Gunmen have abducted six girls and two staff members from a boarding school in northern Nigeria, according to a police spokesman.
Yakubu Sabo said armed men gained entry on Thursday into the Engravers College, a mixed boarding school in a remote area south of the city of Kaduna.
They "took away two staff of the college and six female students to an unknown destination", Sabo said.
It was not immediately clear who had taken them.
"The Kaduna state police command has mobilised and dispatched some operatives with a view to trail the perpetrators of this crime and rescue the victims and apprehend the criminals. The operation is still ongoing," he told Al Jazeera by phone.
An official at the school confirmed the kidnapping to the AFP news agency.
"Unknown gunmen broke into the school around 12:10 am (23:10 GMT) and took away six female students and two staff who live inside the school," Elvis Allah-Yaro said.
Abductions for ransom are common in Nigeria and the highway from the capital Abuja to the city of Kaduna has seen a surge in attacks by armed criminals, but raids on schools are rare.
In 2014, the armed group Boko Haram abducted 276 schoolgirls from the remote northeastern town of Chibok in the Borno state.
About 100 of those schoolgirls remain missing.
Last week, police in the city of Kaduna freed hundreds of men and boys from a purported religious school where they had been beaten and abused.
Al Jazeera
Thursday, October 3, 2019
Nigeria fines banks $1.3 billion penalty
Nigeria’s central bank plans to charge 12 banks a total of more than 400 billion naira ($1.3 billion) for failing to meet its minimum loan-to-deposit ratio requirement by a September deadline, three banking sources told Reuters on Thursday.
The central bank has been seeking to boost credit to businesses and consumers after a recent recession in Africa’s biggest economy, but lending has yet to pick up. With growth slow, banks prefer to park cash in risk-free government securities rather than lend to companies and consumers.
Nigeria’s economy is expected to pick up in 2019 with gross domestic product expanding close to 3%, up from 1.9% last year, according to the central bank.
In July, the central bank asked lenders to maintain a ratio of lending out at least 60% of deposits by September as part of measures aimed at getting credit flowing.
Bank chief executives plan to meet with the banking regulator in Abuja on Thursday to discuss the charges, the sources said.
The local units of Citibank and Standard Chartered Bank are among those affected, the sources said.
Other include top tier Nigerian lenders Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, First Bank and United Bank for Africa.
The central bank did not respond to a request for immediate comment. The banks declined to comment.
Lenders have done little to expand borrowing in Nigeria, blaming a weak economy after a 2014 oil price crash and a currency crisis that made loans go sour. Analysts fear growing credit quickly could weaken asset quality and capital buffers.
The central bank has said loans rose 5.3% in the three months to the end of September to 16.40 trillion naira, due the new minimum requirement and increased the lending ratio target in what it said was a move to sustain the momentum.
In the last few months, the regulator has also capped interest-bearing deposits at the central bank and barred banks from buying treasury bills for their own accounts at an open market auction, to boost lending.
Reuters
The central bank has been seeking to boost credit to businesses and consumers after a recent recession in Africa’s biggest economy, but lending has yet to pick up. With growth slow, banks prefer to park cash in risk-free government securities rather than lend to companies and consumers.
Nigeria’s economy is expected to pick up in 2019 with gross domestic product expanding close to 3%, up from 1.9% last year, according to the central bank.
In July, the central bank asked lenders to maintain a ratio of lending out at least 60% of deposits by September as part of measures aimed at getting credit flowing.
Bank chief executives plan to meet with the banking regulator in Abuja on Thursday to discuss the charges, the sources said.
The local units of Citibank and Standard Chartered Bank are among those affected, the sources said.
Other include top tier Nigerian lenders Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank, First Bank and United Bank for Africa.
The central bank did not respond to a request for immediate comment. The banks declined to comment.
Lenders have done little to expand borrowing in Nigeria, blaming a weak economy after a 2014 oil price crash and a currency crisis that made loans go sour. Analysts fear growing credit quickly could weaken asset quality and capital buffers.
The central bank has said loans rose 5.3% in the three months to the end of September to 16.40 trillion naira, due the new minimum requirement and increased the lending ratio target in what it said was a move to sustain the momentum.
In the last few months, the regulator has also capped interest-bearing deposits at the central bank and barred banks from buying treasury bills for their own accounts at an open market auction, to boost lending.
Reuters
Nigeria and South Africa to set-up warning system on xenophobic attacks
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has met his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa, weeks after xenophobic attacks in Johannesburg triggered tensions between Africa's leading economies.
Nigerians were among those targeted during the wave of violence which resulted in the death of 12 people and led to an extraordinary airlift of hundreds of people last month.
On Thursday, amid warm smiles and a joint commitment to strengthen bilateral relations, Buhari said the attacks were "unacceptable" and called for preventive measures.
"We call for the strengthening and implementation of all the necessary measures to prevent the reoccurrence of such actions," he said.
Ramaphosa condemned the violence, saying: "Early warning mechanisms will be set up so that when we see there is restiveness in both of our people ... we will be able to inform one another."
He added: "We are equally committed to upholding the rule of law and ensuring that all those involved in criminal activities, regardless of their nationality, are prosecuted."
It is Buhari's first visit to South Africa since Ramaphosa's new administration was established earlier this year. The three-day visit is also the first to the country by a Nigerian leader since 2013.
Buhari and his ministers were welcomed with cannon shots and a guard of honour under a bright spring sun. At the welcome ceremony in Pretoria's Union Buildings, Ramaphosa and Buhari referred to each other as "brothers".
Economic ties
Buhari and Ramaphosa, accompanied by key ministers, discussed various issues, including strengthening economic relations.
The Nigerian leader's visit marks the 20th anniversary of a Bi-National Commission (BNC) established between the two countries in 1999. Since then, dozens of trade agreements have been signed between them.
In 2018, the total value of trade between them amounted to $3.35bn, making Nigeria South Africa's largest trade partner in West Africa.
A joint business forum between South Africa and Nigeria was held on Thursday afternoon.
"We want to create an enabling environment for doing business in our respective countries," said Ramaphosa, pointing out road, mining and infrastructure as key areas.
The South African leader also acknowledged Nigeria's support in the struggle against apartheid.
Buhari said his government is committed to fighting unemployment and poverty in his country. He also promised more opportunities for investors in Nigeria.
Formal relations between the two countries were established after the first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994.
Al Jazeera
Related stories: South Africa President to host Nigeria President after xenophobic violence
Video - Nigerians repatriated from South Africa after attacks
Nigerians were among those targeted during the wave of violence which resulted in the death of 12 people and led to an extraordinary airlift of hundreds of people last month.
On Thursday, amid warm smiles and a joint commitment to strengthen bilateral relations, Buhari said the attacks were "unacceptable" and called for preventive measures.
"We call for the strengthening and implementation of all the necessary measures to prevent the reoccurrence of such actions," he said.
Ramaphosa condemned the violence, saying: "Early warning mechanisms will be set up so that when we see there is restiveness in both of our people ... we will be able to inform one another."
He added: "We are equally committed to upholding the rule of law and ensuring that all those involved in criminal activities, regardless of their nationality, are prosecuted."
It is Buhari's first visit to South Africa since Ramaphosa's new administration was established earlier this year. The three-day visit is also the first to the country by a Nigerian leader since 2013.
Buhari and his ministers were welcomed with cannon shots and a guard of honour under a bright spring sun. At the welcome ceremony in Pretoria's Union Buildings, Ramaphosa and Buhari referred to each other as "brothers".
Economic ties
Buhari and Ramaphosa, accompanied by key ministers, discussed various issues, including strengthening economic relations.
The Nigerian leader's visit marks the 20th anniversary of a Bi-National Commission (BNC) established between the two countries in 1999. Since then, dozens of trade agreements have been signed between them.
In 2018, the total value of trade between them amounted to $3.35bn, making Nigeria South Africa's largest trade partner in West Africa.
A joint business forum between South Africa and Nigeria was held on Thursday afternoon.
"We want to create an enabling environment for doing business in our respective countries," said Ramaphosa, pointing out road, mining and infrastructure as key areas.
The South African leader also acknowledged Nigeria's support in the struggle against apartheid.
Buhari said his government is committed to fighting unemployment and poverty in his country. He also promised more opportunities for investors in Nigeria.
Formal relations between the two countries were established after the first democratic elections in South Africa in 1994.
Al Jazeera
Related stories: South Africa President to host Nigeria President after xenophobic violence
Video - Nigerians repatriated from South Africa after attacks
Unregulated reform schools in Nigeria paint a picture of torture and abuse
Horrific revelations of torture and abuse at a compound billing itself as a Koranic reform school in northern Nigeria have shone a spotlight on Islamic institutes unregulated by the authorities.
Last week police in the city of Kaduna raided a building to find hundreds of men and boys—some reportedly aged as young as 5 — held in atrocious conditions at a facility proprietors described as a religious school and rehabilitation centre.
Inmates were discovered chained to metal railings and with their hands and feet shackled together. Some bore scars from alleged beatings while other recounted being sexually abused.
"If they caught you if you want to run away from this place, they would hang you, they would chain you," one of the victims Abdallah Hamza said.
The shocking revelations made headlines but activists insisted they were symptomatic of abuses that have long-riddled a system beyond official control. Private Islamic schools — known locally as Almajiri schools — are widespread across mainly Muslim northern Nigeria, where poverty levels are high and government services often lacking.
The authorities have estimated that there are more than nine million students enrolled at the institutions.
"The latest example from Kaduna represented the worst of the system and very inhumane conditions," Mohammed Sabo Keana, team lead at the Abuja-based Almajiri Child Rights Initiative NGO, told AFP.
"But they are a clear manifestation of what a lot of children go through —including being made to beg on the streets, subjected to violence, sleeping in the worst conditions imaginable and living with terrible sanitation levels."
"A place of human slavery"
Activists have long pushed the government to reform or end the Almajiri system, arguing that it fails to provide children with the basics of an education. In June Nigeria's presidency said that it wanted ultimately to ban the schools, but insisted it would not be doing so anytime soon for fear of creating "panic or a backlash."
Now calls for change look likely to grow in the wake of the latest scandal. In a statement on the case the office of President Muhammadu Buhari — himself a Muslim from northern Nigeria — denounced the facility "as a house of torture and a place of human slavery."
"We are glad that Muslim authorities have dismissed the notion of the embarrassing and horrifying spectacle as (an) Islamic School," the statement said.
But it steered clear of mentioning any move to prohibit the schools and insisted that enforcing free compulsory education was a "panacea."
"To stop unwanted cultural practices that amount to the abuse of children, our religious and traditional authorities must work with the federal, state and local governments to expose and stop all types of abuse that are widely known but ignored for many years by our communities," it said.
"Stay in line"
Defenders of the Almajiri system argue that it can offer poor families services the Nigerian state woefully fails to provide. Millions of children in the country go without any education despite primary school nominally being free.
Retired civil servant Yusuf Hassan runs the Almajiri Foundation in the northern city of Kano that has looked to improve the system. He insisted that most schools are not like the one uncovered in Kaduna and instead blamed so-called "rehabilitation centers" where families send relatives considered delinquent or drug addicts.
"Some parents who have children that are difficult to manage at home take them to such rehabilitation centers," he said. "Some of the centres end up chaining the kids because they know they will run away."
Hassan blamed a lack of any government medical or psychiatric care to help tackle widespread drug addiction in northern Nigeria and said a first step should be to separate rehab centres from schools.
But even some of those who have lived through the brutal treatment meted out in such institutions have argued they can be a force for good. Mohammed Usman was chained up in one when his family took him there to get over a drug addiction in his twenties.
"Of course students were flogged when they misbehave which made us to mind our manners and stay in line," Usman, now 45 and a high school teacher, told AFP.
He said he was taught about religion, morality and "respect" and eventually managed to get clean.
"I was there for nine months and when the teachers were satisfied with my rehabilitation I was released and returned home. Ever since, I have never used drugs."
CBS
Last week police in the city of Kaduna raided a building to find hundreds of men and boys—some reportedly aged as young as 5 — held in atrocious conditions at a facility proprietors described as a religious school and rehabilitation centre.
Inmates were discovered chained to metal railings and with their hands and feet shackled together. Some bore scars from alleged beatings while other recounted being sexually abused.
"If they caught you if you want to run away from this place, they would hang you, they would chain you," one of the victims Abdallah Hamza said.
The shocking revelations made headlines but activists insisted they were symptomatic of abuses that have long-riddled a system beyond official control. Private Islamic schools — known locally as Almajiri schools — are widespread across mainly Muslim northern Nigeria, where poverty levels are high and government services often lacking.
The authorities have estimated that there are more than nine million students enrolled at the institutions.
"The latest example from Kaduna represented the worst of the system and very inhumane conditions," Mohammed Sabo Keana, team lead at the Abuja-based Almajiri Child Rights Initiative NGO, told AFP.
"But they are a clear manifestation of what a lot of children go through —including being made to beg on the streets, subjected to violence, sleeping in the worst conditions imaginable and living with terrible sanitation levels."
"A place of human slavery"
Activists have long pushed the government to reform or end the Almajiri system, arguing that it fails to provide children with the basics of an education. In June Nigeria's presidency said that it wanted ultimately to ban the schools, but insisted it would not be doing so anytime soon for fear of creating "panic or a backlash."
Now calls for change look likely to grow in the wake of the latest scandal. In a statement on the case the office of President Muhammadu Buhari — himself a Muslim from northern Nigeria — denounced the facility "as a house of torture and a place of human slavery."
"We are glad that Muslim authorities have dismissed the notion of the embarrassing and horrifying spectacle as (an) Islamic School," the statement said.
But it steered clear of mentioning any move to prohibit the schools and insisted that enforcing free compulsory education was a "panacea."
"To stop unwanted cultural practices that amount to the abuse of children, our religious and traditional authorities must work with the federal, state and local governments to expose and stop all types of abuse that are widely known but ignored for many years by our communities," it said.
"Stay in line"
Defenders of the Almajiri system argue that it can offer poor families services the Nigerian state woefully fails to provide. Millions of children in the country go without any education despite primary school nominally being free.
Retired civil servant Yusuf Hassan runs the Almajiri Foundation in the northern city of Kano that has looked to improve the system. He insisted that most schools are not like the one uncovered in Kaduna and instead blamed so-called "rehabilitation centers" where families send relatives considered delinquent or drug addicts.
