To ensure the safe return of over 65,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) currently in Cameroon, Nigeria has signed a tripartite agreement with the UN and Cameroon, an official has said. Hajia Sadiya Umaru-Farouq, the Federal Commissioner, National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, disclosed this in Calabar while inaugurating the distribution of food and non-food items to Bakassi IDPs. Umaru-Farouq explained that the agreement was signed to ensure the protection and assistance of Nigerian nationals in Cameroon on their voluntary return to Nigeria. According to her, the 65,000 IDPs consist of Boko Haram victims and the displaced people of Bakassi. “We have about 65,000 Nigerians in Cameroon. The number consist of Boko Haram victims and the displaced people of Bakassi. “This agreement is voluntary for those willing to return to Nigeria and for those who wish to stay in Cameroon. “We will profile them and see the numbers that w...

Boko Haram's insurgency has triggered a major food emergency in northeastern Nigeria Boko Haram Islamists have raided a town in restive northeast Nigeria, looting food supplies and burning homes after overwhelming troops, residents told AFP on Thursday. The attack late on Wednesday happened in Magumeri, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) northwest of the Borno state capital, Maiduguri. It came after a lull in raids on major towns in the remote region following sweeping military offensives which Nigeria has claimed has severely weakened the jihadists to the point of defeat. Scores of Boko Haram fighters arrived in Magumeri at about 6:30 pm (1730 GMT) in vans, motorcycles and on foot, firing heavy weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, forcing residents to flee. "They (Boko Haram) broke into shops and homes and took away every food item they came across," said local resident Kulo Sheriff, who fled the town then returned on Thursday morning. "The...

Teach For Nigeria (TFN), a non-governmental organisation and global network of social enterprises working to increase access to quality education as well as expanding educational opportunities around the world has launched in Nigeria. Chief Executive Officer of the organisation, Folawe Omikunle in her address at the launch, said the group is focused on developing a movement of leaders committed to addressing lopsidedness in the educational system across the county. She explained that the mission of the TFN project was to recruit and train Nigeria’s best and brightest graduates coupled with young professionals of all academic disciplines to teach as full time teachers in underserved schools in poor communities. According to her, “TFN is a two-year leadership development fellowship in which we place exceptional Nigerian university graduates and outstanding young professionals as full time teachers, to teach in underserved classrooms. Our mission is to channel more o...

In this report, Head, Education Desk, IYABO LAWAL writes that the lack of political will, ingenuity and interest in basic education may be reasons that state governors fail to touch the UBE funds even with a long stick. Imagine a school building with its tattered roof suspended mid-air, barely clinging to its support frames and classroom walls riddled with holes for lizards to hold a convention. Imagine, a dozen children, with mucus running down their noses, squatting on the floor, writing in the exercise books delicately placed on their legs, or on the back of a classmate as a harried teacher prattles on about multiplication tables.   This imagination is the reality at Oshodi Nursery and Primary School, Oshodi, a suburb of Lagos. The walls reek of age and neglect, windows have long left their hinges, shards of zinc precariously clung to rotten woods pass as roofs over classrooms without seats as the scorching sun tans unwilling juvenile skins already scarred by...

At a recent meeting, the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria gave a bleak summary of the state of their country, lamenting humanitarian crises including violence at the hands of Boko Haram and other extremist groups, poverty, government corruption, and a lack of respect for human rights or dignity. “Since the end of Nigeria’s tragic civil war, at no other time in the history of our dear country has the issue of our common citizenship been subjected to more strain,” the bishops said in a statement at the conclusion of their plenary assembly, held in Abuja March 4-10. “We have found the outright disdain for the sanctity of human life totally at variance with both our cultural traditional norms and our religious sensibilities. Life has never looked so cheap,” they said. While Nigeria’s civil war ended in 1970, the country has recently undergone a period of extreme violence and instability, with the rise of Boko Haram and other Islamist terrorist groups. Since 2009, changing gove...

 Politics Osinbajo Briefs Buhari On Activities While Away President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo are currently meeting inside the President’s office at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Osinbajo arrived for the meeting at about 12noon shortly after Buhari arrived his office for the first time after his 49-day medical sojourn in London. The Vice President is expected to brief President Muhammadu Buhari on his activities while away.

Buhari critics and politics of double standards The concept of genuine democracy is synonymous with constructive criticism because it is only through it that government could be compelled to sit up and perform better. There’s also a saying in politics that minority must have their say and the majority must have their way. This implies that in a democratic setting, minority views must be respected, they should be allowed to express their grievances and make criticisms where necessary. But their criticisms must always be predicated within the context of rule of law and must be constructive. By definition, you cannot just make a statement that cannot be justified. But people like Governor Ayodele Fayose, Femi Fani Kayode, Ben Murray Bruce and Mathew Hassan Kukah have always been relentless in their criticisms of President Buhari and his administration. They have never seen or said anything positive about Buhari’s leadership style. President Buhari has returned to ...