Boko Haram hits university catholic mass, kills 25

Gunmen attacked a Catholic Mass on Bayero University campus Sunday, using small explosives to draw worshippers out before shooting those who fled, killing at least 25 people.
The attackers targeted an old section of the university campus where religious groups use a theatre to hold worship services, Kano state police spokesman Ibrahim Idris said. The assault left many others seriously wounded, Idris said.
"By the time we responded, they entered (their) motorcycles and disappeared into the neighbourhood," the commissioner said.
"I counted at least 15 dead bodies. I think they were being taken to the Amino Kano teaching hospital," a witness who did not wish to be identified told Reuters. He said he saw many more people being treated for injuries.
A security source said at least 20 people were dead and a source at the hospital said by telephone he had seen 10-15 dead bodies brought in with gunshot wounds and dozens more wounded were being treated.
Bayero University spokesman, Mustapha Zahradeen, said two university professors had been killed in the attacks.
No group immediately claimed responsibility. However, Idris said the attackers used small explosives packed inside of aluminum soda cans for the assault, a method previously used by a radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram.

It's an attack on journalism, free speech - ThisDay

Scene after the blast

ThisDay issued a statement last night on the attacks. The statement, signed by Managing Director Eniola Bello, entitled: “Simultaneous attack on ThisDay Abuja, Kaduna offices…an attack on journalism and free speech”,  reads: “At about 11:05 am today, a suicide bomber drove an SUV into the premises of our Abuja office, rammed his vehicle into the building housing our printing presses, igniting a massive explosion and fuelling speculations it was a suicide bomber. About the same time, our Abuja office was under siege, the building housing our office, along with two other newspapers’ in Kaduna, came under another bomb attack.
“In Abuja, we can confirm the death of our security man, by name Christopher Sadiq. Three passers-by and the suicide bomber also died. Eight of our staff, who sustained injuries, are receiving treatment at the National Hospital. The roof of the building was blown off, the power generator burnt, the printing plant damaged.

Damaged portions of ThisDay printing press

“We regard the coordinated bombings as an attack on journalism and free speech. However, we want to assure our readers and advertisers that we remain committed to the fundamental principles on which the newspaper is founded: democracy, free enterprise and social justice.

We will not be deterred in our pursuit of truth and reason. No amount of threat or intimidation will weaken our resolve.

“While thanking all the government agencies, particularly Fire Service, VIO and FRSC, that rallied to put the situation under control and restore normalcy, we urge the security agencies to thoroughly investigate the obviously co-ordinated attacks and fish out the masterminds.”

Explosions rock This Day offices in Abuja, Kaduna

A loud explosion rocked an area Abuja on Thursday followed by smoke and ambulances headed in the direction of the blast, with injuries reported.
Reports have it that the bomb blast in Abuja Thisday office in Jabi was carried out by a suicide bomber who drove into the media house before detonating the bomb hence  blowing away the building ‘s roof.
But Mr Yushau Shuaib  a National Emergency Management Agency spokesman said the blast “occurred inside the premises of a national newspaper,” adding that “a preliminary investigation seems to indicate that the explosive device was planted somewhere within the premises, not likely a case of suicide bombing.”
An AFP correspondent heard the blast and saw ambulances heading towards a district where a bus station and newspaper office are located.

Policemen examine the engine of the jeep used for the attack - AFP

A police spokesman said “we heard something like that happened, but we don’t have the details yet.”  A spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency said “it’s true there was an explosion at Jabi (district).”
“NEMA officials are on the ground,” said Yushau Shuaib. “They are trying to move those injured to the hospitals, but we don’t have any information on casualties yet.”
The explosion in Abuja occurred around 11:30 a.m. Thursday at the offices of ThisDay. An Associated Press reporter who heard the explosion said it was very large. Police and paramilitary forces have already surrounded the office.
Witnesses said another explosion struck the newspaper's offices in the city of Kaduna.

