With lawsuit pending, Eugenie Bouchard out at U.S. Open; Serena, Venus win

Eugenie Bouchard of Canada during her U.S. Open first-round match against Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic at the new Grandstand Stadium in New York, Aug. 30, 2016. (CHANG W. LEE / NYT)

Eugenie Bouchard wrung her hands at her post-match news conference. She rubbed her lower lip. She squeezed her left arm.

While her body language screamed discomfort Tuesday, when the main topic of discussion was Bouchard’s ongoing lawsuit against the U.S. Open rather than her first-round loss, her words were measured. The once rising star answered every question.

A year ago at Flushing Meadows, Bouchard got a concussion from a fall at the facility and withdrew before playing in the fourth round, and then missed most of the rest of the season. She filed suit against the U.S. Tennis Association in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn in October, and that case is still pending, putting the 2014 Wimbledon runner-up in the odd position of competing this week at an event whose organizers she is suing.

“If I sit down and think about it, yeah, it’s definitely a strange situation. But it’s something that’s so far in the back of my mind. I don’t think about it on a daily basis, at all. I have people, lawyers, working on that side of it,” Bouchard said. “So it’s really not something I think about much at all. Obviously, being here, it’s crossed my mind. But besides that, I mean, it has nothing to do with my day-to-day life.”

Her 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 exit against 72nd-ranked Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic, a player who only once has been as far as the third round at a major tournament, was filled with 46 unforced errors by Bouchard, who also was treated for blisters on her feet. It represented the latest early loss for a 22-year-old Canadian who reached three Grand Slam semifinals two years ago — and none since.

In other first-round action on Day 2 at the year’s last Grand Slam tournament, Serena Williams started her bid for a record-breaking 23rd major title by showing zero signs of trouble from a right shoulder she’s said was sore, hitting 12 aces in a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Ekaterina Makarova. Also under the lights: Andy Murray got off to a similarly easy beginning to his attempt to become the fourth man in the Open era to reach all four Grand Slam finals in a single season.

Serena Williams hits a return to Ekaterina Makarova during their U.S. Open match on Aug. 30, 2016, in New York.

The 2012 champion at Flushing Meadows and seeded No. 2 this year, Murray beat Lukas Rosol 6-3, 6-2, 6-2. Murray lost to No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the finals of the Australian Open in January and French Open in June, and then won his second Wimbledon title last month.

Earlier, Williams’ sister Venus got through a tougher-than-expected 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 win against Kateryna Kozlova.

“It was great to be challenged and to be pushed,” said the 36-year-old Venus, a two-time U.S. Open champion, “because I had to get in those situations that you know you’re going to face in the tournament.”

There were various upsets around the grounds during the afternoon, including 19-year-old American Jared Donaldson’s 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-0 elimination of 12th-seeded David Goffin, and a loss by No. 29 Sam Querrey, who stunned Djokovic at Wimbledon. Three seeded women departed, including former No. 1 and 2008 French Open champion Ana Ivanovic.

When she was at her peak, and a seeded player, an early major loss by Bouchard was rather newsworthy. Her up-and-down 2015 and 2016 have changed that, in part because she is ranked only 39th now, after a best of No. 5.

She lost 14 of 17 matches leading into the 2015 U.S. Open but, after working a bit with Jimmy Connors, appeared to be back on the upswing in New York by reaching the fourth round. Then came her slip-and-tumble, and the concussion diagnosis, and she pulled out of what would have been a matchup against eventual runner-up Roberta Vinci.

It took her until January to return to the tour full-time.

“I didn’t feel like, on the court, I was back to where I was,” Bouchard said Tuesday, meaning that her level of play wasn’t at its peak at the start of 2016. “But physically, since the beginning of the year, I’ve been feeling good.”

USTA spokesman Chris Widmaier said the organization would not comment on the “substance” of litigation.

“However, it is truly unfortunate that a year after her accident, Genie’s focus is on matters other than playing to her best ability,” Widmaier said, noting that Bouchard’s lawyers asked for an extension of the case.

He said the USTA “has remained ready, willing and able to bring the litigation to a conclusion as expeditiously as is possible, whether through settlement discussions or a fully litigated process.”

Widmaier added that the lawsuit “had no impact on how Genie was treated at the U.S. Open in any manner.”

