Friday, July 24, 2015
Video - One year marked without polio in Nigeria
Nigeria has made a vital step towards being declared polio free, after marking a year without a recorded case.
It can now be taken off the list of countries where the disease is endemic, if the World Health Organization (WHO) confirms the results.
Nigeria had struggled to contain polio since some northern states imposed a ban on vaccinations in 2003.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries to record cases in 2015.
Global health experts are hoping polio can become only the second human infectious disease to be eradicated, after smallpox.
Nigeria will still have to wait a further two years without a recorded case to be certified as polio free.
Polio can only be prevented by vaccination as there is no cure.
The 2003 immunisation ban in some northern states followed allegations by some state governors and religious leaders in the mainly Muslim north that vaccines were contaminated by Western powers to spread sterility and HIV among Muslims.
Independent tests ordered by the Nigerian government in 2004 declared that the vaccines were safe.
But there was still some hostility in a few areas to vaccination drives, with violent attacks against health workers.
The last attack was in 2013 when nine polio vaccinators were shot dead at health centres in the northern Nigerian city of Kano.
BBC
Related story: Video - Nigeria reaching a landmark of 6 months without a single case of polio
Video - Bill Gates partners with Nigeria to erradicate Polio
Nigeria rejects degrees from Online Universities
The National Universities Commission, NUC, on Thursday called on Nigerians to stop patronising online universities and other degree awarding institutions operating online.
Speaking at a press conference, the NUC’s Public Relations officer, Ibrahim Yakasai, said that degrees obtained online are not accepted in the country.
“Nigeria will not recognize online degrees. Online degrees are not accepted in Nigeria at the moment,” he said.
Mr. Yakasai warned Nigerian students and parents against patronising Maryam Abacha American University in Niger Republic.
“We wish to restate that as the only quality assurance agency for universities in Nigeria, the NUC is maintaining its stand that degrees from Maryam Abacha University will not be accepted in Nigeria” he said
He noted that the Commission has been inundated with enquiries from some Nigerian students who had been offered admission to the university.
He said the concerned students were offered admissions on part-time basis with a graduation time of four semesters for programmes like Nursing, Medical Laboratory Science, Public Health among others.
Mr.Yakasai explained that in Nigeria the duration for a fulltime degree programme is not less than three years for direct entry and at least six years for part-time.
He said professional programmes in Science, Engineering and Health Sciences including Nursing, Medical Laboratory Science and Public Health are not offered on part-time basis in Nigeria.
He added that all part- time cross border education in Nigeria are not allowed.
Mr. Yakasai said the Maryam Abacha University admits Nigerian students who do not have the basic requirements to gain admission into the nation’s tertiary institutions in addition to running courses such as Nursing, Medical Laboratory Science on part-time basis which, according to him, is not acceptable.
Mr. Yakasai said all countries are at liberty to accept any qualification they wish to.
Many Nigerians enroll annually in online schools based in the United States and the United Kingdom, and other countries.
Premium Times
Speaking at a press conference, the NUC’s Public Relations officer, Ibrahim Yakasai, said that degrees obtained online are not accepted in the country.
“Nigeria will not recognize online degrees. Online degrees are not accepted in Nigeria at the moment,” he said.
Mr. Yakasai warned Nigerian students and parents against patronising Maryam Abacha American University in Niger Republic.
“We wish to restate that as the only quality assurance agency for universities in Nigeria, the NUC is maintaining its stand that degrees from Maryam Abacha University will not be accepted in Nigeria” he said
He noted that the Commission has been inundated with enquiries from some Nigerian students who had been offered admission to the university.
He said the concerned students were offered admissions on part-time basis with a graduation time of four semesters for programmes like Nursing, Medical Laboratory Science, Public Health among others.
Mr.Yakasai explained that in Nigeria the duration for a fulltime degree programme is not less than three years for direct entry and at least six years for part-time.
He said professional programmes in Science, Engineering and Health Sciences including Nursing, Medical Laboratory Science and Public Health are not offered on part-time basis in Nigeria.
He added that all part- time cross border education in Nigeria are not allowed.
Mr. Yakasai said the Maryam Abacha University admits Nigerian students who do not have the basic requirements to gain admission into the nation’s tertiary institutions in addition to running courses such as Nursing, Medical Laboratory Science on part-time basis which, according to him, is not acceptable.
Mr. Yakasai said all countries are at liberty to accept any qualification they wish to.
Many Nigerians enroll annually in online schools based in the United States and the United Kingdom, and other countries.
Premium Times
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Suicide bombings kill 29 in Gombe, Nigeria
Explosions at two bus stations in the northeastern town of Gombe on Wednesday night killed 29 people, officials said. Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency called for urgent blood donations to treat a further 105 people injured in the assaults.
