The Chairperson of the International Governing Council of the Centre for Democracy & Development (CDD), Dr. Tajudeen Abdul Raheem was arrested at the Murtala Mohammed Airport on his way to London on December 3. The CDD is an independent research, information and training institution dedicated to policy-oriented scholarship on questions of democratic development and peace building in the West African sub-region.

Oil was first discovered in the Niger Delta in the 1950s. Today 90% of Nigeria's export earnings come from oil. The Delta's inhabitants have benefited little from the oil boom, and their environment has been seriously polluted. Oil spills are frequent, says Ogon Patterson of Environmental Rights Action, the Nigerian branch of Friends of the Earth. "On average, we get 220 oil spills a year because most of the equipment used by the multinational oil corporations is old. These spills have led to permanent degradation of the environment and loss of biodiversity."

Several well known human rights activists and members of Nigeria's civil society have been prevented from travelling out of the country in the past week by the Nigerian State Security Service (SSS), says CREDO, an International human rights organisation based in Senegal and London and focusing on work in Africa. CREDO said the "new wave" of repression by Nigeria's civil society was believed to be authorised by the highest levels of Nigeria's political and military establishment.

CREDO, an organisation supporting freedom of expression and associated rights, has welcomed with caution the registration of 22 political parties in Nigeria this week. However, CREDO said in a statement that it was not the role of government to screen and register parties. “Rather an Independent Electoral Commission should merely recognise the existence of parties that notify it of their intention to participate in electoral processes, once they fulfil basic administrative procedure,” CREDO said.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has registered 22 new political parties, bringing the total number registered to 28. INEC Chairman Dr. Abel Guobadia said the commission had scrutinised the organisations and been satisfied with what it had found.

If the Nigerian Bar Association should have its way, elected political office holders in the country would not have the chance for a second term. In letters to both chambers of parliament last month, the umbrella body for Nigerian lawyers canvassed an urgent amendment to the constitution to provide for a single, five-year presidency that would extend President Olusegun Obasanjo’s stay in office by one year.

Strong opposition has trailed the FATWA (death sentence) passed on THIS DAY newspaper reporter, Isioma Daniel, by the Deputy Governor of Zamfara State, North-western Nigeria, over an allegedly blasphemous article which allegedly triggered riots in Kaduna and Abuja two weeks ago. Among the prominent voices opposed to the sentence is Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka, who called for the immediate prosecution of Zamfara Deputy Governor Aliyu Shinkafi.

Shell Oil warned Tuesday of a "potential disaster" as hundreds of slum-dwellers scooped crude oil spilling from a ruptured pipeline that the company said could explode at any time.

The judge leading government anti-corruption efforts in Nigeria has accused parliament of attempting to undermine a probe into alleged financial wrongdoing by senators.

Last week, women from Ovwian and Aladja communities in Delta State besieged the Delta Steel plant to register their grievances against the company. This Day newspaper investigates the issues at stake.

The rapid spread of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria is a result of stigmatisation and discrimination against people who have tested positive, say experts. ‘'Discriminating against people who are infected is forcing the epidemic under the carpet, where it does no one any good. It continues to spread. But if we are able to control stigma, discrimination and rejection, more people will have the courage to come out and test, and it will be easy to control the disease a little better,'' says Pat Matemola, co-ordinator of the Network of People Living With HIV/AIDS.

More than 30,000 people were displaced during four days of religious riots in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna, the Nigerian Red Cross said last Thursday.

We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications in 100 countries, to express our serious concern at the proclamation of a fatwa against journalist Isioma Daniel. According to reports, on 26 November the government of the majority-Muslim northern state of Zamfara announced that a fatwa calling on Muslims to kill Ms Daniel had been issued in response to her allegedly blasphemous article published in ThisDay newspaper on 16 November. The article claimed that the Prophet Mohammed might have considered marrying a Miss World contestant had he seen them and sparked rioting in which about 200 people were killed, despite several published apologies by the paper and the resignation of Ms Daniel.

Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said on Monday that 25 new political parties had applied for registration for general elections to be held next year following a relaxation of stringent eligibility criteria.

A meeting to revise final drafts of an Intellectual Property (IP) bill for Nigeria ended in Abuja last Friday, with health advocates winning vital clauses that would protect the right of Nigerians to access to cheap and affordable treatment.

We the undersigned, representing a community of non-governmental media organizations, feel compelled to write you this open letter in view of the dangerous dimensions that reactions to the November 16, 2002, news report by THISDAY, The Saturday Newspaper, on the re-located Miss World contest, are assuming. First and foremost, we wish to draw your attention to the lead report of the Nigerian Tribune of Tuesday, November 26, 2002, titled "Zamfara pronounces death sentence on journalist".

The International Criminal Court (ICC) will fill a significant void in the international legal system, fulfilling the objective of safeguarding higher values such as protection of human rights - an obligation that transcends state borders, according to the Nigerian Coalition on the ICC (NCICC). The NCICC also noted that that there is need for civil society/government partnership on the implementation of the Rome Statute in Nigeria.

The International Federation of Journalists, the world's largest journalists' group has condemned rioters who attacked the daily newspaper This Day in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna. The IFJ also condemned a bomb attack on the weekly newspaper National Pilot in a separate incident.

Nigeria is ranked second in Africa - based on available statistics - for its high rates of infant and maternal mortality. It records 191 deaths per 1000 live births, behind Sierra Leone with 246. Worse still, Nigeria comes last in terms of efforts put in place to reverse this ugly trend in the past 10 years.

The US has warned Nigeria that it will support international sanctions starting as early as next month if it fails to fall into line with a global campaign against money laundering. Western diplomats in Nigeria are urging the country's parliament to pass laws proposed by President Olusegun Obasanjo in an attempt to avert punitive action threatened last month by the Financial Action Task Force, an anti-money-laundering body set up by leading industrialised nations.