Tag: Nigerians in America

Zeke Nnaji | Denver Nuggets take Nigerian-American at No. 22 in draft

By PAT GRAHAM AP Sports Writer

DENVER (AP) — Nigerian-American  Zeke Nnaji was taken by the Denver Nuggets with the No. 22 overall pick in the NBA draft Wednesday night, adding a mobile big man with a soft touch to a team that’s coming off a run to the Western Conference finals.

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Nigerian healthcare professionals in US call for reforms at home

By The Nation

Nigerian healthcare professionals in diaspora have lent their voice to the growing call for the urgent reform in their home country to make it more efficient and better able to handle the requirements and challenges in the 21st century. This call was contained in a release jointly issued by the Nigerian Association of Pharmacists and Pharmaceutical Scientists in the Americas (NAPPSA), the Association of Nigerian Physicians in the Americas (ANPA), and the National Association of Nigerian Nurses in North America (NANNNA).

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BLM, End SARS Protests Unite Americans & Nigerians in Global Fight For Equality

Both campaigns have gone viral, allowing the two groups to share information and resources for their grassroot efforts towards equality

By Jorden Hales – NBC 7 San Diego

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#EndSARS: US-based professors urge Biden to sanction Nigerian officials implicated in attack on protesters

By Adejumo kabir | Premiere Times

Eighty-one scholars of African Studies have written a letter to the United States President-elect, Joe Biden, and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, urging their incoming administration to impose a travel ban on Nigerian officials culpable in the attack by security personnel on peaceful #EndSARS protesters.

The scholars sent the letter to the Biden-Harris Transition Team on November 13.

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American Dreams Are Alive And Well On ‘Bob Hearts Abishola’

by Adam Buckman | Media Post

At first glance, Billy Gardell might not seem like the romantic leading-man type, but he has emerged nevertheless as TV’s top romantic comedy star.For six seasons, he romanced Melissa McCarthy in “Mike & Molly.” And now he is courting an immigrant from Nigeria in “Bob ♥ Abishola,” also on CBS and emanating from the sitcom factory of producer Chuck Lorre.

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Davido | The Afrobeats Star is an Upbeat Voice in a Turbulent Time


By Jon Pareles | The New York Times

Davido — the American-born Nigerian Afrobeats artist David Adedeji Adeleke — has built an international career on songs about love and lust that have collectively amassed more than a billion streams. The album he is releasing , “A Better Time,” is filled with them.

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Chibuihe Obi Achimba | Gay in Nigeria, Black Male in America

By Chibuihe Obi Achimba | The New York Times

I came to the United States in 2019 as a scholar-at-risk fellow at Harvard University. After I was kidnapped and tortured in Nigeria for being gay and daring to speak openly about it America offered me refuge. But this spring after videos of the killings of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd surfaced, I’m coming to terms with the fact that the country that promised me safety is one where Black men like me face a different kind of danger.

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African leaders congratulate Biden after projected win

By Jerry Omondi | CGTN Africa

African leaders have sent congratulatory messages to Joe Biden after U.S. media called a win for the Democratic Party candidate. In messages posted majorly on Twitter, leaders from across Africa sent congratulatory messages to the 77-year-old, who is to take leadership in January 2021.

Here are some of the messages from African leaders:

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The Rise of Nigerian-Americans in American Democracy

By Chido Nwangwu | Thisday Newspaper

The November 3, 2020 presidential and congressional elections in the United States continue to show aspects of the beauty of its recent democratic traditions. Especially the opportunity it gives to recent immigrants — required to be citizens of the United States regardless of where they come from — to compete in the civic battle of ideas. Alongside many other candidates, 12 Nigerian-Americans and African immigrants joined in making history. One such person is Dr. Adeoye ‘Oye’ Owolewa.

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A mixed bag for African immigrant candidates in Minnesota races

By Tom Gitaa | President and Publisher of Mshale

The African immigrant community’s bid to expand its share of elected officials in the state had some bright spots and disappointing losses in equal measure. One of the bright spots was in the Minnesota legislature where the ranks of African immigrant legislators doubled to four from the previous two.

