Below The Headlines - 105
Do you really need charms to defraud someone? and Temi and Mr. Eazi have given us the content we demanded
Welcome back from the BTH summer break. Since the last edition of this newsletter in late July, we have picked up hundreds of new subscribers. Thank you all for coming along for the ride. This newsletter goes out every Saturday morning at 10am UK time. It covers the news stories about Nigerians in Nigeria and around the world that you may have missed (hence the title), both good and bad. In general, we advise readers to do everything within their power to avoid appearing in this newsletter.
We’ve written quite a bit since this newsletter last came to you. Tobi recently wrote something on the connection between beliefs and economic policy. I wrote a long essay on how the beneficiaries of Nigeria’s biggest industrial policy since the return of democracy in 1999 have badly let the country down in return.
Thank you for reading and sharing and all the support you’ve been showing us here. This Substack started as an experiment between Tobi and I and the encouragement we have received motivates us to continue to make it worth your time.
Enjoy the week’s selection below
Nigerian Media
An amusing story. But Wike is a law unto himself I guess:
For the past few months, billboards featuring the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, have become a common sight on many roads in Abuja.
Although the billboards do not suggest that the former Rivers State Governor is seeking any political office, they have been competing for attention with those of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is expected to run for a second term in 2027.
Abuja Metro reports that Wike’s billboards primarily highlight projects he has completed or that are currently underway in the nation’s capital.
Our reporter learned that most of the billboards were erected by politicians and local contractors seeking favor from the minister.
A prominent sponsor is one Suleman Chok, popularly known as “BABS,” whose billboards are located in major districts of Abuja.
Most of his billboards are captioned, “Support Mr. Infrastructure for Re-building Africa’s Fastest Growing Federal Capital,” and showcase some of Wike’s projects in the territory. They can be found in Jahi, Kado, Maitama, Wuse, Garki, on Airport Road, and in Gwarinpa, among other areas.
Suleman Chok, who is from Plateau State but is primarily based in Abuja, is said to be a local contractor and an admirer of the FCT Minister.
What does one even say to this?
“Between 2020 and 2025, over 25 people were killed and kidnapped in Lilu alone, and the primary cause is the so-called gunmen, which some call unknown gunmen. During the same period, over 30 private and public houses have been destroyed and looted. The underlying thing is that, till today, not a single person has been held accountable.”
Okili noted that due to the domination of the community by the gunmen, the area had now been described as “the Sambisa of South-East.”
He lamented that the attacks had displaced the community’s access to healthcare facilities and forced children out of school, owing to their closure, while the gunmen had continued to impose tax on residents before they could bury dead relatives.
“We don’t have access to any health facilities. The little that we have before the insurgency has been totally decimated. Proportionally, Lilu has the highest number of out-of-school children (in the South-East) because our schools have been shut down since 2020.
“We can’t even bury our dead. Before you bury your dead (relative), you have to go and obtain permission from the unknown gunmen by paying them money. The money is not to conduct a funeral because they have banned us from conducting funerals.”
Incredible things continue to happen involving the Nigerian Police:
The Rivers State Police Command has warned against the rising trend of women collecting transport fare from men and failing to turn up for meetings, describing it as a criminal offence.
The caution follows a viral video in which the Police Public Relations Officer, Grace Iringe-Koko, on Wednesday in a video on X said the practice amounted to fraud and could attract punishment under the law.
“Why will you collect money from man without going to see him. It is an offence, a punishable offence.
“It is obtaining money under false pretence. 419,” she explained.
Iringe-Koko stressed that such actions fall under the category of obtaining by false pretence, noting that offenders could be arrested and prosecuted if complaints are lodged with the police.
If you were planning on getting a title from Idomaland, I suggest you look elsewhere:
The President of Idoma Area Traditional Council, His Royal Majesty, Agaba-Idu (Dr) Elaigwu Odogbo John, has suspended any form of conferment of chieftaincy titles in Idoma land.
Henceforth, any Chieftaincy title conferred in contravention of the declaration will be deemed null, void, and of no effect.
