Sci-fi movie, Sony ad prompt Nigerian image angst

A blockbuster sci-fi movie which caricatures Nigerians as gangsters and cannibals and a Sony PlayStation advert which implies they are fraudsters have infuriated a government battling to improve the country's image.

South African film "District 9," which has topped the UK box office for two straight weeks and ranked in the top 10 in North America, is an allegory on segregation and xenophobia, with alien life forms cooped up in a township set in Johannesburg.

None of the groups shown comes out particularly well, but the Nigerians are portrayed as gangsters, cannibals, pimps and prostitutes, while their leader's name is pronounced Obasanjo -- the same as that of Nigeria's former president.

Nigeria has banned cinemas from showing it.

"It is a Hollywood film, shot in South Africa and acted mainly by South Africans. We protested because it showed Nigeria in a very bad light," Information Minister Dora Akunyili, who is spearheading a "rebranding Nigeria" campaign, told Reuters.

"There is no country that does not have prostitutes and criminals but definitely most countries don't have cannibals, and we don't have cannibals in this country. We don't eat human flesh, it is definitely unacceptable," she said.

Akunyili said the government had told the Nigerian Film and Video Censor Board to ensure "District 9" was no longer shown in movie theatres and to confiscate copies. It had also written to the producers telling them to edit out references to Nigeria.

"GOOD PEOPLE, GREAT NATION"

"We do not encourage censorship or government forcibly prescribing actions that infringe upon a consumer's right to choose," said Roy Murray Bruce, president of Silverbird Group, which owns one of the country's main cinema chains.

"However in this instance, Silverbird is fully behind the censorship board's ban on the movie because of its demeaning, crass and offensive misrepresentation of Nigeria and Nigerians."

The controversy comes as Africa's most populous nation seeks to shrug off its image as an epicenter of corruption, epitomized by "419" email fraudsters named after the article in Nigeria's penal code that deals with advance fee fraud.

In March, the government launched a rebranding campaign with the slogan: "Nigeria: Good People, Great Nation."

Even Nigeria's banking sector is being forced to clean up its act. The central bank last month removed the heads of five banks as part of a $2.6 billion bailout, before anti-corruption police brought charges against them including recklessly granting loans without due authorization.

"District 9" has not been the only headache for Akunyili's rebranding campaign.

Sonyhad to edit an advert for its PlayStation 3 gaming console in which a customer asks the price, and was originally told: "You can't believe everything you read on the internet, otherwise I'd be a Nigerian millionaire by now."

"Why didn't Sony, for instance, use Japan? Japanese being criminals. Don't they have criminals in Japan," Akunyili said.

"In District 9, why didn't Hollywood use the criminals in New York? How many shootings do we have in a day in New York? Why didn't they use the name of their president or their former president? There is no way anybody can defend what they did."

She said Sony had apologized.

Obama's speech a health care 'game changer'?

WASHINGTON -- After months of criticism that he has failed to outline a specific health care reform plan, President Obama will address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night in a speech aides say will be to the point.

President Obama will lay out health care reform specifics in a speech before Congress on Wednesday.

At stake for the president: getting Democratic factions on board with his plan and convincing Americans of the need for health care reform.

"They will know the plan provides safety, security and stability to the millions of people that have health insurance each and every day, but watching their premiums skyrocket and double," spokesman Robert Gibbs said Wednesday on CNN's "American Morning."

"Secondly, for those who don't have health insurance, but need affordable coverage, he will lay out a plan for how people can get that, as well. He'll talk about the cost on government and why we can't afford to wait longer. We have to act now."

Obama's address to Congress will be carried live on CNN and CNN.com/Live beginning at 8 p.m. ET.

CNN Senior Political Analyst Gloria Borger said Obama will likely take on a tone seen during the 2008 campaign.

"He's going into full campaign mode" with this speech, said Gloria Borger, CNN senior political analyst.

Some have even deemed it one of the key legislative speeches of his presidency to date.

"Wednesday night's health care speech may be one of the toughest he has faced," said CNN contributor David Gergen.

Obama, for the most part, has issued broad reform ideas, but he has left most of the specific legislative details to leaders in Congress, who have faced sometimes contentious negotiations.

GOP strategist and CNN contributor Ed Rollins said that Obama must be "clear and very honest" with Americans on the specifics.

Donna Brazile, a Democratic strategist and CNN contributor, added that Obama must speak to the uninsured on what he'll support and show Americans how he'll "help them find insurance and keep insurance."

The White House has seemingly taken note.

Vice President Joe Biden said last week that Obama will delve into specifics in Wednesday's speech and will be "laying out in understandable, clear terms" what the administration wants for health care.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he thinks Obama's speech will clarify the debate.

