7 Interesting Facts About the Sahara Desert

The Sahara Desert as seen from space

The Sahara Desert is an interesting piece of land located in North Africa. This desert is the third-largest in the entire world, surpassed only by Antarctica and the Arctic—both of which are cold deserts. That makes it the largest hot desert on earth. Interested in learning more about this amazing place? here are seven interesting …

Continue Reading

Five Lessons from Nigeria’s #EndSARS Protests

#EndSARS protesters Lagos, Nigeria

On October 8, thousands of young people took to the streets of Lagos to call for the dissolution of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), an infamous police unit accused of extortion, extra-judicial killings, rape, and torture. Since then a lot has transpired in a series of events that would come to be known globally as …

Continue Reading

Why The Nigerian Government is releasing Boko Haram detainees back into Society

The Nigerian government has been systematically releasing ex Boko Haram members back into society since 2016.

The government claimed those released were repentant former militants who have gone through the Deradicalization, Rehabilitation, and reintegration (DRR) program and are now set to be reintegrated into society.

Trouble started in 2009 when BokoHaram declared war on the Nigerian state after the extrajudicial killing of its then leader, Mohammed Yusuf.

Muhammad Yusuf, slain former leader of Boko Haram
Muhammad Yusuf

In 2017, former governor Kashim Shettima of Borno state said the Boko Haram insurgency had led to the deaths of almost 100,000 persons going by the estimates of local community leaders over the years.

Over 14 million Nigerians have also been directly affected by the humanitarian crises in the North-East region of the country, two international humanitarian groups reported.

The groups also said 13,000 churches were razed, 1,500 schools shut, and 611 teachers have been killed by the teachers so far.

Boko Haram wants to replace Nigeria’s secular constitution with its extreme version of Islamic Sharia law and so far the group’s violence has defied the solution.

Read more: Dangote Refinery and Petro-Chemical complex, explained

In 2019, Nigerian senator, Ibrahim Gaidam proposed the creation of a new government agency, the Commission for repentant Boko Haram members.

The senator said the agency when established will help rehabilitate and reintegrate defectors, repentant and forcefully conscripted members of the terror group to make them a useful part of the society and provide an avenue for reconciliation.

The agency will create vocational rehabilitation for the members: which will give detainees opportunities to learn carpentry, clay shaping, pottery, use of art through drawing among others.

Not everyone supports the bill, many Nigerians said it is insensitive to introduce such a bill when the insurgents are still killing and destroying.

Others believe the funds needed to form the commission could be deployed to cater for the welfare of the numerous internally displaced victims of the insurgents.

Alternate argument

Continue Reading

Why Many Nigerians Hate Big Brother Naija

The just-concluded Big Brother Nigeria is arguably the most popular show on Nigerian television.

To understand what the show is all about, it is important to understand what it isn’t.

It is not a talent show; which means contestants do not engage in singing competitions, tell jokes, dance, and stuffs like that.

It is not a game show; there are no physical or mental contests.

Rather it is marketed as a reality show which follows a group of people as they live in isolation from the world under constant surveillance from Big Brother.

Millions of viewers watch the housemates do everyday activities like cook, clean the house, comment on each other’s behaviors, party, and lots of on-screen sex.

This is why in the middle of the fifth season of the show, Nigeria’s minister of information and culture orders that Big Brother Nigeria be suspended.

Big Brother is a Dutch reality television franchise which was first broadcast in the Netherlands in 1999 since then there have been over 448 seasons of the show in 54 franchise countries and regions.

The Nigerian version, Big Brother Naija is no doubt the most successful version on the African continent and one of the last surviving versions of the show in the world.

 

Read more: Dangote Oil and Petro-Chemical complex, Explained

Continue Reading

Dangote Oil Refinery And Petro-Chemical Complex, Explained

Upon completion, the Dangote oil refinery will have the capacity to refine 650, 000 barrels of crude oil a day making it Africa’s biggest oil refinery and the world’s biggest single-train facility. It will also be producing fertilizer as well as other petrochemical products. The facility is projected to create 70,000 jobs and save Nigeria …

Continue Reading

The Best Performing Presidents in Africa 2020

Africa has come a long way since the year 2000 when The Economist published this magazine branding the continent as hopeless. Since the turn of the century, countries in sub-Saharan Africa achieved a growth rate of 6.2%, by comparison, that is twice the growth rate of countries in Latin America during the same time period. …

Continue Reading