Below The Headlines - 143
Climate change jobs in Lagos and who makes Rashford's hair?
The UK heatwave is really dealing with my productivity at the moment. In the meantime, here is a piece that responds to, and extends, some of the arguments we have been making here from a Vietnamese and Ghanaian perspective.
Enjoy the week’s selection below
Nigerian Media
Is cocoa dying in Ondo?
For decades, cocoa was the backbone of Nigeria’s economy and the pride of Ondo State, the country’s leading cocoa-producing state. The crop financed major infrastructure projects, including the iconic Cocoa House in Ibadan, once the tallest building in Nigeria.
Today, however, stakeholders in the cocoa value chain are expressing concern over a steady decline in production, driven by ageing farmers, old cocoa plantations, insecurity, rising production costs, and the growing disinterest of young people in agriculture.
Findings by Daily Trust revealed that many cocoa farmers in Ondo State are now elderly, while several cocoa plantations are decades old and producing far below their potential. As the older generation gradually exits farming, concerns are mounting over whether there are enough youths willing to take their place.
The national president of the Cocoa and Plantain Farmers Association of Nigeria (CPFAN), Ayodele Ojo, said cocoa production had been on a downward trend for decades.
“It is not only Ondo State that is affected. More than 13 states in Nigeria produce cocoa today. Since 1978, cocoa production has been moving backward rather than forward,” he said.
What goes through the brain of someone who decides to smoke on a plane? I wonder:
The Airport Police Command, Lagos, has said it will arraign two passengers for allegedly smoking and engaging in unruly conduct aboard an Air Peace flight from South Africa to Lagos, an incident that reportedly triggered the aircraft’s emergency smoke alarm and caused panic among passengers.
The command disclosed this in a statement on Friday signed by its Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Mohammed Adeola, and identified the suspects as Enaruna Prince Aghama, 51, and Tony Ajayi, 43.
According to the statement, the suspects were handed over to the International Airport Police Division by Aviation Security personnel after the aircraft landed at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, for further investigation.
The police said preliminary findings showed that the incident occurred at about 7:44 p.m. on Thursday while the aircraft was en route to Lagos.
“Preliminary investigation revealed that at about 1944hrs on 9th July, 2026, while aboard an Air Peace flight from South Africa to Lagos, the suspects lit and smoked cigarettes inside the aircraft, an action which activated the aircraft’s smoke detection and emergency alarm system, causing panic and anxiety among passengers and cabin crew,” the statement read.
The command added that investigations also revealed that the suspects were in possession of an alcoholic beverage and became uncooperative when cabin crew members attempted to enforce safety procedures.
This is almost certainly yet another case of an aphrodisiac going wrong:
The Bayelsa State Police Command has launched an investigation after a 40-year-old phone repairer, identified simply as Felix, was found dead in a guest house in Yenagoa, while the woman who reportedly checked in with him disappeared before his body was discovered.
PUNCH Metro gathered that the deceased, said to be from Cross River State, had checked into Diko Guest House along Azikoro Road in the Ekeki area of Yenagoa with an unidentified woman on Wednesday night.
His naked body was, however, discovered in the room on Thursday morning after a cleaner reportedly raised the alarm.
Our correspondent learnt from sources in the hotel who craved anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the incident that the woman was said to have disappeared before the discovery.
PUNCH Metro learnt that the incident attracted traders and residents to the nearby Seriake Dickson Shopping Complex, where the deceased operated a phone repair shop.
Eyewitnesses told our correspondent that sachets of alcoholic drinks were found on a bedside table in the room, while police officers later evacuated the body.
We talk a lot about technological innovation here so here is a story for you. Posted without comment:
In the bustling heart of Nigerian cities and towns, the deafening roar of small gasoline generators, popularly called ‘I better pass my neighbour’, is the soundtrack of survival for hundreds of small business owners.
However, a quiet, homemade engineering trend is spreading through local workshops. Economy&Lifestyle discovered that Nigerian artisans, hit hard by the high cost of petrol, are bypassing their generators’ built-in steel tanks.
Instead, they are using discarded polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottles, to act as makeshift, gravity-fed fuel compartments.
This viral hack is saving them thousands of Naira daily.
