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Nigeria
How effective is the global polio eradication drive?
@vibhavarshney Issue Date: Feb 15, 2004
an optimistic note, about wiping out polio from the six afflicted countries, was to be sounded at a conference organised by the World Health Organisation (who) in Geneva on January 15. Instead, the sudden re-emergence of the disease in two African nations -- Benin and Cameroon -- set the alarm bells ringing and turned it into an emergency meeting.
News snippets
Issue Date: Jan 15, 2004
• The Federal High Court in Lagos, Nigeria, has awarded (Nigerian dollar) N1.4 billion (Rs 45 crore) to three communities in the country's Bayelsa and Rivers States as ecological damages, resulting from the 1998 crude oil spillage from Mobil Nigeria Limited's pipeline in Akwa-Ibom State. The communities had instituted separate actions against the American oil giant and its Nigerian subsidiary.
Not immune to myths
Issue Date: Dec 31, 2003
The government of Nigeria has rushed health workers to Daramba, a village on the border with Niger, following an outbreak of whooping cough -- one of the six main killer diseases for children (the others are: diphtheria, measles, polio, tetanus and tuberculosis). Health officials blame villagers who, they say, have shunned routine immunisation.
How to respond to strikes
Issue Date: Nov 30, 2003
Nigerians have developed a unique response to strikes, as was seen on October 6, 2003. Thousands of panic-stricken people besieged banks to withdraw money and stockpile food even as the Nigeria Labour Congress (nlc) announced another round of action, to protest a 12 per cent hike in fuel prices.
Scramble for the spoils
Issue Date: Aug 15, 2003
Oil politics has reared its ugly head yet again. This time in the tiny twin island African state of Sao Tome and Principe -- a former Portuguese colony banking on future prosperity from offshore oil reserves. An army major, Fernando Pereira, seized power in a pre-dawn coup even as President Fradique de Menezes was on a visit to Nigeria. Pereira was aided by the opposition party.
Slippery business
Issue Date: Jul 31, 2003
Oil major Shell has decided to publish details of its payments made to the Nigerian government, which amounted to us $900 million last year, following a campaign by human rights groups and the uk to reduce corruption in oil and mineral-rich developing countries.
Bytes
Issue Date: Jul 15, 2003
easy rabies cure: Tobacco plants have been genetically modified to produce proteins used to combat the rabies virus. Till now, the only way to fight the virus was to use antibodies derived from either horses or humans; but they are difficult to get. Researchers from the Thomas Jefferson University, USA, have now inserted DNA coding of the human antibodies into the tobacco plants. The new antibodies are as efficient as the ones used at present.
Major flare-up
Issue Date: Apr 15, 2003
Multinational oil giants Chevron Texaco Oil Company, Shell and Total Fina Elf have shut down operations in Nigeria's trouble-torn southern Delta region. The companies estimate that the disruptions have reduced Nigeria's daily oil output by about 30 per cent. The country is the world's sixth largest oil exporter.
Crude world
Issue Date: Jan 31, 2003
• Oil provides energy for 95 per cent of the world's transportation
- Exxon-Mobil, the world's largest oil company, had an annual profit of US $17 billion in 2001 (equivalent to about five per cent of India's GDP)
- Oil, which could have made Nigeria one of the world's wealthiest countries, has made it one of the poorest (See Oil: The slippery lifeline)
• Industrial nations are the biggest consumers of oil
Problem in the pipeline
Issue Date: Nov 30, 2002
Frequent oil spills are wreaking havoc on the delta town of Okpella in Nigeria's Edo state. In the most recent incident, a pipeline of Nigerian National Petroleum Company -- a state-owned concern -- ruptured and spilled refined crude oil into the environment. The oil first seeped into the underground water supply and then into a stream which also serves as a drinking water source for many.
