Nigeria

The sick state of Nigeria

16 February 2010
Goodluck Jonathan has been sworn in as acting president of Nigeria after three months with no leader. The only caveat is that "the president will automatically resume office… once he is well enough". The story of the missing president has continued since November, leaving Africa's most populous country with no functioning government. This is doubly strange as Nigeria is a major regional power sitting on large oil reserves.

Shell makes payment over oil campaigner Ken Saro-Wiwa's death

16 June 2009
In an out of court settlement oil multinational Shell has paid £9.5 million to the family of Nigerian author and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. The family had taken the company to court in New York, accusing it of complicity in the execution of Saro-Wiwa in 1995.

Nigerian workers march against government attacks

20 May 2009
Around 10,000 trade unionists marched through Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital on Wednesday of last week. The march grew in size as people joined it on route. It was protesting against government plans to deregulate the price of fuel, demanding a substantial increase in the minimum wage and calling for electoral reform to guarantee free and fair elections.

Playing the numbers game with immigration

09 September 2008
"I’ll swap you one pensioner retiring to the Costa del Sol for one midwife from Nigeria."

Nigerian teachers win their dispute

12 August 2008
An all-out strike by state sector teachers in Nigeria has ended after four weeks with a government recommendation that teachers get a 27.5 percent pay increase.

Gordon Brown increases tension in Nigeria’s Niger Delta

16 July 2008
Gordon Brown has caused controversy by saying that the British government will help Nigeria in West Africa to "tackle lawlessness" in the oil producing Niger Delta region.

Teachers’ strike brings Nigeria’s schools to a halt

08 July 2008
An indefinite national strike has closed primary and secondary schools across Nigeria in West Africa.

Some great books to read this summer

31 July 2007
Half Of A Yellow Sunby Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie rightly won the Orange prize for fiction for this novel set during the Nigeria-Biafran war in the 1960s.

Workers’ action brings Nigeria to a standstill

26 June 2007
The four day nationwide strike in Nigeria from 20 to 23 June has once again demonstrated the revolutionary potential of the working class. Nigeria’s President, Umaru Yar’Adua, said the strike "wreaked havoc on our economy and our people" in a letter to the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).

Interview with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie about Half of a Yellow Sun

11 June 2007
Although she is only 29 years old, the Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has won wide acclaim. Her first novel Purple Hibiscus was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction and longlisted for the Booker.

Fianna Fail wins Irish election | General strike rocks Nigeria | Anger in South Africa over pay

29 May 2007
Fianna Fail wins Irish election A general election in Southern Ireland last week saw the ruling Fianna Fail party hold onto power – just.

Femi Kuti interview: ‘We are not independent if Africa is still begging’

10 March 2007
Nigerian musician Femi Kuti was recently in Britain as part of the third African Soul Rebels tour.

Angela Davis on Ken Saro-Wiwa

16 December 2006
The legendary US radical Angela Davis spoke recently at a commemorative meeting for author and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. He was executed in 1995 in Nigeria, after campaigning against the exploitation of Nigeria’s Ogoni areas by Shell Oil and other multinationals.

Frank Ogboru - another death in police custody

07 October 2006
A Nigerian man died last week after being restrained by several police officers in south east London.

The World Cup and the collectivist principle

17 June 2006
Early doors, during one of Nigeria’s games in the 1994 World Cup, ITV commentator Ron Atkinson mentioned an "iguana" a number of times. Unable to spot the lizard on the lush green turf, I realised Atkinson was referring to the "Supereagles" defender Eguavoen. This was not the last time his mouth would let him down.

Pa Michael Imoudu

20 August 2005
It is with great sadness but with gratitude for a long life well spent in the struggle for human emancipation and liberation in Africa, that we have learned of the death of Nigeria’s greatest labour leader. Pa Michael Imoudu died at his home in Edo State on 22 July, aged 102.

Anger at IMF and World Bank

03 July 2005
Many African activists were on the Edinburgh protest. Ken is a student at Imperial College in London, but he grew up in Nigeria where he was involved in struggles against the military dictatorship.

‘Oil giant Shell has brought Nigeria nothing but suffering’

12 February 2005
WHEN I hear of Shell’s profits I remember the suffering of the Nigerian people and of people throughout the world whose economies are enslaved to the oil companies. In Nigeria it is the Ogoni people, whose plight was championed by writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who have been hit most. But there are many other similar communities in our country.

Nigeria

06 November 2004
NIGERIA’S MAIN trade union body is planning a second general strike to protest at fuel price rises—and this time it will target oil production.

Secret police ‘invited’ me in for interrogation

23 October 2004
FROM 11 to 14 October the Nigerian working class showed its potential to lead the rest of the oppressed and exploited in the fight to win a better world.