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”
It took three to six years of agonising detention and total separation from their families for Mu’azu and Muhammad to be “cleared” as having nothing to do with the notorious terror group, Boko Haram. The people of Andara, a town in Northeast Nigeria, were worried sick when Boko Haram invaded in 2014 and started dictating how …
Read more “Guilty Until Proven Innocent: How Nigeria Further Preyed On Terror Victims”
The first time she was released from the detention centre, Ya’ana was told she would be locked up again if she ever narrated her ugly experience to anyone. But then, that is exactly what she does. “Hajja Ya’ana has come!” Unlike the other people she entered with, Ya’ana Kaumi*, 42, was not a strange face …
Read more “Relatively Few Women Have Been Detained At Giwa Barracks. Ya’ana Was There Twice.”
Young IDPs in Nigeria are sexually assaulted by officials as a condition to receive food and medical supplies. Young Aisha* has had more than her fair share of misfortunes. She was only six years old when the Boko Haram terror group levied war on the secular society in Nigeria. The ensuing carnage and bloodbath has taken the …
Read more “Sex For Survival: How Officials Use Underage IDP Girls As Objects Of Pleasure”
After it came to light that one of its operatives in Plateau State had killed a 20-year-old boy early in May, the Nigerian Army declared the next day that the soldier only fired because he had mistaken the victim for a fleeing crime suspect. Multiple accounts later received from witnesses, however, show that it could …
Read more “How Rinji, UNIJOS Student, was Tortured and Shot By Soldiers”
While governments and members of the public are celebrating medical workers across the world for their professional sacrifices in battling COVID-19, many doctors in the employ of the government in Nigeria are facing starvation and frustration. Last November, Victoria was full of high hopes as she resigned from her job at a private hospital where …
Read more “Medical Doctors Get Raw Deal, Go Five Months Without Pay While Fighting COVID-19”
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 …
Victims of rape hardly get justice in Nigeria. Oftentimes the miscarriage of justice happens because law enforcement officers compromise. ‘Kunle ADEBAJO reports. “Sorry sir, this amount that they told me, I don’t have up to that o,” Nanpon Julius pleads after exchanging pleasantries and introducing himself. He is on the phone with Okokon Udo, a …
Read more “Brazen Police Extortion is Frustrating Rape Victims’ Quest for Justice in Nigeria”
If you asked Grace Bako, 10, or her sister, Janet, 14, what careers they’re interested in when they become grownups, they would reply, Medicine and Pharmacy. And if you asked why, their explanation would be: to treat people, especially little children, who are dealing with trauma. What they may not immediately disclose though is that …
Six hundred and thirty naira (N630). This was the amount Andrew Bello, a Lagos-based lawyer, received in one of the months he worked for a law firm in Ikoyi. His total salary was supposed to be N20,000 per month, but his firm deducted N500 for each day he got to the office later than 8 …
Read more “Wigs Without Welfare: Lawyers in Nigeria Earn Below Minimum Wage, and It isn’t Unusual”