In the Grandiose Parlor…

Is this Boko Haram (Islamic militant group) at work again?

Pictures

The problems in the Nigerian health sector are in most part driven by the combination of limited funding, poor oversight and lack of innovation. In my opinion, the limitations and barriers seen in the health sector can be tackled by innovative leadership much more than increase in funding.

For instance, there are creative ways access to clean water can be improved beyond just drilling boreholes. Would it help if village health centers, market squares also provide people with clean water? Continue reading…

Watch video to the end to see if you can guess what it is advertising.

Nigerian ingenuity. ATV built by Ahmed, 15 year old boy in Lagos, Nigeria.

There are quite a good number of people and organizations that send surplus medical supplies to Nigeria. Often times, these supplies are not usable in the intended destinations. The reasons are varied, ranging from damage, to lack of consumables, and inadequate electricity supply.

There are ways to make medical donations work, if the procurement process is done right. Tina Rosenberg shares some insight, via NYT:Making Medical Donations Work.

Growing up in Nigeria, we are made to memorize the multiplication tables and state capitals and governors, and as I grew into my adolescent years, I could recall phone numbers, birthdays, heads of states and other mundane information as car registration numbers (plate numbers), etc. Then I moved to the US, got wired to the computer, now it appears my memory is failing. And I’m not alone. Continue reading…

Oil company Royal Dutch Shell accepts responsibility for two oil spills in Nigeria’s niger delta between 2008 and 2009 about the same time a UN report reveals (PDF) that decades of oil spills and flagrant disregard for environmental safety in oil-rich Ogoniland region may require at least $1 billion cleanup cost.

The clean-up exercise would be the the world’s largest and costliest, lasting up to 30 years. The report, released by the U.N.’s environmental program, said that drinking water supplies within the oil-rich Niger Delta have been damaged by 50 years of crude oil spills. In some areas drinking water is contaminated so severely it needs immediate action.

Nigeria recorded at least 3,000 oil spills between 2006 and 2010.

Last year a Nigerian federal high court ordered Shell Nigeria to pay 15.4 billion naira (about US$100 million) in special and punitive damages to a Rivers State community for an oil spill that occurred in 1970.