Michael Ojuroye Initiative (Ngo)

Your article for the pre-conference issue of ICT Update asks how ICTs can strengthen people’s capacity to improve their position in the agricultural sector. Did your stream on capacity strengthening manage to address this problem?   Yes, my stream hosted a session to see what ICTs can do for grassroots engagement. The session really confirmed that ICTs can empower individuals. It was nice to analyse with some of the presenters the insights that they gained in terms of what makes that difference. I’m thinking, for example, of the presentation by Catherine Molua Mojoko, president of the grassroots organisation Walana Wa Makwasi in Cameroon. She spoke about her work with women, youth groups and mobile phones.   The training Catherine’s organisation gives is relatively simple and helps women to start using mobile phones at least to receive messages. It turns out they learn the technology quite easily. Some of the women are illiterate, in which case it’s important to group them...

Suspected Islamist gunmen shot dead 12 people in two separate attacks on villages near Nigeria’s border with Niger while three others drowned in a river while fleeing, locals said Sunday. The attackers, thought to be from the Boko Haram militant group, on Thursday shot dead seven people in Gashigar village, a fishing community in Borno state, close to the Nigerian border with neighbouring Niger, the locals said. Three others drowned in the river while fleeing from the night raid, they added. The attack came four days after a similar one on two other neighbouring villages — Yawuma-ango and Jabulam — in which gunmen shot dead five people, a former deputy local government council chairman in the district, Talba Gashigar, said. He said most residents of Gashigar village had fled to Niger after the marauders arrived in a convoy of three vehicles and “countless motorcycles” and destroyed dozens of homes and shops. “We all had to flee. Men, women and children had to cross over to neighbou...

“I do not dishonor the Bible. I honour it above all books. The New Testament alone, since I have been able to read it humanly, has to me outweighed all the literature of the world.”—James Anthony Froude.   On 7th of January this year (2014), the President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, signed the Nigerian Same-sex Marriage Prohibition Bill into a law. Since the enactment of that Act, some Nigerians and nationals from Western countries have expressed their displeasure and opposition to the President and Nigerian National Assembly. Some of these opponents of the new law have described the statute as draconian and obnoxious while others among them, including the American and British Foreign Secretaries, John Kerry and William Hague respectively, see it as a direct encroachment upon the fundamental rights of Nigerian gay community and a contradiction to the provisions of Nigerian 1999 constitution and international conventions. To some of these opponents, the new law...

A former Governor of Bauchi State, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu A  former Governor of Bauchi State, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu, has been chosen as the new Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party by President Goodluck Jonathan and governors. He will replace the former chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, who resigned from his position on Wednesday. Mu’azu was picked as a consensus candidate at a meeting between President Goodluck Jonathan and the governors of the party at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Sunday night. The meeting ended at 1:22 am on Monday (today) morning. Investigations showed that the governors had rejected the choice of Mohammed Wakil by the President and his wife, Patience. Some reasons were said to have been adduced for the rejection of Wakil,   a former House of Representatives  Leader.  The reasons  included his alleged inability to carry people along when he was a principal officer of the House. A governor  told  one of our corresponde...

A Maryland mother stabbed two of her children to death and wounded two others while attempting an exorcism, authorities said. Zakieya L. Avery, 28, was charged Saturday with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted first-degree murder, Montgomery County Police said in a statement. A second woman, who was briefly hospitalized after the incident, was also charged in the two deaths. Police believe she is not related to the family, but lived at the same residence in Germantown. Norell Harris, 1, and his sister, Zyana Harris, 2, suffered fatal stab wounds while their siblings, ages 5 and 8, were hospitalized with injuries, authorities said. “Cases like this are heartbreaking,” county Police Chief Tom Manger said. “Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the victims.” Police said they found the four children Friday morning after a neighbor called 911 to report suspicious activity at the home. The neighbor reported seeing a car with a door open and a knife nex...