Ethnic African Stories

Do you know?
Nigeria has about 55,000 medical doctors down from 66,000 in 2024, largely due to migration.

2004 and k!dnapping became a major challenge in Lagos

P.M. NEWS reported it this way: "K!dnappers are now on the prowl in Lagos. They struck last weekend, whisking away a 17-year-old school boy, Onyedika Egwuchukwu. They are demanding the sum of N1 million before he would be set free."

Among Nigeria's currencies, this is one of the most beautifully designed. What is your take on this?

ℹ️Ethnic African Stories

Her husband was a governor in Nigeria. Her name is Carol Chinweolu, wife of Chief Christian Chukwuma (C.C.) Onoh, who served as the governor of the old Anambra State for 3 months before he was removed from office as a result of a coup.

He was elected on the platform of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in October 1983, but his tenure lasted just three months before the military dismissed all civilian governors in a December 1983 coup.

She passed away on June 17, 2016. She was the mother of Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Nigeria's Minister of Foreign Affairs.

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Did you know?
In 1993, Newswatch reported that the official rate of a 12.5kg cooking gas in Nigeria was ₦25

June 16, 1992, Cyril Ramaphosa and Nelson Mandela march through Soweto and to the recently erected Hector Pieterson memorial

Ramaphosa is today the President of South Africa.

➡️Arkivfoto

ℹ️ Ethnic African Stories

Until his arrest by the Sani Abacha regime in 1995, Roland N. Emokpae was a Nigerian Army officer who served in the Nigerian Army's legal and military police services and rose to the rank of Colonel.

Before his arrest and accusation of involvement in an alleged coup plot, he was Deputy Provost Marshal General at Army Headquarters and was involved in investigating fraud cases within the military.

He was detained for several years under harsh conditions and later testified before the Oputa Panel about his treatment in detention. He consistently maintained his innocence.

In his petition before the panel, he wrote: "I was tortured beyond imagination. For every stage of my my humiliation by torture, a right was being violated being stripped naked by a private soldier and left in the open for thirteen hours, from 6.00pm to 7.00am the following day... I was subjected to inhuman treatment and indignities, being tied hand and foot and folded, roast chicken type, suspended on a vertical pole and lit match sticks inserted into my nostrils and eyes in the hope that that would elicit a confessional statement from me. I was taken through various torture stages, sustained series of physical injuries for which I have been receiving medical treatment and still receive today. I was subjected to three medical operations."

ℹ️ Ethnic African Stories

Breaking: London Court Declares Diezani Alison-Madueke free of corruption charges.

June 17, 1998: As she was leaving prison, Mrs. Chris Anyanwu, a journalist and publisher of The Sunday Magazine (TSM), described her experiences in prison in Nigeria, where she saw the worst part of hell under the Sani Abacha regime.

WHY SHE WAS JAILED

Chris Anyanwu was jailed during the military regime of Sani Abacha in 1995 because of her journalism.

As publisher and editor-in-chief of The Sunday Magazine (TSM), Anyanwu published reports about an alleged coup plot against the Abacha government. Her magazine also questioned the credibility of the government's claims and reported information that appeared to contradict the official narrative.

The military authorities accused her of being an "accessory after the fact of treason" and tried her before a secret military tribunal. She was sentenced to life imprisonment in July 1995, although the sentence was later reduced to 15 years after international pressure.

Many human rights and press freedom organizations argued that she was imprisoned because she exercised press freedom and reported information the military government did not want published.

WHAT WAS HER PRISON EXPERIENCE LIKE?

She spent about three years in detention, from 1995 until her release in June 1998. She was held in harsh prison conditions, including periods of solitary confinement. While in prison, her health deteriorated seriously. She suffered from hypertens!on and malaria, and her eyesight became so poor that doctors warned she could lose her sight without proper medical treatment.

She later recounted that a note informing her that she had won an international journalism award gave her hope because it showed that "the world was watching."

After her release, she testified that she had suffered severe psychological trauma, underwent major medical treatment abroad, and lost property that had been seized during her imprisonment.

RELEASE AND LEGACY

After Abacha's death in June 1998, the new military leader, Abdulsalami Abubakar, released Anyanwu along with several other political detainees as part of Nigeria's transition to democratic rule.

Her imprisonment made her an international symbol of press freedom. She later became a senator.

ℹ️ Ethnic African Stories

This is the story of how President Olusegun Obasanjo decided to appoint Dr Dora Akunyili as the director-general of NAFDAC.

According to Obasanjo, "One day, a friend of mine came and told me the story of a woman who was working with PTF and that she travelled to London for a medical check-up. After the check-up, she told her doctors to return the balance of her bill to her organisation.

"The doctors asked her if she was mad. They told her that other Nigerians who were there for medical check-up always asked them to inflate bills and then return the excess to their accounts. But the woman insisted that the balance must be returned.

"I asked that friend of mine, is the woman still alive? Let me see her CV. After going through her CV and I saw that she was qualified for the kind of job I wanted to give her, I then invited her."

➡️P.M. News, 2003/Archivi

ℹ️ Ethnic African Stories