SR SahelReporters

By Aviashima Toom, Abuja Every June 5, the world pauses to talk about the environment. Governments issue statements.  Ministries organise clean-up exercises. Schools hold tree-planting campaigns. Civil society groups stage rallies, seminars and awareness walks. Social media fills with messages about protecting nature, reducing plastic pollution and fighting climate change. Then the day passes. The banners come down, the speeches end, the cameras move on to the next event—and an important question remains: what happens afterwards? For many environmental advocates, the real test of environmental governance is not how loudly governments celebrate World Environment Day, but what they do on June 6 and every other day that follows. In Nigeria, where communities continue to grapple with flooding, erosion, deforestation, plastic pollution, oil pollution, poor waste management and the effects of a changing climate, environmental challenges do not operate according to an internat...

By Aviashima Toom, Abuja  Ogoni Cleanup: Ten years after the promise, between progress and the pollution The promise came with the weight of history. On June 2, 2016, the Federal Government formally launched the cleanup of Ogoniland in Rivers State, following the damning findings of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on decades of oil pollution in the region. For communities that had watched their farmlands deteriorate, their creeks become polluted and their livelihoods disappear, the announcement represented more than another government programme. It was a promise of environmental justice. Nearly a decade later, however, the Ogoni cleanup presents a complicated picture — one in which government says significant progress has been recorded, while residents, environmental advocates and independent reports continue to raise questions about the pace, coverage and visible impact of remediation. It is this gap between promise and reality that the Environmental Me...

By Aviashima Toom, Abuja  The Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) says its troops recorded significant successes in the fight against terrorism, kidnapping and other security threats across the country between September 4 and 10, 2026. The military disclosed that 17 terrorist fighters, alongside their family members, surrendered to troops in Borno State during sustained operations in the North-East. According to the Director, Defence Media Operations, Major General Michael Onoja, the terrorists surrendered between September 4 and 7 in Monguno town and along the Gwoza-Limankara Road in Gwoza Local Government Area of Borno State. Onoja said the terrorists cited harsh living conditions, hunger and lack of basic provisions in their enclaves on the Mandara Mountains as reasons for abandoning the groups. He added that troops on September 8 intercepted a female abductee and her one-year-old child near Gava in Gwoza LGA. The victim, an indigene of Chinene, reportedly told troops that...

Across Benue, Kogi, Taraba and Adamawa, expanding gullies are consuming farmland, threatening homes and cutting off roads. As governments announce interventions and billions of naira are committed to erosion control, residents are asking: why does the water keep winning? By Aviashima Toom, Abuja The earth is opening up beneath communities. What begins as a narrow channel after heavy rainfall can, over time, become a deep and expanding gully. Water follows the path, cutting deeper into the soil with every storm. Farmland disappears. Roads crack and collapse. Houses that once stood safely away from the danger begin to edge closer to the precipice. For residents of erosion-prone communities in Benue, Kogi, Taraba and Adamawa States, this is no longer a distant environmental threat. It is happening in their backyards. Across the four states, erosion is eating into farmland, threatening homes and public infrastructure, disrupting movement and putting livelihoods at risk. But ben...

By Aviashima Toom, Abuja  The Nigerian Army has renewed its drive to strengthen strategic leadership and professional capacity among its senior officers as participants of the Leadership and Strategic Studies Course (LSSC) 4/2025 graduated in Abuja on Friday. According to a statement issued by the Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Colonel Appolonia Anele, the graduation ceremony was held at the Nigerian Army Resource Centre (NARC), Abuja, after 11 months of intensive academic and professional training. Speaking as the Special Guest of Honour, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) and Chairman of the NARC Board of Trustees, Lieutenant General Waidi Shaibu, congratulated the graduands and urged them to see their qualification as more than an academic achievement. He charged the officers to embrace greater responsibility, provide purposeful leadership and use the knowledge acquired during the course to improve professional performance. The COAS said Nigeria's changing secur...

By Aviashima Toom, Abuja  The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has officially flagged off the final stage of its 2025 recruitment exercise, with shortlisted candidates undergoing rigorous documentation, physical fitness assessments, and medical screenings at the Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), Gwagwalada, Abuja. The two-week exercise, which commenced on Monday, 7 September 2026, will run through 19 September 2026 and covers shortlisted applicants across the Assistant Superintendent of Customs II (ASCII), Inspectorate, and Customs Assistant cadres. To prevent congestion and maintain order, candidates are being screened in batches categorised alphabetically by their states of origin. Addressing the candidates, the Assistant Comptroller-General of Customs in charge of Human Resource Development, Frank Onyeka, emphasised that the Service is evaluating character and professional conduct alongside physical fitness. “On behalf of the Comptroller-General of Customs, I cong...

By Aviashima Toom, Abuja  The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the Cameroon Customs Administration have launched a joint assessment of the Ekok-Mfum One-Stop Border Post (OSBP) to eliminate cross-border trade friction, strengthen border security, and drive regional economic integration. The high-level exercise, held on Tuesday, 8 September 2026, was themed “Leveraging the Nigeria Customs Service Trade Modernisation Project to Advance Seamless Cross-Border Trade and Shared Prosperity.” It brought together customs chiefs, technical experts, security agencies, development partners, and local community leaders from both nations. Speaking at the event, the Comptroller-General of Customs (CGC), Adewale Adeniyi, highlighted the enduring partnership between both administrations. He noted that despite their close geographical proximity, movement across the border remains unnecessarily challenging. “We are not building from nothing. We are taking something that works between the...