This week, Tobi said you should stop looking for solutions. Read more to find out what you should look for instead. With a very lively debate in the comments section.
Join us tomorrow evening at 4pm here on Substack for a delayed version of our annual Independence Day live podcast.
Somehow this newsletter has made it to 150 editions. Remember it is not meant to be ‘enjoyed’. That said, enjoy the week’s selection below.
Nigerian Media
Feature on Atabo Justina who makes a honest living riding a motorcycle in Abuja:
Every morning, while many residents are still preparing for the day ahead, Atabo Justina is already thinking about the road.
For the single mother of three, the motorcycle she rides around the Nyanya-Maraba axis is far more than a means of transportation. It is what puts food on the table for her two boys and a girl, pays their school fees, covers house rent and caters for their healthcare.
More importantly, she says, it has given her a reason to keep moving despite the difficulties life has thrown at her.
Popularly known as Pilot 001, Justina described herself as the first female commercial motorcycle rider in the Mararaba-Nyanya axis. She began riding commercially on November 28, 2020, at a time when financial hardship had pushed her family to the edge.
She recalled that her decision to become an Okada rider was born out of desperation. Her children were sick, there was little food in the house and there was no money to meet their immediate needs. Her then-husband, who normally rode the motorcycle, was away combining commercial motorcycle riding with security work.
Rather than remain at home helplessly, Justina decided to take the motorcycle to the road.
She said she reasoned that since she could ride well, there was no reason for her to remain at home watching her family struggle. She eventually left home around 9 a.m. that day and ventured into commercial motorcycle riding.
That decision, she said, changed her life.
It’s kind of annoying the kind of very basic fraud people still feel confident to try out:
The Ogun State Police Command has arrested a 45-year-old man, Tony Ameachi, over an alleged N2.5m fraud involving a deep freezer transaction.
The command also said 25 Automated Teller Machine cards, 25 mobile phones and 16 Subscriber Identity Module cards were recovered from the suspect following his arrest.
The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP Oluseyi Babaseyi, disclosed this in a statement on Friday, adding that the investigation into the case began in April 2026.
According to the statement, the complainant, a dealer in the purchase and resale of deep freezers, responded to an online advertisement for the sale of the goods on April 1, 2026.
She subsequently contacted the person behind the advertisement and, after discussions, transferred N2.5m to a bank account bearing the name Abdulmoruf Abdulahi for the purchase of the freezers.
However, the goods were allegedly not delivered, while the person with whom the complainant had been communicating reportedly stopped responding to her messages.
The matter was reported at the Igbesa Police Division on April 4, 2026, prompting detectives to commence an investigation.
Babaseyi said, “Following discussions, she transferred ₦2,500,000 into a bank account bearing the name Abdulmoruf Abdulahi for the purchase of the deep freezers for resale. The goods were not delivered, and the person with whom she had been dealing subsequently stopped responding to her messages.
“The matter was formally reported at Igbesa Police Division on 4 April 2026, following which detectives commenced investigation.
“The investigation yielded a breakthrough in September 2026, when detectives traced Tony Ameachi to the Ojo area of Lagos State, where he was arrested on 22 September 2026.
A completely crazy story:
SEPTEMBER 24, Unity Ekpevbughe Adeda, 54, left home for work like any other public servant.
By the end of the day, the Deputy Director in Delta State Ministry of Secondary Education had been involved in a violent confrontation at his workplace.
Taken to hospital, later returned home, yet rushed back, he did not survive.
His death has since raised questions about what happened inside the ministry, allegations surrounding teacher transfers and the conduct of senior officials involved in the confrontation.
For his family, however, the tragedy is painfully simple: a man went to work and died after an incident at the place where he was supposed to serve.
Adeda’s sister, Ovwigho, recalled seeing him at the hospital after a colleague had brought him for treatment.
“I saw him (Unity) tied up like a criminal. His entire body filthy, blood coming out of his mouth and nose, and his head was badly swollen,” she said.
