Some 53 million West African children will be vaccinated against polio in schools, health clinics and their homes over the next month to tackle risks from the paralysing virus in Nigeria. The $67 million campaign, spanning eight countries, aims to increase immunity levels in one of the last strongholds of the disease that the World Health Organisation (WHO) and UNICEF have spent more than 20 years and $6 billion trying to eradicate.

On March 6, San Francisco district court Judge Susan Illston will hear a motion for a retrial for the Bowoto v Chevron case. Last fall, a jury found Chevron not liable for paying the Nigerian military in 1998 to shoot and kill unarmed protesters who were protesting the lack of jobs and environmental damage caused by Chevron in their community.

Environmental Rights Action (ERA) demand that obscene oil company profits be used to clean up the environmental and social mess inflicted upon the Niger Delta population. Concerned about the government’s inability to tackle the problem of gas flaring, Bassey and the ERA propose a concerted endeavour to stop gas flaring, audit all oil spills and bring about a thorough clean-up of the region in order to detoxify the land once and for all. With a view to moving Nigeria away from its dependence on crude oil exports, Bassey and the ERA argue that offering new oil blocks should be resisted and oil kept in the soil.

The Kellogg Brown & Root LLC (KBR Ink) has pleaded guilty to the federal charges that the company bribed Nigerian officials to win contracts. As part of the plea agreement, KBR agreed to pay a $402 million criminal fine. The US Department of Justice accused the Houston-based engineering company of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for its participation in a decade-long scheme to bribe Nigerian government officials to obtain engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts.

The death toll from a contaminated baby medicine sold in Nigeria has risen from 34 - recorded in early December - to 84, the health ministry has said. There have been 111 reported cases of children who have fallen ill after being given teething syrup "My Pikin". The poisonous syrup was discovered last November when babies began dying of organ failure across the country.

Despite a U.S. jury finding in Chevron’s favor late last fall in a U.S. Federal District Court in San Francisco, the company is now asking the plaintiffs - all who are Nigerian villagers - to pay Chevron over $485,000 in legal costs the company incurred during the five week long trial.

The Special Nigerian edition of the methodological workshops that is on offer for 2009 is designed for doctoral students and young, mid-career African researchers based in Nigeria. The working language to be employed during the workshop will be English. The session will be led by a director who will be assisted by a team of three lecturers, all with an acknowledged expertise in the application of social science research methods. Senior researchers wishing to be considered for a role as resource persons are invited to send an application which indicates their interest and includes their current CV and an outline of issues they would like to cover in four lectures of two hours each.

The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex, (LGBTI) community in Nigeria is appalled by the recent approval of the drastic Same Gender Marriage Prohibition Bill by the House of Representatives, which aims to root out all forms of homosexual practices in that country. According to Reverend Jide Macaulay of the House of Rainbow Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) the Bill “is a continuing nuisance and avoidable evil that is terrorizing innocent same gender loving people.”

A bill before Nigeria's National Assembly to ban "same gender marriage" would expand Nigeria's already draconian punishments for homosexual conduct and threaten all Nigerians' rights to privacy, free expression, and association, Human Rights Watch has said.

Okoroba community is one of the major oil bearing communities in Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. It hosts two oil multinationals: Shell Petroleum Development Company [SPDC] and Nigerian Agip Oil Company [N.A.O.C. The community has boundaries with Emaguo-Kugbo and Aggrisaba on its right and left respectively.

The Nigerian government has abruptly cancelled Korea's concession to explore oil fields off the shore of the African country, the Korea National Oil Corporation said Thursday. The contract for blocks OPL 321 and 323 was signed by former president Roh Moo-hyun and then Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo during Roh’s visit there in March 2006.

Reporters Without Borders has voiced its concern after armed men burst into the apartment block of Janet Mba, editor of the magazine The Scroll in Arepo in Ogun State in south-western Nigeria. She escaped attack because she managed to call the police before they could strike. The worldwide press freedom organisation recorded at least 10 cases of physical assaults and eight cases of threats against journalists in the country during 2008.

The investigation into the murder of Paul Abayomi Ogundeji, journalist on the privately-owned daily Thisday, and member of its editorial committee, has been handed to the judicial police, regional authorities in Lagos State said on 20 January. The journalist was shot dead in the Dopemu district of the capital Lagos on 17 August 2008 as he was returning home in his car.

Nigeria's main opposition Action Congress (AC) has disowned its presidential candidate in the 2007 general elections and party chief Atiku Abubakar, after he paid a well-publicised visit to former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday. In a statement issued in the capital city of Abuja Wednesday, AC said while it could not decide who its members can visit or determine their friends, the visit was not in the overall interest of the party.

The Chinese Great Wall Industry Corporation is to replace Nigeria's first-ever communications satellite, which failed in orbit 10 Nov. 2008, according to local media reports. The agreement to replace the satellite, tagged 'NigComSat-1', was signed by the Chinese firm and the Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited 12 Dec. 2008.

Nigeria and Dubai have signed a preliminary agreement worth $16 billion to develop oil and gas infrastructure in Africa’s top crude producer, officials said. The deal will see Dubai World Corporation (DWC) wholly-owned by Dubai emirate, investing in projects in the restive Niger Delta, Africa’s oil and gas heartland, which accounts for nearly all of Nigeria’s around 2.0 million barrels of crude per day.

21st Century Technologies looks set to lay claim to being the first Sub-Saharan operator to roll out a Fibre-To-The-Home (FTTH) network. It plans to target 10,000 homes in the capital Lagos and has chosen Ericsson as the equipment vendor to deploy the network. The company has ambitious plans to become a Triple Play operator.

The Nigerian witnesses and plaintiffs send you their thanks and regards from the Niger Delta. After nearly three months in the San Francisco Bay Area during the human rights trial against Chevron, all of the Nigerians are safely and happily back at home. Although the U.S. jury did not hold Chevron accountable for its actions, it was never refuted in the Northern California District Court that Chevron paid and transported the Nigerian military to the platform in May 1998 and that two people were killed and several others injured by the military and police.

Apparently drawing inspiration from the success of Ghana's opposition in the recently-concluded parliamentary and presidential polls, Nigeria's main opposition Action Congress (AC) party has hailed the polls, saying they have shown that a ruling party can be defeated in a free and fair election.

Two days before Christmas, Myanmar's mission to the UN got a gift with no strings attached. In the dimly-lit Indonesia Lounge next to the General Assembly chamber, Nigeria's Permanent Representative Joy Ogwu handed her counterpart from Myanmar Kyaw Tint Swe a check for $500,000. This was Nigeria's response to the UN's plea for funds to continue to respond to Cyclone Nargis, which hit in May.