LAGOS DECEMBER 9TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Worldwide condemnation has trailed Nigeria’s government the violent re-arrest of journalist and activist, Omoyele Sowore, on Friday (Dec. 6). It came less than 24 hours after Sowore and his co-accused, Olawale Bakare, were freed after 125 days in detention during which two courts had granted them bail. Government agents stormed the Federal…
LAGOS DECEMBER 5TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Page after page, the names stack up: 629 girls and women from across Pakistan who were sold as brides to Chinese men and taken to China. The list, obtained by The Associated Press, was compiled by Pakistani investigators determined to break up trafficking networks exploiting the country’s poor and vulnerable. The list…
LAGOS NOVEMBER 25TH (NEWSRANGERS)-We’ve heard about it in hush tones, on the corners of the streets, with the periphery of our ears. It has been in many a conversation reserved for the home, in this century of human rediscovery. However, no one seems to have the facts. Many have denied it. Women do not marry…
LAGOS NOVEMBER 20TH (NEWSRANGERS)-The intense lobbying for the chairmanship of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has heightened since the return of President Muhammadu Buhari from his private time in London. Lobbyists seeking to get their nominee to replace acting EFCC Chairman Ibrahim Magu, have recommended two Commissioners of Police (CPs) for the position….
LAGOS NOVEMBER 15TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Last month marked ten years since Mohammed Yusuf, founder of Boko Haram, died in police detention. His death led to the radicalization of the sect and a declaration of Jihad against the Nigerian state. In an earlier paper on the sect I argued that before 2009, its operations were more or less…
LAGOS NOVEMBER 11TH (NEWSRANGES)-The debate in the country for some time now has been where the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2023 would come from. And now that the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, challenging the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari in the…
By Patricia Scotland, Commonwealth Secretary-General LAGOS NOVEMBER 1ST (NEWSRANGERS)-Access to justice for everyone in all communities is an important right and requirement for building fair and peaceful societies – yet this objective has been achieved in few if any nations, and the consequences are damaging for social, economic and political progress and stability. Studies indicate…
LAGOS OCTOBER 26TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Comedy isnow a multi-billion naira industry in Nigeria. A new couple could pay a comedian one million naira to perform at their wedding, but argue furiously against paying a surgeon one hundred thousand naira to perform a caesarian section to save two lives. Comedy is also the cheapest possible start-up, because the…