The concept is incredibly simple but highly effective.
Artisans remove or close off the large, traditional top-mounted metal fuel tank of a standard 950-watt or larger generator. They then suspend a clean, 1-litre or 2-litre plastic soda bottle, upside down, from the generator’s outer metal frame.
A slim rubber hose is inserted through a small hole drilled into the bottle cap.
This hose feeds petrol directly into the carburetor fuel intake.
Mr. Dirisu Jayjay, a local mechanic, explained that this set-up drastically reduces fuel waste.
“Many older generator tanks suffer from microscopic leaks, rust accumulation, or evaporation loss, due to intense tropical heat.
“Furthermore, standard carburetors can over-consume fuel when under a heavy tank load.
“But the small PET bottle relies on a gentle, gravity-fed system. This delivers only the exact amount of fuel the engine needs to keep running under a steady load.
Nigeria and Ponzi Schemes are twins separated at birth. No matter how badly one goes, another one is sure to rise in its place:
Social media users have reacted with frustration after another online investment platform, National Reading Culture (NRC), reportedly crashed, leaving many Nigerians stranded and unable to access their funds.
NRC operated as a task-based earning platform that required users to pay money to carry out simple daily tasks, with the promise of receiving heavily inflated and guaranteed returns.
A check by Tribune Online on Tuesday night showed that the scheme’s website, nrc.cc, was no longer accessible as of the time of filing this report.
The platform was founded in 2023 and claimed to have its headquarters in the United States.
Reacting to the development in a post on X on Tuesday, a user, @Oma22k, whose associate was a victim, wrote, “So, NRC has crashed.
“The funny thing is, someone had been seriously persuading me to join. She wanted me to register, but I refused. She explained everything, but I still wasn’t convinced.
“She even went ahead and registered me with her own money, expecting me to pay her back later. I simply told her, ‘Take the account and manage it yourself. I’m not interested.’
“From that day, she stopped talking to me.
“I just heard that the platform has crashed, and people have lost their money. The painful part is that people hardly ever learn. Give it some time, another platform will come with a different name, make the same promises, and many people will still rush into it.’”
When even government buildings are collapsing like this, you should know the handshake has gone way beyond the elbow:
The Gombe State Government has ordered an immediate investigation into the collapse of a section of the entrance canopy at the ongoing construction site of the new Gombe State House of Assembly Complex.
The incident, which occurred on Friday, claimed one life and left seven construction workers injured.
In a statement issued by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Works, Housing and Transportation, Danladi Adamu, the government said the collapse involved a section of the cantilevered entrance canopy that was under construction. It added that five of the injured workers are receiving treatment at the Gombe State Specialist Hospital, while two others are being treated at the Federal Teaching Hospital (FTH), Gombe.
The government also directed that all injured workers be given comprehensive medical treatment at the government’s expense. It further directed the Ministry of Works, Housing and Transportation, alongside relevant emergency, regulatory and technical agencies, to immediately commence safety and accountability procedures to determine the cause of the incident.
As part of the investigation, the contractor handling the project and the supervising consultant have been directed to submit a formal incident report within 24 hours.
They are also expected to provide a preliminary investigation report, followed by a comprehensive technical report containing findings and recommendations.
Nigeria is almost certainly the only country I know of where ordinary people purchase cars by importing it themselves. This absurdity has been going on for as long as I can remember and everyone now thinks it is normal:
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Enugu Zonal Directorate, has arraigned one Chukwuebuka Ogbonna before Justice Vincent C. Ezeugwu of the Enugu State High Court.
Ogbonna was arraigned on a four-count charge bordering on stealing by conversion to the tune of N15, 400, 000.
The court said that the offence is contrary to Section 342 of the Criminal Code Law, Cap 30, Enugu State and punishable under Section 353 (1) of the same Law.
[…]
The defendant was arrested, following claims of a petitioner that he paid him N15.4m, sometime in October 2023, to assist him in importing three cars.
On receipt of the money, the defendant promised to deliver the cars on or before December 25, 2023, but failed to do so.
He neither delivered the cars nor returned the money to the petitioner.
Climate change comes with employment and money making opportunities:
At major flood flashpoints, groups of young men gathered with wheelbarrows, wooden planks and ropes, offering rescue services to stranded motorists and earning a living.
