects which have either been abandoned or yet to start.

Tracking officers also take photos and upload them on Twitter and Facebook, adding pressure on government ministries to act transparently.

Through its work, Tracka was able to speed up the construction of a school in Iwoye Ilogbo in Ogun state, a primary healthcare centre in Delta state and boreholes in Edo and Anambra states.

In addition to Tracka, there is the Public and Private Development Centre (PPDC), which is working to promote citizen participation in governance.

It uses radio and social media to monitor public procurement processes and push for greater access to information on public projects following the passage of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act in 2011.

"As soon as the FOI Act was passed, we jumped on it and began to use the provisions of the law to advocate and litigate for improved disclosure of public information," said Nkem Ilo, head of PPDC.

"With more use of the FOI, we began to receive more responses to our requests, which meant the availability of datasets."

In 2015, using data acquired from procuring entities over the years, PPDC worked with the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism and the School of Media and Communication at the Lagos-based Pan-Atlantic University to develop a web-based platform known as Budeshi, which means "open it" in the Hausa language.

Budeshi links budget and procurement data to public projects in a structured format, opening up publicly funded services for scrutiny.

Citizens can now look up public services by searching for the procuring entity - usually government ministries and agencies - as well as the project title, the state where the initiative is being implemented, or the year, and even pick from a list of contractors.

So far, Budeshi has data on 6,571 contracts in Nigeria from more than 100 public institutions. Budeshi is now fully deployed in Uganda and plans to start the platform in Kenya and Malawi are under way.

Every year, on the International Right to Know Day, September 28,- PPDC ranks government ministries, departments and agencies based on their responses to freedom of information requests mostly on public expenditure; the corporate affairs commission is currently first.

Much of the funding for these organisations comes from institutional and private donors, including the UK Department for International Development, the MacArthur Foundation, Omidyar network, Indigo Trust and National Endowment for Democracy.

Hamza Lawal, a tech-savvy activist, started the Follow the Money campaign in June 2012, following the deaths of hundreds of children from lead poisoning in the northern Nigerian state of Zamfara.

Though several villages had been cleaned up by late 2012, one - Bagega - caught Lawal's attention because, by January 2013, money released still hadn't reached the victims.

Using the hashtag #SaveBagega, the campaign was able to get clean-up operations started in the village, helping hundreds of children to receive care.

In December 2013, Lawal started a full-fledged movement known as Connected Development (CODE) with Follow the Money. With a team of nearly 40 people and community reporters in Nigeria 36 states, CODE's campaigns are driven by hashtags connecting the name of community and the project that needs to be tracked.

"The idea of using hashtags is to be able to document projects and track them on social media," said 31-year-old Lawal, now the CEO of CODE, "and this repository would be online so that other young people can learn from it."

Follow the Money now has over 2,000 members and this year expanded to Kenya and The Gambia. Last year, it won the One Africa award which came with $100,000 to support their work.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP, meanwhile, which is concerned with promoting transparency and accountability in government, including public expenditure.

Using the Freedom of Information Act, SERAP requests information on contracts awards and has even sued ministries and agencies that refuse to release information.

Through a partnership with BudgIT, it was able to get the public procurement agency in Lagos to make available the Lagos State Procurement Journal from 2012 to date.

SERAP has been published several reports on health, education, electricity and water sectors.

It has also partnered with CODE and the Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative, which was started in 2016 to help citizens track and report development projects in their communities.

Some citizens are happy that things are changing, albeit slowly.

"Tracka, Udeme and Budeshi are checking public expenditure which over the years have been full of excesses, misappropriation and greed by inflation of contracts," says Olajide Oluwaseun, an architect in Lagos.

"These initiatives are the future for a good governance drive and I appreciate they all do in this risky political space. We need and must build an alliance, not a political party, an alliance of voices that want and need to be heard."

But some challenges remain.

Access to information on public expenditure is not always available upon request. Some ministries, agencies and departments either do not respond to freedom of information requests or completely ignore them.

In addition, despite the presence of a procurement law passed in 2007 to ensure contractors follow due process, public procurement has been dogged by contract splitting; the use of fake documents by bidders, some of whom have multiple companies; government ministries and agencies collaborating with contractors to siphon money; and, importantly, delays in investigating and prosecuting cases of misappropriation or graft.

"We don't have a culture of punishing offenders," says Ike Fayomi-Awodele of the public administration department at Obafemi Awolowo University in Osun state.

