http://Johne.tigblog.org/ What's on the minds of young leaders from around the globe? en-us http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/485457
More than 60 people have died in Zamfara state in the past two weeks, according to Tukur Sani Jangebe, Zamfara’s state commissioner for religious affairs.

“It is quite alarming and it is quite unusual for northern Nigeria. If up to 100 people have died from cholera in just two weeks, you can only imagine how many more are affected by the disease,” an official from the government-run NPHA who requested anonymity.

National government officials have not yet publicly stated if the outbreaks across the separate states are related, or provided figures on the number of affected people.

Jangebe said the death toll may be higher as reports of new infections are still coming in.

In Katsina state in the villages of Makadawa and Kagadama, 20 people, mostly women and children, have died while 30 others have been hospitalised according to local government chairman Masur Usman Murnai. Another nine people have died in Nabardo village in Bauchi state since 13 September, with 40 more affected, according to Garba Sale, a primary health care coordinator. Kano State’s health commissioner Aisha Isyaku Kiru said five people have died of cholera in the state within the past week.

Dirty water

Across northern Nigeria, heavy rains have washed dirt, rubbish, sewage and other contaminants into ponds and open wells in affected villages where the majority of people get their water, according to Sani Ibrahim, an epidemiologist at Kano state’s Bayero University.

“Torrential rains have been recorded this season and have washed lots of dirt into ponds and open wells. This is in contrast with last year where we had scanty rainfall and no recorded cholera outbreaks,” he said.

Response

In Katsina state, Murnai said local officials have been running an awareness campaign to urge people to pay close attention to household hygiene and to boil all drinking water.

Health coordinator Sale said in Bauchi state a health surveillance team has been sent to Nabardo village to analyse and disinfect drinking water sources.

In Zamfara state, the local ministry of water resources is trying to find ways to provide clean drinking water to affected communities to halt the spread of the deadly disease, according to local commissioner Jangebe.

But Halliru Salisu, coordinator of a network of Muslim groups in the state, says local government officials were slow to admit the cholera crisis and slow to respond.

Cholera is a bacterial intestinal tract infection that leads to vomiting and diarrhoea, and if untreated, can be deadly.

In March 2008, at least 35 people died of cholera in the towns of Markurdi and Oturkpo in southern Nigeria.]]> Wed, 24 Sep 2008 06:33:00 EDT http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/485457 6.5091667 3.35805566.50916673.3580556 http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/482349
The clashes – reportedly the heaviest in two years in the region – were sparked on 13 September when government security forces allegedly razed the villages of Soku, Kula, and Tombia, in Rivers state while looking for Farah Dagogo, a member of rebel group Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).

Civilians caught in crossfire

“I got distress calls from the affected areas saying two of the villages had been razed to the ground, and there was an urgent need for medical teams to go there, but it was not possible for us to go.” said Chika Onah with the Nigerian Red Cross (NRC) in Port Harcourt.

Ongoing insecurity has cut off access to parts of Rivers state, making it hard for disaster workers to count how many of the estimated 20,000 inhabitants in the three towns have fled, according to NRC.

Nevertheless, civilian casualties are high. “There is no way the civilian population will not suffer in this kind of attack.”

Sofiri Joad Peterside, a human rights campaigner said, “These were aerial strikes without clear targets. What we are calling for right now is an independent assessor to determine the extent of civilian vulnerability to all these strikes.”

He said the violence hit civilians directly. “The centre of the violence was full of civilians. We live in riverine areas and in every riverine area, you have a forest where people go to pick seafood, and you have a community.”

But Nigerian army spokesman, Emeka Onwuamaegbu, said the military did not carry out a full-scale offensive. “We are applying minimum force in tackling the situation…we cannot go all out to kill our own people. Can we?”

Surge in violence

On 14 September, MEND declared war against foreign-owned oil companies working in the Delta, pledging to destroy oil pipelines and flow stations, and warning companies to evacuate their staff and stop pumping. MEND claims five attacks since its oil war threat.

Rebels have escalated attacks in recent months against oil production spots, according to locals who do not want to reveal their identities because of the region’s volatility.

A government effort to reign in oil smuggling by shutting down 200 illegal oil refineries in the past two months has sparked more fighting, according to the governmental Joint Military Task Force.

The Niger Delta, 70,000 kilometres of mostly wetlands, is home to some 20 million people who sit atop more than 30 billion barrels of top grade crude oil, according to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

The region’s oil production has slumped after periodic attacks by local rebels who say criminal gangs and government military forces are siphoning and smuggling oil wealth, leaving behind polluted, malaria-infested, lawless marshlands that have seen little return from oil revenues.

‘If you drink our water, you’ll get sick’

Oil revenue from the Delta will amount to US$66 billion in 2008, according to an August 2008 report by the UK-based Centre for Global Energy Studies, but Delta residents say they see little of this money invested in the delta communities surrounding the oil fields.

Rebel leader Tom Polo in Wari, in western Delta, told IRIN, “We are suffering in the Niger Delta. If you drink our water, you’ll get sick. They [the government] are not doing anything for us. Every day they say oil prices have gone up, but we don’t see any tangible benefits from it.”

He said the government has not given back to local communities. “If you go to other countries that are rich in oil, they build first-class universities in oil-producing communities, but here there is nothing like that.”

Government spokesman Olusegun Adeniyi pledges more development, but says security must come first. “The government takes the Niger Delta very seriously. It is one of the seven key priorities of this administration…we are doing everything possible to improve living conditions in the Delta, but the security forces will continue to check the excesses of all those seeking to exploit the situation to make money through criminal tendencies.”

Red Cross worker Onah says spiralling criminality is hampering efforts to protect civilians. “The issue in the Niger Delta has now gone beyond the struggle for a greater share of the region’s resources. If they [criminal gangs masquerading as militants] can kidnap a one-year old baby or a sixty-year old grandmother, organisations like ours that want to help have to be very, very careful.”

Government tries to quell violence

On 10 September 2008, the Nigerian cabinet appointed a new ministry for the region.
Presidential spokesman, Olusegun Adeniyi, announced the ministry’s plans to “tackle the challenges of infrastructural development, environmental protection and youth empowerment in the region. We believe this is an important step in building confidence about this government’s plans for the Niger Delta.”

In 2000, the government set up a similar Niger Delta Development Commission to relieve poverty in the region, hoping this would end unrest. But the commission lacked funding and astute management, according to most analysts.

Tony Uranta, executive secretary of the non-governmental United Niger Delta Energy Development an When two elephants wrestle, the grass suffers.
d Security Strategy, says the government needs to honour its promises if fighting is going to end- definitively.

Coming out of a meeting with President Umaru Yar’Adua on 19 September, he told IRIN, “It is a mistake to approach the Delta problem as a security problem rather than a development or justice problem. There is a bit of sincerity [from the government] beginning to show but it is still early. Once we see this sincerity in action…there will be changes for the better in the region.”

As the two sides wrangle over oil wealth distribution, Samuel Atori, a Delta native and founder of the Abuja-based Izon Prayer Network, concluded, “When two elephants wrestle, the grass suffers.”

]]> Sat, 20 Sep 2008 10:29:00 EDT http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/482349 6.5091667 3.35805566.50916673.3580556 http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/476435
The influx has overwhelmed Akwa Ibom’s local authorities who are struggling to feed, shelter, clothe and medicate the returnees, most of whom have come empty-handed, according to local journalist Tommy Solomon.

Aniekan Umanah, Akwa Ibom’s information commissioner, warned IRIN “There is no way we can handle things for much longer.”

Umanah told IRIN they have received no assistance from the federal government, and are relying on non-governmental organisations like the Nigerian Red Cross.

Okon Eyo, 45, a now homeless fisherman and father of seven has tried to access dwindling emergency supplies at Mbo camp in Akwa Ibom. “We want the federal government to move in quickly and assist us,” he pleaded. “We want to get on with our lives. We don’t want this thing to drag for too long.”

Government help slow to arrive

Nigerians started fleeing Bakassi following the 14 August 2008 ceremony between the governments of Cameroon and Nigeria, which officially handed over administration of the disputed Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon.

According to Umanah, Akwa Ibom received 75,000 returnees over the last two weeks of August. Just when local authorities believed the last returnees had arrived, 20 more buses came in early September. “We were helpless. We had to shelter them in a local school and make arrangements for their food and security. We don’t know when it will end.”

The Nigerian National Boundary Commission, which helped steer the Bakassi handover, pledged more than US$7 million in federal funds to resettle Nigerian nationals from the disputed territory into the neighbouring Cross River state. But none of this funding was slated for Akwa Ibom, according to Florence Ita-Giw, head of the presidential task force on Bakassi returnees.

As a result. many returnees may not be eligible for federal help. The National Boundary Commission also set up the government’s aid package expecting people with family in other parts of the country to return there, according to Tunde Orebiyi, national secretary of the Nigerian Red Cross.

Returnees to Cross River have as yet seen little government help.

Ita-Giw with the national government, counsels patience. “We are working hard to make as many houses ready [as possible] for occupation by the returnees, but it can’t be done overnight,” she told IRIN. The Red Cross’ Orebiyi has warned resettlement can take as long as one year.

Resentment

Some 300,000 Nigerians lived in Bakassi before its transfer to Cameroon. In the process leading up to the handover, authorities had discussed a transitional arrangement allowing joint administration by Nigeria and Cameroon for an initial period to guarantee the fair treatment of Nigerians left behind.

But this was not put in place, according to returnees and journalist Solomon.

“The returnees said most of them were being terrorised by the Cameroonian police and they did not find life easy under the new ruling,” Solomon explained. According to him, the Cross River authorities are investigating reports that Cameroonian soldiers recently killed Nigerians in Bakassi.

Mambou Deffo Roland, chief of the Cameroonian military police, declined to comment on these allegations.