"Some parents who have children that are difficult to manage at home take them to such rehabilitation centers," he said. "Some of the centres end up chaining the kids because they know they will run away."
Hassan blamed a lack of any government medical or psychiatric care to help tackle widespread drug addiction in northern Nigeria and said a first step should be to separate rehab centres from schools.
But even some of those who have lived through the brutal treatment meted out in such institutions have argued they can be a force for good. Mohammed Usman was chained up in one when his family took him there to get over a drug addiction in his twenties.
"Of course students were flogged when they misbehave which made us to mind our manners and stay in line," Usman, now 45 and a high school teacher, told AFP.
He said he was taught about religion, morality and "respect" and eventually managed to get clean.
"I was there for nine months and when the teachers were satisfied with my rehabilitation I was released and returned home. Ever since, I have never used drugs."
CBS
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Activist Sowore pleads not guilty to treason charges in Nigeria
Nigerian activist and former presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore pleaded not guilty at a court in Abuja on Monday to charges of treason, money laundering and harassing the president.
State Security Service agents arrested Sowore in early August after he called for a revolution after a February election which he said was not credible. He ran for president in that election, in which former military ruler President Muhammadu Buhari secured a second term in office.
Buhari has faced criticism for his administration’s human rights record, particularly a deadly crackdown on members of a now-banned Shi’ite group that a United Nations special rapporteur said involved the excessive use of lethal force. The government has rejected criticisms of its human rights record.
Sowore, who also founded Nigerian online news organization Sahara Reporters, faces seven charges including treason, money laundering and “cyberstalking” for allegedly sharing false information about Buhari that insulted him and incited hated against him.
A court last week denied a request by state security to keep Sowore in detention pending the charges, but did not release him as ordered.
Last week, another federal court in Abuja threatened the head of the State Security Service with prison for contempt of court for the failure to release him. Sowore remained in detention despite the threat.
The judge, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu, adjourned the case until Oct. 4.
Reuters
State Security Service agents arrested Sowore in early August after he called for a revolution after a February election which he said was not credible. He ran for president in that election, in which former military ruler President Muhammadu Buhari secured a second term in office.
Buhari has faced criticism for his administration’s human rights record, particularly a deadly crackdown on members of a now-banned Shi’ite group that a United Nations special rapporteur said involved the excessive use of lethal force. The government has rejected criticisms of its human rights record.
Sowore, who also founded Nigerian online news organization Sahara Reporters, faces seven charges including treason, money laundering and “cyberstalking” for allegedly sharing false information about Buhari that insulted him and incited hated against him.
A court last week denied a request by state security to keep Sowore in detention pending the charges, but did not release him as ordered.
Last week, another federal court in Abuja threatened the head of the State Security Service with prison for contempt of court for the failure to release him. Sowore remained in detention despite the threat.
The judge, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu, adjourned the case until Oct. 4.
Reuters
South Africa President to host Nigeria President after xenophobic violence
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will host Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari for talks, weeks after xenophobic violence strained economic ties between the two nations.
Nigeria recalled its high commissioner and evacuated some of its citizens last month after a spate of attacks in South Africa left at least 12 people dead, two of them foreigners. Protests in Nigeria over the violence targeted South African companies including mobile-phone giant MTN Group Ltd. and grocer Shoprite Holdings.
Ramaphosa and Buhari will meet Oct. 3 in Pretoria, the capital, the presidency said in a statement Tuesday. They’ll discuss ways “to strengthen political, economic, social and cultural relations,” it said.
Nigeria is South Africa’s biggest trade partner in Africa, with flows estimated at $4.5 billion last year compared with $2.9 billion a decade ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.South Africa has seen sporadic attacks on migrants, including Nigerians and Sudanese, the worst of which occurred in 2008 when about 60 people were killed and more than 50,000 forced from their homes. Another seven people died in similar attacks in 2015.
Bloomberg
Related story: Video - Nigerians repatriated from South Africa after attacks
Nigeria recalled its high commissioner and evacuated some of its citizens last month after a spate of attacks in South Africa left at least 12 people dead, two of them foreigners. Protests in Nigeria over the violence targeted South African companies including mobile-phone giant MTN Group Ltd. and grocer Shoprite Holdings.
Ramaphosa and Buhari will meet Oct. 3 in Pretoria, the capital, the presidency said in a statement Tuesday. They’ll discuss ways “to strengthen political, economic, social and cultural relations,” it said.
Nigeria is South Africa’s biggest trade partner in Africa, with flows estimated at $4.5 billion last year compared with $2.9 billion a decade ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.South Africa has seen sporadic attacks on migrants, including Nigerians and Sudanese, the worst of which occurred in 2008 when about 60 people were killed and more than 50,000 forced from their homes. Another seven people died in similar attacks in 2015.
Bloomberg
Related story: Video - Nigerians repatriated from South Africa after attacks
Police harassing tech industry in Nigeria
It seems in the eyes of Nigeria’s police, any young man with a laptop, smartphone and an internet connection is likely a fraudster.Such profiling has no bearing in reality, of course. It’s simply a crude extortion tactic that has fueled a long-running racket. Here’s how it often goes: the young person is stopped on suspicion, then arrested and detained followed up being hit with bogus accusations of being an internet fraudster. In those circumstances, the options are usually paying bribes to regain freedom or facing an uncertain future decided by Nigeria’s broken criminal justice system which has left 72% of prison inmates serving time without a sentence.
Given the nature of their work, Nigerian techies are frequent targets of this scam by the police’s anti-robbery squad (SARS), a special unit which is has garnered a reputation for arbitrary arrests, torture and extra-judicial killings. But, following the recent harrowing experience of a local software engineer who arrested by SARS and asked to pay a $1,300 bribe, leaders in Nigeria’s tech industry are crowdfunding a legal effort against the unit. His story which has been retweeted over 11,000 times and infuriated the local tech industry which has long protested harassment of its workers.
Startup founders and employees across the country have contributed $30,000 to the campaign within a day of its launch. Flutterwave, a Nigerian fintech giant, has provided a payments solution for the campaign with Olugbenga Agboola, Flutterwave CEO says the company is waiving regular charges on the payments link. Other notable tech founders leading the camapign include Jason Njoku, founder of iROKOtv, Tayo Oviosu, founder of Paga and SIM Shagaya, founder of Konga
The raised funds will go to financing lawsuits as well as supporting existing initiatives against police brutality. The campaign will work with civil society groups and activists with a track record of fighting police brutality and extortion.
Bosun Tijani, co-founder of Co-Creation Hub, Nigeria’s leading tech hub, is among those leading the campaign and says harassment by SARS officers will result in increased talent drain with several local developers already opting for careers and lives abroad, away from Nigeria’s dysfunction. Tijani says despite its prevailing rhetoric of supporting the budding tech industry, the government “continues to turn a blind eye to the robbery and psychological intimidation of young tech talent.”
In truth, the profiling of young laptop-carrying Nigerians as fraudsters by the police stems from the country’s much maligned history with internet fraudsters who continue to evolve while carrying out million-dollar scams. However, in targeting young techies, the police are inadvertently hitting at a group of Nigerians who are perhaps doing the most to correct the narrative of online fraud.
So far, much of the tech industry’s efforts have been rewarded: Nigeria’s ecosystem has morphed into one of Africa’s most valuableover the past decade with tech companies founded, led and staffed by young people offering innovative solutions to several of the country’s problems across financial inclusion, agriculture and healthcare.
It’s not the first time SARS has been subject of a widespread campaign against its excesses. A 2017 #EndSARS campaign led by young Nigerians on social media resulted in the announcement of a revamp of the unit. However, as stories of sustained harassment show, very little has changed. Any sustainable reforms to Nigeria’s police will likely be slow-growing given its entrenched problems: a survey by Nigeria’s statistics bureau showed police officers were the most likely of all civil servants to solicit and collect bribes while a 2016 security index ranked Nigeria’s police force ranks as the worst globally.
By Yomi Kazeem
Quartz
10 things Nigeria does better than anywhere else
From email scams to oil spills and charlatan Pentecostal preachers, it's clear that Nigeria has something of an image problem.
While the outside world's perception of Africa's most populous country hasn't always been overwhelmingly positive, there's plenty more to this nation than its unsavory associations.
With its vibrant culture, sense of humor and adaptability, Nigeria has become the "Giant of Africa" in more ways than just population size.
In honor of Nigeria's Independence Day on October 1, here are 10 of the many reasons why the destination one in five Africans call home stands out from the rest. You may be inspired to add
Nigeria to your travel list:
Traditional weddings
In Nigeria, if you've reached your 30th birthday and are still unhitched, the elders will harass you down the aisle, which is why barely a week goes by without someone staging a traditional wedding ceremony somewhere.
Weddings are a sacred part of cultural life, but also an excuse to show off cuisine, fabulous clothing, music and dance moves in one life-affirming, chromatic bonanza.
With 250-odd ethnic groups, the ceremonies come in a variety of styles, depending on your region.
In the southwest, the groom and his friends might prostrate themselves at the start.
However, in the southeast you'll see them dancing their way into the ceremony, wearing bowler hats and clutching walking canes.
In other regions, the bride and groom's families send each other letters of proposal and acceptance before getting down to dowry negotiations.
Once the serious stuff is done, it's back to music and dancing and, best of all, the tossing of banknotes in the air to make money literally rain down on the newlyweds.
If you haven't experienced a traditional Nigerian wedding, you haven't experienced Nigeria.
Jollof rice
This mouth-watering tomato-based rice dish is a party staple.
There are many ways to cook it, involving endless permutations of meat, spices, chilli, onions and vegetables.
While it's widely accepted that Senegal invented this dish, the concept spread to West African countries.
The most notable are Ghana and Nigeria -- two nations that have vied with one another for supremacy in a never-ending battle known as the jollof wars.
Nigerians are the indisputable champions, of course, serving up "advanced level" jollof that our Ghanaian rivals can only watch and admire.
Oya, come chop!
Eating chicken to the bone
While we're still on the subject of food, Nigerians are champions at eating chicken to the bone and beyond.
It's not enough to simply eat the flesh. We break the bone, suck out the marrow and pulverize the remainder until there's almost nothing left.
If your chicken thigh is still forensically identifiable at the end of the meal then you haven't done it right. Abeg, finish am!
Nollywood films
Only Hollywood and India's Bollywood make more movies than Nigeria.
Known as Nollywood, our film industry is big business -- so big it contributes 5% to national GDP.
With average flicks churned out in under a two weeks, Nollywood films are famous for their poor (albeit improving) production values.
But what they lack in sophistication they make up for in story lines that are an entertaining window on Nigerian moral values and byzantine social dynamics.
Narratives exploring servant-master relationships, the supernatural, corruption and infidelity are delivered with lashings of shouty, eye-bulging overacting.
The movies draw a big audience in the rest of Africa, where viewers from more reserved societies can revel vicariously in Nigeria's outlandishness and even pick up some of our slang.
Nigerian soft power has never been greater.
Durbar royal horse parade
The annual Durbar festival is the cultural highlight of Nigeria's Islamic north.
This visual extravaganza is celebrated by thousands of peoples, mainly from the Hausa-Fulani ethnic groups, in multiple cities at the end of Ramadan.
Followed by a parade that takes place in the city of Kano at the Emir's Palace, it's become a longstanding tourist attraction.
The Emir's sons, noblemen and regiments show their loyalty by trooping past on horses, accompanied by musicians.
Each royal household has its own unique costume, made up of billowing robes and turbans that glitter in every color under the sun.
Wearing black leather gloves, the princes raise a "power" fist as they bounce past the Emir.
Being polygamous, the Emirs have literally dozens of sons and every one of them takes part, from the middle-aged to the toddlers. Counting them all is part of the fun.
Optimism
For all its political and economic troubles, Nigerians are somehow still among the most optimistic and happy people on the planet.
Opportunity doesn't come knocking -- we chase it, with the help of God, who we all know is on our side.
The Lord may have rested on the seventh day of Earth's creation, but that's the last day off he's enjoyed ever since.
Nigerians call upon Him 24/7, praying and pumping fists and demanding His favors.
Evidence of our optimistic spirit lies everywhere: It's in the billboards that promise "a divine upgrade", or our hustling entrepreneurial spirit, or the crumbling roadside shacks grandly named "Victory Plaza." There's no room for despair when we see ourselves as "temporarily embarrassed millionaires" (to quote Steinbeck) on the expressway to heaven.
So next time a Nigerian tells you "I will become the greatest by force!" understand that they're not bragging -- they're just speaking their dreams into existence.
Proverbial sense
Nigerians love a good proverb and we never stop inventing new ones.
Some aphorisms are blunt and to-the-point. Others can be a little cryptic, so you sometimes need a high level of "proverbial sense" to understand what they're getting at:
"Monkey no fine but im mama no like am [The monkey might be ugly but his mother loves him]."
"If you can't dance well, you'd better not get up."
"The man being carried does not realize how far away the town really is."
"The quarrel that doesn't concern you is pleasant to hear about."
"The whip hits at the legs, not the guilt."
"Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunters."
"The one-eyed man does not thank God until he sees a blind man."
"Rat wey get only one hole, they quick die [A rat with just one hole will soon die]."
"After God, fear woman."
"No license for nonsense [behave yourself]."
"No business, no wife."
"Keke [motorized tricycle] today, private jet tomorrow!"
Masquerades
Masquerades are a huge aspect of Nigerian culture.
These masked costumed figures are considered to embody the spirits, and serve as a fundamental part of Nigerian pre-colonial religious tradition.
Nowadays they double up as entertainment and appear during weddings and festivals, particularly at Christmas time.
Nigeria has over 250 ethnic groups, each with its own masquerade. The masks and costumes are visually striking.
They can be made from a variety of materials such as grass, animal horns and teeth, and the young men who wear them sometimes cover their limbs in black palm oil to mesmerizing and scary effect.
The masquerades travel through the villages, performing dances, acrobatics and reciting incantations.
Chasing terrified villagers with bows and arrows or whips is also part of the tradition, so get ready to move your feet.
Bronze sculptures
The famous Benin Bronzes are a collection of plaques and sculptures that once decorated the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin.
Dating back to the 13th century, these exquisite artworks include bas-relief images of dignitaries or warriors.
They were influenced by the Ife civilization nearby, which produced life-sized bronze heads of the Ooni (king) and his queens.
When Europeans first saw the Hellenic-style realism of the Ife sculptures they were "shocked" that Africans could produce such beauty and sophistication.
