Nigeria

Nigeria Law Would Ban Gays from Associating
Lawmakers in Nigeria are considering enacting a law that would ban any form of association among gays, with penalties of up to five years in prison.

Nigeria Military and National Development
The Nigerian military has a rich pool of officers that can contribute to national development programmes even after retirement. They are privileged to undergo extensive training while in service. For the nation to benefit maximally from the investments on these officers' the prestigious national merit awards could be tagged to participation in a 2 year community development service in a countryside in Nigeria.

Tax Policy In Nigeria
This paper examined tax policy in Nigeria. It traced the history of tax in Nigeria and the implementation of tax policy in Nigeria. The paper argued that tax policy has been ineffective over the years. It found that the Federal Government has been working towards tax reforms. The paper highlighted the flaws in the tax reforms and made recommendations for effective tax system in Nigeria.

Electoral Reforms In Nigeria
This paper examined elections in Nigeria by highlighting the challenges and opportunities for electoral reforms in Nigeria.The paper recommended the need for political commitment from the political leadership for successful electoral reform. It also recommended that government should strengthen the independence and capacity of electoral body.

Brown to Hold Nigerian Oil Summit
Oil production collapses in Nigeria amid escalating violence against Western oil interests and workers

Cracks Begin to Show at Summit Discussing Gay Clergy Rift
Divisions arise at the Anglican conference as Archbishop of Nigeria talks of apostasy in the church

Nigeria Takes on Big Tobacco Over Campaigns That Target the Young
Developing world's first such case seeks £22bn from three cigarette firms

Children Are Targets of Nigerian Witch Hunt
Evangelical pastors are helping to create a terrible new campaign of violence against young Nigerians. Children and babies branded as evil are being abused, abandoned and even murdered while the preachers make money out of the fear of their parents and their communities

Briton Among Hostages in Nigerian Oilfield
Armed militants kidnapped seven oil workers, including one Briton, in the Niger Delta at the weekend.

British Girl Kidnapped in Nigeria is Released
Nigerian kidnappers have tonight released Margaret Hill, a three-year-old British girl they had seized in the city of Port Harcourt on Thursday.

Nigerian Kidnappers Threaten to Kill British Girl
The mother of a three-year-old British girl snatched in Nigeria has said the kidnappers phoned and threatened to kill her daughter.

British Girl, Three, Kidnapped in Nigeria
Foreign Office demands immediate release of toddler abducted at gunpoint in the Nigerian oil city of Port Harcourt.

Nigerian Gang Kidnaps Young Daughter of British Oil Consultant on Way to School
Three-year-old is first foreign child to be taken - Residents blame criminals rather than insurgents

British Girl Kidnapped in Nigeria, Police Say
Three-year-old girl kidnapped at gunpoint in oil city of Port Harcourt, according to police.

Nigeria Sues Pfizer for $7bn Over 'illegal' Tests on Children
The Nigerian government is suing the world's largest drug manufacturer, Pfizer, for allegedly carrying out illegal trials of an anti-meningitis drug that killed or disabled children.

Nigeria Sues Pfizer for £3.5bn Over 'illegal' Child Drug Trials
Unproven meningitis therapy 'killed 11 children' - Company says it followed country's rules

Nigeria's Coast
Chris McGreal on Nigeria's coast, which supplies the country with 90% of its foreign earnings, yet for years its wealth has been siphoned off by the government and oil companies.

Christians Live in Dread As New, Local Taliban Rises in the North of Nigeria
In areas such as Kano it is corruption, not religion, fuelling Muslim extremism in Nigeria.

Ruling Party Candidate Wins 'flawed' Nigerian Election
Nigeria's ruling party presidential candidate, Umaru Yar'Adua, was declared the winner today of the weekend's fraud-tainted election that the EU described as 'not credible' and Washington called 'deeply troubling'.

Ruling Party Named Winner in Disputed Nigerian Election
EU and US raise concerns over credibility of vote - President elect denies allegations of cheating

Calls for Rerun of 'sham' Elections Dismissed By Nigerian Government As Coup Attempt
Monitors report vote rigging and violence - Early results put the ruling party in the lead

Bombings and Chaos Blight Nigerian Polls
Outgoing President urges foreign observers not to 'exaggerate' problems as historic election begins.

