One of the major weaknesses of contemporary social research in and about Africa is its lack of careful attention to epistemological and methodological issues. This weakness has made itself manifest at a time when the increasing complexities of the social dynamics that shape livelihood on the continent and the wider global context call for a greater investment of effort in the refinement of the procedures and instruments of investigation and analyses with a view to achieving a more accurate and holistic assessment of rapidly changing realities.

Themes of this conference include:
* Gender and poverty in Africa: Emerging issues.
* Poverty as a bane of environmental degradation in Africa.
* Imperatives of environmental degradation in Africa: The role of gender.
* Poverty Alleviation Strategies in Africa: A challenge to African Leaders.

Education Minister, Mrs. Chinwe Obaji said for sustainability of Education For All by the year 2015, the Federal Government has set up Federal Teachers' Corps Scheme (FTCS) as well as earmarked the sum of N6 billion for training of 40,000 teachers. Mr. Oshiomole had blamed the dwindling of qualitative education in the country on the Federal Government saying, "we must link our education policy to our developmental policy. The strength of a nation does not lie on numbers but on quality of human capital".

President Olusegun Obasanjo has agreed to consider the request by Ethiopia for 671 university teachers in addition to the 31 already sent from Nigeria to enable that country to cope with the new universities being opened. The President who stated this when he received the out going Ethiopian Ambassador, Mr. Yohannes Guinda Ginbi on 28 February at the State House, Abuja said the request would be considered under the Technical Aid Corps (TAC) scheme in addition to sending some experts on cassava.

Ethioblog - http://nazret.com/blog/index.php?title=nigeria_to_send_671_university_l… - reports that Nigeria is to send 671 university lecturers to Ethiopia as part of an aid package – The Technical Aid Corps. They will also be sending experts on Cassava. President Obasanjo is quoted as saying:

“Like Nigeria, all other countries in the African continent need to do some soul-searching…Nigeria was passing through an interesting reformist period, which we believe we need. All of us in Africa need critical self-analysis if we are to get to where we should.”

Since when did Obasanjo do any soul searching – the Niger Delta is in flames and religious violence has taken over 100 lives with thousands injured, and then there is the state of education in the country. Yesterday Nigerian blogger Emmanuel Oluwatosin - http://www.yemma.com.ng/best-nigerian-university-ranked-6340-in-the-wor… - reported that no Nigerian university was ranked above 6000 in the world and only 2 were ranked in the top 100 in Africa: University of Ibadan (57 in Africa, 6304 in the world), Obafemi Awolowo University (69 in Africa, 6645 in the world).

Koranteng’s Toli - http://koranteng.blogspot.com/2006/02/comfort-food-and-rare-groove.html - publishes an extensive review of Food Culture in Sub-Saharan Africa by Fran Osseo-Asare.

“It covers the continent, dipping into all the regional flavours. There's lots of historical insight about the types of ingredients used, the crops, animals, fisheries etc. It's one of those books you can open at any page and find lots to chew on (pun intended, tongue in cheek etc). Most culinary books concentrate on recipes but this goes beyond that into the cultural and social significance of food (from who prepares it, traditions surrounding it, special meals etc).”

Koranteng is also a music reviewer and he takes the recipes and provides an appetising feast with a “musical menu of comfort food and rare groove”.

Kenyan blogger, ThinkersRoom -http://www.thinkersroom.com/blog/2006/02/get-real-poverty-eradication-1… -
posts a piece titled Poverty Eradication 101 in which he writes that poverty will not be eradicated because there are just too many vested interests in maintaining it.

“Poverty has created a proliferation of global bodies, departments, companies, organizations, boards as well as a host of jobs that allows millions of people and dozens of governments to butter their bread…Poverty has allowed NGOs to proliferate all over the world, purporting to be working round the clock to deliver man from his poverty and deliver him to a world of manna, wine and cake here on earth…Poverty has allowed countries to earn still more money, for its coffers and for its people.”