The British liked the Benin bronzes so much they stole them during punitive raids in 1897 and have kept hold of them to this day.
Some of the best specimens are displayed at the British Museum in London, the Louvre in Paris and Berlin's Ethnological Museum.
Making the best of 'go slows' (traffic jams)
Traffic jams -- known as go slows -- are a daily part of life on Nigeria's roads, but although they may delay your journey they needn't stop you from completing your day's shopping from the comfort of your vehicle. Need some socks? Street vendors can sort you out.
They'll also sell handkerchiefs, belts, books, newspapers, fruit, vegetables, chocolates, electrical appliances and even oil paintings -- if that's what you're after.
Simply roll down your window and call for their attention.
By Noo Saro-Wiwa
CNN
While the outside world's perception of Africa's most populous country hasn't always been overwhelmingly positive, there's plenty more to this nation than its unsavory associations.
With its vibrant culture, sense of humor and adaptability, Nigeria has become the "Giant of Africa" in more ways than just population size.
In honor of Nigeria's Independence Day on October 1, here are 10 of the many reasons why the destination one in five Africans call home stands out from the rest. You may be inspired to add
Nigeria to your travel list:
Traditional weddings
In Nigeria, if you've reached your 30th birthday and are still unhitched, the elders will harass you down the aisle, which is why barely a week goes by without someone staging a traditional wedding ceremony somewhere.
Weddings are a sacred part of cultural life, but also an excuse to show off cuisine, fabulous clothing, music and dance moves in one life-affirming, chromatic bonanza.
With 250-odd ethnic groups, the ceremonies come in a variety of styles, depending on your region.
In the southwest, the groom and his friends might prostrate themselves at the start.
However, in the southeast you'll see them dancing their way into the ceremony, wearing bowler hats and clutching walking canes.
In other regions, the bride and groom's families send each other letters of proposal and acceptance before getting down to dowry negotiations.
Once the serious stuff is done, it's back to music and dancing and, best of all, the tossing of banknotes in the air to make money literally rain down on the newlyweds.
If you haven't experienced a traditional Nigerian wedding, you haven't experienced Nigeria.
Jollof rice
This mouth-watering tomato-based rice dish is a party staple.
There are many ways to cook it, involving endless permutations of meat, spices, chilli, onions and vegetables.
While it's widely accepted that Senegal invented this dish, the concept spread to West African countries.
The most notable are Ghana and Nigeria -- two nations that have vied with one another for supremacy in a never-ending battle known as the jollof wars.
Nigerians are the indisputable champions, of course, serving up "advanced level" jollof that our Ghanaian rivals can only watch and admire.
Oya, come chop!
Eating chicken to the bone
While we're still on the subject of food, Nigerians are champions at eating chicken to the bone and beyond.
It's not enough to simply eat the flesh. We break the bone, suck out the marrow and pulverize the remainder until there's almost nothing left.
If your chicken thigh is still forensically identifiable at the end of the meal then you haven't done it right. Abeg, finish am!
Nollywood films
Only Hollywood and India's Bollywood make more movies than Nigeria.
Known as Nollywood, our film industry is big business -- so big it contributes 5% to national GDP.
With average flicks churned out in under a two weeks, Nollywood films are famous for their poor (albeit improving) production values.
But what they lack in sophistication they make up for in story lines that are an entertaining window on Nigerian moral values and byzantine social dynamics.
Narratives exploring servant-master relationships, the supernatural, corruption and infidelity are delivered with lashings of shouty, eye-bulging overacting.
The movies draw a big audience in the rest of Africa, where viewers from more reserved societies can revel vicariously in Nigeria's outlandishness and even pick up some of our slang.
Nigerian soft power has never been greater.
Durbar royal horse parade
The annual Durbar festival is the cultural highlight of Nigeria's Islamic north.
This visual extravaganza is celebrated by thousands of peoples, mainly from the Hausa-Fulani ethnic groups, in multiple cities at the end of Ramadan.
Followed by a parade that takes place in the city of Kano at the Emir's Palace, it's become a longstanding tourist attraction.
The Emir's sons, noblemen and regiments show their loyalty by trooping past on horses, accompanied by musicians.
Each royal household has its own unique costume, made up of billowing robes and turbans that glitter in every color under the sun.
Wearing black leather gloves, the princes raise a "power" fist as they bounce past the Emir.
Being polygamous, the Emirs have literally dozens of sons and every one of them takes part, from the middle-aged to the toddlers. Counting them all is part of the fun.
Optimism
For all its political and economic troubles, Nigerians are somehow still among the most optimistic and happy people on the planet.
Opportunity doesn't come knocking -- we chase it, with the help of God, who we all know is on our side.
The Lord may have rested on the seventh day of Earth's creation, but that's the last day off he's enjoyed ever since.
Nigerians call upon Him 24/7, praying and pumping fists and demanding His favors.
Evidence of our optimistic spirit lies everywhere: It's in the billboards that promise "a divine upgrade", or our hustling entrepreneurial spirit, or the crumbling roadside shacks grandly named "Victory Plaza." There's no room for despair when we see ourselves as "temporarily embarrassed millionaires" (to quote Steinbeck) on the expressway to heaven.
So next time a Nigerian tells you "I will become the greatest by force!" understand that they're not bragging -- they're just speaking their dreams into existence.
Proverbial sense
Nigerians love a good proverb and we never stop inventing new ones.
Some aphorisms are blunt and to-the-point. Others can be a little cryptic, so you sometimes need a high level of "proverbial sense" to understand what they're getting at:
"Monkey no fine but im mama no like am [The monkey might be ugly but his mother loves him]."
"If you can't dance well, you'd better not get up."
"The man being carried does not realize how far away the town really is."
"The quarrel that doesn't concern you is pleasant to hear about."
"The whip hits at the legs, not the guilt."
"Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunters."
"The one-eyed man does not thank God until he sees a blind man."
"Rat wey get only one hole, they quick die [A rat with just one hole will soon die]."
"After God, fear woman."
"No license for nonsense [behave yourself]."
"No business, no wife."
"Keke [motorized tricycle] today, private jet tomorrow!"
Masquerades
Masquerades are a huge aspect of Nigerian culture.
These masked costumed figures are considered to embody the spirits, and serve as a fundamental part of Nigerian pre-colonial religious tradition.
Nowadays they double up as entertainment and appear during weddings and festivals, particularly at Christmas time.
Nigeria has over 250 ethnic groups, each with its own masquerade. The masks and costumes are visually striking.
They can be made from a variety of materials such as grass, animal horns and teeth, and the young men who wear them sometimes cover their limbs in black palm oil to mesmerizing and scary effect.
The masquerades travel through the villages, performing dances, acrobatics and reciting incantations.
Chasing terrified villagers with bows and arrows or whips is also part of the tradition, so get ready to move your feet.
Bronze sculptures
The famous Benin Bronzes are a collection of plaques and sculptures that once decorated the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin.
Dating back to the 13th century, these exquisite artworks include bas-relief images of dignitaries or warriors.
They were influenced by the Ife civilization nearby, which produced life-sized bronze heads of the Ooni (king) and his queens.
When Europeans first saw the Hellenic-style realism of the Ife sculptures they were "shocked" that Africans could produce such beauty and sophistication.
The British liked the Benin bronzes so much they stole them during punitive raids in 1897 and have kept hold of them to this day.
Some of the best specimens are displayed at the British Museum in London, the Louvre in Paris and Berlin's Ethnological Museum.
Making the best of 'go slows' (traffic jams)
Traffic jams -- known as go slows -- are a daily part of life on Nigeria's roads, but although they may delay your journey they needn't stop you from completing your day's shopping from the comfort of your vehicle. Need some socks? Street vendors can sort you out.
They'll also sell handkerchiefs, belts, books, newspapers, fruit, vegetables, chocolates, electrical appliances and even oil paintings -- if that's what you're after.
Simply roll down your window and call for their attention.
By Noo Saro-Wiwa
CNN
Monday, September 30, 2019
Former Super Eagle coach Samson Siasia's mother finally freed from kidnappers
The 76-year-old victim Beauty Ogere Siasia was "released in the early hours of Sunday," Asinim Butswat, the police spokesman in the southern state of Bayelsa, told Xinhua via telephone.
Local police and family sources declined to give details of the victim's release. Whether or not any ransom was paid is not known.
She was held captive for over 10 weeks, after the gunmen stormed her home in Odoni town of Sagbama local government area of Bayelsa on July 15.
It was the second time the septuagenarian had been abducted in four years. In November 2015, she was abducted by gunmen who released her after 12 days in captivity.
Siasia, her son and former Nigerian coach, said his family was relieved by the development. Throughout last week, he had pleaded for help from Nigerian authorities for the release of his mother.
"It's been really tough but I'm pretty relieved that she's finally released on Sunday morning," he told reporters.
He added that his mother had been in poor health since her return.
Siasia was the coach of the team which won the silver medal of the football event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics held in China.
He was also the coach of the country's main football team from 2010 to October 2011. He was reappointed in 2016.
Xinhua
Related story: Ex-coach Samson Siasia mother still missing in Nigeria 2 months after kidnap
Survivor recounts torture house experience in Nigeria
A survivor of the Nigerian "torture house" raided by police has described being there as "living in hellfire".
"If you are praying they will beat you. If you are studying they will beat you," Isa Ibrahim, 29, told the BBC.
Nearly 500 men and boys were rescued from the building in Kaduna, which was being used as an Islamic school and correctional facility.
The police said it was a place of human slavery, with many detainees found in chains.
Some of the victims had been tortured and sexually abused, the authorities say.
The BBC's Ishaq Khalid, who visited the building in northern Nigeria, says there are concerns that similar abuse may be occurring in other such institutions.
Many families in this mainly Muslim part of the country can't afford to send their children to school and those that can often enrol them in poorly regulated institutions like this one, he says.
A sign on the front of the building describes it as the Ahmad bin Hambal Centre for Islamic teachings but it was also used by some as a place to reform young men with behavioural problems.
Kaduna state police spokesman Yakubu Sabo said the "dehumanised treatment" they discovered made it impossible to consider it an Islamic school, Reuters news agency reports. It was not registered as either a school, or a correctional facility, although it did charge fees to parents.
Seven people, including some staff, have been arrested. The government says it will investigate other institutions which purport to provide Koranic studies.
There have been numerous reports of abuse at Koranic schools across northern Nigeria, with students sometimes forced to spend their days begging on the streets.
Isa Ibrahim's ordeal
Mr Ibrahim said he was sent to the centre two weeks ago by his family, apparently to "correct his behaviour".
He said he had tried to escape the day before the police arrived.
He described being chained up to an old generator and also being subjected to a particularly cruel punishment, known as "Tarkila", where his hands were tied up and he was left hanging from the ceiling.
"I have many injuries. Almost all parts of my body have injuries," he said. "Even if you are sleeping - they'll use [a] cane to wake you up."
He said he had been starved and was only given plain rice to eat. People kept at the centre "lose all of our energy", he added.
Children as young as five were among those rescued from the institution, which is believed to have been operating for several years. Most of the inmates were from northern Nigeria but two were reportedly from Burkina Faso.
Abandoned chains at a 'house of torture'
Ishaq Khalid, BBC News, Kaduna
The pink two-storey building is a prison-like structure surrounded by high walls and barbed wire. It has an imposing gate, with more than a dozen rooms, with small windows for ventilation.
When I visited, the compound was littered with abandoned household items like mattresses, buckets, clothes and books - apparently left in the wake of the police raid.
Kaduna state police spokesperson Yakubu Sabo told me most of the captives had been rescued with their shackles still on but I could still see some abandoned chains, as well as car wheels and petrol-powered generators to which the victims had allegedly been attached.
People living nearby have been left bewildered - some told me they couldn't believe the shocking discovery.
The "students" did not go to out to beg on the streets as is the usual practice with traditional Koranic schools in this region. Nor had they been forced to do hard labour - some said they had not seen the outside world for years.
Torture was used as a form of discipline - to correct perceived bad behaviour.
Relatives are being reunited with their children at a camp in Kaduna where the victims were taken after being rescued.
Some said they had been prevented from seeing their children at the school.
"If we had known that this thing was happening in the school, we wouldn't have sent our children. We sent them to be people but they ended up being maltreated," said a parent named Ibrahim, who had identified his son.
The Kaduna state government says it will now carry out checks on all Koranic schools across the state.
"This is an eye-opener for us," said Hafsat Baba, Kaduna State Commissioner of Human Services and Social Development. She added that if this scale of abuse was happening in the main city, she didn't know what might be going on in rural areas.
"We have to map all the schools. And we have to make sure that if they violate the government orders then they have to be closed down completely," she told the BBC.
"If we find any facility that is torturing children or is harbouring these kind of horrific situations that we have just seen, they are going to be prosecuted."
President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned reports of shocking abuse at the institution.
He also urged religious and traditional leaders to work with the authorities to "expose and stop all types of abuse that are widely known but ignored for many years by our communities".
BBC
Related story: Hundreds freed from torture house in Nigeria
"If you are praying they will beat you. If you are studying they will beat you," Isa Ibrahim, 29, told the BBC.
Nearly 500 men and boys were rescued from the building in Kaduna, which was being used as an Islamic school and correctional facility.
The police said it was a place of human slavery, with many detainees found in chains.
Some of the victims had been tortured and sexually abused, the authorities say.
The BBC's Ishaq Khalid, who visited the building in northern Nigeria, says there are concerns that similar abuse may be occurring in other such institutions.
Many families in this mainly Muslim part of the country can't afford to send their children to school and those that can often enrol them in poorly regulated institutions like this one, he says.
A sign on the front of the building describes it as the Ahmad bin Hambal Centre for Islamic teachings but it was also used by some as a place to reform young men with behavioural problems.
Kaduna state police spokesman Yakubu Sabo said the "dehumanised treatment" they discovered made it impossible to consider it an Islamic school, Reuters news agency reports. It was not registered as either a school, or a correctional facility, although it did charge fees to parents.
Seven people, including some staff, have been arrested. The government says it will investigate other institutions which purport to provide Koranic studies.
There have been numerous reports of abuse at Koranic schools across northern Nigeria, with students sometimes forced to spend their days begging on the streets.
Isa Ibrahim's ordeal
Mr Ibrahim said he was sent to the centre two weeks ago by his family, apparently to "correct his behaviour".
