[size=18pt]3rd September 1987 - ITN News
Innocent Egbunike wins silver medal in Men's 400m (in 44.52 sec) at World Athletics Championships in Italy few weeks after running 2nd fastest time in history[/size]

East Germany's Thomas Schoenlebe unleashed a searing turn of speed down the home straight to snatch victory in the men's 400 metres at the World Athletics Championships in Rome on September 3. The East German ran a time of 44.33 seconds to edge out pre-race favorite, Innocent Egbunike of Nigeria. Harry 'Butch' Reynolds of the United States (US) took the bronze.






___________
Innocent Egbunike running 2nd fastest 400m in history, prior to world championships

[flash=800,700]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J021pNZnlw?version=3[/flash]

[size=18pt]7th January 1988  -  ITN News
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher arrives in Lagos and meets with Babangida (video clip)[/size]

http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//ITN/1988/01/08/AS080188018/?s=nigeria&st=2&pn=90&sortBy=date

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher flew into Lagos on January 7 to peaceful protests and firmly worded welcome speech from Nigeria's military leader General Ibrahim Babangida. The demonstration over Britain's refusal to sever trade links with South Africa was orderly and no incidents were reported. Earlier, trade union leaders burned a British flag in a ceremony at their headquarters. After three successful days in Kenya, the British leader faced a tougher second and final leg of her African tour in Nigeria. the military government, the large and vocal press, as well as many of Nigeria's 100 million people want Britain to do far more to dismantle the apartheid system in South Africa. But Babangida also faces a dilemma over the visit, as Britain, the colonial power until independence in 1960, remains by far Nigeria's leading trade partner -- accounting for 40 per cent of foreign investment in black Africa's largest economy as well as being its biggest supplier and creditor.








[size=18pt]19th February 1988 - Herald Journal
Babangida shuts 8th University indefinitely to curb student protests[/size]
Lagos, Nigeria - The military government has closed five university campuses, bringing to eight the number of campuses shut down indefinitely to curb student protests, officials said yesterday.

[size=18pt]30th April 1988 - The New York Times
Labour Unrest in Nigeria[/size]

LAGOS, Nigeria, April 29— Labor Minister Abubakar Umar met with leaders of 22 unions today as labor unrest spread across Nigeria following a rise in the price of gasoline, the Lagos radio reported. Many Lagos banks remained closed for the second day, officials said, and others operated with skeleton crews because most workers were on strike. Planes were grounded throughout the country when air traffic controllers joined the strike.










27th June 1988  - ITN News
[size=18pt]Italy dumping dangerous toxic waste in Nigeria (video clip)[/size]

http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//ITN/1988/01/08/AS080188018/?s=nigeria&st=2&pn=90&sortBy=date

TOXIC WASTE: A team of environmentalists discover a 27.6.88 dump of toxic chemicals in a Nigerian harbour town.

you are sad already, and we are only half way through!

@alexola20
Abeg, please do me a favour and find out if it could allow streaming videos from itnsource tobe embedded on this forum, if it can please let me know who it is done.

[size=18pt]14th August  1988- The New York Times article
In Lagos, Economic Dream Is Now Nightmare[/size]

LAGOS, Nigeria— At the crest of Nigeria's oil boom, in the early 1980's, radio transmitters of the Voice of Nigeria broadcast the voice of Africa's giant to the four corners of the world.

Today, only one of the five transmitters works - at half power. Broadcasts in Arabic and Swahili have been discontinued. Nigeria's voice is heard, albeit faintly, only in West Africa.

The fading station reflects the fading wealth of Africa's most populous land. Buoyed by oil billions, Nigeria, with about 110 million people, began this decade with world power ambitions. ''In the past, Nigeria used to behave like Father Christmas,'' Gabriel O. Olusanya, director of the Nigerian Insitute of International Relations, said, recalling the heady oil boom days. ''Now because of the economic situation, there must be greater rationality.''

Underlining Nigeria's problems, the World Bank is to reclassify Nigeria from a ''middle income'' country to a ''low income'' country. Due to falling oil prices, Nigeria's per capita income fell to $380 last year from $800 in 1985.

Today, with the expansive era a fading memory, the byword is shrinkage.

This summer, Nigeria Airways reduced its nightly flights to London to four a week. Since 1986, five international carriers - Pan American, S.A.S., Air India, Kenya Airways and Air Zaire - have stopped flying here.

Due to unpaid bills, one Nigeria Airways Boeing 747 is blocked in Copenhagen, two Airbus jets are blocked in France, the company is barred from the International Air Travel Association and company airplanes are barred from disembarking passengers in several West African capitals.

''Are you still flying?'' Nigeria's President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, was overheard to ask Olu Bajowa, president of the airline, when the two met recently at Lagos airport. The Nigerian National Shipping Line, the national flag line, has put up for sale 5 of its 19 cargo ships. Two were recently impounded for a year in British ports in a dispute with creditors.

During the oil boom years, Tin Can Island, Lagos's port, was notorious for docking delays. Today, an average of 12 ships can be found in the port.

For Nigeria's middle class, used cars are now prized possessions. As the prices of new Nigerian-made cars have quadrupled in three years, a 1981 Volkswagen Beetle will fetch the same price it commanded new.

