On 8 July 2004, police in Kano State, northwestern Nigeria, released Kola Oyelere, the Kano State correspondent for the privately-owned "Nigerian Tribune" newspaper. Oyelere was arrested by police on 4 July on charges of publishing false information. Oyelere was initially declared wanted on 4 July and arrested later the same day. He was detained, reportedly tortured and subsequently charged on 5 July.

Some 15,000 people from the southern Nigerian town of Ughelli have been driven out of their homes by flooding, following three days of heavy rain, the Delta State information commissioner said Tuesday.

In unrest comparable in scale to Chechnya and Colombia, a year of bloodletting has killed more than 1,000 in the oil-rich Niger Delta, leaving the world's No. 7 oil exporter, and people here, concerned for the future. Royal Dutch/Shell, Nigeria's largest oil operation, which produces half the 2.5 million barrels Nigeria exports daily, also is reeling. A confidential 93-page security report commissioned by Shell in December 2003 warns that mounting attacks by criminals and ethnic militants could force the oil giant to abandon its onshore operations in the delta by 2008.

The fight for human rights in Nigeria has received ample coverage, as has that for fairer distribution of oil revenues - and the battle to curb endemic corruption. But, Nigerian women have another, and often more pressing fight on their hands - for abortion rights. In Nigeria, abortion is only permitted if the procedure is needed to save the life of a woman. Abortion under other circumstances is punishable with up to seven years imprisonment for the woman concerned, while the doctor who performs the procedure can spend 14 years in jail.

In a bid to provide cheap telephone services to rural communities, Nigeria's federal government has launched a $200m rural telephony programme for the country. The programme will be delivered in three projects spread across 343 local government areas.

All interested persons are invited to present papers on any of the sub-themes of the Congress. Papers to be presented should not be more than 15 pages, double spaced typing (point 12) on A4 size paper, computer processed and presenters should come with at least 25 copies of their papers.

Parents have been urged to invest in their children's education as it is less expensive than ignorance. Proprietor of Comsey Nursery and Primary School, Mr. Emmanuel Apalowo said this recently at the school's prize giving and valedictory service. Apalowo said if Nigerians could invest half of what they spend on frivolities on education, the system will be the better for it.

President Obasanjo's fight against corruption came under a re-assessment this week from the country's House of Representatives who said that the government was not showing sufficient seriousness in the battle. The House has now resolved to amend the law establishing the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) to make it more effective.

The Centre for the Victims of Extra-Judicial Killings and Torture (CUEKT AFRICA) has deplored the rising rate of policy brutality and exploitation of innocent citizens in the Enugu region. The group this week accused the police of 'deliberately framing and arresting residents to extort money from them before they are set free.'

With sub-Saharan Africa on the verge of the largest polio epidemic in recent history, a United Nations-backed campaign to eradicate the virus has hailed resumption of immunization in the Nigerian State of Kano, seen as vital for eliminating the disease that once paralyzed hundreds of thousands of children worldwide each year. Immunization campaigns were suspended in various northern states of Nigeria in August 2003 following concerns by public figures regarding the safety of oral polio vaccine (OPV), including rumours that it was contaminated by the HIV virus or that it could sterilize young girls.

The Benue State Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in north central Nigeria has expressed concern over the recent spate of threats against journalists in the state. The Council in a statement issued on July 28, 2004 and signed by Ben Bem Mnguityo, chairman and Owojecho Omoha, secretary, said it has "received complaints from some of its members that they are intimidated and harassed by some persons in the state to the point that journalists now fear their own shadows."

The Nigerian Minister of State for Education, Hajia Binta Ibrahim Musa, has said that students of the National Certificate of Education (NCE) in Colleges of Education must be computer literate by 2005 as a pre-condition of their graduation. Speaking at a conference last week she also said that the country should 'seek to promote the use of ICT and distance education as a cost-effective and affordable way of expanding and improving the quality of education systems.'

The Nigerian Minister of State for Education, Hajia Bintu Ibrahim Musa, has expressed worry that African countries are lagging behind in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) when compared to other continents of the world. She said unless the continent addressed this issue, its drive towards the attainment of Education for All (EFA) and the Millennium Development goals in Education will remain unrealistic.

Nigeria is Africa's largest and most complex country, with a population of 120 million people from over 250 tribes. The vast, swampy terrain of the Niger Delta region supports almost 20 million people, many of them in isolated communities only accessible by boat. The Niger Delta serves as the economic nerve center of the Nigeria Federation with its vast oil deposits. Presently, crude oil accounts for about 85% of the nation's revenue. Oil from the Niger Delta accounts for 20% of oil supply to the US, and has become increasingly important from a strategic perspective as conflicts continue in the Middle East.

However, this “blessing” has become a curse for the people of the Niger Delta. They have suffered environmental devastation, economic poverty, and constant conflict. To make matters even worse, political considerations and greed on the part of a corrupt government have kept many of the earnings from these vast reserves from returning to the Niger Delta to help restore the region.

Since the discovery of oil and the production in commercial quantities in 1958, the people of the Niger Delta have known no peace. Today, violent inter tribal and inter communal conflicts, arms proliferation, ethnic militias and illegal bunkering (theft of crude oil directly from pipelines) have become synonymous with the region.

Economic activities related to oil and gas has placed the government's security emphasis on the need to produce oil and gas most effectively and efficiently. This type of security consideration ignores the impact on other environmental and human resources such as waters, forests, fish and the climate of the area. The youth of the region, a vibrant and energetic generation who should be supporting the productivity and the future of this area, are instead being continuously cut down by bullets from security operatives under the guise of the war on terrorism. Communities are razed and extra-judicial killings are the order of the day.

