Barely recovered from Nigeria’s candidate losing her bid for the World Bank presidency, the country’s citizens have woken to news that 32 million of them defecate openly every year. As a Nigerian who used to defecate under the stars and skies, I daresay this figure is conservative. There has been the standard avalanche of conspiracy… [Read more…]
March 6, 2012
From February 20 – 22, I was in Nigeria’s capital city of Abuja teaching 43 journalists about alternative storytelling forms, writing for online and print media, investigating local stories with international resources on the web… It was my first time, and as someone who has sometimes paid but mainly been privileged to seat for free… [Read more…]
February 1, 2012
Stranger (and more newsworthy) things have happened but yes…I slept off during an MRI scan of my brain. Until Friday, I had never had an MRI scan. I knew what it was though, and how that technology is exposing old legs masquerading as younger footballers. And so I got into the chamber, and as I… [Read more…]
January 7, 2012
Embassy officials were booed by hundreds of Nigerians in London at a protest against fuel subsidy removal, staged at the Nigeria High Commission in London on January 2012. Understandably, top officials refused to come out and speak to the crowd. They did send someone to collect a signed petition. For full-size and more photographs click… [Read more…]
January 5, 2012
Nigerians in London will be staging a sit-in protest at their country’s High Commission on Friday 6th January 2012 from 12:30pm through 15:30pm. This is in solidarity with nationwide protests against the removal of fuel subsidies. At least one protestor has been reported dead. The immediate anger across my home-country is that fuel prices have… [Read more…]
January 3, 2012
I am deeply saddened that the latest crisis over fuel subsidy is threatening to pit neighbour against neighbour if the vitriol in status messages on Facebook and various tweets is to be believed. I say this as someone who really enjoyed his time working in Naija, who saw that the majority of Nigerians are amazingly… [Read more…]
January 1, 2012
Platinum recording artist, songwriter and producer Gregory Abbott is now following In Other News!! Mr. Abbott wrote on this comment thread about In Other News that; “I love your blog. Very informative.” Cue the heart palpitations, and excitement that one of the men whose music was the soundtrack to my childhood, and whose music after… [Read more…]
December 21, 2011
I am currently studying for a third degree; my second postgraduate one. Folks in my paper-qualification-hungry country Nigeria think I am raving mad and have nothing to spend money on. ‘School again? When will you settle down and have children?’ I get asked repeatedly. A fitting answer has surprisingly been provided by the UK’s General… [Read more…]
December 4, 2011
I will never forget the teary-eyed response of a war veteran at this year’s Remembrance Day memorial in Islington when I asked him how it felt to attend the ceremony. “I fought in wars to be able to understand that no one wins a war. If anyone tells you wars are about winners and losers,… [Read more…]
November 30, 2011
The world’s highest paid lawmakers also seem to be one of its least tolerant. Senators in Nigeria have passed a bill against same-sex marriages and relationships, tripling the punishment for gay marriages to 14 years. Those who operate gay clubs, associations or unions could go to jail for ten years. The bill must first be… [Read more…]
|
April 17, 2012
0