Bouchard’s coach, Nick Saviano, was asked whether her ability to play tennis Tuesday had been affected at all by any possible distractions created by the lawsuit.

“I can’t really speak to that,” Saviano said. “She was in a good frame of mind coming in. She went out, she was ready to play, and the other girl played well.”

Associated Press

Africa’s biggest economy crashes into recession

Buhari....The country's decision to unpeg the naira against the dollar does not appear to have led to a hoped-for influx of dollar investment. Instead the government is now dealing with inflation. — Buhari….The country’s decision to unpeg the naira against the dollar does not appear to have led to a hoped-for influx of dollar investment. Instead the government is now dealing with inflation.

Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria, has officially entered recession after two consecutive quarters of contraction. Gross domestic product shrank by 2.06% in the second quarter of 2016, following a 0.36% shrinking in the first quarter, according to data released by the country’s National Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday.

Those two consecutive quarters of economic shrinkage mean the country is in its first recession in more than 20 years. Recession in Nigeria may be an unwelcome development, but it is not unexpected. Earlier in the year, Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, warned “recession was imminent,” the Financial Times reports.

“We have long warned of a slow-burning crisis in Nigeria,” Capital Economics’ Africa economist, John Ashbourne, said in May. “It now seems that this view was too optimistic: The country is headed into a full-blown economic crisis.” The International Monetary Fund has also warned on the state of the country’s economy, forecasting that growth will shrink by 1.8% in 2016.

The big driver of the slump in the Nigerian economy, which was one of Africa’s great success stories until recently, has been the persistently low price of oil over the past 2 1/2 years. Nigeria relies heavily on oil and is the largest producer of the commodity on the continent, producing roughly 2.4 million barrels a day. Given that oil’s price has slumped from more than $100 a barrel in 2014 to roughly $48 now, it is perhaps unsurprising that the country has struggled to find economic growth.

The Nigerian oil industry’s problems have been made even worse by a series of major disruptions in the oil-rich Niger Delta area, caused largely by a militant group calling itself the Niger Delta Avengers. Most notably, the group attacked a Chevron offshore facility in May and the underwater Forcados export pipeline operated by Shell in late March. The production disruptions caused by these attacks and others have wreaked havoc with the already stricken industry.

Growth in non-oil sectors of the country’s economy has also been badly hit, as Business Insider’s Elena Holodny wrote in May, with manufacturing taking the biggest hit. Non-oil GDP contracted by 0.38% in Q2, according to a tweet by Kale. The country’s decision to unpeg the naira against the dollar does not appear to have led to a hoped-for influx of dollar investment. Instead the government is now dealing with inflation.

“This is very bad news for Nigeria’s government, which has justified the current FX system as a method of promoting non-oil industries,” Ashbourne of Capital Economics said. “It is now clear that these policies have — as we’d long argued — made a bad situation worse.” While things look pretty bleak for the economy, research from Barclays circulated to clients on Wednesday argues that the worst of Nigeria’s crisis may be over.

“Economic activity in Q3 16 continues to be hampered by security concerns in the Niger Delta, ongoing FX shortages, rising inflation and significantly tighter monetary policy. That said, the decision by militants to stop attacks, the implementation of the 2016 budget and better availability of FX, despite it remaining a massive constraint, suggests a marginally better outlook for H2,” Ridle Markus argued in Barclays’ “Sub-Saharan Africa Daily” note.

Markus did say, however, that “for the year as a whole, we fear that the economy is set to contract, which will be the first full-year recession since 1991.”

How the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is misleading the world about Nigeria

Is John Kerry actually representing the United States or is he serving some incomprehensible interests?

Before the United States Secretary of State, John Kerry visited Nigeria last week, he placed his agenda on the table. With priority accorded to

corruption and security, the august visitor also wanted to discuss the state of the economy with Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari. This visit which was hailed as the last possible engagement by a major American official during the Obama administration came at the right time; a dire period in Nigeria’s fragile democracy, where cries of hardship by a frustrated populace have replaced the national anthem. The visits also was billed to solidify a bilateral affiliation between the two countries after a period of strained relations.

