Below The Headlines - 20

Gentrified egusi in New York and bus conductors are going extinct

Welcome to another edition of BTH. Hope you enjoyed celebrating Nigeria’s Independence Day last week. And if you didn’t enjoy it, this newsletter may not be the pick-me-up you’re looking for.

I stumbled on an old research paper on the origins of Nigeria’s GTBank and wrote something about it. Tobi wrote about 4 development lessons from the explosive growth in Nigeria’s creative industry.

Enjoy and see you next week

Inside Nigeria

The Police investigation into the death of Mohbad contains revelations that are even sadder and more tragic than what was initially thought: “According to him, Ogedengbe who was invited by Mohbad’s friend, Ayobami Sodiq aka Spending, to inject the singer at his residence, administered three injections believed to have led to the chain of reactions that eventually led to the singer’s demise” - ThisDay

Claims that Chinese mining companies have ‘partnered’ with a bandit faction led by the notorious Dogo Gide in Niger State to allow them continue their mining in peace. Before you shout that this is an outrage, note that villagers report that this is effectively a subsidy on kidnapping ransom: “A local miner, *Yeri, believes the terrorists demanded less from their victims because they get more money from the mining activities. Two other local miners corroborated him but were afraid of speaking [in detail] about it” - ICIR Nigeria

Nothing to see here, just a run of the mill corruption story where the Director General of some forestry agency wrote down the value of the agency’s vehicles and sold them to himself on the way out: “The second Toyota Prado acquired in 2013 for N21 million with the chassis number JTEBU9FJ1D5002342 was determined to be worth N800,000. The institute bought the Toyota Hilux with the chassis number MROHX8CD7K1389911 in 2018 for N18 million. In the valuation report, it was said to be worth N1 million.” - FIJ

Paddy rice is now sold per kilogramme in Katsina because: “In the last two years, paddy rice was sold per bag not kilogramme, but sharp practices, where farmers chose not to properly sieve the produce from the farms in order to increase its quantity and maximise profit forced buyers to use kilogramme as a unit of purchase” - Daily Trust

Abuja Police went to rescue a man who was being beaten after an allegation he stole another man’s ‘manhood’. The Police themselves were attacked and had to send for reinforcements: “Our correspondent gathered that a yet-to-be-identified man had raised the alarm of his manhood disappearance after coming in contact with Mubarak. A resident of the area who did not want to be named told City Round, on Friday, that the mob surrounded him and began to beat him to restore the alleged missing manhood” - Punch

Elsewhere in Abuja, a couple of chaps were sentenced to 3 month in prison with the option of a N10,000 fine for falsely defaming another man as a manhood thief: “Earlier, the prosecution counsel, Olarewaju Osho, told the court that the complainant, Yakubu Tijani, reported the matter at the Garki Police Station on Oct. 4, after the defendants accused him of “shrinking “ their genitals after he approached them and asked for directions to a street. However, during police investigation, the convicts were taken to a hospital where it was confirmed that their genitals were not “stolen” - Daily Post

Sad news about catfish coming out of Abuja: “Women, who spoke with Daily Trust in Mararaba and Masaka in Karu LGA of Nasarawa State, said that for a while the product had been in low supply due to suppliers running out, and that the sizes were also small” - Daily Trust

A lady named Confidence paid N3.6 million to one Ajibola based in Canada ostensibly to help her pay school fees in Canada. That is the matter we are now trying to settle: “Contacted via WhatsApp, Ajibola did not respond to our correspondent’s request for comment on the matter after four days of reading the chats” - Punch

The almost complete absence of any kind of mental health treatment in large parts of Nigeria means that this is a common way mentally unwell people are treated: “Preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect only feeds his wife once every day. The suspect also said that he chained his wife because she has some mental health issues,” - Guardian

Unexpected effect of removal of fuel subsidy: “Before, I had a conductor who assisted me during this period. I paid him N2,500 because it is a half-day job and what he would steal would be more than that N2,500 from those passengers picked from the road when others alight. Then I did not have a problem meeting up with the delivery. But things have changed now. Life is very difficult with the increase in prices of goods and services, especially in my business. I just had to forgo having a conductor. I pay boys who shadow at the bus stops N100 instead of paying conductor N2,500” - Vanguard

An 86yr old woman was defrauded N19m by a blind herbalist in Ogun State: “The desperate attempt of an aged woman to prevent death from snatching her children has landed her in trouble. The 86-year-old woman identified simply as Madam Alimot had 15 children, but they were snatched by death one after the other until she was left with only three” - The Nation

The caveat is that the EFCC are hardly paragons of good behaviour themselves but there really is a Yahoo Boy Pandemic across the country: 41 arrested in Delta - Daily Post, 32 in Enugu - Daily Post, 17 in Akwa Ibom - Daily Post, 6 in Abuja - Daily Post, 23 in Sokoto - Daily Post, 23 in Benue - Daily Post

