The 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, popularly known as Afcon, is the biennial championship in which Africa’s top men’s teams compete for the gold-plated African Nation Cup trophy. The winner will hoist that trophy after the final on Friday 19 July at the Cairo International Stadium.

This tournament, organised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), will be the 32nd edition of the competition and the first in which the format has been expanded from 16 to 24 teams. All 24 teams have now confirmed their places.

According to a recent report by Nielsen Sports, Africa is one of the most engaged football markets globally. It matches even regions like Europe and South America. This supports the CAF’s decision to increase the competitiveness of the tournament.

More: https://www.naijiant.com/sports/what-to-expect-from-biggest-ever-africa-cup-of-nations-tournament/

Lengthy power cuts are pretty much a daily experience in Nigeria. The country’s epileptic power supply has been identified by businesses as the second biggest obstacle to doing business in the country, after a lack of access to finance.

This unreliable power supply is a major hindrance to Nigeria’s economic growth. It also costs the country an enormous amount of money. Quoting Nigerian government data, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says that a lack of access to reliable electricity costs Nigeria an estimated US$29 billion a year.

The situation comes with environmental and health risks, too. Many individuals, households and organisations have resorted to fossil-fueled generators. Nigerians spend an estimated US$14 billion a year on small-scale generators.

The country’s current power generation capacity, according to the IMF, is about 13,000MW. But often electricity generated and transmitted is below 4,000MW/hour. Nigeria’s generation capacity is comprised of gas-fired and hydro power stations. However, the system operates well below capacity. This is partly because of problems with gas supplies to fuel the power stations.

That’s where solar power comes in. It holds enormous promise for addressing Nigeria’s unreliable energy supply. Estimates suggest it could increase the availability of electricity to almost 80 million people who currently have none. It could also diversify the country’s energy portfolio. Most of this promise is based on the fact that solar-based generation capacity can be built up far quicker than traditional power plants. It can also be built in chunks, starting small and adding on the capacity as time goes on.

More: https://www.naijiant.com/guestcolumn/solar-power-could-stabilise-nigerias-electricity-grid-and-save-it-money/

President Muhammadu Buhari sat down last night to an “interview” on the government-owned NTA last night. But calling what followed an “interview” would mean rewriting the meaning of that word.

It was a cringeworthy exercise in lickspittle obsequiousness from reporter Adamu Sambo, who seemed to be just grateful to have been granted an audience with “his excellency”, and desperately keen to avoid any question that could remotely embarrass the president. So viewers were served with the softest of soft balls lobbed in Buhari’s direction, possibly provided to him beforehand. Any half-competent person would have batted those questions away with relative ease, but not the bumbling Buhari.

More: https://www.naijiant.com/videos/buhari-takes-his-hypocrisy-to-the-next-level-in-nta-interview/

Lauretta needs her pammy. https://www.naijiant.com/photos/buhari-aide-lauretta-onochie-reacts-to-atikus-500m-naira-defamation-lawsuit/

Why Biafra failed by Ojukwu's Number Two Philip Effiong. https://www.naijiant.com/guestcolumn/why-biafra-failed/

iammo:



Osinbajo, the most educated Vice President in the history of Nigeria

Go and read the CV of Alex Ekwueme.

The Nigerian army has opened fire on protesters demanding the release of top Muslim cleric Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, who has been held for four years on trumped-up allegations.

Several people were seriously injured after being shot by soldiers at the rally on Friday night.

The protesters were calling for justice for the leader of Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), who has been held since December 2015 following a deadly raid by the Nigerian army troops on his residence in the country’s northern Kaduna State.

More: https://www.naijiant.com/guestcolumn/nigerian-army-opens-fire-on-protesters-demanding-release-of-zakzaky/

These people are looking for chop money and do not represent ordinary people in the constituency. Ekweremadu is thief - a former hungry charge and bail lawyer b/4 Gov Nnamani rescued him from poverty in 1999. Now he is a multimillionaire. https://www.naijiant.com/beer-parlour-gist/ike-ekweremadu-living-the-dream/

Chi Onwurah, the Labour Party MP for Newcastle-upon Tyne Central, whose father is Nigerian and mother is English, spoke today in the House of Commons in London during a debate about “the persecution of Christians overseas”.