Nigeria richer, its people poorer

Poverty in Nigeria is rising with almost 100 million people living on less than $1 a day, yet the country's economy is said to be growing at more than 7% annually.  What a mismatch.
The percentage of Nigerians living in absolute poverty - those who can afford only the bare essentials of food, shelter and clothing - rose to 60.9 percent in 2010, compared with 54.7 percent in 2004, according to a Reuters report.

Chief (Thief) James Ibori

Even Nigeria's Statistician General, Yemi Kale, is perplexed by the situation.  "It remains a paradox ... that despite the fact that the Nigerian economy is growing, the proportion of Nigerians living in poverty is increasing every year," he told journalists in Abuja recently.
But are we surprised that the situation is so with leaders like James Ibori all over the states in Nigeria. The former Delta state governor is just one out of many.
Okey Ndibe, a journalist and professor, puts it rightly in one of his latest articles when he stated that "to look at what Ibori stole from his impoverished, pauperized people is to be bewildered. But why allow oneself to be obsessed with that fact? To dwell on Ibori alone is to risk forgetting that Nigeria is overrun by festering legions, mutants of the Ibori idea.
Even as the English judge pronounces his sentence on the former governor of Delta State, these clones of Ibori are hard at work. They are doing the exact things that catapulted their fellow into the dock in the UK, and they are doing them often with more fervor."

Chief (Thief) Bode George

I bet you Ibori will be given a grand reception by PDP when its jail term expires.  The committee for his Reception/Thanksgiving Service may even have been put in place. Remember Bode George and razzmatazz that greeted his release from Kirikiri.  Today he boasts that he will lead PDP to wrestle Western Nigeria out of the hand of ACN. Should people like George still be in our politics today? But alas he is a of PDP kingmaker.
Who will save Nigeria, a country that boasts it wants to be a leader in science and technology, yet what half of our 109 senators get in a year is more that the national budget for science and technology.
I have been invited to a conference holding tomorrow at Harvard University with the theme 'The Future of Nigeria'.  I wonder what the speakers will say.  With rising poverty in the midst of plenty, Boko Haram, and public servants who loot with effrontery as is the case with the ongoing Pension Fund scandal, I guess there is plenty to talk about and certainly plenty to do.  I sure will be there to hear Ambassador Adefuye, Walter Carrington and others.

Strange cake: Is the Swedish minister racist?

By guess blogger: Funmi Macaulay
Swedish culture minister Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth has come under fire since the photos and youtube video of her cutting a cake designed in the shape of a naked black woman in Stockholm to mark World Art Day went viral.

Liljeroth was pictured laughing and joking as she cut the macabre cake designed by Afro-Swedish artist Makode Aj Linde.  The treat featured a black woman’s naked torso with the artist’s own head, painted black, at the top.  Once cut open, the cake sponge was red, depicting blood.

The firestorm has come from many quarters, but the most vocal critics are members of  the Afro-Swedish community.  The National Afro-Swedish Association branded the event a ‘racist spectacle’.

 “In our view, this simply adds to the mockery of racism in Sweden.  According to the Moderna Museet (the art centre where the event was staged), the 'cake party' was meant to problematize female circumcision but how that is accomplished through a cake representing a racist caricature of a black woman complete with 'black face' is unclear.”

Jallow Momodou, a spokesman for the association, and national co-ordinator for the European Network Against Racism in Sweden, in an article published yesterday in The Guardian of UK, insists that “racism and racist depictions against black people are common in Sweden.”

To buttress his stand, he points to certain incidence in the past, including one in October 2010 where a white Swedish man went on a rampage in Malmö, shooting more than 20 people of colour and killing one.  “The killer was officially considered to be a lone wolf with psychological problems rather than a terrorist with racist motives, and he has still not been prosecuted,” he noted.

Momodou who narrated his experience with racial profiling as a black Swede, is calling for the minister’s resignation.  Another spokesperson of the National Afro-Swedish Association, Kitimbwa Sabuni, has also called for Liljeroth’s resignation.  It is the association’s position on the matter.  “Taking part in a racist manifestations masquerading as art is clearly crosses the line and can only be interpreted as the Minister of Culture supports the Moderna Museet’s racist prank,” Sabuni wrote.