To solve this, Uadamen Ilevbaoje, now the project lead of Tracka, believes more awareness is needed.

"We need more and more sensitisation and awareness. If there is awareness, citizens would ask more questions and politicians would be forced to do the right thing."

Al Jazeera

Video - Nigeria's Shi'ite Protests - death toll rises to 24

Cleric Ibrahim Zakzaky, leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria remains in jail as his supporters continue to face security forces in protests for his release. Protestors claim that 24 people have been killed in the latest confrontation but the army has refuted this saying only three people died. Hundreds of Shia Muslims were stopped from marching into the city centre where most government offices and the presidency is located.

Video - Nigeria's missing General

The Nigerian army says it has found the body of one of its retired senior officers. Army General Idris Alkali, has been missing for almost two months, which sparked a search operation around his last known whereabouts.A number of arrests have been made as the army tries to uncover the cause of death.

Boko Haram insurgents kill 15 in Nigeria

Suspected members of the Islamist Boko Haram insurgency have killed at least 15 people in an attack on a group of villages in northeast Nigeria, residents have told Reuters.

The villages lie on the outskirts of the militarised city of Maiduguri, the heart of government in the northeast and the headquarters of efforts to defeat Boko Haram and the related Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA) insurgency.

The conflict has lasted almost a decade.

Despite the Nigerian government's statements since late 2015 that Boko Haram has been largely defeated, the militancy is still able to attack in and around Maiduguri and throughout much of the northeast.

In the village of Kofa, a Reuters reporter on Wednesday counted five bodies burned inside the remains of their house.

A village chief in nearby Dalori said one person in the camp for displaced people had been killed, while two residents of Bulabrin said nine people had died there.

Nigeria's military said in a statement one civilian was found dead, after Boko Haram had ransacked Dalori's market, setting buildings ablaze and fleeing when soldiers approached.

The Australian

Nigeria arrests 400 Shia Muslims after deadly clashes

Nigerian police have arrested 400 members of a Shia Muslim sect after days of deadly protests in the capital.

The pro-Iran Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) protesters demanded the release of their leader Ibraheem Zakzaky, in custody for 34 months.

The army admits that three people were killed in clashes in Abuja on Monday, but the IMN says that dozens died.

In 2016, a judicial inquiry found that the army had killed more than 300 Shia Muslims during clashes in the north.

It accused the army of using "excessive force" when trying to head off an alleged attempt to kill army chief Gen Tukur Buratai in Zaria, Kaduna state, in December 2015.

IMN leader Sheikh Zakzaky was arrested in the aftermath and held without charge until April 2018 when he accused in court of inciting violence.

No soldiers have been arrested, despite the judicial inquiry advising prosecutions.
'Dangerous weapons'

The army, which fired live rounds on Monday at the protesters, said the deaths came after the demonstrators tried to overrun a checkpoint.

The security forces also accuse the Shia protesters, who took to the streets of the capital for three days, of having 31 petrol bombs as well as other dangerous weapons.


. Shias are minority in Nigeria but their numbers are increasing
. The IMN, formed in the 1980s, is the main Shia group led by Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky
. They operate their own schools and hospitals in some northern states
. They have a history of clashes with the security forces
. The IMN is backed by Shia-dominated Iran and its members often go there to study
. Sunni jihadist group Boko Haram condemns Shias as heretics who should be killed.

BBC

Video - Islamic Movement of Nigeria continue protests despite Monday's killings

Shi'ite Muslims continued their demonstration in Abuja on Tuesday. Members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria are calling for the release of their leader, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky. On Monday, the military opened fire on a procession of I-M-N members heading to the Abuja demonstration. El-Zakzaky has been in prison since a security crackdown in 2015. His Islamic Movement of Nigeria has about 3-million followers. The group claims the soldiers killed at least 10 protesters on Monday. However, the army disputes this, saying only three people were killed as they marched on a military checkpoint. Thousands of demonstrators were allegedly blocking roads and throwing rocks when security forces opened fire.

Video - Nigerian army uses live rounds against Shiite protesters - 10 dead

At least 10 people were killed after the Nigerian army fired live bullets and teargas to disperse a group of Shiite protesters on the second day of demonstration by the group in the capital city of Abuja on Monday, a Shiite cleric told CNN.

Violence broke out after hundreds of Shiite protesters threw stones at the soldiers and commuters at a checkpoint, as they marched into the city, eyewitnesses told CNN.