Nigerians Go to Polls Amid Fresh Claims of Fraud
Millions of Nigerians vote today in a presidential election that has already been severely compromised by accusations of vote rigging, the detention of opposition activists and violence.

'It Doesn't Matter Who Runs This Country. They Get Rich, We Suffer'
Landmark presidential vote in Nigeria marred by corruption and ongoing power cuts.

Violence and Claims of Fraud Mar Nigeria Poll
More than 40 people have been killed and the ruling party has been accused of vote-rigging in the first stage of general elections in Nigeria, further undermining confidence in the prospect of a clean vote for the country's president this week.

Nigerian Vice-president Faces Corruption Charges
Nigerian senators have accused the country's vice-president, Atiku Abubakar, of diverting more than $100m (£51m) in public funds to private interests.

Us Kills Taliban Chief | Nigeria: Bird Flu Spreads
World Briefing: One of the most wanted Taliban commanders in Afghanistan has been killed by an...

Seized British Oil Worker Killed During Rescue Attempt
A British oil worker taken hostage by militants off the coast of Nigeria was killed during a rescue operation by Nigerian forces, it emerged last night.

Seized Briton Reported Killed During Rescue
Nigerian navy tries to free seven held by militants - Foreign Office urgently looking into reports

Nigeria Hostage Feared Dead is Freed
Oil worker and six others are safe, family is told, a day after reports said he was not coming home.

£21m Ransom Demand for Oil Workers Kidnapped in Nigeria
Intense negotiations were continuing last night to secure the release of four British oil workers who were kidnapped by a gang of armed militants in southern Nigeria.

Travel Warning: Nigeria
The Foreign Office today issued a warning against travelling to parts of Nigeria, following the kidnapping of four British oil workers in the country.

British Oil Workers Kidnapped From Nigerian Bar
· Militants snatch five foreigners after shootout · Attacks on industry cause 20% drop in production

Britons Seized From Nigerian Oil Rig
· Unknown attackers snatch eight on offshore platform · President joins urgent efforts to free hostages

Britons 'kidnapped From Nigerian Oil Rig'
Government officials are today investigating reports that up to six British workers have been abducted from an offshore oil rig in Nigeria.

China Extends Its Reach Into Africa With $1bn Deal for Nigeria's Railways
· Soft loan consolidates link with leading oil producer · Beijing spreads influence throughout continent

Shell Told to Pay Nigerians $1.5bn Pollution Damages
· Oil giant will appeal against court decision · Kidnap and sabotage cripple production

Revenge Attacks Kill 20 Nigerian Muslims
At least 20 people were killed in revenge attacks on Muslims in Nigeria yesterday as religious riots intensified a day after the country's ...

Nigerian Militants Step Up Sabotage of Oil Installations
· Crude price rises as attacks disrupt supply · Shell evacuates staff after pipeline targeted

Threat to Oil Tankers After Nigerian Rebels Kidnap Foreigners
Militants in the Niger delta threatened to escalate their campaign against oil exports yesterday by firing rockets at international tankers.

Nigeria Cartoon Riots Kill 16
Churches burned in widespread violence as Danish artist says he does not regret publication.

Bird Flu Discovered in Two More Nigerian States
Fears of an outbreak of bird flu in Africa grew yesterday after government officials confirmed that the deadly strain of the virus had ...

Nigeria Scrambles to Halt Spread of Deadly Bird Flu
World veterinary experts yesterday raced to help Nigeria attempt to contain a bird flu outbreak in the north of the country, as the arrival of the deadly H5N1 virus in Africa was confirmed.

Satellite Picture Shows Africa's Dying Lake
Lake Chad is disappearing. Satellite images published this week showed that you could walk across an expanse of what was once one of the world's largest lakes without getting your feet wet.