From the days of the hanging of playwright and prominent environmental rights activist Ken Saro Wiwa and nine other Ogoni individuals by the then military regime of General Sani Abacha, to the Odi holocaust and the burning and destruction of Awor and Fenegbene by the present Obasanjo administration, the story has been the same.

When oil production activities are intensified or activated in a very dedicated manner, riverbank erosion results, gas flares occur frequently, forests are cut down, rivers and streams are dredged, turned into canals or blocked and then polluted. Farms and sacred lands are not spared either; they may be acquired for oil and gas development or polluted, as production gets under way. Anything that is seen to obstruct or have the semblance of serving as obstruction to the free flow of oil is uprooted and destroyed, whether it is a human being, a community or a stream.

Compounding the plight of the people of the Niger Delta is the issue of environmental pollution. Oil production and dredging have caused acid rain, fouled the air and the water, and caused widespread and dramatic erosion. Whole communities have watched their lands erode away. Fishing and farming, the traditional occupations of these people, is no longer viable. This situation has caused poverty, hunger and desperation among these peoples, who are struggling to eke out a living.

The issue of ownership rights is key. Federal laws automatically transfer title to any land where oil is found to the federal government without adequate compensation to the landowners. This gives the federal government the right to enter into an unholy alliance with multi national oil companies in the name of joint venture operations at the exclusion of the people. The result is that the federal government and the multinational oil corporations share the resulting revenue on a ratio of 60:40 percent with nothing left for the landowners. In addition, oil spills and other ongoing problems caused by the oil production are not attended to, so the area is left in much worse shape than before the oil reserves were found.

Underlying this complex and fraudulent economic arrangement is the issue of ethnicity and tribalism. There are 250 ethnic nationalities in Nigeria, with the Yorubas, Igbos and the Hausa/Fulani of the west, southeast and the north comprising the majority tribes. The minorities of the Ijaws, Itsekiris and other nationalities inhabit the oil rich Niger Delta region, which is swampy deltaic terrain, and is completely cut off from development, modern industries and social infrastructure. Educational opportunities are limited, and the closest health care facility is about three hours by speedboat.

Because the government tends to be populated by people who originated from the majority tribes which do not happen to be located in the delta, they have created a formula for sharing the revenues from oil production that favors other regions, further increasing the poverty in the delta and creating anger and conflict between the delta tribes themselves. Trust amongst the tribes has been eroded, while hatred and suspicion have grown, as they are made to believe that they are enemies to one and another by the divide and rule and divide and exploit attitude of an insincere national government and its dubious multi national collaborators.

The combination of these factors creates a potential powder keg. Because Nigeria is the largest nation in Africa and considered the leader in political and economic issues, any eruption could have a deeply destabilizing effect on both the continent and the global community. By providing the world a more complete understanding of the real story behind the impact of the oil discovery and production during the last 45 years in Nigeria, perhaps we can find the resources to address these issues before a major eruption occurs.

* Joel Bisina is a peace activist and founder/Regional Director of the Niger Delta Professionals for Development (NIDPRODEV) a non-profit organization working on the communal and inter tribal conflicts in the oil rich Niger Delta Region of Nigeria.

* Please send comments to

Nigeria is to get its first plant for manufacturing anti-retroviral drugs for people living with HIV and Aids. The plant is expected to bring cheaper medication for the millions of Nigerians afflicted by the disease. It is wholly owned by a group of Nigerians living in the US who answered an appeal by President Olusegun Obasanjo for investment from expats.

The debate around a journalism school in Lagos, which has withdrawn the admission letter of a new student, after learning that he is living with HIV, doesn’t seem to go away. Adegboye Ibikunle’s dismissal by the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) has sparked protests by civil societies who have demanded that the college takes him back immediately.

Approximately 65 women participated in two leadership training workshops conducted by Women's Learning Partnership for Rights, Development, and Peace (WLP) Moroccan partner, L’Association Démocratique des Femmes du Maroc (ADFM) in Taza and Ouarzazat. In the remote northeastern town of Taza, twenty-five women and five men participated in the training workshop, the majority of whom were representatives of organizations involved with economic development, social services, education, poverty eradication, women’s rights advocacy, and improving women’s health.

On 21 July 2004, Uja Emmanuel, a correspondent for "The Sun" newspaper in Makurdi, the capital of Benue state, in north central Nigeria, was assaulted and his camera and tape recorder were destroyed by police officers. Emmanuel was assaulted when he went to investigate the alleged abduction of journalist Johnson Babajide and his subsequent detention by police. Babajide, a "Nigerian Tribune" newspaper correspondent, was alleged to have been abducted earlier in the day by individuals believed to be acting on orders of the state government.

The Nigerian Inspector General of Police, Mr Tafa Balogun, announced this week that: "In the last 12 months a total of 900 policemen caught extorting money from motorists have been sacked by the force." He made the announcement at the formal inauguration of the 'Committee on Police Performance Monitoring', a civilian oversight outfit set up by the Minister of Police Affairs, Broderick Bozimo.

Nigeria's biggest fraud case has been dismissed after the judge said he had no jurisdiction to hear it. The case involved three Nigerians accused of stealing more than $242m from a bank in Brazil by allegedly persuading a senior bank official to send the money for what they claimed to be a new airport in exchange for a $10m commission. Abuja High Court judge Lawal Gumi decided on Monday that as the offences had not taken place in the Nigerian capital he had no jurisdiction to try the case.