Ordinarily, a top-ranking American diplomat visiting Nigeria would be expected to make as a first destination, the commercial hub of Lagos (the former Nigeria’s capital), or the seat of the government in Abuja. However that was not the case with this visit. Kerry headed straight to the city of Sokoto; predominantly Muslim and an important seat of Islamic learning situated in the extreme northwest of Nigeria

Kerry’s visit to Sokoto confirmed the devotion accorded to the Sultan of Sokoto—Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, as a strategic partner of the U.S., regarding sociopolitical issues in Nigeria and neighboring Muslim regions. The visit soon provoked a controversy. For instance, a prominent Christian group, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) voiced out their condemnation, accusing Kerry of being “discriminatory and divisive.” Another organization, the Foundation for Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Crusade also expressed concerns that the United States was fueling ethnic and religious tensions in Nigeria by supporting northern leaders.

These organizations might be right in their discontentment of Kerry’s itinerary. In a country divided since its independence in 1960 over ethnic and religious differences, it was awfully intolerant for Kerry to have flown in, socialized with Muslim clerics and winged off. He was in Nigeria on Monday and Tuesday, and was hosted by the Sultan of Sokoto, the most senior Islamic cleric in the country. He also met with 19 governors of Nigeria’s northern states and held talks with President Muhammadu Buhari, who is also a Muslim.

CAN president, Reverend Supo Ayokunle, said Kerry’s visit showed a “lack of respect for the heterogeneous nature of Nigeria” and favored the country’s Muslim population to the detriment of the Christian community.” Proponents of the regime however differ, praising Kerry’s visit to the Muslim region as an effective partnership strategy in strengthen America’s ongoing battle with Islamist extremism. The sultan is believed to have much leverage with Nigerian Muslims and was seen as the appropriate channel to get the U.S. message across in fighting terror.

Most observers believe that Nigerian Christians are under siege and are the major victims of a supposedly secular governmental system that is currently undermined by the regime. But during his visit, Kerry spent more time showering praises to his Muslim host rather than reveal his country’s position in assisting Nigeria with corruption, security, and state of their ailing economy. According to Ayokunle, Kerry’s actions speak volume; “his body language were very divisive.”

This is not the first time Kerry has crashed dabbling into a delicate Nigeria’s politics. Earlier in 2015 – during a heated Nigeria’s presidential campaign, Kerry inappropriately criticized the incumbent regime of President Goodluck Jonathan for an election postponement that was legally justified. He had impolitely issued a release expressing his deep disappointment about the postponement, urging that the Nigerian government not use security concerns as a pretext for impeding the democratic process.

PIC.-3.-U.S.-SECRETARY-OF-STATE-JOHN-KERRY-VISITS-SOKOTO — Kerry and the Sultan (Center). With Nigeria’s current governance predicament; the first major question would be, when has the Sultan become the country’s spokesperson on matters of corruption, security, the state of the economy? If the Sultan was a force in coordinating fights against terrorism and sectarian violence, why is Northern Nigeria still in such a security mess?

Unfortunately for Kerry, the postponement was later vindicated. From all valuations, there was no way the election could have been held with the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru M. Jega admitting to poor supervision, and process unpreparedness.

Kerry was also criticized for overreaction – acting without adequate information from reliable agencies from the United States monitoring the developments. For example, shortly after Kerry’s release, the National Democratic Institute (NDI), a United States nonpartisan organization working to support and strengthen democratic institutions worldwide in collaboration with International Republican Institute (IRI) issued their report contradicting the secretary’s position on the issue.

This time, again, Kerry may have misled America with his senseless Nigeria’s visit. He may have goofed in his misguided Sokoto adventure. With Nigeria’s current governance predicament; the first major question would be, when has the Sultan become the country’s spokesperson on matters of corruption, security, the state of the economy? If the Sultan was a force in coordinating fights against terrorism and sectarian violence, why is Northern Nigeria in such a security mess?

If Kerry was serious about using traditional or religious rulers to boost his Nigeria’s security agenda, he could have visited the Chiefs in the Delta region also, where pollution perpetrated by major United States oil companies have ravaged many communities; and where government forces have been engaging local militants in bloody battles. Kerry also forgot to visit the Religious leaders or historically prominent chiefs in the Southern zones where the Fulani herdsmen armed by the regime destroy farmlands, and communities; and fatally attack individuals and families at will with sophisticated weapons.

