Africa

Independence Day of Nigeria

One of the most populous countries of African continent, Nigeria is the fastest growing economies of the world. Like other countries, the independence day of Nigeria is celebrated with great zeal and festive fervor.

It falls on 1st October every year and is also observed with unmatched nationalistic ardor throughout the country. The significance of Independence Day in Nigeria lies in the fact that it binds all the Nigerians into one chord not only within the country but also in the far off lands of America and Europe.

A brief history of Nigeria's struggle for independence---

Historical evidences indicate that the earlier inhabitants of Nigeria were thought to have the Nok tribe followed by Kanuri, Hausa and Fulani who migrated to the country in the subsequent years. In the 13th century Islam was introduced in Nigeria, and the Kanem Empire continued to rule the country till the 14th century. With the annexation of British in 1886, it became a British colony in the later years. After years of hard struggle and political turmoil Nigeria achieved independence on 1st October 1960. The vast landscapes of the country, stretching from the Obudu Hills of the southeast through the beaches in to the rainforest regions of the Lagos estuary the country has worth while natural splendors to explore.

Culturally one of the diverse countries of Africa, Nigeria is home to more than 250 linguistic ethnic groups as Yoruba, Hausa, Fulani and Igbo. The folk music of Nigeria has gained tremendous boost with indigenous fusion giving it a new dimension in the past few years. The economy of Nigeria has come of age with the exploration of oil and petroleum deposits which accounts for nearly 50% of its income. Also the vast mineral resources extensively contribute to the economic upsurge of the country.

The Nigerian Independence day remains incomplete without paying marked homage to its famous freedom fighters and leaders who have inspired the country independence struggle.

Source: 123independenceday.com

Kenya To Switch off Fake Mobile Phones

Kenya has confirmed that a switch-off of counterfeit mobile phones will take place at the end of the month.

In addition, networks will be forbidden from activating new "fake" devices bought after 1 October.

Government officials said the move was designed to protect consumers from hazardous materials and to safeguard mobile payment systems.

They added it should also help them track users and limit violence ahead of March's general election.

The action had originally been scheduled to take place at the end of 2011, but was twice delayed to give subscribers a chance to replace their devices. However, the Ministry of Information and Communications has said this would not happen again.

The government said three million users were using counterfeit handsets as of June.

Official data suggests the country had 29 million mobile phone subscribers at the end of March.

Duplicated codes

The Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) defines fake handsets as "copies of popular brands and models made from sub-standard materials" that have not been licensed by the organisation.

They are sourced from China and other parts of Asia, as well as Nigeria and South Africa.

The CCK said "sub-standard components" were often used which had not been put through safety checks and might emit higher than recommended radiation levels.

They have proved popular since they are often sold at a heavy discounts to legitimate models, thanks in part to the fact that retailers avoid paying import taxes.

But the commission said they had caused an increase of dropped calls for all users because of "their inability to connect seamlessly to the mobile networks".

Law enforcement agencies had also complained that some of the devices used duplicated IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identifier) codes, making it difficult to track down users suspected of using their handsets to plan crimes.

In addition, when the government publicised the switch-off in June it also linked the move to efforts to restrict fraud.

"In this era of mobile banking, use of counterfeit devices, which are manufactured without due consideration to the recognised security standards, may expose our mobile money systems as well as the wider banking and financial system to unnecessary risks," said the communications secretary Dr Bitange Ndemo.

"The government cannot allow this to happen and thus our decision to have all unregistered SIM cards and counterfeit handset mobile phones phased out by 30 September 2012."

Election violence

The move was initially opposed by the Consumers Federation of Kenya, a campaign group which said the action would punish users who were not to blame for the fact fakes were sold.

But last month the organisation dropped a theat to go to court to block the switch-off after a study suggested most Kenyans supported the effort.

Sunday's deadline also means counterfeit models can be barred from networks ahead of the election on 4 March 2013.

About 1,300 people were killed and hundreds of thousands forced from their homes because of clashes following 2007's disputed presidential election.

There is concern the vote could spark further violence, and the CCK has suggested that ensuring all mobiles were registered could act as a deterrent.

"As the general elections draw near, we... have an obligation to ensure that the mobile telecoms industry is not used to perpetrate instability and to incite violence," said Francis Wangusi, the commission's director general.

Precious metals

Users can send a free SMS message containing their 15-number IMEI code to check that their handset is recognised as genuine.

The fact millions of devices will need to be replaced presents phone manufacturers with an opportunity to boost sales.

