The chairperson of the African Union has rejected the group’s appointment of a mediator for crisis-hit Togo, saying he wasn’t properly consulted, officials said on Monday. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who currently holds the rotating AU chairmanship, has led West African efforts to resolve the Togo crisis.
A three-storey building, still under construction, collapsed in Port Harcourt in the Niger Delta on Thursday, killing three workers and a food vendor. The tragedy occurred in the early hours of Thursday as the workers were preparing to resume the day’s work, police spokesperson Thelma Fiberesua said in Port Harcourt.
Moped-taxi drivers in the mainly Muslim northern Nigerian city of Kano carried leafy branches on their bikes on Tuesday in a symbol of protest at an imminent ban on carrying female passengers. Kano’s governor postponed a ceremony at which he was to impose the ban, in line with his administration’s interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.
A number of construction workers were still trapped on Thursday, two days after a building under construction caved in, killing at least 10 in Nigeria’s southern oil city of Port Harcourt, police said. The four-storey building on Sani Abacha Road in the city centre suddenly collapsed on Tuesday.
At least 10 people were killed and several others trapped when a building collapsed in Nigeria’s southern oil city of Port Harcourt, police said on Wednesday. The four-storey building under construction on Sani Abacha Road in the city centre suddenly caved in on Tuesday, killing at least 10 construction workers.
Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo set off for France on Monday on a mission to win debt relief and greater inward investment and to push his country’s case for a seat on an expanded United Nations Security Council. Most importantly, Obasanjo will urge Paris to cancel Nigeria’s -billion external debt.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo launched a major blood bank and transfusion project on Thursday, donating blood at a new centre that hopes to begin cleaning up the Aids-contaminated blood supply in Africa’s most-populous nation. The centre is spearheaded by a United States charity called Safe Blood for Africa.
ChevronTexaco’s Nigerian subsidiary said it would overhaul its aid projects in the country’s oil-rich south after finding much of the tens of millions of dollars spent yearly was fueling violence and wasted by corruption. ChevronTexaco said its projects have stoked communal jealousy, contributing to unrest that has cost the company over half a billion dollars.
Pope John Paul II’s funeral on Friday was marked in low-key fashion in Nigeria — the nation from which one possible successor has been tipped to come — but thousands turned out for Masses and held days of mourning in other parts of Africa. In South Africa’s largest township, Soweto, the Regina Mundi Catholic church held a special Mass.
In the latest corruption scandal to rock Nigeria, President Olusegun Obasanjo has cancelled the sale of 207 government houses at knockdown prices after discovering that close relatives of his wife and several cabinet ministers were to have been among the beneficiaries of this controversial deal.
Nigeria’s former chief of police Tafa Balogun arrived in handcuffs on Monday to face multi-million-dollar corruption charges at the Federal High Court in Abuja. Balogun was detained for questioning on Monday last week, two months after he was forced to resign by President Olusegun Obasanjo amid fraud allegations.
The former head of Nigeria’s police force, who quit suddenly amid allegations of corruption in January, has been arrested by the country’s financial crimes watchdog and may appear in court soon, his lawyer and government officials said on Wednesday.
"Glorified secondary schools" is the derisive term coined by Nigerians to describe their country’s universities. Classrooms are overcrowded, with students sitting on the floor during lectures. Libraries lack books, and laboratories are ill-equipped to conduct experiments. And, just as facilities are decaying, so is the quality of education being received by students.
Nigeria’s main oil unions backed down from calling an immediate strike to protest the use of casual labour on Monday but launched a new 21-day ultimatum to international energy giants and the government. A disruption to Nigeria’s exports will send a shockwave through markets at a time when oil prices are already near their all-time high.
Nigeria’s daily power requirement is about 5Â 000 megawatts (MW). At most times, however, the National Electric Power Authority (Nepa) is barely able to generate 2Â 000 MW, prompting exasperated Nigerians to give the utility another name: Never Expect Power Always.
Nigeria’s House of Representatives has called on the government to halt further repayments on the country’s staggering -billion in external debts. The motion, approved by the Lower House, said the debt burden is a brake on social and economic development, and the amount owed continues to increase because of accrued interest.
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/ 25 February 2005
As African Catholics prayed for the health of Pope John Paul II on Friday, speculation mounted that the ailing pontiff could soon be succeeded by Africa’s first pope in more than 1 500 years. With church congregations rising across Africa, Asia and Latin America, observers see a global church that is increasingly oriented towards the south.