But in a 21 August speech following the handover, Cameroon President Paul Biya assured the safety of Bakassi-based Nigerians. “I reassure them: their safety and rights will continue to be guaranteed, they will be able as in the past, to continue their lives in peace as long as they abide by the laws of Cameroon.”

Some Nigerians took their loss of Bakassi with outrage, accusing the government of betraying them.

An activist in Bakassi, who asked to remain anonymous, said lingering resentment among returnees could escalate into a full-blown insurgency.

The peninsula has suffered attacks by both Nigerians and Cameroonians over the past year, with casualties registered on both sides.

But the Nigerian military is keen to play down such fears. “There is absolutely no security threat,” said Nigerian military spokesman Mohammed Yusuf, “Threats by whom, to whom?” he asked. “Nothing is happening. There is no problem in Bakassi.”

Nigeria and Cameroon have been praised for the peaceful resolution of their border dispute in a conflict-prone continent with colonial era borders.

But for some the pain incurred by the recent re-drawing of the map will be slow to subside. A prominent Bakassi chief Edet Okon told IRIN, “The emotional and sentimental attachment to one’s ancestral home is not something you can do away with in a short period of time.”]]> Fri, 12 Sep 2008 06:47:00 EDT http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/476435 6.5091667 3.35805566.50916673.3580556 http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/471043
“Nigeria produces almost 25 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions in Africa from its gas flaring by oil firms in the Niger-Delta,” said Stefan Cramer, director of the Nigeria office of Heinrinch Boll Stiftung, a German environmental NGO, UN-organised climate change conference in Accra.

For decades, gas flaring has been used in Nigeria to separate non-commercial grade gases from the market-worthy crude oil. Nigeria emits 13 percent of the global 150 billion cubic metres of gas flared every year and is the world’s eighth largest oil producer, Cramer said. Most countries generate power with the gas leftover from oil extraction, rather than burn it.
Cramer said Nigeria’s contribution to the global environmental crisis is still insignificant when compared to industrial countries in Europe, Asia and the United States.

Nigeria not to blame
Christian Teriete, a spokesman for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), said the African continent emits around 40 billion cubic metres of carbon every year, which he says is “negligible” when compared to Europe, Asia and the US.

It doesn't make sense for Nigeria and South Africa to reduce their emissions while the industrialised nations... do not make any effort
“It doesn’t make sense for Nigeria and South Africa to reduce their emissions while the industrialised nations [which] are largely responsible for climate change do not make any efforts to reduce theirs,” Teriete said.

Ewah Otu Eleri, head of the Nigerian International Centre for Energy, Environment and Development agreed Africa’s emissions are negligible and their reduction should not be used as a tool to deprive the continent of development.

“Emissions reductions should not be used as a ploy to create obstacles on our [Nigeria’s] way to development. The developed countries should help us with low-carbon technology.”

Failed attempts to outlaw flaring
Nigeria outlawed gas flaring in 1979, planning to completely eliminate it by 1984. In February 2008, the government approved the trapping and converting of gas flares to economic use, expected to earn about US$500 million annually, according to Nigerian energy officials.

Nigeria’s government has shifted the deadline to end gas flaring to the end of the year, but Nigerian environmentalist Eleri said he does not think the government has committed itself to a firm flare out date.
]]> Fri, 05 Sep 2008 05:06:00 EDT http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/471043 6.5091667 3.35805566.50916673.3580556 http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/460017
“From available statistics, 100,000 infants die from sickle-cell disease in Nigeria annually, making it the number one sickle-cell endemic country in Africa,” Sadiq Wali, president of the Nigeria Sickle-cell Foundation, told IRIN.

“Based on World Health Organization [WHO] indices, Nigeria accounts for 75 percent of infant sickle-cell cases in Africa and almost 80 percent of infant deaths from the disease in the continent”, Wali said.

According to the WHO, 200,000 infants are born with sickle-cell in Africa every year, with Nigeria accounting for about three-quarters of these births. Sixty percent of the 200,000 will die as infants.

Sickle-cell disease is an incurable genetic disorder widespread in sub-Saharan Africa and among descendents of Africans worldwide. Sufferers have no visible symptoms, but periodically experience severe pain and are also highly prone to anaemia because the blood cells break down after only 10-20 days, rather than the usual four months.

A person can only inherit sickle-cell disorder if both parents are carriers of the genetic trait, and then there is a one in four chance of giving birth to an affected child. WHO says that in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa, up to 2 percent of children are born with the condition. For more on this see Africa: Little help for those who suffer from blood disorder.

“This genetic disorder alone accounts for 8 percent of infant mortality in Nigeria which calls for urgent attention”, Wali said.

Around four million Nigerians are estimated to suffer from the disease, while 25 million others carry the genes which they pass to their offspring.

Link with malaria?

According to the WHO, sickle-cell is particularly prevalent in areas of high malarial transmission.

“The mutant sickle-cell gene confers a survival advantage against malaria which explains the prevalence of the disease in Nigeria where malaria is endemic,” explained Ibrahim Musa, a Nigerian medical expert based at Kano general hospital.

Carriers of sickle-cell are less prone to being infected with malaria, which attacks red blood cells. However, those with sickle-cell disease are more vulnerable to malaria because of their weakened health, experts say.

Although sickle-cell in infants is curable through bone marrow transplants, lack of expertise and the high cost of the operation makes preventive measures the best option, medical experts say.

“This is why we advocate genetic counselling by intending couples before marriage to determine the status of their genes”, Nigeria Sickle-cell Foundation’s Wali said.

“People should go for a genetic test in the same way they determine their HIV status before marriage as the most effective way to protect their children and curtail the disease”, he said.

Sickle-cell contributes to 9 percent of deaths in children under five in West Africa, and up to 16 percent in some countries. Sickle-cell has a heavy impact on children: malaria is the leading killer of under-fives in Africa. ]]> Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:28:00 EDT http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/460017 6.5091667 3.35805566.50916673.3580556 http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/457419
Kano's history dates back 1,400 years as an iron-working centre that adopted Islam in the 14th century and grew on the back of the trans-Saharan caravan trade.

Outside the old city walls is a quarter known as the sabon gari, where "foreigners" traditionally lived, segregated from the Hausa-speaking indigenous population. With sharia law applicable in Kano, it is in the bars and hotels of the sabon gari - where Islamic jurisprudence does not reach - that Idris does his business.

He works with a group of Hausa-speaking women from all over the north who live in a dingy, nameless hole-in-the-wall hotel, whose anonymity seems deliberate. Quarrelsome, poor, with some clearly on something narcotic, these are women at the edge of society.

As they prepared for the evening, applying henna to their hands and feet, cleaning their rooms, getting stoned, Idris explained that his role was to guide the "big fish" to the establishment, and sometimes act as muscle. He gets tipped by the women, maybe gets fed if they feel sorry for him, or he has a girlfriend among them, but the money they make is theirs alone.

It is not that much. They pay N450 (US$4) a night for the rooms and share blocked toilets downstairs, having to burn incense to cover the smell, and charge around N300 (US$2.60) for sex – an amount whispered out of earshot of Idris and the other pimps. While a "big fish" in the capital, Abuja, or the commercial metropolis, Lagos, might shell out N150,000 (US$1,300), here a serious score would be N15,000 (US$130) – and it doesn't happen often.

"There is a religious/cultural dimension; they are outcasts from their families and find succour in drugs: ruffies [Rohypnol, a date-rape drug], Benzedrine [an amphetamine], cough syrup," explained Salamatu Da'u, behaviour change communication coordinator in Kano of the Society for Family Health (SFH), a Nigerian AIDS service organisation that had just begun working at the hotel.

The way you change a car is the way you change a wife in Kano.
Kano, Nigeria's second largest city, has an HIV prevalence rate of 3.4 percent - just below the national average of 4.4 percent - but among brothel-based sex workers it hits 49.1 percent. In a six-state behavioural survey by the federal ministry of health, Kano's brothel-based sex workers were the least able to correctly identify ways of preventing HIV transmission, and the least likely to use condoms with their customers.

The stories of the women working out of the brothel in the sabon gari were almost identical: divorced, or running away before being forced into marriage, hoping one day to find somebody to settle down with. "I come from a religious family and I know what I am doing is a sin, but I pray every day for God to create an opportunity for me to leave this business; not just me, but all the girls," said Fatima Danjuma*.

Married young

In the north, the pressure on girls to get married begins almost as soon as they start menstruating, said Da'u. "Ï grew up with it. The idea is sold to you from six or eight; it's a way of life. The girls see it as a rite of passage: 'soon I'll be on my own', independent, grown up." But the sacrifice is education, and the chance of real independence that it can deliver.

According to the Population Council, an international reproductive health organisation, 45 percent of girls in northern Nigeria are married by the age of 15, and 73 percent by age 18. The "vast majority" of child marriages are arranged by families, to husbands 12 years older than their wives on average.

"Men made the vast majority of decisions in the household, regarding not only major life issues such as large purchases, but also more mundane matters such as daily purchases and meals. Sexual debut was often unwanted and traumatic for these young brides," the Population Council's website noted.

The vulnerability of the girls is magnified by the high divorce rate in Kano, a commercial city where a new bride can be a status symbol for a man. "A girl can be married at 12 and divorced at 18, with children to support," said Da'u. "The way you change a car is the way you change a wife in Kano. You give birth to a few children and you can find yourself divorced for the slightest excuse."

That creates a class of young women who are likely to have limited schooling, possibly living at home again - with all the tension that entails after running their own household - and expected to earn an income. Typically, this means petty trading on the streets, selling food, cosmetics or small items, while waiting for suitors; but it can also shade into sex work, in a region where condom use is exceptionally low.

