The Nigerian Red Cross Society yesterday urged Nigerians to be prepared for the possibility of a Tsunami-type calamity which took Asia, among other nations, by surprise last month occuring here. THISDAY had earlier reported some experts as warning that Nigeria’s western boundary with Cameroon was an active volcanic region. The fracture zones include Romanche (western), Chain (western flank), Charcot (more of the Niger Delta) and Cameroon Fracture Zone (Eastern Boundary of Nigeria), which the experts said, was active. "Some land mass had even been washed away unnoticed by people in remote coastal areas. The Red Cross still maintains its position that the country and its people must develop the appropriate capacity to manage and cope with high and low profile natural and man-made disasters", the society said.

Two Nigerian admirals have been sacked for oil smuggling after they were found guilty of being involved in the disappearance of an oil tanker. The tanker was seized by a naval patrol two years ago as it was carrying 10,000 tonnes of crude oil alleged to have been stolen from the Delta region.

"As a Nigerian who has lived and grown up in Britain, the way the developing world has been portrayed has always been a source of bafflement and great sadness. It seemed as if the press were obsessed with learning only about the war, the famine and the corruption. It was in this frame of mind that I happened across a magazine entitled Ovation, a celebrity magazine dedicated entirely to Nigerian endeavour and success both in Nigeria and in the diaspora."

The National Agency for Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Nigerian's food and drug production and consumption regulatory agency, has begun investigations into the administration of some suspended anti-retroviral drugs on some people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Abubakar Jimoh, national public relations officer of the NAFDAC,was quoted as saying that some drugs de-listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) are being distributed under the national program for the treatment of the PLWHA.

The Chief Representative of Nigeria and ECOWAS on the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), Mr Eusebe Hounsokou, has raised an alarm over the influx of refugees from war torn Darfur region in Sudan, to Nigeria. President and Founder of African Concern International (ACI), Prince Bola Ajibola said the problems of refugees have become global issues, which must be tackled.

On 9th December President Olusegun Obasanjo launched a new Girls' Education Project at an official opening ceremony during the meeting of the National Council for Education. The £26million project, entirely financed by DFID Nigeria, will be implemented by UNICEF and Nigeria partners over the next three years. The project's goal is to achieve significant progress in Nigeria towards MDG 3: to eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005 and to all levels of education no later than 2015.

On 12 December 2004, policemen assigned to protect the governor of Oyo State (southwestern Nigeria), Alhaji Rashidi Ladoja, assaulted two journalists on the orders the governor's chief security officer. The targeted journalists were AbdulRazak Adebayo, of "Daily Trust" newspaper, and Tunde Sanni, of "ThisDay" newspaper. The incident took place in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, at a memorial prayer session held for the late Adisa Bakare, the father of former minister of works and housing Alhaji Abdulkarim Adisa, who died on 7 December.

In commemoration of the 2004 World AIDS Day, the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, the National Action Committee on AIDS in collaboration with the United Nations Theme Group on HIV/AIDS organised a one day national conference in Nigeria on the theme: 'Women, Girls and HIV/AIDS'. The conference was designed to raise awareness among the Nigerian populace as well as policy makers on the ways in which women's inequality helps fuel the transmission of HIV and increase the impact of AIDS. The conference served as a forum for examining the gender dimensions to the HIV/AIDS pandemic as well as seeking lasting solutions in Nigeria. It was attended by 158 participants comprising of representatives of government agencies, HIV/AIDS support groups, civil society organisations, faith-based organisations, development agencies and media organisations. Read the statement issued at the meeting by clicking on the link below.

At a meeting of the WTO Council for Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) on 1-2 December, Nigeria submitted a proposal on behalf of the African Group - which includes all African WTO Members - for converting the waiver provided for in a 30 August 2003 Decision on pharmaceutical patents into a formal amendment of the TRIPS agreement. The '30 August Decision' by the General Council spells out the circumstances under which countries without pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity can import generic versions of drugs still under patent.The Decision temporarily waives Members' obligations under TRIPS Article 31(f) by allowing them to export pharmaceuticals produced under compulsory licence, albeit subject to a large number of conditions in both the exporting and importing country.

The Global Network for Good Governance (GNGG), an anti-corruption and good governance network that includes organizations and individuals from 21 countries, has announced the opening of a new branch in Nigeria. The new branch is tasked with establishing a viable network of the GNGG in Nigeria. To do so, the branch will draw the network members from a range of institutions, such as public, private, and third sector organizations, the media, and individuals who share a vision of good governance and a corruption-free society. Contact [email protected] to find out more.