The bombings represent the latest in a series of attacks by the insurgent group in Nigeria and across the country’s borders. In neighboring Cameroon on Wednesday, two suicide bombers killed at least 18 people at a marketplace near the border, officials said.
Nigerian authorities have come under increasing pressure to confront the threat of Boko Haram, a group that has waged a brutal campaign against civilians as it seeks to carve out a separate state in northern Nigeria.
More than 2,600 people have been killed by the group since January, according to the Council of Foreign Relation’s Nigeria security tracker.
Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari returned to the capital, Abuja, on Thursday following a four-day visit to the United States. During his visit, he was warmly received by President Barack Obama but failed to get all he wanted.
“Buhari returns to Abuja, with no weapons sale from USA,” said a headline in Nigeria's The News.
Buhari told policymakers at the U.S. Institute for Peace on Wednesday that Nigeria's armed forces are “largely impotent” because they do not possess the appropriate weapons to fight Boko Haram.
He urged the U.S. president and Congress to find ways around the Leahy Law, which prohibits sales of certain weapons to countries whose military are accused of gross human rights violations.
Amnesty International says Nigeria's military is responsible for the deaths of 8,000 detainees — twice as many as Boko Haram's victims in the first four years of its 6-year-old insurgency.
“The application of the Leahy law ... has aided and abetted the Boko Haram terrorist group in the prosecution of its extremist ideology and hate, the indiscriminate killings and maiming of civilians, in raping of women and girls, and in their other heinous crimes,” Buhari said.
Aljazeera
The bombings represent the latest in a series of attacks by the insurgent group in Nigeria and across the country’s borders. In neighboring Cameroon on Wednesday, two suicide bombers killed at least 18 people at a marketplace near the border, officials said.
Nigerian authorities have come under increasing pressure to confront the threat of Boko Haram, a group that has waged a brutal campaign against civilians as it seeks to carve out a separate state in northern Nigeria.
More than 2,600 people have been killed by the group since January, according to the Council of Foreign Relation’s Nigeria security tracker.
Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari returned to the capital, Abuja, on Thursday following a four-day visit to the United States. During his visit, he was warmly received by President Barack Obama but failed to get all he wanted.
“Buhari returns to Abuja, with no weapons sale from USA,” said a headline in Nigeria's The News.
Buhari told policymakers at the U.S. Institute for Peace on Wednesday that Nigeria's armed forces are “largely impotent” because they do not possess the appropriate weapons to fight Boko Haram.
He urged the U.S. president and Congress to find ways around the Leahy Law, which prohibits sales of certain weapons to countries whose military are accused of gross human rights violations.
Amnesty International says Nigeria's military is responsible for the deaths of 8,000 detainees — twice as many as Boko Haram's victims in the first four years of its 6-year-old insurgency.
“The application of the Leahy law ... has aided and abetted the Boko Haram terrorist group in the prosecution of its extremist ideology and hate, the indiscriminate killings and maiming of civilians, in raping of women and girls, and in their other heinous crimes,” Buhari said.
Aljazeera
Video - President Muhammadu Buhari says U.S. aiding Boko Haram with arms ban
The US has "aided and abetted" the Boko Haram Islamist militant group by refusing to provide weapons to Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari says.
A US law prevents the government from selling arms to countries which fail to tackle human rights abuses.
Mr Buhari met President Barack Obama in Washington on Monday to seek further assistance.
Boko Haram has killed some 10,000 people since 2009 and has also kidnapped hundreds of girls and women.
Last month, human rights group Amnesty International said that some 8,000 men and boys had died in Nigerian military custody after being detained as suspected militants.
The military rejected this allegation, Nigeria's president promised an investigation but there have been no further details.
The US has previously promised some $5m (£3.2m) in military assistance to the regional coalition helping to fight Boko Haram, which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State.
However, Mr Buhari heavily criticised the US, especially the Leahy Law, which links military sales to human rights.
The Nigerian military did "not possess the appropriate weapons and technology which we could have had if the so-called human rights violations had not been an obstacle," he told the United States Institute of Peace on Wednesday.
"Unwittingly, and I dare say unintentionally, the application of the Leahy Law Amendment by the United States government has aided and abetted the Boko Haram terrorists."
In the latest suspected Boko Haram attack, at least 29 people were killed in bomb blasts at two bus stations in the north-eastern city of Gombe on Wednesday.
At least 11 people were earlier killed in the Cameroonian town of Maroua, just over the border from Gombe.
Boko Haram last year seized a huge area of north-eastern Nigeria, before being beaten back by a regional coalition, including Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
Mr Buhari was elected in March, partly on a pledge to defeat Boko Haram.
BBC
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Video - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari
Secretary Kerry hosts Muhammadu Buhari, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, for a working lunch at Department of State on July 21, 2015.
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