The fact is that Kerry does not get it. His visit contradicted the very U.S. policy he endorsed. Earlier this month, the U.S. government through Kerry’s own office placed a danger alert on 20 States in Nigeria over security fears in the affected areas, claiming a lack of confidence in the Nigerian Army – to guarantee the safety of its citizens. The states affected were; Adamawa, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Borno, Delta, Edo, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Niger, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara.

With these states including those in the South-South and South-East, why does Kerry think that a visit on security with just the Sultan of Sokoto, and then all Northern governors were appropriate? How would Kerry’s visit to Sokoto solidify a bilateral relationship between Nigeria and United States? Is John Kerry actually representing the United States or is he serving some incomprehensible interests?

♦ Author, Anthony Obi Ogbo, Ph.D. is the publisher of Houston-based International Guardian.

Usain Bolt is having a wild ride after dominating the Olympics

After hanging out with a bevy of beautiful women on the dance floor, Bolt took six of them back to his hotel room around 5 a.m. Saturday. Some carried roses as they crossed the lobby.

He reportedly dropped $15,800 at London’s Libertine nightclub on Wednesday, mostly for 12 bottles of champagne that alone cost nearly $1,000 a pop. His tally Tuesday at the Tape nightclub approached $9,000.

Usain Bolt lives as fast as he runs.

The Jamaican sprinter did some record-breaking partying last week, hitting clubs in central London for a stamina-testing four nights out of five since he arrived there straight from celebrating in Rio.

He had plenty of company, too.

After hanging out with a bevy of beautiful women on the dance floor, Bolt took six of them back to his hotel room around 5 a.m. Saturday. Some carried roses as they crossed the lobby.

And that was just the latest leg of his marathon. The three-time triple-gold winner was seen piling into cabs with at least 10 beauties heading back to his hotel on two separate nights earlier in the week.

“I love London!” Bolt posted to Snapchat at one point during the epic run.

Bolt’s also been racking up bar tabs bigger than the distance he put between himself and his rivals on the track since he turned 30 last Sunday. He reportedly dropped $15,800 at London’s Libertine nightclub on Wednesday, mostly for 12 bottles of champagne that alone cost nearly $1,000 a pop. His tally Tuesday at the Tape nightclub approached $9,000.

With a reported net worth of around $60 million and a new contract from Digicel Caribbean Ltd. to serve as the wireless carrier’s “Chief Speed Officer,” Bolt can afford to be generous.

The after-party for his Olympic gold medals for the men’s 100 meter, 200 meter and 400 meter relays may end with a few hurdles to jump, however.

His girlfriend of two years, Kasi Bennett, 26, hasn’t been seen on any of the dance floors where Bolt made his moves.

She has been liking tweets all week mocking his antics.

Why John Kerry Visited Nigeria’s Sultan of Sokoto

During his visit, Kerry commended Abubakar for his role in promoting religious tolerance in Nigeria; he tweeted "Great to visit Sokoto - a place of faith, tolerance & scholarship. Honored to be hosted by Sultan Abubakar." — John Kerry during his visit. He commended Abubakar for his role in promoting religious tolerance in Nigeria, and tweeted “Great to visit Sokoto – a place of faith, tolerance & scholarship. Honored to be hosted by Sultan Abubakar.”

When a top-ranking American diplomat visits Nigeria, one might imagine that their first destination would be the commercial hub of Lagos or the seat of the government in Abuja.

But when U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry touched down in Africa’s biggest Muslim country, he did so in Sokoto, a relatively small state that is closer to Niamey, the capital of neighboring Niger , than to Lagos.

Kerry’s visit on Tuesday highlighted the esteem in which the Sultan of Sokoto—currently Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, the 20th man to hold the office—is held as a strategic partner by the U.S., particularly in the battle against Islamist extremism in Nigeria and the wider West African region

During his visit, Kerry commended Abubakar for his role in promoting religious tolerance in Nigeria. The Sultan of Sokoto is the highest position of authority in mainstream Islam in Nigeria, and Abubakar thus has a key role in influencing a large proportion of Nigeria’s Muslim population, which numbers as many as 77 million. But to some Muslims and those of other faiths, including Christians, the Sultan is a divisive figure whose presence is a symbol of the internal ethnic and religious tensions in Africa’s most populous country.