She asked the British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who was in Nigeria recently: “According to the recent report by Open Doors UK, 3,731 Christians were killed in Nigeria last year—the highest number in any country. This is a matter of huge concern for all of us, and it has an impact on community relations within the UK as well. What specific steps is the Secretary of State taking to ensure that that there are not negative consequences for community relations—for example, within the Nigerian diaspora? What steps is he taking with the Home Office to ensure that it is aware of this when considering applications for asylum from Nigerian Christians?”

Onwurah's father was a dentist and officer in the Biafran army during the Nigerian civil war. More: https://www.naijiant.com/articles/british-mp-chi-onwurah-more-christians-killed-in-nigeria-than-anywhere-in-the-world/

Emeka Nwajiuba is the only Igbo man close to Buhari. More: https://www.naijiant.com/beer-parlour-gist/buharis-closest-igbo-ally-struggling-to-sell-the-president-in-the-southeast/

Why Femi Fani-Kayode should not be respected: https://www.naijiant.com/articles/no-sane-igbo-indeed-nigerian-take-femi-fani-kayode-seriously/

A debate was held in the House of Lords in the UK today titled “Nigeria: Fulani” and it kicked off with Baroness Cox questioning the government about “their assessment of recent developments in Nigeria, with particular reference to attacks by Fulani militia.”

Responding on behalf of the UK government, Lord Ahmad, the Minister of State in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office claimed: “We remain deeply concerned by the escalation in intercommunal violence across Nigeria, which has a devastating impact on lives and communities and is a barrier to Nigeria’s development. While religion is a factor, the root causes remain complex and include access to resources, population growth and displacement due to climate change and desertification. We are working closely with international partners and the Nigerian Government to develop measures to address the causes of the conflict, including the national livestock transformation plan.”

More: https://www.naijiant.com/articles/concerns-raised-in-the-uks-house-of-lords-about-nigerias-fulani-militia/

The revival of Boko Haram violence in the northeast has pushed the death toll (since 2011) of this Islamic terror group to over 25,000. Boko Haram has also shut down most of the schools in areas where they operate and caused most of the Christians in the northeast to flee the Moslem north for the Christian south. While Boko Haram violence receives more media coverage, most of the violent deaths in 2019 have been the result of growing violence between herders (mainly Moslem Fulani) and farmers (both Christian and Moslem). Most of this violence is taking place in the northeast (Kaduna state), northwest (Zamfara State) and several states in central Nigeria. Boko Haram violence is concentrated in the northeastern Borno state, where Boko Haram was founded in 2002 and grew to become a major Islamic terrorist threat by 2009. The herder versus farmer has been present for generations but has now reached crises levels

More: https://www.naijiant.com/guestcolumn/nigeria-the-other-terror/

The Sunday Times has also quoted a NSC document showing that Williamson was also determined to deploy British troops to Africa. According to the paper, he wanted military chiefs to present plans for intervention in at least five African states, including Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Kenya and Egypt.

More: https://www.naijiant.com/guestcolumn/sacked-british-defence-minister-wanted-to-invade-nigeria-other-african-countries/

Obi1kenobi:
"Industrial revolution" while generating barely over 2,000MW of power? Looolz...

Industrial Laffalution.

A group of medical experts and consultants has completed its initial health assessment of Nigeria’s top Muslim cleric Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky and his wife, who have been in detention since late 2015.

The delegation led by UK-based Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) visited the cleric and his wife, Mallima Zeenah, on Thursday and highlighted the need for urgent investigations into their health which it hoped would be carried out in the next couple of days.

The IHRC, an NGO which campaigns for justice, said in a statement it “acknowledges the authorities’ change of position in making this possible and hopes this heralds a full and just resolution of the situation.”

More: https://www.naijiant.com/guestcolumn/medical-team-allowed-to-check-zakzakys-health-in-nigeria/

Nobel Literature Laureate Wole Soyinka appeared on the BBC’s Hardtalk programme yesterday being quizzed by Zeinab Badawi. Soyinka slammed Nigeria’s president Muhammadu Buhari for his “slow response” in dealing with the terror caused by Fulani herdsmen across many parts of Nigeria.

