Below The Headlines — 13
Welcome to another week of Nigerian stories about Nigerians in Nigeria and around the world. On 1914 Reader this week, I wrote about a Nigerian government policy announced in 2015 and why it excited me. Nothing came of it. And we had a guest post following up on my cement piece last week. Short and sharp.
Look out for a series on posts in the coming week on various parts of the recent Central Bank of Nigeria’s dump of its accounts. Should be spicy.
Inside Nigeria
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President met with President Bola Tinubu and was given some insights into how the President is trying to cut his own costs given that all Nigerians are in this together: “He equally went further to say that he prefers to use his own private jet and they told him no, it’s a security issue, he must use the government jet. And he went further to say, even himself, that he’s using only a two-bedroom flat” — Daily Trust
“I married Lilian in the year 2000 and we have four children. I am Yoruba, while my wife is Igbo. I have suffered a lot in the hands of her family because they don’t love me, but I’ve been enduring. Lilian packed her belongings out of my house to another man’s house in 2019 and went to change her name, including my children’s surname to the name of the Igbo man she’s engaged to” — Tribune
Poultry farmers are really going through it, in large part because Nigeria simply cannot solve for maize: “The situation on ground currently is the worst I have seen since I started my poultry farm over 30 years ago. How can maize be more expensive than soybean that we are even importing bulk of our needs?” — Business Day
Vanguard with more hard-hitting journalism: “Economy & Lifestyle has discovered that many dressmakers are now attaching hip and butt pads to gowns, and corsets to enhance the body and shapes of women when they put them on. For many, a glance at such a woman sends the mind reeling in different thoughts like ‘Where on earth has she got that bodily endowment’” — Vanguard
A harrowing story about how kidnapping is now a part of everyday life for so many Nigerians: “Kefas said despite collecting N3.2 Million, recharge cards worth N50,000, and a motorbike worth N800,000, his brother still died in custody in their custody of the kidnappers. According to him, “When we demanded his body, they demanded an extra N10 Million to release his corpse.” — ICIR Nigeria
The rising menace of fake bank alerts in Nigeria — Guardian
“At least eight worshipers were killed and 25 others sustained injuries as a section of the 150-year-old Zaria Central Mosque collapsed on Friday during prayer session” — Punch
Nigerian politicians forging educational certificates to contest elections is nothing new. But Muktar Yerima who won election to the Kano State House of Assembly for NNPP forged his primary school certificate, surely a new low — ThisDay
“Jeremiah Adeniran, a 29-year-old Rida driver, has admitted that he made N700,000 as his own share from robbing four of his passengers in less than two months.” — Vanguard
“A magistrates’ court sitting in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, has sentenced a 35-year-old man, George Joseph, to one month community service for stealing a handkerchief and a keyboard converter belonging to St Luke’s Anglican Church, Ile Abiye.” — Daily Trust
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes: “He added that the defendant used the firearm to illustrate while preaching a sermon about faith in the Church. The prosecution counsel alleged that the defendants made inciting and intimidating statements to the church congregation that could cause alarm and breach of peace” — Daily Post
Outside Nigeria
A profile of Victor Boniface, the Nigerian striker who has just joined Bayer Leverkusen in Germany for €20m after suffering some terrible misfortune early in his career in Europe: “So, Boniface is unusual, that much is certain. Because of the severity of his injuries, he has also played relatively little football. At 22, he has taken part in just over 100 senior games and is also yet to be capped at senior international level by Nigeria” — The Athletic
More international coverage of the NFF’s disgrace over the Super Falcons’ World Cup payments. Each player is to receive at least $60k each but the money will be paid via the NFF where some of it will surely disappear: “Up until about three weeks ago, I had been owed about 14 months’ salary,” Waldrum said in July. “And then they paid seven months’ salary. We still have players that haven’t been paid since two years ago, when we played the summer series in the U.S.A. It’s a travesty.” — NYT
Interview with Uzo Aduba, who starred in Orange Is The New Black and the new Netflix series Painkillers: “My mom was very good visual artist, and both my mom and dad were athletic. They didn’t demand I become a doctor or a lawyer. My mom was delighted I was artistic.” — WSJ
Another piece, this time from the New York Times, on the 4 migrants who got on a ship from Nigeria and landed in Brazil, to their surprise: “When we informed them we were the federal police of Brazil, they made this face like, ‘Huh, we’re in Brazil?’” — NYT
Profile of Kemisola Bolarinwa, who has come up with a cancer detecting bra that is set for trials: “Bolarinwa set up Nextwear Technology in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. The company will soon launch what is believed to be the first trial of a wearable, battery-operated device to detect breast cancer — the Smart Bra.” — Guardian UK
A sad story about Bishop Ebor, who had complained to the NHS about traumatic events in his life in Nigeria before taking his own life in Norwich: “During this consultation, he recounted a traumatic experience in his native Nigeria, in which he and his brother were forced to carry their father’s body to a cemetery after his death.” — Eastern Daily Press
Weird story about Liz Cambage, who allegedly racially abused Nigerian basketballers while playing for Australia against Nigeria during a female basketball game in 2021. Plot twist is that Cambage’s father is Nigerian and she’s now trying to switch nationality to play for Nigeria — Just Women Sports (Video of the game and the fight after the alleged incident has emerged as well — NY Post)
Hanging Libraries in Nigerian classrooms: “The library is a bookshelf made from disused fabric hanging from a nail on the wall inside the classroom. Shaped like a hanging shoe rack but slightly larger, it has seven to 10 compartments, each containing between three-to-five books of different sizes” — Al Jazeera
For reasons I cannot explain, the Daily Mail decided to resurrect the story of Emmanuel Nwude’s legendary £200m scam — Daily Mail
The 3rd story in as many months of a Nigerian kid who was recruited into American Football after being found playing basketball. This time not in Nigeria but America: “The Onyeagoros came to the U.S. from Nigeria when Chinedu was 18 months old. When the family visits Nigeria again, as they did in 2019, Chinedu is assured this benefit as the firstborn son — the biggest room at the family compound for the entire stay.” — LA Times
Another day another Nigerian sentenced for covid scams: “Federal prosecutors in Indianapolis announced that U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt sentenced 28-year-old Oluwatobi Seton, of Bloomington, on Wednesday. The judge also ordered her pay $4.3 million in restitution.” — Associated Press
“Flight statistics during the Hajj season showed Indonesia as the top country for incoming and outgoing pilgrims. India ranks second, followed by Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria, GACA figures show.” — Arab News
A less talked about consequence of the coup in Niger is that it might undo what little good work has gone into halting the modern trans-saharan slave trade: “The four of them were sold to a pimp, a tall man with dreadlocks who, like them, was from Nigeria. He was arrogant, fond of boasting that he knew he was going to hell. One day, two of Mimi’s sisters were told to pack their bags: they had been sold to another pimp” — Economist
Kelefa Sanneh is one of my favourite writers on any topic. Here he writes on the unstoppable rise of Amapiano, a story which cannot be written without Nigerian angles: “Most audacious of all is Asake, who became last year’s biggest Nigerian success story with “Mr. Money with the Vibe,” a début album powered almost entirely by amapiano; a few weeks ago, he released “Work of Art,” a similarly infectious album that features a log drum on nearly every track. One of the songs on it has a title that is simple and perhaps incendiary: “Amapiano.” On Saturday night in Miami, on the main stage, Asake performed it live for perhaps the first time, offering himself as the Nigerian voice of a South African style: “Amapiano / We go show / We go let them know.” — New Yorker
See you next week!
