Nigeria

31/01/2013 / NIGERIA

Anger in Nigeria: Official steals 110 million euros, fined 3,500

 
Hundreds of protesters descended on Nigeria’s justice ministry in Abuja on Wednesday after a court handed down a strangely lenient sentence to an official convicted of embezzlement. The former boss of Nigeria’s police pension fund, John Yakubu Yusufu, was convicted Monday with stealing 23.3 billion Nigerian naira (about 110 million euros) meant for retired police officers. A judge gave him the choice of either spending two years in jail or paying 750,000 naira (about 3,500 euros). Unsurprisingly, he chose the latter option. Read more…
Contributors

Otunba Dino Melaye

»
14/01/2013 / NIGERIA

Four months after devastating floods, Nigerian farmers are at their wits’ end

 
Last summer, Nigeria suffered its worst flooding in 50 years. Four months on, small farmers in Kogi state, the worst affected zone in the centre of the country, are struggling to rebuild a normal life after their harvest was destroyed. Our Observer reports on the alarming state of the agricultural sector there. Read more...
 
 
Contributors

Steve Crabtree

»
07/11/2012 / WORLD

From Iran to DR Congo, our Observers share reactions to Obama’s win

 
As soon as Barack Obama’s re-election was announced, Internet users from around the world went online to react to the news. Our Observers sent us some of the most interesting comments they spotted, giving us an idea of how Obama’s win is viewed outside of the United States. Some are enthusiastic, others blasé, and yet others downright funny. Read more…

Contributors

Team Observers

»
10/10/2012 / NIGERIA

Nigerian student lynching video prompts protests

 
Four students from the University of Port Harcourt, in southern Nigeria, were burned alive Friday by locals who accused them of being thieves. A horrific video of the scene has since surfaced online, angering their classmates, some of whom reportedly decided to get revenge by setting fires in the part of town where the young men were killed. Read more…
Contributors

Michael Lestat

Robert Port Harcourt

»
01/10/2012 / NIGERIA - SAUDI ARABIA

Nigerian women stopped from reaching Mecca: ‘We’re not living in the Prophet’s times!’

 
Saudi Arabia has begun expelling over a thousand Nigerian women who had come on a religious pilgrimage to Mecca because they were not accompanied by male guardians. Our Observer, a Nigerian blogger, denounces this as an outdated vision of Islam. Read more...
Contributors

Abubakr Siddeeq

»
28/06/2012 / NIGERIA

Living in fear of Boko Haram: “I did not dare go to church”

 
As the Islamist militant group Boko Haram continues to terrorise northern Nigeria, residents of Kaduna are still reeling from the simultaneous bombing of three churches a week and a half ago. One of our Observers in Kaduna tells us these attacks convinced many Christians to leave town, while those who have stayed face an uncertain future. Read more...
Contributors

Paul Aminu

»
30/05/2012 / NIGERIA

Nigerian students outraged at decision to rename University of Lagos

 
Students at the University of Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, are fighting for the university to keep its name. For a second day in a row, they are holding protests against President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision to rename it “Moshood Abiola University.” Read more...

Contributors

Team Observers

»
26/04/2012 / NIGERIA

Lagos motorcycle-taxi ban dismays commuters

 
It was already hard enough getting around traffic-plagued Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city. Now, however, it’s become even tougher: authorities have banned motorcycle-taxis in part of the city. While they have been accused of causing many accidents, these taxis are extremely popular with local residents, many of whom depend on this means of transportation in a city where paralysing traffic jams are the norm. Read more...

Contributors

Olusegun Iselaiye

»
16/01/2012 / NIGERIA

Nigerian army website hacked by protesters

Contributors

Team Observers

»
31/08/2011 / LIBYA

Ivorian immigrant in Tripoli: “We blacks are brutalized because of our skin colour”

 
Sub-Saharan African immigrants living in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, are greatly suffering from the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s government and the arrival of anti-Gaddafi forces. One illegal immigrant from the Ivory Coast told FRANCE 24 that opposition fighters attack every black person they come across, because they think they are mercenaries working for the former regime. Read his account…
Contributors

Sakia

»
Close