One Arab World - http://onearabworld.blog.com/586323 - comments on the recent discovery of yet “another ancient Pharaohs temple the size of a small city in downtown Cairo”. His main focus however is not the discovery but the man who always takes credit for anything to do with Egypt’s antiquities, Zahi Hawass, Chief of Antiquities.

“What pisses me off usually about this guy is how he completely eclipses everyone that works with him, intentionally I believe. Whenever something noteworthy is discovered it’s Mr. Hawas and noone else gets mentioned. Its as if he's literally an Indiana Johns!”

“Zahi Hawass really fancies himself. Why on earth does he wear that stetson hat is a mystery to me. The guy might know about his subject but you never hear of anyone else in that supreme council of antiquities, do you? Everything that is discovered, and many are by sheer luck, has to involve him one way or another, I have not seen another Egyptian name alongside Zahi Hawasss ever to the extent I feel he is superman who works alone, a modern day real Indiana Jones that is only missing the whip.”

Jewels in the Jungle - http://jewelsnthejungle.blogspot.com/2006/02/ugandan-elections-2006-til… - has an extensive review of media and blog posts and commentary on the Ugandan elections last Thursday.

“Museveni wins. The people of Uganda will have to wait ‘til the cows come home for real democracy and political freedom to take hold, yet again. Personally I find the fact that Museveni has won a third term as President of Uganda an affront on the struggles for true democracy all across Africa and around the world. That the Ugandan Parliament changed the country’s constitution to allow Museveni to remain in power speaks volumes about the real intentions of this leader and his political party, the National Resistance Movement.”

Confessions of the Mind - http://confessionsofnneka.blogspot.com/2006/02/africa-is-continent-and-… - is sick and tired of people referring to Africa as a country and not a continent. Her criticism is not just of Europeans using this term but her fellow Nigerians who talk about going back to Africa rather than Nigeria. She gives as an example a conversation she has with a Nigerian who did not know she too was Nigerian.

“I was highly irritated in the way he was going on about going to Africa, how he speaks African like it was some country, I asked what part of Africa and he looked at me and repeated Africa again.”

Is it really 2006, the 21st Century? One wonders when explanations like these still have to be made.

“No I don’t live in a tree when I go back to my country Nigeria which is in West Africa, notice the way I wrote it. Yes we have malls, supermarkets, cars, roads, buildings. Yes we were taught English, from school, at home, everywhere; in fact we speak English quite well, better than the people who own the language. 99% of Africans are multilingual, meaning we can speak 2 or more languages. No, not all Africans have flies circling our bellies and mouths.”

* Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks, http://okrasoup.typepad.com/black_looks

* Please send comments to [email protected]

At least 123 people have been killed in four days of sectarian violence across Nigeria, after protests over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad fuelled underlying religious and ethnic tensions. Two-thirds of the deaths in the past six days have occurred in the mainly Christian southeast city of Onitsha, where groups of armed youths took to the streets to seek revenge against Muslims in reprisal for deadly attacks on Christians last weekend in the predominantly Muslim north.

“It’s a government set-up,” “It’s a white man’s disease,” “Getting close to chickens kills.” Since Africa’s first cases of the deadly H5N1 virus were reported in northern Nigeria early this month, rumours, conspiracy theories and scepticism have been rife. And as the federal government steps up the battle to stem the spread of the virus, many Nigerians are still puzzling over what to make of this strange poultry disease that has created such panic in the west.

A Nigerian court has ordered oil giant Shell and its partners to pay $1.5bn to the Ijaw people of the Delta region. The Ijaw have been fighting since 2000 for compensation for environmental degradation in the oil-rich region. They took the case to court after Shell refused to make the payment ordered by Nigeria's parliament.

Environmental advocacy group, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth, Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), has said last week's bombing of Ijaw communities in Delta State was a crude manifestation of the country's military penchant for excessive use of force as response to agitations in the Niger Delta. The group in an online statement accused the Federal Government of using its military might to suppress certain Niger Delta communities it perceived as being in the vanguard of the campaign for environmental justice.