He said he had tried to escape the day before the police arrived.
He described being chained up to an old generator and also being subjected to a particularly cruel punishment, known as "Tarkila", where his hands were tied up and he was left hanging from the ceiling.
"I have many injuries. Almost all parts of my body have injuries," he said. "Even if you are sleeping - they'll use [a] cane to wake you up."
He said he had been starved and was only given plain rice to eat. People kept at the centre "lose all of our energy", he added.
Children as young as five were among those rescued from the institution, which is believed to have been operating for several years. Most of the inmates were from northern Nigeria but two were reportedly from Burkina Faso.
Abandoned chains at a 'house of torture'
Ishaq Khalid, BBC News, Kaduna
The pink two-storey building is a prison-like structure surrounded by high walls and barbed wire. It has an imposing gate, with more than a dozen rooms, with small windows for ventilation.
When I visited, the compound was littered with abandoned household items like mattresses, buckets, clothes and books - apparently left in the wake of the police raid.
Kaduna state police spokesperson Yakubu Sabo told me most of the captives had been rescued with their shackles still on but I could still see some abandoned chains, as well as car wheels and petrol-powered generators to which the victims had allegedly been attached.
People living nearby have been left bewildered - some told me they couldn't believe the shocking discovery.
The "students" did not go to out to beg on the streets as is the usual practice with traditional Koranic schools in this region. Nor had they been forced to do hard labour - some said they had not seen the outside world for years.
Torture was used as a form of discipline - to correct perceived bad behaviour.
Relatives are being reunited with their children at a camp in Kaduna where the victims were taken after being rescued.
Some said they had been prevented from seeing their children at the school.
"If we had known that this thing was happening in the school, we wouldn't have sent our children. We sent them to be people but they ended up being maltreated," said a parent named Ibrahim, who had identified his son.
The Kaduna state government says it will now carry out checks on all Koranic schools across the state.
"This is an eye-opener for us," said Hafsat Baba, Kaduna State Commissioner of Human Services and Social Development. She added that if this scale of abuse was happening in the main city, she didn't know what might be going on in rural areas.
"We have to map all the schools. And we have to make sure that if they violate the government orders then they have to be closed down completely," she told the BBC.
"If we find any facility that is torturing children or is harbouring these kind of horrific situations that we have just seen, they are going to be prosecuted."
President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned reports of shocking abuse at the institution.
He also urged religious and traditional leaders to work with the authorities to "expose and stop all types of abuse that are widely known but ignored for many years by our communities".
BBC
Related story: Hundreds freed from torture house in Nigeria
Baby Factory raided by police in Nigeria
Nigerian police have freed 19 pregnant women from properties in Lagos, which they describe as "baby factories".
Most of the women had been abducted "for the purpose of getting them pregnant and selling the babies", a police statement said.
Two women who operated as untrained nurses have been arrested but the main suspect is on the run.
Police said that male babies would be sold for $1,400 (£1,100) and the females for $830.
They added that the children were to be trafficked, but it is not clear who or where the potential buyers were.
Stories of these so-called "baby factories" are not uncommon in Nigeria. There have been several raids in the past including one last year when 160 children were rescued.
This time four children were rescued.
What happened to the women?
The rescued women, aged between 15 and 28, had been lured to Lagos, Nigeria's largest city, from different parts of the country with the promise of employment.
But they were then held in the properties and raped.
"[A] woman came to pick me at the [bus] park and brought me here," one of those rescued told the Vanguard newspaper.
"The next day, I was summoned by our madam, who told me that I would not leave the premises until next year," she is quoted as saying.
"So far, I have slept with seven different men before I discovered I was pregnant. I was told that after delivery, I would be paid handsomely."
The women and children have now been rehoused and are being rehabilitated, the police said.
BBC
Related story: Pregnant girls rescued from baby making factory in Nigeria
Most of the women had been abducted "for the purpose of getting them pregnant and selling the babies", a police statement said.
Two women who operated as untrained nurses have been arrested but the main suspect is on the run.
Police said that male babies would be sold for $1,400 (£1,100) and the females for $830.
They added that the children were to be trafficked, but it is not clear who or where the potential buyers were.
Stories of these so-called "baby factories" are not uncommon in Nigeria. There have been several raids in the past including one last year when 160 children were rescued.
This time four children were rescued.
What happened to the women?
The rescued women, aged between 15 and 28, had been lured to Lagos, Nigeria's largest city, from different parts of the country with the promise of employment.
But they were then held in the properties and raped.
"[A] woman came to pick me at the [bus] park and brought me here," one of those rescued told the Vanguard newspaper.
"The next day, I was summoned by our madam, who told me that I would not leave the premises until next year," she is quoted as saying.
"So far, I have slept with seven different men before I discovered I was pregnant. I was told that after delivery, I would be paid handsomely."
The women and children have now been rehoused and are being rehabilitated, the police said.
BBC
Related story: Pregnant girls rescued from baby making factory in Nigeria
Friday, September 27, 2019
Video - Nigeria to scale up capacity for China-assisted Kaduna railway line
Speaking of China-Africa cooperation, Nigeria is set to increase capacity of its China- Assisted railway service along the 186.5 KM Abuja - Kaduna Rail line. 16 additional coaches and 10 locomotives are expected in by the end of the year -- to add to the existing ones.This is spurred by rising demand in the service. As Kelechi Emekalam reports, Many more passengers are opting for rail transportation for reasons of safety and comfort.
Boko Haram camp destroyed in Nigeria by airstrikes
Airstrikes by the Nigerian military have destroyed a logistics base of terror group Boko Haram during a raid in the northeast region, defense authorities said on Thursday.
The logistics base also served as a training camp for the terrorists at a community called Kusuma on the fringes of Lake Chad.
The airstrikes on Wednesday were executed after credible intelligence reports had established that a section of the settlement was serving as a training camp for the terrorists, Ibikunle Daramola, the spokesman for the air force, said in a statement made available to Xinhua.
"Some buildings within the camp were being used to store their fuel, arms, and ammunition as well as other logistics supplies," Daramola said.
During pre-attack surveillance, the air force spokesman said, scores of Boko Haram fighters were seen attempting to flee the location upon hearing the sound of the attack aircraft.
"They were engaged by the attack aircraft in successive passes, neutralizing many of them," he said.
According to him, the terrorists' logistics supply store, which was also hit, was seen engulfed in flames due to the raid.
The air force said while operating in concert with surface forces, it would sustain its efforts to completely destroy all remnants of the terrorists in the troubled northeast region.
Boko Haram has been blamed for the death of more than 20,000 people and displacing of 2.3 million others in Nigeria since 2009.
Xinhua
The logistics base also served as a training camp for the terrorists at a community called Kusuma on the fringes of Lake Chad.
The airstrikes on Wednesday were executed after credible intelligence reports had established that a section of the settlement was serving as a training camp for the terrorists, Ibikunle Daramola, the spokesman for the air force, said in a statement made available to Xinhua.
"Some buildings within the camp were being used to store their fuel, arms, and ammunition as well as other logistics supplies," Daramola said.
During pre-attack surveillance, the air force spokesman said, scores of Boko Haram fighters were seen attempting to flee the location upon hearing the sound of the attack aircraft.
"They were engaged by the attack aircraft in successive passes, neutralizing many of them," he said.
According to him, the terrorists' logistics supply store, which was also hit, was seen engulfed in flames due to the raid.
The air force said while operating in concert with surface forces, it would sustain its efforts to completely destroy all remnants of the terrorists in the troubled northeast region.
Boko Haram has been blamed for the death of more than 20,000 people and displacing of 2.3 million others in Nigeria since 2009.
Xinhua
UK judge grants Nigeria appeal of $9bn asset forfeiture ruling
A British judge on Thursday gave Nigeria permission to seek to overturn a ruling that would have allowed a private firm to try to seize more than $9bn in assets from the West African country.
Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID), a firm set up to carry out a gas project with Nigeria, won a $6.6bn arbitration award after the deal collapsed. The award has been accruing interest since 2013 and is now worth more than $9bn.
P&ID, established by two Irish nationals with little experience in the oil and gas sector, said on Thursday that interest was accruing at a rate of $1.2m a day.
The judge also granted Nigeria's request for a stay on any asset seizures while its legal challenge is pending, but ordered it to pay $200m to the court within 60 days to ensure the stay. It also must pay some court costs to P&ID within 14 days.
The original August 16 decision converted an arbitration award held by P&ID to a legal judgment, which would allow the British Virgin Islands-based firm to try to seize international assets.
Nigeria's appeal of this decision, called a "set aside", would need to prove there was an error in that ruling.
During Thursday's proceedings, lawyers representing Nigeria said the judgment was flawed primarily due to its acceptance that England was the proper seat of the arbitration.
Harry Matovu argued on behalf of Nigeria that the courts, not the arbitration tribunal, should determine this and that the award itself was "manifestly excessive".
"We look forward to challenging the UK Commercial Court's recognition of the tribunal's decision in the UK Court of Appeal, uncovering P&ID's outrageous approach for what it is: a sham based on fraudulent and criminal activity developed to profit from a developing country," Nigerian attorney general Abubakar Malami said.
P&ID welcomed the requirement that Nigeria place $200m on hold pending the appeal, which it said will force the nation "to put its money where its mouth is if it wants to avoid immediate seizure of assets". It also called fraud allegations a "red herring".
"The Nigerian government knows there was no fraud and the allegations are merely political theatre designed to deflect attention from its own shortcomings," it said in a statement.
The judge's order said that if Nigeria does not put the $200m into a court account within 60 days - the minimum amount of time that Matovu said it would take Nigeria to raise the funds by tapping capital markets or seeking internal sources - the stay on seizures would be lifted.
The case has electrified Nigeria and drawn condemnation at every level of government. In a speech at the United Nations this week, President Muhammadu Buhari said he would fight "the P&ID scam attempting to cheat Nigeria of billions of dollars".
At the court on Thursday, a dozen senior government officials huddled during a break, discussing how much money Nigeria could place in court accounts to secure a hold on asset seizures.
Last week, Nigeria's anti-graft agency charged one former petroleum ministry official with accepting bribes and failing to follow protocol related to the contract, while two Nigerian men linked to P&ID pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and tax evasion on behalf of the company.
P&ID has called the investigation in Nigeria a "sham" that denied its subjects due process.
Al Jazeera
Related story: Nigeria defends currency reserves inspite $9bn UK court ruling
Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID), a firm set up to carry out a gas project with Nigeria, won a $6.6bn arbitration award after the deal collapsed. The award has been accruing interest since 2013 and is now worth more than $9bn.
P&ID, established by two Irish nationals with little experience in the oil and gas sector, said on Thursday that interest was accruing at a rate of $1.2m a day.
The judge also granted Nigeria's request for a stay on any asset seizures while its legal challenge is pending, but ordered it to pay $200m to the court within 60 days to ensure the stay. It also must pay some court costs to P&ID within 14 days.
The original August 16 decision converted an arbitration award held by P&ID to a legal judgment, which would allow the British Virgin Islands-based firm to try to seize international assets.
Nigeria's appeal of this decision, called a "set aside", would need to prove there was an error in that ruling.
During Thursday's proceedings, lawyers representing Nigeria said the judgment was flawed primarily due to its acceptance that England was the proper seat of the arbitration.
Harry Matovu argued on behalf of Nigeria that the courts, not the arbitration tribunal, should determine this and that the award itself was "manifestly excessive".
"We look forward to challenging the UK Commercial Court's recognition of the tribunal's decision in the UK Court of Appeal, uncovering P&ID's outrageous approach for what it is: a sham based on fraudulent and criminal activity developed to profit from a developing country," Nigerian attorney general Abubakar Malami said.
P&ID welcomed the requirement that Nigeria place $200m on hold pending the appeal, which it said will force the nation "to put its money where its mouth is if it wants to avoid immediate seizure of assets". It also called fraud allegations a "red herring".
"The Nigerian government knows there was no fraud and the allegations are merely political theatre designed to deflect attention from its own shortcomings," it said in a statement.
The judge's order said that if Nigeria does not put the $200m into a court account within 60 days - the minimum amount of time that Matovu said it would take Nigeria to raise the funds by tapping capital markets or seeking internal sources - the stay on seizures would be lifted.
The case has electrified Nigeria and drawn condemnation at every level of government. In a speech at the United Nations this week, President Muhammadu Buhari said he would fight "the P&ID scam attempting to cheat Nigeria of billions of dollars".
At the court on Thursday, a dozen senior government officials huddled during a break, discussing how much money Nigeria could place in court accounts to secure a hold on asset seizures.
Last week, Nigeria's anti-graft agency charged one former petroleum ministry official with accepting bribes and failing to follow protocol related to the contract, while two Nigerian men linked to P&ID pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and tax evasion on behalf of the company.
P&ID has called the investigation in Nigeria a "sham" that denied its subjects due process.
Al Jazeera
Related story: Nigeria defends currency reserves inspite $9bn UK court ruling
Hundreds freed from torture house in Nigeria
Nigerian police say they have rescued nearly 500 people from a building in the northern city of Kaduna where they were detained and allegedly tortured.
Those held were all men and boys - some were found chained up.
Kaduna state's police chief Ali Janga told the BBC the large house was raided following a tip-off about suspicious activity.
He said it was a "house of torture" and described it as a case involving human slavery.
The detainees, not all Nigerian, said they had been tortured, sexually abused, starved and prevented from leaving - in some cases for several years.
It is not clear how they got there. Some of the children told the police that their relatives had taken them there believing the building to be a Koranic school.
But the police say there is no concrete evidence to suggest that the building was ever a school.
Eight suspects have been arrested.
The police chief said the detainees - some with injuries and starved of food - were overjoyed to be freed.
They were taken to a stadium in Kaduna overnight to be cared for while arrangements are made to find their families.
Nigerian authorities say the nearly 500 freed captives will be given medical and psychological examinations.
BBC
Those held were all men and boys - some were found chained up.
Kaduna state's police chief Ali Janga told the BBC the large house was raided following a tip-off about suspicious activity.
He said it was a "house of torture" and described it as a case involving human slavery.
The detainees, not all Nigerian, said they had been tortured, sexually abused, starved and prevented from leaving - in some cases for several years.
It is not clear how they got there. Some of the children told the police that their relatives had taken them there believing the building to be a Koranic school.
But the police say there is no concrete evidence to suggest that the building was ever a school.
Eight suspects have been arrested.