"The north is a very traditional place; to make inroads you must work with traditional religious leaders," said Kene Eruchalu, SFH's national head of behaviour change communication. "What we don't have yet is many traditional leaders coming out to promote condoms. A number of them have come to terms with the fact that people are having sex, and we're thankful that we've had some kind of silent support which hasn't opposed the intervention."

Sheikh Zachery Adam says he is "deeply involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS" and, through a local association that meets one a month, supports the use of condoms for men who cannot abstain from sex or remain faithful to their wives. "I don't jump to conclusions, only God will judge who goes to hell or heaven," he told IRIN/PlusNews.

Kamalu Ibrahim, head of the local Koranic school, politely waited until the sheikh had left the room before offering his opinion. "Islamic laws are rigid, no matter the situation. There can be no sexual intercourse unless you are married; [rather than using condoms] the only solution [to sexual urges] is to marry young."

* Not her real name
]]> Mon, 18 Aug 2008 05:17:00 EDT http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/457419 6.5091667 3.35805566.50916673.3580556 http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/455523
In Zimbabwe's Shona language, spoken by about 80 percent of the population, slang is called chibhende. According to Dr Robert Muponde, a senior lecturer in English studies at South Africa's University of the Witwatersrand, the expression speaks volumes about how HIV is understood and accommodated.

"Chibhende means speaking obliquely of something, in order not to blow its cover, or in order to speak about it more comfortably," he told IRIN/PlusNews.

In Zimbabwe, HIV is often spoken about as a thief (matsotsi). If you are HIV-positive, people might say you've been mugged, or Akarohwa nematsotsi in Shona, Muponde said. The phrase gives an idea of how the virus is perceived – as a sneak attack – but it also creates a space for discussion that otherwise might not exist.

"Sex is difficult to handle in a shy language like Shona," Muponde said. "Slang gives the unspeakable street value by making it look accessible and banal."

Felicity Horne, who studies AIDS and language at the University of South Africa, agreed, saying that while many communities struggled to break the silence about HIV and AIDS formally, informal or slang terms for the epidemic were proliferating and were beginning to construct a response to the pandemic.

"Language can neither be separated from our thoughts and feelings, nor from the social context in which it is used," she said. "Words and images create different conceptual realities of the phenomenon."

Organisations like SAfAIDS, a southern African HIV/AIDS information dissemination service based in Zimbabwe, argue that the slang used to describe the virus – which is almost uniformly negative – reinforces the stigma and fatalism that has proved so difficult to erase over the past 25 years of advocacy.
]]> Fri, 15 Aug 2008 06:38:00 EDT http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/455523 6.5091667 3.35805566.50916673.3580556 http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/455517
According to Oliver Okem*, a smart and trendily bespectacled AIDS activist, when the mood and the music is right, he and his friends can strut their stuff at Ibiza, Excelsior, or a couple of other gay-tolerant clubs in Abuja. Sometimes, though, it becomes advisable to "straighten up; rough-looking guys can stare at you, wondering what's up, and maybe whispering among themselves".

Being gay in Nigeria is hard: homosexual sex is illegal, but there is also the sanction contained in a rising tide of religious fundamentalism, and with cultural traditions that generally abhor same-sex coupling.

In a country - especially in the south - where marriage and children are seen as sacred, there is the added pressure from parents who expect their offspring to settle down and deliver grandchildren. Being gay means becoming invisible and, as a result of that secrecy, much more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS.

A behavioural surveillance survey by the ministry of health in 2007 found that, after sex workers, men who have sex with men (MSM) were the group most at-risk of HIV infection, with a prevalence rate of 13.4 percent – three times the national average of 4.4 percent. There was considerable variation in three cities surveyed, but in the commercial capital, Lagos, prevalence hit 25 percent.

The circumstances of MSM vulnerability are not unique to Nigeria. As in the rest of the world, some MSM do not regard themselves as gay and are in heterosexual relationships, making it difficult for orthodox AIDS campaigning to reach them.

"A lot of stigma is associated with the moral aspect [of homosexuality]. It drives people into the closet – they don't want to come out, which means they can't access [AIDS] services," said one senior HIV researcher, who asked not to be named as he did not have clearance to talk to the media.

Okem said it was a little more complicated. "The vast majority of MSM believe you cannot contract STIs [sexually transmitted infections] from anal sex. In Nigeria we don't talk about anal sex, and all the [AIDS] interventions are targeted at heterosexuals and vaginal sex. The perception of gay people not using condoms is not because we don't want to, but because we are not well informed."

The internet, with social networking websites like Facebook, and the more discreet clubs provide enough opportunities to hook up. "Very few relationships are formed, most of it is about the sex or the benefits," said Okem.

"The majority of 'passive' [recipient] gay men have accepted their sexuality ... some 'actives' may have done it once or twice and liked it – but wouldn't agree they are gay. There is a financial exchange then, but more usually it is actives that take money for sex."

Getting organised

Gays and lesbians are beginning to organise: at least 10 groups have been formed in Nigeria and are pressing for better representation in the AIDS response, which the government seems ready to grant. Alliance Rights Nigeria, one of the oldest, was set up in 1999 in response to the toll of AIDS deaths among MSM, who were "dying in ignorance", said the group's executive director, Ifeanyi Orazulike.

Unlike Okem, who has not told his parents or ruled out getting married, Orazulike is open about his sexuality and feels attitudes are beginning to change. "People are coming to the realisation that there are gays in Nigeria," he told IRIN/PlusNews. "There is a level of toleration."

In the Muslim north there has historically been a cultural acceptance of "Dan Daudu" – men who live as women – despite the contradiction to traditional Islamic teaching. But even in the south, with its avowedly macho outlook on life, Orazulike said he had never been confronted with anti-gay aggression. That could be a testament both to his discretion, and to the innocent incredulity with which many Nigerians regard homosexuality.

"We don't intend to rub people's faces in it, otherwise they are forced to react; just live your life," Orazulike explained. That approach is likely to guide Nigeria's AIDS response to the gay and lesbian community, where a little tact may be required to avoid the attention of the national assembly and some of the more conservative elements in government.

"There will be no specific intervention response that targets this group," said the researcher, who works for a major funding agency. "It will be a package to address the most at-risk groups, and we'll reach them that way, but not as a population cohort themselves."

* Not his real name
]]> Fri, 15 Aug 2008 06:30:00 EDT http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/455517 6.5091667 3.35805566.50916673.3580556 http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/455515 Anti-poverty activists say more money needs to be spent at the grass roots level
NAIROBI, 8 July 2008 (PlusNews) - HIV/AIDS funding to low- and middle-income countries reached a record level in 2007, according to a new report by UNAIDS.

AIDS spending by the G8 group of wealthy nations, the European Commission and other donors hit US$ 6.6 billion last year, up from US$ 5.6 billion in 2006. However, despite the largesse, UNAIDS said a US$8.1 billion gap in funding for essential HIV/AIDS programmes remained.

The United States was the largest grant-giver, providing 20 percent of resources in 2007, followed by the United Kingdom. Some non-G8 nations also provided significant assistance, including the Netherlands, Sweden, Australia and Ireland.

The report comes as the G8 - made up of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States - reiterated a commitment they made at the 2005 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, to spend US$60 billion to fight disease in Africa; the repeated commitment added a five-year timeline to the initiative.

At the G8 summit this week in Hokkaido, Japan, leaders also announced that they would provide 100 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets by 2010 to control the spread of malaria on the African continent, and would work towards increasing the health workforce in countries experiencing a critical shortfall in health staff.

"The G8 will take concrete steps to work toward improving the link between HIV/AIDS activities and sexual and reproductive health and voluntary family planning programmes, to improve access to health care, including preventing mother-to-child transmission, and to achieve the MDGs [United Nations Millennium Development Goals] by adopting a multisectoral approach and by fostering community involvement and participation," a statement from the G8 said.

The announcement of the funding comes as a relief to organisations working to combat disease and poverty in Africa; several press reports had hinted that a draft communiqué scheduled to be released by the G8 would omit HIV/AIDS targets.

However, some organisations felt the commitments still fell short of expectations, with the anti-poverty NGO, ActionAid, describing the summit's statement on Africa as "as a mixture of recycled promises and failed remedies".

And although they welcomed the five-year timeframe for the disbursement of the $60 billion for health, "there is still no indication of who will pay up and exactly when".

"The proposals for strengthening health services are also seen by ActionAid as flawed, unless more is done to stem the exodus of skilled staff from African countries," a press statement said.

Getting the funding to where it's needed

"Training more health workers is pointless if the brain drain continues," said ActionAid Malawi's food security specialist. "There are more Malawian doctors in the city of Manchester than in the whole of Malawi."

"It's good progress that they will provide the promised levels of funding," Leonard Okello, head of ActionAid's international HIV/AIDS team, told IRIN/PlusNews. "However, we hope they will fulfil these pledges, because one of the big problems with health funding is lots of money promised and only part of it ever being paid."

"The G8 and other leaders of the developed world usually work on a political timetable, so their funding is suited to when they arrive and exit office, not around the needs of the people they are targeting," he added.

"The other problem with HIV/AIDS funding is that it rarely reaches the people who need it most, who are at the community level," Okello said. "Research shows that in Africa, more than 70 percent of the work in the HIV field is done by community-based organisations, but only 11 percent of the funding goes to them."

"In addition, the organisations the money goes to have to meet strict standards - usually only large international organisations without a good idea of the landscape in which they are working can meet the criteria, so the money winds up being spent where it is not needed," he added.

He noted that large sums of money were spent at luxury hotels in high level meetings - money that could be better used if it were channelled directly to the community.

"It's no wonder that despite all the funding, the response is still lagging behind the epidemic," Okello said.
]]> Fri, 15 Aug 2008 06:21:00 EDT http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/455515 6.5091667 3.35805566.50916673.3580556 http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/455511
If the trip runs smoothly, a tanker leaving the big cities of the north at dawn should arrive at Eleme, in the troubled oil-rich delta region, by early evening. The following day the fuel company's representative fights to get a "ticket" for the driver, authorising the consignment. With the allotted load on board, the gear-grinding exhaust-belching trucks nudge their way out of the depot and into the traffic.

