Nigeria's Economy 'll Collapse Unless -- Eze

ABUJA—chairman, Senate Committee on Works, Senator Ayogu Eze, yesterday, raised alarm that unless the Federal Government took urgent measures on the deplorable situation of the nation’s roads, the economy stood the risk of imminent collapse.

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Nigerian Jungle Blues: Trans Amadi Slaughter House

A young man carries an animal carcass through the Trans-Amadi Slaughter, the main abbatoir of Port Harcourt.


A butcher cuts up a cow carcass amidst a pool of blood and guts, at the Trans-Amadi Slaughter, the main abbatoir of Port Harcourt. At the slaughter, animals are killed in the open, their blood spilt into the waterways below and their skin is burned by the flames of old tires, which creates thick clouds of black smoke over the city. Fish had been the traditional source of protein in the Niger Delta, but as fish stocks have dwindled due to pollution from the oil industry and over fishing, meat is becoming more common. Date: June 20, 2006. Location: Port Harcourt. Image: Ed Kashi


Amidst the bones and smoke, a young girl sells drinks to the workers at the Trans-Amadi Slaughter, the main abbatoir of Port Harcourt. At the slaughter, animals are killed in the open, their blood spilt into the waterways below and their skin is burned by the flames of old tires, which creates thick clouds of black smoke over the city. Fish had been the traditional source of protein in the Niger Delta, but as fish stocks have dwindled due to pollution from the oil industry and over fishing, meat is becoming more common. Date: June 20, 2006. Location: Port Harcourt. Image: Ed Kashi

New Report Expose Shell Complicity In Nigerian Human Rights Abuses

Graphic: Guardian
By John Donovan, Royal Dutch Shell PLC

Shell fueled human rights abuses in Nigeria by paying huge contracts to armed militants, according to a new report published today by Platform and a coalition of NGOs and featured in The Guardian.

This evening we received an email of thanks from Ben Amunwa of platformlondon.org. Ben is the author of the 41 page report called Counting the Cost, which uncovers how Shell’s routine payments to armed militants exacerbated conflicts, in one case leading to the destruction of Rumuekpe town where it is estimated that at least 60 people were killed.

Shell also continues to rely on Nigerian government forces who have perpetrated systematic human rights abuses against local residents, including unlawful killings, torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.

What writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa dubbed the “slick alliance” between oil multinationals and the Nigerian military is alive and harmful as ever. Shell’s operations remain inextricably linked to human rights violations committed by government forces. The Nigerian government, driven to keep oil revenues flowing and working in close partnership with oil multinationals, has heavily militarised the Delta. Shell alone has hired over 1,300 government forces as armed guards. For communities, the impacts have been devastating and are in addition to ongoing environmental damage from oil spills and gas flaring.

Commenting on the report, Nnimmo Bassey of Friends of the Earth International said: “Shell’s obligations are clear: it must clean up after decades of devastating oil spills, end the illegal practice of gas flaring and compensate the victims of human rights abuses in Nigeria. It is unacceptable that Shell continues to deny responsibility, while pushing communities deeper into poverty and fuelling destructive conflicts.”

“Shell’s divisive practices have led to daily human rights violations in the Niger Delta,” added Geert Ritsema from Friends of the Earth Netherlands. “Many of the victims have no access to justice and cannot afford to take the oil giant to court. Lawsuits in Nigeria can take decades to resolve and the remedies are often inadequate. Yet Shell must be held accountable for its environmental destruction and complicity in human rights abuses in Nigeria, and home governments like the UK and Netherlands must ensure that remedies are available and accessible to the victims.”

Interviews with Ben Amunwa and the former Royal Dutch Shell Group Chairman, Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, will be aired during a related feature on the BBC World Service “Business Daily” at 8.30am tomorrow, Tuesday 4 October.

I have been reporting on these disturbing matters since 2007 e.g. Is Shell skulduggery in Nigeria pumping up global oil prices?: 18 July 2007. The astonishing revelations in my article came from a high level manager inside Shell Nigeria.

