Nigeria willing to get help from U.N. in negotiating kidnapped Chibok girls release

Nigeria's president said on Thursday he would be open to U.N. bodies coming in to act as intermediaries in any talks with Boko Haram Islamist militants on the release of about 200 kidnapped schoolgirls.

Muhammadu Buhari has vowed to free the girls, whose abduction almost two and a half years ago from the northeastern village of Chibok triggered international campaigns and piled pressure on his predecessor Goodluck Jonathan.

Nigeria would "welcome intermediaries such as U.N. outfits, to step in", Buhari told U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly in New York, a statement issued by the president's office said.

Buhari last year said for the first time his government was ready to negotiate over the girls. In August said he would let the Islamist militant group choose a non-profit organization as an intermediary but the group has not commented on the proposal.

Any negotiations would be the first publicly known talks between the government and Boko Haram, whose seven-year insurgency to create an Islamic state in the northeast has killed 15,000 people and displaced more than two million.

"The challenge is in getting credible and bona fide leadership of Boko Haram to discuss with," said Buhari.

Boko Haram pledged allegiance to Islamic State last year but signs of a rift emerged after IS announced a new leader for what it described as its West African operations. Boko Haram's hitherto leader Abubakar Shekau appeared to contradict the appointment in a later video message.

"The split in the insurgent group is not helping matters. Government had reached out, ready to negotiate, but it became difficult to identify credible leaders," said the president.

Nigeria's failure to find the kidnapped children prompted an outcry at home and abroad. Critics of Buhari's predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, said his government was too slow to act.

Boko Haram published a video in August which apparently showed recent footage of dozens of the girls and stated that some had been killed in air strikes.

Authorities said in May that one of the missing girls had been found and the president vowed to rescue the others.

Nigeria is battling the jihadist group on the ground and with air strikes. A multi-national joint task force - comprising troops from Nigeria and neighboring Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Benin - is also fighting the militants.

Reuters

Children in Nigeria dying of hunger as no one notices

It's a crisis the world has largely ignored, despite some 20,000 deaths and an estimated 2.6 million people forced from their homes.

Northeast Nigeria is facing famine, the collateral damage from seven years of Boko Haram's deadly insurgency and a problem aid agencies have long been warning about.

Children are starving. Whole villages and towns in desperate need of assistance are out of reach because of insecurity and fighting, despite military gains in recapturing territory lost to the Islamists.

Aid agencies talk of a looming humanitarian catastrophe. Those on the ground say it's already happening.

This week, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will make a renewed appeal for funding to stave off the crisis.

Some $559 million is needed between now and the end of the year to provide food, shelter and vital health care for those in need, not just in Nigeria but also in neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger, where the violence has spread.

"It's devastating," said Doune Porter, from the UN children's fund UNICEF, speaking to CBC News from Nigeria's capital, Abuja.

"It's really bad…. For the immediate crisis, just in Borno state alone there's 244,000 children who will suffer this year from severe acute malnutrition. Children are basically just clinging to life."

Three months ago, UNICEF said one in five of those 244,000 — nearly 50,000 children under five — could die if nothing was done.

Estimates are of a possible 130 deaths every day. But money is needed, and with Nigeria's economy officially in recession, the funding is going to have to come from elsewhere.

"This is too big for the Nigerian government to handle, too big for UNICEF to handle on its own, too massive a crisis — and the world needs to mobilize," said Porter.

But with so many other humanitarian crises dominating the headlines, such as Syria and migrants in Europe, there's no guarantee the world will sit up and take notice.

Nearly three years ago, Nigeria became Africa's leading economy after it rebased (updated the way it measures) its GDP.

But then global oil prices crashed, leaving the continent's most populous nation, which depends on crude export sales for 70 per cent of government revenue, desperately short of cash.

State sector salaries have gone unpaid, much-needed infrastructure projects shelved and the country's currency, the naira, has plummeted in value. Inflation has soared to above 17 per cent. Everything from fuel to food is more expensive.

After years of inaction and inept reaction from the previous government, President Muhammadu Buhari, who came to power in May 2015, has at least achieved successes in curbing Boko Haram's almost daily bloodshed.

But the years of conflict have taken their toll: rural northeast Nigeria — already desperately poor even before the insurgency — has been devastated: farmers have been killed or have fled; land for crops has not been sown or harvested for years.

The resulting food shortages have driven up prices in local markets, while the influx of the displaced to cities such as Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, has heaped pressure on local authorities, leaving them struggling to cope.

Some 1.5 million people have sought safe haven in Maiduguri, more than doubling its population. Most have been taken in by friends and family or forced into overcrowded and unsanitary camps for the displaced.

The state and federal government response has been patchy: food such as rice and maize has reportedly been stolen and resold by corrupt officials; often it has not materialized at all.

There have been deaths in the camps from measles outbreaks and other preventable diseases because of low vaccination rates. During the current rainy season, typhoid, malaria and cholera are constant threats.

Host communities and volunteers have done what they can, even as the international aid effort has scaled up.

The American University of Nigeria, based in Yola, Adamawa state, has run feeding programs for the displaced for several years. In August it said it fed 75,000.

But AUN president Margee Ensign said the money to do so has now dried up — and those who previously returned to their homes in the countryside are coming back to the city in an even more desperate state.

"The problems related to famine, out-of-school children, lack of infrastructure are now far bigger," she told CBC News.

"We are seeing people come back to Yola malnourished and dying. There is a rapid increase in children on the streets."

A woman weak with hunger asked one AUN staff member to raise her one-week-old child. She later died. The employee took in the child, Ensign said.

The last time the world paid attention to Nigeria was after more than 200 schoolgirls were kidnapped from the remote town of Chibok, in Borno state, in April 2014.

The abduction sparked a huge online campaign — #BringBackOurGirls — featuring U.S. first lady Michelle Obama and Hollywood celebrities. But more than two years on, 217 of the 219 are still in captivity. UNICEF says some 7,000 children have been abducted.

Now, the images of Boko Haram are its child victims, those born into the conflict, starved to the brink of death by its consequences, leaving them little more than skin and bone or swollen by protein deficiency through lack of food.

Money is required — and fast — not just a hashtag.

CBC

Video - Nigeria's Central bank retains benchmark interest rate at 14%

Nigeria's central bank kept its benchmark interest rate at 14 percent on Tuesday, resisting the finance minister's call to lower borrowing costs. Policymakers urged the government to spend more to drag Africa's top economy out of recession. The West African nation is going through its first recession in more than 20 years, brought on by low oil prices, and inflation accelerated to an 11-year high of 17.6 percent in August. The naira has traded at a record low of 425 to the dollar on the parallel market since last week.Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun said on Monday that the central bank should lower interest rates so that the government can borrow domestically to boost the economy.

Video - Fulani herdsmen and farmers in Nigeria fighting over resources

Decades of fierce competition for natural resources has left thousands dead, property damaged and villages desolate in Nigeria's Benue state. Fulani herdsmen are fighting with farmers in another row over scarce resources. Both sides have repeatedly fought over farmland, access to grazing areas and water.

Video - Nigeria drops from fourth to seventh largest cocoa producer

Nigeria's Cocoa Association has confirmed that the country has dropped to the world's seventh top producer of the crop. This is after its projected output for the 2015-2016 season was lowered to 190,000 metric tons. The International Cocoa Organization had previously ranked Nigeria as the world's fourth biggest cocoa producer. The downgrade was attributed to the exchange rate policy, the lack of reliable data and low synergy between the public and private sectors. The ICCO had initially projected Nigeria would produce 270,000 metric tons of cocoa in the current season.

Nigeria must consider selling oil assets - Saraki

Nigeria must consider selling stakes in joint ventures with oil majors and other assets as talks to borrow abroad have not succeeded yet and would in any case not generate enough funds to stimulate economic recovery, the leader of the Senate said.

Senate President Bukola Saraki, the third most powerful official in Africa's biggest economy, also said the oil producer might struggle with recession for up to nine months or even longer unless it got serious about attracting investors.

The government said this month it had approved loans from China, the World Bank, Japan and the African Development Bank, but Saraki, whose relations with the president have cooled since last year, said such talks were still ongoing with no deals yet.

"There is a big hole now in the fiscal deficit because that funding is not coming through. So we've got to look for alternative ways to fund that," Saraki said in a joint interview with the Financial Times on Monday when asked about the loans.

The government has said it plans to borrow as much as $10 billion, with half of that coming from foreign sources, including a planned $1 billion Eurobond issue, to fund a budget deficit of 2.2 trillion naira ($7.21 billion) and boost an economy hammered by low oil prices and hard currency shortages.

Saraki said that even if the loan talks succeeded, the amount raised would not be enough to plug the hole in public finances. "My take is that even if it does come through, it's money too little, too late," he said, referring to the loan talks.