“My brother said the Commissioner (For Secondary Educatiion, Dr Kingsly Ashibogwu) had asked if he knew who he was. My brother responded by asking, ‘Am I obligated to know you? Must I know you?’ The commissioner took offense”, she added.
According to her, Adeda later complained of continuing stomach pain after returning home. “He didn’t stay long before they declared him dead,” she said.
The circumstances leading to the confrontation are now being investigated by the police and a state government administrative panel.
A senior ministry official, who spoke on anonymity, gave Vanguard an account of the events.
The official narrated, “Adeda is dead now, I don’t talk with Clementine Ufuoma Ojumah (one of the suspects), but because of what was happening I decided to beg her, that you are a Director, please ignore Adeda’s reaction.”
The official alleged Ojumah, Director of Exams and Standards, used her vehicle to block the entrance of the premises.
“Adeda who wanted to leave was prevented from going out, so he used the car to hit her Jeep,” the official alleged, adding efforts to calm the situation failed.
The witness continued, “Immediately, the Commissioner came, Adeda heard and he started shouting at him. He (Adeda) accused top officials of collecting bribes and sleeping with women for posting (transfers).
“Then Commissioner started blowing him, called his boys to joined and they tied him up and were beating him. Adeda was bleeding from mouth and nose. He was taken to hospital and later he died. This whole thing was avoidable but they didn’t listen to me.”
This is a new one:
A housewife, Ummulkhairi Lawal, has brought a suit against her former husband, Isa Haruna at a Sharia Court in Magajin Gari, Kaduna, Kaduna State, over unpaid dowry.
According to the News ASgency of Nigeria (NAN), she told the court that Isa was supposed to pay N120,000 as her dowry.
”He divorced me on March 27 and he is yet to pay my dowry.
“I beg the court to order him to pay me” she said.
However, Isa, told the court:”I am a commercial tricycle driver.
“I am pleading with the court to give me four months to look for the money to pay her”.
The judge, Malam Yakubu Abdullahi said:” in Islam, the dowry of a woman is supposed to be paid without delay, for fairness and in order not to inconvenience her”.
In his ruling, the judge ordered Isa to pay Ummulkhairi the amount agreed on as dowry.
He gave Isa until October 5 to offset the debt.
You expect crazy things to happen in Nigeria but even at that, you still get amazed daily:
Five men have been arrested for wearing T-shirts bearing the caption, “Tinubu Must Go,” in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
According to Amnesty International in a statement on Tuesday, the arrested men are Baba Aji Gremami, Mustapha Abba Yemen, Abacha Mohammed Ali, Adam Umar Gubio and Abdulhamid Mohammed.
It condemned the arrests, stating that wearing a T-shirt with a message of political dissent is not a crime and that expressing political opposition is part of human rights.
The rights organisation demanded the unconditional release of the men, urging the authorities to drop any purported plan to put them through a sham trial based on bogus charges.
Citation needed but posted as seen:
Nollywood actress, Damilola Adegbite has claimed that she has noticed a new trend in the Nigerian dating scene, where younger men are increasingly finding older women more attractive.
Speaking on her recent podcast, posted on her YouTube channel, Adegbite said society used to make women feel like they should exit the dating scene once they crossed a certain age, but that is now changing, as younger men now prefer older women.
Using the biblical analogy of the rejected stone becoming the chief cornerstone, the 41-year-old movie star said older women who were once overlooked have now become the “premium packages.”
She said, “When society made older women feel like once we have crossed a certain age, you should basically leave the dating market quietly. Meanwhile, the younger girls were supposedly getting all the attention. But now, the tables are turning.
Something really sad about schools being the target of this:
Operatives of the Ogun State Community, Social Orientation and Safety Corps, popularly known as So-Safe Corps, have arrested a 20-year-old man, Oyeleye Moshood, for allegedly burgling Al-Lateef Group of Schools, 75 Bibire Community, off Olomu, Ifo Local Council of the state.
The suspect was allegedly caught after removing sliding windows, electrical wires, two ceiling fans and metal fittings from the school building.