"We fled from our vehicle into the bush where we hid for three hours. From there, we could hear gunshots and see Shiite protesters taking their members who were shot away. There were also bodies lying on the roads," Khalifa Bello said.

Another resident, Jude Faing, said vehicles were turned back amid the chaos as Shiite protesters dressed in symbolic black marched into the city causing traffic.

"People were shouting to everyone to go back, and as there was shootings between soldiers and Shiite members at the army checkpoint, so I ran back home," Faing told CNN.

CNN has asked the Nigerian military for comment on the shooting claim but has not received a response.

The unrest comes after the military said three members of the Islamic group and two soldiers were injured following a clash with Shiite protesters on Saturday.

Army spokesman James Myam, in a statement Sunday, said the troops only shot at the protesters on Saturday to "extricate" themselves from the area after the clashes turned violent.

Myam alleged that members of the group attacked a military convoy traveling with ammunition and weapons on the outskirts of the city, forcing the soldiers to engage them.

Islamic Movement of Nigeria spokesman Ibrahim Musa told CNN at least 10 of its members were killed on Monday when they encountered a roadblock from the soldiers who opened fire at them.

"Our members were marching peacefully for three hours while observing the Arbaeen March as will be done by all Shiite members in Karbala in Iraq and other countries," Musa said.

Shiite protesters are also demanding their leader's freedom, he added.

Ibrahim Zakzaky has been in the military detention since his arrest in 2015, following a crackdown by the country's security forces on members of the sect.

CNN

Video - Nigeria declares a national disaster due to heavy floods

A national disaster has been declared in several provinces in Nigeria due to widespread flooding. The Red Cross says the crisis has been neglected and grossly underestimated. It's warned that the impact could be far-reaching if aid intervention isn't stepped up - and soon. The state-run National Emergency Management Agency has confirmed the Red Cross's assessment, but has declined to comment further.

Swiss ship crew freed from kidnappers in Nigeria

Twelve crew members of a Swiss ship seized off Nigeria last month have been freed, Swiss judicial officials said on Sunday.

Negotiations between the owner Massoel Shipping and the kidnappers led to the release of seven Filipinos, a Bosnian, a Croatian, a Romanian, a Slovenian and a Ukrainian, all of whom were then flown to Switzerland, ATS news agency and the Basel prosecutor's office said.

The ship, MV Glarus, and its cargo of wheat are still in the hands of pirates who attacked on September 22nd and destroyed most of its communications equipment.

It was not known whether a ransom was paid for the crew's release.

The ship had been transporting wheat from Lagos to Port Harcourt, in southern Nigeria, when it was hijacked off Nigeria's Bonny Island.

German-language newspaper Blick reported that the pirates belonged to the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which says it wants the region's population to receive a bigger share of the country's oil and gas revenues.

The Gulf of Guinea has become the world's piracy hot spot, meanwhile.

The International Maritime Bureau said in late July that there were six kidnappings of crews around the world in the first half of 2018. All were in the Gulf of Guinea .

Of 16 incidents in which ships came under gunfire in 2017, seven were in the waters which stretch 5,700 kilometres (3,541 miles) from Senegal to Angola.

Pirates that prowl off the coasts of Benin, Nigeria, and Togo are well armed and generally hold ships long enough to loot their cargoes after cowing crews with violence.

The Local

Related story: Pirates kidnap 12 swiss crew members from commercial ship 

Video - Nigeria imports Norwegian seafood worth $125 million yearly

Let's head to Nigeria now, where the country shares a rather fishy relationship with Norway... Despite having its own coastline, the West African nation imports around 125 million dollars' worth of Norwegian seafood every year.

Video - Nigeria launches awareness campaign to eradicate polio by 2019

According to the World Health Organisation, Nigeria is one of only three countries in the world classified as a polio endemic nation. The other two are Afghanistan and Pakistan. Nigeria is now looking to earn a polio free certification in 2019 after years of efforts to tackle the disease. Phil Ihaza has more on the story.

Super Eagles captain Mikel Obi to financially support Nigeria Amputee team

Nigeria captain John Mikel Obi has pledged financial and moral support to the country's cash-strapped amputee football team, but the Special Eagles face a race against time to make it to the World Cup in Mexico.

The team, who have missed the last three World Cups due to a lack of finances, took to crowd-funding early this month to help them travel to compete in the 2018 tournament.

Both the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) president, Amaju Pinnick, and the Super Eagles squad have made significant financial contributions, but captain John Mikel Obi has now stepped in to assist.