For viewers of Nigeria's six million television sets, the Olympics in Seoul may not be a cause for celebration. In contrast to 1984, when the Nigerian Television Authority spent $5 million on coverage, the authority so far has only raised $200,000 from sponsors. Several prestige projects dear to Nigeria's middle class have fallen on hard times. Festac town, a model housing project built here in 1977 for the Second World Black Festival of Arts and Culture, has decayed sharply in the intervening decade. This summer, there was an outbreak of typhoid at Festac because burst sewer pipes had contaminated drinking water.

The Lagos to Benin expressway, part of a national network of divided highways built in the late 1970's, is pitted and gouged with potholes.

On the tables of the poor, cassava meal has replaced imported rice. In wardrobes, used clothes from Europe - a banned import - are common.

To trim the cost of free primary education, Nigeria's Education Minister, Jibril Aminu, last month proposed phasing out free food and free books for students as a means of encouraging ''self-reliance.''

Nigeria's new poverty has not hit one area - foreign affairs. Home to one out of five blacks in the world, Nigeria traditionally feels a special sense of responsibility to the black universe.

In 1986, Nigeria started taking low interest loans from the African Development Bank. But, paradoxically, Nigeria has continued payments to the Bank's Nigeria Trust Fund, a development fund for Africa, started in the oil era.

Last year, President Babangida began a Technical Aid Corps to send Nigerian aid workers to Caribbean and African countries. This year, modest aid programs were announced for Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Mauritania and the African National Congress, a group fighting for black majority rule in South Africa.

[size=18pt]2nd December 1988 - The New York Times
Nigeria Said to Get Loan[/size]

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1— The International Monetary Fund has approved a $650 million loan for Nigeria in return for economic reforms, monetary sources said on Wednesday.

[size=18pt]15th December 1988 - The New York Times
Nigeria Airways starts to crumble as planes are seized overseas for non-payment of debts[/size]
LAGOS, Nigeria, Dec. 14— Nigeria Airways has dismissed 3,000 workers, a third of the work force, in an effort to keep the bankrupt airline operating. Police surrounded the state airline's headquarters today to prevent attacks. Earlier this year the airline sharply reduced its overseas flights after accidents grounded some aircraft and two planes were seized for nonpayment of debts.

^ Thanks for trying

Only way of doing it would be if the streaming video is filmed on a digital camera and uploaded on youtube. I dont know whether it would be clear enough though.

is there anybody able to volunteer to try this? the streaming videos already posted?

[size=18pt]9th May 1989
IBB visits Britain[/size]
Nigeria's military ruler General Ibrahim Babangida arrived in London on Tuesday on his first state Visit to Britain. He alighted from his train in Victoria station to be received by Queen Elizabeth II and other members of the Royal family including Prince Charles and Princess Diana. After speaking briefly to the Queen, Babangida was introduced to various government officials including Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Babangida is scheduled to have talks with the Prime Minister on Wednesday and is expected to repeat his call for economic sanctions against South Africa. Babangida and Thatcher met for the first time in January of this year.

GenBuhari:

[size=18pt]14th August - The New York Times article
In Lagos, Economic Dream Is Now Nightmare[/size]

LAGOS, Nigeria— At the crest of Nigeria's oil boom, in the early 1980's, radio transmitters of the Voice of Nigeria broadcast the voice of Africa's giant to the four corners of the world.

Today, only one of the five transmitters works - at half power. Broadcasts in Arabic and Swahili have been discontinued. Nigeria's voice is heard, albeit faintly, only in West Africa.

The fading station reflects the fading wealth of Africa's most populous land. Buoyed by oil billions, Nigeria, with about 110 million people, began this decade with world power ambitions. ''In the past, Nigeria used to behave like Father Christmas,'' Gabriel O. Olusanya, director of the Nigerian Insitute of International Relations, said, recalling the heady oil boom days. ''Now because of the economic situation, there must be greater rationality.''

Underlining Nigeria's problems, the World Bank is to reclassify Nigeria from a ''middle income'' country to a ''low income'' country. Due to falling oil prices, Nigeria's per capita income fell to $380 last year from $800 in 1985.

Today, with the expansive era a fading memory, the byword is shrinkage.

This summer, Nigeria Airways reduced its nightly flights to London to four a week. Since 1986, five international carriers - Pan American, S.A.S., Air India, Kenya Airways and Air Zaire - have stopped flying here.

Due to unpaid bills, one Nigeria Airways Boeing 747 is blocked in Copenhagen, two Airbus jets are blocked in France, the company is barred from the International Air Travel Association and company airplanes are barred from disembarking passengers in several West African capitals.

''Are you still flying?'' Nigeria's President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, was overheard to ask Olu Bajowa, president of the airline, when the two met recently at Lagos airport. The Nigerian National Shipping Line, the national flag line, has put up for sale 5 of its 19 cargo ships. Two were recently impounded for a year in British ports in a dispute with creditors.

During the oil boom years, Tin Can Island, Lagos's port, was notorious for docking delays. Today, an average of 12 ships can be found in the port.

For Nigeria's middle class, used cars are now prized possessions. As the prices of new Nigerian-made cars have quadrupled in three years, a 1981 Volkswagen Beetle will fetch the same price it commanded new.

