NAIJAFEED

Monday, January 23, 2012

1,000 Nigerians detained in Chinese prisons

Minister of Youths Development, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, at the weekend, said there were about 1,000 Nigerian youths detained in various prisons in China for drug-related offences.

Abdullahi, said in Ilorin during a chat with journalists, that he had already written to the government of China for the details of their offences so that the Federal Government could use them as a form of campaign to discourage Nigerian youths from embarking on drug trafficking.

“This is a very serious matter. I have written to the government of China and I am planning to actually travel there on behalf of the Federal Government to have the details of their cases,” he said.

The minister expressed regret that many Nigerian youths who indulged in drug trafficking business in a bid to get rich quick were not always aware of the dire consequences and the risks involved.

According to him, “The risks far outweigh the benefits, in fact there is none. Whoever gets involved will get caught sooner than later and whatever that might have been acquired will go with it. So where is the benefit?”

Abdullahi added: “The only way to good living is to be involved in legitimate business where nobody is running after you for committing an offence. There is nothing like getting rich quick and there is no short cut to it.”

The minister, however, commended the initiative of Lagos State Government where youths and others found guilty of committing certain offences were made to serve the community, instead of sending them to prisons.

“Lagos State is doing great thing in this particular area and I think it should be commended and others should emulate it,” he said.

This Day

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Video - 120 killed in bomb blasts in Kano, Nigeria

The death toll has risen from the series of co-ordinated bombings and attacks in the northern Nigerian city of Kano.

According to the government and the Red Cross, at least 120 people were killed. Hospital officials say more than 140 died.

The city has been put under a curfew after police stations across the city were targeted on Friday.

Aljazeera

Boko Haram attack Churches on Christmas day - 40 dead

Boko Haram gives ultimatum to Christians

Video - Boko Haram leader declares war on Christians

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

President Goodluck Jonathan apologizes to international community over fuel subsidy protests

The Federal Government yesterday apologised to members of the diplomatic community and the international community resident in Nigeria for the inconveniences caused by the withdrawal of fuel subsidy and the protests.

President Goodluck Jonathan, speaking during the Annual Diplomatic launch held at the banquet hall of the Presidential Villa, in Abuja, assured that the government will work hard to ensure this does not repeat itself. He added that the experience of the past week has made Nigeria stronger and better.

'We will make sure we work hard to ensure we will not experience that again. We appreciate your understanding, I know some people must have come to you and send all kinds of messages to your various governments. I believe that you know that the position of the government is the best for the people.

'I can assure you that it has even made us stronger and indeed better. We promise that we will continue to grow from strength to strength and the incident of last week, we have put them behind us and we are moving forward. We will not experience that kind of situation again,' he said.

The president also said government will ensure that while adjusting the pump price subsequently, it will not do it in a way that will bring suffering to the people. 'We know we were misunderstood; prices couldn't have gone up that way. But that is a human society and is a human factor.' he said.

He said, 'I regret the inconveniences some of you passed through because of the government attempt to see the way we can look at our oil industry by adjusting the pump price and the issue of deregulating the oil sector that led to demonstrations by labour and civil societies.

I believed some of you suffered some inconveniences because you couldn't go out for a week, you couldn't visit people you would have loved to visit.'

While recalling the bombing of the United Nations building by members of the Boko Haram sect, he said Nigeria will continue to work together with the members of the diplomatic corps and their organisations and countries to ensure world peace.

'Let me assure all of you that Nigeria will continue to maintain a very warm relationship with all the organisations and all the countries in spite of our experiences with the Boko Haram. Nigerian government is totally committed to the maintenance of peace and order in line with UN Charter.

'We believe that all citizens of the world should live freely and peacefully wherever they find themselves. We will work with you and all your countries and organisations to make sure that the world is a place where all of us will live without fear or favour,'he stated.

He stressed that the world over was facing similar challenges, but 'collectively, we will work towards that.'

He thanked them for the role they played during last year's elections and assured that democracy has not just come to stay in Nigeria, 'but democracy that is sanctioned by an election that is credible, election that is free and fair. And using our own slogan, election that the votes of Nigerians must count, where we say one man one vote, one woman one vote and one youth one vote.'

He noted that 'democracy that is not dictated by the vote of the people is not good democracy, adding that until the votes of the people account that is when we can say this is a democracy.

And I believe also that it is difficult for you to topple such a democracy because it is the people that elect those that are ruling. But if people impose themselves on ordinary people of course such a democracy may not be able to stand on a solid ground.

'With a little turbulence such a government will fall. In Nigeria we are totally committed to democracy and enduring democratic culture that the votes of individuals will count.

At the end of our elections in April, we did promise the whole world that our subsequent elections will even be better and promising. But as we march towards 2015 for another round of elections, the elections will be conducted better than the elections in 2011,' he said.

