Tag Archives: Africa

Nigeria: Goodluck Jonathan on Facebook

The news that Pres­i­dent Good­luck Jonathan of Nige­ria had cre­ated a Face­book page even­tu­ally got to me through Google Buzz where com­ments had been made to the effect that the power infra­struc­ture issue should be easy to solve. Appar­ently, the Pres­i­dent had zeroed in on a com­ment and arranged for his aides to con­tact some “vision­ary”

Fixing the giant: Can Nigeria’s textile industry regain lost glory?

This arti­cle was orig­i­nally writ­ten for www.tradeinvestnigeria.com. In May, an Indian trade mis­sion, led by Mr. Ravi Ban­gar, the deputy per­ma­nent rep­re­sen­ta­tive of India to the World Trade Organ­i­sa­tion (WTO), paid a visit to Mr. Jubril Martins-Kuye, Nigeria’s Min­is­ter for Com­merce and Indus­try. One of the major issues they dis­cussed was the pos­si­bil­ity of India

June 12: Snow White Looked in the Mirror and Saw Shango

I don’t know which to pick between May 29 and June 12 as the worst date to look for­ward to in our polit­i­cal cal­en­dar. I don’t know which is, to me, emp­tier of mean­ing as far as democ­racy is the issue. Per­haps, I hold a gen­er­ally jaun­diced view of Nigeria’s polit­i­cal his­tory and career. But

Review: I Did Not Come to Read You by Chance

A Review of Adaobi Tri­cia Nwaubani’s I Do Not Come to You by Chance Cas­sava Repub­lic, 339 pages. Chris Ihidero Two rec­om­men­da­tions need to be done with utmost care: a book and a spouse. If the wrong rec­om­men­da­tions are made, a long hiss may fol­low your future rec­om­men­da­tions. As a rule, I hes­i­tate greatly before

Storyville: The New Kings of Nigeria

This doc­u­men­tary was more about pro­mot­ing Wal­ter than about the brain gain of Nige­ri­ans return­ing home to help build the country.

Obituary: Crocodiles have eaten up the writ of habeas corpus

Now that we are done with croc­o­dile tears (gen­uine grief is never done with so fast), it is time for some bru­tal­ity. We are like the ancients who said: De mor­tuis nil nisi bonum⎯Only say good things of the dead. I see no bonum in that advice. I only see bunkum. What man­ner of man,

Nigeria: Welcome to Lagos III — Welthauptstadt Nigeria

In Part III of Wel­come to Lagos we see the grand vision of Lagos used to dis­place peo­ple with­out giv­ing them alter­na­tives — that is the injus­tice high­lighted for all to see.

Nigeria: Forced marriages and the age of consent

The for­mer Gov­er­nor of Zam­fara State, Sen­a­tor Sani Yer­ima has mar­ried a 13 year old Egypt­ian girl for whom he paid her fam­ily $100,000. The “mar­riage” is being dis­cussed in the news but no charges of rape and forced mar­riage are being pur­sued. Two other men, Har­ri­son Eze and Ade­mola Arog­boto have both been charged with rape

Nigeria: Welcome to Lagos II — Beyond Civic Pride

Part II of Wel­come to Lagos takes us to Makoko, built on a lagoon and bustling with activity.

Nigeria: Welcome to Lagos — An inspiration

Wel­come to Lagos, a BBC doc­u­men­tary of peo­ple who trump the dump with a story of life and abil­ity beyond the set­tings that would have oth­ers deem them caught in a poverty trap.