For viewers of Nigeria's six million television sets, the Olympics in Seoul may not be a cause for celebration. In contrast to 1984, when the Nigerian Television Authority spent $5 million on coverage, the authority so far has only raised $200,000 from sponsors. Several prestige projects dear to Nigeria's middle class have fallen on hard times. Festac town, a model housing project built here in 1977 for the Second World Black Festival of Arts and Culture, has decayed sharply in the intervening decade. This summer, there was an outbreak of typhoid at Festac because burst sewer pipes had contaminated drinking water.


The Lagos to Benin expressway, part of a national network of divided highways built in the late 1970's, is pitted and gouged with potholes.

On the tables of the poor, cassava meal has replaced imported rice. In wardrobes, used clothes from Europe - a banned import - are common.

To trim the cost of free primary education, Nigeria's Education Minister, Jibril Aminu, last month proposed phasing out free food and free books for students as a means of encouraging ''self-reliance.''

Nigeria's new poverty has not hit one area - foreign affairs. Home to one out of five blacks in the world, Nigeria traditionally feels a special sense of responsibility to the black universe.

In 1986, Nigeria started taking low interest loans from the African Development Bank. But, paradoxically, Nigeria has continued payments to the Bank's Nigeria Trust Fund, a development fund for Africa, started in the oil era.

Last year, President Babangida began a Technical Aid Corps to send Nigerian aid workers to Caribbean and African countries. This year, modest aid programs were announced for Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Mauritania and the African National Congress, a group fighting for black majority rule in South Africa.

Ibrahim Babangida totally ruined this country wtihin a few years of taking over. It's a real shame.

That man destroyed Nigeria. Very sad.

I can't wait for the day he will be butchered in his Minna Hilltop Mansion.

Thank you OP.

[size=18pt]4th June 1989  -  The New York Times
Economic Riots Against General Babangida's Regime Continue to Spread As Cost Of Living Rises After Massive Devaluation of Naira[/size] 

LAGOS, Nigeria, June 3— A strike in Nigeria over the Government's economic austerity program spread overnight to Port Harcourt, a city of a quarter-million people in the southeastern region, and at least three people were reported killed and several hundred arrested in new clashes.

The casualties brought the number of people reported wounded since the unrest broke out a week or more ago to at least 30.

Witnesses in Port Harcourt said there were fierce confrontations between crowds of youths throwing rocks and heavily armed police officers and soldiers. The crowds burned down a savings bank and a state-owned newspaper, and heavily damaged the headquarters of a large palm-oil installation.

The disturbances there came after several days of unrest in Lagos, the Nigerian capital, where several thousand people have rioted and set buildings and automobiles ablaze to protest hardships that they attribute to President Ibrahim Babangida's economic measures. Some of the protesters here reportedly carried placards with General Babangida's picture and distributed leaflets accusing him and members of his military-installed government of corruption. Campuses Closed

Since then, universities in six of Nigeria's 21 states have been closed. In some areas, outdoor political meetings have been banned and curfews imposed. A week ago, the police reportedly fired on protesters in Benin city, a major center east of Lagos and about halfway to Port Harcourt.

President Babangida said Wednesday night in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation that he could not understand why people wanted to protest over higher prices, but warned that the Government would not tolerate lawlessness.

The riots coincided with intense politicking among the West African nation's fractious political parties in advance of the complex process of returning to civilian rule. Political life in Nigeria is, traditionally, no-holds-barred, and the economic crises is likely to add to add to tensions.

What is most worrisome, Western diplomats and some Nigerians say, is that a continued breakdown in order could tempt the military to delay a return to civilian rule. In 1986, President Babangida, an army major general, announced a timetable providing for state elections and a census in 1991, and local, state and federal elections in 1992.

Discontent with the Government's economic program has been exacerbated by unexplained food shortages this spring, despite last year's bumper harvests. According to news reports, in many parts of the country, rice, cooking oil, flour, salt and other basic items are unavailable at any price. The food shortages have also led to rumors of hoarding and other shady practices by officials. Suggestions of Manipulation

Michael Omolayole, the chairman of Chemical and Agro-Allied Products, a food producer, was recently quoted as asserting that some middlemen were involved in illicit food deals because ''food was available in the market.''

The riots coincided with other anomalies that have prompted questioning of official economic policy. In recent weeks, local newspapers have carried reports of children suffering from hunger and dying of malnutrition.

The fate of General Babangida's political program is inextricably linked to the performance of his economic program. And in the short term, Western diplomats and Nigerian officials believe that further strains from the austerity measures seem certain.

Less than a decade ago the picture was much different: the oil boom in the 1970's temporarily gave Nigeria the illusion of limitless wealth and opportunity. Nigeria was producing more than 2 million barrels of oil a day and earning $26 billion in 1980, much of it from sales to the United States.

But with the steep drop in world crude oil prices, Nigeria went from being black Africa's most conspicuous consumer to its biggest debtor. It now owes about $30 billion, with more than a third of that in short-term loans that the Government has been unable to pay on time.










[size=18pt]1st December 1989
Nigerians are increasingly being caught smuggling drugs by Customs at Western nation Airports[/size]
GATWICK: CUSTOMS OFFICERS & DRUGS: Britain's second port if 1.12.89 entry, Gatwick, has recently become the favoured route for drug smugglers bringing in their wares from third world countries & the United States. NAT follows the Customs officers on duty at the airport & watches how they go about finding carefully, & sometimes craftily, concealed drugs.

