chidi Nduka Aja

Almost two dozen drug factories have been bombed by U.S. and Afghan air forces in the past four days in Afghanistan’s embattled southern Helmand province, a defence official said on Wednesday. “Twenty two drug processing factories were destroyed,’’ Dawlat Waziri, a spokesman for the defence ministry, said. Gen. John Nicholson said on Monday that U.S. and Afghan pilots started targeting drug factories on Sunday as part of a new joint offensive, the Commander-in-Chief of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. “The strikes are aimed at destroying the financial resources of Taliban militants,’’ Nicholson said, adding that such strikes would continue. The Taliban are waging an ever-expanding war against the Afghan government and are said to control or influence about 13 per cent of the country again, while battling for another 30 per cent. Helmand is both the centre of drug production in Afghanistan, producing 80 to 90 per cent of all opium in the world, and also the Talib...

Lagos, Nigeria  Below are extracts from the PwC report ‘ Nigeria’s economic recovery: Defining the path for economic growth ‘. Nigeria’s economy has turned a corner. The oil price shock, which started in mid-2014, severely affected the Nigerian economy. In 2015, the economy slowed sharply, as annual real GDP growth declined to 2.7%y/y from 6.2%y/y in 2014. By 2016, the economy recorded its first recession since 1991, recording a growth of -1.5% y/y, as oil  production shortages exacerbated the decline in the oil price. Notably, the underperformance in the oil sector spilled over to the non-oil sector through the exchange rate channel, with the non-oil sector contracting 0.2% y/y to record its worst performance since 1984. By Q2’17, the Nigerian economy exited its recession, recording a positive growth rate of 0.5% y/y. The recovery was in part due to a sharp recovery in the oil sector, driven by an improvement in o...

                                By Chidi Nduka Aja Speaking ahead of their last 2018 World Cup qualifier against Nigeria, Algeria’s new coach, Rabah Madjer, had described the Super Eagles as a team of benchwarmers, which has only one regular player in its squad. Buttressing his point further, Madjer, who was one of the stars of the great Algerian side of the 1980s, said the Super Eagles should not pose any threat to his team because it is a team with many players who don’t get to play for their European clubs. “I have studied the Nigerian team, apart from Iwobi, every other player is mostly a substitute for his team in Europe…” he had boasted. Rabah Madjer could be pardoned for the disrespect. He was, like every new coach, talking tough to justify his appointment and shore up the morale of his boys and a di...

The Philippine government is preparing to extradite a defrocked Filipino Catholic priest accused of sexually abusing two boys in the U.S. in the 1990s, a justice department official said on Wednesday. Fernando Sayasaya, 53, was arrested in the city of Calamba in Laguna province, 48 km south of Manila, on Sunday, almost 20 years since he fled the U.S. and went into hiding in the Philippines. Chief State Counsel Ricardo Paras said the U.S. Department of Justice has sought Sayasaya’s extradition under a treaty with the Philippines, and the Court of Appeals had granted the request in 2012. “The apprehension of Fernando Sayasaya once again shows that the long arm of the law would reach all criminals,’’ Paras said. Sayasaya is accused of sexually molesting two brothers, both under 15 years old, in North Dakota in their home and in church in 1995 and 1998. He left the U.S. in December 1998, telling his superiors he wanted to spend Christmas in the Philippines. However, he d...