The police chief said the detainees - some with injuries and starved of food - were overjoyed to be freed.
They were taken to a stadium in Kaduna overnight to be cared for while arrangements are made to find their families.
Nigerian authorities say the nearly 500 freed captives will be given medical and psychological examinations.
BBC
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Man confesses to serial murders of 15 women in Nigeria
A suspect has confessed to murdering 15 women after luring them into budget hotel rooms in Nigeria, potentially ending a killing spree that has terrorised the country’s oil capital, Port Harcourt.
Gracious David-West, believed to be 39 and unemployed, said that “an irresistible urge to kill” had repeatedly driven him onto the streets in search of female victims over the past two months.
“I take a girl into a hotel, we eat, make love and sleep,” he told a press conference in Port Harcourt, where he was arrested last week. “Later I wake up in the middle of the night and put a kitchen knife to her neck ordering her not to shout.”
After turning up the volume on the television, Mr David-West said he would tie his victims up with strips torn from the pillow-case on his bed before strangling them.
“I don’t know what comes over me to kill,” he added. “After I have killed I feel remorse and cry but after that the irresistible urge to kill comes over me again.”
At least nine of the victims were killed in Port Harcourt, including three murdered over a single weekend earlier this month.
The killings prompted widespread anger in the city, which mounted after the regional police chief, Mustapha Dandaura, suggested that the women were partly responsible for their deaths, saying, “I don’t know why people will be sleeping with people they don’t know.”
He also suggested that some of the victims were prostitutes.
Women’s groups marched through the city holding banners reading, “Respect women, don’t kill them.”
The regional government apologised for appearing to blame the dead women.
“A lot of the victims might have been careless, but it would be wrong to address them as prostitutes,” it said in a statement.
Police will hope Mr David-West’s confession will bring an end to the killings. However, it is unclear if he acted alone after he admitted to being an affiliate of one of Nigeria’s most notorious university fraternities.
The suspect said he used to be a member of Deebham, the street-wing of the Klansmen Konfraternity at the University of Calabar.
University fraternities in Nigeria have long been linked to voodoo, violent crime and even murder. Some created street gangs in order to compete for territory outside campuses.
Deebham, whose members are not generally students, has been linked to the kidnapping of expatriate oil workers and rich Nigerians.
It has no record, however, of killing and raping women and Mr David-West insisted that he had not acted on behalf of the group.
"I kill alone," he said.
The Telegraph
Gracious David-West, believed to be 39 and unemployed, said that “an irresistible urge to kill” had repeatedly driven him onto the streets in search of female victims over the past two months.
“I take a girl into a hotel, we eat, make love and sleep,” he told a press conference in Port Harcourt, where he was arrested last week. “Later I wake up in the middle of the night and put a kitchen knife to her neck ordering her not to shout.”
After turning up the volume on the television, Mr David-West said he would tie his victims up with strips torn from the pillow-case on his bed before strangling them.
“I don’t know what comes over me to kill,” he added. “After I have killed I feel remorse and cry but after that the irresistible urge to kill comes over me again.”
At least nine of the victims were killed in Port Harcourt, including three murdered over a single weekend earlier this month.
The killings prompted widespread anger in the city, which mounted after the regional police chief, Mustapha Dandaura, suggested that the women were partly responsible for their deaths, saying, “I don’t know why people will be sleeping with people they don’t know.”
He also suggested that some of the victims were prostitutes.
Women’s groups marched through the city holding banners reading, “Respect women, don’t kill them.”
The regional government apologised for appearing to blame the dead women.
“A lot of the victims might have been careless, but it would be wrong to address them as prostitutes,” it said in a statement.
Police will hope Mr David-West’s confession will bring an end to the killings. However, it is unclear if he acted alone after he admitted to being an affiliate of one of Nigeria’s most notorious university fraternities.
The suspect said he used to be a member of Deebham, the street-wing of the Klansmen Konfraternity at the University of Calabar.
University fraternities in Nigeria have long been linked to voodoo, violent crime and even murder. Some created street gangs in order to compete for territory outside campuses.
Deebham, whose members are not generally students, has been linked to the kidnapping of expatriate oil workers and rich Nigerians.
It has no record, however, of killing and raping women and Mr David-West insisted that he had not acted on behalf of the group.
"I kill alone," he said.
The Telegraph
Kidnapped aid worker killed by ISIL affiliate in Nigeria
An armed group aligned with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant killed one of six aid workers it abducted in northeast Nigeria.
The Nigerian aid workers, a woman and five men, were captured in July by Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) during an ambush on their convoy close to the border with Niger.
"The armed group holding captive an employee of Action Against Hunger, two drivers and three health ministry personnel, have executed a hostage," the Paris-based charity said in a statement on Wednesday, without giving details of the identity of the victim.
"Action Against Hunger condemns in the strongest terms this assassination and urgently calls for the release of the hostages."
The charity said it was "extremely concerned and is fully mobilised to ensure that the remaining hostages can be quickly and safely reunited with their families".
ISWAP released a video following the abduction, showing a female charity member pleading for the release of the hostages, with her five male colleagues behind her.
The kidnapping was the latest to target aid workers in the conflict-hit region after the abduction and the killing of two women working for the International Committee of the Red Cross last year.
ISWAP is a splinter faction of Boko Haram that swore allegiance in 2016 to ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. It has repeatedly attacked military bases and targeted aid workers in northeast Nigeria.
Aid group suspends operations
International aid agency Mercy Corps said on Wednesday it suspended operations in two northeast Nigerian states worst-hit by the armed groups after the Nigerian army closed four of its offices in the region.
"Mercy Corps is suspending operations in Borno and Yobe states following the closure of four of our field offices by the Nigerian military," Amy Fairbairn, its head of media and communications, said in a statement.
"We have not yet received an official reason from the Nigerian authorities for the closure and we are seeking to work with them to resolve this as soon as possible," said Fairbairn, adding Mercy Corps' work in other parts of Nigeria would continue.
The Nigerian army has accused humanitarian organisations of working with armed groups.
In December 2018, it suspended UNICEF from operating in the northeast over claims it was training "spies" who were supporting Boko Haram - only to lift the ban later the same day after a meeting with the aid agency.
Northeast Nigeria has been ravaged by a decade-long civil war led by the armed group Boko Haram that has killed 30,000 people and forced two million to flee their homes.
The United Nations says 7.1 million people in the region need assistance in one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
Al Jazeera
The Nigerian aid workers, a woman and five men, were captured in July by Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) during an ambush on their convoy close to the border with Niger.
"The armed group holding captive an employee of Action Against Hunger, two drivers and three health ministry personnel, have executed a hostage," the Paris-based charity said in a statement on Wednesday, without giving details of the identity of the victim.
"Action Against Hunger condemns in the strongest terms this assassination and urgently calls for the release of the hostages."
The charity said it was "extremely concerned and is fully mobilised to ensure that the remaining hostages can be quickly and safely reunited with their families".
ISWAP released a video following the abduction, showing a female charity member pleading for the release of the hostages, with her five male colleagues behind her.
The kidnapping was the latest to target aid workers in the conflict-hit region after the abduction and the killing of two women working for the International Committee of the Red Cross last year.
ISWAP is a splinter faction of Boko Haram that swore allegiance in 2016 to ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. It has repeatedly attacked military bases and targeted aid workers in northeast Nigeria.
Aid group suspends operations
International aid agency Mercy Corps said on Wednesday it suspended operations in two northeast Nigerian states worst-hit by the armed groups after the Nigerian army closed four of its offices in the region.
"Mercy Corps is suspending operations in Borno and Yobe states following the closure of four of our field offices by the Nigerian military," Amy Fairbairn, its head of media and communications, said in a statement.
"We have not yet received an official reason from the Nigerian authorities for the closure and we are seeking to work with them to resolve this as soon as possible," said Fairbairn, adding Mercy Corps' work in other parts of Nigeria would continue.
The Nigerian army has accused humanitarian organisations of working with armed groups.
In December 2018, it suspended UNICEF from operating in the northeast over claims it was training "spies" who were supporting Boko Haram - only to lift the ban later the same day after a meeting with the aid agency.
Northeast Nigeria has been ravaged by a decade-long civil war led by the armed group Boko Haram that has killed 30,000 people and forced two million to flee their homes.
The United Nations says 7.1 million people in the region need assistance in one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
Al Jazeera
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Nigeria going after privacy app Truecaller
Nigerian regulators are going after Truecaller, the Sweden-based phone number identification app, for “potential breach of privacy rights of Nigerians.”
Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency claims Truecaller’s privacy policy contains “illegitimate provisions” that contravene Nigeria’s Data Protection Regulation (NDPR). It also alleges Truecaller “collects far more information than it needs to provide its primary service” and has urged Nigerians to delist themselves from the service.
NITDA’s investigation into Truecaller follows several years of the app’s activity in Africa’s largest mobile market amid growing usage. The app’s caller ID service, which helps users identify names of callers with unsaved numbers, has garnered 2.9 million active users in Nigeria.
With Truecaller users granting it access to their contacts list among a range of other permissions, the Stockholm-headquartered has aggregated a database of contact details from millions of users raising questions about its methods. As such, when a Truecaller user receives a call from an unsaved number, the app can match that number with a name from its vast database. In exchange for free use, the app leverages its vast user base for mobile advertising.
Truecaller has grown rapidly in markets like India and now has over 150 million daily active users worldwide and a million premium users who pay for additional features. In India, the app has been popularly adopted for spotting and managing users’ high spate of spam callswhile in Nigeria a common use case sees Truecaller used to detect prospective fraudsters amid the country’s low-trust environment. Nigeria’s spam culture has also seen attempts by regulatory bodies to stop unsolicited promotional spam texts and calls from telecoms operators face hiccups.
Truecaller remains subject of controversy especially given the ethical question on how it pulls in the contact details of non-Truecaller users to its database. There are now guides online on how users can delist from Truecaller’s database.
Bigger questions
But NITDA’s investigation of Truecaller also raises troubling questions about Nigeria’s own nascent data privacy laws. While NITDA is a government agency established by law to implement and regulate information technology, the NDPR data protection regulations have not been passed as a bill through Nigeria’s national assembly.
“The regulation is secondary in that they didn’t do the real work of passing a bill through the National Assembly so that Nigeria can get a real data protection law with coordinated data protection mechanisms,” says Gbenga Sesan, a prominent digital rights advocate. “It’s tough to enforce secondary legislation because agencies, or even companies, will challenge it in court. For example, best practice expects that data protection laws or regulation be managed by a data protection agency which NITDA is not.”
As it turns out, a data protection bill which has been passed by Nigeria’s senate and submitted for presidential assent since May remains unsigned. It’s a reflection of wider realities across African countries many of which remain in need of stronger bills of data rights.
Perhaps as an indication of its limitations, Sesan says the application of NDPR as a stop-gap measure is not broad enough. “If serious, they should start with the Central Bank, the Independent National Electoral Commission, Nigerian Communications Commission, Nigerian Immigration Service and all other government agencies that collect and have lost or abused data,” Sesan says.
For its part, Truecaller says it’s reviewing NITDA’s comments and will prepare a response but ultimately, Sesan expects NITDA’s investigation to fizzle out. ”This is probably another press posturing that will go nowhere,” Sesan says. “The best this dog can do is bark, it has zero bite.”
By Yomi Kazeem
Quartz
Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency claims Truecaller’s privacy policy contains “illegitimate provisions” that contravene Nigeria’s Data Protection Regulation (NDPR). It also alleges Truecaller “collects far more information than it needs to provide its primary service” and has urged Nigerians to delist themselves from the service.
NITDA’s investigation into Truecaller follows several years of the app’s activity in Africa’s largest mobile market amid growing usage. The app’s caller ID service, which helps users identify names of callers with unsaved numbers, has garnered 2.9 million active users in Nigeria.
With Truecaller users granting it access to their contacts list among a range of other permissions, the Stockholm-headquartered has aggregated a database of contact details from millions of users raising questions about its methods. As such, when a Truecaller user receives a call from an unsaved number, the app can match that number with a name from its vast database. In exchange for free use, the app leverages its vast user base for mobile advertising.
Truecaller has grown rapidly in markets like India and now has over 150 million daily active users worldwide and a million premium users who pay for additional features. In India, the app has been popularly adopted for spotting and managing users’ high spate of spam callswhile in Nigeria a common use case sees Truecaller used to detect prospective fraudsters amid the country’s low-trust environment. Nigeria’s spam culture has also seen attempts by regulatory bodies to stop unsolicited promotional spam texts and calls from telecoms operators face hiccups.
Truecaller remains subject of controversy especially given the ethical question on how it pulls in the contact details of non-Truecaller users to its database. There are now guides online on how users can delist from Truecaller’s database.
Bigger questions
But NITDA’s investigation of Truecaller also raises troubling questions about Nigeria’s own nascent data privacy laws. While NITDA is a government agency established by law to implement and regulate information technology, the NDPR data protection regulations have not been passed as a bill through Nigeria’s national assembly.
“The regulation is secondary in that they didn’t do the real work of passing a bill through the National Assembly so that Nigeria can get a real data protection law with coordinated data protection mechanisms,” says Gbenga Sesan, a prominent digital rights advocate. “It’s tough to enforce secondary legislation because agencies, or even companies, will challenge it in court. For example, best practice expects that data protection laws or regulation be managed by a data protection agency which NITDA is not.”
As it turns out, a data protection bill which has been passed by Nigeria’s senate and submitted for presidential assent since May remains unsigned. It’s a reflection of wider realities across African countries many of which remain in need of stronger bills of data rights.
Perhaps as an indication of its limitations, Sesan says the application of NDPR as a stop-gap measure is not broad enough. “If serious, they should start with the Central Bank, the Independent National Electoral Commission, Nigerian Communications Commission, Nigerian Immigration Service and all other government agencies that collect and have lost or abused data,” Sesan says.
For its part, Truecaller says it’s reviewing NITDA’s comments and will prepare a response but ultimately, Sesan expects NITDA’s investigation to fizzle out. ”This is probably another press posturing that will go nowhere,” Sesan says. “The best this dog can do is bark, it has zero bite.”
By Yomi Kazeem
Quartz
The new mental illness approach in Nigeria
It was a most unusual consultation. Dr Ayo Ajeigbe received the patient at his private practice in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, in his customary welcoming manner.