You can download real player and use that to download it on your computer then upload it on youtube. It will work


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdZ-P0XNygs

Babangida destroyed Nigeria
ARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH

@proudly9ja
Thank you very much. You are a real star!!

There are some damn clever people on NL

Can you do some more conversions for clips already posted and I would see that they embedded.

Thanks again

how i wish nijiria is as beautiful as it was den!!!

abi oh!!
I remember late 70's my cousins used to come to UK just for shopping trips and they were just working class.

in fact Nigerians were looked upon as wealthy by the Brits in much the same way the same way they see reach Saudi sheikhs. British shopkeepers treated many of us like VIPs when we entered their shop - especially those visiting the country for shopping trips.
those days £1=approx N1.50

11th January 1990 - The New York Times
[size=18pt]IBB postpones US visit due to cabinet shakeup[/size]
WASHINGTON, Jan. 10— Confronted with a shake-up in his Cabinet, the President of Nigeria, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, has postponed a visit to the United States.

Roman Popadiuk, the White House deputy press secretary, said today that Nigerian ''scheduling difficulties'' forced the postponement of the five-day visit, which had been scheduled to begin next Tuesday. He said the visit would be rescheduled.

In Lagos, the Nigerian capital, Lieut. Gen. Domkat Bali told a news conference today that he resigned from the military Government because of differences with General Babangida.










14th January 1990 - The New York Times
[size=18pt]Babangida bans all previous politicians from elections[/size]
ABUJA, Nigeria— Two years from now, if all goes as scheduled, Nigeria will have a new national legislature, 21 new state governors and a new democratically elected President. What it does not have now are candidates for any of those jobs.

What may seem to be a voter's fantasy - ''throwing the bums out'' - has come true. The soldiers who run this country's military Government have decreed that no person who has ever held elective office can serve in the next civilian Government.

By some accounts, the ban on former officeholders could exclude as many as 70,000 people from political life, ranging from former administrators and governors to, in theory at least, an office clerk or janitor who has been dismissed for pilfering, since the prohibition also includes anyone who was expelled from the Government since independence.

Significantly, the military elite, from President Ibrahim Babangida on down, are also excluded from holding office during the first term of the new Government.

An Untested Generation

This means in practice that the next generation of political leaders - ''new breeds,'' as almost everyone calls them - will be largely inexperienced and untested. And because until recently most political activity had been banned, the emerging leaders of Africa's most populous country are virtually unknown.

Just two political parties have been sanctioned by the Government, and they have not even officially hired people to run their operations. Thirteen other parties have been shunted aside.

It seems astonishing that the whole national electoral process can be compressed into what will probably be less than a year. Nonetheless, a consensus among foreign diplomats and Nigerians alike is that on present evidence the transition to civilian rule stands a good chance of succeeding. Earlier suspicions about the resolve of the military leaders to stand aside have largely evaporated. The crucial question now is how long civilian rule will last once it arrives.

So far, the evolution of the new style of politics has meant that the boisterous and sometimes parlous politicking that usually characterizes Nigerian political life has largely been quelled.

The military rulers have made it unequivocally clear that they expect the electoral process to proceed in an orderly, low-key fashion, and should it become bogged down in the sectional and tribal divisions that have plagued Nigeria since its birth, they may cut it short.

No Posters and No Rallies

Would-be politicians in this nation of 100 million to 120 million are so wary of offending the military that they have virtually gone underground. Even now, less than three months before the first scheduled elections to choose party officials, there are no campaign posters, no rallies, no newspaper or television interviews - nothing to suggest that there is a thriving political culture independent of the military.

''Most of us who hope to work in the next Government don't like the ban, because it will inevitably keep able and honest people out of government, but there is really no other choice,'' said a prominent would-be politician here in Abuja, where the new Government will be seated. ''Everyone knows that the military means business.''

But at the moment, most people seem willing to take their chances, given the dismal record of past leaders. They recall with bitterness the succession of coups since independence from Britain in 1960 and the corruption and vote-rigging that marred Nigeria's most recent period of civilian rule, from 1979 to 1983.

In 29 years of independence, Nigeria has had six coups and two periods of civilian rule.

The notion of banning politicians is hardly a Nigerian invention. In the early 1980's, for example, Turkey's military Government banned much of the political elite from taking part in the newly reconstituted civilian Government.

Orchestrating Every Aspect

What has proven far more unsettling, Western diplomats and Nigerian commentators say, are efforts by the military governing body, the Armed Forces Ruling Council, to orchestrate virtually every aspect of the restoration of civilian rule. For instance, after the Government lifted the ban on politicking last May, 13 associations submitted applications, hoping to be recognized as political parties.

Last October, however, the Government rejected all of the aspiring political parties, outlawed them and set up two new parties itself, ''one a little to the left, and the other a little to the right of center,'' President Babangida said in a nationally broadcast speech. He said he was determined to diminish the traditional pressures of tribe, religion and money, which still exert great influence here.

''This Government,'' he said, ''will not allow itself to fail in its duty by succumbing to the manipulation of those who want to use cheap and dangerous religious and ethnic loyalties for selfish political ends. We will not serve our people yesterday's food in glittering new dishes.''

Still, many Nigerians express skepticism over the capacity of the President's party plan to change the political culture.

''You don't create democracy from the top downward,'' said Akin Oyebode, a law professor at the University of Lagos, ''and if the experience of Eastern Europe is anything to go by, this is not the time to create Government parties by fiat. It doesn't wash.''

