Below The Headlines — 04
Hop aboard this week’s newsletter, your express ticket to Nigeria and beyond, unearthing the hidden Nigerian-tinted news narratives from the world over that slipped past your radar
Inside Nigeria
The war in Sudan means that the airspace over the country is closed. Airlines flying pilgrims from Nigeria to Saudi Arabia for Hajj have to take a longer and more expensive route. The government has stepped in to subsidise this already subsidised cost for them. Prayer is key — Daily Trust
Kidnapping, castle rustling and climate change have all combined to dramatically change the lives of milkmaids in northern Nigeria. Milk supply has reduced and prices have gone up meaning people can hardly afford to buy and some can’t pay when they buy on credit. Recommended piece — HumAngle
Snapchat messages were tendered in court in the case of Whitney Adeniran, the 12yr old Chrisland School student who died from electrocution. The students set up a chat group because they suspected the school would try to cover up what actually happened — Punch
New Offence Alert — Police arrested a journalist in Katsina for seeking ‘cheap popularity’ on Tiktok — Premium Times
Afeez Adegoke trained as an auxiliary nurse. After that he set up his own hospital and ran it for 10yrs as a doctor. He was only found out because a surgery he performed went wrong and the patient decided to involve the police — Guardian
A man in Kaduna dragged a woman to a customary court for calling him impotent, contrary to sections 312, 371 and 376 of the Kaduna State Penal Code. Bail for her was set at N30,000 — Daily Post
“Traditional religion adherents, on Thursday, called for the adoption of Ogun, the god of iron, to swear in all elective and appointed office holders in Nigeria rather than Bible and Qur’an in order to curb the misappropriation of public funds” — Punch
Portable refused to perform at the Tinubu inauguration concert, on principle. He was only going to get N5m of the N10m paid to him and that’s not nice — Tribune
Babatunde Fashola, a man full of ‘sense’, waited until the last working day of the outgoing government, to launch a 10 year national housing strategy. The streets won’t forget him — Guardian
The Federal Goverment, piggybacking off a report from the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), laments that only 10 percent of landowners in Nigeria are women. Problem for the next government, then — Punch
Outside Nigeria
Interview with Yemi Mobolade, the new mayor-elect of Colorado Springs, the first black person to be elected mayor of the city: “I moved to the U.S. 27 years ago as an international student. My siblings and I moved because of opportunity. And by fate and faith and luck, we landed in the U.S. And I spent the first 14 of those years in northern Indiana, where I met my wife. And I landed in Colorado also because of opportunity, first as a pastor and then as a business leader and now as a civic leader” — NPR
Nigeria now exports priests abroad. Father Matthias Ejukwe of Ogoja is settling down in New Jersey — Newark Advertiser
A Saudi medical team of 85 doctors, nurses and surgical assistants successfully separated Hassana and Hassina, conjoined twins born in Kaduna — Arab News
Nigerian-American lawyer-turned-fashion-designer, who has clothed Lupita Nyong’o and Gwyneth Paltrow, recently threw a celebration party in New York. There was pepper soup, asaro, ogogoro and, of course, fried plantain. It is perhaps more interesting that a party of 15 people is the subject of a New York Times feature — New York Times
Kwame Onwuachi’s New York restaurant, Tatiana, has won Resy’s One to Watch category in their Top 50 Restaurants in the World awards. They serve egusi and oxtail — Yahoo
Nigerian preacher, Prophet Chris Okafor, was banished from Zimbabwe in 2015 after ‘prophesying’ Robert Mugabe’s near death. He has now returned to the country and was welcomed at the airport by a leader of the ruling party. He has previously been accused of faking miracles — New Zimbabwe
Ireland’s asylum system is at risk of collapse due to the high number of applications: “The total number of asylum applications received in 2019 was 4,780. In 2020 it dropped to 1,566 but the figure rose to 2,649 in 2021 with the majority of applicants coming from Nigeria, Georgia, Somalia and Afghanistan” — The Times
The rise and rise of Nigerian cult groups in Europe — The Africa Report
Surfing competition in Tarkwa Bay, Lagos [Video] — Yahoo
The return of the Benin Bronzes is being watched closely by many countries around the world with a view to learning lessons of their own. Here is one such view from India — Firstpost
Boris Johnson’s Register of Financial Interests discloses that he was paid £239,009.42 by the Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe Foundation for the speech he gave in Lagos earlier this year. Flights and accommodation were also provided for him and 2 members of his staff — Parliament
A railway wagon assembly plant built by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) in Ogun state has been commissioned. Capacity is for 500 wagons a year. But how is a wagon manufacturing plant built as a CSR project? [Video] — Xinhua
A freelance reporter for the Catholic News Agency described what he saw in a recent religious fight involving the military and terrorists in Plateau state recently — Catholic News Agency
In Nigeria, the lame-duck period between an outgoing government and an incoming one is anything but a lame-duck. President Buhari has been on a signing and commissioning spree in the last couple of weeks including signing off on $1.2bn in payments to settle ‘judgement debts’ — Reuters
Throwback: We close out the Buhari Epoch with this story from 2015 when trees were cut in Abuja to strengthen the naira:
The Nigerian government has resorted to chopping down trees lining the streets of its capital to thwart black market money changers, one of a range of unorthodox measures it is deploying to defend its weakening currency.
On an August morning in Abuja, a labourer who said he was hired by the city government cut branches from a towering tree with a chainsaw. Nearby other workers hacked away at smaller trees with machetes.
Asked what they were doing, one, who did not want his name published, replied: “The government does not want the trees because people are doing illegal work under them”.
We had our first guest post on 1914 Reader this week — who or what is a ‘Technopol’ and why does Nigeria need them? Read on. Tobi and I went to listen to Sam Altman talk about all things AI in Lagos. We shared our thoughts in a joint post.
See you in a week