Below The Headlines - 119
No romance with no finance and another wahala returns with Namaste
This week we seemed to hit the sweet spot with content that really resonated with our readers and listeners. Tobi’s piece on why leadership matters sparked a healthy debate in the comments as well. Our podcast episode with Professor Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò also generated a lot of feedback. What can we say? Thank you for staying with us!
On Monday I’m excited to share something that has been one of my obsessions over the last 6 years with you. Stay tuned and I hope you like it!
Enjoy the usual selection below
Nigerian Media
Let’s check in on Nigerian farmers as we often do here:
For farmers, especially those in rural areas of Niger State, this harvest season brings little joy. The season instead marks the beginning of a fresh struggle shaped by falling food prices and rising production costs, while government measures appear to favour consumers at the expense of local producers.
Many rural farmers say they feel forgotten in national economic planning. They argue that policies are often designed without considering the realities of farming communities, including poor infrastructure, lack of access to credit, limited storage facilities and weak market access.
Experts, however, warn that if the situation persists, many farmers may reduce production or abandon farming altogether, a development that could deepen food security challenges in the future.
[…]
In one village in Niger State, 17 farmers reportedly paid for hajj seats in 2025 through the sale of produce. However, not a single farmer from that same village has been able to pay this year despite a bumper harvest, according to Mallam Hussaini Abdullahi, a farmer in Gbako Local Government Area.
A staff member of the Niger State Pilgrims Welfare Board confirmed to Weekend Trust that significantly, fewer farmers have come forward to deposit money for the 2026 pilgrimage compared to 2025.
Mohammed Sani Idris Kodo, a farmer in Bosso Local Government, said the falling prices were already fueling rural-urban migration.
“Next farming season, many farmers will not be able to go to the field because farming is a business, and right now, farmers are running at a loss. A bag of paddy rice is between N30,000 and N40,000. How can you pay back loans?” He asked.
Staying with farming, sort of:
The residents of Isara Remo in the Remo North Local Government Area of Ogun State, under the aegis of the Isara Socio-Economic Vanguard, on Thursday, called for the intervention of Governor Dapo Abiodun as well as the Speaker of the State Assembly, Daisi Elemide, over what they described as the destructive activities of quarry operators in and around the community.
The community members, led by the Chairman of the group, Taiwo Bakare, had earlier presented a petition to the office of Governor Abiodun and the State Assembly Speaker, Daisi Elemide.
The residents lamented that the unchecked mining activities of the quarry companies had destroyed their roads and were negatively impacting the health of the residents of the agrarian community.
They further claimed that several past efforts to persuade the operators to support the well-being and socio-economic development of the community as a way of mitigating the negative impacts of their mining activities had yielded no results.
Speaking to PUNCH Metro at the Governor’s Office, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, on Thursday after submitting copies of the petition, Bakare said, “For several years, our community has suffered utter neglect, intimidation, and unfair treatment at the hands of quarry operators and their collaborators. Despite being the host community, Isara has not meaningfully benefited from the activities of the quarry companies.
“In total defiance of the provisions of the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act 2007, the quarries have refused to execute community development agreements with Isara as the host community.
“The community presently suffers from air pollution, environmental degradation, and bad roads caused by heavy-duty trucks plying the roads day and night.
“If the activities of the quarries are not properly regulated by relevant government agencies, we may experience high cases of asthma, lung and skin cancer, in addition to untold degradation of our vast arable land and food insecurity in Remo North Local Government.”
Meet the Omotaku:
To drive the roads of Lagos is to navigate the arteries of a relentless beast. A permanent haze of diesel
fumes hangs over the routes leading in and out of Apapa, while stretches from Orile to Satellite Town and other roads thrum with the deafening symphony of a megacity in motion.
For truck drivers, bus drivers, as well as commuters using these roads, the biggest danger is not the potholes or the traffic. It is the silent threat that appears the moment a vehicle breaks down: a hiss from the radiator or the slump of a flat tire.
They are called ‘Omotaku.’ From industrial areas to major bridges, they see every breakdown as a chance to attack. They turn a driver’s moment of weakness into an exchange based on fear.
Omotaku is a Yoruba word meaning forceful extortion by any means, or taking something from someone at all costs.
These street urchins are like ghosts on the highway. Saturday Vanguard gathered that some of them are former union officials who were expelled for misconduct. Now they use their inside knowledge to intimidate people.
They don’t just hide; they actively watch the roads. From the wide Third Mainland Bridge to the busy streets of Ojuelegba and other parts of Lagos, they look for drivers in trouble.