But because things do not usually go to plan, there is a thriving roadside service industry taking care of stalled truckers, refinery workers, fuel dealers and anybody else looking for accommodation, banks, butchers, bars, mechanics, places of worship, restaurants, laundry services, film halls, cell phone kiosks – and sex.

More than 100 women from all over Nigeria work out of the tiny wooden shacks at the heart of the community. They pay N300 (US$2) a day for their rooms - not much bigger than the space taken by a single mattress, without electricity or running water - and charge a minimum of N300 for sex.

Eleme, on the southern rim of Rivers State, one of the four core delta states, is one of the largest of a string of eight truck stops along the 800km route into the north where commercial sex is available.

Rivers has an HIV prevalence rate of 5.4 percent, above the national average of 4.4 percent, but not the worst result in the country; that position is held by the state of Benue, in central Nigeria, with an infection rate of 10 percent.

Rivers, however, is at the centre of delta militancy, in which armed young men have proved themselves willing and able to take on the armed forces of the federal government to press their demands for a fairer sharing of Nigeria's wealth, almost exclusively derived from the oil and gas of the region.

AIDS and insecurity

Dr C. Okeh, head of the State Action Committee on HIV/AIDS in Rivers, worries that the unrest will have an impact on the fight against the virus. At the very least, "a crisis situation means that you don't have time to listen to [AIDS] messages – you're thinking of your immediate survival," he told IRIN/PlusNews.

Queen Henry is the peer educator for the sex workers in Eleme, part of a community-based organisation supported by the Society for Family Health, Nigeria's largest AIDS service provider. For her, the most pressing concern is the insecurity in the area.

Soldiers based at the nearby river jetty, where cargo ships take on fuel pumped from the refinery through a bundle of pipes, each the width of a man's waist, have decreed an unofficial 9 p.m. curfew on the sex trade. Enforcing it has meant regular raids on the shacks, kicking out customers and beating women not inside their rooms.

But the AIDS message is sinking in, condoms are cheap and available, and the sex workers are organised. Henry has no doubt that all the women she reaches know in theory the importance of protection. "But the problem is you're not in the room with the girls when they are alone with a customer," she explained. "If eager for money, you do it [without a condom]; if you want to protect your life, you don't," was her matter-of-fact assessment.

That triggered a mini-debate among the women gathered outside her small kiosk, where she sells tonics and douches. "Two thousand naira [roughly US$17, what some women charge for sex without a condom] cannot cure the sickness inside my body [as a result of HIV]. I have seen money [had a lot of it]; I'm too young to die. It's not because of [greed that] I'll go and mess up my life," said Patience Orkah, wearing black hot-pants and a lot of make-up.

All the women agreed, except Charity Ekiti. "All I know is I [get the] money, I f***," she chipped in. "If I [don't die as a result of AIDS], I still go die. I only know God [won't] let that happen." Loud and outrageous, it was hard to tell if she was serious. But what she made clear was that she did not bother using condoms with her boyfriend: "It's not sweet like that."

Why condoms are still an issue is because of men like Umoru, 36, who has a wife in the north but works from Eleme as a tanker driver hauling fuel to the southern cities. He visits his wife every three months or so, and in the interim – "just two or three times" - calls on sex workers and offers double the normal rate not to use a rubber. "They tell me [to wear one] but I no fit do am [I can't do it] with condom."

He said some of the women would refuse bareback sex, "even if you give them one million naira". But he knows some who are less fastidious, and they are his regular partners. "I fear [but everything that happens] is through God" was how he rationalised the risk.

Chinenye Imoh sits at a table under an umbrella all day, handing out information pamphlets to truckers for the Arewa Society Against HIV/AIDS, a community-based organisation. She has heard all the excuses before, especially by drivers from the more conservative Muslim north, where discussion about sex is less open, literacy is low, and girls often quit school and marry early.

"Some say people [in the past also became] emaciated and died. Others say, 'no sickness wey no get medicine' [every ailment has a cure] ... but we're trying," was her upbeat message.

Johne Elile]]> Fri, 15 Aug 2008 06:18:00 EDT http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/455511 6.5091667 3.35805566.50916673.3580556 http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/310365
THE United Nations is meeting today in New York to deliberate on efforts to better the lot of children across the world and review progress made in the past years.

Chief Communication Media and External Relations Director of UNICEF in Nigeria, Christine Jaulmes, said the parley will review progress made and develop a new plan of action for the next decade called "A world Fit for Children."

The statement reads in part: "Heads of State and other dignitaries have gathered at the United Nations Headquarters in New York today for a landmark conference to review progress towards "A World Fit for Children," a plan of action to improve the lives of children created by governments in 2002."

UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman said the forum would provide a platform for discussing an ideal world fit for children.

"Five years ago, world leaders pledged to promote healthy lives; to provide quality education; to combat HIV and AIDS; and to protect children against abuse, exploitation and violence. Now, we are taking stock to see where we need to push further and faster to build a world that is truly fit for children," she said. In 2006, for the first time since global data has been collected, deaths of children under age five fell below 10 million. More children are in school today than ever before, especially girls. More children are registered at birth and there is a greater focus on protecting children from violence, abuse and the worst forms of child labour, the organisation stated.

UNICEF observed that 9.7 million children under age five continue to die each year and, as the world prepares for the International Year of Sanitation, nearly 900 million children lack access to this most basic service.

The special General Assembly high-level meeting, known as A World Fit for Children +5 (WFFC+5), will examine advances and setbacks in child well-being since the 2002 Special Session on Children. The assembly is expected to adopt a declaration reaffirming global and national commitments to the goals set in 2002.

In addition to heads of state and government, some 130 high-level national delegations will be present, including more than 40 government ministers. Twenty children will participate in the conference as members of their national delegations. Hundreds of NGOs will also gather in New York for discussions and advocacy on children's issues.

To promote ownership of the occasion, more than 90 children from around the world have been meeting for two days in New York to prepare for "A World Fit for Children +5."

The highlight of the Forum was a live satellite link-up between seven of the children in New York, selected by their peers, and members of the new global entity called 'The Elders', including Graca Machel, Desmond Tutu and Mary Robinson, who were gathered in Cape Town.

Nigeria will be represented at this Session by the Minister of Women Affairs. The President and the Speaker of the Children's Parliament will also attend the event.

Meanwhile, there is growing concern that close to one billion people will never receive a formal education because governments around the world are not living up to pledges to provide free primary schooling for all by 2015.

At a meeting in Senegal's capital Dakar in 2000, governments from 164 countries had agreed on goals including the provision of good quality, free primary education for all and a 50-percent improvement in adult literacy by the middle of next decade.

According to a report by Reuters, halfway to that deadline, the world's richest nations are failing to live up to pledges to help the poorest and the goals remain elusive, according to the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), a grouping of thousands of teachers' unions and civil society groups including Save the Children and Oxfam.

"At current performance rates, close to a billion people won't receive education in their lifetime, let alone in the next seven years as promised," said Nelida Cespedes, a GCE board member from Peru.

Universal primary education by 2015 is also one of the eight UN Millennium Development Goals agreed by world governments.

The campaign group said in a report that 72 million children were still not attending primary school and that 774 million adults - or one in five - were illiterate. Although many of them were in Africa, the study said several African governments had made marked improvements in providing schooling.

The report coincided with a meeting in Dakar of ministers and educational specialists from around the world, hosted by Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade and the Director General of U.N. cultural and education agency UNESCO, Koichiro Matsuura.

"More than 18 million new teachers will be needed by 2015, nearly four million in sub-Saharan Africa alone," Matsuura told the summit, attended by hundreds of school children.

UNESCO said in a report last month that good progress was being made, with primary school enrolment rising by 36 percent in sub-Saharan Africa and by 22 percent in South and West Asia between 1999 and 2005.

But it said external foreign aid for education was "far short of the $11 billion required annually" and was not targeted enough at Africa or at primary school education.

]]> Thu, 13 Dec 2007 06:43:00 EST http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/310365 6.5091667 3.35805566.50916673.3580556 http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/304077

