Latest news with #Nig
Business Insider
01-06-2025
- Politics
- Business Insider
Nigeria distances itself from Russian scholarship linked to military drone production
A controversial Russian scholarship scheme has triggered widespread outrage in Nigeria following revelations that several young Nigerians, including minors, were recruited under false pretenses to work in drone factories supporting Russia's war in Ukraine. The Nigerian government has denied endorsement and involvement, emphasizing unauthorized recruitment by private parties. The program was marketed as a scholarship opportunity but lacked educational aspects once applicants arrived in Russia. The incident has raised concerns over youth exploitation and diplomatic implications, calling for stricter oversight on foreign opportunities. The scheme, advertised as a scholarship and vocational training opportunity, promised Nigerian youths a chance to gain new skills and earn stipends in Russia's Alabuga Special Economic Zone. A letter issued to selected applicants presented the program as a legitimate academic and industrial training opportunity. However, upon arrival, recruits were assigned to hazardous factory jobs, assembling military drones instead of receiving any formal education. The Alabuga Special Economic Zone, initially known for general industrial production, has reportedly transformed into a major site for building drones used by Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. According to the report, the Nigerian workers faced tough working conditions, including long hours, poor treatment, and unpaid or underpaid wages. Some described feeling trapped and misled by the nature of the work, which they claimed was never disclosed during recruitment. Public Outrage and Official Responses The revelation has sparked sharp criticism from Nigerians on social media, with many expressing anger over the exploitation of young citizens seeking better opportunities abroad. Critics questioned how such a program gained ground in the first place and whether there were any Nigerian agencies involved. Amid mounting pressure, the Federal Government of Nigeria has denied any involvement. In a statement through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it stated that it neither facilitated nor endorsed the recruitment. The government also emphasized that it had not granted approval for any agency to send Nigerians abroad under such a scheme. Former Nigerian diplomats added their voices to the conversation, calling for urgent investigations into how Nigerian youths were allowed to travel for a program tied to military activity in a foreign conflict. They raised alarms over the diplomatic implications and the potential risk to the country's reputation. Adding to the concern, Ukraine's ambassador to Nigeria warned that the drone production zones, such as the one in Alabuga, are legitimate military targets due to their role in the ongoing war. This means the Nigerian workers could unknowingly be placing themselves in danger. The Russian Embassy in Nigeria, however, dismissed the allegations, calling the reports fabricated and misleading. It insisted that there was no exploitation of Nigerians and that the claims were intended to damage Russia's image. The incident has reignited conversations around youth unemployment, desperation, and the lure of overseas programs that promise better futures. Many are now calling for stronger checks and more accountability in how Nigerians, especially young people, are recruited for foreign opportunities to ensure they are protected and not lured into exploitative or dangerous situations.
eNCA
21-04-2025
- Entertainment
- eNCA
Nigerian Afrobeat legend Femi Kuti takes a look inward
LAGOS - Sat comfortably in a large chair at the New Afrika Shrine, his family's legendary Nigerian music venue, Femi Kuti was surrounded by history. The concert hall is an homage to his father Fela Kuti's original Shrine, which had also been located in the northern outskirts of Lagos before its demise. Femi's own music awards are scattered around, recognition for his determination to keep fighting the good fight his Afrobeat legend father was known for -- calling out corruption and injustice in Africa's most populous nation. Part of a family defined by its determination to speak defiantly about what was going on around them -- whether through lyrics or protest or both -- Femi Kuti, however, is ready to turn inward, and focus on the "virtues that have guided me in my life", he told AFP in a recent interview. Those reflections will be apparent in the 62-year-old's upcoming album, "Journey Through Life," his 13th record, set to release on April 25. In the upcoming record, he sings about "the kind of advice I give myself to where I am today," he said. The title track, for example, is "not political". But listeners should not expect a member of the Kuti clan to give up politics completely. From Afrobeat to Afrobeats The elder Kuti came to define Afrobeat, the 70s-era jazz- and funk-inspired genre that would later give birth to the modern, R&B-inspired Afrobeats -- plural -- style shaking up the global music industry today. AFP | FAWAZ OYEDEJI He was also a poster child of protest -- using his lyrics to call out government abuses, even under brutal military juntas that ran Nigeria off and on before its latest transition to democracy in 1999, two years after his death from AIDS. Femi Kuti's grandmother, meanwhile, was a women's rights and independence activist. It might be a given, then, that the virtues that guided Femi Kuti would be political in nature -- though he has tempered his expectations of what exactly music can do. "My father used to say music is the weapon. I think music is a weapon for change, but it can't be the soul," he said. "We still need organisations." After all, the elder Kuti was repeatedly beaten and jailed by authorities -- and with an incomplete record to show for it. Democracy might have eventually taken hold, but the corruption he railed against has been trickier to uproot. "Self-reflection makes me think maybe it's not possible to change the world. But one thing I'm sure of is that I can change myself, I can make myself a better person," Kuti told AFP. New songs, same struggles Femi Kuti has spent the last four decades as the heir to his father's activism and musical style. Together with his son Made and brother Seun, he keeps the New Afrika Shrine a sweaty, bumping place to be each Sunday night, and continues to tour internationally. The album, Kuti promised, is "still very political" -- and Kuti has some of his own thoughts to share as well. "I've been singing political songs for 38 years," yet not much has changed. In "Nigeria, it's gotten worse". "Corruption must stop in the political class," he said. "Everybody thinks the only way to be successful is through corruption." "The health care -- there's nothing that works," he said. "We can't afford a good education (for children)." These days he is unlikely to be beaten or jailed like his father -- which traumatised his family growing up, he said. Though things are not always rosy for musicians in the modern political climate either. Broadcasting authorities earlier this month banned "Tell Your Papa", by Eedris Abdulkareem, for its lyrics blasting President Bola Tinubu's handling of the economic and security situation in the country. The government is pursuing painful -- though necessary, it argues -- economic reforms, while insecurity from jihadist groups continues to menace the country's north. "It will probably be very hard for me to not talk on political subjects," Kuti admitted, before an electrifying live performance at an all-night show.