The history of the position stretches back more than two centuries to the early 19th century and the establishment of the Sokoto caliphate by Usman dan Fodio. Millions of Muslims were united under the caliphate’s banner, and every Sultan of Sokoto is a descendant of Fodio. (The current sultan is the son of Siddiq Abubakar III, who in turn was the grandson of Mu’azu, one of Fodio’s grandsons.) The caliphate fell in the early 20th century to British colonialists, who retained the title of Sultan of Sokoto in what was then-called the Northern Nigeria Protectorate, and was later joined to its southern counterpart to become the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria in 1914.

The sultan is the head of the Qadiriyya Sufi order and is considered the most senior of Nigeria’s Muslim leaders, ahead of the Emir of Kano—currently Sanusi Lamido Sanusi II, a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, who heads up the Tijaniyyah order. The sultan is also the head of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, a body that the government consults on matters of religion. According to Sola Tayo, an associate fellow at Chatham House’s Africa Program, the sultan “sits comfortably” with the federal government, currently led by President Muhammadu Buhari, without having an ostensibly political role.

One of the key tests of the sultan’s role in recent years has been the Boko Haram insurgency in northeast Nigeria. The group emerged in 2002, preaching a radical brand of Islam, and eventually took up arms against the government in 2009. Following an attack by Boko Haram on government buildings and police stations in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, Nigeria’s security forces brutally repressed the group, killing hundreds. The founder, Mohammed Yusuf, was captured but died in custody, with Nigerian police claiming he tried to escape, but others speculating that he was extrajudicially executed.

While he has since condemned the group as un-Islamic, the sultan’s first public comment on the group was to criticize the military’s heavy-handedness in dealing with it. “We cannot solve violence with violence,” Abubakar said in 2011.

“He’s advised the government not to treat every Muslim in the northeast like they’re a Boko Haram sympathizer, which is a very mainstream school of thought,” says Tayo. “You don’t go around antagonizing communities and encouraging the military to violate human rights all over the place.”

The sultan is still viewed with suspicion by some Christians and Kerry’s visit was condemned as “divisive” by the Christian Association of Nigeria, which questioned why the U.S. diplomat did not visit Christian leaders or meet with governors of the southern states, where the majority of the Christian population lives.

The sultan has been a moderate voice in promoting harmonious relations between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria, where the population is split almost evenly between the two religions. Abubakar has affirmed Nigeria’s status as a “multi-religious country” that cannot be subjected to Islamization and has reportedly encouraged mixed Christian-Muslim marriages as a means of stemming interreligious conflict.

But he is still viewed with suspicion by some Christians and Kerry’s visit was condemned as “divisive” by the Christian Association of Nigeria, which questioned why the U.S. diplomat did not visit Christian leaders or meet with governors of the southern states, where the majority of the Christian population lives.

While Nigeria’s Muslims are mostly Sunni, there is a small but sizeable Shiite minority. Shiites do not tend to view the Sultan of Sokoto as a religious authority but Abubakar made a point of speaking up for the minority community following clashes between the Nigerian Army and members of the country’s main Shiite grouping, the Islamic Movement in Nigeria. A judicial inquiry found in August that the army killed almost 350 Shiites during clashes in the northern city of Zaria in December 2015, also arresting the group’s leader Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, who remains in custody.

Abubakar warned following the violence that the military crackdown bore a striking resemblance to the circumstances surrounding Boko Haram at the time of Yusuf’s death. “The history of the circumstances that engendered the outbreak of militant insurgency in the past, with cataclysmic consequences that Nigeria is yet to recover from, should not be allowed to repeat itself,” the sultan said, a warning that would not please all Muslims in Nigeria, particularly the more hardline Sunnis. “Among a certain breed of Nigerian Muslim, anybody who speaks out in defense of Shiites is to be frowned upon,” says Tayo. “There are a lot of Nigerians in the more conservative strains of Islam who do not like the Shiites at all and think that the military did absolutely the right thing.”

The U.S. has made clear—in financial and military terms—its support for Nigeria’s battle against Boko Haram. The Nigerian militant group pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) in 2015—although splits have since emerged—and the U.S. is fully committed to wiping out ISIS’s influence wherever it springs up. For Tayo, Kerry’s visit—besides being “great PR”—could be a means of keeping sweet an effective ally in America’s ongoing battle with Islamist extremism. “If the sultan has as much leverage with Nigerian Muslims as we know he does, then for someone like Kerry, it’s a great way to get the U.S. message across [by] using that conduit,” she says.