He said Nigeria needed to sell stakes in oil and gas joint ventures, oil exploration contracts and refineries to raise funds. "In my view, I really can't see any other pathway to recovery. We need investors, we need to raise capital."

Such an asset sale would be necessary even if global crude prices recovered to $70 a barrel and Nigeria managed to restore oil production to 2 million barrels per day (bpd) with an end to militant attacks in the Niger Delta oil hub, Saraki said. Officials say the attacks have reduced output by 700,000 bpd.

Saraki said Nigeria could overcome recession in six to nine months if swift action was taken -- a more downcast view than that of the government, which has forecast a quick recovery.

Central bank governor Godwin Emefiele was due to hold a news conference at around 1315 GMT (09:15 a.m. EDT) after a meeting of the rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee. The finance minister said on Monday the central bank should lower interest rates so that the government can borrow domestically to boost the economy.

Economists polled by Reuters last week predicted that the central bank would keep its key interest rate at 14 percent and reiterate its focus on resuscitating growth.

The government has said it is considering asset sales, but has given no details.

"If we do things right, the confidence will come in," Saraki said. "If we carry on waiting for government revenues to go up, if we don't do anything seen as thinking out of the box" the recession could drag on longer.

Nigeria's 2016 budget was the largest in the nation's history, but the oil price drop and Delta attacks have left the government scrambling for funds.

Saraki is from the same ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as President Muhammadu Buhari, who was elected in March 2015 on a promise to end graft and mismanagement in the West African nation.

But relations between the two have been strained since Saraki ran unopposed for the position of Senate president last year, mainly with the backing of the opposition. He was not the APC's preferred candidate.

(1 = 305.0000 naira)

Reuters

Boko Haram claimed to have killed 40 troops in Nigeria

Nigeria's army claimed victory Wednesday in "a fierce battle" in a remote desert trading post where Islamic extremists said they killed 40 troops from a multinational force.

Army spokesman Col. Sani Kukasheka Usman said troops recaptured Malam Fatori town on Tuesday and killed several extremists, but the insurgents regrouped at the nearby border with Niger.

The Islamic State's West Africa Province, one faction of the Boko Haram extremist group, hours earlier claimed it had annihilated "a convoy of the African Coalition Crusader forces" at Malam Fatori, killing more than 40 soldiers and wounding dozens, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist communiques.

There was no way to independently verify either side's claim.

Tuesday's battle was the first Nigeria attack claimed by the Islamic State group since August, when it named a new caliph in Nigeria, provoking a leadership struggle. Leader Abubakar Shekau pledged Boko Haram's allegiance to IS in 2015, giving the Islamic State its first sub-Saharan franchise. But IS last month announced it had replaced Shekau in a dispute around his indiscriminate killings of Muslims.

The town of Malam Fatori has changed hands many times in the seven-year Boko Haram uprising that has killed more than 20,000. Many residents fled to Niger in 2014 after soldiers in a punitive raid burned down hundreds of huts because a wounded extremist was given refuge there.

Tuesday's was the fourth insurgent attack in northeast Nigeria in three days.

Eighteen people were killed Sunday and Monday when extremists gunned down Christians leaving a church service, beheaded a village head and his son and ambushed a convoy within miles of Maiduguri, the biggest city in the northeast.

No one has claimed responsibility for those attacks.

ABC

Video - Nigeria's state-owned oil company accused of evading payments

Nigeria’s state-owned oil company, NNPC and 22 other petroleum firms, reportedly owe the government 86.4 billion naira. The government agency tasked with fighting corruption says the debt is the result of years of collusion between NNPC officials and private oil companies.

Nigerian makes Miss Transsexual final

Miss SaHHara was born in the wrong country, and in the wrong body. Repression in her native Nigeria almost drove her to suicide, but this weekend she was cruising down the runway in a cream dress – one of several finalists at the Miss Trans Star International beauty pageant in Barcelona, Europe’s main such event. Set up in 2010 in the Spanish Mediterranean seaside city, the fifth edition of the contest this weekend crowned Brazil’s Rafaela Manfrini as this year’s transsexual queen, although winning was secondary for participants who have often experienced discrimination and repression.

“Here all of us are winners already, we won our life,” said runner-up Tallen Abu Hanna from Israel. Persecuted by their governments, victims of discrimination or rejected by their own families, many of the 25 candidates went through hell and high water before summoning up the courage to strut their stuff in swimsuits or evening gowns. “This is an attempt to engage society,” said Thara Wells, the contest founder. “We want to go beyond beauty and tell the life story of each girl.”

Escape or death 

Among the candidates were transsexuals from Japan, South Africa, Colombia, Turkey, and Nigeria, whose activist chat stood out. Sporting a cream dress with a plunging neckline, Miss SaHHara glided down the runway without a hint of shyness, drawing in the 300-strong audience with her light-green eyes. Nothing much remained from the young 19-year-old man who fled Nigeria for London more than a decade ago. “I had severe disphoria. 

My breasts weren’t growing, I didn’t have a vagina, I looked at myself in the mirror and I did not feel comfortable with my body,” she told AFP before the gala final Saturday. Miss SaHHara, as she is known, always knew she was a woman. She would put on make-up and wear her mother’s high heels. But in Nigeria, where homosexuality and transsexuality are illegal and punishable by 14 years in jail, her situation was tough. “In the street, they were always attacking me, harassing me,” she said. “I came back home and my family would harass me, they said ‘you’re wrong, you need to change, act like a man’.” 

She twice attempted suicide and says she was imprisoned in Nigeria for wearing women’s attire before escaping to London, first as an illegal migrant, then as a refugee. “There was no way I could have survived in Nigeria, this is why I had to leave,” she said. In Britain, she underwent surgery to become a woman with long, curly blond hair, big breasts and full lips. 

She works as a model and singer, and also manages her own NGO to help transsexuals. “London gave me the opportunity to pursue my dreams and be my true self,” she said. “I’m hoping that by speaking out and coming to Miss Star, I will try to influence people or perhaps influence my government to revoke 14 years imprisonment for LGBT inNigeria.” 

2,000 murders since 2006

In recent years, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people have scored small victories around the world. Nepal, Argentina, Bolivia and Ireland are just some of the countries to have approved laws recognising transgender people and the United States is considering allowing them into the army. But there is still a lot to do. LGBT people are still persecuted in some 80 countries, and more than 2,000 transsexuals have been murdered since 2006, according to the Trans Murder Monitoring Project, part of the Berlin-based Transgender Europe NGO. “We have very few opportunities in life, very few,” said contest founder Wells. Israel’s Tallen Abu Hanna concurred, saying transsexuals have huge difficulties in finding jobs. “In the end, lots of them have to have sex for money.” 

She has been lucky though

A Christian Arab Israeli, she has become a celebrity since winning a transsexual beauty pageant in her country, and wants to take advantage of this fame to inspire Arab people, who like she once did may feel trapped “inside a cage.” “I became a woman and I found peace between my body and my soul.”

Vanguard

Militants attack crude oil pipeline in Nigeria

A militant group on Monday claimed an attack on a crude oil pipeline in Delta state, southern Nigeria, in the second attack on the same line in less than a week.

In an emailed statement, Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate (NDGJM) spokesperson Aldo Agbalaja said "Opudo strike force, at about 23:30 on Sunday, September 18, 2016, struck the Afiesere-Ekiugbo delivery line in Ughelli, operated by NPDC/Shoreline."

The rebel group hit the same pipeline last Tuesday and vowed to "ground" the Nigerian economy, which is already in recession, in part due to plummeting oil exports as a result of sabotage.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's cut Nigeria's credit rating last week, saying the "marked contraction" in oil production from an average of 2.1 million barrels per day to 1.7 was hurting its economic prospects.

The NDGJM has stepped up its attacks after rival group the Niger Delta Avengers declared a ceasefire in August and entered talks with the Nigerian government.

"All agrarian products in the area surrounding the scene of the incident have been damaged as a result of the blast," a resident of the nearby Ekuigbo community, Efemena Akposire, told AFP.

A military officer added: "Unlike previous attacks carried out by the group where they hack-sawed the pipelines, dynamite was used in this case."

Poor living conditions

Nigeria's military has boosted its presence in the oil-producing southern swamplands in response to the attacks, raiding suspected militant camps and clamping down on illegal oil refineries.

Various rebel groups have complained about poor living conditions in the area, where despite massive oil wealth most people live in poverty without access to basic services such as education and health care.

Distrust in the Nigerian security forces is widespread in the region. Last week the NDGJM complained of intimidation and vowed to "match force with the oppressor's brutality".

Rebel attacks are not the only crimes plaguing the region: kidnappings for ransom are also common.

Nigerian police said Monday it had rescued 14 local oil workers and their driver after a shoot-out with their kidnappers near the oil hub of Port Harcourt, capital of Rivers state.