The author of the classic “The Man Died”, with its killer quote: “The man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny”, said Buhari has failed on the security threat posed by the herdsmen and the president was repeating the mistakes of his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan, in not dealing with the Boko Haram menace in a timely and adequate fashion.

More: https://www.naijiant.com/articles/wole-soyinka-on-bbc-hardtalk-buhari-has-failed-on-fulani-herdsmen/

Reno OmoHypocrite also blocks people left, right and centre.

“The only functioning Nigerian port is in Lagos, and business people from all over the country have no choice but to import their goods through there. Nigerian business is headquartered in Lagos; not only the banks, and the telecommunications and oil and advertising companies, but also the emerging creative industries.”

More from her here: https://www.naijiant.com/articles/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-breaks-down-the-lagos-vibe-for-esquire-magazine/

The Buhari govt has accepted defeat against Tompolo.
https://www.naijiant.com/beer-parlour-gist/tompolo-defeated-us-nigerian-minister/

Members of the Shia-dominated Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) demonstrated in Abuja on Wednesday, condemning former British prime minister Tony Blair’s visit to Kaduna, where he was hosted by the governor of the state, Nasir El-Rufai.

Blair was in Kaduna last Friday, he was also there in July 2017, and the demonstrators blamed Britain and other countries for their complicity in the Zaria Massacre – when Nigerian soldiers killed hundreds of Shia Muslims in Zaria, Kaduna State in December 2015.

More:
https://www.naijiant.com/articles/islamic-movement-of-nigeria-condemns-tony-blairs-visit-to-kaduna/

He was following me, but I blocked him.

Legendary former Nigeria skipper and former coach Christian Chukwu has reportedly been ill for some time and his unknown ailment prompted a benefactor of his former club, Enugu Rangers, to launch a Gofundme effort “hoping to raise about $50,000 to cover Christian Chukwu’s round trip flight from Nigeria and all the medical expenses” in the United States.
https://www.gofundme.com/nigerian-football-legend-needs-your-help

Chukwu was a giant of a centre-back for both Enugu Rangers and Nigeria, nicknamed “Chairman” and was captain when Nigeria won their first Africa Cup of Nations trophy in 1980. He was assistant to Dutch coach Clemens Westerhof when Nigeria won it’s second Nations Cup in 1994. Chukwu went on to coach Lebanon, Kenya and Nigeria, as well as Rangers, where he continues to be of iconic status among their fans of a certain vintage.

News of his illness, especially videos showing him struggling to walk, was picked up by the Nigerian media and went viral on social media. But there appears to be more to this story.

More: https://www.naijiant.com/sports/controversy-over-christian-chukwus-mystery-illness/

Fake news.

The president’s first term fell short of the changes needed to modernize the sector. Can he make headway in his second?

Muhammadu Buhari, re-elected as president of Nigeria in February, has a second four-year term to revive the economy and address the needs of the country’s ailing oil and gas sector. But to do so, he will need to push through complex regulatory reform and take on deeply entrenched vested interests in politics and industry that have long profited from the status quo, and have significant capacity to resist change.

Oil production remains lower than it was 15 years ago. State-owned refineries operate at a fraction of their capacity, and Nigeria has struggled to remain competitive in a global market where heavy crude is driven by US sanctions and light sweet crude dominated by US shale.

More: https://www.naijiant.com/guestcolumn/buharis-second-chance-at-oil-and-gas-reform-in-nigeria/

Massoud Shadjareh, the Chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) was a guest on the Iranian state-owned Press TV programme, Africa Today discussing the continued detention of Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, the leader of the predominantly Shia Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN).

Zakzaky has been held by Nigeria’s Gestapo – the Department of State Services (DSS) since December 2015, following a raid of his compound in Zaria, Kaduna State by the army, in which the IMN claim over 1,000 people, including women and children were killed. Zakzaky and his wife sustained injuries during the raid and have allegedly been denied crucial treatment. An official inquiry into the raid concluded that 348 people were killed and buried in mass graves by Nigerian soldiers. But no one has been prosecuted for this atrocity.