“We started early because we knew that cars would get stuck. We charged between N5,000 and N20,000, depending on the size of the vehicle,” one of the vehicle pushers said with a grin.
“Desperate motorists who were unable to restart their vehicles willingly paid to have them pushed to dry ground. We were not cheating anyone.
“We were providing service. Without us, many cars would still be stranded,” Ibrahim, a cart pusher insisted.
At the Trade Fair area of Ojo, many teenagers carried traders across the flooded Mile 2-Badagry expressway on their backs, ensuring they reached dry land without soaking their clothes.
“Some paid N500, others N1,000. It may not be much but it helped us feed to ourselves,” one of the teenagers rendering service said.
Commercial tricycle and motorcycle operators also enjoyed brisk business as transport fares surged on routes still accessible despite the flooding.
Roadside food vendors, sachet water sellers, umbrella hawkers and raincoat merchants equally recorded increased patronage from commuters trapped in an endless traffic.
Also, vehicle mechanics worked almost without rest. “Our workshop is full. Many drivers ignored the warnings and entered deep water. Some engines will require complete replacement,” a mechanic in Oshodi said while inspecting another flood-damaged engine.
Tow truck operators also reported one of their busiest days in months, moving stalled vehicles from flooded roads to repair workshops across the city.
Non-Nigerian Media
Feature on Tolami Benson, Bukayo Saka’s fiancée:
While her husband-to-be trains from England’s base in Kansas City, Benson has work to do. Shoots and events are becoming routine — she recently created a collection for River Island, which she modelled alongside her teacup poodle, Bailey, “a chill babe” (at home there’s also a cockapoo, Tucker). She attended the British Fashion Awards in December and was at the Richard Quinn show at London Fashion Week last September in a dramatic V-neck white gown. “Fashion week is fun but it’s so back to back.”
Benson grew up in Hertfordshire, in a “big” family. She is (politely) cagey about her parents and siblings — in case “people start looking for them on the internet” — but her “born and raised country girl” upbringing involved plenty of dog-walking. After Bishop’s Hatfield Girls’ School, she studied public relations and media at Birmingham City University, then worked in several London-based PR and advertising agencies. She serves as a governor at her old secondary school. “It’s not what people think I do, but when you’re young you should do things like that. Because that’s when you can change things.”
Aliko Dangote has been one of the biggest winners from the Iran War:
There is a surprise winner from the Iran war: Africa’s richest man.
Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote went “through hell” building a $20 billion oil refinery that was plagued by a decade of delays and cost overruns that doubled the tab for the project.
Now, the commodities tycoon is reaping the benefits. The huge refinery reached full capacity in February—just in time to supply the world with diesel, jet fuel and gasoline that doesn’t need to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
Surging demand for refined petroleum products has boosted Dangote’s wealth by some $4.86 billion since the start of the year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, bringing his net worth to about $34.8 billion. Dangote’s repeated bets on the rise of Africa’s middle class, from cement to sugar to salt, have helped the 69-year-old become the world’s 65th-wealthiest person.
The refinery’s output of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel have all risen more than 70% so far this year.
Boko Haram are big fans of AI:
When a gang of motorcycle-riding members of Boko Haram attacked a military base in eastern Nigeria a couple of years ago, they were stymied by a defensive trench surrounding the complex.
The extremists regrouped. Before launching another assault, they asked A.I. for help.
“We saw in a movie how motorcycles can jump over bridges,” a former Boko Haram commander told Antonia Juelich, a terrorism and technology researcher at Cambridge University. “We used A.I. to learn how to do this. We gave it information, like what motorcycles we use and the distance we need to jump and so on, and it gave us steps on what we have to do.”
Using tips from chatbots, mechanics modified the motorcycles to allow for faster acceleration and top speed. The riders dug their own holes, filled them with broken glass and fire, and practiced jumps — sometimes with fatal outcomes — until they achieved enough aerial liftoff to mount a successful attack, defectors said.
The episode, recounted in a research paper by Dr. Juelich shared with The New York Times ahead of its publication on Friday, highlights how generative artificial intelligence tools are increasingly aiding terrorist groups directly on the battlefield, experts say, despite efforts by their makers to safeguard them from misuse.
