Hundreds of buildings. They used to be shelters for people fleeing the violence in their home communities. They are now shells of memories and, without urgent action, risk becoming even more wretched.
The project’s commissioning gave hope to hundreds of orphaned and displaced children across the state that they could get both free and quality education. With every passing year, that hope gets even dimmer as the facilities lie in waste.
When Mohammed Nagi Alassam enrolled in medical school, it would have been hard to imagine him as one of the faces of a revolution that would years later, change the course of his country. Sudan has huddled under the boots of dictators for many years. Backed by Islamists, in 1989, Omar al-Bashir, then a 45-year-old …
Read more “Sudanese Doctors Diagnosed Their Country And Prescribed A Revolution”
When in Dec. 2018, the people of Sudan thronged the streets to protest a failing economy, they met a resistance that reminded them they were also victims of an autocracy that had succeeded for far too long. So, they cranked up their demands, concerning themselves not only with the unattainable prices of bread and fuel, …
Read more “Civil Society Groups Rise To Safeguard Sudan’s Shaky Transition To Democracy”
When the creators of Nigeria’s capital Abuja envisioned the city in the late 1970s, they imagined it would be the hub of rail transportation, connecting all the other parts of the country. Over four decades later, that vision remains unrealised. Hope was rekindled in May 2007 when the capital territory authorities awarded the Abuja Rail Mass Transit …
Read more “Chinese Loans: Nigeria Is Spending Money It Doesn’t Have On Projects It Can’t Sustain”
When Beninese parents are pushed to the wall due to poverty and the burden of caring for too many children, they often send their wards to neighbouring Nigeria with the help of traffickers to earn extra income. In part one of this investigative series, ‘Kunle ADEBAJO tells the story of what lies on the other …
For a year and three months, Veronica Aloy Khenom worked tirelessly on her okra and cassava farm, just adjacent her home in Gokana, one of four local government areas in Ogoniland. One bright afternoon towards the end of January, she returned to finally gather the produce. But what she met was disappointing—though unsurprising. Since constant …
Read more “Life in Ogoniland Still Cruel as Ever Three Years After Cleanup’s Launch”
Olamide is only 17 years old, but not only does he have a lot of internet fraudsters in his circle of friends, but he is also considering trying his hand on the line of work too. For now, he helps his mom by hawking oranges, sold in packs of three or four. From morning till …
Read more “Not Too Young to Scam: The Worrisome Story of Adolescent ‘Yahoo Boys’ in Ogun State”
“We have not seen flooding like it occurred this year,” said most victims of the recent flooding incident in the North-central part of Nigeria. The disaster is reported to have afflicted hundreds of thousands of Nigerians across different states, leaving many dead and many more displaced. For four days, The ICIR‘s ‘Kunle ADEBAJO visited Niger and …
Read more “Kogi Flood Victims Who Lost Everything are Still Homeless, Broke Despite Govt. Promise”
Bisola (not real name), a young mother of three, has lived in Akufo, a town in Oyo State, all her life. She nearly died when she gave birth to her last born on a Sunday two years ago as she had to be taken to Adeoyo State Hospital, about 30 kilometres away. The situation was …
Read more “Built but Forsaken: How Akufo Health Centre has Become a Refuge for Goats”