The Centre for Democracy & Development (CDD) is an international, non-governmental organisation dedicated to research, training and advocacy on issues of democratisation, development and human security in West Africa. Since it was founded in 1997, CDD has acquired an outstanding reputation as a leading intellectual resource for work on capacity-building and policy-oriented scholarship on democracy, the environment, human and gender rights, security and development, while it has also engaged in interventions through mediation and dialogue in countries undergoing conflict and post-conflict situations.

Patient fees are deterring poverty-stricken Nigerians from participating in a government-subsidised scheme to provide HIV/AIDS medication, according to a coalition campaigning for free access to the life prolonging drugs. According to the coalition, which includes French NGO Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and representatives of people living with HIV/AIDS, the monthly charge of 1,000 Naira (US $7.50) for the antiretroviral (ARV) medication is more than many Nigerians can afford.

Crisis Group is seeking a senior analyst to work in Nigeria for its West Africa Project. The job involves working with other members of the West Africa team to research and produce reports on security, conflict, political, governance, human rights and social issues related to West Africa sub-region with particular emphasis on Nigeria. The senior analyst will carry out research and advocacy for Crisis Group in Nigeria and neighbouring countries.
Extensive travel within West Africa is required.

Thousands of Ebonyi women protested against the maltreatment of women and the inability of government agencies to enforce the laws aimed at stopping the evil practices against widows in the state. The women, who were led by the out-going state Commissioner for Women Affairs, Mrs. Ugo Nnach, and the wife of the Deputy Governor, Mrs. Catherine Ogbu, marched to Ebonyi Government House, the state House of Assembly and the headquarters of the judiciary to draw the attention of the heads of the three tiers of government. Addressing the women, Governor Sam Egwu promised to give immediate assent to any bill that would be passed by the House of Assembly on the rights and protection of widows in the state.

Anti-corruption campaigners have condemned Nigeria's senate for refusing to ban the acceptance of "gifts", in its new code of ethics. Auwal Rasanjani, head of the Nigerian branch of lobby group Transparency International, told the BBC that these "gifts" open the way to corruption. Senators argued that accepting gifts was part of Nigerian culture and that bribery was already illegal.

Up to two-thirds of women in certain communities in Lagos State, Nigeria are believed to have experienced physical, sexual or psychological violence in the family, with neither the Lagos government nor the Federal government doing anything to stem the tide of violence – and in some cases even condoning it, said Amnesty International at a press conference launching a new report, Nigeria: Unheard voices – violence against women in the family.

Olusegun Obasanjo, the Nigerian president, accused Switzerland of blackmail for linking the return of $500 million in looted funds to the repatriation of suspected Nigerian criminals. Switzerland agreed last August to return money traced to the late dictator Sani Abacha, who died in 1998, and the Swiss Supreme Court ruled in Nigeria's favour in February, but Switzerland has yet to make the transfer.

A representative of Nigeria's government this week said that indicted war criminal and former Liberian president Charles Taylor cannot remain in Nigeria if he is shown to have interfered in Liberian and regional politics, in breach of the terms of his asylum. Okon Efiong Isong, Minister Counsellor in Nigeria's United Nations Mission, was speaking at an event organized by the Open Society Justice Initiative at UN headquarters to launch a report tracing Taylor's financing before and since his removal to Nigeria in August 2003.

Thousands of Ogoni and members of other minority communities have been evicted from their homes in a Port Harcourt shantytown. The Rivers State government and the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) are accused by the communities of demolishing their waterfront homes to facilitate planned company expansion and relocation from Lagos to Port Harcourt waterside, without notice or compensation. Some residents have suffered a second displacement since they were living in the shantytown following earlier destruction of their village homes due to military activities in Ogoni territories.

One year after some 900 people were massacred in clashes between Muslims and Christians in northern and central Nigeria, the Nigerian government has failed to prosecute those responsible for this cycle of violence, Human Rights Watch said in a new report. The 75-page report, "Revenge in the Name of Religion: The Cycle of Violence in Plateau and Kano States," provides the first detailed analysis of these incidents and the factors that continue to threaten the stability of central and northern Nigeria. It provides detailed documentation of two major outbreaks of violence in the town of Yelwa, Plateau State, in February and May 2004, and a reprisal attack in the northern city of Kano in May 2004.