[…]
Dr. Juelich conducted nearly 60 interviews with 27 former members of Boko Haram in Nigeria over the past year. Her field research found that terrorists were using chatbots to design explosives, fix or upgrade other weapons, and brainstorm ideas on how to attack their enemies.
Who put a grandmother up to this?
A British-Nigerian grandmother was arrested in Lagos while attempting to smuggle cocaine on to a London-bound flight by disguising the drugs inside plantain peels, according to Nigerian authorities.
Mary Yetunde Barek was detained with some 13kg of cocaine in her luggage as she tried to board a Virgin Atlantic flight to Heathrow on June 28, Nigeria’s National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) said.
Barek, 67, from Ondo state, “admitted full ownership of the recovered cocaine”, after she was apprehended in the departure hall of Murtala Muhammed airport in Ikeja, the NDLEA said.
Barek, who works as a carer in the UK, had a scheme to conceal the drugs “in peels of plantain which appeared as real plantains and [were] packed among other food items”, the NDLEA said.
A video posted on social media by the drug enforcement agency showed authorities searching two large suitcases to find brightly patterned bags filled with newspaper-wrapped foodstuffs.
Inside, the wrapping looked at first glance to be elastic-banded bundles of ripe plantains — a staple of the Nigerian diet — but officers sliced into the peels to find packaged powder that set off a drug detector.
The message from some Nigerians to President Trump: why introduce me to a lifestyle you won’t sustain?
It was not just the holiday that had Luka Binniyat overjoyed on December 25. President Trump announced strikes on Islamist militants in Nigeria’s northwest, positioning himself as a defender of Christians.
“It was the best Christmas gift we could have ever had,” Binniyat, 60, said.
The bombings came after months of building rhetoric from the US president over a “Christian genocide” in Nigeria, which has a narrow Muslim majority. Shortly after the strikes, the US sent military supplies to Abuja and deployed 200 troops.
Binniyat, from Kaduna State, spent decades as a journalist monitoring attacks on Christian communities, often arriving at the scenes of massacres.
Less than six months after the first US soldiers arrived, Binniyat is among the many people in Nigeria’s northcentral “Middle Belt” — home to most of the Christians in the north — who are confused and angry over their withdrawal.
“We don’t know the reason for them coming, because it was not helpful to us,” said Binniyat, who is the spokesman for the Middle Belt Forum, a civil society group of predominantly Christian ethnic minorities.
US activity continued to build until a strike targeted a swampy Islamic State hideout in the northeast’s Lake Chad Basin on May 16. Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, one of the most senior Islamic State leaders globally, was killed alongside some 200 other jihadists, US officials said. During the attack, the US seized the largest trove of terrorist electronic intelligence since 9/11.
What a terrible story:
A 26-year-old man has admitted attempting to murder his ex-partner in a “sustained” attack on an Edinburgh street last year as she took their daughter to a doctor’s appointment.
Osarenkhoe Atutie, 26, left Victory Atutie with 12 separate injuries after repeatedly stabbing her in the assault on Duke Street, Leith, on November 11 last year.
He admitted the attempted murder during a hearing at the High Court in Edinburgh on Tuesday and is due to be sentenced next month.
During the hearing, the court was told the couple had got married in Nigeria before coming the UK, where they had a daughter.
They initially lived in London but, following a “breakdown” in the relationship, Ms Atutie moved to Edinburgh with their child.
On November 11 2025, Ms Atutie had been taking her daughter for a doctor’s appointment when the 26-year-old approached them.
The court heard the child had seen him first and shouted “daddy, daddy”, and that initially Ms Atutie did not believe her as she thought he was in London.
However, when she caught sight of him she “immediately panicked”.
The court heard Atutie came up to them and lifted the cover of the buggy before giving his daughter a hug.
He then told Ms Atutie: “I brought a knife, I will show you.”
One of the most embarrassing stories ever out of Nigeria has broken containment:
A fictitious federal entity that was allocated 1.3bn naira (£700,000) in Nigeria’s 2026 budget has precipitated a political storm in Africa’s largest democracy in the run-up to a general election set for January.