''What are the prospects of Nigeria becoming less corrupt in 1990?'' Tai Solarin, a prominent commentator, asked in his newspaper column recently. ''None whatsoever.''

For now, President Babangida seems to exert power from a strong base within the 300,000-member army. But there are rumors of factionalism and increasing worry among lower-grade officers about what will happen when the army no longer controls the levers of power.

A Nigerian magazine editor, often a critic of the Government, said: ''Babangida has done everything humanly possible to make the process work. Now it is up to us to not squander this opportunity.''








20th March 1990   -  ITN News
[size=18pt]British Prince and Princess finish off 5 day visit as IBB's guests[/size]
NIGERIA: ROYAL VISIT DAY 5:Jeremy Thompson rpts on royal visits
20.3.90 to a village in Port Harcourt and a Henley-like regatta of tribal
war canoes on the fifth day of the Prince & Princess of Wales'
trip to Nigeria.

A lot of things have done wrong in Nigeria - where is our own National Airline Carrier gone.

24th April 1990 - The new York Times
[size=18pt]Nigeria Reports 4 Are Dead And 160 Held in Failed Coup [/size]

LAGOS, Nigeria, April 23— Nigeria's military leaders said today that four people had been killed in the coup attempt by junior officers over the weekend.

Col. Anthony Ukpo, principal staff officer to Nigeria's leader, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, said that 10 officers and more than 150 soldiers from the lower ranks had been arrested. [One hundred seventy-seven civilians were also seized, The Associated Press reported.] At least four people were killed in skirmishes at the barracks and elsewherein the capital, Colonel Upko said at a news conference at Dodan Barracks. Among those arrested were Maj. Gideon Oka, who made a radio broadcast saying the plotters represented people of the south and middle regions against the dominant north.

[size=18pt]9th August 1990 - ITN News
Davidson Ezinwa storms to gold medal in men's 100m in World Junior Athletics Championships and equals championship record of 10.17 sec[/size]
At the World Junior Track and Field Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, on Thursday (August 9), Andrea Philipp continued the East German domination in the women's sprints while Nigerian Davidson Ezinwa equalled the men's 100-metre meeting record.

[size=18pt]11th July 1991 - ITN News
Saudia Arabia : Nigerian Muslim pilgrims killed as plane crashes near Jeddah Airport, all 261 onboard perish.[/size]

All 261 people onboard a chartered Canadian DC-8 were killed on Thursday (July 11) when the aircraft crashed in flames near Jeddah's international airport. The aircraft was carrying Nigerian Moslems returning home from the annual haj pilgrimage.

The state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA) said the plane's pilot reported a fire seven minutes after takeoff. Flight 2120 crashed four minutes later while trying to make an emergency landing.

GenBuhari:

@proudly9ja
Thank you very much. You are a real star!!

There are some damn clever people on NL

Can you do some more conversions for clips already posted and I would see that they embedded.

Thanks again

Sorry I wish I could. As it is, Ive already breached their laws. We are not allowed to publich any of the content on youtube or any file sharing website
http://www.itnsource.com/termsandconditions/

3rd October 1991 - ITN News
[size=18pt]UNITED STATES ESTIMATES AT LEAST ONE THIRD OF HEROIN FLOODING THE U.S. MARKET IS SUPPLIED BY NIGERIAN MIDDLEMAN[/size]
The United States (U.S.) Drug Enforcement Agency estimates that at least one-third of the heroin flooding the U.S. market is supplied by Nigerian middleman buying from producers in Southeast Asia, a U.S. television network reported on Wednesday (October 2).

Hired smugglers carry heroin hidden in objects such as coathangers and the lining of clothes, but the most common means of transport is to swallow heroin-filled condoms and carry them into the United States inside the body, the NBC network said. These smugglers run high risks because the consequences if a condom filled with heroin ruptures inside the body are often fatal.

One smuggler who carried 80 packets of condoms with a street value of 100,000 U.S. dollars said he had accepted the job because he needed money and his hirers had not told him of the risks.

Federal agents expect the number of carriers to increase as Nigerian traffickers have now begun to recruit people of other nationalities. U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency official Robert Bonner said: "It's like an army of ants invading the U.S. with heroin."




[size=18pt]
29th November 1991 - The NY Times[b]
CENSUS IN NIGERIA HALTS NORMAL LIFE[/b][/size]

LAGOS, Nigeria, Nov. 28— Nigeria closed its borders, shut down shops and factories, and ordered tens of millions of people to stay home this week as the Government began a large-scale effort to count Africa's biggest population and to find out just how big the country is.

Beginning early Wednesday morning, nearly 700,000 census workers crisscrossed the West African nation, using everything from Land Rovers and horses to donkeys and canoes, in an effort to sketch what officials hope will be the first reliable statistical portrait of Nigeria in a four-day census ending Saturday.

Almost since independence from Britain in 1960, population counting in this country has been a highly political and contentious matter because of the implications for the allocation of national revenue and for electoral representation. Disputed Census Figures

Three times -- in 1962, 1963 and 1973 -- Nigeria has undertaken a nationwide census, but on the first two occasions the results were heatedly disputed and then changed by politicians, and the third time, simply nullified by the Government on the ground that the results in many areas appeared to have been inflated.