In a statement issued by the Secretary of Idoma Area Traditional Council, Adegbe Uloko, and made available to newsmen in Makurdi on Wednesday, the paramount ruler said that the decision for the suspension was to regulate and safeguard the conferment of titles in the land.
It added that the suspension was also to prevent indiscriminate proliferation and preserve the sanctity of the traditional institution.
A good intervention by a Senator here:
The Deputy Chief Whip of the Senate and Senator representing Ebonyi North Senatorial District, Senator Peter Onyekachi Nwebonyi, has condemned the alleged harassment and public humiliation of an Ebonyi indigene, Mr. Michael Eje, by youths of Nkpor, Anambra State, for reportedly killing a sacred snake.
Reacting to a viral video circulating on social media, the Senator described the incident as barbaric and called on the Anambra State Government, led by Governor Charles Soludo, to publicly denounce the act and take immediate steps to prevent a recurrence.
In the disturbing footage, Eje was seen being paraded around the community while being beaten and ridiculed for killing a snake considered sacred by locals. The Senator expressed shock that such dehumanizing treatment could be meted out to someone in the 21st century for what he termed a natural act of self-defense.
“I wonder why a man should be subjected to such a harrowing experience for killing a snake that posed a threat to him,” Nwebonyi said.
He urged Governor Soludo to act on the matter with the same urgency with which he addressed the recent renaming of Abakaliki Street in Awka, Anambra State. He also directed the chairman of the Ebonyi State Indigenes Association in Anambra, Chief Moses Ofoke, to obtain a first-hand account from the victim and his wife for necessary intervention.
Do charms work? In Kano, it appears they do:
The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Kano has arrested a 28-year-old man, Salisu Abdu Adam, for allegedly using charms to defraud a married woman of N1.8 million.
The Command’s spokesperson, Ibrahim Abdullahi who confirmed the arrest in a statement added that the young man is now in custody.
According to the NSCDC, Adam, who is from Garko Local Government Area but lives in Kawo, Nassarawa LGA of Kano State, deceived the woman with promises of better education and a profitable business.
He allegedly used charms to gain her trust before taking the money from her without an argument or a fight.
Abdullahi said investigations have been completed and the suspect will soon be taken to court.
This one happened without charms and involved N300m. So what do we conclude from these two stories? Charms are a waste of time:
The Kwara State Police Command has arrested a man, Adeola Badru, for allegedly defrauding a federal political appointment seeker of ₦300 million.
Badru is accused of criminal breach of trust, forgery, and obtaining money under false pretence.
In 2023, he reportedly approached his victim, Joseph Olugbenga, posing as a seasoned politician with direct access to top political figures.
Badru allegedly promised to secure Olugbenga a seat on the board of the South West Development Commission for a fee of ₦300 million.Convinced by Badru’s claims, Olugbenga reportedly paid the sum in tranches. After receiving the payments, the suspect fled to Ibadan, Oyo State, and blocked all communication channels.
Non-Nigerian Media
Aanu Adeoye at the FT has a piece about how manufacturers in Nigeria are changing supply chains to cope with the recent bouts of devaluations:
Immediately following the devaluation, however, there was chaos. It sent the naira tumbling even as the greenback remained scarce. Manufacturers were left trying to buy fixed inventory in dollars with a slumping naira.
“It wasted a lot of management time,” Aluko reflected during a tour of CAP’s sprawling facilities in Ikeja, the capital of Lagos state.
CAP now works with three local vendors to source calcium carbonate, a chemical compound used in paint manufacturing to provide bulkiness and improve opacity. About 90 per cent of the compound calcium it needs is procured locally — previously it relied on imports from South Africa, Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere.
The company estimates it has saved nearly 60 per cent in calcium carbonate costs in the 10 months to June 2025.
“It has kept us in a net position,” said Okunowo. “If we hadn’t taken this measure we would have had to increase pricing by an additional 50 per cent but [now] we’re able to keep our costs below real inflation.”
