Journalists in Nigeria, already the target of threats and bribes, face a new danger after a radical Islamist sect bombed the offices of a major newspaper and vowed to “hit the media hard” in Africa’s most populous nation.

Former US president George Bush and ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair joined Nigeria’s elite at a ceremony honouring its political and business establishment, but one winner’s absence highlighted the endemic corruption and other problems plaguing the oil-rich nation.