But there was, it turned out, nothing wrong with the man. And when Ajeigbe asked why he was there, he simply replied: “I just wanted to see what a psychologist looked like.”
Perhaps he shouldn’t have been surprised. Mental health professionals are rare in Nigeria, as they are in many other developing nations. In Africa’s most populous nation – a country of more than 200 million people – there are an estimated 150 practising psychologists.
If mental health treatments are patchy, inadequate and underfunded in most western nations, they are practically nonexistent in the majority of lower- and middle-income countries – more than 100 countries worldwide. Here mental health provisions are the poorly resourced afterthought of health budgets that are in any case likely to be meagre.
So what is to be done? Ajeigbe decided that a partial answer lay in the voluntary sector. A year ago, he agreed to head up the Abuja section of Mentally Aware Nigeria Initiative (Mani), a burgeoning user-led organisation fast emerging as a multi-pronged solution to Nigeria’s mental health crisis.
Mani was launched in 2016 by Victor Ugo, a then medical student from Lagos who had suffered from depression, as a response to the lack of mental health support in Nigeria, where an estimated 7 million people have the same condition.
Ugo’s vision was to drive change by raising awareness and dispelling stigmas that exist around mental health issues in Nigeria. And on Wednesday, he will appear at the annual Goalkeepers event on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, to make the case for more funding and fairer treatment for mental health.
“If you have depression,” says Latifah Yusuf Ojomo, the deputy head of Mani’s Lagos team, “people can cast you as mad, which means that the majority of people who have mental health issues in Nigeria do not understand, or want to accept what they are feeling.”
From the outset, Ugo decided that if Mani was to have any significant impact it would need to focus attention on the country’s most populous demographic. “Young people [in Nigeria] are much more open to learning new things,” explains Ugo, “they are much more focused on ways to change.”
Mani needed a “cool factor”, something Ugo says was sorely lacking in the mental health sector: “Symposiums, that was all that was happening with mental health in Nigeria, just more and more symposiums, people would give a lecture saying we need to increase awareness, but nothing was happening.”
Ugo and a small band of medical students took to social media, sharing stories and launching online campaigns. Then in October 2017 they hosted their first event, not a symposium as Ugo is keen to point out, but a food fair: “We just said come and you can taste different delicacies, play games and talk about mental health in a cool way.”
The event was a huge success, and evolved into a series of monthly workshops focused on topics such as depression and anxiety. As Mani continued to grow in numbers, these meet-ups became known as “conversation cafes”, held in restaurants, parks and cafes, and eventually spreading to cities all over Nigeria, including Abuja and Ibadan.
Each month, a different topic is selected – childhood trauma, the benefits of mindfulness, relationship strains, the reactionary attitudes of the “village” – a case study is presented and discussion groups form.
Two years later, Mani is now a leading voice on mental health issues in the country, with more than 1,500 volunteers and active in 13 of Nigeria’s 36 states. Ugo is still taken aback by what the project has achieved. “We didn’t know we were going to end up here; in fact, I feel like we have been a hundred times more successful than we expected at the start.”
Despite the initial success, Ugo knew that still more needed to be done. “We thought if we don’t balance this with some kind of help, we will cause more harm than good.” So, in 2017, Mani launched a 24-hour mental health support service to run alongside its awareness campaigns. The service allowed people to reach out over WhatsApp or Twitter for emergency help in the form of advice, counselling and supportive listening. An emergency response team was also created via a network of volunteer counsellors. Mani also launched a confidential 24-hour suicide hotline. Attempted suicide is a criminal offence in Nigeria, punishable by up to one year in prison.
Currently, only 3.3% of Nigeria’s total health budget goes towards mental health, which leaves the public system chronically understaffed. It also leaves Mani with a limited pool of professionals to recruit. As a solution to this, Mani launched a “train the trainer” system in which mental health professionals educate volunteers in subjects such as active assistance and safe talk (a programme that teaches participants to recognise and engage individuals who may be a suicide risk). Ajeigbe explains: “What we do is train people in fundamental mental health skills, so if I train 10 people, they can in turn reach 100 people.”
Mani’s volunteers come from a diverse range of backgrounds. Alle Ayodele, the head of the organisation’s Oyo state chapter, was studying microbiology when he decided to volunteer for Mani after coming across its support team on Twitter. He had been impressed by its speed and professionalism in responding to a series of suicide notes that were trending: “Mani took them really seriously, as soon as someone posted a note they stepped in.”
Ekene Okeke, from Lagos, has a background in sociology and criminology. After suffering from depression and connecting with Mani on Twitter, she decided to volunteer for it. Okeke was recently called out on an emergency where a woman had high levels of anxiety and had been alone for several days. “I dropped what I was doing, and spent hours talking with her, I even went and bought her ice-cream.” It’s moments like this, Okeke says, that make volunteering so rewarding: “In the end, the woman was able to calm down and has since reached out for help.”
Informal mental health support networks like this are becoming more prevalent around the world, as people realise that health systems cannot cope with mental illness, and that society will have to come up with other strategies. Examples include park bench psychotherapy in Zimbabwe, a peer-support initiative in Kenya, community-based self-help in Pakistan and the Phola organisation in South Africa.
In Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, Mani has launched a training programme for schools. The programme will include a series of “mental health clubs” where students are taught about coping mechanisms, the effects of bullying and consent workshops. Mani also trains teachers and parents on children’s mental health, the latter a group that Ugo identifies as especially crucial. “Culturally, young people are not allowed to speak up,” explains Ugo, “you have to listen; respect is really crucial. If I need help, I ask my parents and they decide if I need help.”
When Mani’s WhatsApp service began in 2017 it immediately identified an issue. “Many more females seek help than men,” Ajeigbe explains, “this is because according to societal norms men are supposed to be emotionally strong.” About 85% of the initial calls were from women, so Ugo and his team researched how their service could appeal more to men. “We read that men are much better at using test-based services,” says Ugo, who immediately incorporated a test into the programme. This resulted in a 40% increase in men reaching out.
Recruitment of volunteers is one area where Mani does not need to worry – it currently has 500 applications waiting to be processed. “The good thing is that many people who talk to us end up volunteering for us,” says Ugo. More than 10,000 people have now spoken with Mani using its WhatsApp service.
The success of Mani may have exceeded Ugo’s initial expectations, but he is not one for complacency. He has now set his sights on persuading the government to change the national policy on mental health. He is also seeking a broader funding base, as 90% of the costs of the organisation are borne by the founders.
“At the moment we are still very much self-funded, Ugo says. “This is a big challenge, considering how much more impact we believe we can make, and the speed with which we are growing our network across Nigeria.”
Mani can be contacted at contact@mentallyaware.org and on +234 805 1493163
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international suicide helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org
The Guardian
Related stories: Video - Nigerian woman tackles mental health stigma
Entrepreneur Emeka Offor wants to combat mental health crisis in Nigeria
In Northern Nigeria - man sent to mental institute for being atheist
But there was, it turned out, nothing wrong with the man. And when Ajeigbe asked why he was there, he simply replied: “I just wanted to see what a psychologist looked like.”
Perhaps he shouldn’t have been surprised. Mental health professionals are rare in Nigeria, as they are in many other developing nations. In Africa’s most populous nation – a country of more than 200 million people – there are an estimated 150 practising psychologists.
If mental health treatments are patchy, inadequate and underfunded in most western nations, they are practically nonexistent in the majority of lower- and middle-income countries – more than 100 countries worldwide. Here mental health provisions are the poorly resourced afterthought of health budgets that are in any case likely to be meagre.
So what is to be done? Ajeigbe decided that a partial answer lay in the voluntary sector. A year ago, he agreed to head up the Abuja section of Mentally Aware Nigeria Initiative (Mani), a burgeoning user-led organisation fast emerging as a multi-pronged solution to Nigeria’s mental health crisis.
Mani was launched in 2016 by Victor Ugo, a then medical student from Lagos who had suffered from depression, as a response to the lack of mental health support in Nigeria, where an estimated 7 million people have the same condition.
Ugo’s vision was to drive change by raising awareness and dispelling stigmas that exist around mental health issues in Nigeria. And on Wednesday, he will appear at the annual Goalkeepers event on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, to make the case for more funding and fairer treatment for mental health.
“If you have depression,” says Latifah Yusuf Ojomo, the deputy head of Mani’s Lagos team, “people can cast you as mad, which means that the majority of people who have mental health issues in Nigeria do not understand, or want to accept what they are feeling.”
From the outset, Ugo decided that if Mani was to have any significant impact it would need to focus attention on the country’s most populous demographic. “Young people [in Nigeria] are much more open to learning new things,” explains Ugo, “they are much more focused on ways to change.”
Mani needed a “cool factor”, something Ugo says was sorely lacking in the mental health sector: “Symposiums, that was all that was happening with mental health in Nigeria, just more and more symposiums, people would give a lecture saying we need to increase awareness, but nothing was happening.”
Ugo and a small band of medical students took to social media, sharing stories and launching online campaigns. Then in October 2017 they hosted their first event, not a symposium as Ugo is keen to point out, but a food fair: “We just said come and you can taste different delicacies, play games and talk about mental health in a cool way.”
The event was a huge success, and evolved into a series of monthly workshops focused on topics such as depression and anxiety. As Mani continued to grow in numbers, these meet-ups became known as “conversation cafes”, held in restaurants, parks and cafes, and eventually spreading to cities all over Nigeria, including Abuja and Ibadan.
Each month, a different topic is selected – childhood trauma, the benefits of mindfulness, relationship strains, the reactionary attitudes of the “village” – a case study is presented and discussion groups form.
Two years later, Mani is now a leading voice on mental health issues in the country, with more than 1,500 volunteers and active in 13 of Nigeria’s 36 states. Ugo is still taken aback by what the project has achieved. “We didn’t know we were going to end up here; in fact, I feel like we have been a hundred times more successful than we expected at the start.”
Despite the initial success, Ugo knew that still more needed to be done. “We thought if we don’t balance this with some kind of help, we will cause more harm than good.” So, in 2017, Mani launched a 24-hour mental health support service to run alongside its awareness campaigns. The service allowed people to reach out over WhatsApp or Twitter for emergency help in the form of advice, counselling and supportive listening. An emergency response team was also created via a network of volunteer counsellors. Mani also launched a confidential 24-hour suicide hotline. Attempted suicide is a criminal offence in Nigeria, punishable by up to one year in prison.
Currently, only 3.3% of Nigeria’s total health budget goes towards mental health, which leaves the public system chronically understaffed. It also leaves Mani with a limited pool of professionals to recruit. As a solution to this, Mani launched a “train the trainer” system in which mental health professionals educate volunteers in subjects such as active assistance and safe talk (a programme that teaches participants to recognise and engage individuals who may be a suicide risk). Ajeigbe explains: “What we do is train people in fundamental mental health skills, so if I train 10 people, they can in turn reach 100 people.”
Mani’s volunteers come from a diverse range of backgrounds. Alle Ayodele, the head of the organisation’s Oyo state chapter, was studying microbiology when he decided to volunteer for Mani after coming across its support team on Twitter. He had been impressed by its speed and professionalism in responding to a series of suicide notes that were trending: “Mani took them really seriously, as soon as someone posted a note they stepped in.”
Ekene Okeke, from Lagos, has a background in sociology and criminology. After suffering from depression and connecting with Mani on Twitter, she decided to volunteer for it. Okeke was recently called out on an emergency where a woman had high levels of anxiety and had been alone for several days. “I dropped what I was doing, and spent hours talking with her, I even went and bought her ice-cream.” It’s moments like this, Okeke says, that make volunteering so rewarding: “In the end, the woman was able to calm down and has since reached out for help.”
Informal mental health support networks like this are becoming more prevalent around the world, as people realise that health systems cannot cope with mental illness, and that society will have to come up with other strategies. Examples include park bench psychotherapy in Zimbabwe, a peer-support initiative in Kenya, community-based self-help in Pakistan and the Phola organisation in South Africa.
In Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, Mani has launched a training programme for schools. The programme will include a series of “mental health clubs” where students are taught about coping mechanisms, the effects of bullying and consent workshops. Mani also trains teachers and parents on children’s mental health, the latter a group that Ugo identifies as especially crucial. “Culturally, young people are not allowed to speak up,” explains Ugo, “you have to listen; respect is really crucial. If I need help, I ask my parents and they decide if I need help.”
When Mani’s WhatsApp service began in 2017 it immediately identified an issue. “Many more females seek help than men,” Ajeigbe explains, “this is because according to societal norms men are supposed to be emotionally strong.” About 85% of the initial calls were from women, so Ugo and his team researched how their service could appeal more to men. “We read that men are much better at using test-based services,” says Ugo, who immediately incorporated a test into the programme. This resulted in a 40% increase in men reaching out.
Recruitment of volunteers is one area where Mani does not need to worry – it currently has 500 applications waiting to be processed. “The good thing is that many people who talk to us end up volunteering for us,” says Ugo. More than 10,000 people have now spoken with Mani using its WhatsApp service.
The success of Mani may have exceeded Ugo’s initial expectations, but he is not one for complacency. He has now set his sights on persuading the government to change the national policy on mental health. He is also seeking a broader funding base, as 90% of the costs of the organisation are borne by the founders.
“At the moment we are still very much self-funded, Ugo says. “This is a big challenge, considering how much more impact we believe we can make, and the speed with which we are growing our network across Nigeria.”
Mani can be contacted at contact@mentallyaware.org and on +234 805 1493163
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international suicide helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org
The Guardian
Related stories: Video - Nigerian woman tackles mental health stigma
Entrepreneur Emeka Offor wants to combat mental health crisis in Nigeria
In Northern Nigeria - man sent to mental institute for being atheist
Nigerian court orders release of journalist charged with treason
A court in Nigeria’s capital Abuja on Tuesday ordered the State Security Service to release activist and former presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore while charges of treason against him are pending.
Security agents arrested Sowore in early August after he called for a revolution. He said it was needed because an election held in February, in which President Muhammadu Buhari won a second term, was not credible.
Buhari, a former military ruler, faces criticism for his administration’s record on human rights, particularly a deadly crackdown on members of a now-banned Shi’ite group that a United Nations special rapporteur said involved the excessive use of lethal force.
In his call for a revolution, Sowore - who ran in February’s election and is the founder of the news site Sahara Reporters - listed other issues ranging from alleged corruption to ineptitude.
The government last week outlined charges against him including treason, money laundering and “cyberstalking” for allegedly sharing false information about Buhari that insulted him and incited hated against him.