Nigeria launches offensive against militants in Delta oil hub

Similar military campaign in May criticised by rights groups and residents who said soldiers had laid siege to villages, arrested civilians and raped women to force them hand over militants

YENAGOA, Nigeria (Reuters) – Nigeria’s military said on Saturday it had launched a new offensive against militants in the oil-producing Niger Delta, killing five and arresting 23.

Armed groups have claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on oil and gas pipelines in the southern region, reducing the country’s oil output by 700,000 barrels day.

A special forces battalion moved against militant camps on Friday in an operation “aimed at getting rid of all forms of criminal activities”, army spokesman Sani Usman said in a statement.

“In the course of the operation, five militants that attacked the troops were killed in action, while numerous others were injured and 23 suspects were arrested.”

There was no immediate reaction from militant groups, which operate from hard-to-access creeks in the swampland.

The groups say they want a greater share of Nigeria’s oil wealth to go to the impoverished region. Crude sales account for about 70 percent of Nigeria’s government revenue and most of the oil comes from the Delta.

A similar military campaign in May drew sharp criticism from rights groups and residents who said soldiers had laid siege to villages, arrested civilians and raped women in an bid to force them hand over militants. The army denies this.

The government has been trying to broker a ceasefire but the militant scene is divided into small groups whose fighters, drawn from unemployed youths, are difficult to control even for their leaders.

On Thursday, Oil Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu met traditional leaders from the Delta to ask them to mediate in talks with militants but they said they wanted the army first to release prisoners taken during a previous sweep, an official has told Reuters.

The army in May arrested a group of school teenagers who community leaders say are not linked to militants.

A group calling itself Niger Delta Avengers, which has claimed several major attacks, said in a statement on Sunday they had agreed to a ceasefire to start a dialogue. Officials have refused to confirm this.

Nigeria’s President Buhari says Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau ‘wounded’

Abuja (AFP) – Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said Sunday that Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau is “wounded”, in his first comments on military claims that the jihadi leader was injured in an attack.

Nigeria’s armed forces said on Tuesday that Shekau had been wounded in an air strike on Boko Haram’s forest stronghold, but released no further statement or evidence confirming his condition.

“We learnt that in an air strike by the Nigeria Air Force he was wounded,” Buhari said in a statement from Nairobi, where he is attending a development conference.

“Indeed their top hierarchy and lower cadre have a problem,” Buhari said. “They are not holding any territory and they have split to small groups attacking soft targets.”

Buhari said that Shekau had been “edged out” of the group, adding credence to claims that Islamic State (IS)-appointed Abu Musab al-Barnawi was now in charge of the insurgency.

Signs of a power struggle in the top echelons of the jihadi group appeared earlier this month when Shekau released a video denying he had been ousted.

Barnawi is believed to be the 22-year-old son of Boko Haram founder Mohammed Yusuf and was announced as the group’s leader in August by IS.

Buhari made his remarks from Nairobi this weekend where he is attending the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, a summit designed to boost ties between Africa and Japan.

The president also said he “is prepared to talk to bona fide leaders of Boko Haram” to negotiate the release of 218 Chibok girls captured by the militants in 2014.

Boko Haram has ravaged northeast Nigeria in its quest to create a fundamentalist Islamic state, killing over 20,000 people and displacing 2.6 million from their homes.

Turning to another major security concern in Nigeria, Buhari threatened militants sabotaging oil infrastructure in the southern swamplands of the Niger delta.

“We will deal with them as we dealt with Boko Haram if they refuse to talk to us,” Buhari said.

The country’s petroleum minister has said that as a result of the ongoing attacks Nigeria’s oil output has dropped 23 per cent from last year to 1.5 million barrels per day, according to Bloomberg News.

Groups including the Niger Delta Avengers are demanding a greater share of oil revenues, political autonomy, and infrastructure development in the southern riverlands where despite massive oil wealth people still struggle to access basic health care and education.

Buhari said his government was in talks with the some of the militants but said there was no “ceasefire”, despite an announcement by the Avengers last week.