The results of the head count are to be released in February, 10 months before a scheduled return to democratic rule after nine years of military government, the most recent round of rule by officers. If, as expected, the population exceeds 100 million, Nigeria will become one of the world's largest democracies. But if the census results are again widely disputed, it would be a severe blow to Gen. Ibrahim Babangida's tightly orchestrated timetable that is to lead to state and national elections at the end of 1992. Violence or evidence of pervasive corruption in the counting would be ammunition for those within the military who privately maintain that Nigeria is not yet suited for democracy. Failed Past Efforts

Altogether, 11 times since since the 1860's, under the beginnings of British colonial rule, censuses have been tried here, and by all accounts, the efforts have ended in failure.

"Our past record is not something to be proud of," said Shehu Musa, chairman of the National Population Commission, citing the fraud, acrimony and violence that accompanied past efforts to count the population and led the government of the day to nullify the results.

Indeed, during the census of 1973, there were widespread reports that census-takers had been beaten or even kidnapped on their rounds, that villagers had fled to the bush as enumerators approached, that town dwellers had rushed to their native villages to be counted there, and that enumerators had taken bribes to swell the total.

Since then, it has become normal practice to make "guesstimates" of Nigeria's population. The United Nations Population Division estimated that the population was 95.7 milllion in the middle of 1985, growing at 3.4 percent a year, and that it had reached 105 million in the middle of 1988. The World Bank came up with a mid-1988 estimate of 110 million.

By comparison, the Nigerian Government's estimate of the 1987 mid-year population was 112.3 million. The state with the highest population was Kano in the north, with a total of 11.5 million people, and the lowest was Cross River in the southeast, with 1.9 million.

To help assure the reliability of the census this time, the Government has imposed a 7 A.M. to 7 P.M. curfew today and Thursday and shut its borders. It has also asked airlines to cancel or reschedule international flights to adhere to the curfew. All government offices, schools and businesses are also closed. A special tribunal has been set up to enforce the restrictions and offenders could be fined, jailed for up to six months, or both.

The Government has pledged that the information will be used only for the census and that Nigerians' privacy will be preserved. In addition, nearly a million people were mobilized over the last few weeks to go around and urge people to take part and to tell the truth. 'Don't Leave Your House'

Slogans on posters urge, for example, "Don't be counted more than once," "Don't leave your house" and "Don't quarrel with enumerators." Another poster pleads, in pidgin English, for citizens to cooperate: "No lie-lie for all the questions wey dem go ask."

Also because of official concern about potential evasiveness, all residents will have their thumbnails marked with ink, which in theory will remain indelible for five days to prevent counting any individual more than once.

Perhaps most significant, the census form, which is printed in red ink on paper half as large as a newspaper page, contains no questions regarding religion or ethnic origin -- questions that in the past have provoked bitter debate as various groups jostled for ascendancy.

Censuses conducted before independence from Britain in 1960 were plagued mainly by counters' inability to travel to remote regions, some in sparsely populated parts of the north. Some groups also resisted because they feared that it was a bad omen to be counted, or suspected that the British might use the census to collect poll taxes or draft them into the army.


















[size=18pt]20th December 1991 -  The NY Times
BABANGIDA ENDS BAN FOR EX-OFFICIALS[/size]

. .LAGOS, Nigeria, Dec. 19— Nigeria's military Government has announced the lifting of a five-year-old ban on anyone who has ever held a senior government position from seeking elected office.

The ban affected tens of thousands of officials, and its repeal is expected to have a dramatic impact on congressional and presidential elections scheduled for the end of 1992, when the military has promised to hand back power to civilians. The reversal will make it at least theoretically possible for members of the present military Government to seek elected office.

Nigeria's military leader, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, made the ban the centerpiece of his elaborate program to restore democratic rule while stamping out the endemic corruption that marred much of Nigeria's attempts at civilian rule, the most recent of which lasted from 1979 to 1983.

By banning all politicians of past regimes as well as his own from campaigning for office in the new civilian government, General Babangida said he hoped to give a "new breed" of honest politicians a chance to emerge. Decision Follows Local Voting

An official communique released Wednesday night, however, said the time has come "for the old and new to mix, to cooperate and compete." The shift in procedures came four days after state elections were held under the old rules with no known politicians seeking any of the gubernatorial posts or legislative seats being contested. The announcement was made following a meeting in Abuja, Nigeria's new capital, of the armed forces ruling council, the military governing body.

The statement added that the Government "feels confident that the tran sition program and the philosophy governing it cannot be derailed by the presence or the introduction of the 'old breed' into the political arena now or in the forseeable future."

The statement said all those serving in the current Government, with the exception of General Babangida, were now free to take part in the elections. General Babangida remains disqualified from holding office, at least until the completion of the first term of the new federal government.

The lifting of the ban stunned many diplomats and political observers here who viewed the ban on old politicians as one of the few certainties in Nigeria's ever-shifting political climate. Former Politicians Arrested

Indeed, last month, before the party gubernatorial primaries, the military arrested 13 prominent politicians and accused them of secretly meddling in the process and bankrolling various candidates. The military communique last night said those arrested would be released "as and when appropriate."

Nsikak Essien, editor of the National Concord, one of Nigeria's largest independent newspapers, said the lifting of the ban has come "too early and should have been maintained until the end of the transition period."

Mr. Essien added that Nigeria "has gone through traumatic experiences in the past and has to try new things in its politicking, even if they're unorthodox."