Sowore has yet to be arraigned, and the judge on Tuesday rejected a request by the State Security Service to extend his detention while the charges are pending.
“The liberty of all Nigerians, high or low, poor or rich, is guaranteed by the constitution. It’s for this end that I’m of the view that the defendant ought to be released forthwith,” Justice Taiwo Taiwo said.
In the charges filed last week, the government accused Sowore of money laundering related to four transfers to a Sahara Reporters account in New York that it alleged were done to hide the “illicit origin” of the cash.
It was unclear when Sowore would be released, and once he is arraigned, he could be taken into custody again. The court ordered him to surrender all his travel documents within 48 hours, and said his lawyer should be prepared to bring him to the court at any point.
By Camillus Eboh
Related stories: Revolution Now organizer to be detained for 45 days
Video - Sahara Reporters founder Omoyele Sowore says President Goodluck Jonathan is the worst Nigerian President
Security agents arrested Sowore in early August after he called for a revolution. He said it was needed because an election held in February, in which President Muhammadu Buhari won a second term, was not credible.
Buhari, a former military ruler, faces criticism for his administration’s record on human rights, particularly a deadly crackdown on members of a now-banned Shi’ite group that a United Nations special rapporteur said involved the excessive use of lethal force.
In his call for a revolution, Sowore - who ran in February’s election and is the founder of the news site Sahara Reporters - listed other issues ranging from alleged corruption to ineptitude.
The government last week outlined charges against him including treason, money laundering and “cyberstalking” for allegedly sharing false information about Buhari that insulted him and incited hated against him.
Sowore has yet to be arraigned, and the judge on Tuesday rejected a request by the State Security Service to extend his detention while the charges are pending.
“The liberty of all Nigerians, high or low, poor or rich, is guaranteed by the constitution. It’s for this end that I’m of the view that the defendant ought to be released forthwith,” Justice Taiwo Taiwo said.
In the charges filed last week, the government accused Sowore of money laundering related to four transfers to a Sahara Reporters account in New York that it alleged were done to hide the “illicit origin” of the cash.
It was unclear when Sowore would be released, and once he is arraigned, he could be taken into custody again. The court ordered him to surrender all his travel documents within 48 hours, and said his lawyer should be prepared to bring him to the court at any point.
By Camillus Eboh
Related stories: Revolution Now organizer to be detained for 45 days
Video - Sahara Reporters founder Omoyele Sowore says President Goodluck Jonathan is the worst Nigerian President
Journalist in Nigeria charged with treason granted bail but still being held
A detained Nigerian journalist and former presidential candidate charged with treason has been granted bail but remains in custody, one of his lawyers told CNN on Tuesday.
Nigeria's secret police have been holding, Omoyele Sowore, founder of a New York-based news site since his arrest August 3.
He was initially detained by the Department of State Services (DSS) for calling a nationwide demonstration against President Muhammadu Buhari's government, but formal charges against Sowore, including treasonable felony, cyberstalking and money laundering, were made public only last week.
A court in Abuja ordered the journalist to be immediately released pending his arraignment, according to court documents seen by CNN.
His lawyer, Femi Falana, said the journalist is being held illegally and accused the government of bringing up trumped-up charges against him."We are saying the machinery of the state cannot be used to harass political opponents," Falana told CNN.
DSS spokesman Peter Afunnaya told CNN the case was before the court and declined to make further comment. Afunnaya said he would "get back" with more information about the journalist's whereabouts.
Sowore ran against Buhari in Nigeria's February elections and has joined campaigns decrying corruption and poor governance in previous governments in the West African nation.
"Simple elections can no longer save Nigeria or improve Nigeria's democracy," the former presidential hopeful told Arise News in July.
"Nigerians must take their destiny in their hands, and we deserve or must have a revolution in this country, particularly if we don't want war."
Sowore was detained two days before the demonstration August 5. Police fired tear gas to disperse supporters who gathered at various venues in three cities to protest.
His arrest has sparked protests and criticism of Buhari's government, which is accused of intimidating critics. The journalist's wife, Ope Sowore, who is based in the United States, led protesters Tuesday to United Nations Plaza in New York, where Buhari is attending the 74th UN General Assembly, to mount pressure for her husband's freedom.
"It is very sad to see the cause of action this has taken in the past one and a half months, especially for someone that was calling for a change for the better in Nigeria," she said.
Sowore told CNN she has been allowed only two phone conversations with her husband since his arrest last month. The journalist was supposed to be in Nigeria for two weeks in July and their two children miss their father, she said.
"It's been almost two months since he walked out the door. Children are resilient in times like this, but they miss their father and are really hoping for his safe return," Sowore said.
By Bukola Adebayo
CNN
Related stories: Video - Sahara Reporters founder Omoyele Sowore says President Goodluck Jonathan is the worst Nigerian President
Revolution Now organizer to be detained for 45 days
Nigeria's secret police have been holding, Omoyele Sowore, founder of a New York-based news site since his arrest August 3.
He was initially detained by the Department of State Services (DSS) for calling a nationwide demonstration against President Muhammadu Buhari's government, but formal charges against Sowore, including treasonable felony, cyberstalking and money laundering, were made public only last week.
A court in Abuja ordered the journalist to be immediately released pending his arraignment, according to court documents seen by CNN.
His lawyer, Femi Falana, said the journalist is being held illegally and accused the government of bringing up trumped-up charges against him."We are saying the machinery of the state cannot be used to harass political opponents," Falana told CNN.
DSS spokesman Peter Afunnaya told CNN the case was before the court and declined to make further comment. Afunnaya said he would "get back" with more information about the journalist's whereabouts.
Sowore ran against Buhari in Nigeria's February elections and has joined campaigns decrying corruption and poor governance in previous governments in the West African nation.
"Simple elections can no longer save Nigeria or improve Nigeria's democracy," the former presidential hopeful told Arise News in July.
"Nigerians must take their destiny in their hands, and we deserve or must have a revolution in this country, particularly if we don't want war."
Sowore was detained two days before the demonstration August 5. Police fired tear gas to disperse supporters who gathered at various venues in three cities to protest.
His arrest has sparked protests and criticism of Buhari's government, which is accused of intimidating critics. The journalist's wife, Ope Sowore, who is based in the United States, led protesters Tuesday to United Nations Plaza in New York, where Buhari is attending the 74th UN General Assembly, to mount pressure for her husband's freedom.
"It is very sad to see the cause of action this has taken in the past one and a half months, especially for someone that was calling for a change for the better in Nigeria," she said.
Sowore told CNN she has been allowed only two phone conversations with her husband since his arrest last month. The journalist was supposed to be in Nigeria for two weeks in July and their two children miss their father, she said.
"It's been almost two months since he walked out the door. Children are resilient in times like this, but they miss their father and are really hoping for his safe return," Sowore said.
By Bukola Adebayo
CNN
Related stories: Video - Sahara Reporters founder Omoyele Sowore says President Goodluck Jonathan is the worst Nigerian President
Revolution Now organizer to be detained for 45 days
Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Video - Nigeria bans foreign milk to support local farmers
In Nigeria, the government has banned the sale of foreign milk to support struggling local farmers. But the move could backfire, with concerns it will lead to dairy shortages and price increases.
Video - New comedy show on American TV 'Bob Hearts Abishola' highlights Nigerian culture
Immigrants and Coloradans with Nigerian heritage are excited for the new CBS comedy ‘Bob Hearts Abishola.’ The show premiers Monday night and will highlight Nigerian culture and community to a national American audience.
“This is going to break away stereotypes, any point of views people may have had about the African family,” Jessica Compaore said. “This is going to show you what the African family is really like.”
A Colorado native, Compaore’s grandfather came to the U.S. from Nigeria. She learned later in life about her heritage to the African nation but has helped to showcase it in the Denver Metro Area since then. The new comedy has caught the attention of this community in Colorado. It tells the story of a businessman in Detroit falling for a nurse he encounters at a hospital, who is an immigrant from Nigeria.
“It’s about promoting where I am from, who I am, I am embrace where I am from,” Samuel Ogah said. “It’s a big deal, it’s showing our culture and greatness.”
Ogah is the CEO of Best Music Entertainment promoting events in Colorado not only for his Nigerian community but other African groups living in the state. He said the thousands of Nigerians who have come to the state are eager to be a part of the economy and build a family here.
“They’re all working toward how we can create a better Colorado,” he said. “We’re proud of where we come from and you can get to know more about us.”
Billy Gardell plays “Bob” and Folake Olowofoyeku stars as “Abishola” on the show. Both actors spoke to CBS4 ahead of the premiere and the significance of having a series on primetime television not only about immigrants but a family from Africa.
“It feels like a full circle moment and I’m glad I had the opportunity,” Olowofoyeku said.
Ogah said it will be a meaningful example of representation not just for those connected to one country but instead a way to unite those from all over one continent.
“That story really relates to all immigrants, not just Nigerians,” he said. “I think it’s going to give more Africans to be able to relate.”
He hopes his events throughout the year, including one for the celebration of Nigeria’s independence, can have a similar impact by inviting others to learn about their community. He works to create opportunities online and in person for various African immigrants to come together and connect. Not only social gatherings and a chance to celebrate their heritage but also to introduce their businesses and network.
“You can only know about me and my culture when you relate and talk to me,” he said.
Colorado has become home to many in the Nigerian community because of the comfortable weather and the opportunity for growth. Families keep moving here because they find a place for them to live a better life. Since 2013, they have come together for Nigerian Day, which will take place this year in Lowry Park on Saturday, Oct. 5 in Aurora.
“They have this energy, they have this richness, they have this this brightness to see what it means to be successful within themselves,” Compaore said. “They are folks just like you and me.”
By Shawn Chitnis
CBS
Monday, September 23, 2019
Video - Too late to replant damaged crops caused by flood in Nigeria
Food supplies are threatened in northwest Nigeria where floods have destroyed crops. Dozens of people have been killed recently and thousands of homes washed away. Al Jazeera's Ahmed Idris reports from Auyo in Jigawa state, where the local government is struggling to help.
Nigeria runs on generators and nine hours of power a day
Kabir Sabo’s sewing machine hums busily as he hems a “babariga,” a popular dress in northern Nigeria, in his small corner shop on the outskirts of Abuja. It can hardly be heard over the sound of Nigeria’s worst problem.
Sabo’s noisy electricity generator costs him an average of 3,000 naira ($8.30) a day in fuel, he says. That’s the bulk of the roughly 4,000 naira he makes daily.
“When you are a small business owner in a country where there is no power, it really is depressing,” he said. “I have on multiple occasions shut down to take up a monthly paying job. It’s difficult to run the business when most of your earnings go on paying bills, buying fuel and all sorts of things.”
In Africa’s most populous country, almost everyone depends on generators, including President Muhammadu Buhari. His office will spend 46 million naira fueling generators this year. In the country’s 2019 budget, there are 1,358 generator-related expenses.
The shortage of power is one of the biggest issues Buhari faces as he tries to reform a $400 billion economy that is too dependent on oil exports, has too many inefficient state-owned enterprises and is still struggling to recover from a slump in 2016.
“Lack of access to electricity and unreliable electricity supply are key constraints to doing business in Nigeria,” the International Monetary Fund said in its latest economic report on the country. It estimated the annual economic loss at about $29 billion. In a 2014 World Bank survey, 27% of Nigerian firms identified electricity as the main obstacle to doing business.
Households with access to on-grid electricity had an average power supply of only 9.2 hours a day in the first half of 2019, according to a survey by the country’s leading polling agency, NOI Polls. Electricity production per capita is less than 15% of the average of emerging-market economies and less than 25% of the sub-Saharan Africa average, according to the IMF.
To keep out the darkness, households own and operate an estimated 22 million small gasoline generators, whose combined generating capacity is eight times higher than on-grid supply, according to a June 2019 presentation by Dalberg, a global policy and advisory firm. Businesses and individuals spend about $12 billion a year, twice the country’s annual infrastructure budget, fueling these generators.
Nigeria, which also has the continent’s largest gas reserves and ranks ninth globally, consumed an average 3,713 megawatts of electricity from the grid in 2018, data published by the country’s central bank shows. That’s about a 10th of what Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. made available in South Africa, a country with less than a third of the population and which itself is subject to rolling blackouts.
Nigeria is only able to send about a quarter of its total power capacity to homes and businesses due to a poor and dilapidated power infrastructure, much of it installed in the 1980s. The country’s transmission lines can “theoretically” carry about 7,500 megawatts, according to the country’s electricity regulatory authority.
The irony is that Nigeria took the right steps in 2013 by disbanding its state-owned power company and breaking it into three different businesses; generation, transmission and distribution. The state sold the generation and distribution arms to 23 different owners and held on to the transmission lines.
This is similar to the solution now being proposed for Eskom. But Nigeria also shows how not to reform the power industry.
The government retained the right to determine tariffs through a regulatory agency, which raised power prices in 2015 -- and quickly reversed it as elections approached. Since then electricity tariffs have remained largely unchanged even as inflation has remained above the central bank’s upper target of 9% since 2015 and the naira is 50% weaker against the dollar.
Tariffs should go up by a minimum of 50%, according to the IMF, but maintaining prices at current levels has become a fiscal burden. Since 2015, the government has provided three bailouts via the central bank for the electricity sector, amounting to 1.5 trillion naira to plug revenue shortfalls.
It doesn’t help that power customers are often unwilling to pay for the electricity they consume. Distribution companies collected payments for only 64.1% of electricity supplied in the first three months of 2019, according to a report by Nigeria’s power regulatory agency. The distribution firms in turn paid for only 28% of power they received from generation companies and the transmission network.
Buhari’s 2017 recovery plan for the industry hasn’t made much progress, and now the government is proposing a staggered tariff increase from January. The proposal will rates by an average 27% for some users.
Increasing tariffs could lead to new investments, said Cheta Nwanze, an analyst at Lagos-based business advisory service SBM Intelligence.
“The problem is, transmission will still be in the hands of the government, which is inefficient and unable to make the required investment,” Nwanze said.
In Sabo’s small shop, he frequently deals with impatient customers whose clothing orders have been delayed because of long blackouts.
“I am willing to pay more if it means I will not have to rely on the generator to run my business,” he said. “Should I have that choice, I’d pay maybe two naira more.”