The employees of Nestoil Plc, an oil and gas service firm, were seized on September 2 by a gang of men who hijacked their vehicle and fired shots into the air to frighten away bystanders.

Rivers police spokesman Nnamdi Omoni said none of the oil workers was injured and no ransom was paid. Efforts were being made to track down the kidnappers, he added.

AFP

Nigeria stands out at Toronto film festival

Nigerian filmmakers, producers and actors are hoping a spotlight on Lagos at this year's Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) will open Nollywood up to the world.

But equally important, the filmmakers say, is maintaining the originality and fresh storytelling that has made the well-established Nigerian film industry such a national and regional success over the past two decades.

"Our stories are original. That's what makes us stand out," said Omoni Oboli, the filmmaker, producer and actress, whose movie Okafor's Law had its world premiere at the festival this year.

"I feel like the audiences are bored. Hollywood is churning out the same thing over and over again … We have fresh stories. It's original," Oboli said at a press conference in Toronto. "If they're bored, they should look to us - look to Nollywood."

Oboli's film is among eight Nigerian features being screened as part of the festival's annual City-to-City programme, which shines a light on filmmaking in cities around the world. In previous years, this section has shone a light on Seoul, London, Athens, Mumbai, and Istanbul, among other places.

Cameron Bailey, the film festival's artistic director, told Al Jazeera that he took "a leap of faith" when he made the decision to focus on Lagos this year, but he said he believed the timing was right.

"In addition to the very commercial films that have been coming out of Lagos for many years, there's a new generation that has a new Nollywood cinema that is working at higher budget levels, taking more time with their productions, greater technical quality and also just greater artistic ambition," Bailey said.

"We're beginning to see new kinds of films come out that I think can work very well on the festival circuit and in the rest of the film industry, so that's why I wanted to do it now."

The eight Nigerian films at the festival explore an array of storylines and genres, from the comedic capers of a Lagos cabbie in Daniel Emeke Oriahi's Oko Ashewo (Taxi Driver), to a drama about Lagos' successful battle against an outbreak of Ebola in 93 Days, directed by Steve Gukas.

In 76, Izu Ojukwu looks at the impact of a failed coup attempt in Nigeria in 1976, while director Uduak-Obong Patrick has made a youthful crime-comedy with a Lagos backdrop in Just Not Married.

The Wedding Party, meanwhile, invites audiences in to experience the joy and traditions of a Nigerian wedding - complete with all the drama and complications that may arise.

"What makes a Nigerian wedding party so different? You have to experience it first hand to be able to understand it. It's nothing like you've ever seen before: the colours, the attire, the people … It's a remarkable experience," said director Kemi Adetiba about the film, her first feature.

"The stories I think will resonate with all audiences," Bailey said, "but what you get to learn about, is how the storytellers shape their films in a very distinct way."

$3.3bn industry

The Nigerian film industry is second only to India's Bollywood in terms of the number of films produced, which is estimated at around 200 a month, according to an entertainment and media report by PricewaterhouseCoopers for 2014-2018 (PDF).

In 2014, the Nigerian government estimated that Nollywood was a $3.3bn industry, with 1,844 movies produced in 2013, Fortune magazine reported. The industry brings in $600m to the Nigerian economy annually, according to 2014 figures put out by the US International Trade Commission.

To date, Nigerian films have been cheap to produce and shoots generally last less than a month. "This enables a quick financial turnaround: A movie can be profitable within two to three weeks of release," the PwC report stated.

But most Nigerian films are watched on DVD and pirating is widespread: Nine pirated copies of a film are sold for every legitimate one, according to the World Bank (PDF).

According to Nigerian actress Genevieve Nnaji, who starred in 2013's Half of a Yellow Sun, the higher production values of recent Nigerian films demonstrate that Nollywood is ready for greater international collaborations.

"We need to invite more audience. We need to be more open with even our storylines and with collaborations. Right now, that's kind of the focus, which is why we're glad we're here," she told Al Jazeera at the festival.

Tapping into where the cinemas are is also important to build an audience, the actress said.

Despite having a population of more than 180 million people, Nigeria lacks cinemas: The filmmakers and producers at TIFF put the number of cinemas across Nigeria at 29, meaning the country has a total of only about 100 screens.

Building a global audience

Many in the industry wonder if Nigerian filmmakers should really be focused on appealing to an international audience, rather than making better films to satisfy their already expansive fan base.

According to Niyi Akinmolayan, director of The Arbitration, it is less about seeking validation from the United States or Hollywood, and more so wanting "to make films good enough for anyone anywhere to watch our movies".

"And, hopefully, we'll get some recognition," he said.

The Arbitration is largely set in a meeting room in Lagos, where a woman has accused a Nigerian IT company's chief executive - her former lover and boss - of rape. Though the film is partly a peak into the growing Nigerian hi-tech industry, its main themes - sexual harassment, power dynamics, and gender roles - are universal.

"I felt this is a perfect opportunity to polarise the audience and make them ask important questions. And in this case, we're defining sexual harassment, we're defining rape, we're defining the place of a woman in society … I always feel there's a lot of beauty and truth when you get people to ask questions," Akinmolayan said.

According to film festival's artistic director, Bailey, a desire to reach global audiences while also maintaining the distinctive style that appeals to people at home is something that has been witnessed in the film industries of South Korea, China, India and even France in recent years.

"I think Nigeria can do both," Bailey said. "Not everybody working in Nollywood is going to want, for instance, to try to set up a co-production with an American company or a European company, but some will. And I think the ones that will, will do well with it."

'Storytellers by nature'

David Oyelowo, the Nigerian-British actor who has starred in Hollywood films Selma and Five Nights in Maine, said the TIFF spotlight "is the start of something absolutely fantastic" for Nigerian talent.

"We've been doing this for a long time - telling stories traditionally, filmically, poetically. We are storytellers by nature," Oyelowo said in Toronto, where he is promoting his latest film, Queen of Katwe.

And it is those stories - uniquely Nigerian, but open to the world - that will propel Nollywood forward into its third decade, says young Nigerian director Abba Makama.

Makama was in Toronto to screen Green White Green, a coming-of-age story about three soon-to-be university students who set out to make a film and in the process learn who they are personally and within the mosaic of Nigerian cultures.

Bailey described the film as reminiscent of an early Spike Lee Joint, or even of American director Richard Linklater's work.

"The whole idea came about when I was studying in New York, and I would get the most ignorant questions about where I came from," Makama says. "I said, 'I need to go back home, and I'm going to show them where I'm from, what I'm doing, what I'm all about.'"

"It's my own way to say how much I love film, but I also wanted to give the western audience a crash course on what it means to be Nigerian. There isn't one archetype. There are facets. There are layers."

Al Jazeera

Related story: How Nollywood got ready for its close-up on the global film festival stage

Video - Nigeria's Paralympians success attributed to fighting spirit

Nigeria could only manage a bronze medal at the Rio Olympic Games this year. But it's an altogether different story for the country at the ongoing Paralympic Games. CCTV's Deji Badmus has more about this impressive performance.

Video - Nigerian businessman provides shelter to thousands fleeing from Boko Haram

A businessman in northern Nigeria has opened his home to people forced on the streets because of the fight against Boko Haram.

The plight of thousands of displaced people who live outside government-run camps doesn’t receive much attention. 

AL Jazeera's Ahmed Idris reports from Maiduguri on those who've found refuge at the businessman's property.

Aide to fomer president faces $15m fraud charge

An aide to Nigeria's former President Goodluck Jonathan has been charged with $15 million fraud.

Warpamo Dudafa, the former special assistant for domestic affairs, appeared before a High Court in Lagos on Thursday to answer to a six-count charge filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

Six other accomplices are facing 15 counts related to conspiracy and fraud.

They are Amajuoyi Briggs, Adedamola Bolodeoku and four companies, Pluto Properties and Investment, Seagate Property Development, Trans Ocean Property and Investment and Avalon Global Property Ltd.

The first, second and third accused pleaded not guilty after the charges were read.

Meanwhile, the four individuals representing the companies listed in the charge each pleaded guilty to the offences.

Prosecutors asked the court to allow time for a review of the facts.

Justice Babs Kuewumi, however, declined and adjourned the case to September 27.

He also ordered the accused to be remanded in custody.

Daily Nation

Video - Nigeria’s real estate sector suffers as luxury houses stand vacant

Nigeria's real estate sector is going through a tough time as the country grapples with a recession, and a sharply devalued currency. If there's one city that's taken a direct hit, it's Lagos, the commercial capital. The number of vacant houses, especially at the higher end of the market, has risen sharply over the past year, as Deji Badmus, reports.

How Nollywood got ready for its close-up on the global film festival stage

At times it feels like Nollywood has been around forever, such has been the Nigerian movie business’ impact on pan-African pop cultures and awareness around the world—and in Nigeria itself.