Fears for Nigerian Hostages As Captors Warn of Fresh Oil Attacks
Concern over four oil workers held hostage in Nigeria grew last night after their captors warned that one was gravely ill and that fresh attacks on oil installations were imminent.

Nigeria Told Not to Use Force to Free Oil Workers
British diplomatic officials today cautioned Nigeria against using force to free four oil workers kidnapped in the south of the country.

Free Treatment is the Key to Survival
Médecins Sans Frontières is running a campaigning clinic in Lagos, Nigeria.

Sailors Jailed in Nigeria for Smuggling Are Freed
Twelve Russian sailors who spent two years in a Nigerian prison on oil-smuggling charges returned home yesterday.

Fugitive State Governor Faces £32m Theft Charges
A Nigerian state governor who jumped bail in Britain dressed as a woman is facing charges at home of stealing $55m (£32m) in public funds.

11 Hurt in Clashes Over Ban on Female Taxi Passengers
Hundreds of taxi moped operators in the northern Nigerian city of Kano have clashed with Islamic authorities over a ban on women passengers, a new sharia law which they said deprived them of their best customers.

Nigerian Church Puts Texans' Love for Their Neighbours to the Test
Evangelicals' arrival in former Ku Klux Klan haunt brings old prejudices but also new tolerance.

Nigerian State Governor Dresses Up to Escape £1.8m Charges in Uk
A Nigerian state governor was back in trousers and at his desk yesterday after dressing up as a woman and skipping bail in Britain on charges of laundering £1.8m.

Spanish Look Into Death of Nigerian First Lady After Cosmetic Surgery
A Spanish judge yesterday ordered forensic scientists to determine whether Stella Obasanjo, wife of the Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, died because a cosmetic surgery operation went wrong.

100 Feared Dead in Nigeria After Passenger Jet Crashes
More than 100 passengers and crew are believed to have been killed when a Nigerian airliner crashed shortly after take-off on Saturday night.

Nigeria Set to Criminalise Spamming
Nigeria is considering making spamming a criminal offence for which senders of unsolicited emails could be imprisoned for at least three years.

Militants Threaten Nigerian Oil Stations After Leader's Arrest
A separatist militia threatening to spread 'violence and mayhem' throughout Nigeria's oil-producing delta has forced the closure of two oil installations and the evacuation of dozens of workers.

Nigeria at Risk of £17bn Default
Nigeria is heading towards an Argentinian-style default on its $33bn (£17bn) of overseas debt unless western creditors accept a deal to alleviate the country's financial burden, a delegation from west Africa's biggest economy said in London yesterday.

Life in Shadows for Invisible Workers Who Fear Deportation
The Neve Shaanan district of Tel Aviv provides accomodation for drug dealers, prostitutes and foreign workers. According to David from Nigeria, the only group that is hunted is the foreign workers. Conal Urquhart reports.

Strike Threatens Nigeria's Oil Production
Union in world's seventh-biggest exporter says it will shut down supplies if police harass protesters.

Nigeria Warning Pushes Oil Past $50
Pump prices return to level that sparked blockades. Oil prices set another record yesterday, pushing into uncharted territory above $50 a barrel as tension in Nigeria threatened to push petrol prices above the levels that caused fuel protests in 2000.

Rebels Threaten Nigeria's Oil Wells
A rebel group battling rival militias and government forces in Nigeria's oil-rich delta has threatened to target oil installations in an escalation of the conflict. Production in Africa's biggest oil exporter has not been disrupted by the fighting which has turned much of the region into...

Nigerian State Ready to Resume Polio Jabs
The Nigerian state of Kano, the centre of a polio outbreak in Africa, has pledged to resume vaccinations against the disease after accepting that immunisation was not a western plot to harm Muslims. The authorities told the World Health Organisation that an immunisation campaign would...

Nigerian State to Lift Ban on Polio Vaccine
The northern Nigerian state of Kano is preparing to reverse its boycott of polio inoculations, which caused a resurgence of the crippling disease and threatened an international campaign to eradicate it. Officials in Kano said they had received a "safe" batch of polio vaccines which had...