By Anthony Osae-Brown, Ruth Olurounbi, and Gordon Bell
Bloomberg
Related story: Stable electricity supply foreseeable in Nigeria's future
Sabo’s noisy electricity generator costs him an average of 3,000 naira ($8.30) a day in fuel, he says. That’s the bulk of the roughly 4,000 naira he makes daily.
“When you are a small business owner in a country where there is no power, it really is depressing,” he said. “I have on multiple occasions shut down to take up a monthly paying job. It’s difficult to run the business when most of your earnings go on paying bills, buying fuel and all sorts of things.”
In Africa’s most populous country, almost everyone depends on generators, including President Muhammadu Buhari. His office will spend 46 million naira fueling generators this year. In the country’s 2019 budget, there are 1,358 generator-related expenses.
The shortage of power is one of the biggest issues Buhari faces as he tries to reform a $400 billion economy that is too dependent on oil exports, has too many inefficient state-owned enterprises and is still struggling to recover from a slump in 2016.
“Lack of access to electricity and unreliable electricity supply are key constraints to doing business in Nigeria,” the International Monetary Fund said in its latest economic report on the country. It estimated the annual economic loss at about $29 billion. In a 2014 World Bank survey, 27% of Nigerian firms identified electricity as the main obstacle to doing business.
Households with access to on-grid electricity had an average power supply of only 9.2 hours a day in the first half of 2019, according to a survey by the country’s leading polling agency, NOI Polls. Electricity production per capita is less than 15% of the average of emerging-market economies and less than 25% of the sub-Saharan Africa average, according to the IMF.
To keep out the darkness, households own and operate an estimated 22 million small gasoline generators, whose combined generating capacity is eight times higher than on-grid supply, according to a June 2019 presentation by Dalberg, a global policy and advisory firm. Businesses and individuals spend about $12 billion a year, twice the country’s annual infrastructure budget, fueling these generators.
Nigeria, which also has the continent’s largest gas reserves and ranks ninth globally, consumed an average 3,713 megawatts of electricity from the grid in 2018, data published by the country’s central bank shows. That’s about a 10th of what Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. made available in South Africa, a country with less than a third of the population and which itself is subject to rolling blackouts.
Nigeria is only able to send about a quarter of its total power capacity to homes and businesses due to a poor and dilapidated power infrastructure, much of it installed in the 1980s. The country’s transmission lines can “theoretically” carry about 7,500 megawatts, according to the country’s electricity regulatory authority.
The irony is that Nigeria took the right steps in 2013 by disbanding its state-owned power company and breaking it into three different businesses; generation, transmission and distribution. The state sold the generation and distribution arms to 23 different owners and held on to the transmission lines.
This is similar to the solution now being proposed for Eskom. But Nigeria also shows how not to reform the power industry.
The government retained the right to determine tariffs through a regulatory agency, which raised power prices in 2015 -- and quickly reversed it as elections approached. Since then electricity tariffs have remained largely unchanged even as inflation has remained above the central bank’s upper target of 9% since 2015 and the naira is 50% weaker against the dollar.
Tariffs should go up by a minimum of 50%, according to the IMF, but maintaining prices at current levels has become a fiscal burden. Since 2015, the government has provided three bailouts via the central bank for the electricity sector, amounting to 1.5 trillion naira to plug revenue shortfalls.
It doesn’t help that power customers are often unwilling to pay for the electricity they consume. Distribution companies collected payments for only 64.1% of electricity supplied in the first three months of 2019, according to a report by Nigeria’s power regulatory agency. The distribution firms in turn paid for only 28% of power they received from generation companies and the transmission network.
Buhari’s 2017 recovery plan for the industry hasn’t made much progress, and now the government is proposing a staggered tariff increase from January. The proposal will rates by an average 27% for some users.
Increasing tariffs could lead to new investments, said Cheta Nwanze, an analyst at Lagos-based business advisory service SBM Intelligence.
“The problem is, transmission will still be in the hands of the government, which is inefficient and unable to make the required investment,” Nwanze said.
In Sabo’s small shop, he frequently deals with impatient customers whose clothing orders have been delayed because of long blackouts.
“I am willing to pay more if it means I will not have to rely on the generator to run my business,” he said. “Should I have that choice, I’d pay maybe two naira more.”
By Anthony Osae-Brown, Ruth Olurounbi, and Gordon Bell
Bloomberg
Related story: Stable electricity supply foreseeable in Nigeria's future
Friday, September 20, 2019
Video - Nigerian girl using art of the spoken word to preach peace
A Nigerian girl is using the art of spoken word to preach peace and prosperity. She says she's on a mission to encourage her fellow citizens to join hands in building a better country despite the numerous challenges facing Africa's most populous nation.
Video - Dambe: martial art form from Nigeria
Originally practiced by Hausa butchers in Nigeria, this form of martial arts known as Dambe is growing in popularity across the West African country. Anthony Okeleke and Chidi Anyina have now created Dambe Warriors, to organize fights, produce them and share them online. With over 100,000 subscribers and interest across the world, their work of taking the sport global seems to be well on its way.
Video - Nigerian returns bitcoins worth $80,000
A Nigerian man who found $80,000 worth of bitcoin had been mistakenly transferred to him, returned them to the owner. Keith Mali Chung woke up to find 7.8 bitcoins in his account.
That is the equivalent of $80,000 or €72,302. He immediately began trying to track down the owner of the bitcoins. Bitcoin is the original digital currency that is exchanged between users online. "I trade in bitcoin, but never such a high amount," Mali Chung explains on the phone from the Nigerian capital, Abuja and continues, "I knew it had to be a mistake so I posted an announcement via some WhatsApp groups to track down the owner."
Three days passed and no-one responded, so Mali Chung took to Twitter. That prompted a response from someone who had the correct encryption code for the transaction.
The owner of the bitcoins mistakenly transferred to Mali Chung is a Nigerian politician who has asked to remain anonymous. Nigeria is plagued by political cronyism, and consistently ranks among the lowest 20 percent on Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index. In June, the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force announced that cryptocurrency firms will be subjected to rules to prevent the abuse of digital coins such as bitcoin for money laundering.
The move by FATF, which groups countries from the United States to China and bodies such as the European Commission, reflects growing concern among international law enforcement agencies that cryptocurrencies are being used to launder the proceeds of crime.
Potential of bitcoin
Crypto currencies are becoming increasingly popular in Nigeria where bank charges are high. On Tuesday 17 September, the Central Bank of Nigeria introduced a 2 percent charge on cash deposits over 500,000 Naira (€1250) in several states, and 3 percent on withdrawals of the same amount.
Although these charges are aimed making Nigeria a cashless society, they are also pushing people to find other ways to transfer money digitally. Mali Chung travels around Nigeria giving free workshops about the potential of bitcoin and other crypto currencies.
"People are especially interested in learning about international transfers to avoid bank fees," Mali Chung has observed. "People in the Diaspora use it to send money home, and people here also transfer bitcoin to relatives abroad."
The Central Bank of Nigeria has yet to regulate crypto currency transactions. Mali Chung's benevolent act has sparked a debate about the potentially positive and the negative use of crypto currencies in a country with an ominous reputation for online fraud and political corruption.
By Rosie Collyer
RFI
Nigeria shuts down Action Against Hunger aid group for feeding Boko Haram
Nigeria's army has stopped the work of international NGO Action Against Hunger accusing it of supplying a militant Islamist group with food and drugs.
The army said it had warned the NGO against "aiding and abetting" Boko Haram in north-east Nigeria.
Action Against Hunger, which denies the accusations, says its "life-saving assistance" to vulnerable people has now been put "into jeopardy".
Boko Haram's 10-year campaign of terror has left more than 30,000 people dead.
More than two million people have also been displaced.
A network of NGOs is assisting the government in helping those who have been forced from their homes.
In 2018, the military accused the UN's children's agency, Unicef, of spying for the militants. It banned the organisation, which denied the allegations, but hours later lifted the ban.
In a statement, Action Against Hunger said it "delivers neutral, impartial and independent humanitarian aid to millions of people in Borno state by providing basic services to the most vulnerable people, especially women and children".
It said it had been told by soldiers without any notice to close its office in the capital of Borno state, Maiduguri.
In July, the Paris-based charity said six of its aid workers had been kidnapped in Nigeria.
The six abductees appeared on a video, with one of them calling on the Nigerian government and international community to intervene. Their whereabouts are still unknown.
No group has said it was behind the kidnapping.
In 2015, Boko Haram seized control of much of Borno state, and spread its activities to neighbouring countries.
A counter-insurgency by the army led to much of that territory being recaptured. But the militants have come to rely more on suicide bombings and kidnappings in recent years.
One of its most notorious attacks was on a school in Chibok, north-east Nigeria, when 276 schoolgirls were kidnapped. Many of them have been freed, but the whereabouts of more than 100 are still unknown.
Since 2013, Boko Haram are thought to have kidnapped more than 1,000 people.
BBC
The army said it had warned the NGO against "aiding and abetting" Boko Haram in north-east Nigeria.
Action Against Hunger, which denies the accusations, says its "life-saving assistance" to vulnerable people has now been put "into jeopardy".
Boko Haram's 10-year campaign of terror has left more than 30,000 people dead.
More than two million people have also been displaced.
A network of NGOs is assisting the government in helping those who have been forced from their homes.
In 2018, the military accused the UN's children's agency, Unicef, of spying for the militants. It banned the organisation, which denied the allegations, but hours later lifted the ban.
In a statement, Action Against Hunger said it "delivers neutral, impartial and independent humanitarian aid to millions of people in Borno state by providing basic services to the most vulnerable people, especially women and children".
It said it had been told by soldiers without any notice to close its office in the capital of Borno state, Maiduguri.
In July, the Paris-based charity said six of its aid workers had been kidnapped in Nigeria.
The six abductees appeared on a video, with one of them calling on the Nigerian government and international community to intervene. Their whereabouts are still unknown.
No group has said it was behind the kidnapping.
In 2015, Boko Haram seized control of much of Borno state, and spread its activities to neighbouring countries.
A counter-insurgency by the army led to much of that territory being recaptured. But the militants have come to rely more on suicide bombings and kidnappings in recent years.
One of its most notorious attacks was on a school in Chibok, north-east Nigeria, when 276 schoolgirls were kidnapped. Many of them have been freed, but the whereabouts of more than 100 are still unknown.
Since 2013, Boko Haram are thought to have kidnapped more than 1,000 people.
BBC
Nigeria orders firm that won $9bn to forfeit assets
A company that was awarded more than nine billion dollars in an arbitration case against Nigeria has been ordered by a court in the capital city of Abuja to forfeit its local assets to the government.
The order comes after two men linked to the company, Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID), pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and tax evasion on its behalf, the court said on Thursday.
The impact on the British Virgin Islands-based firm and its international arbitration award, now worth some 20 percent of Nigeria's foreign reserves, was not immediately clear.
Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) brought 11 individual charges against P&ID and its local subsidiary. The two men, Muhammad Kuchazi and Adamu Usman, plead guilty to all the charges on behalf of the company.
The men, both Nigerians, were not personally charged and freely left the court.
In a statement, P&ID said the EFCC investigation had not afforded basic human rights to those involved and called on the government to "accept its responsibilities under the law."
"None of the individuals involved are current employees or representatives of P&ID," the spokesman said. "P&ID itself has received no communication from any Nigerian authority about the investigation or today's hearing. There has been no evidence produced, no defence allowed, no charges laid, no due process followed," it said.
The EFCC described Kuchazi as commercial director and Usman as director of the company's local subsidiary.
The men could not immediately be reached for comment.
P&ID was set up to execute a 2010 deal with the Nigerian government to build and operate a gas-processing plant in the southeastern port city of Calabar. When the deal collapsed, P&ID took the government to arbitration, eventually winning a $6.6bn award that has been accruing interest since 2013.
Last month, a judge in London said he would grant P&ID the right to convert the award to a judgment, which would allow it to seek to seize assets from the Nigerian government to collect the award.
The government has said the deal was designed to fail and called the award "an assault on every Nigerian and unfair."
The ruling in Abuja would not necessarily affect P&ID's efforts to seize assets. A Lagos court ordered in 2016 that the entire arbitration be set aside, but the arbitration tribunal rejected the court's jurisdiction to rule on the matter - a decision affirmed by last month's London ruling.
With interest payments, the arbitration award now tops nine billion dollars.
Al Jazeera
The order comes after two men linked to the company, Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID), pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and tax evasion on its behalf, the court said on Thursday.
The impact on the British Virgin Islands-based firm and its international arbitration award, now worth some 20 percent of Nigeria's foreign reserves, was not immediately clear.
Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) brought 11 individual charges against P&ID and its local subsidiary. The two men, Muhammad Kuchazi and Adamu Usman, plead guilty to all the charges on behalf of the company.
The men, both Nigerians, were not personally charged and freely left the court.
In a statement, P&ID said the EFCC investigation had not afforded basic human rights to those involved and called on the government to "accept its responsibilities under the law."
"None of the individuals involved are current employees or representatives of P&ID," the spokesman said. "P&ID itself has received no communication from any Nigerian authority about the investigation or today's hearing. There has been no evidence produced, no defence allowed, no charges laid, no due process followed," it said.
The EFCC described Kuchazi as commercial director and Usman as director of the company's local subsidiary.
The men could not immediately be reached for comment.
P&ID was set up to execute a 2010 deal with the Nigerian government to build and operate a gas-processing plant in the southeastern port city of Calabar. When the deal collapsed, P&ID took the government to arbitration, eventually winning a $6.6bn award that has been accruing interest since 2013.
Last month, a judge in London said he would grant P&ID the right to convert the award to a judgment, which would allow it to seek to seize assets from the Nigerian government to collect the award.
The government has said the deal was designed to fail and called the award "an assault on every Nigerian and unfair."
The ruling in Abuja would not necessarily affect P&ID's efforts to seize assets. A Lagos court ordered in 2016 that the entire arbitration be set aside, but the arbitration tribunal rejected the court's jurisdiction to rule on the matter - a decision affirmed by last month's London ruling.
With interest payments, the arbitration award now tops nine billion dollars.
Al Jazeera
Thursday, September 19, 2019
Video - The effect of Saudi oil refinery crisis on Nigeria
As unfortunate as the attacks on Saudi Arabia's oil facilities might be, for some oil producing countries, it's an opportunity to ramp up production and take advantage of the current global spike in price of oil. It's especially so for oil producers in Africa, whose national budgets have been threatened by low oil prices.
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