There is a growing band of Twitch streamers in Nigeria and their biggest challenge? Buffering internet:
The camera on Sien Essien’s table sat at a deliberate tilt, framing him in the glow of his streaming setup as we went live. Beside him, a large Bluetooth speaker throbbed with the opening track of “Captain,” the sophomore album by the Nigerian Afropop star Bnxn. In the corner of the shot, the edge of his laptop — its charger snaking lazily across the table — shared space with a wired microphone angled to catch every rise and fall in his voice as he reacted to the new drop, live, for his followers.
And the reaction was big. As his stream filled with ever more people — creeping over 100, then 150 — Essien, who goes by the screen name Sien_wtf on the streaming platform Twitch, began shouting, half in joy, half in disbelief, as he listened to his favorite artist’s album and saw his following climb to 186 viewers for the first time in the six months since he began streaming. This was the confirmation he needed that his efforts were paying off — proof that Nigeria’s most-prized cultural export, Afrobeats, could find momentum on Twitch, and that young creators like him could carve thriving niches in its slipstream.
Twitch — the Amazon-owned platform for livestreaming — is a digital stage on which gamers, DJs and creators perform for real-time audiences who can comment, tip or subscribe for exclusive perks. Globally, it’s a multibillion-dollar industry whose biggest stars rival pop icons in income and influence. While viewership metrics like concurrent watchers and total hours can fluctuate — averaging 2.41 million concurrent viewers in 2023 and 20.8 billion hours watched in 2024 — Twitch’s user base has kept expanding, reaching over 240 million monthly active users by early 2025. In countries like the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan, it’s a central source of entertainment for Gen Z.
In Nigeria, however, Twitch is still a fringe phenomenon. The country’s gamers, musicians and content creators have long gravitated toward TikTok, Instagram and YouTube — platforms built for short-form clips and backed by much larger local audiences. Twitch’s long-form, live-first model promises a new frontier, but the elements of infrastructure needed to sustain it — reliable internet, affordable data and steady electricity — are luxuries still out of reach for many in Africa’s largest economy.
Obituary for Dr. Henry Chionuma:
In research, he was Principal Investigator for HIV/AIDS initiatives jointly led by Columbia University and Abia State University Teaching Hospital. He received the American College of Physicians’ Physician Achievement Award and Outstanding Medical Teacher Awards from SUNY Health Sciences Center and Le Moyne College.
He was a dedicated educator and mentor, and “trained generations of physicians and clinical staff, leaving an influence reaching far beyond the exam room and shaping the careers and lives of countless future caregivers.”
In addition to his distinguished medical career, Dr. Chionuma served as a Captain in the U.S. Armed Forces Medical Corps, later reaching the rank of Major before his honorable discharge.
In 1999, he founded Homeland Charities, Inc., which advanced health care and education initiatives in the U.S. and Africa.
A 2002 Post-Standard article said it was “a collaboration from local and nationally recognized physicians specializing in HIV/AIDS and local religious leaders in the human services field.”
More from the UK immigration tribunals:
A Nigerian jailed for violence has won a legal battle against deportation after claiming to be gay despite having been married to a woman and fathering a child by another.
The man, who arrived in Britain in 1983, made a series of initial asylum claims unrelated to his sexuality.
Originally he claimed he would face persecution because of his political opinions. But when this was rejected, he sought leave to remain on the basis that he had married a woman living in the UK.
After this argument was dismissed by the Home Office, he sought the right to remain after fathering a son.
He claimed his removal from the UK would be a breach of his rights to a family life under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Soon after, he was jailed for four years for violent disorder, leading to the Government issuing an order for him to be deported.
Once out of jail, he said he entered into a three-year relationship with a man, after which he submitted a claim to remain in Britain on the basis that he would be persecuted for being gay if returned to his home country.
While we were away, a Nigerian monarch was sentenced to prison for fraud in the United States. This story continues to amaze me no matter how many times I read it:
A Medina man who also serves as a public official in Nigeria was sentenced Tuesday to more than four years in prison for creating a slew of fake businesses to bilk the government out of $4.2 million in coronavirus relief money.
Joseph Oloyede, 62, and a Willoughby man owned real businesses but created others on paper, lied on applications for money meant to help small businesses stay afloat during the pandemic and recruited people to fill out the faked forms.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Boyko sentenced Oloyede to four years and eight months in prison and ordered him to pay $4.2 million in restitution, along with another $195,000 to the IRS for filing false tax returns.