The Corps Commander, Soji Ganzallo, confirmed the arrest in a statement issued by the Director of Information and Public Relations, Assistant Commander Adegunwa Adegbuyi, in Abeokuta, yesterday.
Ganzallo said the suspect was arrested following a complaint lodged by the proprietor of the school, Animasaun Jelili, at the Ifo Zonal Command.
I always say that the customary courts are the best place to take the temperature of Nigeria’s social fabric:
An estranged wife, Jamila Murtala, has dragged her husband, Saminu, before Mararaba Upper Area Court, sitting in Nasarawa State, alleging that he brought his new wife to live in her rented apartment.
Jamila said she was happily married to her husband Saminu, until when they divorced.
“He refused me access to the apartment, my belongings and other privileges.
“Immediately the court dissolved our marriage, I locked my apartment and travelled to inform my uncle about it.
“However, when I returned home, to my greatest surprise, I discovered that he had changed the locks and moved his second wife in.
“I paid N12,000 for the apartment in 2020.
“He promised to refund the money, but he never did”, she told the court.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), she prayed the court to compel Saminu to refund the N12, 000 she paid for the apartment.
Non-Nigerian Media
Who is Emmanuel Iyogun?
Emmanuel Iyogun started his sporting life as a footballer and, when he turned to rugby, he was a centre first, then a back-row forward. Now, aged 25, he is an England prop. “I always laugh and say that I’ve essentially put on three kilos every year since I was 14 and eventually come to the front row,” he says.
To get there, it has been quite a journey. He was born in Madrid, left when he was two and moved to Glasgow, then Essex. When he arrives to talk at his club, Northampton Saints, he is wearing a Spanish football shirt from the 1994 World Cup.
“My girlfriend got it for me for our one-year anniversary,” he says. “My parents emigrated there from Nigeria for work. My mum was a nurse and my dad essentially did bits and bobs everywhere, anything to make ends meet.
[…]
A prop crisis at Northampton during Covid, set off by an injury to Francois van Wyk in the autumn of 2020, led Iyogun to his first senior start at loose-head in the Champions Cup quarter-final against Exeter Chiefs at Sandy Park. He had learnt his trade quickly from Paul Hill, Owen and Ben Franks, and Alex Waller, and at 19 he admirably held his own as Eddie Jones, the England coach at the time, gave him a standing ovation in the empty stands.
The embarrassing story that just won’t go away:
A Nigerian man accused of setting up a fraudulent government agency and securing public money and office space for it in a federal government complex has been charged with forgery and impersonation.
Prosecutors say that the man, Adeniyi Adeyemi, posed as the head of the Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council beginning in 2024, forging documents to request offices and bank accounts. He appeared in a Federal High Court in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, on Wednesday, and pleaded not guilty to all eight charges against him.
Nigerians are closely following the case, shocked that an agency the government says does not exist could operate at the highest levels of the country’s bureaucracy. Critics say that the scandal exposes corruption at the heart of the Nigerian government, and questions have been raised surrounding the role played by the president’s chief of staff.
A spokesman for President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria said that his chief of staff first blew the whistle on the illegal agency last October, sending a letter to the police and the country’s domestic intelligence agency asking them to investigate the agency for “the forgery of official appointment letters.”
“They have been parading themselves as a legitimate government agency, hosting meetings with both foreigners and Nigerian citizens,” the letter read. Mr. Adeyemi was also accused of submitting a formal request asking the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to facilitate visas to the United States.
News from Barbados:
The Barbados Police Service Narcotics Unit has arrested and formally charged 19-year-old Abdul-Rasheed Anjolaoluwa Oduola of Dagenham, East London, United Kingdom, in connection with the seizure of 23.4 kilograms of suspected cocaine.
Oduola was charged with possession, trafficking and intent to supply cocaine, as well as attempting to export cocaine.
The suspected cocaine has an estimated street value of one million, one hundred and seventy thousand Barbados dollars.
Oduola is scheduled to appear before the District ‘B’ Magistrates’ Court on Friday, October 2nd, 2026.
Nigerians are still at this stuff:
A Nigerian dancer has completed a 168-hour dance marathon in Lagos in a bid to set a new world record.
