International flights to Nigeria may be suspended from tomorrow as a coalition of unions in the aviation industry yesterday warned all international airlines flying into Nigeria to suspend their operations. (more…)
Sokari Ekine, a nigeria female blogger and activist has been nominated as one of the about 50 influential, knowledgeable and popular bloggers from the G20 countries and the developing world will report live and direct from the G20 summit in London.
Ekine will be among these bloggers who will engage with and influence world leaders on issues including development, climate change and women’s rights. The bloggers were nominated by the public, with more than 700 nominations received in 12 days.
Sokari Ekine is a G20Voice blogger. http://www.whitebandaction.org/en/g20voice/blog
She blogs at www.blacklooks.org
She says, “I am a Nigerian social justice activist who has been directly involved as in various campaigns and advocacy projects for 20 years. In 2004 I founded Black Looks, a Pan African blog covering a range issues, one of the few African blogs reporting and commenting on LGBTIQ rights in Africa and the Niger Delta.”
Despite assurances by Nigeria’s apex bank- the Cebtral Bank of Nigeria on the health of Nigeria’s Banks, there are fears that the global economic crises and the losses in the country’s stock market have adversely affected the fortunes of the banks.
This report by an AFP correspondent analyses the effect of the global financial meltdown on Nigeria’s banking system.
“Nigerian banks are strong enough to manage the shocks and challenges occasioned by the global economic crises”, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor Chukwuma Soludo said last week in a statement.
But analysts and operators fear the bubble will soon burst for the banks, which between them as of January had some 784 billion naira (4.04 billion euros, 5.3 billion dollars) in loans and advances to stockbrokers and investors still outstanding, according to the CBN. (more…)
Babatope Babalobi
Much awaited National Honours is coming on the way of Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, as he is to be conferred with one of Nigeria’s highest national academic honours, Nigerian National Merit Award (NNMA) today. A Government statement monitored on the Nigerian Television Authority 9pm Network news announced last night.
Professor Wole Soyinka who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, is yet to receive a National Honour from Nigeria’s Government authorities.
Two other Nigeria’s Intellectuals to be conferred with the national academic honours alongside Soyinka are Professor Chukwuemeka Vincent Ike, a Nigerian Novelist; and Professor Oye Gureje, Head of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
The conferment on these three distinguished Nigeria’s Intellectual represents increased recognition of Intellectualism in public life. Nigeria’s President Umaru Yar’ Adua and Vice President Jonathan Goodluck are the first set of graduates to occupy Nigeria’s two topmost positions through the 2007 general elections.
Wole Soyinka, 74 received formal education at Government College in Ibadan, Nigeria and University of Leeds, where, in 1973, he took his doctorate. Soyinka has published about 20 works: drama, novels and poetry.
Professor Chukwuemeka Ike, 77, educated at the University of Ibadan and at Stanford in the USA. One of his popular novels is Toads for Supper (1965), which is set in a university and deals with love and the inherent problems that married couples from different ethnic backgrounds encounter.
Professor Oye Gureje is currently President of the Association of Psychiatrists in Nigeria and the World Psychiatrists Association Zonal Representative for West and Central Africa. He teaches at the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria, where is the Head Department of Psychiatry
The 2008 World Water Week in Stockholm, August 17-23, is the leading annual global meeting place in water and development for professionals from all over the world.
Representatives of the media – press, photo, radio, television and film – will be accredited for coverage of the World Water Week in Stockholm events (this does NOT include any travel, accomodation, or personal costs).
To register, click here.
