16 dead as Nigeria's problems continue to worsen

It has been noted that ethnic and religious crises in Nigeria claimed 16 more victims, with gunmen killing eight in the north and a mob torching an Islamic school in the south, as a fuel strike added to the deadly tension.

"Amid the sectarian and social turmoil, Nobel literature prize laureate, Wole Soyinka, one of the country’s most respected voices, warned that the continent’s most populous nation was heading toward civil war."

A 3-day old general strike has paralysed the country and sent President Goodluck Jonathan’s government - already battling a spate of bloody attacks by the Islamist sect Boko Haram - into crisis mode. As it is popularly said , "crisis mode activated" by Nigerians.

In a statement on Tuesday, the federal government ordered all striking workers back to work, warning their employers would enforce a “no work, no pay policy.” “Members of the public who are under contractual obligations as employees in the public and private sectors are advised to respect the terms of their contract of service and report to their duty posts,” Justice Minister Mohammed Adoke said in the statement.

If public servants continue to disregard the terms of their employment “the government will not hesitate to enforce the no work, no pay policy,” Adoke added.

After a tough analysis, the tension in Africa’s top oil producer contributed to rising world oil prices, with Brent North Sea crude gaining 83 cents to $113.28 a barrel on Tuesday.

In the latest attack blamed on Boko Haram, gunmen killed eight people, including five police officers, in a pub in Potiskum town in the northern state of Yobe before speeding off on a motorcycle.

A seven-year-old child was also among the victims, police said.

“Suspected Islamic sect members attacked the drinking joint and killed eight people, four of whom were policemen,” Yobe state police commissioner Tanko Lawal told Reuters news agency.

Southerners, who are mostly Christians or animists, have recently been the targets of attacks by Boko Haram, which operates in the mainly Muslim north.

Yobe is one of the states where the government has declared a state of emergency following an upsurge in violence by the Islamist group. UN chief Ban Ki-moon discussed the increasing sectarian violence with Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Olugbenga Ashiru on Tuesday.

The meeting followed the release of a UN report that highlighted “growing concern in the region” about possible links between Boko Haram and al-Qaeda’s affiliate in North Africa, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.