100 Die in Communal Fighting in Nigeria
More than 100 people were killed and 1,000 wounded in fresh ethnic and religious fighting in central Nigeria, the country's Red Cross reported yesterday. The border clashes highlight Nigeria's continuing tensions, with rural violence combining with growing friction between Muslim and...

Debut Novel From Nigeria Storms Orange Shortlist
A 25-year-old Nigerian teacher today becomes the first writer from the African country to reach the shortlist of a British literary prize. With her first novel, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has fought her way to the final heat of the £30,000 Orange award, defeating more than a dozen...

Nigeria Foils Plot to Oust President
Nigeria said yesterday that a number of military officers had been arrested following reports of a coup plot against the president, Olusegun Obasanjo. The president's spokeswoman, Remi Oyo, said "serious breaches of security", had prompted an investigation which led to the arrests...

Shell Plans 20% Job Cuts in Nigeria
Shell is threatening to cut 1,000 jobs in Nigeria, one of the countries at the centre of the company's "lost" reserves scandal. The planned 20% cut in the Nigerian workforce was revealed as the oil major struggles to reach a peace formula with the government there over allegations it has...

Pakistan May Make Nigeria a Nuclear Power
Pakistan yesterday offered to share military assistance, including 'nuclear power' with Nigeria, in defiance of President George Bush's new counter-proliferation initiative.

Polio Jabs a Us Plot, Claim Nigerian Muslims
A campaign to wipe out polio in Africa is being jeopardised by suspicions among Muslim leaders in Nigeria that the vaccination programme is an American plot to make Muslims infertile. A boycott of the oral polio vaccine spread to two more Muslim-dominated states in northern Nigeria...

Nigeria Launches Anti-graft Campaign
As president visits London, trial of officials marks bid to clean up image. Nigeria launched an anti-corruption drive yesterday when five former government officials charged with accepting bribes appeared in court for a test case of the country's desire to clean up its image.

Nigeria Accused of Oppression
US human rights activists accused the Nigeria government yesterday of torturing and killing scores of its critics over the past two years and urged the Commonwealth to address the abuses at its summit in Abuja this weekend. Human Rights Watch said at least 100 people had been killed...

Smugglers Use Tankers to Steal Nigerian Oil
Criminal gangs are siphoning so much crude oil from pipelines in the Niger delta that they have started using tankers to spirit it away.

Child Labourers Rescued From Nigerian Quarries
Ragged, exhausted and scarred, 74 children apparently sold into bondage were on their way home yesterday after being rescued from Nigerian granite quarries. The children, some just four years old, told aid workers at least 13 of their companions had died and been buried in shallow graves...

Nigerian Woman Escapes Death By Stoning
Amina Lawal, the Nigerian woman facing death by stoning for adultery, was spared yesterday when an Islamic appeals court overturned her conviction. The decision delighted human rights campaigners all over the world who had feared that the 32-year-old single mother would become the first...

Liberia promised Nigerian troops
Liberian rebels took control of a key bridge in the capital, Monrovia, yesterday before being beaten back by government troops.

Where Us Promises Proved Hollow
Nigerian villagers have learnt from recent history to treat the visit of an American president with scepticism.

Strike violence mounts in Nigeria
Police were accused of shooting dead at least 10 demonstrators in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos, yesterday as strikes and riots escalated just days before the US president's visit.

105 Die in Petrol Blast
The Nigerian Red Cross said yesterday that 105 people had been killed in a petrol pipeline explosion in south east Nigeria, but that it expected the toll to rise given the number of serious burns. Emmanuel Ijewere, president of the Nigerian Red Cross said: "The last report we received put...

100 Die As Nigerian Oil Pipeline Explodes
More than 100 villagers were killed in Nigeria after an oil pipeline punctured by thieves exploded as local people scavenged for fuel. The explosion happened last Thursday in the south-eastern community of Onicha Amiyi-Uhu, 35 miles north of the Abia state capital Umuahia, but reports...

Shell Opens Its Books on Nigeria
Shell has bowed to pressure from Tony Blair and human rights campaigners by publishing details of payments made to the Nigerian government, which amounted to $900m (£630m) last year. The information is included in a new report on its operations in the turbulent west African nation,...