Nigeria excels as the English-speaking world’s Scrabble superpower

Nigeria is the English-speaking world’s Scrabble superpower. Africa’s most populous nation is home not only to the global Scrabble champion, but team Nigeria ranks as the world’s top Scrabble playing nation — ahead of the U.S. in second place.

The Scrabble world champion is Wellington Jighere. He’s 33, has a soft voice, a slow smile and a penchant for fedoras, earning him the nickname “the Cat in the Hat.” Jighere acknowledges that he’s taciturn by nature, but also has an explosive, infectious laugh, though he considers Scrabble is serious business.

“You can’t afford to waste too much energy doing unnecessary chatter,” he says. “During a tournament, I see it as business time. And that is no time to be joking around.” Jighere plays chess to relax, “and for fun,” he says.

Jet-lagged and weary, Jighere was crowned the world Scrabble champ last year in a grueling 32-round competition in Australia. Up to 30 of the top 100 global players are from Nigeria, which has the highest percentage of any country in the top 200. The Nigerians’ apparent collective strategy — short words that rack up the points.

Nigerians have been credited with perfecting that tactic under the tutorship of senior team coach, Prince Anthony Ikolo. He says Nigerians are passionate about Scrabble and the short word method gives them an edge. Many put Nigeria’s towering Scrabble prowess down to its players ability to “choke the board” as they say, with this defensive play.

“The game of Scrabble is actually built around short words — especially five letter words,” says Ikolo. “If you have such a word base, then you are good to go. But it would be a very big mistake for the world to think our players only know short words, especially five-letter words,” he warns.

The coach says “the short words help you to be defensive [by blocking longer words from opponents], but when it’s time to be offensive, we know those long words also. Nigeria is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to Scrabble,” says Ikolo.

Ikolo, who’s also a university mathematician, came up with lists of five-letter words and distributed them to his players, including Jighere the world champion, to train them how to block the board. The coach says, armed with these, the Nigerians could take on and beat competitors playing seven-eight- or even nine-letter words.

The other strategy was to gather his players at a hotel, before the tournament, and have them play two days of nonstop Scrabble. It appears to have worked.

Jighere though says his personal strategy is to have “no strategy at all. I play a fluid kind of game. Yah. I really don’t have a particular kind of style that you can pin me to, “he says. So, when you are expecting me to do the traditional thing, I will just choose to do something that is uncharacteristic. It’s what sets me apart from everyone else.”

Jighere should know. He and team Nigeria triumphed at the World English-Language Scrabble Players Association world championship in Australia in November 2015. They fully intend to hang onto that success when they defend those titles next year in Kenya, he says.

Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, phoned Australia to congratulate him, says Jighere with a big smile. “It felt so warm to have him speak with me right then and there. It was a very, very important experience. He told me how proud he is of my accomplishment and how proud I have made the nation as a whole, not just the nation but Africa as a whole. And that it has really gone to prove that we are truly the giants of Africa.”

Jighere bested a Briton in Perth, while Team Nigeria dethroned the U.S., which had been at the pinnacle for about decade, with Nigeria yapping at its heels, determined to topple the Americans.

“We are currently ranked No. 1 nation in the world for Scrabble,” says the champ. “In the world we have the highest number of persons in the top 100 rated Scrabble players. We have as many as 20 to 30 tough masters in Nigeria that can really give you a tough fight any time any day.”

Ikolo, the coach, will attest to that. Jighere’s friends and fellow Scrabble masters cut him no slack, in the jovial, noisy and garrulous atmosphere during the Lagos tournament.

Ikolo gleefully told NPR that, until the Nigeria National Scrabble Players competition, in the main city Lagos, at the tail end of July, Jighere had failed to win any significant tournament after his success in Australia last year.

“Since he became the world champion, he has been beaten blue and black by his colleagues. It tells you how strong Nigeria’s Scrabble is. It tells you that the Scrabble scene we have here is a very tough one. It’s highly competitive and nobody can boast tomorrow that I’m going to win this, I’m going to win that when it comes to Nigerian Scrabble playing.”

So why Scrabble? “Ah, I didn’t exactly choose Scrabble,” says Jightere. “I ran into some friends who were tournament players and I beat them. They told me ‘Ah, if I could do this well against them, that means I should come to the next tournament.’ ” He adds, “And I was like, “Ah, you mean they play this in tournaments? OK, let’s go. And the rest, as they say, is history.” And he laughs.

