ARIWO !

Makoko, Token of an Intolerable Oppression

1. Nigerian Slum's Filth Is a World Away From Capital's Glitter

In the Lagos slum of Makoko, perched on a lagoon, the water is black with filth. But today the hymns and chants of the faithful rose with fervor and the white robes of many of the Sunday churchgoers glimmered in the putrid breeze.

Religion, offered in many guises, is booming in a desperate Nigeria, plundered by successive military governments. The pigs that snuffle amid the garbage in Makoko do so beneath signs for the Redeemed Church of Christ, the Word of Life Bible Church, the Foursquare Gospel Church, the Holy Ghost Solution Church and countless others.

Victor Olayiwola, an immigration official with a monthly salary of $40, stood in spotless white robes outside the Celestial Church of Christ, an evangelical church bordered by an open sewer. ''The churches are springing up because of our suffering,'' he said. ''Without the preachers, there would have been war in Nigeria.''

About 500 miles from here, and a world away. in the newly constructed capital, Abuja, signs abound of where some of the oil wealth that might have lifted Makoko from its mire has gone.

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2. Life in Makoko Slum

Umaru Musa Yar'Adua - the Last Trip Home

Nigeria Swears In Goodluck Jonathan as New Leader

Goodluck Jonathan lors de la cérémonie de prestation de serment le 6 mai 2010 à Abuja

(May 6) -- Amid national mourning, Goodluck Jonathan was officially sworn in today as president of Nigeria following the death of the man whose duties he had been exercising since February.
Jonathan took the oath of office almost 12 hours after the death late Wednesday of Umaru Yar'Adua, 58, who had long been treated for kidney ailments and was hospitalized in Saudi Arabia with heart problems for months beginning last November. His unannounced disappearance then started a period of uncertainty that won't end with Jonathan's assumption of office.
As Jonathan made a brief address in which he said Nigeria had lost "the jewel on its crown" and vowed a tough crackdown on corruption, the body of the former president was being flown to his home region in the north of the country for a traditional Muslim burial  

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Yar’Adua, Nigeria’s ailing president dies

 

Lagos — After battling ill-health for about six months, President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua died last night at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja.

His remains will be flown to his hometown, Katsina, Katsina State early this morning for burial at 2pm. The 58-year-old Yar'Adua had been battling acute pericaditis, an inflammation of the membrane around the heart, since November last year for which he received treatment at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Presidential Spokesman Olusegun Adeniyi said Yar'Adua died around 9 pm and would be buried today in Katsina. Adeniyi said Yar'Adua's wife Turai was at his side when he died but did not say the cause of his death. Acting President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, Patience, were said to have called at the Presidential Villa around 11. 30 pm to condole the First Family….

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Tintin: Heroic Boy Reporter or Sinister Racist?

Lawyer Ahmed L'Hedim, center, shows a journalist the book Tintin in the Congo at the Palace of Justice in Brussels. A Congolese man, Mbutu Bienvenu, right, is trying to get a controversial Tintin book banned in the cartoon star's home country of Belgium.

Virginia Mayo / AP

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1 ship with stranded crew brought to Benin coast

Staff Correspondent

The seamen stranded offshore Benin started coming to mainland of the West African country, said a foreign ministry official yesterday.

“One ship was brought to the shore yesterday but it could not be known how many seamen were on it,” said Saida Muna Tasneem, director general of the external publicity wing of the foreign affairs ministry.

According to earlier information, there were 27 seamen on board the eight ships. Another ship was traced having two more seamen aboard bringing the total to 29, she said.

These ships are around ten miles off the port of Cotonou, seamen said.

Meanwhile, the Department of Shipping agreed to bear the airfare of the seamen for their repatriation except for three. Those three were sent by the shipping agent KSF which agreed to pay for them, she said.

The foreign ministry from Dhaka is trying to buy e-tickets for them, Muna noted.

The development followed negotiations of Bangladesh's chargé d'affaires in Morocco, Lutfar Rahman, with the Benin foreign ministry and the port authorities. He arrived at Benin on April 28…

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