Humprey Nwosu, chairman of Nigeria's national electoral commission, said the ban affected about 2,000 former government officials, but diplomats and political analysts here have estimated that as many as 70,000 people were excluded from political life.

Those banned ranged from former administators and governors to, in theory at least, office clerks or janitors who had been dismissed for pilfering, since the prohibition included anyone in the government since independence from Britain in 1960. Soldiers have run the country for all but nine years in that time. There have been seven coups and three of the nation's eight leaders have been assassinated.

The notion of banning politicians is hardly a Nigerian invention. In the early 1980's, for example, Turkey's military government banned much of the political elite from taking part in the new civilian government. Military Controls Transition

Much more unsettling, Western diplomats and Nigerian commentators say, have been efforts by the Babangida Government to control virtually every aspect of the transition process.

Not only has the military Government limited the number of legal parties to two -- the right-of-center Republican National Convention and the left-of-center Social Democratic Party -- but it has also created their names, written their party platforms, appointed senior party officials, provided funds and even built party offices.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the national leaders of the new parties today applauded the Government's decision to lift the ban on past officeholders.

Even some longtime skeptics of the Government's scheme for returning to civilian rule acknowledge that, judging by last Saturday's gubernatorial and legislative balloting, the beginnings of a Western-style democracy appears to be taking hold. There was little of the violence and intimidation that has usually punctuated past Nigerian elections.

In a country still marked by strong regional and ethnic political traditions, public attention appeared to focus mostly on the competition for local offices rather than on the debate about national issues.

Nonetheless, the relatively peaceful balloting appears to have convinced the military authorities that the ability of the old politicians to use their clout and money to influence the outcome of the upcoming contests has diminished to the point of insignificance.

[size=18pt]5th February 1992 - The New York Times
Liquidation of B.C.C.I. Bank hits Nigeria hard[/size]

The swift seizure and shutdown of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International last year by Western central bankers has undermined trade from several third world countries and increased the risk that depositors will suffer large losses, according to a United Nations research group.

The group, the United Nations Center on Transnational Corporations, was highly critical of the country-by-country settlements pursued by some Western nations.

The largest of these was in the United States, where the bank had comparatively few customers but assets of $550 million, which the Government seized. Under an agreement announced last December, American authorities have promised to put some of those assets in a fund for the bank's depositors worldwide, but only after all claims and penalties in the United States have been settled. More for Victims Urged

With a more coordinated, international settlement process, "a lot of innocent victims could have recovered more than they will,"

Peter Hansen, executive director of the United Nations group, said.

"We are not living in a world where an ad hoc club of the West should be handling these transnational issues alone," he said.

In its 24-page report, the center said that by simply shutting down the 70-nation banking network that financed international trade of $18 billion a year, the economic damage fell hardest on countries like Nigeria, Bangladesh and Zambia, where B.C.C.I. was an important institution. With credit lines frozen in the shutdown, many companies in third world countries have been forced to cut back sharply or go out of business. Dividing the Bank








[size=18pt]24th February 1992 - ITN News
PRESIDENT BABANGIDA BEGINS FOUR DAY STATE VISIT TO GERMANY[/size]

The Nigerian president, General Ibrahim Babangida, on Monday (February 24) began a four-day state visit to Germany, where he was expected to seek support for debt relief from the West to bolster economic and political reforms at home.

Babangida was met by German President Richard Von Weizsaecker at the Presidental Palace, where the two held talks.

During his visit Babangida was expected to seek support for a large write-off of Nigeria's foreign debt, now standing at more than 33 billion United States dollars and among the highest in Africa.

Observers said Babangida needs Western support to consolidate his economic reforms before handing over to civilian rule after presidential polls on December 5.

Babangida, current chairman of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), was also likely to seek assurances that Africa would not be marginalised by the European Community's plans to set up a single market by 1993.

He was also due to discuss the non-payment of some Nigerian debts to Germany, which has been cited by German businessmen as a reason for not investing more heavily in Nigeria.

Germany suspended export guarantees to Nigeria in December because of arrears in repayment of rescheduled debts. Nigeria's total debt to the German government amounts to about six billion marks (3.6 billion dollars).







[size=18pt]15th May 1992 - The New York times
Riots Continue in Nigeria Over Shortage of fuel[/size]
LAGOS, Nigeria, May 14— Young anti-Government demonstrators skirmished with riot police officers again today, and looting and vandalism was reported throughout the capital.

Few Nigerian workers seemed to join in the violence, which began last week as a protest against a gasoline shortage. But Lagos, Nigeria's biggest city, with a population of about five million, remained virtually paralyzed. Few buses or cabs were operating; schools, offices and stores closed early.

The threat of wider violence appeared to diminish with the Government's decision to close universities in Lagos and Benin City, both regarded as centers of opposition activity.

Nigeria's Information Minister, Sam Oyovbaire, said Wednesday night that the gasoline shortage in Nigeria, Africa's leading oil-producing country, would end within three days.





[size=18pt]21 May 1992  - The New York Times
Nigerian Advance letter (419) scams emerge[/size]
In the annals of white-collar crime, the trick known as the Nigerian letter scam already stands out as a testimony to criminal energy, not artistry. Sleuths at Scotland Yard, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Interpol and private investigators describe it variously as crude, amateurish and preposterous. But they also agree it is one of the most wide-ranging and bizarre fraud schemes of recent years.