Here is the breakdown on how the results came in:

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Nnamdi Chukwuocha | Nigerian-American wins Delaware State Assembly

By Chidi Emenike | Nairametrics

Another Nigerian-American, Nnamdi Chukwuocha, has emerged as the winner of a seat in the Delaware State House of Representatives, under the Democratic Party in the 2020 US General elections. He joined the list of other Nigerian-Americans like Oye Owolewa and Esther Ajayi who have so far recorded success in the US 2020 General Elections.

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Oye Owolewa | Democrat wins in District of Columbia to emerges 1st Nigerian-American congressman

By Abiola Odutola | Nairametrics

Democrat, Oye Owolewa, has been elected as a shadow United States Representative out of the District of Columbia. The 30-year-old is the first Nigerian-American congressman in the country’s history.

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Esther Agbaje Becomes Minnesota’s First Nigerian-American Legislator

By Dawn R. Wolfe | The Appeal

Political newcomer Esther Agbaje has become Minnesota’s first Nigerian-American legislator after winning the seat formerly held by long-time state Representative Raymond Dehn.

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U.S. ELECTIONS: Nigerian voters cite immigration, healthcare as top issues

 BY EDIRI OYIBO | TheNewsGuru

A cross-section of Nigerian-Americans and other immigrant voters mentioned immigration, healthcare and stability as top on their minds in Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election.They spoke as voting got underway in a presidential race pitting President Donald Trump against former Vice President Joe Biden.

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Esther Agbaje | Nigerian-American wins Minnesota House of Reps ticket

 BY KEHINDE AJOSE | TheNewsGuru

Ms Esther Agbaje, who contested to represent District 59B in the Minnesota House of Representatives on the platform of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, an affiliate of the US Democratic Party, has won. The 35-year-old daughter of an Episcopal priest and a librarian, both Nigerian immigrants, defeated Republican Alan Shilepsky and Green Party candidate Lisa Neal-Delgado to represent downtown and north Minneapolis in the state House.

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Motivations Vary as African Diaspora Vote in US Election

By Salem Solomon | Voice of America – English

WASHINGTON – For most African immigrants in the United States, the right to vote is precious.  Ivo Tasong, a Cameroonian American who immigrated to the U.S. in 1986, said voting is something he will never take for granted. 

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Black Immigrants in the United States Have Been Targeted by Trump

BY RUTH ETIESIT SAMUEL | Teen Vogue

In the final presidential debate, in what felt like the midnight hour of an endless campaign, just six minutes and three seconds were allotted to a dialogue that shaped Donald Trump’s entire ascent to politics. Each debate felt like a perpetual will-they-or-won’t-they dance, waiting for the candidates to discuss it. Along with other immigrants and children of immigrants across the country, I listened to Trump lie about children being brought in “through cartels, through coyotes, and through gangs” and pat himself on the back for his policies, deflecting responsibility for the 545 children his administration separated from their parents at the border.

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2 Americans with African Roots Vie for Changes Through Ballot Box

By Salem Solomon | Voice of America

It has been a long journey for Yinka Faleti from Lagos, Nigeria to be a candidate for Missouri secretary of state. He moved to the United States at the age of seven and years later, earned an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the Army’s elite service academy. He served for six years as a combat arms officer in the Army, including two deployments to the Middle East. 

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Nine Nigerian-Americans contesting in U.S. elections

By News Agency of Nigeria

No fewer than nine Nigerian Americans are on the ballot for the general elections in the United States. Running mostly on the platform of the Democratic Party, the candidates are bidding for different offices at the federal, state and local levels.

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Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala | Nigerian-American Still in Line to Lead World Trade Organization, Despite US Opposition 

By Timothy Obiezu | Voice of America

Nigerians have expressed confidence that the country’s former finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, will still become the first African and first woman to lead the World Trade Organization, despite opposition from the United States. The 66-year-old has secured strong backing to become the WTO’s director-general, but the U.S. this week put its support behind a South Korean candidate.