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/ 22 February 2005
More than a decade after its last headcount, Nigeria is preparing to conduct the country’s fifth census this year. However, religion and ethnicity — long the bane of national life — appear set to bedevil the process. The eventual publication of statistics on religion and ethnicity could deepen existing divisions along these lines — and even lead to social unrest.
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/ 21 February 2005
Nigeria’s two-time African champions Enyimba needed two extra-time goals against Ghana’s Confederation Cup winners Hearts of Oak to hold on to the Super Cup they won last year. There were no goals after regulation time for either team, both of whom were depleted by the departure of top stars recently.
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/ 17 February 2005
A meeting on Thursday between Togo’s new military-installed leader, Faure Gnassingbe, with his fiercest critic of his accession to power, the chairperson of the African Union, Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo, has ended, officials said. The Economic Community of West African States has threatened Togo with sanctions.
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/ 4 February 2005
Nigeria’s army quelled a demonstration at one of the country’s main oil-export terminals on Friday, said the platform’s operator, ChevronTexaco, and activists claimed two protesters were shot dead. Soldiers in the Escravos terminal opened fire on the demonstrators, killing two, said Helen Joe, a militant leader.
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/ 19 January 2005
The head of the United Nations atomic watchdog agency on Wednesday inspected a nuclear reactor in northern Nigeria that officials said was designed for research on peaceful uses of atomic energy. Foreign analysts have expressed concern that Nigeria, a nation of more than 126-million people, is angling to become the world’s latest nuclear power.
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/ 14 January 2005
The Anglo-Dutch energy giant Shell has ended the latest crisis to disrupt oil production in Nigeria’s unruly Niger Delta, the firm said on Friday, reopening facilities closed down by community protests. At the height of the crisis, 114 000 barrels per day of Shell’s production were shut in.
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/ 12 January 2005
The influential chairperson of Nigeria’s ruling party has submitted his resignation under pressure from President Olusegun Obasanjo, after warning the head of state that his government is becoming unpopular and might be toppled in a coup. A newspaper quoted Audu Ogbeh as saying: "I am not in any contest for power with the president."
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/ 11 January 2005
Scheduled local and international flights to and from Nigerian airports were getting back to normal on Monday after five days of disruption caused by a thick cloud of dust, aviation officials said. No flights took off or landed at Lagos’s local and international airports between January 6 and 8, airport officials said.
In Agege, a suburb of Nigeria’s commercial hub, Lagos, Augusta Uyi-Evbuomwam has become indispensable. From dawn until dusk, people carrying buckets and jerry cans queue to buy water from her borehole. Uyi-Evbuomwam claims she dare not close shop for even a day, as the entire neighbourhood would be left without water. ”It is more than a business, it is a service. People are begging me to sell water to them,” she says.
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/ 23 December 2004
At least 20 people were killed in an explosion as they stole fuel from a damaged pipeline in a fishing community near Nigeria’s economic capital, Lagos, police said on Thursday. Fire broke out on Tuesday night in the Ilado community on a pipeline operated by the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
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/ 21 December 2004
Peace talks between the Sudanese government and Darfur’s main rebel movements have been suspended until January, according to a joint statement from the parties released on Tuesday. "The parties undertake to return to Abuja for the next round of the talks on a date … to be confirmed by the AU," it said.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-Africa&ao=177030">Aid group pulls out of Darfur</a>
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/ 19 December 2004
Sudanese government forces on Saturday engaged in a fresh battle with rebel forces in southern Darfur, ignoring an ultimatum from the African Union to halt an offensive, an AU spokesperson said. Rebel negotiators have been insisting that they will not sit down with the government while its two-week-old offensive continues.
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/ 19 December 2004
As Nigeria expands its subsidised anti-retroviral (ARV) programme, concern is mounting about how funds are being spent. Two years ago, Nigeria launched what, at the time, was a ground-breaking initiative to provide ARV drugs to 15 000 people living with HIV at less than 10% of the market price. But a year later, the project ran into difficulties when depleted drug stocks were not replenished.
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/ 16 December 2004
Rebel leaders on Thursday accused the Sudanese government of pursuing an offensive in the western region of Darfur despite an earlier promise to rein in its troops in order to revive stalled peace talks. The rebels said they will not return to African Union-sponsored negotiations until Khartoum calls off its alleged attack.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=BreakingNews-Africa&ao=176727">Sudan agrees to stop Darfur offensive</a>
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/ 15 December 2004
The Sudanese government has agreed to stop a military offensive in Darfur province in a move that could prompt the two main rebel groups to end their boycott of African Union-sponsored peace talks, the chief AU mediator said on Wednesday. The rebel groups on Monday walked out of the latest bid in Abuja to resolve the Darfur conflict.