Documentary: Orphans and Vulnereable Children in Nigeria

Justice Development Peace Commission, JDPC, is actively involved in peacebuilding, early warning, early response and conflict mapping in this area because of tribal violence. Father John Attah is the coordinator of JDPC, he is wearing a white frock. Every three months they have events in the area of the communities involved, including the Agbaduma area, of Agatu local government. This month they are having a Peace rally with speakers being from the Methodist Church, the Catholic churches and the four chiefs of the involved tribes. One community, Ekaidar, was distroyed this past April by people from the Egba community because of misconceptions. Five people were killed. Father John with local villagers and police tour the damage. Police are also involved in the peace-building activities. Date: August 27, 2010. Location: Obagijir, Benue. Image: Karen Kasmauski for CRS


Akula Ajir, 10 years old is part of the OVC program in Makurdi district, Nigeria. His mother and father have died of AIDS. He lives with his mother's sisters, Rose Ahua and her husband Justin Ahua. They are both HIV positive and volunteers with the Makundi Diocese volunteer program . The Ahua have three children of their own, including an adult daughter who is married and has a three month child. Akula does jobs around the compound including the laundry. He baths his little brother, Tersoo and little sister, Mrumun. CRS pays for him to go to school as well as his health visits. He is frequently visited by the head nurse of local health clinic, Fidelia Nyior (she is wearing a blue dress) He also hangs out with his buddies, his peers for meetings and general support. Date: August 23, 2010. Location: Makurdi, Benue. Image: Karen Kasmauski for CRS.


Orphans & Vulnerable Children in Nigeria
Parish of SS Peter and Paul in the village of Aliade, Nigeria supports the OVC program along with CRS. One of the members is Magdalene Shemba. Her caregiver is her father, Mathew Shemba who is also PLHIV. She works with her sister, Jennifer,18, cooking dinner and cleaning. She also meet with her peer group young women who are OCV between the ages of 11-18. She is wearing green dress and then changes into a white shirt with black strips and a pink skirt.Date: August 24, 2010. Location: Aliade, Benue. Image: Karen Kasmauski for CRS.

Images: Nigerian Jungle Blues

This one here beats me...Getting high on his own supply


10 Dec 2008, LAGOS, Nigeria --- A child washes clothes in Iwaya, one of the poorest areas of Lagos --- Image by Friday Zannu/Handout/Reuters


01 Feb 1999, Finima, Nigeria --- Flooding in the Niger Delta --- Image by George Steinmetz


2005, Lagos, Nigeria --- Cars Passing Checkpoint in Nigeria --- Image by James Marshall


28 Jul 2004, Afiesere town, Delta, Nigeria --- Urohobos Bake Tapioca in the Heat of a Shell Gas Flare Site --- Image by Ed Kashi/Corbis Images

Nigerian Jungle Blues: Ghetto Life Images V

Nigerian Jungle Blues and Sunday Cartoons

The ACF, Sunday Vanguard can also reveal, is insisting that the zoning arrangement of the PDP is a sure panacea for the evolution of equity in the country. A source in the party’s Board of Trustees, BoT, told Sunday Vanguard that “what we are hearing is that the Acting President wants to contest the presidential election of next year and it is dividing the party....MORE @ VANGUARD


SOURCE: GUARDIAN


SOURCE: SUNDAY TRUST


SOURCE: SUN NEWS ONLINE

Nigerian Jungle Blues and Tuesday Cartoons

Palpable tension has gripped the House of Representatives, over plot to remove the Speaker, Dimeji Bankole. Bankole is among some notable Nigerians including no fewer than five governors who are currently stranded in Europe due to the volcanic ash, which led to cancellation of flights.
As members of the Nigeria First Forum (NFF) who are pushing for Bankole’s removal confirmed the plot and the scheduling of a meeting for last night to fine-tune their strategies, there is uncertainty over whether the House, which had been on Easter vacation would sit today... MORE @ SUN NEWS ONLINE


SOURCE: DAILY TRUST


SOURCE: SUN NEWS ONLINE


SOURCE: GUARDIAN

Nigerian Jungle Blues and Sunday Cartoons

When a religious crisis convulsed the city, a handful of fundamentalists were hot on his trail. They stormed his office and dragged him out by the scruff of his pastor’s collar to the back of his office. After beating him unconscious, his assailants crudely cut off his testicles with a sharp dagger and plucked out his right eye. They went away triumphantly with these vital body parts as a trophy and he was left to bleed to death. More @ Sun News


