Nigeria News

Register now to receive our news updates via our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

The European Commission has  signed a multi-million euro agreement that aims to help Nigeria tackle development challenges in the areas of governance, trade and peace.

The agreement, signed in Brussels by European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Karel De Gucht, and by Nigeria’s Executive Secretary of the National Planning Commission, Professor Sylvester Monye, is an ambitious step forward in cooperation and is a direct result of the Nigeria-EU political dialogue.

It reinforces cooperation in three strategic areas: peace and security; governance and human rights; trade and regional integration with € 677 million for the period 2009 – 2013 financed through the European Development Fund.

The European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid Karel De Gucht said:

“This agreement shows that Europe stands by Nigeria and its people in the development challenges it faces. I’m delighted that a substantial amount of this financing will go to support conflict resolution and the peace process in the Niger Delta which has been ravaged by years of unrest. We are fully committed to supporting the Government of Nigeria in the process of restoring peace and bringing development to the region.”

The agreement known as the “Country Strategy Paper and National Indicative Programme” (CSP/NIP) of the 10th European Development Fund (EDF) will provide a total of € 677 million between now and 2013 for:

The programmable funds will be used for the following purposes:

·         peace and security: €166 million (25% of the total amount) will be invested, inter alia, in the fight against organised crime, improved migration management and prevention of human trafficking, support for the peace process and conflict prevention in the Niger Delta and support for international mandates on conflict prevention;

·         governance and human rights: €297 million (44%) will be used, inter alia, to support the judiciary and prison reform, support anti-corruption bodies, the electoral cycle for 2011-15, federal governance reforms, local governance reforms in focal states, enhanced effectiveness of non-state actors and of mass media communications;

·         trade, regional integration and energy: €105 million (16%) will be used, inter alia, to support trade and regional integration, the EPA development programme and improvement of competitiveness in the private sector, and energy security;

·         non-focal sectors: €99 million (15%) will be divided among three main sectors: environmental protection and climate change, health and immunisation, cultural and scientific and technical cooperation; support is also planned, inter alia, for the national authorising office, studies and training.

20 year old Nigeria’s Joy Obasi has emerged winner of the 2009 Miss Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Peace  pageant held in southeast Nigeria’s Rivers State
13 other ECOWAS member-states participated in the  keenly-contested pageant

Obasi went home with a star prize of a 2009 model of Toyota Corolla car, 5,000 U. S. dollars in cash, an ECOWAS Mantle and other gifts, including a laptop.

The new queen,  is the second of five children and a fourth-year student of Biology at the University of Port Harcourt
The first runner-up was Sherilyn Partey of Ghana, who received a cash prize of 3,000 dollars, while Marceline Diop of Senegal got a cash prize of 2,000 dollars for emerging as the second runner-up.

Joy was crowned by the winner of the 2008 Miss ECOWAS Peace Pageant, Miss Fatoumata Diallo, of Senegal.

Mohamed Ibn Chambas, president of the ECOWAS commission, said the role of such pageants as a mechanism for transmitting culture and cementing relations among the people of the region could not be underestimated.

“Culture is undeniably a unifying factor among peoples like us in West Africa with identical cultural values and traits,” the statement quoted Chambas as saying.

According to him, culture created bonds, affinity and unity that enabled the people to overcome obstacles that could ordinarily frustrate integration efforts.

Chambas said the choice of River State as the venue for the competition for the second consecutive edition was predicated on the need to showcase the peace in Rivers.

The Miss ECOWAS Peace Pageant is an initiative of 702 Productions Ltd, an Accra-based events management company, as a platform for promoting peace and the youth agenda of the ECOWAS Commission to the global community.

11 Nigerian pilgrims have died in Saudi Arabia, the News Agency of Nigeria reported on Thursday.

Disclosing this, the Head of the Nigerian government medical team to the 2009 pilgrimage, Ibrahim Kana said two of the deceased were knocked down by vehicles in Mecca and Medina, while two died of diarrhea and vomiting, one of epilepsy, another of pneumonia and the rest of natural causes. (more…)

Assets worth $350m (£212m)  belonging to the son of Nigeria’s former Military ruler, Abba Abacha has been seized by a Swiss court

Abba Abacha was convicted of being a member of a criminal organisation and given a suspended custodial sentence.

Switzerland began investigating the Abacha family in 1999 and has so far handed back about $700m to Nigeria.

Nigerian state lawyers believe Sani Abacha, who ruled from 1993 until his death in 1998, may have stolen $2.2bn.

The Swiss authorities pursued Abba Abacha for six years before extraditing him from Germany in 2005.

“The examining magistrate sentenced him to a suspended jail term, and ordered the confiscation of his assets of $350m,” Geneva canton’s justice office said in a statement.

“[The money] is held by his criminal organisation and seized through international assistance in Luxembourg and the Bahamas.”

Abba Abacha can appeal against the judgement.

African Nations Cup Groups

Group A (Luanda): Angola, Mali, Malawi, Algeria.
Group B (Cabinda): Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo.
Group C (Benguela): Egypt, Nigeria, Mozambique, Benin.
Group D (Lubango): Cameroon, Gabon, Zambia, Tunisia.

Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua has thanked  visiting President of Burkina Faso Blaise Compaore for his untiring efforts toward addressing the Guinean problem.

“President Compaore, who is the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) mediator and facilitator for the crisis in Guinea, came for a consultation meeting regarding the situation in Guinea,” President Yar adua  told reporters on Monday (more…)

New Zealand, Denmark, Singapore and Sweden are the least corrupt nations in the world while Somalia, Afghanistan, Myanmar, and  Sudan are the most corrupt, according to Transparency International ’s 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), a measure of domestic, public sector corruption just released

The ratings of the 180 nations, ranks Nigeria 130th alongside nations such as Mozambique, Uganda, Nicaragua,  Mauritania and Libya

Nigeria has a low Corruption Perception Index (DPI) of 2.5 on a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 10 (perceived to have low levels of corruption). The CPI measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption in a given country and is a composite index, drawing on 13 different expert and business surveys.

The full report can be accessed at- www.transparency.org

A study by Madinah’s Haj Committee’y revealed on Saturday that Nigerians are the second largest visitor to Madinah

According to the report, the majority of visitors to Madinah were from Indonesia (54,664), followed by Nigeria (35,867) and India (29,748).

It said 59 flights carrying almost 18,000 pilgrims have landed at Prince Muhammad bin Abdul Aziz International Airport.

The report said 563 buses arrived in Madinah transporting over 25,000 pilgrims, while 598 buses left Madinah for Makkah carrying almost 27,000 pilgrims.

Super Eagles Striker Osaze Odemwingie wants Nigerians to continue to support the Super Eagles, until the final whistle is blow in this weekends world cup match against the Kenya National side

“They need to send us the positive energy that we need to deliver,” he said. “We need everyone to believe in us – that we will win and we will qualify.”

Nigeria is walking on a tight rope to qualify for the 2010 world cup as it has to defeat Kenya this weekend and hope the Mozambique national team will lose to current Group leaders-Tunisians (more…)

A one-day Nigeria-EU summit on Climate change ended yesterday with officials of  Nigeria and the European Union (EU) urging  global agreement on Climate Change Summit scheduled for December in Copenhagen, Denmark.

A  communiqué  of the  summit stated that there was the need to reach an effective, equitable and ambitious global agreement at the summit. (more…)