The fake agency came to light last October when Femi Gbajabiamila, the president’s chief of staff, wrote to the police alleging that his signature, along with official seals and reference numbers, had been forged by Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, who was claiming to have been appointed by the presidency to head the presidential foreign intervention promotion council (PFIPC).
The case is due to be heard in a court in the capital, Abuja, on 27 July, more than six months after the police filed an eight-count charge including criminal forgery, impersonation and obtaining by false pretence against Adeyemi and two others.
In a 1 July statement, the Nigerian presidency also claimed Adeyemi had met ambassadors without the knowledge of the foreign affairs ministry and misled the country’s accountant-general’s office into opening accounts for PFIPC with the central bank and 33 commercial banks.
The actual Nigerian investment promotion council had also reportedly raised an alarm about the similarities with the PFIPC.
Apart from being included in the budget, the PFIPC was also allocated office space in the federal secretariat in Abuja, a huge complex housing the headquarters of Nigeria’s civil service and many government ministries and agencies.
Amusing story from Jamaica. Not really a Nigerian involved but:
For 38 days, South Africa was an adventure for 24-year-old Jamaican digital nomad Kadeem Leslie. In the final week, it became a country he could not wait to leave.
Leslie, a Kingston-born author and entrepreneur who has been travelling the world full-time, arrived in South Africa on May 17, eager to explore a country he had long admired for its history, beauty, and cultural power.
By June 30, however, the young Jamaican had abandoned plans to spend his final night in Johannesburg and instead sought refuge inside the airport, nearly a day before his scheduled departure.
His reason was simple. People had started telling him he looked Nigerian.
“You can’t tell that I’m Jamaican by looking at me, because I look West African,” Leslie told The Sunday Gleaner. “But whenever somebody finds out that I am Jamaican, it’s different. It’s a smile.”
The irony was not lost on him.
Across the world, he said, Jamaicans are often embraced with excitement, their nationality immediately linked to Bob Marley, Usain Bolt, reggae, dancehall and an outsized global cultural identity. But in South Africa, during a tense final week marked by anti-immigrant protests and fear among foreign African nationals, Leslie said his appearance suddenly seemed to matter more than his passport.
“I heard it so many times: ‘Hey bro, you look Nigerian’,” he recalled. “And it wasn’t until that last week that I started realising why people were saying it.”
Armin Rosen spent a lot of time reporting this story on Massad Boulos. It’s a very long read and a lot of it covers Nigeria:
On April 10, 2025, a private, still-mysterious meeting took place in Paris between one of the Trump administration’s top diplomats and the leader of the most populous country in Africa. Bola Tinubu, the president of Nigeria, was in the French capital on a secretive 19-day work retreat in which he did not appear to participate in any official public events or meet with any leading French officials. One person he did meet with was Massad Boulos, a senior adviser on Arab and African affairs at the State Department.
Boulos arranged the sit-down with Tinubu without informing his colleagues at State, “[catching] the U.S. embassies in both France and Nigeria off guard,” sources briefed on the meeting told Politico. (Other officials disputed this account to the publication.) The following day, the U.S. Embassy in Abuja published a brief X post about the meeting, saying the two men had talked about “working together with partners to build a durable peace in eastern DRC”—the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a country that doesn’t even border Nigeria—as well as “expanding opportunities for economic cooperation throughout Africa.” The Nigerians released a more detailed readout: “The U.S.,” Tinubu’s office announced after the sit-down, “wanted to work closely with President Tinubu to expand American investment in Nigeria and Africa.”
Boulos’ son, Michael Boulos, married Tiffany Trump in 2022. Massad Boulos is a citizen of Lebanon, France, and most recently the United States, where he became a citizen in 1990 (Boulos’ Washington-based spokesman said his client does not hold Nigerian citizenship). He spent nearly 30 years in Lagos, Nigeria, where he ran a small company, part of his wealthy father-in-law’s business empire, that imported and rented large trucks and other construction equipment. One of its clients is the Chagoury Group, the Tinubu government’s favored contractor for state-funded construction projects. The Lebanese Nigerian Chagoury family, whose chief visionary Gilbert also holds French citizenship, is so close to the heights of national power in Nigeria that Tinubu’s son—who knows Michael Boulos from their overlapping social circles in upper-class Lagos—had served on the board of one of their companies and was revealed to be the co-owner of an offshore Caribbean entity with a prominent Chagoury in 2024. Two weeks before the Paris meeting, Nigerian media reported that Tinubu’s government had approved a hastily negotiated $700 million contract for much-needed upgrades to the Lagos port with the Chagoury Group. Boulos flew to Paris to discuss a hazy set of investment opportunities with the chief patron of his longtime business partners in a meeting reportedly arranged outside of State Department channels for which no media were present.