Published: Friday, 30 Nov 2007

Confronted by the 4.4 per cent prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS in the country and the desire to extend treatment to more infected persons, the Federal Government may adopt a (single) serial rapid testing against the present parallel (two) tests being used.
Informed sources said the move is aimed at reducing the cost of testing and the need to overcome dependence on cold chain to preserve testing kits.
At present, most advanced countries use Enzyme Immunoassays (EIA and Western Blot) technologies.
Although EIA and Western Blotting methods are available in Nigeria, they are more expensive and require refrigerator to be effective. These limit their applications.
However, the reasoning in government is that HIV rapid test, especially using the serial algorithm offers a cheaper and faster alternative. But there is the danger of false negative or false positive result as witnessed in the case of Baby Eniola at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi - Araba, a few years back.
With a parallel testing method - two kits are used simultaneously with the aim of achieving 100% sensitivity and specificity.
In other word, if Kit A says a sample is tested positive, the same test will be repeated using another kit (Kit B) to confirm before announcing the result.
The parallel testing removes doubt and the possibility of false negative or false positive result.
But with a serial algorithm, a single kit will be adopted and it is only where the test is positive that a confirmation may be required.
However, medical experts have criticised the single test, saying it does not eliminate the likelihood of a false negative or false positive result, especially where the testing kit is not foolproof.
A proposal on the new test procedure - Laboratory Based HIV Rapid Test Validation in Nigeria Phase 1 - put together by the Nigeria HIV Rapid Test Evaluation Working Group in April 2007 has favoured a serial testing because of its rapidity and cheapness.
The group consists of officials of the Federal Ministry of Health, National Agency for the Control of HIV and AIDS, National AIDS and STIs Control Programme, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research Development, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Global AIDS Programme and the World Health Organisation.
According to the group‘s report, although conventional wisdom suggests that parallel testing is more accurate than serial testing, the group‘s evaluations suggest otherwise.
The report reads, “Conventional wisdom suggests that parallel testing is more accurate than serial testing. This and other evaluations suggest otherwise.
“Several serial testing options provided the highest possible sensitivity and specificity (100%) at nearly half the cost of parallel algorithms.
“Using a serial Algorithm in Nigeria is consistent with WHO recommended strategies for resource-poor settings.
“A serial algorithm using Determine and Stat Park is cost effective; less than one US dollar. This is important when considering the size of the HIV conselling and testing (HCT) programme in Nigeria and the number of tests required to support it.”
Government official are not willing to offer any explanation when contacted on Thursday.
NACA Director-General, Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin, directed our enquiry on the issue to the Federal Ministry of Health.
According to him, it is the FMOH that is handling the issue.
However, the Personal Assistant to the Minister of Health, Dr. Alero Roberts, feigned ignorance of the matter. She promised to ask the NACA DG about it.
But the National Coordinator, National AIDS and STIs Control Programme, Dr. Annette Akinsote, had told our correspondent on the telephone on Wednesday that government had not adopted the serial testing.]]> Thu, 06 Dec 2007 10:20:00 EST http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/304077 6.5091667 3.35805566.50916673.3580556 http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/304069
New HIV estimates confirm that HIV/AIDS is still a leading
cause of death worldwide

New global HIV estimates, released this week by the Joint United
Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health
Organization
(WHO),underscore the continued severity of the HIV pandemic. An
estimated 33.2 million adults and children are living with HIV at the
end of 2007,including 2.5 million newly infected. More than two million

men, women and children died of AIDS-related complications over the
past
year, bringing the cumulative number of deaths to more than 20 million.

The new estimate of global HIV/AIDS prevalence is a reduction from the
2006 estimate of 39.5 million. While this is good news - there are less

people living with the life-threatening virus - these revised estimates

mostly reflect the better use of monitoring tools, new surveys and more
sophisticated modelling of the epidemic. HIV/AIDS is the subject of
some
of the most sophisticated measures of any disease tracked globally. New

measuring techniques in India alone account for 3 million fewer
infections
(down from 5.7 to 2.5 million). The data also reflect the positive
impact
of HIV prevention programmes in a small number of countries.

The epidemic is not homogeneous. Sub-Saharan Africa bears the brunt of
the
pandemic, accounting for more than two-thirds (68%) of persons living
with
HIV and more than three-quarters (76%) of deaths in this year. In other

parts of the world, the epidemic remains concentrated in key
populations,
including men who have sex with men, injecting drug users and sex
workers.
In these populations, infection rates are often as high as 50%.

In the Eastern European region, including Russia, infection rates have
increased by over 150% since 2001, and show no signs of abating. Half
of all infections worldwide are in women, particularly young women, who

in many parts of the world remain powerless to control their own sexual
lives in the face of violence and lack of lack of protection of basic
human rights.

A number of critics have accused the UNAIDS and WHO of distorting
figures
in the past to push for increased funding to fight AIDS. This seems an
unnecessary and petty position. The fact is, the evolution of HIV
prevention, treatment, and care over the past quarter century is one of

the great successes of medical science. Committed and sustained
research
efforts, combined with an increasing political and social mobilization,

have provided the evidence on which approaches to programming are
based.
These same scientific efforts are now resulting in new prevention
technologies and drugs, and new strategies to manage and deliver both.
They are also allowing us to see a clearer picture of the epidemic.

The new data also indicate that increased resources provided in the
past
five years through the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and
Malaria, the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief
(PEPFAR),the
Bill Melinda Gates Foundation, and many other bilateral donors and
private foundations, with leadership from UNAIDS, its co-sponsoring
organizations, governments and civil society are beginning to show
positive results in some countries. Access to life-saving
antiretroviral
treatment has increased worldwide, saving millions of lives. Sadly,
still
less than 30% of those who need the medications have access. These
increased resources for fighting AIDS are also beginning to have a
positive impact on the health systems of the poorest countries.

Country-level programmes funded through the Global Fund and PEPFAR have

helped build systems and services that support not only millions of
people
living with HIV/AIDS, but also reach into communities burdened with
tuberculosis, malaria and a host of other preventable diseases.

The release of these new HIV estimates is an opportunity to examine
where
we are in the global response to HIV. Unfortunately, at the end of
2007,
lack of political will continues to hold back the response,
particularly
in the groups most vulnerable to HIV. In 2006, the governments of the
world came together at the United Nations General Assembly to review
progress on fighting the disease. Experts, including the International
AIDS Society, were shocked that the declaration resulting from this
meeting failed to name the marginalized communities most affected by
the
disease - gay men and other men who have sex with men, injecting drug
users and sex workers. Public health imperatives dictate that
religious,
ideological or moral attitudes must never be used as an excuse to
ignore
the realities of a preventable disease that has affected the entire
world.

No one working around the world on HIV/AIDS wants anything other than
to
see the global statistics on HIV/AIDS drop to zero. Unfortunately we
are a
long way from achieving that dream. The gap between what is urgently
needed and where we are today is nothing short of a crime against
humanity. The time for universal action is now

Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the International AIDS Society's 10,000
plus
members are professionals involved at all levels of the global response
to
HIV/AIDS.

For additional information:

Mallory Smuts (Switzerland)
Tel: +41 22 7100822
Email: Mallory.smuts@iasociety.org


Elile Johne
Youth Empowerment Foundation
Program Assitant
LEAP Africa Alumni
+234-805-9260-736
1-773-2201
gozzle2002@yahoo.com
www.johnelile.8k.com
]]> Thu, 06 Dec 2007 10:13:00 EST http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/304069 6.5091667 3.35805566.50916673.3580556 http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/264367 Invitation
With pride and a great sense of accomplishment, we at Africa Resource Center, Inc., cordially invite you to the Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting ceremony of our new 6500 sq. ft. multiplex Africa House, at 50 Washington Avenue, Endicott, New York, 13760.

Situated in the historic district of the Village of Endicott, Africa House is the home of the 2500 sq ft. Akégo Gallery and Boutique on the first level, the 2000 sq. ft. Sahara Gallery and Event Space on the lower level, and the 2000 sq. ft. office space of AfricaResource.com and Onira Media Production studio on the second level. Tastefully designed, with high imposing walls, warm radiant colors, beautiful ambiance and spot lighting, and a spectacular chandelier signature piece, the spaciously luxurious galleries and office space exude style, sophistication, and class. Africa House looks as impressive as it sounds.

Abiding by our mission to present the highest quality fine art, the Akégo and Sahara galleries will showcase the art of distinguished and exceptionally talented artists of African descent from all parts of the world. It will also exhibit the works of artists from any part of the world who creatively engage African designs and iconography. The gallery boutique will carry tastefully designed crafts and jewelry as well as the digital educational materials produced by Onira Media production. Our Event Space is available for rental; and lastly, we urge you to visit our award winning AfricaResource.com website for a taste of our extensive offerings.

Please join us on Friday, October 12, 2007 at 50 Washington Avenue for this august grand opening. Bring a group of friends and inform everyone you know who appreciates beauty, craftsmanship and originality to join us in this celebration.
Opening Ceremony starts at 4:00 p.m. ]]> Mon, 08 Oct 2007 08:44:00 EDT http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/264367 6.5091667 3.35805566.50916673.3580556 http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/264343 James Mapundo, who just turned 18, speaks French, English and Swahili and would really like to go back to school to learn another language. Instead, he is stranded in an expanding camp for displaced Congolese called Bulengo, now home to 13,000 people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province.

Mapundo is one of an estimated 370,000 civilians to have fled their homes since hostilities resumed between dissident general Laurent Nkunda's National Congress for the People's Defence (NCPD) and the Congolese army in December 2006.

He, like thousands of other young people, is now at risk of forcible recruitment into armed groups who control much of North Kivu.

"[The NCPD] kill people and they take the young to go into the military formations," Mapundo told IRIN. "They asked me to go in the military, but I refused."

Despite his precarious situation, Mapundo is one of the lucky ones. Many other children have not escaped armed groups, though statistics are unclear because access to most of the population is hindered by ongoing fighting.

Humanitarian workers, though, say recruitment of children into armed militias has skyrocketed since the latest bout of fighting erupted six weeks ago.

"Organisations working in child protection have noticed a dramatic increase of the recruitment of kids into armed groups,” said Patrick Lavand’Homme, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Goma.

Protection workers note that other disturbing trends have emerged since the current flare-up began.

"[The militia groups] are targeting schools,” said Pernille Ironside, a protection officer in Goma with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). “We have had numerous reports of secondary schools and technical schools being targeted, and children generally over the age of 15 being at greatest risk of being recruited.”

Girls targeted

While the focus is often on boys who have been recruited into armed groups, the situation for girls is equally critical, protection workers say.

Girls who are abducted are forced to become "wives" to the military commanders - relegating them to the role of sex slaves.

Unlike boys, girls always remain behind the scenes in rebel camps, making it more difficult for protection workers to gain access to them.

"It's always been a grave issue," Ironside told IRIN. "The difficulty is that girls who are kidnapped by armed groups … in some cases develop a tacit acceptance of their situation. They know that were they to go back to their home community they would be stigmatised as a result of the fact that they have been raped and borne children by an opposing group.”

The forced recruitment of children has struck fear into the hearts of many of the displaced who say they will not leave the camps and return home until their security can be assured.

“I have heard of a lot of children being recruited, even the little girls,” said Ame Muhima, the president of a grouping of 4,000 displaced families waiting to be integrated into formal camps for the displaced outside of Goma.

