Inhabitants of an oil rich country, Nigerians have had to resort to using wood for fuel due to the increase in price of petroleum products. When the Nigerian government on June 20 suddenly increased the prices of petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and the commonly used kerosene by about 50 percent, it was a decision with far reaching effects. Nigerian environmental groups say that massive deforestation of the nation’s severely depleted forest may follow if the fuel price increase is not reversed.

Two influential Islamic groups in Nigeria have urged Muslims to resist the government’s immunisation programme aimed at eradicating the polio virus. They alleged the immunisation is dangerous. The Supreme Council for Shari’ah in Nigeria (SCSN) and the Kaduna State Council of Imams and Ulama said in a communiqué issued at the end of a joint meeting in the northern city of Kaduna on Sunday they considered government motives for the programme suspicious.

The Nigerian army says its contingent of a West African peacekeeping operation pledged for war-ravaged Liberia is ready for deployment. Nigeria has pledged to send 750 soldiers for the operation. West African nations last week agreed to form the force for war-torn Liberia and send a first contingent of around one thousand within two weeks. The move is aimed at arresting the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the country.

Nigerian civil society groups have called for a review of the United States government's foreign and oil policy. In an open letter to the visiting United States President George W. Bush, the groups said America's foreign and oil policy currently served only the interests of powerful corporations. The groups specifically opposed plans by the U.S. to deploy troops to guard Nigerian oil installations. For four decades Western oil companies operating in Nigeria had reduced the once balanced and life-sustaining Niger Delta to a "veritable nightmare".

Nigerian HIV/AIDS activists under the aegis of the Treatment Action Movement (TAM), a coalition of civil society groups working in the area of HIV/AIDS treatment and care, have called on U.S. President George W. Bush to ensure that his AIDS policies are not merely rhetoric, but focus on improving the quality of lives of the continent's 30 million people living with HIV/AIDS.

After a one-week general strike the leaders of the Nigerian trade unions have called it off. And for what? The government had increased the price of petrol from 26 naira to 40 naira. Initially the trade unions has said they would stand firm, the government had to bring the price down to 26 naira. Then the negotiations started and the agreed price was 34 naira, a 30% increase. The workers and poor people of Nigeria had shown a bitter determination to continue the strike, but they have been terribly betrayed by their so-called leaders, says this article.

On a street by the river port in the oil town of Warri, dozens of Nigerian soldiers and marines shelter behind sandbags, pointing their machine guns towards an unseen enemy. They are mounting a 24-hour watch on the southern approaches of the Warri River. "The situation in the Niger Delta has graduated from restiveness to insurrection," Enilama Umoku, a political science lecturer at Delta State University near Warri, told IRIN.

Nigerian trade unions on Tuesday ended an eight-day general strike to protest fuel price increases and accepted a compromise price deal offered by the government. Leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), who met all night to consider the government offer, settled for 34 naira (US $0.26) for a litre of petrol or a 31 percent hike instead of the 54 percent increase announced by President Olusegun Obasanjo's government on 20 June.

Police personnel in Abuja on Tuesday assaulted journalists Funmi Komolafe, Labour Editor of "The Vanguard" newspaper, Rotimi Ajayi, also a reporter with "The Vanguard", and George Oshodi, photojournalist for the Associated Press (AP) news agency. Two others, Funmi Komolafe, a journalist with the "The Vanguard", and Ola Awoniyi, local correspondent for the Agence France-Presse (AFP), were earlier arrested and detained at the regional police headquarters before being released an hour later.

Police in Abuja this week arrested two journalists and beat up three others during union-led street protests against fuel price increases of more than 50 percent. In a letter to Police Inspector-General Tafa Balogun calling for a full investigation and the punishment of those responsible, Reporters sans frontières (RSF) said: "It is not normal for journalists covering demonstrations to be targeted in this fashion by police."

Ending impunity for human rights abuses should top President Obasanjo's agenda as he begins his second term in office, Human Rights Watch said in an open letter to the Nigerian President this week. The letter identifies several priorities for a new human rights agenda for Nigeria.

An open invitation has been issued to civil society organisations committed to the transformation of the lot of women in Nigeria in terms of access to healthcare and the realization of women's human rights in general. The invitation is to be a part of a coalition to implement the Nigerian Chapter of the Women's Access to Health Campaign (WAHC).

Barring any last minute hitches, Nigeria's proposed National Virtual Library Project (NVLP) will come on stream in October, reports www.balancingact-africa.com. The project is aimed at providing Nigerian students, academics and administrators, access to current books and journals in their fields using computer technology as a tool. This is expected to boost learning, teaching and research in the nation¹s institutions of higher learning.

The on-going strike embarked upon by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) over increases in the prices of petroleum products is continuing even as President Olusegun Obasanjo has set up a technical committee, comprising labour and government representatives, in a attempt to end the shutdown of the country. At least eight people have died since the umbrella Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) launched the walkout on Monday amid violent clashes between police and union militants.

A United Nations Security Council delegation hoping to deepen the partnership between the international community and the countries of West Africa, has met with top officials and regional players in Nigeria to discuss the problems facing Guinea-Bissau, Côte' d'Ivoire and Liberia. According to a UN spokesman in New York, the Security Council to West Africa mission travelled to Nigeria's capital Abuja to meet with President Olusegun Obasanjo, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas and other ECOWAS officials.

CREDO for Freedom of Expression and Associated Rights has condemned the Nigerian authorities “mop up” of this week’s edition of the investigative news magazine Tell. In a nation wide operation lasting about a day and a half at the beginning of the week, virtually the entire print run of the weekly magazine normally available for four to six days after publication was bought up by hundreds of teams of plain clothes security agents. Although a good number of the “mop up” teams were reportedly “polite”, in many cases, the “mop up” was enforced by intimidation where distributors, newsagents and vendors rejected generous sums well beyond the cover price. Commenting on the developments, CREDO’S Coordinator Rotimi Sankore condemned the “mop up” stating: “While it is less brutal than outright seizure of publications and the locking up of journalists, the mass buying up of the latest edition of Tell magazine, utilising what appears to be public funds, represents a new and sinister censorship strategy by what is supposedly a newly elected democratic government.”

Nigeria is set to benefit from a recently signed Global AIDS Fund grant agreement, local newspaper This Day reported last Thursday. The Fund has made US $28 million of the $150 million grant immediately available for the expansion of existing programmes for antiretroviral drugs and prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS.

A court case against the election victory of Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo is continuing in the capital, Abuja. Four opposition parties are challenging Mr Obasanjo's victory in April's presidential elections.

The Federal Government has signed a grant agreement with the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for a grant of USD 150 million or 15 billion naira to fight HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis in the country. The country will have immediate access to funding for expansion of its anti-retroviral drug programme and prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV/AIDS.

Delegates from 28 countries across the Middle East and Africa called Monday for governments worldwide to ban female circumcision, the practice considered barbaric to women. "Governments, in consultation with civil society, should adopt specific legislation addressing female genital mutilation in order to affirm their commitment to stopping the practice and to ensure women's and girls' human rights," the delegates said at the close of their three-day conference in Cairo.