Bisi Alimi contributes to a series by The Guardian on voices of people from around the world who have found themselves stigmatised for their sexuality. While at university in Nigeria and standing for election, a magazine wrote about him and exposed him as being gay. This led the university to set up a disciplinary committee.

Discovery Channel Global Education Partnership (DCGEP) is a 501(c)3 organisation dedicated to using the power of media to transform education and improve lives in the developing world. Position Summary: The Programme Director, West Africa, will report to the VP, Global Education Programmes. Success in this position will hinge on effective management of current school-based projects in West Africa in accordance with organisational priorities and donor contracts; fully engaging donors and government partners; and spearheading new partnerships and funding for expansion in the region.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has alleged that it has uncovered plots by the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) to destabilise Nigeria. The party has called on security agencies to be alert and monitor the activities of CPC and its members, especially against the backdrop of present security challenges in the country.

An increasing number of Nigeria's 70 million Christians are following so called 'prosperity teachings' - the belief that prosperity is a blessing. Services are held in mega-churches, with millionaire pastors preaching the word. Tomi Oladipo reports for the BBC.

Hundreds of placard-carrying women, from about 10 Gbaramatu communities in Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State, laid siege to the project site of Chevron Nigeria Limited at Chanomi Creek and disrupted the laying of pipelines for the multi-billon dollars Escravos Gas to Liquid project.

A civil society organisation in Nigeria has described the performance of the government under President Goodluck Jonathan as inept. The Coalition against Corrupt leaders, a civil society monitoring the performances of government officials says the first 100 days of Jonathan's administration falls short of average expectation.

In Human Rights Watch’s newest report, 'Corruption on Trial? The Record of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission,' this highly credible NGO takes a break from its more usual investigations into conflict and violence to assess the successes and failures of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) — the agency tasked to investigate and prosecute financial crimes ranging from advanced fee fraud, more commonly known as '419' scams, to money laundering to government corruption.

Friday August 26, 2011 saw the Coalition of African Lesbians, CAL, launch its LGBT Human Rights Defenders, HRD project in Lagos, Nigeria. Participants in the HRD workshop, which was held in collaboration with The Initiative for Equal Rights, TIER, a Nigerian-based LGBT human rights organization, attended the launch alongside some members of the Lagos LGBT community.

Nigeria's anti-graft agency, set up in 2002, was supposed to crack down on corruption in Africa's most populous nation but it has failed to deliver, Human Rights Watch said.

The death toll from the suicide bombing at the UN headquarters in the Nigerian capital stands at 21, with 73 injured, the deputy United Nations chief announced, reducing a previous toll of 23.

Applications are invited for the post of Programme Manager to join the Partnership for Child Development (PCD). PCD is an organisation committed to improving the education, health and nutrition of school-age children and youth in low-income countries. The Partnership for Child Development has launched a new programme that will support government action to deliver cost effective school feeding programmes in sub-Saharan Africa. The Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) programme supports government action to deliver sustainable, nationally owned school feeding programmes sourced from local farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. The programme provides direct, evidence-based and context-specific support and expertise for the design and management of school feeding programmes linked to local agricultural production.

The United Small and Medium scale Farmers' Associations of Nigeria (USMEFAN) is a national coalition of smallholder farmers and their organisations. It envisions a food self-sufficient Nigeria where ecologically sound and sustainable agriculture forms the foundation of an ever buoyant economy in which the small and medium scale family farmers who produce most of the food, in harmony and cooperation with nature, also enjoy enhanced livelihoods, live and work in dignity and self confidence, making the rural environment attractive for and truly supportive of human habitation. In this interview, GRAIN talks to Olaseinde Makanjuola Arigbede of the United Small and Medium scale Farmers' Associations of Nigeria (USMEFAN).

US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has begun long-awaited compensation payments to families over a 1996 drug trial blamed for the deaths of 11 children and disabilities in dozens of others. But the payments were initially distributed only to four families, while some 200 children participated in the trial of meningitis drug, Trovan. Parents of four of the children who died as a result of the trial received cheques of $175,000 each at a reception in the northern Nigerian city of Kano, where the trial took place.

Authorities in Kano, Nigeria, recently announced people would be jailed or fined for refusing to immunize their children against polio, as cases increase in the northern state, but it is unclear whether this approach is working. Nigeria, one of four countries that remain polio-endemic, has historically been 'a global epicentre of transmission', according to Oliver Rosenbauer, spokesman for the World Health Organisation’s polio eradication group. Twenty-four polio cases were reported in Nigeria between 1 January and 27 July 2011, compared to six during the same period last year.

The Institute for Race Relations in the United Kingdom reports on prisoner transfer agreements between the UK and other countries. 'For the past few years, under pressure from right-wing Tories, the government has made strenuous attempts to reach agreements with countries such as Nigeria to enable prisoners serving sentences here to be compulsorily repatriated to complete their sentences in their home countries, so as to save costs, reduce the foreign national prisoner (FNP) population and make space for British prisoners.'

Every year thousands of West Africans migrate to Europe in search of a better life. But for some, that search will end in tragedy as they fall victim to organised crime gangs. In one area of southern Italy, thousands of women from Nigeria are trapped in a nightmare world of prostitution. Many are trafficked illegally by Nigerian criminals, who deceive them with promises of regular jobs.

The UN is said to be planning a close monitoring of the clean-up of the Ogoni oil spill in Nigeria as recommended by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) in its report, the Guardian newspaper reported, quoting Martin Nesirky, the spokesperson to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The paper said that the UN chief is being briefed about the details of the UNEP report, which called for the biggest oil spill clean-up ever recommended.

Climate change, a growing number of voices in media and policy circles warn, is raising the risks of violent conflict in the twenty-first century. Dire futures are predicted for some of the world’s poorest, least prepared countries and their most vulnerable citizens. This report, sponsored by the Centers of Innovation at the U.S. Institute of Peace, evaluates these claims for conflict-prone Nigeria. Based on a comprehensive literature survey, interviews with senior government officials, academics, and private sector figures, and the author’s work as a conflict analyst in Nigeria, the report calls for a more nuanced approach to mapping the links between climate change and conflict.

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, plans to implement a cashless banking policy in June 2012. Bank representatives say the policy will enhance convenience and savings for Nigerians and the government, as well as elevate the economy to be more competitive internationally. But many Nigerians who have had negative experiences with ATMs say the country isn’t ready to go cashless, especially as the majority of the population doesn’t yet use banks.

Stakeholder Democracy Network produces a monthly news and analysis bulletin that is sent out via email. The August 2011 newsletter includes the following:
- Niger Delta Development Commission to be probed
- New Electoral Commission State RECs nominated
- Petroleum Industry Bill Re-emerges
- USIP Report on the Niger Delta.