In truth, the modern version of Nigeria’s famed movie industry is less than 25 years old, making it a relative youngster by film industry standards. That might be why this week’s showcase of eight Nollywood movies at the influential Toronto Film Festival (TIFF) feels like a coming out ball for Nollywood to the global movie industry.

For years, the industry has attracted interest globally with an exciting but mixed reputation. Its low-budget, high-volume production levels helped it grow rapidly to become the world’s second biggest movie industry by volume, behind only India’s Bollywood. Then, there’s its well-documented problems with piracy with which the industry continues to struggle. But in Toronto the world’s leading movie makers and marketers will be taking a close look at Nollywood for the right reason: the much improved quality of its films.

Toronto Film Festival is probably best renown for identifying early Oscar contenders but it’s also an important venue to meet a variety of North American distributors from cable TV to movie theaters. Nigerian movie makers will be keen to be seen with a new slate of higher quality movies compared with the early days of the industry.

There’s been a growing shift from movie quantity to quality in recent years. In the past, Nollywood filmmakers had a reputation for breaking up feature films into unnecessary stretched out sequels in a bid to eke out as much revenue as possible by selling more home movies on DVD. But now, rather than put out multiple films annually, filmmakers are beginning to spend more time and resources to making fewer but better movies with the aim of being on the big screen in movie theaters.

This is largely down to increased investment in creating content. Africa Magic, a television channel owned by digital satellite giants, Multichoice, has been at the forefront of content creation, commissioning the development of Nollywood dramas and sitcoms. Multichoice is a division of Africa’s largest company, the South African media giant, Naspers.

The movies selected for the festival have small budgets by Hollywood standards, but huge in the context of Nollywood. For example ’76’, a historical fiction drama, cost $3 million to make and is supported by Africa Magic. EbonyLife TV, a Nigerian entertainment network, helped produce ‘Wedding Party’, which has had a high profile at the festival.

In addition to the selected movies, Lagos, Nigeria’s bustling commercial capital, will also be in focus having been selected as part of the City to City programme for the film festival. For many in the industry, the recognition by the Toronto film festival is seen as a nod to Nollywood’s rapid growth and evolution over the years.

With deeper pockets, investors are starting to bankroll the production of better quality movies, thus raising standards across the board.

“Standards have financial implications—you can’t expect certain standards on low-budget production,” says Chris Ihidero, the Lagos-based producer of popular TV sitcom, Fuji House of Commotion and drama series, Hush. He says better quality is inevitable with increased investment. “Filmmakers have always been skilled but have lacked finance. What we’re seeing now is a result of investors putting money on the table.”

Pirates of Lagos Lagoon

In the past, the motivating factor for putting out multiple movies was down to the lack of revenue structure in the industry. Movies were typically released straight to DVD or Video CD (VCD) as producers sold distribution rights to promoters for small profits. More often than not, promoters then facilitated the piracy of the films to recover their costs.

When Nigerians didn’t buy pirated movies, they rented them for a small token from home video rental shops which were popular in the 1990s and early 2000s. Crucially though, the revenues generated from the hundreds of rental stores hardly made it back to the producers. But that has changed over the past decade as the local cinema infrastructure, and consequently movie culture, has evolved and grown.

There are now some 25 cinemas across the country, most opened in the last 10 years. This is a tiny number for a country of 180 million people, even if they were just focused on its burgeoning middle class—23% of its population. The good news is that the growth of local movie theaters means filmmakers now have their movies screened before going on to DVD, bringing Nollywood more in line with the traditional Hollywood model.

One of the big successes of this model is ’30 days of Atlanta’, a 2014 romantic comedy which went on to gross $434,000—reportedly the highest for a local movie in Nigerian cinema history. But Ihidero says the cinemas are not anywhere near enough yet. “We need about 1,000 cinemas,” he says. At current pace, Ihidero estimates Nollywood films average $15,000 at the box office screening for two weeks in local cinemas. “You cannot grow an industry with revenue like that,” he says.

To plug the gap, Nollywood can turn to video on-demand platforms like iROKOtv, the largest online distributor of African online video (and also a producer of movies through ROK Studios). Since launch, iROKOtv has been popular among Nollywood’s key diaspora market. But as the price of mobile data drops locally, Nigerians are beginning to consume more content on mobile than ever before.

While the cinema culture is crucial to helping local films generate revenues, piracy problems still persist. DVD sales still only contribute a tiny fraction of revenue for filmmakers. Instead, pirates bootleg films, often publicly, cutting into the filmmaker’s earnings. According to World Bank estimates, for each legitimate sale, nine others are pirated. Kunle Afolayan, a leading filmmaker and Quartz Africa Innovators 2015 honoree, has felt the brunt firsthand. Afolayan’s movie, October 1, ended up being pirated before its planned DVD release last year severely reducing Afolayan’s chances of recouping his $2 million investment in the film.

Telling our story
Regardless of the problems that persist, the spotlight on Nollywood in Toronto brings with it a chance for Nigerian filmmakers to take the lead in telling the country’s many stories. For decades, there has been dissatisfaction with how Western media has represented Nigeria and the rest of the continent. Hollywood films and music videos have also been complicit. Movies depicting war and famine as a pervasive and generic reality as well as music videos lacking nuance, like Taylor Swift’s ‘Wildest Dreams’, have come in for criticism.

Lonzo Nzekwe, a Toronto-based Nigerian filmmaker, says the growing popularity of Nollywood films and stories outside the country could help fix that. “When Hollywood goes to Africa, they’ll show you the jungles and the dirty part of the continent,” Nzekwe told Toronto Metro. “But through Nollywood films you see the excellence of Africa. You see the beauty and the positive aspects of it. That’s the good thing about what TIFF is doing now.”

As British-Nigerian Hollywood star David Oyelowo reminded the audience in Toronto, “We are storytellers.”

Related story: David Oyelowo talks about the rise of Nigerian 'Nollywood' films

Quartz

Oil sink to worsen as Nigeria and Libya fields restart

Amid the most enduring global oil glut in decades, two OPEC crude producers whose supplies have been crushed by domestic conflicts are preparing to add hundreds of thousands of barrels to world markets within weeks.

Libya’s state oil company on Wednesday lifted curbs on crude sales from the ports of Ras Lanuf, Es Sider and Zueitina, potentially unlocking 300,000 barrels a day of supply. In Nigeria, Exxon Mobil Corp. was said to be ready to resume shipments of Qua Iboe crude, the country’s biggest export grade, which averaged about 340,000 barrels a day in shipments last year, according to Bloomberg estimates. On top of that, a second Nigerian grade operated by Royal Dutch Shell Plc is scheduled to restart about 200,000 barrels a day of flow within days.

While there are reasons to be cautious about whether the barrels will actually flow as anticipated, a resumption of those supplies -- more than 800,000 barrels a day in all -- could more than triple the global surplus that has kept prices at less than half their levels in 2014. It would also come just as members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and Russia are set to meet in Algiers later this month to discuss a possible output freeze to steady world oil markets.

“If you have some restart of Nigeria and some restart of Libya, then the rebalancing gets pushed even further out,” Olivier Jakob, managing director at Petromatrix GmbH in Zug, Switzerland, said by phone. “It complicates matters a lot before the meeting in Algeria.”

Libya Shipments

With a few exceptions, crude in New York and London has been stuck below $50 a barrel for months. The current global oil oversupply is about 370,000 barrels a day, according to data from the Paris-based International Energy Agency.

The resumption of shipments from the three Libyan ports would allow Libya to double crude output to 600,000 barrels a day within four weeks, National Oil Corp. Chairman Mustafa Sanalla said Tuesday in a statement on the company’s website.

The exports are possible after a substantial improvement in the security situation there, he said Wednesday in a separate statement. The Tripoli-based NOC lifted a measure called force majeure, which gives the company the right not to meet supply commitments.

Libya has made at least half a dozen failed pledges to restart shipments. What may be different this time is that the NOC has struck a deal with Khalifa Haftar, commander of forces who took control of Es Sider and Ras Lanuf. He also has control of the oil fields and pipelines that feed them.

Qua Iboe

Meanwhile Exxon has filled storage facilities at its Qua Iboe export terminal in Nigeria and is awaiting government clearance to resume shipments, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday. Exxon declined to provide a timeline for a restart and said that a force majeure, in place since July, still stands.

In Nigeria, militant groups have repeatedly attacked oil infrastructure this year, making any resumption of flow reliant on pipeline and export terminals being secure from further incidents. Qua Iboe has been under force majeure since a “third-party impact” on a pipeline in July, according to Exxon.

“If it’s true, it’s another downward pressure for the markets because that would be a large amount to return to the market,” Thomas Pugh, commodities economist at Capital Economics, said by phone, adding that he doubts the resumptions will materialize given the situations in both countries.