"We've spoken to a representative of John Mikel Obi who has offered to help the team," co-ordinator of fund-raising, Fred Edoreh, told BBC Sport.

"His support will come as a big boost, but right now the dilemma is to find the flights to get the squad to Mexico.

"Time is running out on us and with ticket costs increasing by the day towards our opening game against our budget, we are taking the hard decisions of sending the first team as first batch.

"This is to avoid heavier cost and also get the boys to settle down before the game against Brazil on Sunday.

"The first batch (eight players and coach) should have left today (Tuesday) but there were not enough seats on the last lap of the journey, from Mexico City to Guadalajara.

"Our travel agents are working hard to secure space for them by tomorrow, Wednesday. So they are expected to depart Lagos by 12 noon with Ethiopia Airlines."

"This will help us to secure our presence and avoid a global sanction. Hoping with additional funds, the reserve team can depart on Thursday or Friday," Edoreh said.

BBC sports understands that former Chelsea midfielder Mikel Obi hopes to support the team with money and kits.

Angola, Kenya and Ghana represented Africa at the 2014 World Cup in Culiacán, Mexico.


The Angolans finished as runners-up after losing 3-1 to Russia in the final.

BBC

Cryptocurrency could help light up Nigeria

Imagine being able to purchase clean energy cheaply and through cryptocurrency. Sounds futuristic? But it's a possibility that OneWattSolar, a startup based in Lagos wants to achieve.

The clean energy outfit has come up with a way of allowing thousands of Africans to pay for solar energy using blockchain tokens without having to pay for the solar system infrastructure, which is funded through financial backers. 

It was a concept Victor Alagbe, the company's vice president of operations and blockchain strategy, had been thinking on when reading about Elon Musk. 

"I did some writing on Tesla and so I thought it is sunny most of the time here, especially in the northern parts where it is quite arid," recalled Alagbe who is a former business writer.

"So why don't we use this to power our own electricity... many Nigerians cannot really afford to set up their own solar systems. 

"They can't afford the start up cost so most people would rather go for generators which is not economical when you think of maintenance costs," Alagbe said.

The idea behind blockchain payments

The aim is for customers to purchase tokens in the local naira currency using the platforms of third party tech finance companies. 

"It provides transparency, you can see the utilization of funds, how many systems we have purchased and how many are being used."

The tokens used have been built on the blockchain platform, Ethereum. 

On a traditional service using fossil fuels, energy usage is around 70 Nigerian naira ($0.19) per kilowatt. "But the blockchain system is 50 percent cheaper than diesel," claims Alagbe because the expensive maintenance costs of generators is mitigated.

Instead OneWattSolar's systems will include solar panels and a fitted internet enabled router that will automatically collect data on energy usage that is charged monthly on a pay as you go basis.

"This will ensure that customers are billed for exactly what they use," said Alagbe.

It is also hoped it will alert OneWattSolar to any potential problems with the systems in real-time.
Although the startup has only been eight months in the making, it's part of GoSolar Africa, a renewable energy company that's been operating in Africa since 2010. The plan is to launch in January 2019 with an initial 1,000 systems that are fully operational the company said. 

Around 41 percent of Nigerians have no access to electricity, according to the World Bank and it is these potential customers the startup is looking to connect. 

"So far there are 6,400 homes who have signed up to be put on our waiting list," said Alagbe.
According to him, the long term goal is to connect one million homes across Sub-Saharan Africa without electricity with solar energy through blockchain. It's hoping to achieve this by 2025.

Africa's renewable energy industry

The young tech company is part of a boom in the renewable energy industry across Africa.
A joint venture between Abuja based Motir Services Nigeria and US based DuSable Capital Management will power 180, 000 homes in Nigeria in a 100MW solar project worth $175m. 

In Morocco - the world's largest concentrated solar power plant called the Noor-Ouarzazate complex - will power more than one million homes when complete later this year. 

It is hoped the complex will decrease Morocco's dependence on oil by about 2.5 million tons per year and reduce carbon emissions by 760,000 tons per year in the country, according to the World Bank who has financed the project's construction.

Ghana is also gearing up its renewable energy capabilities. 

Earlier this year, the West African nation announced a goal of increasing renewable energy consumption from currently one percent to 10 percent of energy usage by 2030. 

While in October, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia also announced that all government institutions would run on solar power to reduce energy consumption costs.

As African nations move towards cleaner and reliable energy, startups like OneWattSolar could prove profitable.

