Sahara Reporters: Latest and Current Articles & News [March ‘11 Diet]

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Latest and most updated news about Nigerians, Nigerian Government, and Nigeria. Be the first to read all Latest and Current Articles, Items & News on Sahara Reporters.

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The Nigeria Peoples Parliament in Diaspora (NPPiD) will feature Nigeria's presidential candidates in a program tagged "2011 Nigerian Presidential Aspirants Forum" and scheduled for Saturday March 12, 2011 in New York City. Each candidate will be given equal time to outline his vision, manifesto and program if elected.

The session is tailored to enable presidential aspirants to address a global Nigerian audience on the specific details of their mission and their strategies for lifting Nigerians from the quagmire of missed opportunities, economic stupor and poverty.

Several candidates have already confirmed their participation in the special event, designed to introduce the presidential contestants to Nigerians in the Diaspora and to challenge each candidate to articulate his vision for Nigeria.

This special session, coming approximately one month before Nigeria's presidential elections, offers a rare opportunity for the candidates as well as Nigerians resident abroad to ponder the problems and prospects of their country.

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   Youth-led Organizations and Media Outlets Join Forces to Call for A Youth-Focused Debate

February 22, 2011, Abuja, Nigeria – Building on momentum from a mass voter registration drive, a coalition of several youth empowerment groups and blogs, including Vote or Quench, Enough is Enough Nigeria, Sleeves Up, and Nigeria Leadership Initiative, are calling for the first-ever presidential youth centered debate in Nigeria. Looking ahead to the April elections, the debate would focus on the key issues affecting a critical voting demographic, with the age group of 30 and under representing 70% of the population.

The debate will be a direct conversation with Nigerian youth, inviting presidential candidates to answer questions posed by young Nigerians, at home and abroad, via social media networks including Facebook and Twitter, text message and phone, about key topics of concern. For the first time, the candidates will have a platform to share their agenda with the nation in a live-televised format, laying out specific and concrete solutions. The debate is tentatively scheduled for the last week of March, 2011.   

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A second memorial lecture for Mokwugo Okoye, one of Nigeria's greatest activists in the fight for Independence from Britain, is scheduled for March 2nd in Abuja.

The lecture, which will be given by poet Odia Ofeimun, will take place at Gracepoint Hotel, Kananga Close, Off Yaounde Street Wuse Zone 6, Abuja.

The time for the lecture is 11.30 a.m. Mr. Ofeimun, a prize-winning poet and a past president of the Association of Nigerian Authors, will focus on a lecture titled "In Praise of Our Masters: The Real Makers of the Nigerian Mind." Former Attorney General of the Federation, Godwin Kanu Agabi, will be the guest of honor.

Mr. Okoye was a prominent member of the Zikist movement who organized demonstrations, strikes and lectures to protest British colonial subjugation of Nigeria. The British authorities detained him numerous times for his crusade to achieve Independence from British rule. Widely admired by progressives in Nigeria and elsewhere, Mr. Okoye authored many books in history, philosophy, memoir.

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I've had to ask myself this question over and over again, why are we, the youth, really keeping quiet in Nigeria? What are we really afraid of? Why do we pretend that all is well, and never speak out about the deprivation we've faced all these years of military/civilian rule? Why do we never speak the truth about how despicable life has become for many of our friends, colleagues, folks and siblings?

Why do we pretend to believe that our government is sincere, when in reality we're only interested in playing sycophancy to them for personal gain? Why do we pretend to believe that they are even competent to or capable of solving the problems of our generation? Why do we hide under aliases and nicknames in online media and make the actual comments that reveal our minds, but come to the open to praise and sycophant ourselves and the same people who have deprived us of electricity, jobs, good education, technology advancement, and a future for our coming generation?

Gospel Obioma
Lagos

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   By Farouk Martins Aresa           The whole world is watching, the whole world is watching, the whole world is watching as innocent Africans are being lynched in Libya. The time to act is right now since nobody acted yesterday or day before. It started as a rumor, then it was reported on social network and now we know it is real. The world must act and act quickly.

Source: World And Press Watch As Africans Are Lynched In Libya

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                 By PM, News, Lagos           A 22-year old Nigerian girl has fled the United States of America after fire killed four kids at a daycare centre where she works.

Source: Houston Daycare Fire: Wanted By FBI, Nigerian Girl Flees U.S.

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    "Sir, I have two kids with me here, and I have been in this airport for three weeks, no food to eat, we sleep on the floor everyday waiting for plane to come and evacuate us. please beg Nigerian government to come  with bigger planes to evacuate us" so is the cry of a Nigeria woman at the Tripoli airport this morning calling on all Nigerians, human rights group to plead to Nigerian government to come and evacuate them from Libya.

Another Nigerian, who is the senior elder of Nigeria community in Libya, Mr. Solomon Okoduwa, said "so far the Tripoli airport as at the time of call has recorded seven thousand Nigerians awaiting evacuation, aside those trapped in Benghazi and other states outside. Tripoli. He said most of them have been at the airport for several weeks; watching other countries coming with cargo planes and ships to evacuate their citizens almost every two hours, while Nigerians starve at the airport as there are no provision for food, water or place to sleep, even pregnant and nursing mothers are not excluded from the pains and suffering"

Campaign for the Rights of Nigerians in Diaspora (CRND), condemn the Nigerian government and its ministry of foreign affairs for its attitude towards Nigerians in Diaspora, most especially when other countries are working day and night to evacuate their citizens from Libya. For example, Two Turkish vessels picked up 3,000 Turks from the eastern Libyan port of Benghazi Wednesday, as part of what Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called the biggest evacuation operation in Turkey's history.

Chinese state media say Beijing also is organizing an air, sea and land operation to evacuate up to 33,000 Chinese citizens from Libya.  The operation involves chartered aircraft, Chinese commercial ships, fishing boats and buses.

By Frank Malcom
Source: 7, 0000 Nigerians Still Stranded At Tripoli Airport In Libya -CRND

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                 By GIN           Mar 1 (GIN) – Years of financially supportive relationships with Libya’s Moammar Al Gaddafi have created a moral dilemma for African leaders who have said little as violence flares in that northern nation.

Source: African Allies Chided For Silence On Libyan Uprising

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   By Jude Egbas           All a casual observer needed to do last weekend to put a finger on what was wrong with our dear country, fifty years after the colonial masters left us in the lurch; was to flip the channels to a few Nigerian TV stations or follow the sickening events of the day on the internet. In one of the most bizarre welcome parties in recent memory, one of the chieftains of Africa’s most depraved of political parties, was coming home fresh from a two year jail term to a red carpet reception and a roll of the drums.

Source: George Of The (PDP's) Jungle