If you have any questions about #Nigeria feel free to ask me.
My qualifications: I'm Nigerian - from the East, lived in the Middle Belt, the North, and in the West. I'm a Christian Igbo, grew up with Muslim Hausas, married to a Christian-Muslim Yoruba. I speak a bit of Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba.
I don't expect you to know much about Nigeria, so I won't consider anything you ask to be stupid, ignorant or racist.
@GlasWolf@jonobie Tough question. Most Nigerians would probably say jollof rice, but that's like saying the best food in America is the hamburger. It's just the easiest to export, the least challenging.
Most other Nigerian food has complex flavours. Cos it's a huge country there's a lot of variation, but the staple would be a starchy dough (my fav is akpu, made from fermented cassava) paired with a vegetable sauce (my fav is called bitter leaf soup).
Dreitägige Afrika-Reise: Scholz will Erdgas aus Nigeria
Kanzler Scholz ist erneut zu einer Reise nach Afrika aufgebrochen. In Nigeria und Ghana will er weitere Wirtschaftsbeziehungen knüpfen. Bei seinem erstem Stopp in Abuja geht es konkret um Erdgas.
For #ThickTrunkTuesday, a second 🧵on the "Social Life of Trees" (borrowing this from Laura Rival). Today it's the #Iroko Tree, as it is known in West Africa, or #Mvule in Uganda - #MiliciaExcelsa. It is a tree I know well from my PhD fieldwork in Edo State in #Nigeria in the early 2000s, and one that is good for thinking through human-nature relations #EnvironmentalAnthropology 1/x
2/x #Iroko (Milicia excelsa) grows in tropical African forests but as a light-demander it thrives in openings and on abandoned farmland - it was through centuries of shifting cultivation that Nigeria's forests were rich in Iroko. Here a picture I took one near Iguesogba in #EdoState - a very nice reminder of some wonderful months I spent largely walking round, guided by two different really great "assistants" and now dear friends, learning about the #HistoricalEcology of Edo landscapes
5/x So it was mostly forbidden to cut Iroko trees. In the #BeninKingdom (now Nigeria's Edo State), only the "Owina ne Igbesamwan", the Oba's woodworkers guild, was allowed to cut Iroko, the 'royal tree'. They carved pestles, mortars and beautiful wooden boxes like this one, currently in the collection of the University of Birmingham. It's one of the many, fascinating objects in the #DigitalBenin collection - really worth a longer exploration! #Wood#Crafts#Carving
#Nigeria scientific journalists debunking popular anti #GMO narratives distributed in #Africa by Western “environmental” activists and the reasons why they were relatively successful over the last 30 years:
That’s unfortunately a classic case study of how #ClimateChange activism as done by #Greenpeace#WWF works exactly against its goals:
Making far-fetching and exaggerated statements about what the climate change symptoms, easily ridiculing the careful, well-sourced and conditional predictions
Turning carefully worded IPCC probabilistic statements into simplistic certainties, further ridiculing actual scientific forecasts
Rushing mitigation goals which are described as “ambitious” but in reality are simply impossible to implement in the declared schedule, ridiculing the actual mitigation scenarios as proposed by IPCC and IEA
Cherry-picking from IPCC and IEA research, praising some solutions and discrediting others (e.g. nuclear), thus further ridiculing their mitigation scenarios and presenting them in the usual “even scientists can’t agree” sauce
In short, I can only encourage you to simply ignore any popular media reporting on climate change because it’s 99% guaranteed to repeat activist narratives, thus repeating the above problems.
Instead, if you go and read the actual IPCC and IEA “net zero” scenarios, which are not only clearly written but also use balanced language and are factually correct, you will see that the actual climate science has nothing to do with the activism and most of the (valid) questions you asked are already answered by them.
Well, I can say that much at least, that whenever a scientist gets to talk freely, everything is "ifs and buts" and probabilities and uncertainties, and generally they are much more open to being wrong and alternative explanations.
But yes, you are right, all those nuances are completely stripped off as soon as a politician, activist or media gets their hand on a statement.
BREAKING NEWS: An unspecified number of female #students have been #abducted by gunmen at the Federal University, #Gusau in #Zamfara state, northwest #Nigeria
In the early hours of Friday, three private female hostels were invaded by the kidnappers in Sabon Gida community near the university. Local journalists told the #BBC Hausa that the gunmen began shooting indiscriminately before attacking the students' hostels around 3am.
v #BBCHausa
I got 9 hours of sleep last night and it felt incredible.