CNN

Video - Boko Haram launches two deadly attacks in Borno State Nigeria

Barely hours after jihadists in Nigeria killed a dozen farmers in Kalla, Borno state, the militants have launched another attack, this time killing three people and injuring several others. Locals say the jihadists arrived in trucks to attack the neighbouring villages, 6 kilometres outside Maiduguri. Over the weekend, the militant group hacked to death around 12 farmers. Their bodies were found in their fields. The villages were raided and burnt to the ground. This comes barely a week after a Boko Haram faction executed a kidnapped aid worker.

Video - At least 12 farmers killed in Boko Haram attack in Borno state

At least 12 farmers have been killed in a suspected Boko Haram attack in the volatile Borno state in Nigeria. Scores of others were injured. According to the leader of a local militia, the militants attacked farmers harvesting crop in the remote village of Kalle. He says they used machetes instead of guns so as not to attract the attention of troops nearby. It was not clear which of the two Boko Haram factions was behind the attack.

Nigerian woman on a mission to save Lagos beaches and turtles from plastic

Doyinsola Ogunye, along with around 20 volunteer children, vigorously combs a sandy shore in the Nigerian coastal city of Lagos, unearthing deeply embedded litter and plastic that can prove deadly to sea turtles.

The tide is low and the layer of scattered debris across a seemingly endless stretch of golden sand emerges as the waves recede into the ocean.

Every type of man-made waste imaginable, from polystyrene, broken ceramic, assorted flip-flops and building materials, is visible. I can even spot a syringe.

This is Elegushi beach - and nothing can beat the beauty this strip of Atlantic coastline, but the sheer scale of litter hits you right away.

"Sometimes it gets very overwhelming," says Ms Ogunye, an environmental activist who has set up a programme to rid the beach of rubbish.

'A bath for the beach'

Every week she and her volunteer crew collect about 50 large sacks of litter.

It's a mammoth task, but the 30-year-old has put herself on the frontline, battling the destruction caused by pollution.

As well as cleaning the public beach, she plants trees and rescues endangered sea turtles.

"I always have to look at it from a positive light. Every morning when I wake up, I have my bath. Every morning when I wake up, I try to clean the beach. It's basically a bath for the beach."

Ms Ogunye founded the Kids' Beach Garden, a space stretching over seven hectares (17 acres) of land along the coast, where children come to learn about the environment.

As I watch the playful way Ms Ogunye interacts with the children, teaching them about marine life and recycling using sport, games, chants and songs, it's obvious why the children keep coming back.

Ms Ogunye believes change starts with the young. She credits a childhood spent outdoors in Lagos for her love of nature.

Although Ms Ogunye trained as a lawyer, she realised that she wanted to pass on her passion for the environment to the next generation.

She decided to set up a charity for that purpose seven years ago while she was studying. The Kids' Beach Garden grew out of that initial venture.

"Every time I wanted to have fresh air from studying, I would come to the beach and relax.

"I realised that the beach was very dirty. There was no way I would even be comfortable in a place like that."

Ms Ogunye decided to take action. She used her database from previous charity projects to sign up volunteers to clean the beach and sort the recyclable waste on a regular basis.

'Turtles eat more plastic than food'

But it was not long before she realised that beach-cleaning and rescuing sea turtles would have to go hand in hand.

She found many of the reptiles washed up on the shore.

"Most of the time the turtles are disoriented, especially when they're caught in the garbage or caught in grass," Ms Ogunye explains.

"We tend to keep them in a very dark place and later on we release them."

Many of the baby sea turtles that hatch on the shore die because of the conditions of the beaches.

"Right now the sea turtles are eating more plastic than even food," Ms Ogunye says.

"That's basically what's been killing sea turtles."

She says it is essential that people living in coastal communities are educated about the need to conserve the creatures.

According to the activist, fostering relationships with people in these neighbourhoods and involving them in the process plays a central role in the education process.

She says it is crucial to explain to communities, who mainly depend on fishing, what they stand to lose if sea turtles are wiped out.

Ms Ogunye explains that a sea turtle's diet consists of jellyfish, seaweed and sea grass.

"Jellyfish are toxic. If [we] have [too] much jellyfish in the ocean, we're going to have a reduced amount of fish and that will cause food shortages."

Before I leave her, she promises to call when she next releases a rescued turtle.

'Meat in the sea'

A few weeks later I get an urgent call from her asking me to meet her at the beach garden.

