The Nigerian Red Cross Society has revealed that Nigeria accounts for 10% of global road traffic fatalities, making it one of the countries with the highest road accident rates worldwide. According to the organization, of the two million annual global road deaths, approximately 200,000 occur in Nigeria. Speaking at the launch of the Safe Steps Road Safety Campaign, Nigerian Red Cross Society President Oluyemisi Adeaga cited the World Health Organization's (WHO) 2023 Global Status Report, which ranks road traffic injuries as the ninth leading cause of death globally. Adeaga emphasized that official statistics likely underestimate the true scale of the…

Taimur Samad, the World Bank’s Deputy Country Director for Nigeria, revealed that more than two-thirds of Nigerian girls abandon their education before reaching junior secondary school. Samad made this disclosure on Tuesday while representing the Country Director, Ndiame Diop, at a national conference on girls’ education and empowerment in Abuja. The event, themed “Effective Partnerships on Girls’ Education, Out-of-School Children Education for National Development,” was organized by the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE). Samad highlighted the major barriers to girl-child education in Nigeria, including high dropout rates, early marriages, and teenage pregnancies. He stated, “Over 66% of…

While very few Nigerian children are still able to have tea and bread under the warm roof of their parents, many are now sourcing for their daily bread (scavenging) from refuse dumps. Beginning from the new year, many of these children, between the ages of nine and 14, can be seen carrying sacks filled with various kinds of dirt, ranging from used cartons, empty drink cans and used plastic bottles and bowls. Economy&Lifestyle’s encounter with Jacob Olorunfemi, a 10-year-old, revealed that the economy is dealing blows of hunger and difficulty on his parents and making him unable to attend lessons.…

Cattle traders are facing an existential threat, especially in the northeastern part of Nigeria, with stakeholders calling for urgent intervention to save the sector. Investigation by Weekend Trust revealed that as a result of the spate of insecurity ravaging parts of the country and the ban on open grazing in some states, with no serious alternatives like ranches put on ground, cattle breeders are forced to migrate to countries like Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Sudan and Central Africa. Our correspondents who went round and interacted with market officials, cattle traders and residents across the North-East region, report that stakeholders in the…