Toye Olori

POLITICS-NIGERIA: Govt Sacks Police Chief, Plus Six Top Officers

Nigerian government has sacked the country's police chief and six senior officers and replaced them with new faces in a bid to stem rising crime in the West African country.

FINANCE-NIGERIA: Major Bank Shut Down for Alleged Irregularities

By Toye Olori

The Nigerian government has shut down a major bank for alleged irregularities.

ENVIRONMENT-NIGERIA: Govt U.S. to Fight Desert Encroachment

By Toye Olori

Nigeria's Jigawa State, in collaboration with the United States, has launched a programme to harness the potentials of Gum Arabic to reduce poverty and fight desert encroachment in northern Nigeria.

RELIGION-NIGERIA: Islamic Sharia Favours the Rich

By Toye Olori

Reports coming in from Zamfara, one of the six northern states in Nigeria to enforce the Islamic legal code, Sharia, suggest that it has been affecting the influential rich and the vulnerable poor quite differently.

POLITICS-NIGERIA: Women Gearing up for the 2003 Elections

By Toye Olori

Political parties, both the old and those mushrooming every day, in Nigeria are already gearing up for the general elections scheduled for 2003, but they still have not outlined a role for women in the next government.

ECONOMY-NIGERIA: Fears of Devaluation Trigger the Fall of Naira

By Toye Olori

The Nigerian currency continues its slide this week, as fears of devaluation sweep through the West African country.

POLITICS: British Premier Tours West Africa

By Toye Olori

British Prime Minister, Tony Blair this week began a tour of West Africa to discuss trade, debt and aid.

POLITICS-NIGERIA: Thousands Displaced in Ethnic Violence

By Toye Olori

The ruins of more than 200 houses are the relics left behind at Idi-Araba, the battered suburb of Lagos, Nigeria's biggest city, where ethnic conflict broke out at the weekend.

POLITICS-NIGERIA: Ethnic Conflict Fuels Fears of another Unrest

By Toye Olori

Nigeria, which is recovering from decades of military dictatorship, appears to be heading for another disaster, following ethnic conflict which has rocked Lagos since Saturday.

RIGHTS-NIGERIA: Aid Trickling in for the Survivors of Bomb Blast

By Toye Olori

Aid has begun trickling in for the more than 5,000 survivors of the Sunday's bomb blast in Nigeria's biggest city, Lagos.

POLITICS-NIGERIA: Death Toll Rises in Ammo Dump Explosions

By Toye Olori

The death toll in a stampede caused by bomb explosions at an ammunition dump at a military cantonment in Ikeja, a suburb of Lagos on Sunday, rose to 700 Wednesday as more bodies are still being fished out from the Oke-Afa canal by rescue workers.

DEVELOPMENT-NIGERIA: Govt Embarks on Programme to Combat Poverty

By Toye Olori

The Nigerian government has embarked on a programme to combat poverty in a bid to keep youth off the street.

ECONOMY-NIGERIA: Oil Companies Halt Exploration in the North

By Toye Olori

The search for oil in northern Nigeria, which began in 1994, came to an end this week following a declaration by the companies that there was no oil in that part of the country.

ENVIRONMENT-NIGERIA: Floods Erosion Devastate Villages

By Toye Olori

Graveyards and ancestral shrines in Amaiyi, a village some 635 kilometres Southeast of the commercial city of Lagos, have been washed off.

ECONOMY-NIGERIA: Farmers Reject Plans to Increase Cocoa Export

By Toye Olori

Plans by the Nigerian government to increase cocoa production in a bid to boost export have been rejected by farmers.

CULTURE: Globalisation Poses a Serious Threat to Black Arts

By Toye Olori

Globalisation poses a serious threat to Black culture, arts and indigenous languages, say scholars.

LABOUR-NIGERIA: Striking Lecturers Demand Salary Increment

By Toye Olori

Striking University lecturers in Nigeria have refused to return to teach unless their demand for salary increment is resolved.

/ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT/ARTS-NIGERIA: Plans To Sell Off National Theatre Criticised

By Toye Olori

"It's all rumours. Government cannot sell off the National Theatre. It's not possible," says a staff at the National Theatre, which is located in Nigeria's commercial capital, Lagos.

RIGHTS-NIGERIA: Hard Times For Lepers

By Toye Olori

A few years ago, thousands of lepers used to line up along the busy Ore-Benin highway to beg for alms.

HEALTH-NIGERIA: Children Used as Guinea Pigs By U.S. Company

By Toye Olori

A recent report by a U.S. newspaper that a major international pharmaceutical company carried out unapproved tests of a risky drug on Nigerian children which led to tragic consequences, has put the company on a firing line in Nigeria.