Thousands of American companies, including many in the New York area, have in the last 18 months received bogus letters that like many a street fraud preying on the greedy promise big payoffs in return for playing along and putting up some advance money, according to the International Criminal Police Organization. That agency, known as Interpol, is the coordinating network for police internationally. Loss Estimates Are Sketchy






@proudly9ja
No problem!
Please delete it from youtube, it is no worth being prosecuted for

proudly9ja:

Sorry I wish I could. As it is, Ive already breached their laws. We are not allowed to publich any of the content on youtube or any file sharing website
http://www.itnsource.com/termsandconditions/

[size=18pt]3rd July 1992 -ITN News
VOTING BEGINS IN CRUCIAL CIVILAN ELECTIONS BEFORE MILITARY GOVERNMENT'S PLANNED RETURN TO BARRACKS[/size]

Makeshift polling booths on Saturday (July 4) opened under tight security throughout Nigeria for crucial civilian elections ahead of the military government's planned return to barracks next January.

About 120,000 armed police and thousands of officials had been drafted to oversee some 110,000 polling booths from the tropical Atlantic coast to the fringes of the Sahara desert.

As campaigning came to an end on Friday (July 3), the streets of Lagos were virtually empty of traffic with the city suffering from an acute shortage of petrol. A government move to raise fuel prices in May triggered riots in 10 cities, leaving 300 people dead.

The polls for a 91-member senate and a 589-seat house of representatives will be followed on December 5 by an election for Nigeria's first civilian president since 1983 under President Ibrahim Babangida's tightly-controlled programme.

In final speeches, leaders of both army-created parties seeking power spoke of the need to provide hope for Africa's most populous nation, which suffered its worst Christian-Moslem, ethnic and anti-poverty unrest in a decade in May.

No figure was available on the number of registered voters in the major oil-exporting country of 92 million people. The vote count was expected to take several days.

[size=18pt]11th July 1992 - The New York Tmes
Babangida Promises that Nigeria's Monumental Steel Plant Is To Begin Pouring By End of Month[/size]

AJAOKUTA, Nigeria, July 9— With its sprawling network of pipes and cylinders and immense exhaust towers, the 60,000-acre Ajaokuta steel complex, the biggest industrial project in sub-Saharan Africa, poses a striking contrast to the villages of straw-roofed huts that surround it.

Officials hope that once the plant begins pouring metal as scheduled this month, this remote town in the heart of southern Nigeria will stand as a symbol of this developing country's dream of greatness and a monument to engineering tenacity.

But Ajaokuta has also become a target of increasing cynicism among Nigerians who have come to regard the project, after 12 years of delays and cost overruns, as a seemingly endless economic drain.

"If there is such a thing as a white elephant, this is surely one of its more awesome specimens," said Nosa Igiebor, editor of Tell magazine, an independent weekly that has published several articles highly critical of the project. 'Impressive Achievement'

Indeed, although initially planned for completion in about six years at a cost of $1.4 billion, the Ajaokuta project has already cost more than $4 billion, and Western diplomats and donors say it may need hundreds of millions more before it becomes fully operational.

Ajaokuta, some Nigerian analysts and Western diplomats say, is a relic from another era, when many third-world nations, aspiring to catch up with industrialized societies in the West, built vast prestige projects that often proved to be financial flops.

"Even to have built such a project is an impressive achievement, and the Nigerians should be lauded for that," a Western diplomat said. "But in the end, the real issue is whether it will ever prove commercially viable, and for now, that seems unlikely."

To succeed, he said, the plant will need to be heavily subsidized by the Government for the indefinite future -- a prospect Nigeria can ill afford given its already historically high levels of external debt, now estimated at about $35 billion. Skeptical Western Donors

Officials involved with the plant strongly defend it.

"Our job is not just to produce steel," said Philip Atanmo, project director and chief executive of the plant. "We also have the job of opening up the area where we are located, providing schools, hospitals and housing and other infrastructural activities that you do not have to be concerned with in the U.S. or Europe.

"I will say emphatically that Nigeria is lucky that it contracted the construction of this plant when it did because, given the economic situation as it is today, nobody can think of this country being able to build a plant of this nature."

A Soviet-led consortium began work on the project in 1980 when the price of oil -- the commodity that drives Nigeria's economy, black Africa's biggest -- was riding high. With Government coffers overflowing, the country's leaders, hoping to reflect Nigeria's emergence as a world power, decided to build on a grand scale. As originally envisioned, the project included a raw-materials treatment plant, coke ovens, blast furnaces and four rolling mills.

But from the start, Western donors were skeptical. For one thing, they expressed misgivings about the plant's location -- the site is nearly 250 miles from the ports that handle critical raw materials, coke and iron ore. And because the Niger River is at times relatively narrow, it would have to be dredged before steel barges could navigate its waters. 80's World Oil Glut

Some also questioned whether there was enough demand in the local market to justify such a mammoth investment.

There there was the issue of corruption. In its early years, the Ajaokuta project became known for the kickbacks that enriched the pockets of officials who were in a position to award contracts and whose who received them.

Those and other factors led some observers to conclude that the project would never be competitive in terms of price or quality with European or North American steel, not to mention steel made at recently built and technically more sophisticated plants in Japan and South Korea.