“As soon as they reach you, they start making threats,” a weary truck driver told Saturday Vanguard. “If you try to stop and fix your vehicle yourself, especially to change a flat tyre, they gather around you. They say the spot belongs to them. Late at night, especially between midnight and 1 a.m., they are in control. You could be adding water to your radiator and suddenly find yourself surrounded.”
A rather amusing story:
Police in Oyo State have arrested three teenage girls suspected of issuing a kidnapping threat in Ikoyi-Ile, Oriire Local Government Area.
The suspects, aged between 16 and 17, were detained following a complaint from a local resident who reported receiving a threatening phone call.
According to the State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Olayinka Ayanlade, the complainant, identified as Islamiat Omowumi, said the caller demanded human parts and a ransom of ₦10 million, claiming she was targeted because she sells meat.
“The command wishes to inform members of the public of the successful arrest of suspected kidnappers following a threat report received by the command, demonstrating its commitment to proactive, intelligence-led and preventive policing,” Ayanlade said.
The suspects—Fathia Nurudeen, 17; Taiwo Fatai, 17; and Munirat Saliu, 16—were quickly traced and arrested by detectives. During interrogation, they allegedly confessed, claiming the threats were intended as a prank. A small Itel mobile phone reportedly used to make the calls was recovered, corroborating the investigation.
Ayanlade said that the suspects remain in custody while police continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident to determine the appropriate legal action.
In the north, they have the Shilla Boys. The overall issue is the same across the country - too many able bodied young men with nothing but time on their hands:
Three youths identified as members of the criminal elements called Shilla Boys operating in Adamawa State have been arrested for alleged robbery.
The state Police Command said its operatives made the arrest in collaboration with members of the community who keyed into the command’s Community Policing Initiative.
The command specified in a statement obtained Saturday morning that the three suspected Shilla Boys were picked up for involvement in armed robbery, housebreaking, and theft.
The suspects, each of them 19 years old, are Auwal Inusa, Huzaifa Ahmed, and Lukman Abdullahi, all residents of Nassarawo Ward, Yola North LGA.
The statement signed by the state police image maker, SP Suleiman Nguroje, explained that the suspects were apprehended on 5th January 2026, at about 3:00 a.m. after they allegedly armed themselves with offensive weapons, including cutlasses, daggers, and knives, and broke into a certain house in Nassarawo, where they robbed occupants of their valuables.
“Members of the community intercepted and arrested three out of four suspects while one escaped,” Nguroje disclosed, listing items recovered from the suspects as two handsets, a power bank, one cutlass, and two knives.
A very straightforward story from the courts in Ilorin - if you do not have money, perhaps hide your face:
An Area Court at Centre-Igboro in Ilorin, Kwara State, has dissolved the marriage between a man, Toyin Ajibola, and his wife, Bashirat Mohammed, on the grounds of lack of money.
The presiding judge, Hammad Ajumonbi, while delivering ruling, said that even though Toyin did not want to release his wife, she still needed to move so as not to be stranded.
He, therefore, dissolved their union and granted custody of the three children produced by their marriage to the wife.
The court also ordered the woman to observe the three-month iddah (waiting) period before contracting another marriage.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Ajumonbi ordered Toyin to be responsible for the feeding of their children.
“He should have unrestricted access to the children and the mother should always make the children available any time their father requested,” the judge said.
Earlier, Bashirat had applied for divorce saying she was tired of their marriage due to lack of money and her husband’s irresponsibility.
“I want the court to grant me divorce so that I can have rest of mind,” she said.
The husband, however, told the court that he was still interested in his wife even though he was financially handicapped.
Non-Nigerian Media
The story of Anthony Esan, the 24yr old who tried to kill a British Army officer in an unprovoked attack in July last year:
Esan moved to London from Nigeria in 2009 at the age of nine along with his mother and his two elder siblings.
His mother worked several jobs, including as a cleaner, often leaving the house in the early morning and returning late at night in the hope that her sacrifices would provide her children with opportunities to succeed.
Neighbours in Rotherhithe in southeast London, where Esan spent his formative years, recalled a reclusive child with mental health difficulties who was heavily reliant on his mother and often seen jogging around the local area.
“He was quiet. He had just come to London. It was a massive culture shock for him. His mother was a strict Christian, so she would always do her best to keep him straight and narrow. He would always be doing chores,” a relative said.
[…]
Esan moved to Kent after his stepfather, David Fairfield, died from lung cancer in 2013. His mental health deteriorated, he reeked of cannabis and was often seen buying rolling papers, residents said.