Benjamin Daniel, known as “Ben Dancer”, aimed to dance for seven days to break the Guinness World Records title for the longest dance marathon by an individual.
Cheered on by friends and supporters at Lagos’s Freedom Park, the 33-year-old reached his target time at around 03:00 local time but continued dancing for another nine hours until midday, his team says. The physically exhausted dancer has now gone to hospital for a medical check-up.
Guinness World Records has confirmed to the BBC that it has received Daniel’s application for the title. The current record stands at 127 hours.
“Benjamin’s application is active and we now eagerly await submission of his evidence, which will then go through our official review and verification process before any record can be confirmed,” a spokesperson for Guinness World Records said in the statement.
His team said they were “elated” and emotional after watching him complete the challenge, which has been live streamed on social media.
Young people gathered in recent days to cheer him on at Freedom Park in Lagos, filming his every move and dancing along from behind the barriers.
The first trailer for Clarissa is out:
In Clarissa, Nigerian filmmakers Arie and Chuko Esiri give Virginia Woolf’s famed 1925 novel Mrs. Dalloway a modern, global update. Moving the story from London to contemporary Lagos, the twin brothers bring its timeless themes of memory and unresolved desire into a world seen through an African lens. After making a splash at the Toronto International Film Festival, the movie has dropped its first trailer. It makes its U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival this weekend, October 4.
Tony Award-winning actress Sophie Okonedo stars as Clarissa, the protagonist, as she preps for an elaborate party at home. As the day unfolds, she revisits the relationships and decisions that brought her here. India Amarteifio plays her younger self, allowing the film to move between youthful possibility and the realities of the life Clarissa ultimately chose.
David Oyelowo and Toheeb Jimoh portray older and younger versions of Peter, a figure from Clarissa’s past. Nikki Amuka-Bird and Ayo Edebiri play Sally across the same timelines. Clarissa’s attraction to Sally adds another layer to her memories, as she questions whether she made the right decision in choosing a life partner. Jude Akuwudike plays Clarissa’s husband, Richard.
New scam just dropped:
Cybercriminals from Nigeria are targeting college students in the West with an advance fee fraud (AFF) scam tricking them into giving away hundreds of dollars.
Security researchers Proofpoint discovered the campaign, which aims to get gullible students to buy gift cards with their own money and send them to the scammers.
We don’t know how many people fell victim, or for how long the operation has been going, but Proofpoint believes it knows why the scammers are targeting primarily college students.
“Younger students may have less experience with email correspondence and are new to engaging with potential work or money-making opportunities; alumni may still have active email accounts, but may not use them frequently, providing an opportunity for threat actors to hijack their contact lists; and staff and faculty are constantly receiving communications from students, parents, community members, etc. from a variety of personal and university emails,” the experts said.
“By gaining access to a .edu account, threat actors can use the authority of the TLD to lend credibility to their scams both inside and outside of the target organization.”
There are multiple stages to the scam. It starts with a phishing email to anyone with an .edu address, warning the victim that their email account is going to get deactivated because of a made-up excuse like retirement, graduation, or transfer. The lure asks the victim to “verify” their address, and while doing so, they are asked to share their passwords, as well.
After gaining access to the account, the crooks use it to share a second phishing email, this time to students in the contacts list, as well as anyone else with an .edu address. This lure advertises a fake job for the students to apply to. Those that “get the job” are given a copy of a check for $1,000 and are told to deposit it. They are instructed to keep half as their salary, and to purchase gift cards with the other half, which they should then send back to the scammers.
The oil is gone with not much to show for it. So Martha Agbani to the rescue:
A toxic landscape was familiar to Martha Agbani when she was growing up – the smell of crude oil in the air, rivers running black and trees dying on the banks. In Ogoniland, in Nigeria’s oil-exploited Niger delta, Agbani saw the spills rot away the mangrove forests and destroy the livelihoods of communities around her.
Now, she is training women to plant them back – one fragile green shoot at a time.