More: https://www.naijiant.com/videos/saudi-arabia-and-israel-behind-buharis-atrocities-against-nigerias-shia-islamic-human-rights-commission-chairman/

All Rukayya Abba wanted to do on March 23 was cast her vote. But the scene she came across in the village of Bichi quickly made her change her mind. “There were armed thugs everywhere,” she said. “We didn’t vote because we were afraid of getting killed.”

There were similar stories from other parts of Kano State, from people who had also wanted to take part in the postponed governorship elections. The two-week postponement affected 128,000 people in 28 administrative districts.

It appears that many of them were deliberately prevented from taking part, like Rukayya Abba. “Thousands of thugs, armed with machetes, cudgels and other weapons, including knives, were surrounding each of the polling units, threatening people and finally forcing a change of results by taking over the electoral process,” Jibrin Ibrahim, an election observer with the NGO “Center for Democracy and Development” told DW.

More: https://www.naijiant.com/guestcolumn/violence-and-fraud-in-kano-states-gubernatorial-elections/

Obasanjo works for the CIA.

Nigeria’s recent presidential and governorship (s)elections in Rivers State, aka “Rivers of Blood”, has, once again, brought to the fore the violent battle for supremacy in that state between two former allies, current governor Nyesom Wike, and his predecessor and transport minister Rotimi Amaechi. The struggle between the two, which has led to fatalities, has involved thugs, members of “cults”, and seen Nigerian security forces contributing their own “quota” towards the violence on behalf of the transport minister.

This deadly rivalry has been likened to another bitter clash about 36 years ago between two prominent politicians from the same state, which had national repercussions. A year before the elections in August 1983, President Shehu Shagari, of the National Party of Nigeria, with an eye on splitting the Igbo vote – they had voted overwhelmingly for the Nigerian Peoples Party (NPP) led by Nnamdi Azikiwe in the last election – pulled off a masterstroke by granting a presidential pardon to Emeka Ojukwu.

Ojukwu was the legendary leader of the attempted secession of the predominantly-Igbo Eastern Nigeria as the Republic of Biafra between 1967 and 1970. He fled to Ivory Coast when the secession was finally quashed in a very bloody civil war. Ojukwu, on return from exile, joined Shagari’s NPN and ran for a Senate seat, representing Onitsha zone in the old Anambra State. Onitsha was also Azikiwe’s constituency and Ojukwu’s joining the NPN was viewed as an affront by the state’s governor, Jim Nwobodo, who liked to think of himself as Azikiwe’s “political son”.

Read on: https://www.naijiant.com/articles/ojukwu-v-nwobodo-the-battle-of-nkpor/

Aisha Buhari chopped Halliburton bribe: https://www.naijiant.com/beer-parlour-gist/aisha-buhari-and-the-halliburton-bribery-scandal/

The constitution holds in Section 181(1): “If a person duly elected as Governor dies before taking and subscribing the Oath of Allegiance and oath of office, or is unable for any reason whatsoever to be sworn in, the person elected with him as Deputy governor shall be sworn in as Governor and he shall nominate a new Deputy-Governor who shall be appointed by the Governor with the approval of a simple majority of the House of Assembly of the State.”

More and why the Kogi State situation was different, plus why the Supreme Court reached the wrong decision (probably due to bribery).
https://www.naijiant.com/articles/the-kogi-conundrum/

Videos which claim to show adverts on London buses calling for the imprisonment of Nigeria’s departing Senate president Bukola Saraki have together racked up more than 130,000 views on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. But the videos have been digitally altered to add the advertising, and London’s transport authority confirmed that no such advertisements are running on its buses.

The first video, posted by a Facebook group named “Kwarans”, has been shared more than 8,600 times and viewed by at least 109,000 people since it was uploaded on March 11 with the caption “Jail Bukola Saraki Buses Appear on London streets”.

More: https://www.naijiant.com/videos/no-adverts-on-london-buses-are-not-calling-for-nigerias-bukola-saraki-to-be-jailed/