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Gbenga Ogunjimi | A Nigerian “Embracing my American Blackness.”

By Gbenga Ogunjimi | Washington Business Journal

I am an international entrepreneur living in America. I am demographically classified as Black, a cultural identity that I relish with pride. Like many who fall in this category, I never considered myself Black until I came to America — since everyone looked like me in my home country of Nigeria.

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Chido Nwangwu | Why I Voted for America

By Chido Nwangwu | ThisDay

This Tuesday, November 3, 2020, a substantial number of eligible Americans will go to the polls to vote for the presidential, congressional and local elections. The majesty of the American electoral system is that this has gone on every four years — since 1789, at the time of the founding of this country, the greatest country known to human civilization.

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What makes Nigerians in diaspora so successful

By Ima Jackson-Obot | Financial Times

Anthony Joshua, world heavyweight boxing champion; John Boyega, Hollywood actor; Pearlena Igbokwe, Universal Studios group chair and Maggie Aderin-Pocock, space scientist. These are just a few names in a long list of Nigerians in diaspora who have achieved success on an international scale in a wide range of fields.

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Burna Boy, Tobe Nwigwe, others shine at the 2020 BET Awards

By Ezenduka Ebuka Murphy | Deythere.com

Burna Boy, Tobe Nwigwe, Roddy Ricch and Megan thee Stallion were some of the artistes who took the 15th annual BET Hip Hop Awards by storm .During a show that seemed to focus more on performances than awards, Nigerian star Burna Boy and Nigerian-born Houston spitter Tobey Nwigwe stood out with their performances.

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Donald Trump Blocks Nigerian-American Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala from being selected as WTO Director General

By Bryce Baschuk | Bloomberg

The World Trade Organization’s effort to select a leader and chart a new course for the global trading system hit a roadblock Wednesday after the Trump administration vetoed a bid by front-runner Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who is a U.S. citizen, to be the WTO’s next director-general.

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How Trump’s ‘African Ban’ Ripped Families Apart

By KOVIE BIAKOLO | The Atlantic

In February 2017, Tayo left Nigeria for the United States. (I am calling Tayo by her nickname because she feared that using her full name could threaten her green-card petition.) Two years earlier, a cousin who lived in New York had introduced her over the phone to a man he worked with; the two began a friendship that soon turned into a long-distance romance.

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Dr. Ngozi Ezike | Nigerian-American head of Illinois Public Health cries while reporting increase in Covid 19 infections

By Mitchell Armentrout |  Chicago Sun-Times

Ugly case numbers, busy hospitals, shuttering businesses, mounting death tolls and a deadly virus traveling through the air from face to maskless face. Seven months into the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s beginning to feel a lot like March again in the Land of Lincoln.

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Bam Adebayo | Maimi Heat’s Power forward is embracing his name and his Nigerian heritage

BY MARC J. SPEARS | Undefeated

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Miami Heat center Edrice Femi “Bam” Adebayo got an unexpected phone call in June just weeks before entering the NBA bubble. It was from his half-brother, who delivered the news that their father, John Adebayo, had died in Nigeria.

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Nigerian-Americans Start Project to Lobby Congress and to Push for Sanctions Against the Nigerian Government in Response to the Killings of Peaceful protesters.

NEWS PROVIDED BY Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C. 

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Leaders from the newly formed October 20th, 2020 Project (The Project) have engaged Von Batten-Montague-York, L.C., a Washington, DC-based policy and advocacy advisory group, to gain U.S. Congressional and executive branch support for the End SARS and anti-corruption movement currently happening in Nigeria.

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Nigeria’s #EndSARS protesters draw inspiration from Black Lives Matter

By Philip Obaji Jr. | USA TODAY

For weeks, young Nigerians rallying behind the hashtag #EndSARS have filled the streets of major cities across Nigeria demanding the dissolution of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a police unit that has in recent years been publicly criticized for extortion of citizens, kidnappings, extrajudicial killings and illegal arrests.

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