"I have every belief that when he finishes his speech tomorrow, the American people will be able to put aside some of the ridiculous falsehoods that have been perpetrated these past few weeks," Reid, D-Nevada, said Tuesday.

A House Democrat said Obama's specifics could be a game-changer in answering Americans' anger and concern over health care reform, displayed in sometimes violent and rowdy town halls over the summer.

"The president is clearly not running away from this battle, but rather confronting the challenges we've encountered these last few weeks head-on," Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel of New York has said. "He's pulling out all the stops, and this level of involvement from the president could well be a game-changer."

Rangel said the speech could be a great way to turn public opinion on health care around.

A recent CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll showed that Americans are evenly split over whether to support or oppose Obama's health care plan.

Six in 10 younger Americans support the plan; six in 10 senior citizens oppose it.

Obama's own party also is split: Liberals demand a public option while conservative Democrats are wary of the cost.

A public option is a government-funded, government-run health care option, similar to Medicare. Under the plan, people would pay premiums 10 percent to 20 percent less than private insurance.

Bridging that divide, Gergen noted, is a must on Wednesday.

"The president must overcome tensions within his own Democratic party," he said. "But Democrats already know that to win, they cannot count on Republicans, but instead must achieve unity among themselves. ... No one knows whether Obama can heal the obvious divisions" within his party.

The address Wednesday will be Obama's second speech to the full Congress since he took office in January. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Reid formally invited Obama to make the address, as required.

On Tuesday, Obama met with the Democratic leaders at the White House to discuss the speech, among other things. After the discussion, Reid said the president and vice president were "very positive" about negotiations.

"And that's in keeping with the conversation by members in the past week: We're ready to do health care reform," he said.

As for the speech, Reid said Obama didn't "give us a dress rehearsal of the speech, but he did tell us that he's going to outline to the American people and of course the Congress on the health care reform plan he hopes we will do."

Pelosi, meanwhile, said a public option is essential to bringing down health care costs and providing competition to insurance companies, a position she has touted over the past few months.

So far, Democratic proposals in both chambers have come under withering Republican opposition and fierce attacks by conservative commentators, who argue it will raise the already skyrocketing deficit.

The so-called "Gang of Six," three Democrats and three Republicans, met Tuesday to consider a plan by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus. The plan includes dropping the public option, taxing the priciest insurance plans and using health care cooperatives.

After the meeting, the Montana Democrat asked members of the committee to come back to him on Wednesday morning with ideas and counterproposals. Another meeting will take place later in the afternoon to discuss whether they can reach a deal before Obama's speech, Baucus added.

Task Force drafts Okocha, Moutroudes to assist Amodu

The Presidential Task Force yesterday drafted former Eagles captain, Austin Jay Jay Okocha and John Mastroudes to the technical crew of the Super Eagles.
The former Super Eagles captain and one time chairman of defunct Leventis FC are to assist Amodu on technical matters.

It was not clear why Mastroudes was appointed into such a technical position but he has been very supportive of coach Amodu and he is expected to offer tips to the man.

Commandos free abducted reporter in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A New York Times reporter who was kidnapped last week was freed Wednesday in a pre-dawn military raid in Afghanistan that left a British commando and several others dead.

New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell was abducted Saturday while covering a NATO airstrike in Afghanistan.

Stephen Farrell was rescued by NATO's International Security Assistance Force, known as the ISAF, the British Foreign Office said.

A British commando died in the operation, the country's defense ministry said without offering further details.

Crossfire during the raid also killed a woman and a child, said Abdel Wahid Omar Khil, governor of Kunduz district, part of the province by the same name where the rescue took place.

Farrell's accompanying Afghan journalist, Sultan Munadi, was killed in the raid, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.

Armed gunmen kidnapped the journalists Saturday while they were covering a NATO airstrike on Taliban forces that killed at least 90 people in the northern Kunduz province.

Neither CNN nor the Times had reported Farrell's kidnapping for security reasons.

"We feared that media attention would raise the temperature and increase the risk to the captives," the paper quoted Executive Editor Bill Keller as saying Wednesday.

Farrell called the newspaper's foreign editor before dawn and said he was "extracted" in a commando raid after a fierce firefight, according to a report on the Times Web site.

"There were bullets all around us. I could hear British and Afghan voices," Farrell, a 46-year-old dual Irish-British citizen, told the paper.

Farrell and Munadi ran outside during the firefight. At the end of a wall, Munadi went forward, shouting: "Journalist! Journalist!" but dropped in a hail of bullets, Farrell said. He didn't know whether the shots came from allied or militant fire.

