Nigeria's government has said it will not allow people to be stoned to death on the order of Shari’a courts. Junior Minister of Foreign Affairs Dubem Onyia said in a statement that the government was aware of widespread international concern over recent death sentences imposed by Islamic courts and would "use its constitutional powers to thwart any negative ruling which is deemed injurious to its people".

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has agreed to help US oil transnational ChevronTexaco execute community development projects in Nigeria’s volatile Niger Delta region, company officials said on Tuesday. Under the terms of the agreement, signed on Monday, UNDP will place at ChevronTexaco's disposal its expertise in infrastructure development, health care, education and micro-credit schemes, details provided to IRIN showed.

While Nigeria signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1991, it is yet to establish a law making the convention's provisions enforceable in its courts. A bill prepared in 1993 could not be signed into law by the then military government due to objections raised by religious groups and traditionalists. A special committee was subsequently set up to harmonise the draft with Nigerian religious and customary beliefs.

Nigeria and Cameroon will not go to war over the long-disputed Bakassi peninsula, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has said. The 1,000-square-kilometre (400-square-mile) area was recently awarded to Cameroon by the International Court of Justice, but Nigeria has refused to accept the decision.

A grouping consisting of members from the House of Representatives calling themselves the Democratic Vanguard Coalition (DEVACO), has leveled fresh charges against the Speaker, Umar Ghali Na'Abba, urging him to account for N2.4 billion said to be missing from the House's overhead vote.

The Women's Rights Watch Nigeria mailing list networks over 1000 national and international organisations. You will receive alerts on women's rights in Nigeria, updates on legislative reforms and landmark judicial decisions. Join us in campaigning against violations of women's rights in Nigeria.

African leaders on Sunday took the first step towards setting up a mechanism to monitor each other's progress towards good government, a key plank in a widely-praised new development strategy.

A 29 year-old man became the first person in southern Nigeria to be punished under Islamic law when he was given 100 lashes on Thursday for indulging in pre-marital sex. Suleiman Shittu was flogged before a crowd of hundreds in front of the main mosque in the southwestern town of Ibadan, Oyo State, which has a large Muslim population.

Tension is mounting in Nigeria’s oil region Delta state over recent deployment of troops amid allegations by residents that they were subjecting several ethnic Ijaw communities to harassment. Residents of villages including Diebiri, Batan, Ajuju, Ewerigbene and Kumusi said scores of heavily armed naval personnel have been deployed in their riverine communities since an oil spill last month, which affected their farmlands and fishing areas.

Two main lobby groups in northern and southeastern Nigeria said on Tuesday President Olusegun Obasanjo should give up his bid for re-election in 2003 in the interest of national unity. The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), which represents northern interests, and Ohaneze Ndigbo, which groups the political and business elite of the southeastern Igbo, in a joint statement said Obasanjo’s ambition for re-election was unpopular and raising political tension to dangerous levels.

As far as oil and gas are concerned, agitators for revenue from their proceeds forget to discuss environmental problems emanating from exploration. Some of these problems involve the control of chemical substances capable of causing illness, intensive heat due to gas flaring, air and water pollution. These would possibly lead to extinction of animals in our bushes and all kinds of species in our rivers, streams or ponds. Worse, is the loss of human lives, states this editorial in Nigeria's Vanguard newspaper.

A pioneering and challenging book, which has been highly acclaimed since first publication in Africa; and an important addition to the relatively sparse serious political literature on civil society in Africa. The author formerly received an honorary mention in the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa.

The Society of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians of Nigeria estimates that about 20 000 Nigerian women die from unsafe abortions each year. The figure comes from studies carried out by the society and Nigeria's Ministry of Health. The estimate also tallies with the result of a nationwide survey conducted by Friday Okonofua, dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Benin and executive director of the Women's Health and Action Research Centre in Nigeria. This survey showed that an estimated 610,000 unsafe abortions a year are carried out in Nigeria, and that about half of the 20,000 women who die from the complications of unsafe abortion are adolescents. The death rate from unsafe abortions is thought to be one of the highest in Africa.

Echoes of the controversial 2001 national media tour, sponsored by the Nigerian government reverberated in Ogun State, South-West Nigeria, as President Olusegun Obasanjo described the award of marks to states by the tour organizers as "misleading". The president who was speaking during his three-day visit to his home state said the result of the tour created the impression that a lot was being done in the new states because new infrastructure had to be provided while neglecting the challenges of the older states where the rehabilitation of existing infrastructure will command more attention.

President Olusegun Obasanjo has again appealed to Nigerians to join the government in its crusade against corruption in the country. He said bribery and corruption were continued problems for the country.

Nigeria has put the blame for the endemic corruption in the country at the doorsteps of the international community which it accused of accepting looted fund from public officers. The attorney-general and minister of justice, Chief Godwin Kanu Agabi said that Nigeria's classification as the second most corrupt country in the world is untrue and a design to humiliate the citizens.

A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has restrained the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), from investigating the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Ghali Umar Na'Abba, his aides and officers over alleged fraudulent withdrawal of N160 million from the reserves of the House.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has expressed concern at the rejection of Nigeria's first Children's Bill by the country's House of Representatives. A news release on Friday quoted the officer-in-charge of UNICEF Nigeria, Roger Wright, as saying the decision was a blow to efforts to ensure that all children in the country fully enjoyed their rights.

Cases of polio reported in Nigeria this year have raised doubts about the country's ability to meet its target of eradicating the disease by the end of the year, a UNICEF official said on Saturday. A total of 124 cases were recorded in 14 states between January and July 2002, UNICEF's Caroline Atosile told a sensitisation workshop at Ota, near Lagos.

At a time when education budgets worldwide are shrinking, a small state government in Nigeria has achieved a rare feat. For the past three years, the Nasarawa State Government has consistently dedicated 28 percent of its budget to the education sector.