She has bought a sea turtle from a fisherman who, she had heard through social media, was attempting to sell it in a village for food.

Of course Ms Ogunye has other ideas, wanting to release it back into the ocean.

When I arrive I find her digging a ditch in the sand with the help of a few volunteers and the fisherman who sold her the turtle.

The turtle, which had been bleeding from the mouth earlier, is floundering in the sand in distress.

Ms Ogunye is trying to contact a marine biologist for advice, but the turtle dies later that evening.

The marine biologist explains the cause of death was internal bleeding and there was little they could have done to save it.

It is illegal to catch and sell sea turtles and if anyone is caught they will be fined and possibly jailed.

Despite this, selling the creatures can prove too much of a temptation for fishermen.

The fisherman in this instance boasts that he can make more than $200 (£126) for one turtle and refers to them as "meat in the sea".

Changing these attitudes can make her work feel like an uphill struggle, but Ms Ogunye says she will never give up.

"I call it a burden because it's all I think about sometimes," she says.

When I wake up in the morning, when I'm having my bath, I'm wondering how we can take care of the environment. It's so precious and so important to me.

"I want in my lifetime to see Nigerians and Africans taking care of the environment."

BBC

Curfew declared in Kaduna after violent clash leaves 55 people dead

Nigerian authorities declared a 24-hour curfew Sunday in Kaduna after clashes between young Christians and Muslims left at least 55 people dead.

Governor Nasir El-Rufai posted a statement on Facebook from his spokesman stating: "The state government has declared a curfew in Kaduna metropolis and its environs to manage the situation."

"The governor appealed to all residents to do their best to uphold peace," the statement added.

Kaduna was plunged into communal violence this week after fighting broke out between Hausa Muslim and Adara Christian youths in the town of Kasuwan Magani's market following a dispute among wheelbarrow porters.

'RETALIATORY ATTACKS'

Two people were said to have been killed in the initial market fracas on Thursday. The violence then dramatically escalated when Adara youths later attacked Hausa residents, burning homes, and killing dozens.

"Most of the killings were done in the second attack which took the Hausa community off guard," Muhammadu Bala, a Kasuwar Magani resident who lost his home, told AFP over the weekend.

Kaduna state police commissioner Ahmad Abdur-Rahman told reporters on Friday 22 people had been arrested in connection with the violence.

Kaduna state is where Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north meets the predominantly Christian south, and has seen previous bouts of sectarian violence.

In February clashes left at least 10 people dead and hundreds of homes and businesses burnt. Major bouts of sectarian rioting in 2000 and 2002 killed thousands.

The latest outbreak prompted President Muhammadu Buhari to express concern that Nigerians were too frequently resorting to violence over misunderstandings that could be resolved peacefully.

"No culture and religion supports the disregard for the sanctity of life," he said, adding that "peaceful coexistence is necessary for the progress of any society and its wellbeing".​

AFP

Separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu resurfaces in Israel

Missing Nigerian separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu has resurfaced in Israel more than a year after soldiers stormed his home. 

"I'm in Israel," Mr Kanu said on Sunday in a broadcast on his outlawed pirate radio station - Radio Biafra.

A video of the Indigenous People Of Biafra (Ipob) leader praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem has also been shared online.

Mr Kanu holds both Nigerian and British nationality and says he is Jewish.

His wife, Uchechi Kanu, told the BBC in February that she believed the government knew where her husband was being held after his home was raided by soldiers.

Mr Kanu has been campaigning for an independent state called Biafra in south-eastern Nigeria.

In 2015, Mr Kanu was charged with "criminal conspiracy, intimidation and membership of an illegal organisation" - charges that could amount to treason.

He was released on bail last year after spending more than 19 months without trial on treason charges.

He then renewed his campaign for independence, before his house in the south-eastern Abia state was raided by the military.

Who is Nnamdi Kanu?

He was a relatively obscure figure until 2009 when he started Radio Biafra, a station that called for an independent state for the Igbo people and is broadcast to Nigeria from London.

Though he grew up in Nigeria's south-east and went to the University of Nsukka, Mr Kanu moved to the UK before graduating.

Soon after setting up Ipob in 2014, he spoke to gatherings of the large Igbo diaspora, calling for Biafran independence. In some of his comments, he urged Biafrans to take up arms against the Nigerian state.

"We need guns and we need bullets," he said in one such address. This comment is what brought him to the attention of Nigeria's security services.

What is Biafra?

