The National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is examining the Same Gender Marriage Prohibition Bill. The draft law foresees three years of prison for those entering a marriage with someone of the same sex, or already in one. The Bill does not exclude tourists or expatriates in Nigeria. Those ‘witnessing, abetting and aiding the solemnization of same gender marriage’ face fines of up to 50,000 Nigerian naira (approximately EUR 230), and imprisonment for up to five years.

The deniers of the Nigerian genocide may deny it as much as they like, but their denial will never erase the fact that this heinous crime occurred.

The need for the adoption of a West African regional legal framework on Freedom of Expression (FOE) and Right to Information (RTI) received a significant endorsement on 5 March 2012, when Nigeria’s Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, urged his colleagues from ECOWAS member countries to work towards bequeathing such a legal framework for the regional group, ECOWAS.

Despite longstanding laws against gas flaring - the burning of natural gas during oil extraction - in Nigeria, and shifting deadlines to end the practice, the activity continues, with serious health consequences for people living nearby. In the Niger Delta, where most of the flaring takes places, residents living near gas flares complain of respiratory problems, skin rashes and eye irritations, as well as damage to agriculture due to acid rain.

A total of 120 Nigerians who have been deported from Britain for various immigration offences arrived in Nigeria on Friday (9 March). The 120 deportees, comprising mainly young men and women, narrated their unsavoury experiences, saying that they were brought back home unprepared by the British authorities, the source added.

A suicide car bomber attacked a Catholic church in Nigeria on Sunday, killing at least 10 people in the blast, and the retaliatory violence that followed, officials said. The bomb detonated as worshippers attended the final Mass of the day at St. Finbar's Catholic Church in Jos, a city where thousands have died in the last decade in religious and ethnic violence.

Jolted by a public outcry since the start of the year, Nigeria's government has announced a series of measures to address oil industry corruption in the world's eighth biggest producer. It is an issue that may come to define Goodluck Jonathan's presidency. But two recent audits of the oil industry reviewed by Reuters show billions of dollars in irregularities despite years of government promises to clean it up.

Nigerian NGO Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a request before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in Arusha, Tanzania, asking the court to 'consider the effects of corruption on the poverty level in Nigeria, and whether rising and systemic poverty violates specific human rights under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.' According to a statement made available to PANA in Lagos on Sunday, the organization told the court that Nigeria has ratified both the African Charter and the African Court Protocol.

A fire that killed two workers and destroyed a gas exploration rig off Nigeria's south-east coast has gone out after 46 days, Chevron has said. Friends of the Earth, which said this was the world's worst such accident in recent years, welcomed the news. The environmental group has urged Chevron to compensate local Nigerian fishermen for income lost while the fire burned.

Some 1,000 Chadian migrants - most of them children separated from their families - are waiting for aid in the village of N’Gbouboua in the Lac region of western Chad having fled Boko Haram-related violence in Nigeria, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). With more arriving each day - some 100 have arrived in the last 48 hours according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) - the food situation is getting desperate, say aid workers.

Soldiers fired a 21-gun salute at the funeral of Odumegwu Ojukwu Thursday as Nigerian leaders paid final respects to the man whose 1967 declaration of Biafran independence sparked a civil war. Forty-five years after he tried to split Nigeria asunder by proclaiming the Republic of Biafra, Ojukwu's coffin was draped in the national colours of white and green at the funeral service in the city of Enugu, attended by thousands.

A group fighting for a greater share of Nigeria's oil wealth in the country's delta region has claimed responsibility for killing four police officers this week. The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said in an email it sent to reporters on Friday that it shot the four police officers who were on a boat patrolling the Nembe river in Bayelsa state.

Nigeria has repatriated around 11,000 foreigners mainly from Niger and Chad over the past six months to curb a growing Islamist insurgency, the Immigration services said. 'The latest number of foreigners repatriated as at this morning is 11,000,' immigration services spokesman Joachim Olumba told AFP, updating an earlier figure.

The Nigerian constitution and laws disadvantage the poor in terms of setting up their own parties to champion issues that are of interest to them. Any talk of electoral reform that does not address this matter will still leave the country’s politics firmly in the hands of the capitalist class.

The former governor of Delta state has pleaded guilty in a British court to laundering millions of dollars in a rare case of a Nigerian politician being held to account for corruption. James Ibori, a former governor of the oil-rich state, pleaded guilty on Monday to 10 counts of money-laundering and conspiracy to defraud. He pleaded not guilty to a further 13 similar charges. Sentencing will take place in April.

Recently, the Federal Government of Nigeria signed a Joint Venture Agreement on commercial rice farming with Calvin Burgess, owner and principal promoter of the Oklahoma-based Dominion Farms Limited. Dominion Farms Kenya Limited has consistently been accused by the locals of the Yala swamp basin of land grabbing and have consistently resisted attempts by Calvin Burgess to evict them from their naturally rich, ancestral land.

How is successful has the Nigerian security forces been in dealing with the Boko Haram menace?

Victims of environmental disasters or other abuses inflicted by corporations in Nigeria are being denied justice as they are too poor or do not know how to seek legal recourse, jurists say. 'Poor rural victims of corporate human rights abuse are usually unaware of their legal rights and don't have the financial resources to file court process, gather information and evidence, and afford legal services,' said Carlos Lopez, the International Commission of Jurists' senior legal advisor in a report.

A gas-fuelled fire, with flames as high as 5m, may burn for months in waters off the Niger Delta in south-east Nigeria, Chevron has told the BBC. Two workers died after January's explosion at the KS Endeavour exploration rig, owned by the US firm. Friends of the Earth says this is the world's worst such accident in recent years.

Education in Nigeria is in crisis following years of underfunding. And private universities that have mushroomed to meet the growing need for higher education have become so commercialised many of them are no better than glorified high schools.