News from Tokyo:
Tokyo police have arrested a 53-year-old Nigerian on suspicion of persistent touting for an establishment in Tokyo’s Kabukicho nightlife district.
Nwadiukwu Sylvester Ikenna grasped a passer-by by the left hand on the street in the district in Thursday’s small hours, the Metropolitan Police Department said. The suspect was saying things like “Why don’t you?” and “Don’t be scared. I love you,” the police said.
The suspect admitted to the act of solicitation and said he had received part of the money solicited customers paid at an eating establishment, according to the police.
In the first half of the year, the police received 91 consultations about cases around the district in which people were forced to pay extremely high sums at establishments that they were taken to by African-looking touts. The number already exceeds 77 consultations for the whole of 2025.
Who is responsible for England stars hairstyles at the world cup?
“The stadium went wild. The cameras panned to get a close-up of Rashy and suddenly my work was on the big screen.” May Jike is remembering England’s first World Cup match last month when Marcus Rashford scored the final goal; Rashford was sporting a geometric design she’d braided a few hours before. And if he was the man of the moment, Jike was the stylist.
Thrust on to the world stage, things kicked off pretty fast. “I gained 20,000 followers overnight, and even now my phone is still going crazy,” she says. For the same match she crowned fellow England player Noni Madueke with a head of two-strand twists. “When you look good you feel good and perform your best,” she says, speaking from a hotel in Los Angeles. “Plus, footballers are gaining a greater awareness of their grooming and brand image.”
Jike’s client list reads like a scroll of the world’s biggest sporting stars. This week alone the Londoner has flown to Milan Men’s Fashion Week to dress the hair of the NBA star Jarred Vanderbilt, and then gone straight to Tennessee to do Sheila Ebana, mother of the Spanish footballer Lamine Yamal, before boarding the red-eye to LA to remain on call for the World Cup football teams (though the airline has lost a bag of her finest tools).
[…]
“I don’t drink, and I’m committed to my craft — coming in and doing an excellent job. Speed is important too,” she adds. Braids have a reputation for being a time-intensive, laborious style, but one of Jike’s USPs is working quickly. “I did Rashford’s cornrows in 45 minutes.” She is paid a base rate of £5,000 for such jobs.
[…]
Then, in 2019, as a qualified financial services project manager on the cusp of a very well-compensated promotion, she shocked her colleagues by deciding to leave. Somewhere in the quiet and recalibration of lockdown, she returned to her passion for hair, and Jayèma was born. The moniker (an amalgam of her own name, May, those of her brother, James, and her mother, Yemisi) is the one she now goes by professionally as her bookings take her across the globe. “Working with male athletes happened naturally,” she says. “As I built relationships within sport, players began recommending me to teammates and other athletes.”
Jike’s big breakthrough was the Paris Olympics of 2024. “I worked with WNBA star A’ja Wilson [of the US gold medal-winning women’s basketball team] — that experience and God’s grace opened the door and showed me just how important image and confidence are for elite performers.” Since then, word of mouth has been one of the “big drivers” of her career, she says.
She is also quick to credit her family’s encouragement for her strong belief that she could be anything she set her mind to, even though growing up there was little representation of black women doing the kind of career she dreamt of.
“I grew up in the UK, but when I was 11 my mum took me to live in Nigeria.” The experience was a total culture shock. “For the first time I wasn’t the only one in my class or neighbourhood — there were black people everywhere I went. I remember seeing billboards in Nigeria and adverts on TV in which black models made up the entire cast and being stunned. I’d never seen anything like that in England, and it made me determined to be a part of that world.”
The scary part was Boko Haram using AI to modify attack bikes. Like WTF! 🤯