The plan for a Biafra state is not new.

In 1967 Igbo leaders declared a Biafran state, but after a brutal civil war, which led to the deaths of up to a million people, the secessionist rebellion was defeated.

Mr Kanu is the latest in a line of ethnic Igbo activists taking up the cause of pushing for an independent state, saying the Igbos have been marginalised by successive Nigerian governments.

. First republic of Biafra was declared by Nigerian military officer Odumegwu-Ojukwu in 1967

. He led his mainly ethnic Igbo forces into a deadly three-year civil war that ended in 1970

. More than one million people lost their lives, mostly because of hunger

. Decades after Biafra uprising was quelled by the military, secessionist groups have attracted the support of many young people

. They feel Nigeria's central government is not investing in the region

. But the government says their complaints are not particular to the south-east

The Israel connection

Mr Kanu said in Sunday's broadcast that he was still pushing for a referendum to create a breakaway state in the south-east.

He urged his followers to boycott next year's elections in Nigeria unless the government agrees to the push for a referendum.

"Ipob will liberate Biafra and we will not take part in any elections until we get a referendum, it is not negotiable, we will do it by any means," he said.

"I will be back soon in the land of Biafra and I will bring hell with me," he said.

"I owe my survival to the state of Israel," he added, saying that he had been aided by Mossad, country's spy agency, without elaborating how he was assisted.

The BBC has contacted Mossad for its comments.

It is, however, unclear how Mr Kanu was able to get to Israel, as he had to surrender his Nigerian and British passports after his arrest.

The Ipob leader says he is an Igbo Jew, part of a group who believe they are descendants of the lost tribe of Israel who settled in West Africa. According to Jewish tradition, the tribes were scattered after the conquest of the Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians in the 8th Century BC.

BBC

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Boko Haram execute second aid worker 

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Voice of America sacks 15 workers in Nigeria involved in bribes

US government-funded broadcaster, Voice of America has terminated or proposed to terminate 15 employees from its Hausa language international radio service in Washington, D.C. following allegations of improper conduct, including the acceptance of improper payments from an official in their coverage area.

The employees were reported in Nigerian newspapers to have accepted improper payments in January of around $5,000 from a Nigerian state governor from the country’s northwest on a visit to VOA’s DC offices. The improper payment was said to have to come to light after a whistleblower reported to management. VOA declined to comment on further details of its ongoing investigation in the affair. It is unconfirmed if all the employees involved were journalists.

In an email to staff on Oct. 4, VOA director Amanda Bennett said the agency’s leadership was notified of the allegations “in recent months” and had launched several investigations, including requesting a review by the Office of the Inspector General.

“While privacy laws prevent us from disclosing any specifics, it is following the completion of these investigations that these terminations and proposed terminations are occurring,” she said.

VOA is a US government-funded international broadcast service. Its Hausa service broadcasts to 20 million people weekly, primarily in Nigeria, but also in Niger, Ghana, Chad and Cameroon.

As US federal employees, the VOA Hausa staffers, if true, would have violated a series of federal laws and regulations, particularly those prohibiting government employees from receiving improper gifts, which may be implicated by the alleged conduct in this matter. These include criminal penalties for bribery of public officials, the prohibition on acceptance of gifts given because of an employee’s official position, and the statutory requirement that all federal employees place loyalty to their legal and ethical responsibilities over private gain.

Accepting payments or “brown envelopes,” as it’s known in Nigerian journalism circles, is a common practice in the country. Journalists, operating in a competitive and crowded media landscape, accept the bribes to supplement paltry or unpaid salaries. Nigerian politicians, particularly around elections, often exploit the situation, paying journalists to buy their allegiance and control narratives.

Radio listenership of international broadcasters such as VOA, BBC Hausa, Radio France Hausa and Deutsche Welle are high in Nigeria’s northern regions, ironically in part because they are often seen to be neutral players who are above manipulation by local politicians or governments.

To safeguard its reputation and integrity, VOA has launched a separate investigation to determine if any coverage was improperly influenced. “If any such influence is discovered, we will deal with it promptly and transparently,” Bennett said.

She added: “If any other instances of improper payments are discovered in any service anywhere in VOA, we are committed to investigating them thoroughly and dealing with them promptly as well.”

The incident leaves the service with only 11 permanent government employees and contractors to produce 16 hours of radio and 30 minutes of television every week. Africa division director Negussie Mengesha said assistance from the agency’s extensive network of part-time contributors in Africa will help them maintain their current programming. One of 15 dismissed includes the chief of the Hausa service; VOA’s former Hausa Service chief, Fred Cooper, will serve as acting chief until a permanent one is selected.