Boyko also ordered Oloyede forfeit $96,000 in money seized from his bank account and his home on Foote Road, which is appraised at $745,000.
Boyko said Oloyede was a “very smart guy who did a lot of stupid things.” He said he would have sentenced Oloyede to more prison time if it wasn’t for Oloyede’s health issues.
“You didn’t need all that money, but when it was available, greed took over,” Boyko said.
Oloyede said he regretted carrying out the scheme and said it had consequences on his family and those in Ipetumodu, a city of some 350,000 in Nigeria’s Osun state, where he said he’s treated as royalty.
“There has been severe issues with my family and those who look up to me and for my responsibility as a monarch in Nigeria,” he said. “It has had an effect on everybody.”
Oloyede, a father of seven, has dual U.S.-Nigerian citizenship. He was born in Nigeria, came to the U.S. in 1998 and earned several degrees. He worked at various banks and financial institutions and as a professor at several universities, including Indiana Wesleyan. He later started his own tax consultant business, Available Tax Services, in Bedford Heights.
A piece on the 6’ 10” Bolaji Badejo who played the alien in Ridley Scott’s first Alien movie:
The original Alien Xenomorph was discovered not in a glowing egg on a faraway planet or scuttling around a gloopy nest, but down the pub. That’s where Peter Archer, one of the film’s casting directors, first clapped eyes on Bolaji Badejo, a 6ft 10in Nigerian graphic design student. The film’s director, Ridley Scott, needed an extremely tall, slender, long-limbed person to fit inside the alien suit, as designed by Swiss artist HR Giger.
Badejo was perfect for the gig. “How would you like to be in movies?” Archer asked him.
Badejo was later described as reserved, mild-mannered and polite. One special effects crew member dubbed him as, quite simply, “the quiet man”. But he brought the terrifying Xenomorph to life – a primal, skin-crawling, strangely elegant monster that spawned a franchise, which now continues with the TV series Alien: Earth.
The Sigourney Weaver-starring original put Badejo through the space wringer. Barely able to see and sweating buckets in that Alien head, he was forced to squeeze into a spaceship crevice for hours and hours, almost passed out as he was hung upside down, and started to suffocate as he dangled in the air and unfurled from a cocoon-like state. Elsewhere, he battled a stressed, stingy producer who fired obscenities at him. But Badejo, who was not an actor, took it all on the alien chin and only complained out loud when he was back in the pub with Giger.
It would be his only film role; Badejo tragically died at just 39 years old from sickle cell anaemia, which he’d been diagnosed with as a child.
Born in Lagos, Nigeria in 1953, Bolaji Badejo grew up as one of six children in an affluent, influential family. His father, Victor, was director general of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. Living through a three-year civil war in Nigeria, the family moved to Ethiopia in 1972, where Badejo studied fine art, and later to San Francisco. The family then relocated to England, where Victor became a vicar. Badejo decided to study graphic design in London, which is when Archer first saw him – propping up the bar of a Soho student pub.
If you are looking for content on Temi Otedola and Mr. Eazi’s (third) wedding, Vogue has got you. The piece has about 100 photos as well:
To paraphrase Usher, Oluwatosin “Mr Eazi” Ajibade and Temi Otedola found love in the club. It was a cold London night in January 2017 when the Afrobeats musician and actor arrived at the Tate Club to watch Temi’s sister, Florence, perform behind the DJ booth. Five years later, Oluwatosin proposed to Temi in Venice on the set of his music video for “Legalize.”
In 2025, the high-profile Nigerian couple held three different weddings across three countries. The first? May 9 in Monaco. It was a meaningful date and location: May 9 is Eazi’s late mother’s birthday, and the Otedola family has a home in European principality. Temi wore a custom suit designed by Wiederhoeft and jewelry by Briony Raymond for their official ceremony at Mairie de Monaco in Monte Carlo. Eazi, meanwhile, went with Louis Vuitton. “We’ve been engaged for three years and together for eight, so we had this weirdly calm energy all day. It just made sense. Just the two of us, in Monaco, a place we partly call home, and no distractions, no fanfare,” Temi says of their low-key legal wedding.