By 2023 Esan’s mother had begun to flag concerns about her son’s behaviour to the police and mental health services. Esan was being treated in the community by Greenwich mental health services after a diagnosis of psychosis. Police described it as “organic psychosis”, a state caused by medical illnesses as opposed to substance abuse.
The warnings were eerily reminiscent of Wheeler, the “highly sexualised” recluse, whose father claimed pleas for help were “ignored by mental health teams for seven years” before his son’s fatal attack.
The Times understands Esan’s condition began to deteriorate in the months before the attack. A source said that he stopped engaging with his family, who believed that he had stopped taking his medication.
Esan had previously been arrested for drugs offences but no further action was taken due to a lack of evidence. He had also been arrested for driving offences.
Namaste Wahala is returning. Wahala:
“Her film became a global hit when it was released by Netflix during the Covid-19 pandemic -- signalling the start of a collaboration between the two massive movie sectors.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi even mentioned the film during his visit to Nigeria in late 2024.
And another “Namaste Wahala” film is now in the works, Ahuja revealed.
Since the 2020 release of her debut film, Ahuja has also had a Netflix series called “Postcards” and is preparing to premiere “Simi and Friends” this year.
With no formal movie-making training, “Namaste Wahala” -- a cross-cultural rom-com whose title means “Hello trouble” -- was “her schooling” in film, she said.
Shot in Lagos, it is about an Indian investment banker who falls in love with a Nigerian lawyer -- and their parents’ struggle to accept their union.
A potpourri of languages, actors switch between English, Pidgin and Hindi.
“I decided to jump in without a thought,” she recalled during a recent interview in the bustling mega-metropolis of Lagos, where she lives.”
Tomiwa Owolade on Nigerian roads:
Nigeria’s greatest novelist Chinua Achebe left his homeland because of a car crash. In 1990, the author of Things Fall Apart was driving between his native village of Ogidi and Nigeria’s largest city Lagos when he was knocked unconscious and became paralysed from the waist down. He permanently moved to America and spent the rest of his life there in “medical exile”.
If you look at the face of the distinguished British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, the leading man in 12 Years a Slave, you may notice a scar on his forehead. This is a legacy of an incident that took place when he was visiting Nigeria as a child. He was inside a car which smashed into a lorry; his father was killed.
Nigerian roads have left physical and mental scars on countless other people. The latest to suffer this dubious fate, the British boxer Anthony Joshua, is part of a wider sickening trend. Joshua was injured in a car crash on a road that connects Lagos and Ibadan which has left two people dead.
But Nigeria should not be seen in isolation. One of the things that markedly distinguishes African countries in general from European ones is road safety
Elsewhere in Britain:
A Nigerian man, who was jailed for threatening a British woman with a knife in front of her child, has avoided deportation because it would breach the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
Olajide Shinaba, 32, was jailed for 11 months for the attack in which he said he would have stabbed her if she had been a man.
However, he has been allowed to remain in the UK after an immigration judge ruled that his deportation would breach his rights to a family and private life under Article 8 of the ECHR.
The court was told he had lived in the UK since arriving as a child in 2003 and had three children by two different partners in Britain.
Judge Luke Bulpitt said: “I conclude that any public interest in maintaining effective immigration control through [Shinaba’s] removal, is outweighed by the strength of the [his] private and family life in the UK.
“In those circumstances the removal of the appellant would be incompatible with his Article 8 Convention rights and would therefore be unlawful.”
Nigerian on Nigerian action on a basketball court:
Georgia center Somto Cyril was ejected for throwing a forearm into Florida’s Rueben Chinyelu on Tuesday night.
Officials ejected Cyril midway through the first half after watching replays and seeing Cyril swing his arm and fist at Chinyelu following a made basket. The two Nigerians were jockeying for position under the basket during the play.
It was a huge loss for the 18th-ranked Bulldogs. The defending national champion Gators scored the next eight points and quickly built their biggest lead of the game.
The 6-foot-11 Cyril entered the game averaging 10 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.9 blocks a game. He was shooting a team-high 81.1% on the season.
A hidden gem in Glasgow no longer hidden:
A hidden gem spot in the southside has been delighting food fans by offering a mouth-watering taste of Nigerian cuisine.
The family-run Abbey’s Spice Company opened at Enterprise Park in September and offers a selection of the country’s popular dishes.
Taking over Unit 48 at the new retail space on Drakemire Drive, it shares the same home as the likes of pizza specialists Sub Rosa and spin class specialists the Cycle Pit, with Enterprise Park quickly becoming the space to go to for exciting new businesses.