Earlier the Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, Yamego Dramane, the Ambassador of Burkina Faso to Nigeria, commiserated with the President on the happening of the past week, stating that Nigeria, which is playing a major role not only in Africa but the world over, has their support.

The Moment

President Goodluck Jonathan slashes price of petrol by 30 percent in response to protests

Video - Three shot dead in fuel subsidy protests

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Video - Reaction to reinstated fuel subsidy

Nigerian labor groups suspending their nationwide strike after hearing from the president.

National strike called off by Nigerian unions

Monday, January 16, 2012

President Goodluck Jonathan slashes price of petrol by 30 percent in response to protests

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday announced a 30% cut in petrol prices as soldiers moved to disperse activists in a bid to end more than a week of nationwide strikes called by unions to protest against the end of fuel subsidies.

Nigerian soldiers seized protest sites and used armoured vehicles to disperse demonstrators after the president watered down a hike in petrol prices Monday in a bid to end an eight-day nationwide strike.

About 1,000 protesters in the economic capital Lagos had gathered on a road near the main protest site, which armed soldiers seized early on Monday. None of the protesters appeared to have been wounded.

Some 10,000 protesters had been gathering daily at the main site last week.

Troops began by driving trucks toward the protesters, but later used armoured vehicles, an AFP correspondent reported. Around 200 demonstrators were seeking to regroup nearby, but soldiers were moving in their direction.

Soldiers also Monday seized the main protest site in the capital Abuja where hundreds of people had been gathering daily, an AFP journalist reported.

President Goodluck Jonathan announced Monday that petrol prices would be cut by about a third in a bid to end the strike triggered after the government removed fuel subsidies.

Unions vowed to press ahead with the strike which is now in its second week but called off street protests in response to security concerns voiced by Jonathan. However demonstrations have been organised by a range of civil society and political groups.

A number of groups vowed to continue protests.

Jonathan announced the price cut in a televised national address after a week that saw him remain largely silent in public as the strike and mass protests shut down Africa's most populous nation and largest oil producer.

The president's announcement came after talks with unions had failed to resolve the dispute, with labour leaders demanding a return to pre-January 1 petrol prices.

He charged that the protests had been "hijacked" by those seeking to promote "discord, anarchy and insecurity".

"Government will continue to pursue full deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector," Jonathan said in his address.

"However, given the hardships being suffered by Nigerians, and after due consideration and consultations with state governors and the leadership of the National Assembly, government has approved the reduction of the pump price of petrol to 97 naira (about 60 US cents) per litre."

He added: "I urge our labour leaders to call off their strike and go back to work."

The government had ended fuel subsidies on January 1, causing petrol prices to more than double from 65 naira per litre to 140 naira or more, sparking the strike and protests that began on January 9.

Most in the country of some 160 million people live on less than two dollars a day, and Nigerians weary after years of blatant corruption view the subsidies as their only benefit from the nation's oil wealth.

Besides seizing main protest sites, soldiers on Monday also set up roadblocks at key points in the economic capital Lagos for the first time since the protests began, stopping cars and searching them.

One senior police officer at the main Lagos protest site made no pretense of the aim of the deployment.

"It is total surrender to the might of the federal government," he said. "They cannot come here again today in view of this situation."

One protest organiser said musical instruments were destroyed at the site, where Seun Kuti, son of late legendary musician and harsh government critic Fela Kuti, had been playing regularly.

"Soldiers have destroyed our instruments in Ojota and brought down our stage," said rights activist Jo Okei-Odumakin.

She added: "I have been receiving strange calls threatening me with death. They send these texts to me with unknown numbers."

Jonathan had late Sunday sought a deal with labour leaders aimed at ending the strike. Unions did not call off the strike after the talks, but said they were cancelling street protests after Jonathan expressed security concerns.

Nigeria Labour Congress chief Abdulwahed Omar said: "We came to a conclusion that we will stay at home, that is stay off the streets, in order to make sure that we don't in the first instance endanger innocent lives because of the security situation in the country."

Nigeria has faced spiralling violence, most of it in the country's north and blamed on Islamist group Boko Haram, prompting warnings of a wider religious conflict and even the possibility of civil war.

But the main fuel protests have been largely peaceful, although at least 15 people are believed to have been killed in various incidents.

While the strike was suspended for the weekend, labour leaders had warned it would resume Monday if a deal had not been reached. An earlier threat to shut down oil production however has been put on hold.

Government officials and economists have said removing subsidies would allow much of the $8 billion a year in savings to be ploughed into projects to improve the country's woefully inadequate infrastructure.

AFP

Video - Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala speaks on fuel subsidy crisis