SOURCE: Sun News Online


SOURCE: PUNCH


SOURCE: Guardian


SOURCE: Sunday Trust

Nigerian Jungle Blues and Sunday Cartoons

Fresh troubles may be in the horizon for members of the kitchen cabinet of ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua as they are said to be explaining how they disbursed a whopping N70 billion allegedly on behalf of the former Katsina governor as security vote between November 2009 and January 2010. Sources claimed that two former close allies of the ailing leader who failed to make it back to the newly reconstituted cabinet by acting President Goodluck Jonathan, are said to be answering questions over the manner the money was spent and for what purpose... MORE @ SUN NEWS ONLINE


Posers Over Cleric's Visit to Yar'Adua: Thursday’s unexpected visit by four Islamic clerics to ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, has sparked fresh anxiety in the polity with questions now being asked about the propriety of allowing the clerics access to the President while same is denied Acting President Goodluck Jonathan... MORE @ VANGUARD


SOURCE: SUN NEWS ONLINE


SOURCE: GUARDIAN


SOURCE: PUNCH

Nigerian Jungle Blues and Cartoons

Senate, Reps okay N4.6 trn budget: ABUJA—THE National Assembly, yesterday, approved a harmonized N4.6 trillion 2010 budget for the Federal Government directed at boosting infrastructure development across the country. Underlining its priority for infrastructure development, the budget has set N1.85 trillion representing 40 per cent of the total budget for capital expenditure. It is the highest proportion earmarked for capital development since the return to democratic rule in 1999.... MORE @ VANGUARD


There is unquantifiable shock in the camps of three former governors over the failure of the ex-state chief executives to make Acting President Goodluck Jonathan’s ministerial list.
A highly-placed Presidency source told correspondents in Abuja yesterday that until what seemed to be a Jonathan shocker earlier in the week, the trio of Chief Achike Udenwa, Dr. Sam Egwu and Obong Victor Attah, former governors of Imo, Ebonyi and Akwa Ibom states respectively, were said to be very sure of landing ministerial nominations... MORE @ SUN NEWS ONLINE


SOURCE: PUNCH


SOURCE: SUN NEWS ONLINE



SOURCE: DAILY TRUST

Nigerian Jungle Blues and Sunday Cartoons

Deposed emir of Gwandu and former ADC to former Head of State, Major- General Mohammad Buhari (rtd), Major Al-Mustapha Jokolo (rtd), seldom grants press interviews. But each time he does, he comes out smoking, sparing no one or issue in the process. After about one year of persuasion, he reluctantly granted Sunday Sun an exclusive interview last Friday on topical national issues, most importantly on the return of Aliyu Gusau, former National Security Adviser, NSA to IBB and Obasanjo, to the corridors of power... MORE @ SUN NEWS ONLINE


US okays Jonathan’s style: Acting President Goodluck Jonathan’s consolidation of his grip on power is drawing applause from the United States of America which says his efforts are easing a political crisis that once fanned fears of instability in the country. Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson said Washington was encouraged that Jonathan was moving on electoral reforms, anti-corruption efforts and peace outreach in the restive Niger Delta, the centre of Nigeria’s largest energy industry... MORE @ VANGUARD


SOURCE: SUN NEWS ONLINE


SOURCE: SUNDAY TRUST

Nigerian Jungle Blues and Monday Cartoons

Participants decry bombing at Post Amnesty programme: The first dynamite exploded at about 11.05, this was minutes before Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta state drove into the premises of the event. The coincidence caused many to think that the explosion was probably a canon shot fired to herald the coming of the governor who led other dignitaries like governors Adams Oshiomole of Edo state, Ikedi Ohakim of Imo state, the Minister of Niger Delta, Chief Ufot Ekaette and several others... MORE @ VANGUARD


SOURCE: DAILY TRUST


SOURCE: SUN NEWS ONLINE


SOURCE: PUNCH


SOURCE: NIGER DELTA STANDARD


SOURCE: GUARDIAN