Cheney firm paid millions in bribes to Nigerian official
The reputation of Halliburton, the oil industry giant once run by Vice-President Dick Cheney, took a new blow yesterday when it admitted one of its subsidiaries had paid millions of dollars to a Nigerian official in return for tax breaks.

Saving Amina
Five million people signed a petition to save this Nigerian woman from being stoned to death next month. But, say experts, the protest is mistaken and may even harm her cause. Libby Brooks investigates.

Nigeria Oil Rig Hostages to Be Freed
Striking Nigerian oil workers have agreed to release nearly 100 foreigners held on four offshore rigs for over two weeks, it was reported today. "Everybody is expected to be moving home from this evening, depending on logistics," Joseph Akilanja, the deputy president of the umbrella...

Nigeria Sends Warships to Free Oil Rig Hostages
Ships of the Nigerian navy were steaming towards four offshore oil rigs last night to confront striking workers who have held dozens of British and American colleagues hostage in a two-week stand-off. A navy spokesman said the warships would use force if necessary to take control of the...

An Uncertain Future
For the first time in Nigeria an elected civilian government has successfully conducted elections. But this does not mean they were democratic, writes Rory Carroll.

Nigerian opposition rejects election result
Nigeria's main opposition party yesterday rejected President Olusegun Obasanjo's victory in the presidential election and said it would not recognise his government.

Opposition Alleges Ballot Fraud in Nigeria
Early results showed President Olusegun Obasanjo sweeping to victory in Nigeria's presidential election last night, but opponents denounced the ballot as rigged. With under half the votes counted, the incumbent appeared assured of a second four-year term at the helm of Africa's most...

Nigeria Chooses Its 'big Man'
Millions queued in Nigeria yesterday to ink their left forefinger and smudge a ballot sheet to choose the next big man, the leader of the biggest democracy in Africa.

Tension Runs High As Nigeria Votes
The ethnic and religious cauldron that is Nigeria goes to the polls today to elect a president, in what is being billed as a crucial test for democracy in Africa. Warnings of bloodshed and fraud heightened tension as 60 million registered voters prepared to cast ballots in the shadow of previous...

Election violence hits Nigeria
Clashes flared across Nigeria between police and rival political factions yesterday amid heightened tension caused by today's parliamentary election.

The Nigerian Elections
Oliver Owen explains the background to the elections being held tomorrow in the west African nation of Nigeria.

Shell faces violence in Nigeria
Violence has escalated in the volatile Niger delta with up to 15 people killed in intercommunity conflicts in the past week and oil companies forced to evacuate staff and cut production.

Nigerian President Fights for Survival
Nigeria's president, Olusegun Obasanjo, was fighting for his political life last night as the ruling party considered dumping him and selecting one of his rivals to lead it in elections in April. His allies spent yesterday lobbying key delegates at the People's Democratic party convention...

Nigeria's big idea for the trains: call in Virgin
It is riven by corruption and organised crime, and cannot host a beauty contest without religious riots but Nigeria has a masterplan to make the trains run on time: Virgin Rail.

The Truth Behind the Miss World Riots
The unrest in Nigeria was more about old grudges than a beauty contest - and it has left deep wounds.

Fatwa is Issued on Nigerian Journalist
An Islamist state government in northern Nigeria has issued a fatwa urging Muslims to kill the British-educated author of the newspaper article on the Miss World contest which triggered three days of religious rioting that left more than 220 people dead. Isioma Daniel, who studied...

The Show Goes on for Miss World, But So Does the Killing
Miss World In London: smiles from the beauty contestants. In Nigeria: 200 dead, 12,000 homeless.

Ugly saga of Miss World reveals split
The cancellation of the Miss World contest in Nigeria is a major blow to the Nigerian government of President Olusegun Obasanjo, which will be seen as suffering from political weakness whenever it is confronted with 'Sharia' or Islamic Law.

Miss World's Nigerian Odyssey Abandoned After Three Days of Rioting Leave 100 Dead
Clashes between Muslims and Christians force pageant to switch to London.