“There were 17 children who have escaped and come back to us here,” Muhima said.

Protection workers say children are no longer being recruited by the Congolese army but by any one of three main militia groups operating in the region; and they face the risk of recruitment in more ways than one.

Mayi-Mayi militia groups tell children it is their responsibility to fight to protect their villages from other armed groups. Spurred by a sense of duty, children often volunteer themselves for service. Those who resist are “volunteered” by their parents.

The Forces Démocratiques de Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR), an ethnic Hutu militia group with links to the perpetrators of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, employ a different tactic.

‘The FDLR are known to sweep into a village and literally scoop up all of the children of a certain age and march them off into the bush,” Ironside told IRIN.

If caught, children captured during the recent eruptions in violence are held in squalid prisoner-of-war (PoW) camps by the various armed groups. Forces loyal to Nkunda are widely reported to be holding underage PoWs.

Civilians caught in crossfire

Humanitarian workers hope for a cessation of hostilities but say they believe the situation in North Kivu could instead deteriorate, citing increased military activities in the region.

Resource-rich eastern Congo has long been a simmering cauldron of conflict as rag-tag militias aligned along ethnic lines fight for control of the region.

A 1998-2003 war pulled in seven neighbouring nations and cost an estimated four million lives, mostly from hunger and disease.

Humanitarian workers note that civilians, including children, bear the brunt of the fighting and will continue to do so as the conflict rages on.

Outside the Bulengo site, 13-year-old Gusanga spends his days wandering among the hastily constructed straw huts asking for someone to give him a pen.

Proud of his fluent French and Swahili, and mature beyond his years, the boy volunteers his services as a translator to visitors.

One month ago, he fled the risk of recruitment by FDLR militias in nearby Kitchanga town.

"Everyone who is 15 or older has to join them in the fighting," Gusanga told IRIN. "When I’m 15, I would prefer to be in school; but when we turn 15 then they catch us."

Elile Johne
Youth Empowerment Foundation
Program Assitant
LEAP Africa Alumni
+234-805-9260-736
1-773-2201
gozzle2002@yahoo.com
www.johnelile.8k.com
"The man of wisdom is never of two minds; the man of benevolence never worries; the man of courage is never afraid."
]]> Mon, 08 Oct 2007 08:22:00 EDT http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/264343 6.5091667 3.35805566.50916673.3580556 http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/262731 Nigerian President Umaru Yar'Adua recently declared the energy crisis a national emergency, but aid groups say he should also declare a state of emergency in the health service.

"So far there is no evidence the government will act quickly to bring succour to the poor," said Osita Ezechukwu, a volunteer at the anti-poverty group Social Rights Initiative.

In his inauguration speech on 29 May Yar'Adua included in his seven-point agenda a goal to alleviate widespread poverty. Yet four months on, details of how he will do this remain sketchy.

Civil society groups are calling for President Yar'Adua to make commitments to provide basic services.

Focus on oil

Yar’Adua told a delegation of Nigerian political leaders on 19 September: "We are very concerned about how other Nigerians live and will try very hard to evolve and implement policies and programmes to solve the problems of unemployment, poverty and disease.”

But he has also made it clear that rehabilitating the transport and electricity sectors is a priority, saying that the sectors’ current state of decay has “resulted in [a] lower quality of life for the majority of our population”.

Yar’Adua has frequently said he will make Nigeria one of the world's 20 biggest economies through better management of energy resources, improved security, reform of land laws and rule of law, and a resolution of the Niger Delta unrest.

On 17 August Yar'Adua declared the country's power crisis a national emergency. To deal with chronic shortages he said he would go ahead with the initiative of his predecessor, Olusegun Obasanjo, to break up the old power monopoly and bring in private investors to boost power generation.

Yar'Adua also announced the formation of a National Energy Council under his direct control and the breaking up of the Petroleum Ministry into departments for power, oil and gas, each headed by a cabinet-rank official who will report to him directly.

Health project ditched

But he has had far less to say about how he will provide basic services to the poor. Despite Nigeria’s being a top oil producer with huge mineral wealth, around two-thirds of the country’s 140 million people live below the poverty line. Life expectancy at birth is just 44 years and one in five children does not live beyond the age of five.

Aid workers were shocked when Yar’Adua recently announced he would suspend a project initiated by President Obasanjo to construct a modern health centre in each of the country's 774 local council districts. Obasanjo had called it an emergency response to the lack of access to health facilities in rural communities.

The government determined that the health centres project was unconstitutional because it would have federal government taking funds allocated to local councils. But health officials have criticised Yar’Adua’s decision, saying that he fails to recognise that the healthcare system is in crisis.

"Our maternal mortality is one of the highest in the world; our infant mortality and life expectancy [are] embarrassing," said Daniel Gana, president of the Nigerian Medical Association. "But surprisingly our president has not declared a health emergency and is not intending to do so."

Elile Johne
Youth Empowerment Foundation
Program Assitant
LEAP Africa Alumni
+234-805-9260-736
1-773-2201
gozzle2002@yahoo.com
www.johnelile.8k.com
Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things.
]]> Thu, 04 Oct 2007 05:05:00 EDT http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/262731 6.5091667 3.35805566.50916673.3580556 http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/262729 A report in an American medical journal that children in northern Nigeria have been infected with polio by the vaccine designed to prevent it have raised fears that Nigeria’s already lagging polio prevention efforts could be further delayed.

Such vaccine-derived outbreaks have occurred previously in other parts of the world, usually in regions where there is low polio immunisation coverage, but the 69 cases recorded in Nigeria are the largest on record, the scientists said in the study.

The finding could be a “serious setback” for the global polio eradication campaign, because it is occurring in a region where rumours about vaccine safety “derailed vaccination efforts” several years ago, scientists warned in the study, released on 28 September by the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in its publication Morbidity and Mortality Weekly.

Nigeria accounts for at least 70 percent of all new polio cases worldwide, while almost all other countries in the world have successfully eradicated the disease.

The CDC’s results have been reported in the leading scientific journal Science Magazine and confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO). But a spokeswoman for the WHO’s Polio Eradication Imitative pointed out that around 2,000 cases of polio were reported in the same area at the same time and they were not caused by the vaccine.

“All vaccines have risks associated with them. From a public health perspective it is important for people to weigh the risks with the benefits,” spokeswoman Sona Bari told IRIN on 3 October. “We hope that people don’t focus now on the vaccine as the problem when it is the disease that still poses a far greater problem.”

Polio mainly affects children under the age of five. Once contracted, it can disable people for life. Polio cannot be cured though vaccination can provide a lifetime protection.

The vaccine, like the disease, is passed on through faecal matter. Bari said that many of the children who contracted the vaccine-derived polio may have never been administered the vaccine but rather ingested it indirectly.

“The vaccine mutated and they had no other vaccine to protect them,” she said.

That may be difficult for many people in northern Nigeria to understand. Radical Muslim radical religious leaders there have made unfounded claims that the polio vaccine was laced with agents causing AIDS and sterility. As a result three northern Nigeria states suspended polio vaccination in 2004, including Kano State which halted vaccinations for nearly a year, resuming only after tests confirmed the vaccines were safe.

Nigerian and international officials said people in northern Nigeria had recently started to accept vaccination though the uptake is still low in some areas. Currently six northern states - Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kebbi and Jigawa - account for over 70 percent of all polio cases in the country.

Nigerian health officials say they are concerned that the progress that has been made will be undermined when people learn that the polio vaccine can cause the disease. "These cases seem to confirm fears that that there may be something unwholesome about the polio vaccines and could lead to further boycott of vaccination," a senior official of the National Programme of Immunisation in Nigeria's Health Ministry told IRIN on condition of anonymity.

"Yet the fact remains that these infections were the consequence of low immunisation coverage caused by the initial boycott in the north,” he said. “So it poses a major public health advocacy challenge to make the people understand the real facts and that it calls for more not less vaccination," he added.

Elile Johne
Youth Empowerment Foundation
Program Assitant
LEAP Africa Alumni
+234-805-9260-736
1-773-2201
gozzle2002@yahoo.com
www.johnelile.8k.com
Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things.
]]> Thu, 04 Oct 2007 05:03:00 EDT http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/262729 6.5091667 3.35805566.50916673.3580556 http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/262727 I will like to use this great opportunity to wish every well meaning 9ija a HAPPY INDEPENDENCE.

However, there is an opportunity for students in UNIPORT, UNIABUJA, ABU Zaria and Benue State Universities to come out enmasse to watch Drama and free HIV Testing, students are to participate for free, ands lotsof goodies and free gifts.
for more info. send a mail to gozzle2002@yahoo.com



Elile Johne
Youth Empowerment Foundation
Hotline Coordinator
LEAP Africa Alumni
+234-805-9260-736
1-773-2201
gozzle2002@yahoo.com
www.johnelile.8k.com
Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things.]]> Thu, 04 Oct 2007 05:03:00 EDT http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/262727 6.5091667 3.35805566.50916673.3580556 http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/262725 President Umaru Yar'Adua's administration has halted an initiative of his predecessor to privatise 102 elite public secondary schools across Nigeria.

“The manner and rush in which the pubic-private partnership arrangement was put in place did not give room for consideration of wider views and ideas on how best the schools could be effectively and efficiently managed,” said Education Minister Igwe Aja-Nwachukwu in a 27 September statement.

He said the Yar’Adua administration’s move reversed a reform policy that “threatened public interest”.

The 102 schools, known as Unity Schools, were established in 1970 following the end of the country's civil war, with the aim of fostering greater unity among future leaders from different parts of the country.

But the regime of former President Olusegun Obasanjo introduced a public-private partnership that would see the private sector manage the schools for profit, enabling the government to end its subsidy of the schools.

Obasanjo said the aim of the reforms would be to make the schools more efficient.