Several people were reported killed in southern Nigeria on Tuesday in revenge attacks following deadly riots last weekend in the north in which Muslims targeted Christians over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in European newspapers. On Tuesday, bands of youths armed with clubs, machetes and petrol cans rampaged through the streets of Onitsha in Nigeria’s predominantly Christian south, attacking Muslims and their properties, killing several people, according to several residents.

Nigeria is beginning public hearings on possible constitution change, including an amendment to allow President Obasanjo to run for a third term. The meetings have been organised by the Nigerian Constitutional Committee and will take place in six cities. Many opposition politicians have condemned the hearings, saying they are simply a political charade. There is intense speculation that the president will try to change the constitution to run for office again.

ABA/Africa is looking for a Country Director to handle a Four Year Anti-Trafficking Program in Nigeria. The ideal candidate for the Anti-Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Advisor is a senior legal professional with demonstrated success in the area of criminal prosecution, including sex crimes and domestic violence, as well as rule of law programming and management in Africa.

The Nigerian military launched a helicopter gunship attack on targets in the oil-producing Delta state on Wednesday, and militants threatened to shoot down aircraft unless military flights stopped. The attack was the first major military operation in the Niger Delta since a militant group staged a series of attacks against the oil industry, and hours after British Foreign Minister Jack Straw called on the Nigerian government to improve security in the delta.

Nigeria, one of the poorest countries in the world, is in the process of giving a huge sum of money to the richest countries. UK organisations which are members of the Jubilee Debt Campaign are urging the UK government to return its share of this money to Nigeria to fight poverty. "80 to 90 million Nigerians live in poverty; only India and China have more poor. Whether Africa attains the Millennium Development Goals depends on Nigeria… Donor and creditor support is critical to maintain the momentum of reform."

Frightened poultry workers on Monday shunned medical examinations for bird flu in northern Nigeria, where the presence of the deadly H5N1 virus which can affect humans was reported last week. Only about 20 of the estimated 160 employees of Sambawa Farms in Jaji, Kaduna State, turned up for a medical screening conducted at a nearby clinic by a joint team of federal and state health officials. Workers told IRIN that many of their colleagues stayed away because they were frightened of being detained by authorities if tested positive.

Nigeria's anti-corruption commission announced a crackdown Monday on conmen who have scammed hundreds of thousands of dollars by impersonating the agency's own officials. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said alleged fraudsters are already on trial in four cities for pretending to be anti-graft investigators and soliciting bribes to kill nonexistent cases.

The west African state of Nigeria is the continent's biggest oil exporter. But despite its huge energy reserves and potential wealth, millions of people live in extreme poverty. For 50 years oil has been pumped from beneath the creeks, swamps and forests of the Delta.It has earned the Nigerian government billions of pounds. Yet the communities in the Delta say they continue to live in poverty.

The Africa Regional Sexuality Resource Centre (ARSRC) calls for applications to its annual Sexuality Leadership Development Fellowship (SLDF) Programme. The Fellowship is scheduled to take place in Lagos, Nigeria from July 10– 28, 2006.

An outbreak of the deadly avian flu has been confirmed in Nigeria, wiping out in one fell swoop over 46,000 poultry at a farm at Jaji, Kaduna, reports the Vanguard newspaper. The bird flu is caused by avian influenza viruses, which occur naturally among birds. The virus in humans results in serious illness that spreads easily  from person to person. Apart from the Sambawa Farms, some farms in Kano and Plateau States have also been quarantined by government for pathological tests in  search of a possible infection.

Nigeria deserves to become a permanent member of the Security Council, partly because of its outstanding record of contributing to international peacekeeping and also since it is "the largest black democracy in the world, which respects the tenets and principles of human rights of her citizens," Emmanuel Onwubiko, a commissioner on Nigeria's National Human Rights Commission, writes in the Daily Independent.