Below The Headlines — 07
The newsletter that keeps you informed about what Nigerians in Nigeria and around the world have been up to in the last week. Forward and share with your friends and ask them to subscribe
Inside Nigeria
Afeez Agoro, the tallest man in Nigeria, died rather unceremoniously in the last week. Standing at 7' 5", most of his 48 years on earth were a constant struggle. May he find eternal rest — ICIR Nigeria
One of the most long running genre of stories in Nigerian media is of a man dying after ‘marathon sex’. Here is the latest iteration: Otubong, a barber, has now departed this sinful world after a ‘marathon sex’ session in Port Harcourt. The reality is that, influenced by the easy availability of pornography on the internet, people are consuming dangerous drugs before sex to boost their ‘performance’ — Punch
Had to check the figure in this story multiple times to be sure. Babatunde Oyebode paid a sex therapist in Abuja N275m to ‘verify, validate and authenticate his Instagram page with celebrities’. She has now been arrested by the Police and charged to court for failing to deliver. What does Mr. Oyebode do for a living? — ThisDay
“Two teenage sisters, Fatima Sani and Zulaihat Sani, aged 17 and 15, respectively, have been arrested for allegedly battering a 19-year-old lady, Sa’adatu Abdurrahman Liman, in Bauchi State” — They also poured hot water on her. Sa’adatu’s offence was having an affair with one of the siblings’ husband. Now look at their ages again — Punch
Felix Chiwendu has been jailed for 2 years for an offence he committed in 2016. He collected N95.4m from his victim to remit $300,000 to a supplier in China at an exchange rate of N318 to $1. But he only sent $130,650 which works out at an exchange rate of N730 to $1, roughly where the exchange rate is today at the time of his conviction. Ironic — EFCC
Oluwafemi Damilola defrauded 4 different sex workers of N45,000. He had sex with them and then sent them fake alerts for payment, contrary to sections 249 and 360 of the criminal code — Guardian
“However, Nigeria, unfortunately, did not meet expectations and placed much lower on the list, occupying the 44th position” — You’re not going to believe what this Nigerian newspaper is expressing disappointment about. SMH — Tribune
Report from an Ostrich farm in Kano where an egg costs N50,000 and the full grown birds (can we even call them that?) cost up to N250,000. The report however appears arithmetically challenged as it also says a baby Ostrich costs N600,000 ‘and the price keeps increasing as it grows’ — Daily Trust
Chuka Emmanuel has asked a court in Abuja for a divorce because: “My wife moved out of our house without informing me. I later found her new location, when I got there I realised that she had married another man and already has a baby for him” — A lot to unpack here — Daily Post
What an incredible sentence: “A misunderstanding emanating from the sharing of $3,800 obtained from a Yahoo transaction”. Anyway, the gist of the story is that Ojo Tobi David, a final year university student in Bauchi state, with a Yahoo Yahoo side-hustle, was kidnapped by some of his fellow students and co-conspirators over the sharing of the loot — Leadership
“The speed at which every aspect of the lives of Nigerians is changing is overwhelming” — That is the dramatic opening sentence of an article lamenting the ‘new trend’ of wedding invitations now coming with ‘cash only’ gift requests. Several examples are cited including a complaint from a guest who said they had already wrapped a ‘cooler’ on the way to the wedding when they saw the request on the invite. Hilarious — Vanguard
Outside Nigeria
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) published a brief note on how Nigeria lost its position as Africa’s leading oil producer. Contains an arresting chart showing how decline was preceded by stagnation — EIA
I gave some comments to the FT after President’s blistering start to life in Aso Rock and low hanging fruits — FT
“Each preparation was a comfort to behold, each bowl a story of time, place and memory, a little different or a little more personal, but always recognizable” — Yewande Komolafe travels across America in a tribute to egusi — NYT
An article about what the American Gen Z want in the workplace starts off with the story of Ayobami Balogun who moved to the US from Nigeria 5 years ago and recently lost her job at Microsoft. She’s doing ok , though — Washington Post