But there are also been worries that abandoned handsets could end up in landfill sites, damaging the environment.

To minimise the risk Nokia and Samsung have partnered with a local recycling company and mobile service providers to allow users to safely dispose of counterfeit models at collection points in major cities.

"Mobile phones contain many valuable and useful materials that can be recycled, including precious metals and plastics," said Bruce Howe, general manager for Nokia East Africa.

"For every one million phones recycled, it is possible to recover nearly 35kg of gold and 350kg of silver, which can be re-used in the production of future electronic goods."

The firm added that it believed Kenya's move was a model that could be adopted elsewhere in Africa and beyond.

Uganda has already said that it planned similar action

BBC

Dead Boy Carried in Suitcase

A man was caught with a dead baby boy stuffed in his suitcase at Tipper garage near Gwarimpa, Abuja, Nigeria.
A source said he was arrested on a tip-off and another said his secret became known to public when the bus conductor asked him to bring his suitcase so it can be stored properly. The man vehemently refused.
The suspicious conductor asked him what was inside the suitcase and he refused to say. As the man tried to leave the bus station, the conductor and others seized the suitcase from him and found the dead boy inside.

naijapal

SAfrican Miners Refuse to Settle

Chanting miners wielding machetes, clubs and spears marched from shaft to shaft of South Africa's beleaguered Lonmin platinum mine Monday, trying to intimidate the few workers who reported for duty in the fourth week of a crippling strike whose impact has already included dozens of miners killed by police.

At one point on their 10-kilometer (six-mile) trek, a striker lashed a whip at a man they accused of reporting for work. He took off across the scrubland with dozens of men waving machetes and clubs in pursuit. The man was saved by police officers who pulled him into their moving vehicle.
Meanwhile, labor unrest spread in the country, with an illegal strike by more than 10,000 workers halting operations at the west section of Gold Fields International's KDC gold mine.

The strikes are rooted in rivalry between the main National Union of Mineworkers and a breakaway union.

At the KDC gold mine, for instance, spokesman Sven Lunsche said the strike started Sunday night and that senior managers met Monday with strikers demanding the removal of NUM shop stewards and a minimum monthly wage of R12,500 ($1,560).

Some 12,000 miners at east KDC staged a weeklong illegal strike to demand the removal of NUM shop stewards that ended Sept. 3.

At a second platinum mine, Implats, 15,000-plus workers are demanding a 10 percent pay raise although they are continuing to work, spokesman Johan Theron said.

London-registered Lonmin PLC said just 6 percent of its 28,000 workers turned up Monday morning at its mine in Marikana, northwest of Johannesburg. Mine drivers drove around looking for workers to pick up, but the buses returned to the mine empty.

In Marikana, hundreds of chanting strikers descended on one after another of the Lonmin mine shafts, chanting anti-government songs and blaming President Jacob Zuma for the police killings. They were monitored by armed police in riot gear, some in armored cars, others on foot.

As strikers approached Lonmin's Hossy shaft, police escorted a speeding cavalcade of buses and vans carrying working miners and trucks with explosives as they rushed to get from one mine shaft to another.

Strikers have threatened to kill any miners or managers who do not respect their demand for all work to stop until Lonmin agrees to a monthly take-home pay of 12,500 rand ($1,560), about double their current wages.

Lonmin had hoped many more miners would come to work since a peace accord was signed last week with three major unions. But it was rejected by a breakaway union and nonunion strikers.

The government brokered the peace deal after police shot and killed 34 miners and wounded 78 on Dec. 16 at Marikana, a mass shooting reminiscent of apartheid-era days that has traumatized the nation of 48 million.

Ten people were killed in the week before the shootings: two police officers hacked to death by strikers, six union shop stewards and two mine guards burned alive in their car.

The Legal Resources Centre, meanwhile, announced that it has hired forensic experts and pathologists to investigate the Marikana violence on behalf of the South African Human Rights Commission.

The commission has stepped in following local news reports alleging that some miners were shot as they tried to surrender to police, others were shot in the back as they ran away from the police fire, and some were run over and killed by police armored cars.

Police and government officials have refused to comment on the allegations, saying they must await the results of a judicial commission of inquiry that is to report to Zuma in January.

Miners told The Associated Press they are getting desperate and do not have enough money to feed their families because of the no-work, no-pay strike. One said a loan shark is refusing to give money to any but long-time customers.

Still they said they remain resolute and will not return to work until their wage demand is met. The miners refused to give their names to a reporter.

The National Union of Mineworkers said the Marikana strikers had gone around Sunday night threatening anyone who went to work.

