African Gist and News

Yep, this is all happening in Calabar, the Cross River State capital. The carnival started Wednesday December 26th. A team from the 2012 Brazil Carnival Winners - OCIC were invited to join the carnival and add some spice to it...

Ivorian midfielder Yaya Toure has been voted African Player of the Year for the second time running. The 29 year old Man City player, who also won it last year, was crowned this evening at a glamorous Glo-CAF Awards Gala that held at the Banquet Hall, State House in Accra, Ghana. Well deserved?

According to a data provided by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) yesterday Tuesday Dec. 17th, 54% of Nigerian youths were unemployed in 2012. This was revealed in the '2012 National Baseline Youth Survey Report' issued by NBS and the Fed. Ministry of Youths Development. The report read in part; 'More than half, about 54 per cent, of youth population were unemployed. Of this, females stood at 51.9 per cent compared to their male counterpart with 48.1 per cent were unemployed." With the mass sack going in various companies in Nigeria, the figure should be higher this year.

      ALHAJI SANI AHMED SALISU The date was the 2nd of February 2012 and it was an auspicious day and the morning was filled with the harsh haze of harmattan. Abuja was usually cold as ice in the morning around this time of the year and today was no exception. What was surprising about the harsh weather of Harmattan was that even though it was always cold in the Morning, by Noon it was always so hot like the Whole of Abuja was placed in a furnace. It was a day that held much anticipation in the air as the ThisDay Dome Event Centre was bubbling with activities with event organizers going in and out in preparation for the event of the day. Everyone was talking of how the big wigs in the country will be attending the retirement party of Alhaji Sani Ahmed Salisu, the outgoing Director of Finance of the State Security Service. Alhaji Salisu decided to hang his boots at the age of 60 to focus on his family and businesses. It was an event that most were looking forward to. Cross-section of SS

Troops of Operation DELTA SAFE said it discovered four militant shrines with 23 human skulls in various stages of decomposition, one complete human skeleton, and several other human body parts in Bakassi and Akpabuyo Local Government Areas of Cross River State. According to official statement issued on Thursday, October 27th by the group?s Acting Commander, Brigadier General Kevin Aligbe, the shrines were destroyed as troops continue the search for the perpetrators of these heinous acts. In a related development, other troops of the command in Bayelsa State arrested 44 members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) at Lakeview Club on Mabinton Estate, who were planning to establish the Bayelsa State Chapter of the group and disrupt public peace within the Joint Operations Area of Operation DELTA SAFE. "They were duly arrested and have been handed over to relevant authorities for further investigations. The unity of Nigeria is non?negotiable and sacrosanct. Hence any

Some aggrieved members of APC in Ondo state have turned the party's Secretariat in the state into a shrine. The party members are at loggerheads over who would be their governorship candidate in the state's gubernatorial election come November 26th.    Photo credit: Sahara Reporters ...

After 14 months run at the Broadway and London?s Royal National Theatre, FELA! succeeded in turning all its critics to fans but the crew admitted after meeting the press in Nigeria that they were yet to meet their toughest critics ever. Bent on proving to Nigerians amongst whom Fela lived and died that they know Fela as much as any other Nigerian, the FELA! cast took on the  concert space of the The New Afrika Shrine on Thursday night, 14 th  April, 2011, and presented a tribute concert version of the show. More pictures after the cut...