Now it's time to watch #ENGvNGA on replay - rooting for #Nigeria and Iffy Onumonu but expecting #England to take it.
Looking at the rosters Nigeria has three NWSL stars (Iffy, Alozie, and Kanu) while England has no active NWSL players on their roster (tho they do have NWSL alum and drama magnet Daly).
I've come full circle: I got into NWSL by looking for WWC stars, now I root for WWC teams based on what NWSL players they have.
I started out with a crystal radio in 1958 and then became a serious shortwave listener in 1963 using a Philips Philetta. I wish I still had it. "Real" radios glow, warm your hands on a cold night, and smell wonderful. ;-)
Things are unbelievably tough for people in #Nigeria, due to #hyperinflation. Food prices are staggeringly high. It is heartbreaking how old friends who used to do well are now really struggling. I sent one dear friend (with an MA, who used to have good jobs) some money and she said was going out straight away to buy garri, sugar, beans. And she is not one of the worst off. The majority in the country are really suffering.
The first thought reading this post was, is this a hostile takeover? Reading the article and recognizing the similarities I had to think, yes it is. It's like Germany in 1974 all over again. The Deutsche Mark became free floating too, it's value dropping and Germany couldn't import fossil fuels and other goods. It got help from France, they stopped the free floating, replaced the Deutsche Mark with the European currency unit ECU in 1976, which was later renamed EURO, and saved the economy. Nigeria has to do something similar, find neighboring countries willing to form a common market with a common currency. That could block the hostile takeover. Some foreign powers stir unrest and devastation to weaken a country and pick up the pieces. And the cheapest and easiest way is by destroying the currency, if it is unprotected.
Check out our newest story in the @soljourno Story Tracker, " “We Are Suffering”: Despite Steps Taken, Gas Flaring Still Threatens Livelihoods in Niger Delta" by Ekpali Saint:
Scholz ohne greifbare Ergebnisse zurück aus Westafrika
Drei Tage war Kanzler Scholz in Westafrika unterwegs - die Region ist wichtig als Energielieferant, aber auch, um die irreguläre Migration einzudämmen. Zurück in Berlin hat Scholz nun viele Eindrücke im Gepäck - aber wenig davon ist greifbar.
Wie überraschend "Scholz ohne greifbare Ergebnisse zurück". Wer hätte das gedacht. Für greifbare Ergebnisse könnte man der Ukraine Taurus liefern und damit die Krim-Brücke entfernen, statt die Rechten im eigenen Land zu betüddeln. Nur so als Beispiel.
Scholz pocht in Nigeria auf Rücknahme von abgelehnten Asylbewerbern
Tausende abgelehnte Asylbewerber aus Nigeria können nicht abgeschoben werden, weil ihr Heimatland sie nicht zurücknimmt. Dafür hat sich Kanzler Scholz nun in Lagos stark gemacht - und auch für Angebote für Rückkehrer vor Ort.
Shell is pulling out of #Nigeria after befouling it for 68 years, casting it off like a dirty oil rag.
"#Shell called it a way to streamline its business."
Looks more like it's running away from its cleanup responsibilities.
"Activists in the Niger Delta, where Shell has faced decadeslong local criticism to its oil exploration, plan to ask the government to withhold its approval if the company does not address its environmental damage."
A UK court ruled that "13,000 farmers and fishers from the Ogale and Bille communities in the Niger delta were entitled to bring legal claims against Shell for alleged breaches to their right to a clean environment.
The judge ruled it was arguable the pollution had fundamentally breached the villagers’ right to a clean environment under the Nigerian constitution and the African charter on human and people’s rights."
"Local activists and international environmental groups want #Nigeria's government to delay approving the sale of oil company #Shell's onshore assets, claiming Shell is trying to shirk its environmental and social responsibilities in the highly polluted Niger Delta.
Protesters have appealed to the government of Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer, to halt the sale until environmental concerns are addressed."
"""
Nigeria is a case study in a deep electricity paradox. Nigeria has grown to become the host of probably the world’s largest fleet of diesel- and petrol-powered generation capacity that is utilised for baseload supply.
Various figures have been mentioned but it is safe to say that this fleet measures no less that 40,000MW of total capacity.
"""
Ever since fuel subsidies have been removed off-grid solar became more competitive: https://youtu.be/NDxsgA50OYk
Time will tell if this will move the needle. Batteries are still very expensive and political pressure may cause the subsidies to be reinstated before battery costs even have a chance to drop.