A Nigerian court has ruled that Goodluck Jonathan, the vice-president, can take over the duties of the president, who has been sick, without a formal transfer of power.

Nigerians in the diaspora have written a letter to Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud on the continued absence of President Yar’Adua from the country, demanding true information on the state of his health.

Nigerian-born Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s dastardly attempt to detonate a bomb on flight 253 has profound ramifications for all Africans and the African continent, writes Ama Biney, from tougher security checks for passengers flying from Muslim countries, to providing justification for a greater role for AFRICOM in tackling the ‘alleged global war on terrorism’. But, asks Biney, is increased military intervention an effective strategy for treating the root causes of terrorist attacks and building a safe and secure world for all?

The new year began with a lots of hand wringing, soul searching and even outright anger in the African blogosphere over Umar Farouk Abdul-Mutallab’s Christmas day attempt to bomb a Delta/Northwest Airline over Detroit, and the subsequent inclusion of Nigeria on the US terrorist watch list along with 13 other countries.

A leading human rights lawyer has launched legal action to try to force Nigeria's President, Umaru Yar'Adua, to hand executive powers to his deputy while he receives medical treatment in Saudi Arabia.

An high-profile former Nigerian minister has gone to court to challenge the international arrest warrants issued last week on corruption charges. As a close ally of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Abuja Minister Nasir el-Rufai used to be one of Nigeria's most powerful people.

The former governor of Nigeria's oil-rich Delta State has been cleared of 170 charges of corruption - involving the laundering of millions of dollars. The federal court in Asaba said there was no clear evidence against James Ibori, governor from 1999 to 2007.

As the world meets to find ways of mitigating the impact of climate change, Nigeria, like other African nations which are at the receiving end of the effects of the global climate change, is counting its losses from the impact of the phenomenon.

The United Nations official leading efforts to tackle malaria is visiting Nigeria and Kenya, the two nations which together account for one third of the estimated 1 million deaths worldwide from the deadly disease.

Amnesty International exposed the shocking level of unlawful police killings in Nigeria in a new report. “The Nigerian police are responsible for hundreds of unlawful killings every year,” said Erwin van der Borght, Director of Amnesty International’s Africa Programme.

Nigerian anti-corruption officials have raided a meeting of opposition leaders and arrested Attahiru Bafarawa, who ran for president in 2007. The EFCC accuses him of involvement in a 6bn naira ($40m) fraud from his time as governor of Sokoto State.

Nigeria’s External Affairs ministry has uncovered $15.3 million of school fees racket allegedly perpetrated by some Nigerian diplomats. Minister Ojo Maduekwe said investigations were on, to determine the perpetrators, but vowed that those found culpable of defrauding the government would be dragged before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for prosecution.

A group of Nigerian farmers is suing Royal Dutch Shell, claiming that the oil firm polluted their land in the Niger Delta region. The four farmers allege that oil spilt from the supply lines of a subsidiary of Shell contaminated fish ponds and farms, ruining villagers' livelihoods.

Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Lamido Sanusi's financial reform, writes Kola Ibrahim, will do nothing more than re-assert the dominance of a rapacious capitalist class in Nigeria. While public ownership of services rooted in the welfare of Nigeria's people remains most desirable, Ibrahim contends, Sanusi and his ilk can be counted on to simply support the entrenched political class.

With a whopping credit facility of $200 million (N25.2 billion), World Bank Assisted Improvement projects in Lagos State have reportedly not lived up to expectations. Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) supervised and executed most of the projects under the World Bank-Assisted Road Improvement Scheme, towards the end of the administration of former Governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, between 2006 and 2007.

Internal displacement caused by both communal violence and internal armed conflict is a recurrent phenomenon in most states in Nigeria. The parties to the fighting have sought political, economic and social advantages in a country with endemic poverty, low levels of education and a huge and alienated youth population.

The Nigerian government has not brought a single prosecution or even begun investigations a year after Nigerian policemen and soldiers killed more than 130 civilians in responding to deadly sectarian clashes in the central Nigerian city of Jos, Human Rights Watch has said.

Nigeria has signed a 677 million euro pact with the European Union aimed at combating corruption and promoting peace in its troubled, oil-producing Niger Delta region.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has threatened to call off its indefinite ceasefire, after alleging a military attack against the Kula community in Rivers state in the early hours of the day.

Apathy and a failure to speak out on the part of Nigeria’s citizens is fuelling the country’s leadership crisis, Babatunde Oyateru argues in this week’s Pambazuka News. Exhorting his fellow citizens to hold their political representatives accountable, Oyateru says: ‘We do not whisper, we should not cower, we should let our voices ring so loud … so that the generations that come after us will not have to scream, but sing songs of a delivered Nigeria.’