Below The Headlines — 02
Below The Headlines — 02
Dive right into the 1914 Reader, your gateway to Nigeria and beyond, unearthing the week’s most intriguing stories hidden beneath the headlines
Inside Nigeria
The quest for morality is a lifelong one — there will always be that one bad thing to get rid of. Sheikh Harun Ibn-Sina (‘Sina’, by the way, is an ‘interesting’ name for the head of the morality police), head of Kano’s morality police, Hisbah, has decreed that posting photos of naked people on commercial tricycles is now verboten — Daily Trust
“Apart from almost all the apartments not being completed, a school, a market, a shopping centre, a clinic and a recreation centre which are some of the facilities purported to be included in the estate, have not been constructed. The roads in the estate have also not been tarred” — God forbid Governor Ishaku of Taraba doesn’t commission something before leaving office on May 29th — Premium Times (Mind you, he has approved N2bn to buy ‘exotic’ cars for he and his friends as they leave office — Premium Times)
We have arrived at the point where some people have gone to court asking for Buhari to stay so that Tinubu does not become President— Tribune
Nigerian billionaires don’t fight each other very often so it was like Christmas came early when Femi Otedola a.k.a F.Ote$ and Tony Elumelu briefly spent a few billions fighting over control of Transcorp, the power-to-hotels conglomerate controlled by Elumelu. Otedola has now revealed the origin of their beef via a press statement. In reality it looks like a failed hostile takeover with Elumelu mounting a very effective and quick defence of his empire — Premium Times (Deeper dive in The Africa Report)
Audacity is at an all time high with Nigerian internet fraudsters. Of all people to impersonate: “Abdullahi Adebola Ayinde, was charged with impersonation conspiracy for posing to be an American actor, Tom Cruise” — Guardian
Fatima Muhammad is so fed up of her marriage she went to court asking for a divorce. She also offered to return the N80,000 bride price paid for her. The court agreed — Daily Trust
Ade Segun planned his own kidnap and tried to get his parents to pay N2m for his ransom. Ade Segun is a teenager — Guardian
Prices of wigs have shot up dramatically in the last few years with human hair wigs costing anywhere between N50,000 and N500,000. Capitalism has now stepped in to save the day by democratising access to good hair in the form of online wig renting platforms. They charge up to N5,000 per day for ‘bone straight’ wigs. And so what if it smells of someone else? — Vanguard
7 people died (other reports say only 2 died) and several others landed in hospital after drinking tea at a wedding ceremony in Kano. The tea appears to have been laced with a leaf called zakami — ThisDay
Outside Nigeria
Governments — especially in developing countries — love airlines. Antigua and Barbuda have decided to revive the Caribbean airline, LIAT, that went bankrupt in 2020 (after Covid-19 dealt it the final blow). Now the airline is being revived with Nigeria’s Air Peace becoming the new majority shareholder. The revived airline will be known as LIAT 2020. Do not laugh — Simple Flying
The first conviction under a new (2020) US law called the Rodchenkov Act has been delivered. The act allows the US to pursue anyone involved in a doping scheme anywhere in the world where a US athlete features (like with financial crimes where the US can pursue any case anywhere as long as the dollar is used in the crime). Eric Lira has pleaded guilty to supplying Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare with banned substances — Washington Post
The FT released their annual list of Africa’s fastest growing companies. 27 of the 100 companies on the list were from Nigeria, including the top 2 (combined revenues of $165m in 2021). On a revenue basis, Nigeria’s first entry on the list was Flour Mills at number 7 ($2.8bn). Maybe this list is a good insight into the continent’s biggest companies of tomorrow — Financial Times
Osi Umenyiora, who won the NFL Super Bowl twice (2007 and 2011) with the New York Giants (one of two British-Nigerians to have won the Super Bowl), employs scouts in Nigeria to find prospects for the NFL. They found Kenneth Odumegwu playing basketball but his size (6' 6") and physique caught their eye. From there they took him to Ghana, London and finally Florida. A year ago, he did not know anything about American Football, today he is an NFL player with the Green Bay Packers. Amazing story — The Athletic
The Pandemic may have been a blessing in disguise for Nigeria’s pharmaceutical industry. Tentative signs of life in the industry although with several challenges to overcome: a made in Nigeria antibiotic costs N600 compared with N150 for the imported version. At 1914 Reader we make a lot of noise about exports: “the country imports $99 worth of pharmaceutical products for every $1 it exports”. But you can be sure Nigerian officials will focus on the imports and respond with bans etc — Forbes
Donatus Okafor, a security guard at Google’s European HQ in Ireland, was sacked in 2022 for sleeping on the job. He took the company to the employment tribunal saying he only had his eyes closed for a long duration of time but was not sleeping. He lost his appeal — Irish Times
Spider-Man in Osogbo — Euronews
Sunday Ifeanyi Innocent moved to Japan in 2001. Ten years later he was arrested for illegally living in the country and served with a deportation order. But he remains in the country while awaiting special permission to live there. He is banned from working, obtaining national health insurance or even leaving his Prefecture. His Japanese wife (married in 2018) is the family breadwinner and she is leading a campaign to change Japan’s laws for people like Sunday — Asahi
A number of countries signed pledges to return Benin Bronzes in their custody to Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM). To the surprise of these countries and the NCMM, President Buhari recently signed a directive that bronzes will be handed over to the Oba of Benin (who is in a power tussle with the Edo Governor over them). This has provoked a debate in Germany and other places where it looks (to them) as if they are returning the items to a private collection with no guarantees the public will have access to them— Spiegel, The Times and Economist
Samuel Fosso — a Nigerian born in Cameroun and raised in Central African Republic — has won the £30,000 Deutsche Börse Photography prize. Check out some of his eye-catching photography — Guardian, Samuel Fosso and Deutsche Börse Foundation
The UK is planning to stop dependants from travelling with Masters’ students on one year courses. 500,000 student visas were granted in 2022 (up 81% from 2021) with a further 135,788 dependant visas granted. The vast majority of the dependant visas went to India and Nigeria — Financial Times
A Korean novelist, Lee U, has written a book to shine a light on the inhumane conditions inside her country’s immigration detention centres. She says the most memorable character in the novel is a Nigerian who is based on an actual Nigerian she met when she visited a detention centre — Korea Herald
Akara (and Agege bread) has arrived in New York where it now wishes to be known as a veggie fritter. That will be $8.79, thank you very much. “The akara are light, almost fluffy — “creamy,” Akinya says — but substantial, too, pleasingly chewy and hefty enough for a sandwich” — New Yorker and Akara House
This week on 1914 Reader, I wrote about Victor Osimhen’s journey from Olusosun to Capocannoniere in Italy’s Serie A and something on General Sani Abacha and tsetse flies. I also wrote about how to do public policy using India as a guide to which Tobi Lawson responded with how not to do public policy using Pakistan as a guide. Tobi also attempted to answer the question as to why the Nigerian business community tolerates policies that are not in their interest? And another piece on exports.
All the pieces on 1914 Reader are short and to the point and we are planning to bring you lots more like this. We won’t clog your inbox with every post so we hope you bookmark the website and come visiting often.
See you next week