Negotiations between mine managers, several unions and representatives of strikers who do not want to be represented by any of the unions were postponed for 24 hours because the strikers' representatives said they did not know about the meeting, Lonmin spokeswoman Sue Vey said. She said the talks would start off by working out a framework for salary negotiations and probably would last several days.

But Gideon du Plessis, general secretary of Solidarity union representing mainly white mine workers, said the strikers' representatives sent a message saying their position had not changed and they would not go back to work until Lonmin agrees to the salary demand.

The last of the miners killed by police were buried during the weekend, one in Lesotho and three in South Africa. The Daily Dispatch newspaper quoted a family member as saying that one of them, Thembelakhe Mati, was wounded in the shooting and got away to hide in a shack, fearing he would be arrested if he went to the mine hospital for treatment.

Half a dozen buses carrying mourners who had attended the funerals in far-flung parts of the country returned Monday to a shantytown of tin-walled shacks without water or electricity near the mine

Saudi Detains Nigerian Women in Airport

Nigeria is protesting about the detention of about 1,000 Nigerian women at airports in Saudi Arabia.

The women, some of whom have been held since Sunday, had been planning to make the Muslim Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.

Nigeria's ambassador to Saudi Arabia told the BBC the authorities were stopping women under the age of 35.

There has been an understanding in the past that Nigerian women are exempt from travelling with a male relative - a requirement for women on the Hajj.

Nigerian diplomats say the agreement between National Hajj Commission of Nigeria and the Saudi authorities allows visas to be issued for Nigerian women going to Mecca as long as they are accompanied by their local Hajj committee officials.

Correspondents say many Nigerians have entered Saudi Arabia illegally to seek work.

'Mismatched surnames'

Since Sunday, hundreds of Nigerian women have been stopped at the airports in Jeddah and Medina.

Nigeria's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Abubakar Shehu Bunu, said he had made a formal protest to the foreign affairs office in the capital, Riyadh, on Wednesday.

"They are stopping women particularly between the ages of 25 and 35 without a male relative. Those over 45 are not a concern to the Saudi authorities," he told the BBC's Hausa Service.

One woman told the BBC her group were being held in Jeddah not because they were travelling without male relatives but because the surnames on their passports did not correspond with those of their husbands.

"Our husbands' names are different from our surnames and they won't allow that," Bilkisu Nasidi, who travelled from the northern Nigerian city of Katsina, told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

She said the hundreds of women were sleeping on the floor, did not have their belongings and were sharing four toilets at the King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah.

It is a common practice for Muslim women in Nigeria not to take their husband's name.

More than two million Muslims are due to converge on Mecca for this year's Hajj, which is set to culminate over a four-day period somewhere between 24-29 October depending on lunar observations

Biometric Registration in Progress

As part of the government’s policy to improve payroll administration, the ministry of finance and Economic Planning has embarked on an exercise to register all pensioners and workers on the active payroll.

In connections with the above Ghanaians in Germany are kindly requested to facilitate communication through Embassies/Missions to all Ghanaian Pensioners and workers domiciled abroad, including ex-service men to appear in person to the nearest Consulate or Embassy to provide information and their biometric data to include:

Photographs, .Staff numbers, Pension number, Regiment number .Date of birth .ID number .Retirement date. Position held before retirement ect.

This is to enable the Controller and Accountant General renew their status and process their Pension and salaries. This exercise also includes staff of Missions abroad.

Ghana embassy Berlin is therefore requesting of all Hon. Consuls and Heads of Ghanaian Union/Associations to help facilitate the process by informing all concerned Ghanaians to visit the Mission in Berlin to have their biometric data taken for the exercise

Contact

Ghana Embassy Berlin
George De Souza
Head of Consular
http://www.ghanaemberlin.de

3 Nigerian Oil Staffs Killed

Nigeria's state-run oil company says suspected oil thieves have killed three of its employees near Nigeria's commercial capital.

Fidel Pepple, a spokesman for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, said in a statement Monday that gunmen shot at a team of engineers and technicians doing repairs on an oil pipeline in a town just north of Lagos this weekend. Others were hurt in the attack, he said.
Pepple said the pipeline was under repair after being vandalized. Oil theft is common in Nigeria, an impoverished West African nation.
However, such attacks are rare around Lagos. They typically happen in the nation's oil-rich southern delta, a maze of creeks and swamps about the size of Portugal.

Nigeria, an OPEC member, is a top exporter of crude to the U.S.
Yahoonews