As Nigerians joined the rest of the world to mark the United Nations Anti Corruption day on December 9, Independent Advocacy Project (IAP), the good governance group, again called on the federal government to ratify the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption. The Convention was adopted by African Heads of State, including President Olusegun Obasanjo in Maputo, Mozambique in July 2003. In a statement released in Lagos, IAP said it was imperative that the Nigerian government sets in motion the process that will lead to the ratification and domestication of this important regional instrument, especially in light of the president's claim that fighting corruption is one of his key programmes.

At least USD$75 million have been pledged to support the health sector in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, in an effort to hasten the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). To ensure success, a joint three-tier budget, involving the federal and state governments as well as donor agencies, will be adopted. Funke Adedoyin, Minister of State for Health, was cited by the News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday as saying Nigeria was "scaling up its health activities in 14 pilot states where indices indicate that there have been a steady increase on child mortality and HIV/AIDS prevalence."

A Nigerian state governor under investigation for alleged money-laundering in Britain can't be tried in Nigeria because of the immunity he enjoys from prosecution under the constitution, a court ruled Monday. More than GBP1 million that Plateau state Governor Joshua Dariye is suspected of having diverted from Nigeria's treasury was traced to eight bank accounts in Britain, Nigeria's attorney general's office said last month.

The 2nd High-Level Forum (HLF) on the Health Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Abuja, Nigeria, was held 2-3 December. In September 2000, 189 world leaders made a commitment to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Three of the eight goals relate directly to health: to reduce maternal mortality by three-quarters, child mortality by two-thirds, and combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. The HLF comes in advance of 2005, the "report card year", when Heads of State will meet to review progress at the Millennium +5 Summit in September.

Angry residents of a southern Nigerian village where a Royal Dutch/Shell oil pipeline burst, have set the spilled crude on fire, preventing repair teams from reaching the site, the company said. Shell said it first noticed leaks in its 18-inch diameter pipeline at Egbeda village in Rivers State last weekend. The pipeline is part of a key network that transports crude oil from the inland oilfields of the Niger Delta to the terminals on the coast for export.

Nigeria sought to draw a line under decades of corruption last week when President Olusegun Obasanjo declared his private income, disclosing that he makes £140,000 a month from a chicken farm. Mr Obasanjo, the first Nigerian leader to declare his assets, told a bemused nation that his farm in Otta state yields annual profits approaching £1.7 million. The president's spokesman, said his declaration was part of a government campaign to clean up Nigeria.

On 24 November 2004, the Borno state government in northern Nigeria declared the British Broadcasting Corporation's (BBC) Hausa Service correspondent, Alhaji Adamu Mato, a "persona non grata" and banned him from continuing to report from the state following allegations of "incorrect" reporting about the region. The government has banned the correspondent from the state's Government House in Maiduguri and all government institutions, ministries and parastatals, in addition to public functions.

"Visa applicants are used to verbal abuse, being shoved about, being threatened with horsewhips and belt buckles and kept out in the sun or rain for hours on sluggish queues even though they arrived at the consulate at exactly the time they were told to and even though they have paid or will pay up to a hundred dollars for the torture of applying for a visa. The presumption is that the applicant is a liar, that all the documents put forward in support of the application are fakes. Occasionally you hear applicants who have been humiliated to breaking point venting their frustration on their interviewer from the direction of the cubicles, yelling like lunatics. Or you hear the terrible pleading in their voices, the readiness to endure even more humiliation, in order to meet a medical appointment or attend a daughter’s wedding or visit prospective business partners, and the sound is unbearable."

The CLEEN Foundation, formally Centre for Law Enforcement Education in Nigeria, created public forums where citizens and police can discuss concerns and grievances regarding crime and police conduct. Communities and police forces can find themselves in an unproductive cycle of distrust. Community members are concerned about misconduct, brutality and corruption. The police, in turn, are concerned with the community is hostile and uncooperative in their investigations. In Nigeria, the centralized structure of the police force has contributed to the problem: one set of agendas and policies is applied to the whole country, creating a gap between the law enforcement priorities of the police and the needs of the local communities.

Every child must be reached during the upcoming National Immunization Day (NID) in Nigeria which kicks off on 20 November. As of November 12 2004, WHO has confirmed that 682 Nigerian children under the age of five years old have been paralyzed by polio this year, which accounts for 74% of the global polio case count.