"I saw him go down in front of me. He did not move. He's dead," Farrell told the paper. "He was so close, he was just 2 feet in front of me when he dropped."

Brown offered condolences to the families of Munadi and the British commando. Of the commando, Brown said, "His bravery will not be forgotten."

The operation to rescue the hostages happened after extensive planning and consideration, Brown said.

"Those involved knew the high risks they were running. That they undertook it in such circumstances showed breathtaking heroism," Brown said. "Hostage-taking is never justified, and the U.K. does not make substantive concessions, including paying ransoms. But whenever British nationals are kidnapped, we and our allies will do everything in our power to free them."

Ten weeks earlier, another Times reporter escaped after months in Taliban captivity.

David Rohde, a local reporter and a driver were kidnapped November 10 outside Kabul.

The two reporters escaped on June 19 by climbing over a wall in the compound where they were held for seven months in Pakistan's North Waziristan region.

The driver did not escape, the newspaper said.

The death toll in the Kunduz airstrike, which Farrell was covering when he was kidnapped, has varied, depending on the source, but local Afghan officials have said at least half of those killed were civilians.

The NATO commander in the area called in the strike Friday as Afghans tried to siphon fuel from two tankers hijacked by the Taliban a day earlier.

The Taliban allowed villagers to drain the tankers carrying fuel earmarked for the NATO-led force after they became stuck in the mud when the militants tried to drive them through the Kunduz River.

The military thought there were no civilians near the trucks at the time of the attack, the ISAF's Capt. Elizabeth Mathias said.

Farrell, who joined The New York Times two years ago, was kidnapped in April 2004 in Falluja, Iraq.

At the time, he was on assignment for The Times of London.

"I was driving from Amman [Jordan] to Baghdad in an armored car and a lorry full of guys with Kalashnikovs and rocket-propelled grenades just slowed in front of the car, sprayed us with bullets, dragged us out and took us off to a house somewhere near Falluja, and after a little bit of violence they just bombarded us with questions for about 10 hours before finally accepting we were journalists and letting us go," he told CNN two years afterward.

In a separate incident Wednesday, a suicide attack killed at least two civilians and injured several others, including NATO personnel, near the main British military base in southern Afghanistan, the ISAF said.

The suicide bomber detonated his explosives vest near a crowd of civilian truck drivers near the entrance of Camp Bastion in volatile Helmand province, the ISAF said.

The injured civilians and ISAF personnel were treated at Camp Bastion, which is in Washir District. The casualty count is unclear as an investigation continues.

The Nigerian government has expressed dislike for Sony's new Playstation 3 ad campaign that references the Nigerian letter scam.

Here's the press release made by the Nigerian minister of information and communications, Prof. Dora Akunyili.

PRESS STATEMENT

MALICIOUS ADVERTISEMENT AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT AND PEOPLE OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA BY SONY COROPORATION

The attention of the Federal Government of Nigeria has been drawn to an advertisement by Sony Corporation on the internet which from all indications is designed to portray Nigeria in bad light in an effort for Sony to market her products.

Link to ADVERT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-3uKprF824

1. The advert in question currently circulating on youtube.com and facebook.com and other international websites creates the impression that Nigerians hardly do genuine business. This insinuation is in bad faith and unacceptable.

2. The Government and the good people of Nigeria reject this unwarranted attack on the reputation and image of the country. The government sees this as an attempt by Sony Corporation to undermine Nigeria’s business interest around the world.

3. It is on record that Sony Corporation has operated in Nigeria since the country’s independence and has enjoyed tremendous patronage from Nigerians at home and abroad. Over these years, there is no established record that the company has recorded any major incidence of scam or fraud by Nigerians that warrants its deliberate campaign against the country’s image.

4. While Nigeria accepts or concedes that there are few criminal minded people within her population just like any other country including Japan the home country of Sony Corporation. The Federal Government of Nigeria has as a matter of policy put in place institutions and mechanisms to rid the country of any form of fraudulent practices. Nigeria therefore does not see the basis to single out the country as an example in that infamous advertisement.

5. In the light of the above, the Federal Government of Nigeria requests Sony Corporation to immediately withdraw that advertisement from circulation.

6. Nigeria also demands an unconditional apology from Sony Corporation for this deliberate negative campaign against the country’s image and reputation. The apology must be given the same measure of publicity by Sony Corporation in all channels where the unfortunate adverts were aired.

7. The Federal Government of Nigeria wishes to assure all genuine investors around the world that Nigeria remains a major investment destination and a country where most businesses thrives in trust, good faith, competition, competence and integrity.

PROF. DORA AKUNYILI
HON. MINISTER, INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS
4TH SEPTEMBER, 2009
http://www.fmic.gov.ng/