That was in 2002. Today, Jighere sits atop the global Scrabble tournament ladder. He describes how he had to overcome fatigue and jet lag to win in Australia. Learn those words, commit them to memory and stay cool – and awake.

Scrabble was given official recognition as a sport in Nigeria in the 1990s. But local players, coaches, parents, officials and tournament organizers say government assistance has been patchy and more must be done to support, sponsor and finance Scrabble.

“Why will the government and corporate firms not look the way of Scrabble?” laments coach Okolo. “Government and corporate firms should come to the aid of Scrabble.”

The Lagos State government provided the venue — Teslim Balogun stadium for indoor sports — for the recent tournament, as well as organizing some logistics.

But senior team coach Ikolo says while cash prizes are welcome, the authorities — and corporate sponsors — should do more to capitalize on Nigeria’s global success at Scrabble. “We don’t value that Nigeria is ranked the best Scrabble playing nation in the world,” says Ikolo, “and we have the world Scrabble champion, Wellington Jighere.”

Angela "I'm not very shy!" Osaigbovo, 10, of Nigeria came in second in a recent youth tournament, and triumphed at Scrabble camp in August. She'd hoped to win the MSI World Youth Scrabble Championship in Lille, France, this weekend, but was refused a French visa. Ofeibea Quist-Arcton/NPR hide caption — Angela “I’m not very shy!” Osaigbovo, 10, of Nigeria came in second in a recent youth tournament, and triumphed at Scrabble camp in August. She’d hoped to win the MSI World Youth Scrabble Championship in Lille, France, this weekend, but was refused a French visa. Ofeibea Quist-Arcton/NPR

And yet Scrabble has caught on in Nigeria in a big way, among veterans and youth. There are scores of clubs up and down the 36 states of a nation of 180 million people. Daylong and weekend tournaments are held regularly and young players, like 10-year-old Angela Osaigbovo, are champions in their own right.

She’s been playing Scrabble since she was 5 and began competing at age 6. “Scrabble for me is a fun way of using my academics, to help me in my hobbies and afterschool life,” says Angela with a big smile. Thrusting her Scrabble board into the air, she then shakes her bag of tiles, and tells me, “I’m good in Math and Literacy. And I think it’s due to Scrabble.”

As a scrabbler, she likes using “premiums, or bingos, which are 7-letter words – such as zaniest, quiting and players.”

Relaxed and confident, Angela sits next to Vincent Okere, who’s 13. The teen won the local players championship and the trophy in the youth category in Lagos. He spent most of the tournament weekend prowling around the Masters, watching every Scrabble move by the veterans and, no doubt, learning.

But no hard feelings, says Angela, who came in second. She was working hard in the build-up to the youth championship at the Mind Sports International (MSI) global tournament in Lille, France, starting Saturday.

Every other year, MSI organizes a championship for all-comers, while WESPA holds its tournaments the other years.

“Yes, I’m very excited. I’m aiming to win the WYSC – which is World Youth Scrabble Championship” in Lille at the end of August, Angela told me, adding. “I’m not very shy!”

Her mother, Toyin Osaigbovo, is delighted that Angela loves Scrabble and says her daughter possesses what Nigeria has in abundance — focus and determination.

“Nigerians are very determined and dogged people,” says Osaigbovo. “And once we set our minds to something, we achieve it.”

Angela had this warning for their global competitors — “Watch out, because Nigeria is coming, with force!”

However, Angela’s disappointed mother told NPR her daughter was refused a French visa, so won’t be able to compete in Lille since the youth championship began Saturday.

The champ, Wellington Jighere, announced yesterday that most Nigerian players who applied had also been denied visas to travel to France. Social media has been twitching with outrage. Now Jighere says they’ve been told to report to the French Embassy on Monday morning to be issued with visas.

So Scrabblers, you’re warned, Nigeria’s champions are on the warpath!

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Nigeria is the English-speaking world’s Scrabble superpower. Africa’s most populous nation is home not only to the global Scrabble champion, but team Nigeria ranks as the world’s top Scrabble playing nation — ahead of the U.S. in second place.

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