The move was opposed by parents' and teachers' unions, who argued it would put quality education beyond the reach of the poor.

The reversal of the policy by President Yar'Adua, who succeeded Obasanjo on 29 May, was welcomed by Solomon Onaghinon, leader of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria which had challenged the privatisation plans in court.

Onaghinon said that the private sector was not synonymous with efficient management. “Many privately managed organisations like banks and public companies have either collapsed or been involved in poor utilisation of financial resources in this country.”




Elile Johne
Youth Empowerment Foundation
Hotline Coordinator
LEAP Africa Alumni
+234-805-9260-736
1-773-2201
gozzle2002@yahoo.com
www.johnelile.8k.com
Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things.]]> Thu, 04 Oct 2007 05:01:00 EDT http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/262725 6.5091667 3.35805566.50916673.3580556 http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/261185
By Adeyeye Joseph
Published: Friday, 28 Sep 2007

Disappointment is too mild a word to describe the reaction of health stakeholders after international pharmaceutical giant, Merck, announced a halt to the world’s most acclaimed HIV vaccine trial last week.

Analysts have described the development as the single biggest blow to the two-decade effort by the international health community to find a vaccine that will either protect against HIV infection or stem its heavy toll. But they are also quick to draw parallels between this setback and others that beset great scientific quests in the past, saying all hopes are not lost. Experts say there are at least 30 advanced ongoing research works that are geared towards the prevention of new infection or helping People Living With HIV/AIDS live longer and better lives.

Merck, which had plans to introduce the vaccine, HVTN 502, into the market in 2012, said it discontinued the trial because the vaccine was ‘not effective’.

“The trial, called STEP, was an international phase II “test of concept” trial in uninfected volunteers at high risk for acquiring HIV infection. The independent (United States) Data Safety Monitoring Board for STEP reviewed safety data and results of an interim efficacy analysis of the study, and recommended that vaccination be discontinued because the STEP trial will not meet its efficacy endpoints,” the statement, which is also available on the pharmaceutical firm’s website, said.

The United Nations estimates the number of PLWHAs worldwide to be 40million and says about 25m people have died from AIDS-related complications. Experts say this number would have been higher but for the modest gains made in the global fight against the virus. Last week, the Relationship Manager of the National Agency for the Control of Aids, Ekeoma Uwaoma, said Nigeria had the third highest number of PLWHAs in the world, after South Africa and India.

Prior to this week’s discontinuation of the trials, experts have variously described HVTN 502 as one of the most advanced vaccines ever made and expressed hopes that its use would usher in an era of significant gains in the fight against AIDS. Although the drug was not expected to enter the market until 2012, expectations were that it would boost the fight before then since the full result was expected to be made public next year.

But the DSMB discovered 24 new cases of HIV infection among the 741 volunteers who received at least one dose of the candidate vaccine compared with 21 cases among the 762 volunteers who were vaccinated with placebo.

Funding for the project, which came from multiple sources, bespeaks the kind of collaborative efforts that have gone into fighting the AIDS pandemic. The clinical trial was co-sponsored by the United States’ National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health and Merck Co. Inc. However, Merck developed the vaccine with the help of Biotech firm, Crucell, whose shares fell by 11 per cent as soon as the announcement was made.

Although a complex effort, the underlying idea behind the process is as simple as the process that has been used to develop vaccines down the ages. Actually, vaccines are weakened forms of the microorganisms they are produced to fight. They work by stimulating the immune system to produce antibodies that fight pathogens (disease causing organisms) in the body. But previous efforts to produce an effective vaccine against the HIV virus have been stumped by the fast rate at which the virus mutates.

“Sadly, developing an effective AIDS vaccine remains one of the most challenging tasks facing modern medicine,” the President, Merck Research Laboratories, Peter Kim, said in the statement.

But experts thought HVTN 502 stood a chance because studies had shown that monkeys, which received the vaccine, lived longer despite being infected with a virus that operates just like HIV.

The researchers also toed this scientifically trodden path. They synthesized an HIV virus in the laboratory; weakened it until it could not give test candidate the real virus; and then introduced it into the bloodstream of test candidates. The candidates were people with high-risk behaviour, homosexuals and commercial sex workers.

According to Merck, the researchers did not expect the vaccine to prevent infection but had hoped, “that it might hinder the growth of the virus enough to delay the onset of full-blown AIDS and make it harder for an infected individual to transmit HIV to others, creating a stopgap while they searched for a more effective therapy. They must now must await the outcome of the next candidate in the pipeline of more than 30 products in clinical testing and mine the STEP data for clues on ways to develop one that works.”

The trials took place in Australia, Brazil, Canada, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Peru, Puerto Rico, South Africa and the United States.

But the search for a cure is not likely to be stopped by this setback. Merck, which has a 20-year old HIV-research programme and has made significant contributions to the fight against AIDS, has promised to trudge on.

Kim said, “While we are very disappointed that this vaccine candidate did not demonstrate protection, the data from this trial will provide critical insights into this disease and future vaccine development. We share in the disappointment of the research and HIV communities today.

“Merck’s 20-year HIV research program has led to improved scientific understanding of HIV and to true breakthrough medicines. We are committed to studying the data closely and sharing it with the scientific community to inform the on-going search for an effective HIV vaccine.”

]]> Fri, 28 Sep 2007 05:34:00 EDT http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/261185 6.5091667 3.35805566.50916673.3580556 http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/261179
T HE latest edition of the world’s leading anticorruption report, the Corruption Perceptions Index, has ranked Nigeria as 147th of the 180 countries it surveyed for corruption. Counting from the bottom, Nigeria is revealed to be the 33rd most corrupt country of the lot.
The report, which was released on Wednesday, also showed that the level of corruption in the country had not undergone any significant change.

Prepared annually by the Berlin, Germany-based corruption watchdog, Transparency International, the report scored countries on a scale of zero to ten, with zero indicating high levels of perceived corruption and ten indicating low levels. This year’s score, a composite index that comprised 14 expert opinion surveys, revealed a strong link between corruption and poverty, as most of the low scoring countries were some of the world’s poorest.

Nigeria’s new rank, which is five steps below that of last year, would have signified a deterioration but for its composite score of 2.2, which is the same as last year’s.

Last year, Nigeria was ranked 146th of 163 countries.

This year, New Zealand, ranked first; Denmark, second; and Finland, third, were the world’s least corrupt countries. Iraq, ranked 178 th ; and Myanmar and Somalia, joint 179th, were the most corrupt. While New Zealand, Denmark and Finland scored 9.4 points each; Iraq had 1.5 and Somalia and Myanmar had 1.4.

But the report said both low and high performers needed to work jointly to stem global corruption.

“Criticism by rich countries of corruption in poor ones has little credibility while their financial institutions sit on wealth stolen from the world’s poorest people,” ViceChairman, TI, Akere Muna, said in a statement attached to the report.

The report named Nigeria and the Philippines as two countries where corrupt officials had used international financial institutions to siphon off public funds.

“Global financial centres play a pivotal role in allowing corrupt officials to move, hide and invest their illicitly gained wealth. Offshore financing, for example, played a crucial role in the looting of millions from developing countries such as Nigeria and the Philippines, facilitating the misdeeds of corrupt leaders and impoverishing those they governed,” it said.

The Chairman of TI, Huguette Labelle, said corruption remained an enormous drain on resources that were sorely needed for education, health and infrastructure in several countries. “Low scoring countries need to take these results seriously and act now to strengthen accountability in public institutions. But action from top scoring countries is just as important, particularly in cracking down on corrupt activity in the private sector,” it said.

Nigeria has always protested that the report is not indicative of the progress that has been made in recent times. But TI says the report is based on the perceptions of public sector corruption as measured by the opinions of businessmen, technocrats and other experts.

The report listed some African countries as having made significant progress. They included Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa and Swaziland. “These results reflect the positive progress of anti-corruption efforts in Africa and show that genuine political will and reform can lower perceived levels of corruption,” it said.

Outside Africa, countries with significant improvements include Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Dominica Republic, Italy, Macedonia, Romania and Suriname. However, it said that corruption had worsened in Austria, Bahrain, Belize, Bhutan, Jordan, Laos, Macao, Malta, Mauritius, Oman, Papua New Guinea and Thailand.

“Low scores in the CPI indicate that public institutions are heavily compromised. The first order of business is to improve transparency in financial management, from revenue collection to expenditure, as well as strengthening oversight and putting an end to the impunity of corrupt officials,” Labelle said.

The report advised countries with low scores to improve transparency in financial management in areas like revenue collection and expenditure, and end impunity among corrupt officials. “Partnering with civil society and citizens is another essential strategy for developing countries seeking to strengthen the accountability of government. Civil society organisations play a vital watchdog role, can help stimulate demand for reform and also bring in expertise on technical issues,” TI’s Managing Director, Cobus de Swardt, said.

The report added that an independent and professional judicial system was critical to ending impunity and enforcing the rule of law. “If courts cannot be relied upon to pursue corrupt officials or to assist in tracing and returning illicit wealth, progress against corruption is unlikely,” it said.