West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, was 0.3 percent higher at $43.70 a barrel at 12:56 p.m. in Hong Kong. Brent gained 0.5 percent to $46.09 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange.

Bloomberg

Video - Foreign airlines flying into Nigeria start refuelling abroad

Foreign airlines flying to Nigeria have started to refuel abroad to counter a growing scarcity of hard currency and jet fuel. This is the second blow for airlines operating there, since the central bank has made it almost impossible to repatriate profits from ticket sales. The crash in the naira since its floating in June has compelled firms like Total, Sahara and ConocoPhillips, to double the retail price of fuel. Some carriers have had aircraft stranded, or were forced to cancel planned trips. Dubai-based Emirates has started a detour to Accra, Ghana, to refuel, Germany's Lufthansa is loading more fuel in Frankfurt, while British Airways, KLM and Turkish Airlines have resorted to smaller aircraft.

David Oyelowo talks about the rise of Nigerian 'Nollywood' films

David Oyelowo feels the lure of Nollywood.

The two-time Golden Globe-nominated British star, who spent part of his childhood in Nigeria, says he may return there one day to join its booming movie industry, which is a hot topic at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.

"I can tell by the profile that they are gaining that it's not going to be long before I -- to be perfectly frank, as someone who has established their career in Western filmmaking -- am going to be desirous to go back and make a film that would be deemed a Nollywood movie," Oyelowo said in an interview at the Toronto film fest.

"Because for me, excellence is key and I want to work with the best filmmakers in the world, whoever they are, wherever they are. And of course there's going to be a very particular desire to do that if that is happening in Nigeria."

The Toronto film festival's City to City program is showcasing eight titles from Lagos, Nigeria, a prolific centre for cinema.

"Nollywood, it oscillates between being the second- and third-biggest film industry in the world," said Oyelowo, who stars in two films at the fest: the Ugandan chess-champion drama "Queen of Katwe" and the interracial couple story "A United Kingdom."

"Living there myself, being of Nigerian parentage, we love a good story, we love a good yarn. It's very much embedded in the culture and that's why we have this prolific production of movies."

Each year, Nollywood produces about 1,000 low-budget features that generate about $1 billion in ticket sales, according to TIFF.

That's giving rise to a new generation of filmmakers, as well as bigger movie budgets.

"Up until recently, the production value of the films has been fairly low and that has also been impacted by piracy, which means that it's a very hard industry within to make the commensurate amount of remuneration you should for making movies," said Oyelowo.

"So that's also why the production values have remained low, because by and large, about a week or so into having made your movie, it's going to be so pirated that you stop making money for it. So you've got to make all of your money very, very quickly and then move onto the next one."

But new streaming avenues cropping up in Africa are reducing piracy and increasing the quality of the films, added Oyelowo.

He also noted that Nigerians who had emigrated to the U.S. began to return home after the 2008 economic crisis.

"Now they are emerging as entrepreneurs, as filmmakers who have taken what they learned, whether in American or in Europe, back and employing those methods to Nigerian storytelling and the quality is being driven up," he said.

"So I believe it won't be long before movies coming out of Nigeria are going to be at a world-class level."

CTV

Related story: Nollywood in the spotlight at this year's TIFF

Nollywood actress wins gold medal at 2016 Paralympics

When Lauritta Onye threw a shot put 8.40m she not only won gold but broke a word record.

The Nigerian Paralympic gold medallist is also known as…. Laury White.
Under that name she starred in the Nollywood film Lords of Money in 2015.

Her performance skills were put to good use on Sunday night when she celebrated her victory in acrobatic style in front of the cameras.

Nigeria's Paralympians already have six golds, two silvers and one bronze medal.

That's compared to Nigeria's Olympic team which only took home one bronze for football last month.

At the half-way point Nigeria's Paralympic team is 10th in the medal table and top among African countries, whereas the Olympians were joint 78th by the end.

At London 2012 the country won 13 medals at the Paralympic Games and not one single medal in the Olympics. And again they came home with more medals in 2008, 2004, 2000 and 1996.

Before this Games, the former director of the National Sports Commission went as far as to say that he hoped the Paralympians would "erase the shame of the dismal showing at the Olympic Games".

Weightlifter Lucy Ejike broke a world record on Sunday to win gold with a lift of 142kg in the women's under-61kg event.

It is the third time she has broken a world record - in Beijing in 2008 she broke two during the under-48kg event. The 38-year-old wheelchair user has won three gold medals since she started competing in 2000.

Only one of Nigeria's nine medals is not in powerlifting - so far it has five Paralympic powerlifting golds, two silvers and one bronze.

That's added to 15 other powerlifting gold medals since Nigeria started competing in 1992.

But then the numbers are against the other Paralympians - 14 of the 23 Nigerian competitors are powerlifters. This doesn't appear to be by accident.

After the powerlifters came back from the 2012 Paralympics with 12 medals the then Sports Minister Bolaji Abdullahi told the UK's Guardian paper that Nigeria would just put money into a few sports where they have a comparative advantage.

BBC

Related story: Nigerian paralympian brings in 3rd gold and breaks world record

Air Force has done Nigeria proud fighting Boko Haram - Abubakar

The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, has told Air Force personnel involved in the fight against Boko Haram insurgents in the North East that President Muhammadu Buhari is very happy and appreciates their efforts.

Abubakar made the statement on Tuesday during an Eid-el-Kabir celebration lunch with Air Force troops at Yola Air Force Base.

The CAS was represented by Chief of Policy and Plans, NAF headquarters, AVM James Abubakar. Abubakar said Buhari was full of appreciation for the troops and urged them to sustain the efforts toward bringing peace to the Northeast and Nigeria.

“The good work you are doing is appreciated by the commander-in-chief; he is sending his greetings to you at this festive time.

“He commends your efforts and urges you to sustain your commitment for peace in the Northeast and Nigeria as a whole. “We also want to use this opportunity to thank the commander-in-chief for his support to the Nigerian Air Force,’’ Abubakar said.

He said that NAF was also happy with the troops’ performance and would continue to ensure their welfare and those of their families.

Earlier in an address of welcome, the Air Officer Commanding Tactical Air Command, AVM Muhammed Mohammadu, thanked the CAS for his commitment to their welfare and for always identifying with them to boost their morale.

“We want to pledge our support and loyalty to Nigerian Air Force and the nation,” Muhammadu said.

Leadership

Nigeria has to fight Polio again

Last year, the World Health Organization declared the country to be "polio-free." That milestone meant the disease was gone from the entire continent of Africa, a major triumph in the multibillion-dollar global effort to eradicate the disease.

But that declaration of "polio-free" turned out to be premature.

Three new cases of polio have been confirmed in areas liberated from Boko Haram militants, prompting health officials to launch a massive campaign to vaccinate millions of children across four countries in West and Central Africa

Before the cases were found, the world appeared extremely close to making polio the second human disease after smallpox to be eradicated. There had been fewer than two-dozen polio cases in 2016, clustered in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Then health officials in Nigeria found three paralyzed kids inside parts of Borno state that had been held by the Islamic militant group Boko Haram.

Dr. Chima Ohuabunwo, an epidemiologist who's been working with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Nigeria for the past five years, says Boko Haram has cut off parts of Borno state, in Nigeria's northeast, from the rest of the world.

"There's been no direct in and out movement of persons, or access to health care, for the past two to three years," Ohuabunwo says.

Earlier this year, he says, half of Borno state was a no-go zone. Government health care workers and international relief groups, including polio vaccination teams, could be attacked or killed if they tried to enter those areas. At the same time, Boko Haram was pillaging farms and destroying health clinics.

"Of about 38 secondary health care facilities in the entire state, 16 were totally burnt down by these insurgents," Ohuabunwo says.

It's only after recent military offensives by the Nigerian army into Boko Haram territory that health officials were able to find the three kids who'd been paralyzed by polio. One was a 4-year-old girl in a family that had escaped and made it to a displaced persons camp.

The immediate concern is to make sure all children in Borno state are vaccinated, but parts of the state remain under the militants' control. So polio immunizers have set up vaccination posts on the roads just outside the Boko Haram-controlled areas.

"We only get access to the children when there's some incursion by the military and they [the children] come out," Ohuabunwo says. "We have prepared health teams called border post teams who sit and wait. As soon as the children come out, we get them, assess them, administer vaccines."

In addition to these roadside vaccinators, Nigeria is conducting three mass polio immunization campaigns across accessible parts of Borno state. The goal is to vaccinate every child they can find under age 5. One mass campaign was held in August. Another starts next week, and a third launches in October.

"One of the problems with polio is that the infections that lead to paralysis are just the tip of the iceberg," says Dr. Walt Orenstein, a professor of medicine at Emory University who has worked for years on polio eradication efforts.

"Generally less than one in 200 infections actually leads to paralysis."