VOA declined requests to speak to Amanda Bennett and Negussie Mengesha.

Quartz

Boko Haram execute second aid worker

An aid worker with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been killed in Nigeria by Islamist militants who kidnapped her last March.

Hauwa Liman, a midwife, was killed days after kidnappers set a deadline.

The ICRC said it was devastated by the news. The Nigerian government called the murder "inhuman and ungodly".

Ms Liman was taken with two others in the northern Nigerian town of Rann. Fellow midwife Saifura Ahmed Khorsa was killed last month.

A 15-year-old schoolgirl is being held by the same militant group, Islamic State West Africa Province (Iswap), which is affiliated to the Islamic State group and is a faction of the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram.

The girl is one of 110 who were kidnapped in the northern town of Dapchi last February. Most of the other students were freed but the girl, who reportedly refused to convert to Islam, remains in captivity.

What more do we know about the kidnappings?

Ms Liman, 24, a midwife and university health education student, was working with internally displaced people in Rann in Borno State, the epicentre of militant activity, when she was abducted in March 2018.

She was taken along with Ms Khorsa and Alice Loksha, a nurse, during an attack on a military base by Iswap fighters in which three other humanitarian workers and eight members of the security forces were killed.

Last month, the ICRC received a video showing the killing of Ms Khorsa.

Exactly a month later, on Monday, another video appeared showing the killing of Ms Liman. A local reporter, who said he had seen it, reported that Ms Liman was shot at close range.

What did the militants want?

The militants did not make their demands public. The excuse they gave for killing Ms Khorsa in September was that they had put forward their demands to the government but they were ignored. The government has not disclosed what the jihadists were demanding.

It is unclear why the ICRC would be targeted when it acted as an intermediary between the government and Boko Haram for the release of the Chibok girls in 2017.

In a short statement after the killing of Ms Liman, Iswap said the Muslims midwives were killed because they had "abandoned their Islam the moment they chose to work with the Red Cross". It shows how brutal and intolerant the militants are.

What has been the reaction to the killing?

Patricia Danzi, the ICRC's regional director, said there was no justification for the "execution of innocent young healthcare workers" and she feared for its implication on their work in the region.

"It is actually bad news for all of us, for the family, for the humanitarian communities, for the health personnel and for all the women, daughters and mothers of Northern Nigeria and far beyond," she told the BBC.

Nigerian Information and Culture Minister Alhaji Lai Mohammed said the government was "deeply pained" by news of the killing, but added it would "keep the negotiations open" and continue to work to free Ms Loksha and the schoolgirl.

Iswap has reportedly said it plans to keep the schoolgirl and the nurse, both Christians, as slaves.

BBC

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British doctor forgives kidnappers that held him captive in Nigeria

A doctor said he has forgiven the kidnappers who captured him and his wife in Nigeria and killed their friend.

Dr David Donovan and his wife Shirley were working as Christian missionaries to improve healthcare in Africa when they were seized by militants.

Optician Ian Squire was shot dead, before the rest of the group were safely released after 22 days.

Dr Donovan said he and his wife were thankful for their "second chance".

They were running four healthcare clinics set up by their charity New Foundations in the Delta area of Nigeria when they were captured on 13 October 2017.

Dr Donovan, 58, said the group had been due to leave their compound when the kidnappers struck.

He said the armed gang cut power to the compound before launching the kidnap attempt, which he called a "nightmare scenario".

Intimidating and unpredictable

Dr Donovan, who used to work as a GP at the Riverside Practice in March, Cambridgeshire, said: "They took us by boat towards the Atlantic into quite a flooded area of the jungle.

"At that time of the year it is the rainy season so there isn't any land at all, so it is completely off the map."

Dr Donovan and his wife have moved to Coldstream, Scotland, since their release and written a book about their ordeal, which is due to be released next year.

The GP said they had learned to forgive their captors, and even held Bible classes with three of them.

He said: "Initially [they were] very intimidating, extremely unpredictable due to drugs and alcohol, very adrenaline fuelled, extremely violent, extremely intimidatory.

"They were broken men, absolutely broken, and it is not my position to judge them."

The Donovans gave a talk at St Wendreda's Church in March to thank people who had prayed for their safe return.

Dr Donovan said he and his wife are "seizing the day".

BBC