“Blending “authentic tradition with modern flavour”, they say they “make every visit feel like family” and offer dishes like gizzdodo, puff puff (Nigerian fried dough balls), banga soup, ayamase (ofada stew), jollof rice and fried plantain.
You might now need biometrics to get on the internet via Starlink:
Users of satellite internet service provider Starlink in Nigeria are being required to complete a biometric Know Your Customer (KYC) process as a precondition to continue enjoying their services.
According to local reports, more than 66,000 Starlink subscribers in the country had a December 31 ultimatum from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to complete the biometric verification or have their connection discontinued.
The process essentially entails linking a Starlkink account with the subscriber’s national digital ID.
Kannywood is having to evolve:
Kamilu Ibrahim is among the directors hoping to break the mould -- in addition to pushing to include “aspects that are not commonly seen in Hausa films”, Ibrahim has also put English and Arabic subtitles in his work in a bid to reach a wider audience.
Filmmakers still find a way to focus on the same themes that dominate Nollywood: love, vengeance and treason all make good fodder for the at times over-the-top melodrama Nigerian movies are known for.
But nudity, “sexual scenes” as well as “content that is contrary to customs, traditions, and religion” are all out of bounds, Abba El-Mustapha, an actor and director who also serves as the executive secretary of the Kano State film censorship board, told AFP.
When AFP visited Ibrahim’s set last year, he was filming season two of “Wata Shida”, a series about a woman confronted with the prospect of a forced marriage.
In order to get out of it, she marries another man, with both of them seeking the convenience of a partnership on paper, rather than real romance -- an on-the-nose plotline in a region where women and girls are frequently wedded to their parents’ choice of husband.
“We are not used to seeing someone going out in pursuit of a dream without family consent,” Ibrahim said, noting the importance of films to “question certain important social issues”.
“Wata Shida” actor Adam Garba said he hopes to see the series broadcast on a major streaming platform one day -- though for now, it’s available on YouTube.
Herbie Hide is in court for punching a policeman:
Former heavyweight world champion Herbie Hide has appeared in court accused of punching a plain clothes police officer during a confrontation at his home.
The 54-year-old, once crowned WBO heavyweight champion and famed in the ring as the ‘Dancing Destroyer’, stood before Norwich Magistrates’ Court charged with assault following an incident at his gated property in Norfolk.
The court heard that on July 3 last year, police officers who were not in uniform and were travelling in an unmarked car entered the property.
Prosecutors said that after one officer returned to the vehicle, he was punched in the face by Hide.
It was alleged that the officer had not identified himself as a police constable.
When invited to enter a plea to a single charge of assault of a constable in the execution of his duty, Hide responded: ‘definitely not guilty’.
Addressing magistrates directly, the former boxer explained his account of events, saying: ‘A man who I didn’t know came into my house speaking to my children.’
[…]
Born Herbert Okechukwu Maduagwu in Nigeria in 1971, Hide moved to Norfolk as a child and grew up in the county.
He rose to international fame in the boxing world, first winning the World Boxing Organisation heavyweight title against Michael Bentt in 1994 before reclaiming it in 1997 with a victory over Tony Tucker.
Some news from Toronto:
The Toronto Police Service is updating the public about a Homicide investigation.
On Sunday, January 4, 2026, at approximately 7 p.m., police responded to a call for a Shooting at the Yorkdale GO Bus Terminal in the Yorkdale Road and Allen Road area.
It is alleged that:
the victim and suspect both boarded a GO bus at the terminal
the suspect shot the victim on the bus before fleeing the area on foot
officers arrived and located the male victim suffering from a gunshot wound
life-saving measures were performed, but the victim was pronounced deceased at the scene
the suspect was located and arrested by officers a short time later and a firearm was recovered
The victim has been identified as Osemwengie Irorere, 46, of Nigeria.
And also from Toronto:
A man has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of a student on University of Toronto’s Scarborough campus (UTSC) last month, police say.
Babatunde Afuwape, a 28-year-old Toronto man, is accused of fatally shooting 20-year-old Shivank Avasthi on a popular campus trail on Dec. 23, Det.-Sgt. Stacey McCabe said at a news conference Wednesday.
Around 3:30 p.m. that day, officers were called to the area of Highland Creek Trail and Old Kingston Road for unknown trouble, Toronto police said last month.
Police arrived to find Avasthi with a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The shooting was Toronto’s 41st homicide of 2025.
Avasthi was a third-year University of Toronto student from India, McCabe said.
“He was young, bright, and had his whole life ahead of him. Our thoughts remain with his family, friends and classmates,” she said. “This was a deeply tragic case.”