This means there is probably a lot more polio virus floating around in the Boko Haram-controlled parts of northeastern Nigeria than has been detected. The World Health Organization is concerned about the virus spilling over into Cameroon, Chad and Niger, so WHO is planning additional emergency polio vaccination campaigns in those neighboring countries.

The security situation makes it nearly impossible to eradicate polio in militant-controlled parts of West Africa. But Orenstein points out that it has been done elsewhere, in lots of other complicated conflicts, and he's confident that eventually polio will be defeated in northern Nigeria too.

NPR

Related stories: Video - Third case of polio has been confirmed in Nigeria

Canada invests $20m in eradication of polio in Nigeria

Video - Hundreds displaced by Boko Haram return home

Hundreds of Nigerian refugees are returning to their homes after fleeing Boko Haram. The devastation is widespread - homes and farmlands destroyed by the Islamic militants. Many people returning home have to start from scratch. Kelechi Emekalam speaks to one family.

Video - Lagos state government tightens grip on mile-to-mile system

Nigeria's Lagos state government has reiterated its commitment to regulate the mile-to-mile taxi system. This is in a bid to ensure safety and security for passengers. A franchise system has already been developed to ensure control and regulation within the sector. The terms of taxi operations are contained in the Road Traffic Law of 2012 and subsequent regulation approved and released in January 2016. But the new rules are facing resistance from some groups who want to pull out of the franchise. The Lagos state government insists that groups hold a franchise and by implication a licence.

Nigeria leading in Africa's medal wins at 2016 Paralympics

Team Nigeria yesterday toppled Tunisia on Africa’s medal haul at the ongoing Rio 2016 Paralympic Games in Brazil after Lauritta Onye and Ndidi Nwosu claimed gold medals.

Prior to Monday’s feat by Onye and Nwosu, Tunisia was leading the continent’s medal haul with four gold medals but Nigeria overtook the North Africa with Onye setting a new world record in the women’s shot put F40 of athletic event.

It was Onye fourth throw of 8.40 metre that set a new world record for her ahead of Tunisia’s Rima Abdelli (7.37m) and Netherlands’ Lara Baars (7.12m) that both claimed silver and bronze medals respectively. Onye first throw of 7.83m had erased her own world record of 7.72m set at the 2015 IPC world athletics championships in Doha but the Nigerian went further to set the best record in the history of the event.

Also, Nwosu claimed the fifth gold medal for Nigeria when she lifted 140kg in the women’s -73kg of the Powerlifting event.

The first bronze medal for Nigeria was won by Nnamdi Innocent in the men’s -72kg of Powerlifting.

Apart from the medal won in athletics by Onye, all the medals won by Team Nigeria came from Powerlifting with hope for more medals in the event.

So far, Team Nigeria is placing nine on the medal table with five gold, two silver and one bronze medals, while China is topping with 40gold, 31silver and 24 bronze medals.

The Nation

Nokia Blocked From Doing Business In Nigeria

Nokia Corp. (NOK) may be committed to the Nigerian market, but its operations in the country have been blocked by the Nigerian Communications Commission. The commission in Nigeria said Nokia’s operations were halted, because the company doesn’t have a license to operate there.

“‘They need a sales and installations license,” Tony Ojobo, spokesman of the regulator, told Bloomberg News. “They had started the process about three weeks ago but stopped somewhere.” Ojobo did say Nokia and the commission are in talks about how to resolve the matter. Nokia is required to pay $6,354 for the license, according to the report. In an emailed statement to Bloomberg, Nokia said the administrative office in Lagos is temporarily closed and that Nokia is working to rectify the situation.

For years Nokia had been a big supplier of mobile phones in Nigeria, which is Africa’s most populated country. The company lost its prominence a few years ago as other smartphone makers, namely Apple and Samsung Electronics, rose in popularity. Now it is attempting to become a big player in Nigeria again. The country is an attractive market to telecom companies, because Nigerians are buying more smartphones than ever before, which is prompting a build out of mobile networks that are faster. According to Statista, in 2016 the number of smartphone users in Nigeria is expected to hit 15.5 million and grow to 23.3 million by 2019.

The situation in Nigeria is just the latest blow to Nokia in recent weeks as the once dominate mobile phone maker tries to regain some of its luster. Recently, the company has lost two top executives in its technology division, which is charged with bringing Nokia handsets into the market (See, also: Nokia’s Tech Unit Sees Another Top Executive Leave.); has made acquisitions to increase its presence in the Internet of Things market; it acquired Alcatel-Lucent, adopting a huge patent of different technologies and has inked partnerships to get back into the handset market. Its acquisition of Withings, which it announced in April, is also a play in the Internet of Things.

Investopedia

Flights to Nigeria forced to refuel elsewhere

Foreign airlines flying to Nigeria have started to refuel abroad to bypass pricey, and increasingly scarce, jet fuel as the oil producer battles a hard currency shortage that has made fuel available only at a very high price.

It is the second blow for airlines operating in Africa's recession-hit biggest economy in a year that first saw the central bank make it almost impossible to repatriate profits from ticket sales as it tried to prevent a currency collapse.

The crash in the naira since a devaluation in June has led firms who market jet fuel locally, such as Total, Sahara and ConocoPhillips, to double the price to 220 naira a litre in August, and to as much as 400 naira this month, an airline executive said.

Even at the higher costs, marketers' lack of dollars has made fuel scarce. Some carriers have had aircraft stuck, or were forced to cancel planned journeys, after frantic last-minute calls from ground staff warned there was no fuel available.

"The economy is crying out for investment, and now it is going to be even harder for anyone to visit," said John Ashbourne, economist with Capital Economics. "Who is going to want to park a billion dollars in a country that you can't even easily fly to? It sends the worst possible signal."

A spokesman for state oil company NNPC did not answer calls for comment.

The central bank hoped floating the naira would attract dollar inflows, but the naira sunk by 50 percent, forcing oil firms to charge airlines, stuck with piles of naira, in dollars for jet fuel.

"It's an impossible situation. The oil marketers don't want to sign long-term agreements anymore so we have to accept whatever prices they demand," one airline executive said. "We sell tickets in naira and now they want us to come with dollars."

Spain's Iberia and United Airlines cancelled their Nigeria services earlier this year, and two local carriers also halted operations. Other international airlines responded by boosting ticket prices within Nigeria, charging its globe-trotting elite as much as $2,000 for an economy class ticket to Europe to cut losses - more than double the cost of a Lagos ticket bought abroad.

WELL-HEELED PASSENGERS

Dubai-based Emirates has started a detour to Accra, Ghana, to refuel its daily Abuja-bound flight, a spokesman said. The airline already cut its twice-daily flights to Lagos and Abuja to just one.

The move was aided by a substantial drop in Ghana's jet prices amid tax reform last month, according to the Ghana Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors.

Air France-KLM said it had refueled abroad in "very exceptional cases" by juggling suppliers and stomaching extra costs.

Germany's Lufthansa is loading more fuel in Frankfurt for its Lagos flight, where the ground staff doubt their ability to refuel for the final destination of Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, an executive said. The airline did not respond to official requests for comment.

The scarcity has even pitted airlines against local consumers; a surge in demand for cooking and heating kerosene during the rainy season, when households cannot easily burn wood or charcoal, means if the airlines do not pay up, marketers will sell to locals.

Airlines met with transport ministry officials last week in Abuja to press for fuel at lower prices, industry sources said.

Nigeria used to be one of the most profitable markets for foreign airlines, landing planes with plenty of first and business class to cater to executives and officials jetting around under former President Goodluck Jonathan.

President Muhammadu Buhari cut air travel allowances for officials in a bid to tackle graft; others simply have less spending power with consumer inflation running at an 11-year high of 17 percent.

British Airways, a popular choice for well-heeled Nigerians, said it is using smaller aircraft on its Lagos-London route, as did Air France-KLM.

Turkish Airlines' use of smaller planes has added another inconvenience: passengers complained there is not always space for luggage on the smaller aircraft, delaying it for days. The airline did not respond to requests for comment.

Reuters

Video - Nigerian refugees in Niger struggle amid scarce resources

People in parts of Nigeria are struggling to get help after being displaced by Boko Haram.

Two years of violence by the armed group has forced 2.5 million people from their homes.

Video - Nigeria government accuses NGOs of using rescued Chibok girls to get donations

Only 5 out of 15 Chibok girls who escaped from captivity last year are currently being sponsored in school in the US. The Nigerian Government and parents of the children are accusing NGOs of using the girls to get donations there.

Nigeria Ebola movie gets resounding applause at TIFF

Apart from telling a global story from a Nigerian perspective, many were enthralled that 93 Days, the Ebola virus drama by Steve Gukas, was as gripping as the true account of the happenstances that held Lagos and other Nigerian cities by the jugular in 2014.