After the paperwork was signed, Temi changed into a Christopher John Rogers black-and-white polka-dot dress for Champagne at Villa La Vigie, Karl Lagerfeld’s home in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin.
A report on the number of asylum applications in the UK:
The International Protection Appeals Tribunal is being flooded with new cases as immigration staff close off an increasing number of asylum applications.
The government has announced a series of measures in recent months that have been viewed as immigration clampdowns, including accelerated processing for certain countries, increased deportations, and changes to benefits for asylum seekers and refugees.
In tandem with recent changes, the number of applications for international protection have dropped by 41 per cent year on year up until July, from 12,226 to 7,207.
A report compiled by the Department of Justice at the start of August shows that the main countries of origin for 2025 were Nigeria (1,083 applications), Pakistan (945), Somalia (933), Afghanistan (767) and Georgia (462).
Clement Ogbonnaya runs the Prince of Peckham pub. It’s a very tough time to be a pub owner in the UK but he’s doing well with his:
There’s a 10ft mural of two young people wearing crowns painted on the outside of Clement Ogbonnaya’s pub on the corner of Peckham High Street, south London.
“It’s for all the young Princes and Princesses of Peckham,” says Ogbonnaya, who opened Prince of Peckham pub in May 2017. “My thing is all about representation. It was very easy to see a billboard with white people looking like they’re in regal glory.” The figures in the mural are black.
Ogbonnaya created the Prince of Peckham as a place for all members of the local community to “chop, chat and chill”, inspired by the barbershop in 1990s Channel 4 comedy series Desmond’s.
[…]
Ogbonnaya spent £235,000, mostly from selling his own flat, buying and refurbishing the pub. “It felt like an absolute fortune.”
But it has paid him back several times over. In 2023, its best year so far, the pub was turning over just under £4 million a year. “Since then the industry has dipped, but we’re still OK, while other pubs are closing.”
[…]
Ogbonnaya, who was born in Nigeria and moved to the UK with his parents when he was six, grew up a mile away in Telegraph Hill, near Brockley, and went to school in Peckham. “It was difficult because I didn’t feel at home, it took some time to find my tribe,” he says. “That feeling of being alien, it’s a horrible feeling. And, it’s even more horrible when you’re still among people who look like you. South London is quite a strong black community, but back then it wasn’t really cool to be African. I was with my people, but also not because I’m not Caribbean or West Indian.”
Okada riders in Lagos, who are in large part, banned:
In 2019, the government launched the Bus Reform Initiative, which has deployed hundreds of new buses along dozens of routes across the region. That hasn’t decreased the population’s appetite for okadas, which are still widely used to ferry commuters to neighborhoods the buses can’t reach. “Everybody you see on the streets is riding in defiance of the ban because they don’t have another option,” Adewale says. Traditionally, the motorcycles have been the cheapest choice for passengers—some rides cost the equivalent of less than a U.S. dollar—and have provided a reliable living for those who drive them in a city where wages can be hard to come by. “I am still riding because my job as a mechanic is not bringing in the income I need on time,” says Oluwafemi Ipadeola, a friend of Adewale’s father who has driven okadas for over 20 years to pay for his children’s education. Fares are beginning to rise as riders factor in the risk of getting caught.
Enforcement of the ban is uneven, but residents still operating okadas are vulnerable and face harassment from police, who frequently arrest riders and demand extortion payments in exchange for confiscated motorcycles. “People pay as much as 90,000 naira [$57] to get their motorcycle back,” Adewale says. “Sometimes they don’t get it back. Sometimes they have to watch it get crushed.” The government has impounded and destroyed thousands of okadas, a devastating blow. The motorcycles are expensive—up to 33 times the median annual salary in Lagos—and riders frequently buy them in installments.
I’ve seen some messages sent by loan sharks to people in default and even by Nigerian standards they are shocking:
Cash-strapped and in dire need of 30,000 naira (about $20), Mariam Ogundairo turned to a loan app, downloading it and registering her phone number.