The ongoing controversy re-echoes the age long debate about artistic licence.  It is often said that artists should not be held to the same moral standards as the rest of us.  The artist who made the cake has said he was using performance art to portray the horror of female genital mutilation (FGM), a practice that is still common in parts of Africa.  

I have watched the video and I must say I am not comfortable with it.  It offends my sensibility as a woman and oversimplifies the issue.  

I find it difficult to fix how the portrayal I saw in that video will help stop the problem it claims to be raising awareness of.  It celebrated the act rather than condemn it.  That those who gathered to show concern about a practice that clearly dehumanises womanhood, should entertain themselves with an art illustrating that, is itself condemnable.

My uneasiness is more with the artist than the minister.  His work is such an ugly grotesque representation of a human being.  Very appalling, sickening, deeply disturbing and shameful. Do you need to stage rape explicitly to an audience to win their sympathy against it?  I won’t deem Liljeroth a racist for what has happened.  

It is praiseworthy that she has acknowledged that. “While the symbolism in the piece is despicable, it is unfortunate and highly regrettable that the presentation has been interpreted as an expression of racism by some.  It is perfectly obvious that my role as minister differs from that of the artist. 

Provocation cannot and should not be an expression for those who have the trust and responsibility of Government representative. I therefore feel it is my responsibility to clarify that I am sincerely sorry if anyone has misinterpreted my participation and I welcome talks with the African Swedish National Association on how we can counter intolerance, racism and discrimination,” she noted in a statement today.  

Artist should balance their artistic licence with considerations about the freedom and dignity of others.  There is something unseemly when our artistic liberty translates to deliberate mistreatment of others.  You can be helping my cause by dehumanising me.

Funmi Macaulay is a New York-based African American.  

Email: funmiskyy@gmail.com

Doctors battle to save baby with 6 legs

Doctors in Pakistan are fighting to save the life of a baby boy who was born with six legs because of a rare genetic condition, hospital officials said.

The infant was born to the wife of an X-ray technician a week ago, Karachi National Institute of Child Health director Jamal Raza said.  

"It is not one baby actually. They are two, one of them is premature," he said.

A doctor at the institute, who did not wish to be named, said the extra limbs were the result of a genetic disease which would affect only one in a million or more babies.

"The doctors are examining the infant to plan for necessary treatment to save the baby's life and ensure he lives a normal life," a statement from the provincial health department said.

Imran Shaikh, the baby's father, who lives in Sukkur, around 450 kilometres north of Karachi, said he was grateful his son was being treated.  "We are a poor family. I am thankful to the government for helping us treating my baby," he said.

Fear of al-Qaeda, 'Boko Haram' grounds aircraft

A Delta Air Lines flight bound for the United States made an emergency landing Monday in Dublin because a passenger left a cell phone plugged into a socket in one of the aircraft's restrooms, police and aviation authorities said.
Dublin Airport officials later cleared the Boeing 767-300 traveling from Istanbul, Turkey, to continue its journey to New York's John F. Kennedy Airport after determining that the suspected bomb was just an unattended mobile phone and charger.
Irish Aviation Authority spokeswoman Lilian Cassin said the pilot requested an emergency landing, the aircraft landed without incident and was diverted to an isolated corner of the runway.
Ireland's national police force, the Garda Siochana, said officers boarded the plane, spoke to the pilot about the nature of the suspected bomb, and asked any passenger missing their phone to come forward.
It was determined that the passenger had decided to charge the phone using the restroom's socket for shavers and left it there, wrapped up in its charging cord, and another passenger using the restroom reported it might be a bomb.
Police said nobody was hurt or arrested because of Monday's security alert, and the Dublin Airport Authority said no other flights were affected.
Delta spokesman Anthony Black said the aircraft had 208 passengers and 11 crew members. He said the aircraft was refueled to continue its journey later Monday.