Several American law firms are now encouraging people who suffered losses after investing in Tingo to join a class action lawsuit. Here’s one example from Girard Sharp — Businesswire
“The creation of the category comes at a time where African music has never been more visible in America. This summer, Burna Boy will become the first Nigerian artist to headline a U.S. stadium, when he takes the stage at Citi Field in Queens, New York” — On the new Grammy Award category for African music — LA Times
New book by a former centre-back for Sweden’s women’s national team revealed that they had to show their genitals to prove they were women at the 2011 Women’s World Cup. The ‘tests’ seem to have been triggered by Nigeria protesting that 3 of the players in an Equatorial Guinea they lost to the year before were actually men — NY Post
“She’s now on the hunt for a £3.5 million warehouse-style apartment for a young screenwriter in northwest London, and is also assisting Swiss buyers looking for a £15 million second home in Marylebone or Mayfair, and a Nigerian family with £50 million to spend on a house in South Kensington near their children’s school”— That is Camilla Dell, the founder of an agency that specialises in buying high-end property for wealthy clients. If you’re the Nigerian family in question, can you urgently make yourself known to this newsletter? I’d like to have a word — The Times
The family of the teenage American football player who killed himself after being blackmailed by Nigerian internet scammers have spoken out about the whole ordeal — NY Post
On the struggles of people with haemophilia — a blood disorder that prevents blood clotting properly — in Nigeria — UK Guardian
Survey findings on Nigeria’s ever changing media landscape finds, among other things, that 57% of respondents trust the media in general (it was 90% for the BBC specifically, the highest of any media organisation). Amazing — Reuters Institute
The unspeakable tragedy of the Kwara boat that snapped while returning guests from a wedding, killing more than 100 of them- Al Jazeera
Nigeria’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia claimed that 100,000 Nigerians participated in this year’s pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia and that the country needs a lot more slots as many more people want to participate. I wonder what the numbers will be like without government subsidy — Arab News
The Swedish paper, Aftonbladet, carried out an investigation on where clothes collected by H&M — the giant Swedish clothing retailer — for ‘recycling’ actually end up (by attaching Apple AirTags to them). Unsurprisingly, many of them end up next door to Nigeria in Benin Republic. A really good piece of investigative journalism — Aftonbladet
London Metropolitan Police are now investigating a charge of corporate manslaughter (among others) over the Asake concert at Brixton Academy last December. 2 people died and one person is still in hospital — Evening Standard
“This story is based on interviews with 25 African women, mostly from Nigeria, who described being lured to the UAE by Gold or other alleged traffickers, as well as dozens of interviews with humanitarian workers, investigators, Nigerian government officials and others with knowledge of sex trafficking in the Emirates” — Daily Mail
“The day before the song dropped, that night I had just come out of hospital — Declan scored that night. It was (an act of) God. I messaged him way before the song even dropped and Declan responded. Now we are friends and we text. He said he wants to visit Nigeria” — Odumodublvck on his Declan Rice tribute song — The Athletic
“Fort Worth-based singer-songwriter Abraham Alexander not only has a compelling backstory — of Nigerian descent, raised in Greece with an abusive father and coming to Texas not speaking a word of English at the age of 11 — but he uses it to suffuse the songs on his critically admired debut, “Sea/Sons” — Houston Chronicle
This week on 1914 Reader, I wrote about how Nigeria’s friendship with Exxon Mobil has deteriorated over the yearsresulting in lower investment and production. If Nigeria has ambitions of producing more oil, it needs the likes of Exxon Mobil. Is there a theme to President Tinubu’s early moves? By invoking Zinoleesky, I suggest there is and wrote about it. Tobi Lawson wrote a really perceptive piece on what fuel subsidies mean and what ending them might mean for Nigeria.
Stay with us, we hope to keep publishing these interesting pieces if you do.
See you next week.