A Nigerian lawyer accused President Olusegun Obasanjo of corruption and abuse of power in a lawsuit on Monday for raising 4 billion naira towards building a personal library, court papers showed. The lawsuit follows an outcry from some shareholders that banks were put under pressure by the powerful state oil company to contribute to the private library, which is destined to house Obasanjo's presidential papers.

This article seeks to explore the dynamics of marginalising women from political power, and the ways in which "First Ladies" have sought to intervene through their special position as spouses of men in power. In many African countries, the First Lady phenomenon has opened doors for women that had previously been closed. At the same time, it has created a dynamic in which political space has been appropriated and used by the wives and friends of men in power for purposes of personal aggrandisement, rather than for furthering the interests of women.

African Union-sponsored peace talks will resume in Nigeria on May 30 aimed at bringing an end to the conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region, a Nigerian minister said on Tuesday. "It has been decided that the Abuja round commences on May 30, 2005, that's now agreed," African Cooperation and Integration Minister Lawan Gana Guba told a news conference at the end of an African mini-summit in Tripoli.

Chairman of Transparency International (TI), Mr. Peter Eigen, has recommended that multi-national companies involved in bribing government officials and decision-makers to influence business transactions should be blacklisted and prosecuted. Speaking when he was received at the State House by the Senior Special Assistant to the President and Head of Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit (BMPIU), Mrs. Oby Ezekwesili, Eigen noted that such actions could become "some real important sanctions" that could deter corruption, especially in developing countries.

The Commonwealth of Learning (COL), based in Canada, has re-affirmed its commitment to assist Nigeria and other developing African countries to strengthen their Open University and Distance Learning Scheme (DLS) in order to enhance the quality of the programmes. COL regional representative, Prof. Aisha Kanwar, who spoke at the weekend in Kaduna during the closing ceremony of an international workshop on instructional design for DLS, noted that the distance learning programme was an effective way of meeting the increasing demand for higher education in the African continent.

The United Nations (UN) has taken a swipe at Nigeria over its poor human rights records, warning that outlawing the labour union was an indication of "lack of commitment" on the part of the Federal Government to human rights issues. Special Representative of UN Secretary General on human rights defenders, Mrs. Hina Jilani, kicked against the Public Order Act which she said was an impediment to the realisation of the right to freedom of assembly as well as the right of trade unions to embark on strike actions.

Nigeria's first national blood transfusion centre to combat the spread of HIV/Aids has been opened by President Olusegun Obasanjo. Currently Nigeria has one of the highest numbers of people living with HIV of any country in the world. The centre, set up by US organisation Safe Blood for Africa, aims to reduce new infections by providing uncontaminated blood to hospitals.

Riot police arrested more than 100 people at a rally in the oil-rich southeast of Nigeria last weekend organised by a group campaigning for an independent Biafra, according to witnesses and police. Described as a Christian revival meeting, the Sunday rally in Abakaliki, capital of Ebonyi state, was called by the outlawed Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), and featured preachers who prophesised the secession of south-eastern Nigeria and urged the audience of hundreds of people to fight for a separate state, the sources said.

This study, published in Demographic Research, examines the extent to which women have control over their sexuality within marriage in Lagos, Nigeria, and its implications for the spread of HIV. Findings from the study show that women have some control over their sexuality, such as during menstruation, breastfeeding, pregnancy and sickness. However, only a few women could negotiate with their husbands to insist on safe sexual practices. Other findings demonstrate that improved socio-economic status increases the likelihood of a woman asserting her reproductive rights; and 18 per cent of those interviewed reported multiple sexual partners.

Women Organisations For Representative National Conference (WORNACO), an umbrella organisation founded with a mission to dismantle all structures and barriers that promote discrimination against women in Nigeria, recently held a one-day strategic meeting to discuss their engagement with the Confab and to also set agenda for the proposed Women's Summit slated for June 2005. The Convener of WARNACO, Professor Jadesola Akande, Executive Director Women, Law and Development Centre Lagos (WLDCN), chaired the meeting held at the Women Development Centre Lagos, which brought together forty-five participants representing organisations from the six geo-political zones in Nigeria.