Nigeria

Hedge funds drive food price rises

World prices for basic food commodities (grains, soyabeans, vegetable oils) were up 40% in May 2021 on their level in May 2020, and the trend is accelerating. The impact on food prices in shops is high at present in Nigeria and West Africa. It has been low in Britain, Europe, the USA, and China. Food prices are now moderating in India, after about 10% inflation in 2020. Shop food prices depend on processing costs as well as world basic-commodity prices, and those may filter through into shop prices only with delay. Still, the rise in the underlying index is comparable in size to the food...

"Everyone is a bit frazzled" (Diary of a Tube worker)

“And now it is in Nigeria, and it’s bad. It is the big parties spreading it. People are still going to them, they don’t know what it’s like here. I need to call my sister so she knows what happens when it is out of control. But you know it wasn’t Nigerians there that got coronavirus, it was all of us going back home and visiting. More Nollywood actresses have got it now, it is the parties I am telling you!” C is at once both the most Covid-alarmist worker on the station and also the greatest believer in the conspiracy theories associated with it. No one wipes down as many surfaces as C as they...

Nigeria: police killings spark protests

Ejike Ikezuagu and Princess Dandison were among the organisers of the End SARS UK march in London on 24 October (protesters pictured above). They spoke to Sacha Ismail from Solidarity . Since it was created in 1992 SARS [the Special Anti-Robbery Squad police unit] has targeted young people. In Nigeria the youth face a very bad situation; people leave education but there are no jobs. Instead of helping them, the government treats them as yahoos or scammers or criminals. When they see young people with a car or nice clothes or even a nice hairstyle, they will question them, demand to know their...

Stop this slave trade!

Recent reports about the Libyan slave trade adds further to the horror of what is going on in Libya and across the south Mediterranean region. The Libyan slave trade has been known to be in operation for years. It accompanies the brutal exploitation of those fleeing poverty in Sudan, Chad and Nigeria. It is well illustrated by the story of Victor Imasuen, the young Nigerian interviewed by US broadcaster CNN on his return to Nigeria, a video that subsequently went viral. Unemployment and poverty in Nigeria mushroomed in the wake of the 2014 collapse of oil prices. This in part led to the 2015...

International news: Istanbul men protest, Turkish healthworkers and Nigerian teachers

On 6 December 2014 Maltepe University Hospital in Istanbul dismissed 98 workers, for being members of the Progressive Union of Health Workers. The workers joined the union to seek to improve their working conditions in the hospital. They demanded higher wages, which have been promised for several years, and shorter working hours. Several of the sacked workers were working in the hospital for more than 10 years and received several awards. There are disabled workers as well as couples among them. Many families have been left without income. Workers’ Liberty will be joining LabourStart to gather...

Boko Haram kidnaps 80

On Monday 19 January the ultra-Islamist Boko Haram crossed the border from Nigeria into northern Cameroon and attacked villages, kidnaping eighty people, mostly children. This latest attack is part of a bid by the group to carve out an Islamic state in north-east Nigeria. In the last five years around 16,000 have been killed and 1.5 million displaced. Boko Haram now control 20,000 square miles of territory, an area the size of Belgium. Boko Haram have stepped up their attacks as Nigeria’s presidential election approaches (14 February); their attacks have included using children as suicide...

Monthly survey

Russia after the elections (interview with Boris Kagarlitsky) Hopes and fears in Bosnia (Chris Reynolds) Oppose the Asylum Bill! (Dale Street) Who backs Scargills SLP? (Tom Willis) Stalemate in N.Ireland. Why? (John O' Brien) Defend Nigerias workers! Mark (Sandell) Blackboard jungles: why school violence? Download PDF

Homophobia: a colonial legacy

As the Commonwealth Games gets underway in Glasgow, various LGBTI rights groups have been raising awareness about the oppression of LGBTI people in the countries taking part. In 42 out of the 53 Commonwealth countries, same-sex relationships are a crime. In northern Nigeria, some states have the death penalty. The Commonwealth Charter does not mention LGBTI rights. Edwin Sesange, from the Out and Proud Diamond Group, writes in Gay Star News, 'This isn't about abstract “laws”. Legislation wrecks LGBTI people's lives, even leaving some of them dead. Millions of our [LGBTI] brothers and sisters...

Boko Haram and Nigerian capitalism

Although Boko Haram’s terror campaign hit the world headlines with its kidnapping of school girls, this group’s hatred of education is not new. Earlier this year, they attacked a boy’s school killing the children in their beds and burning down the school. What conditions have given rise to the Islamist group? Boko Haram are based in the northern Nigerian states of Borno, Adamawa, Kaduna, Bauchi, Yobe and Kano. They want to end all secular education, and their name roughly translates as “Western education is forbidden”. They also want to impose a stricter sharia law on the people of Nigeria. A...

Boko Haram and #Bringbackourgirls

I am not a fan of conspiracy theories... not just because they are mostly misguided but because they do tend to cause pain to victims and their families. However, I know that silence in the face of oppression is never the answer. If things don’t add up in the Chibok kidnappings, better to voice concerns than keep silent especially since I can’t keep saying “No comment” whenever I am asked to comment on the issue. Boko Haram is real. It is a monster that has claimed many innocent lives and blown children up in their dormitories since it started its nefarious activities in Nigeria. However, the...

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