Incidentally, it is one of the films that celebrate Lagos State for its conquest of the virus within 93 days, despite a precarious compact population.

During the curtain call, Gukas shed more light on the essence of the film, which he said is a celebration of Lagos for its proactiveness in containing the virus as well as to immortalize the legendary doctors and nurses who put their lives in the line.

He said: “In this film, we did two things: challenging the perception about Nigeria and presenting it to outsiders to see. The other one is to ask very challenging questions about government. Because the truth of the matter is that government did a lot at that time but the health defense infrastructure in Nigeria is still very weak, to the extent that if this were to happen again, we would be struggling again. We have six different regions in Nigeria that are the key to how Nigeria is structured, and Lagos was the most prepared to be able to take care of this, so we were lucky it happened in Lagos. Had it happed somewhere in the North, somewhere in the East, or somewhere farther in the North East, the story we would be telling will be different. So the question we are asking our government is how prepared are we for next time?”

Responding, Lagos State Commissioner of Information and Strategy, Steve Ayorinde noted that the state was indeed prepared for Ebola having invested hugely in health services and infrastructure. He said there was the need to archive reality; hence he was glad a film like ’93 Days’ was produced to tell the story. What is government doing? He asked rhetorically. “There are quite a lot. Lagos is a state of 21 million people, and that calls for pro-activeness. Our government in particular is investing in emergency health services and all I can say is that we deal with issues as they come and Lagos is ever prepared for any emergencies.”

After its successful screening at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the world premiere of 93 Days took place on Friday, 9th September 2016 at the Isabel Bader Theatre.

The event which started with the arrival of the cast, producers and director had the movie introduced by Cameron Bailey, Creative Director of TIFF.

The premiere was attended by some members of the cast, including Danny Glover, Bimbo Akinkola, Keppy Ekpenyong, Somkele Iyamah-Idlahama, Sola Oyebode, Associate Producer of 93 Days, Kemi DaSilva-Ibru as well as the Producers/Executive Producers; Bolanle Austen-Peters, Dotun Olakunri and Steve Gukas.

Also speaking during the Q&A, Glover emphasized how he was so proud to be a part of the film.

“It was important for me to be in this film because of the message. Nigeria is a dynamic great country; it’s a country where the people are challenging themselves. This is an example of how they challenged themselves and succeeded. I’m so proud to be a part of it.”

Scheduled for another premiere in Lagos on September 13 at The Rock Cathedral, Lekki, the movie will be showing in cinemas nationwide from September 16.

The Nation

Nigerian paralympian brings in 3rd gold and breaks world record

Nigeria has won her third gold medal at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games in Brazil through Team Nigeria’s Captain Lucy Ejike who also shattered the Paralympic and world record to dominate the women’s -61kg event in powerlifting.

Power-lifter, Paul Kehinde, in the 65kg men’s category, had earlier on Friday lifted 218kg to outshine his competitors to win the country’s second gold medal after Roland Ezuruike opened the gold haul also in powerlifting on Friday.

Ejike began her campaign at the Riocentro Pavillion 2 on Sunday with a successful attempt at 136.0kg, which was a new Paralympic Record (PR) and World Record (WR). However, that was just the beginning as she went on to set a superior mark of 138.0kg at her next attempt, before culminating with a massive lift of 142.0kg.

Egypt’s Fatma Omar finished in 2nd place with her lift of 140kg. China’s Yan Yang won the Bronze medal with a distant 128kg. China’s Peng Hu (200kg) came second, while Egypt’s Shaaban Ibrahim (193kg) came third. Ejike and Kehinde’s victory take Nigeria’s total medal tally to 5 – three gold and two silver medals which came from Latifat Tijani and Esther Onyema. Already the performances of Nigeria’s physically-challenged athletes has drowned their main Olympics counterparts who only managed a football bronze medal throughout the competition.

Vanguard

Video - Deadly clashes reported between rival factions of Boko Haram group

Reports have emerged of deadly clashes between rival factions of the Boko Haram militant group. The violence has taken place in Borno State near Lake Chad. Details remain sketchy, though. The dispute is over the leadership of Boko Haram. The group is an affiliate of ISIL. Last month, ISIL declared Abu Musab al-Barnawi the leader of Boko Haram - replacing Abubakar Shekau. Shekau says he is still in charge, though, despite claims by the military that soldiers fatally wounded him. Shekau initially pledged Boko Haram's allegiance to ISIL.

Video - President Buhari urges Nigerians to shun corruption, social vices

Nigeria's President Muhamadu Buhari has kicked off a social change campaign called ‘Change Begins With Me’. He has pledged to get rid of corruption and other social vices. He has also warned Nigerians that they too must change their attitudes. The president has praised his government's efforts to fight corruption, adding that the campaign is a way of getting ordinary Nigerians to join in.

Video - Nigeria's army claims arrest of Avengers militant group leader

The Nigerian army claims it has arrested a suspected leader of the Niger Delta Avengers, as well as other suspected militants accused of attacking oil and gas infrastructure. Isaac Romeo and two others were detained over the weekend in Calabar, the capital of Cross River state in the Delta region. Authorities say they picked up a fourth man on Tuesday in Edo, north of Delta. He's thought to be responsible for last month's attack on a pipeline operated by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company and energy giant Shoreline.

Video - Nigeria's trade deficit narrows 44% in the second quarter

Nigeria's export trade has increased by over 60% to $5.9 billion in the second quarter of the year. Latest data from the national bureau of statistics shows the the trade deficit narrowed 44% as the value of exports surged after a devaluation of the naira. However, the rise was not enough to help the economy avoid a recession. Low oil prices have hammered vital public finances and the naira -- prompting foreign investors to flee bond and equities markets, causing chronic dollar shortages. Meanwhile, exports were dominated by crude oil, which contributed 79.7 percent of total exports. Imports rose 38.1 percent in the second quarter, with machinery and appliances, vehicles and aircraft parts and petroleum products making up the bulk of the numbers.

80% of Nigerian women in Italy are victims of sex trafficking

About 80 percent of Nigerian women and girls, who arrive Italy, are sex trafficking victims, according to Vatican news agency, Agenzia Fides. “Hundreds of thousands of people fall victim to human trafficking every year in Africa alone,” said Monsignor Ignatius Ayau Kaigama at an international conference against human trafficking organised by Christian Organisations Against Trafficking in Human Beings, COATNET, and Catholic Charity Caritas, Abuja.

"Of the overall number of victims, 79 percent are sexually exploited and the majority are women,” said Kaigama, who is the Archbishop of Jos and President of the Nigerian Bishops Conference.

 He added: “The remaining 21 percent are coerced into forced labour, and the majority of these are men. “In some parts of West Africa, the majority of trafficking victims are children under 18.

This conference must find a way to put an end to child labour in all its forms.” He also called on the Federal Government “to declare human trafficking a national disgrace, and to take urgent and long-lasting measures to address its root causes. “This, in light of recent reports that 80 percent of Nigerian girls that reach Italy, do so for reasons of sex trafficking.”

Vanguard

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Nigeria's international sex-trafficking ring

Father of former MEND militant killed during military incursion

The father of a former Nigerian militant leader has died from injuries suffered during a government military campaign in the oil-producing Delta region, a family spokesman said, raising the possibility of an inflaming of hostilities.

Chief Thomas Ekpemupolo, the 84-year-old father of rebel leader Government Ekpemupolo, died at a hospital in Warri from injuries sustained during military incursions into his community, Paul Bebenimibo, a spokesman for the son, known as Tompolo, said.

Tompolo was a commander of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), a group that spearheaded attacks on oil and gas installations in the Delta region in the early 2000s until a government amnesty program halted clashes by offering contracts to protect pipelines and oil production equipment.

A wave of attacks on oil and gas facilities kicked off not long after an arrest warrant was issued for Tompolo in January on charges of corruption.

Godspower Gbenekama, a community leader in Tompolo's home area, said doctors had tried in vain to save the father by amputating a leg.

"We have appealed for calm but it is very painful considering the circumstances that led to his death," he said.

"His leg was amputated because he could not gain immediate access to hospital and treatment after the injury because of the lock down after and during the period of the invasion," he said, referring to a search of his community by the army hunting Tompolo.

"By the time the military left our area it was too late," he said.

Comment from the government was not immediately available.

The violence has shut down more than 700,000 barrels per day of oil output and exacerbated an economic crisis in a nation reeling from its first recession in two decades. Tompolo has denied any involvement in the attacks on oil and gas infrastructure, as well as the corruption charges. He remains in hiding.

While oil minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said talks were progressing with militants over a ceasefire, the army is waging a campaign aimed at stamping out attackers. Locals have criticized the efforts as heavy handed, and said they risk fuelling more dissent, while other groups have said they run contrary to the ceasefire talks.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Niger Delta Avengers, the group that has claimed responsibility for bulk of the attacks this year, but recently declared a ceasefire, said the army campaign will "undermine any genuine disposition from your government toward restoration of tranquility in the Niger Delta."