T HE latest edition of the world’s leading anti- corruption report, the Corruption Perceptions Index, has ranked Nigeria as 147th of the 180 countries it surveyed for corruption. Counting from the bottom, Nigeria is revealed to be the 33rd most corrupt country of the lot. The report, which was released on Wednesday, also showed that the level of corruption in the country had not undergone any significant change. Prepared annually by the Berlin, Germany-based corruption watchdog, Transparency International, the report scored countries on a scale of zero to ten, with zero indicating high levels of perceived corruption and ten indicating low levels. This year’s score, a composite index that comprised 14 expert opinion surveys, revealed a strong link between corruption and poverty, as most of the low scoring countries were some of the world’s poorest. Nigeria’s new rank, which is five steps below that of last year, would have signified a deterioration but for its composite score of 2.2, which is the same as last year’s. Last year, Nigeria was ranked 146th of 163 countries. This year, New Zealand, ranked first; Denmark, second; and Finland, third, were the world’s least corrupt countries. Iraq, ranked 178 th ; and Myanmar and Somalia, joint 179th, were the most corrupt. While New Zealand, Denmark and Finland scored 9.4 points each; Iraq had 1.5 and Somalia and Myanmar had 1.4. But the report said both low and high performers needed to work jointly to stem global corruption. “Criticism by rich countries of corruption in poor ones has little credibility while their financial institutions sit on wealth stolen from the world’s poorest people,” Vice- Chairman, TI, Akere Muna, said in a statement attached to the report. The report named Nigeria and the Philippines as two countries where corrupt officials had used international financial institutions to siphon off public funds. “Global financial centres play a pivotal role in allowing corrupt officials to move, hide and invest their illicitly gained wealth. Offshore financing, for example, played a crucial role in the looting of millions from developing countries such as Nigeria and the Philippines, facilitating the misdeeds of corrupt leaders and impoverishing those they governed,” it said. The Chairman of TI, Huguette Labelle, said corruption remained an enormous drain on resources that were sorely needed for education, health and infrastructure in several countries. “Low scoring countries need to take these results seriously and act now to strengthen accountability in public institutions. But action from top scoring countries is just as important, particularly in cracking down on corrupt activity in the private sector,” it said. Nigeria has always protested that the report is not indicative of the progress that has been made in recent times. But TI says the report is based on the perceptions of public sector corruption as measured by the opinions of businessmen, technocrats and other experts. The report listed some African countries as having made significant progress. They included Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa and Swaziland. “These results reflect the positive progress of anti-corruption efforts in Africa and show that genuine political will and reform can lower perceived levels of corruption,” it said. Outside Africa, countries with significant improvements include Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Dominica Republic, Italy, Macedonia, Romania and Suriname. However, it said that corruption had worsened in Austria, Bahrain, Belize, Bhutan, Jordan, Laos, Macao, Malta, Mauritius, Oman, Papua New Guinea and Thailand. “Low scores in the CPI indicate that public institutions are heavily compromised. The first order of business is to improve transparency in financial management, from revenue collection to expenditure, as well as strengthening oversight and putting an end to the impunity of corrupt officials,” Labelle said. The report advised countries with low scores to improve transparency in financial management in areas like revenue collection and expenditure, and end impunity among corrupt officials. “Partnering with civil society and citizens is another essential strategy for developing countries seeking to strengthen the accountability of government. Civil society organisations play a vital watchdog role, can help stimulate demand for reform and also bring in expertise on technical issues,” TI’s Managing Director, Cobus de Swardt, said. The report added that an independent and professional judicial system was critical to ending impunity and enforcing the rule of law. “If courts cannot be relied upon to pursue corrupt officials or to assist in tracing and returning illicit wealth, progress against corruption is unlikely,” it said. ]]> Fri, 28 Sep 2007 05:04:00 EDT http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/261179 6.5091667 3.35805566.50916673.3580556 http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/251817
Given our conviction that young people can and should serve as change leaders in their communities, LEAP offers training programmes for exceptional youth in cities across Nigeria.

LEAP’s approach to cultivating leadership skills is unique. It recognizes that in order for individuals to acquire leadership skills, they need first hand experiences and long-term support. As a result, participants who are nominated for LEAP’s youth programmes are immersed in a range of interactive exercises, games, role plays, and breakout discussions. In addition, LEAP provides a world-class and practical learning environment.

LEAP also provides its participants with access to information on a range of issues related to youth development and change leadership. It also connects its beneficiaries with other youth who are working domestically and internationally on related issues.

A great opportunity you will never want to miss.

http://events.takingitglobal.org/15603]]> Fri, 21 Sep 2007 05:38:00 EDT http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/251817 6.5091667 3.35805566.50916673.3580556 http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/251519
Jose Mourinho last night told his senior players that he was resigning as manager of Chelsea after a final fall-out with the club's billionaire owner, Roman Abramovich.

Mourinho sent text messages to John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba wishing each of them "good luck in the rest of your career" and saying that he was leaving the club this morning.

Jose Mourinho sent text messages to his top players wishing them 'good luck in the rest of your career'

He has been frustrated for some time with the tense situation at Chelsea, and particularly the perceived interference of Abramovich in team affairs.

Mourinho was unhappy with the £30 million arrival of Andrei Shevchenko, a striker much admired by Abramovich.

The self-styled "Special One" rarely praised Shevchenko and pointedly ignored the Ukrainian when he scored in Chelsea's embarrassing 1-1 Champions League draw with Norwegian side Rosenborg on Tuesday night.

Following Chelsea's lame display in a competition Abramovich has his heart set on winning, Mourinho was yesterday summoned to a crisis meeting.

advertisementAfter that, Mourinho decided to resign, his frustration at Chelsea's ludicrous internal politics boiling over.

Chelsea now head to the Premiership champions, Manchester United, on Sunday without their charismatic coach.

At the heart of yesterday's final fall-out between Mourinho and Abramovich is the owner's desire for more attractive football, the type of free-flowing attacking game that Chelsea have failed to manage consistently under Mourinho.

While the Portuguese manager was winning back-to-back League titles, an uneasy peace lingered - but when results began to slip, Abramovich's displeasure became obvious.

Stamford Bridge job now a poisoned chalice
The Russian walked out early from Chelsea's 2-0 defeat at Aston Villa earlier this season, and he will not have enjoyed Tuesday's poor result and performance.

Mourinho, 44, will go down as Chelsea's most successful manager, and the fans will lament the charismatic coach's departure.

He was voted Premiership Manager of the Year in 2005 and 2006, and he will not be short of job offers. Chelsea's board must now quickly call a meeting with Terry, Lampard, Drogba.

Mourinho Nigeria will miss you but wherever you go, i'll go,
Love you man...

]]> Thu, 20 Sep 2007 07:36:00 EDT http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/251519 6.5091667 3.35805566.50916673.3580556 http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/249111
Port Harcourt has been wracked by violence as various armed groups battle for control of lucrative guns and oil smuggling rackets. More than 200 foreign oil workers have been taken hostage in and around Port Harcourt in the last year then freed only after paying large ransom.

“As of last week we were treating 60 cases but most of those occurred weeks early when the violence was high,” Rosa Aut, head of the international aid organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Nigeria, said on 12 September.

Seven of the cases occurred recently, she said. Five were victims of indiscriminate shooting by unknown assailants in the Mile Four district of the city while two were shot by police in a street brawl during curfew hours.

Violence intensified on 11 August when dozens of people were killed in gun battles. Soldiers deployed to quell the violence fought street battles with the groups and in the worst hit districts of the city thousands of people fled their homes.

The army said the fighting has been mostly between supporters of two militias operating in the city, one led by Ateke Tom; the other by Soboma George.

By late August MSF had reported treating 71 gunshot injuries at its trauma centre in Port Harcourt.

While relative calm has returned to the city, violence appears to have moved to surrounding villages and districts, where clashes involving rival gangs and government troops have continued. Fighting took place in early September between the army and armed men in the village of Ogbogoro as well as in Ogoni District between rival gangs.

Effects of the curfew

The curfew in Port Harcourt which runs from 7 pm until 7 am has made life hard for many people who normally work during those hours. Among those affected are craftsmen, shopkeepers, motorcycle taxi drivers and other transport operators.

“I own a roadside restaurant where people used to come to eat in the evenings,” said Helen Emenike, a 34-year-old mother of three and resident of the Diobu district of the city.

“Now all my business has gone.”

A minibus driver, Prieye Daminabo, said his income has fallen by more than half since the curfew took effect.

Many residents also complain about the way soldiers and policemen enforce the curfew. Residents are required to raise their hands in the air when approaching the many security checkpoints located around the city.

“Some people have been whipped by soldiers for not raising their hands quickly enough,” Daminabo said

Military spokesman Maj. Sagir Musa in Port Harcourt said recently that all security forces have been instructed to be polite to civilians. ‘’We have told them not to harass, intimidate or victimise anybody,” he said.

]]> Thu, 13 Sep 2007 11:42:00 EDT http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/249111 6.5091667 3.35805566.50916673.3580556 http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/249093 HIV-Positive People Being Buried Alive in Southern Highlands
Region

The AIDS Committee of Papua New Guinea's Southern Highlands
province has found no evidence that people living with HIV/AIDS
in the area were buried alive, committee Deputy Chair Jeffrey
Hurums announced recently, Papua New Guinea's the Nation reports
(Miae, Nation, 9/11). The committee launched an investigation
after the local media reported last month that HIV/AIDS advocate
Margaret Marabe, who works with the group Igat Hope, saw five
people buried alive because they were living with HIV/AIDS.
Marabe had spent five months carrying out an HIV/AIDS education
campaign in the Southern Highlands. "When they got very sick and
people could not look after them, they buried them," Marabe was
quoted as saying (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 8/28).The report
prompted the National AIDS Council Secretariat to conduct a
separate investigation in response to reaction from church
officials and nongovernmental organizations, including donors
and international agencies, according to the Nation. Hurums said
officers were sent into the Tari area of the Southern Highlands,
where the alleged incidents were reported, and found no evidence
of such crimes. He also said committee members are appealing to
their partners, stakeholders, NGOs, district AIDS committees,
and voluntary counseling and testing centers to consult them
before releasing any information to the media or other
organizations. The media report "sent wrong signals to everyone,
including the international community here and abroad, who are
funding" HIV/AIDS programs in the country, Hurums said (Nation,
9/11).
]]> Thu, 13 Sep 2007 10:58:00 EDT http://Johne.tigblog.org/post/249093 6.5091667 3.35805566.50916673.3580556