The money was quickly sent over but came with a 21.6 percent interest rate, due in two weeks. Like many in Nigeria, battered by inflation, Ogundairo was too broke to pay back what she owed.
Then came a deluge of harassment -- a tactic that has become the hallmark of many loan apps in Africa's fourth-largest economy.
"They started calling my phone contacts when I couldn't pay back on time, saying I owed them," Ogundairo told AFP. "I lost my security, and it makes me so sad and scared."
Such loan apps in Nigeria, branded "predatory" by campaigners, are texting threats and leaking sensitive photos to their mobile phone contacts when people squeezed by the country's ongoing economic crisis cannot pay up.
Often enticed by false promises of low interest rates, thousands of Nigerians have turned to personal finance apps seeking quick access to short-term loans as galloping prices put pressure on incomes, with inflation standing at 21.8 percent at the end of July.
Ogundairo struggled through the embarrassment for weeks until she was able to pay off her balance.
I had never heard of Kai Cenat before today:
Twitch star Kai Cenat provided an update on his long-promised Nigerian school project during the kickoff of his highly anticipated Mafiathon 3 livestream. The announcement follows months of questions from fans about the initiative, Dexerto reports.
Cenat first pledged support for a Nigerian school during his visit to the Makoko Children Development Foundation School and Orphanage in Lagos, Nigeria, in March 2024, where he saw over 300 students crowded into a single classroom, as AFROTECH™ previously reported. At the time, he promised to provide help however he could. After returning to the U.S., he expanded that commitment, announcing plans to build a completely new school to better serve the students and community of Makoko.
Over the following year, fans repeatedly asked for updates as the project remained largely unreported, while donations continued to accumulate, according to Dexerto. During the recent Mafiathon 3, Cenat paused the stream to provide new details.
Two representatives working on the project, Fanny Moral with Enko Education of South Africa, and Chinedum Umeche, a partner with Banwo & Ighodalo of Nigeria, shared information on the school’s development. They emphasized that constructing a fully operational school takes time, considering construction, curriculum, and staff.
The project’s original location, Makoko, Lagos — often called the “Venice of Africa” because of its waterways and buildings on stilts or floating — posed construction challenges, per Dexerto. The team has since moved the school to nearby Yaba, Lagos. Students from Makoko will continue to receive free education there, while others traveling from outside areas will pay tuition.
Cenat confirmed that 15% of revenue from Mafiathon 3 will support the school. With a target of reaching 1 million Twitch subscribers, this could generate roughly $750,000, excluding higher-tier subscriptions, according to Dexerto.
Another Guinness World Record attempt. This one I support:
It's a bookworm's idea of heaven: 18 days of non-stop reading.
In a restaurant in Nigeria’s Lagos, three men and two women have been reading books for over 431 hours in an attempt to set a Guinness World Record for the longest marathon of reading aloud, part of a campaign to promote literacy in Africa’s most populous country.
Throughout the daunting task, dozens joined the group, some online via a live stream, cheering them on.
By Saturday, when the attempt ended, the reading marathoners had read 79 books authored by Nigerians, taking turns to continuously read out loud literary works and self-help books to give the other team members a chance to catch their breath.
In the country of more than 210 million people, “most people don’t have access to books (and) I participated to encourage inclusive education,” Precious Ukachi told The Associated Press. The 30-year-old was one of the reading marathoners. Others were John Obot, 37, Stephen Oyelami, 23, Temitope Ogunremi, 28, and Ketura Heman, 27.
Obot said the hardest part of the attempt was reading at night. “We had limited time to rest, but what kept me going was the goal."
The current record holders for the longest reading aloud marathon are a group of five people from the Dominican Republic, who clocked 365 hours and 39 seconds in 2011.
This time in Nigeria, the last word was uttered when the timer showed: 431 hours, 31 minutes and 25 seconds.
The Guinness World Record is yet to confirm the new record, a process that sometimes takes weeks. The nonprofit behind the event, the Naija ReadFest, says it will forward all evidence needed to the organization.