Outside Nigeria

Being an atheist in northern Nigeria is dangerous. How can you not believe in God? In Kano, many of them are now in hiding following the arrest of a prominent atheist last year: ““My biggest fear is for people I live with to know that I am an atheist,” he said. Even his relatives are unaware he is an atheist, though his wife, a Muslim, accepts him as he is. “Her type is very rare,” he said.” - Associated Press

International media has mostly ignored President Tinubu’s certificate drama but that is starting to change: “Asked to confirm that the school “has no record of issuing” the diploma in question, Westberg responded, “Correct.” - AP News

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie recently spoke about how childbirth affected her ability to write: “I felt as though my brain had been wrapped in gauze. So, my brain didn't work for a long time. And just more creatively, I think I am making my way back because I'm working on a novel finally” - Daily Mail

Otobong Nkanga has won the $100,000 Nasher Prize for Sculpture: “The work of Otobong Nkanga makes manifest the myriad connections — historical, sociological, economic, cultural and spiritual — that we have to the materials that comprise our lives” - New York Times

Nice feature on the hardworking show runner that is Nkechi Okoro Carroll: “With the Tuesday premiere of NBC’s propulsive missing-persons drama “Found,” Okoro Carroll will join Shonda Rhimes as the only Black women to have run three network dramas during one broadcast season.” - LA Times

A piece about how Africans are increasingly losing faith in democracy had this bit about Nigeria: “Nigeria’s political class, lounging in well-guarded mansions, is out of touch. Turnout in this year’s election was 29%, the lowest ever. More than 40% of Nigerians think it would be legitimate for the armed forces to take over in the event of abuses of power by elected leaders” - Economist

Poland’s elections are just over a week away. The current government prides itself as being anti-immigration but it is now engulfed in a scandal following revelations that the Deputy Foreign Minister may have been involved in selling visas in Africa and Asia: “In other developing countries, a €4,500 payment was enough to secure a visa from a Polish consulate via an intermediary company. Among the Polish consulates now being investigated are outposts in countries from Taiwan and the Philippines to Tanzania and Nigeria” - Euronews

Nigeria’s independence from Britain is used as a ‘learning’ for Scottish nationalists who still dream of independence: “A number of issues which Nigeria was forced to confront are still relevant to Scotland, including establishing a constitution and deciding what to do with the monarchy.” - The National

Don Jazzy is looking for investment into Mavin Records. He’s also happy to sell the whole thing - Billboard

Antoinette Fernandez is the new Green Party candidate for Hackney in London: “Fernandez’ father Oloye Antonio Oladeinde Fernandez was helping to fund her creative career through a trust at the time, but became involved in a public feud and asked Fernandez to take his side in newspaper interviews. She refused and “literally, overnight, got cut off” from the family fortune at the age of 31” - Evening Standard

Who are the people behind PI&D, the company Nigeria is ‘owing’ $11.5 billion? There are 8 of them: “In April, The US Sun reported that ‘two of Hunter Biden’s closest associates’, Jeffrey Cooper and Devon Archer, ‘personally stand to gain hundreds of millions of dollars’ from the realisation of the P&ID arbitration award.” - The Africa Report

Long and typically interesting read about Kwame Onwuachi (pictured below), the chef and proprietor at New York’s fine dining establishment, Tatiana, which opened around a year ago: “He grew up steeped in the cuisines of his elders—his roots are in Creole Louisiana, Nigeria, and the Caribbean—as well as in food from the city’s corner stores, street carts, and Chinese restaurants. At Tatiana, he fills dumplings with crab and egusi, a traditional Nigerian soup made with pungent ground melon seeds. He deep-fries pods of okra until their ridges blister and split—slightly puffed, crisp, and salted, they’re finished with honey and mustard powder, and served with a Trinidadian-style pepper sauce” - New Yorker

A story went viral about the First Lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, spending $1 million in a Cartier store in New York. Needless to say, it was fake news that was planted by Russia as part of war propaganda. And what was the source of the news?: “The source of the "news" was the site of The Nation Nigerian newspaper which refers to an Instagram story of an alleged store employee who was fired at the request of Olena Zelenska” - UKRINFORM

The Sun does a story claiming that eating pumpkin can boost your performance in bed. And who is the expert they asked for an opinion?: “Dr Seun Akomolafe, of Ekiti State University in Nigeria, said: “This study revealed that with roasting could improve the antioxidant activity of pumpkin seeds and crucial enzymes related to erectile function.” - The Sun

David Jowitt, the British teacher who first visited Nigeria in 1962 and then spent almost the rest of his life there has died at the age of 82. He made a significant contribution to Nigerian English scholarship: “A speaker of four Nigerian languages – Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba and Ebira – he officially became a Nigerian citizen earlier this year” - The Guardian