Agbani saw first-hand the toll on Nigerians who protested against the damage inflicted in the delta by big oil companies.
Her mother, Theresa Terabiewaa Agbani, was an activist and, when Agbani was in college, they were devastated by the state’s execution of Ogoni activist and playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa, who, along with eight other environmental campaigners, was hanged in 1995.
“The execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and the other Ogoni land defenders decades ago opened my eyes to what really lay behind the destruction of my home town,” she says.
Agbani has adopted a different kind of activism – planting trees. In 2003, soon after the death of her mother, she established the Lokiaka Community Development Centre, to support female Ogoni farmers in caring for the environment and helping to restore the mangroves, devastated by more than five decades of oil pollution.
Feature on Michael Kayode who just made his senior debut (and scored) for the Italian national team (Honest Ahanor is also of Nigerian origin):
As a kid, Michael Kayode dreamed of becoming a sprinter like his idol, Usain Bolt.
These days, Kayode is still sprinting - albeit up and down the flanks of soccer fields instead of running tracks.
And suddenly, the 22-year-old right back is the face of a multiethnic revitalization of Italy´s struggling national team.
Born in Italy to Nigerian parents, Kayode scored one goal and set up another in his Azzurri debut at Turkey on Monday. He’s likely to start again away against France in the Nations League on Friday.
Of the current Italy squad, five other players - Honest Ahanor, Issa Doumbia, Mohamed Alì Zoma, Moise Kean, Eddy Kouadio - are also of African descent.
Roberto Mancini, who was rehired as coach after four-time champion Italy failed to qualify for a third consecutive World Cup, has been looking for new faces to inject energy into his team.
“It hurts not to have qualified for the World Cup, but whenever something bad happens, I always try to see it as a new beginning,” Kayode said. “We’re here to work hard and open a new cycle.”
Kayode went from Italy´s fourth division, Serie D, to the Premier League in a four-year span when he joined Brentford last year. The English club is having quite a start to the season, sitting in fourth place after pounding Chelsea 3-0 on the day that Kayode received his first call-up.
Before he dedicated himself to soccer, though, Kayode loved running.
“I always watched Bolt at the Olympics. And athletes like (Justin) Gatlin, (Yohan) Blake,” Kayode said.
But since his father was always watching soccer games on TV, Kayode got interested in football, too.
At age six, Kayode started training at Juventus´ youth academy but the Turin club let him go at 14 and he ended up with Gozzano in Serie D. Fiorentina then signed him to its youth academy and the rise has been rapid: A Serie A debut at 19, a spot in the starting lineup of a squad that reached the Conference League final, and the move to England.
While he could have played for Nigeria, Kayode also featured for Italy’s youth squads, playing for the national under-18, under-19, under-21 teams.
“Nigeria approached me, but it’s an honor for anyone to play for Italy,” Kayode said during his presentation at the national team´s Coverciano training center last week.
Reports coming in from Gujarat, India:
Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and Indian Coast Guard seized around 526 kg of heroin and methamphetamine, valued at more than Rs 3,000 crore in the international market, after intercepting an Iranian dhow in the Arabian Sea off Lakshadweep, officials said. Five Pakistani nationals aboard the Iranian dhow — Mohammad Yakub Balochi, Shakirullah, Faridullah, Ahmed Khan and Wahidullah Khan, all residents of Peshawar, Pakistan — have been arrested.
The operation followed intelligence received by Gujarat ATS police inspector J M Patel on Sept 10 about a suspected international narcotics deal involving a Nigerian national and associates. The intelligence indicated that an Iranian boat named Azad was being used to transport around 500 kg of methamphetamine and heroin to Indian waters, where the consignment was to be transferred to a Tamil Nadu-based boat.
According to ATS, an advance payment for the consignment had already been made through the hawala channel, while the remaining amount was to be paid after delivery. The drugs were allegedly to be unloaded along the Tamil Nadu coast and moved in smaller quantities through different vehicles before being delivered to a Nigerian national in Punjab.Sunil Joshi, deputy inspector general of police for the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), said that “the consignment was sent by Haji Salim from Pakistan.