Politics as War in Yoruba Nigeria
By HRW | Published March 2008
Many of the young men swept up in gang violence are acutely aware of the vast discrepancy between the wealth their communities produce and the near-total lack of employment and educational opportunities open to them. Crime and political violence have both grown in stride with the Niger Delta’s colossal failures of governance. In Nigeria as a whole, national, state, and local elections since 1999 have been consistently rigged by means of violence and fraud. Polls in Rivers State have been among the most violent and brazenly rigged in the country. In large measure this is because Rivers’ oil wealth has increased the financial spoils of political office. One Port Harcourt-based academic told Human Rights Watch that Rivers State has developed “a political culture that views politics as a kind of war.
Report of Joint British-Danish Fact-Finding Mission April 2008
By Danish Immigration | Published April 2008
The Director of the orphanage said that the Lagos State Government does run some orphanages but she did not know to what extent the State Government funds these orphanages or what their facilities are like. As far as she was aware, the federal government does not run any orphanages in Lagos State. She was aware that there were orphanages in other parts of the country but did not know how many. As far as the children’s general health is concerned, the orphanage has an arrangement with a private hospital, the J Rapha Hospital, for the children to be treated and payment to be made, as and when the orphanage can afford it. When asked if she was willing to take children returned by European countries that had been trafficked or smuggled into those countries, the Director of the orphanage replied that they would not turn any child away on condition that there was Nigerian Government approval and proper documentation was produced.
Report of Joint British-Danish Fact-Finding Mission October 2008
By HomeOffice | Published October 2008
The doctor added further that medical care provided in public and teaching hospitals, including investigations and any drugs prescribed or administered,
have to be paid for, even in medical emergencies. If a person, however, arrives at a hospital and requests or needs medical treatment but does not
have the money to pay for it in advance, it is possible that medical treatment will still be provided but only on condition that the person concerned or his
relatives makes a payment as soon as possible after the first 24 hours, or provides an acceptable guarantor. If no payment or guarantor can be provided
at all by the person concerned or his relatives, medical treatment is refused.
Events in Nigeria from 31 October to 5 December 2008
By HomeOffice | Published December 2008
On paper, the system for investigating police misconduct is impressive. In practice, it is too often a charade. The outcome of investigations usually
seems to justify inaction or to ensure that complaints are dealt with internally through ‘orderly-room hearings’ or the like. While police officers are certainly
disciplined and some dismissed, the system has rarely worked in cases in which [the] police are accused of extrajudicial executions. In these instances
genuine investigations are rare and referrals to the DPP for prosecution are even rarer. It is also not uncommon for the primary accused police officer to
escape, for charges to be brought against others, and for the latter to be acquitted on the grounds either of insufficient evidence or of prosecution of the
wrong officers.
“Pragmatic policing” through extra-judicial executions and torture
By Amnesty International | Published May 2008
The Nigeria Police Force and the State Security Service (SSS) continue to commit human rights violations with impunity, including extra-judicial executions. Extra-judicial executions are a violation of the right to life, guaranteed in Article 33 of the Nigerian Constitution. The Nigerian police execute detainees. Moreover, the police execute people for refusal to pay bribes or during road checks, saying they are criminal suspects. Other cases include the shooting during arrest of suspected armed robbers. On 4 September 2007, Inspector General of Police Okiro made public in his address “100 Days of Pragmatic Policing in Nigeria” that between June and August 2007, some 785 suspected armed robbers were killed in shoot-outs with police.
- What Ails the American Economy?
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By Kevin Phillips, Barry Gewen
28 Feb 2009
Even if his pessimism doesn’t seem wholly warranted, a sense of foreboding surely is, which is why his warnings have to be taken seriously. Mr. Phillips writes that the inventors and marketers of the new financial instruments didn’t entirely understand them. An executive of Fidelity International says a panicky feeling has set in on Wall Street because no one knows where the risks really are. The finance minister of France observes that investments may have reached such a level of complexity that no one can assess them. And Charles R. Morris, in his own gloomy book, “The Trillion Dollar Meltdown,” reports that even Citigroup’s chief financial officer “did not know how to value his holdings.
- What Ails the American Economy?
-
By Kevin Phillips, Barry Gewen
28 Feb 2009
Even if his pessimism doesn’t seem wholly warranted, a sense of foreboding surely is, which is why his warnings have to be taken seriously. Mr. Phillips writes that the inventors and marketers of the new financial instruments didn’t entirely understand them. An executive of Fidelity International says a panicky feeling has set in on Wall Street because no one knows where the risks really are. The finance minister of France observes that investments may have reached such a level of complexity that no one can assess them. And Charles R. Morris, in his own gloomy book, “The Trillion Dollar Meltdown,” reports that even Citigroup’s chief financial officer “did not know how to value his holdings.