Reuters

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Nigeria’s recession may last till 2020

Former President, Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, yesterday, expressed concerns that Nigeria may continue to experience the current recession cycle till 2020, if the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government fail to immediately bounce the economy massively.

Agbakoba, who spoke in Lagos, lamented that having done a diagnosis of the nation’s current economic woes, it seems to be complicated by inflation, high interest rates, unemployment, weak infrastructure, lower oil price and no growth economy.

In a statement made available to journalists, the human rights and maritime lawyer, who had an analysis of President Buhari’s economic policy pointed that cohesion is needed at this point, noting that there is a need to develop a coherent fiscal, trade and monetary policy. 

According to him, the tight liquidity operated by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, where it jerked up its Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) to 14 per cent is ridiculous, adding that CBN’s focus on Forex management is rather encouraging round tripping and creating asymmetry in the system. 

The legal practitioner advised the CBN to focus on productive value of the economy and not the numerical value of the naira, saying “the full deregulation of the forex market to allow level playing field and removing distortions such as round tripping, will ensure that at least $20 billion inflow will instantly occur.” The former NBA Chairman, who listed a number of solutions for President Buhari to revive the economy said there is an immediate need for “a Presidential Proclamation at the National Assembly, switching from austerity to growth policy. 

The Federal Government needs to spend more to boost growth.” Agbakoba, however, pointed that President Buhari doesn’t need the envisaged economic emergency powers, noting that former President Shehu Shagari had it in his time and still failed, adding that the so-called economic emergency powers is also not working in Venezuela. Agbakoba, further said “President Buhari must reverse the anti-austerity and tight money, as the G-20 nations all now agree; use all policy tools and embrace fiscal stimulus; adopt the Keynesian economic model of massive government spending on public works; reducing the raging inflation at 17% in medium term; reduce the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) to single digit- 5 per cent Quantitative Easing and effectively implementing the 2016 Budget to reflate the economy.” 

He added that to revive the economy, “Nigeria must spend its way out of recession; establish a National Treatment Policy- Fiscal and trade Protection Policy, establish urgently a Development and Guarantee Bank; prepare Public Sector Borrowing Requirement, PSBR and borrow as our debt Ratio can sustain this, as well as develop Assets securitisation.” According to Agbakoba, there is need for the Federal Government to pay-off the country’s domestic debt to inject liquidity in the system. He suggested that FG must give the Treasury Single Account, TSA money back to the banks at single digit rates and supervise the banks, even as he recommended lending base rate of 5 per cent.

 

Prudential Regulatory Authority Dr. Agbakoba added that to reflate the nation’s economy from recession, the Federal Government must create a Prudential Regulatory Authority, PRA, to supervise commercial banks to lend, as well as create a Financial Conduct Authority, FCA, to get banks to behave. “Consequently, the Federal Government must limit the CBN to Monetary Policy and take away banking supervision to the new Prudential Regulatory Authority, PRA and banking ethics to the Financial Conduct Authority, FCA. 

If the banks focus on lending and not trading, money will flood the system for productive value. Moreso, there is need to create a debt factor market to soak up non performing loans of banks now at 12 percent and in excess of N20 trillion. FG must also create a robust mortgage private sector led market, by waking up dead capital trapped in the national housing stock valued at $7 trillion. “Government must get out of business and enable the Private Sector led growth. It must also massively fund small businesses by Development and Guarantee Banks as this is the engine of economic growth. 

I have expected the government to by now implement massive social benefits such as the N5,000 it promised Nigerian youths,” said the legal icon. Further suggesting the way forward, Agbakoba advised the current leadership to as a matter of urgency, “begin to communicate and give Nigerians hope with a clear vision, like former America President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, FDR, during the American great Depression; urgently explore alternative income sources-Agriculture, Maritime, Infrastructure Power and support, as well as create efficiency in government and consider re-balancing Federal Power to bring in the States as economic enablers.” 

“President Muhammadu Buhari must as a matter of urgency, carefully study Roosevelt’s new deal that got the US out of the Great Recession (Depression) in the 1930s. “Roosevelt communicated hope; created massive public works programmes, especially the momentus Tennesse Valley Authority, a depressed 640, 000 square mile area in the Tennesse Valley; enacted the Glass-Stengall Banking Act, directing banks not to speculate or trade but to lend; enacted the National Industrial Recovery Act, to deal with massive employment and created the Works Progress Administration, putting back millions to work on the public infrastructure,” he said. Recovery Path According to Agbakoba, despite the country’s current state of recession, “a recovery path is possible by the Second Quarter of 2017 (Q2 2017) with vigorous implementation of a new economic model, otherwise, this recession cycle may/will extend up to Fourth Quarter of 2020 (Q4 2020).”

Vanguard

Nigeria's fight against bad health and malnutrition

As world leaders prepare to converge in New York for the 71st United Nations General Assembly, the delegates face an even more diverse set of challenges than usual.

The peace and development paradigm through which the annual meeting is held has a further dynamic to deal with this year, which is the proliferation of multiple humanitarian crises. While some are solvable, the crises in Syria and South Sudan seem intractable.

The situation in northeast Nigeria where the UN has estimated that nearly 4.5 million Nigerians, already threatened by Boko Haram, are now at risk of food insecurity and famine is also a cause for concern (PDF).

That such a situation can arise in Africa's largest economy is a sad indictment of Nigeria's continuing inability to fully protect and provide for some of its most vulnerable citizens. We can and must act now.

Failing healthcare

The food crisis is a result of three factors: conflict with Boko Haram; the need for more aid financing; and, most critically, the lack of state structures and coordination to help those at risk.

The conflict with Boko Haram is showing tentative signs of success. The terrorist group has been pushed out of successive towns and villages it once occupied in northeast Nigeria. The army is, slowly but surely, reasserting control and security over the region.

But this is only one part of puzzle. The conflict has left widespread devastation in its wake, and women and children have borne the brunt. Of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Borno, Yobe and Gombe, children account for up to 50 percent of those in need of humanitarian assistance.

The appalling health conditions of camps for the displaced and host cities alike were brought sharply to the public eye last month, when it was reported that only weeks after declaring Nigeria polio-free, this life-threatening illness left two toddlers paralysed in Borno.

The precarious situation in the north has prevented up to half a million children from getting polio vaccinations in the past year, as the weakness of the healthcare system has been compounded by regional instability, which has rendered remote areas increasingly inaccessible to health workers and aid.

Failure to vaccinate can wreak havoc across communities for years to come, making it absolutely vital that everything is done to ensure that all children receive the necessary immunisations, regardless of the challenges that this may pose, and that every immunisation is recorded.

It is hard to quantify in numbers but it is clear that a whole generation of mothers and children have been affected by violence and now by hunger and disease in northeast Nigeria.

Malnutrition is the underlying cause of morbidity and mortality of a large proportion of children under five in the country - in the northeast it is considerably higher.

Equally, in Nigeria mothers have a one in 13 chance of dying in pregnancy and childbirth - that figure jumps massively in the northeast.

Nationwide, Nigeria is actually seeing progress on maternal care even though less than 20 percent of health facilities offer emergency obstetric care and only 35 percent of deliveries are attended by skilled birth attendants.

Those figures are still encouraging when compared with the lack of provision in the war-torn northeast. Many women and children also find their plight compounded by dislocation.

Nigeria has to do better

Nigeria and the international community are starting to act. The Nigerian Senate is pushing to enact a motion to secure an additional $290m in aid for the region, while the international community has begun to ratchet up commitments marked by a four-day visit to northeast Nigeria in late August by the UN Special Rapporteur on human right for IDPs, Chaloka Beyani.

Nigeria has proved that through a concerted and coordinated effort, disasters can be averted. The horrendous Ebola outbreak that caused such devastation throughout Nigeria's west African neighbours was successfully contained in Nigeria.

This is in no small part due to government planning and structures. Equally, there is a precedent for state and non-state collaboration.

For example, on infant and maternal health, the Wellbeing Africa Foundation, has managed to scale its pioneering MamaKits - a birth package containing essential sterile items, facilitating improved birth hygiene and mitigating the risk of infection - across large parts of Nigeria.

If we can replicate such coordination we can stop the risk of famine in Nigeria, it is not simply an issue of money.

It is time to have a frank conversation about how to put the necessary structures and standards in place to ensure ill-health and malnutrition are addressed, before they become endemic as they have in the northeast.

This is not a country-specific problem. Many countries in Africa have adequate foreign aid, and adequate policy initiatives but the process falls apart once implementation begins.

This is at least understandable for some states but for Nigeria - considering the stage it is at and its development journey - the country should be doing better. It has to do better.

By Toyin Saraki

Al Jazeera

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