Miss World Riots Leave 100 Dead
Rioting between mobs of Muslims and Christians has killed as many as 100 people and seriously injured 500 others in northern Nigeria, Red Cross officials said today. In the northern city of Kaduna, gangs of Christian youths retaliated against Muslims in the third day of riots over the...

No Stoning, Nigerian Minister Vows
Nigeria acted to avert threatened boycotts of the Miss World beauty pageant yesterday by promising to stop Islamic courts carrying out executions by stoning. The minister of state for foreign affairs, Dubem Onyia, said: "Nobody will ever be stoned as a result of sharia law. Nobody...

Nigeria sends jets to Ivory Coast conflict
Nigeria has sent three warplanes to Ivory Coast to help its government confront the rebels holding two key cities, and has put ground troops on alert.

Nigeria faces walkout by Miss World
Beauty queens furious at stoning sentence on woman. The Miss World contest, due to be held in Nigeria in November, may be transferred to another venue because some contestants say that they do not want to glorify a country where a woman can be sentenced to death for adultery.

Sharia Law
Susie Steiner explains the Islamic legal system which has sentenced a Nigerian woman to be stoned to death.

Nigeria Warns Miss World Contestants to Beware of Sharia Law
Nigeria has warned Miss World contestants to steer clear of parts of the country practising sharia law during the pageant's finals in the capital, Abuja, in November. The contest has been threatened with disruption by Islamist groups from Nigeria's predominantly Muslim north, with many...

Nigerian women storm oil stations
Unarmed village women stormed four ChevronTexaco pipeline stations as protests against the oil giant spread in south-eastern Nigeria, ethnic activists said yesterday.

Over 120 die as airliner crashes in Nigerian city
Death rains down on shanty town.

Nigerian Woman to Hear Verdict on Death By Stoning
Nigerian human rights lawyers have expressed cautious optimism that an Islamic court of appeal will lift the sentence of death by stoning imposed on a woman convicted of adultery. Their hope that Safiya Huseini, a 35-year-old mother of two, will be freed today is based on a statement by...

Ethnic Violence Kills More Than 100 in Lagos
The Nigerian Red Cross said yesterday that at least 100 people have died in three days of religious and ethnic violence in Lagos. After the Yoruba and Hausa gangs which led the slaughter and razed hundreds of homes retreated from the streets yesterday, the army swept through the afflicted...

Dozens Die in Nigerian Race Attacks on Eve of Blair Visit
Thousands of people fled new ethnic violence in Lagos yesterday that has left dozens of people dead, on the eve of a visit to Nigeria by Tony Blair to back the country's return to democratic rule after decades of military dictatorship. After two days of fighting, the army was finally...

Nigerians Blame Military Negligence for Blast
Residents of Nigeria's commercial capital today demanded an independent inquiry after more than 600 people were killed by a series of explosions at a military dump in Lagos As public feelings against the military ran high, the governor of Lagos, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, blamed the deaths on...

Explosions 'kill 500' in Nigeria
As many as 500 bodies were reportedly recovered today after explosions tore through a military arms depot in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos. Hundreds of residents were reported to have drowned after plunging into a canal as they fled a chain reaction of blasts, believed to have been...

Explosions kill 100 in Nigeria
A series of large explosions which sent fireballs and smoke into the sky over Nigeria's commercial capital after an accident at a munitions depot last night has left at least 100 people dead. According to BBC reports, at least 100 people are now known to have drowned in a canal in Lagos...

Union chief held as fuel price rise fires up Nigerians
The Nigerian police arrested the leader of the national trade union confederation and fought street battles with youths as a general strike against a rise in the low petrol price shut down Lagos and other cities. The government won a court injunction declaring the strike illegal on the...

Defiant Nigeria to import cheap copies of HIV drugs
Nigeria has defied pressure from multinational pharmaceutical companies by becoming the first African country to import cheap copies of patented Aids drugs in a move watched closely by other states on the continent worst hit by the disease. The groundbreaking decision will infuriate big...