Below The Headlines - 25

Another failed bulletproof charm test and a senior Nigerian official is explaining the dollars in his account with no evidence

A slightly abridged edition this week due to travelling. Hope you’ve all had a good law abiding week.

This week I launched an attack on cassava and I’m very glad at the reception it received. I hope that anti-cassava will become a movement that unites Nigerians across the country

Inside Nigeria

Semper Eadem: “The deceased, Muhammadu Ali, a resident of Damaiwa village via Bursali ward Zaki Local Government Area of Bauchi State, was said to have gone to the Damaiwa bush with the four people to test if a charm would protect him against gunshots. Unfortunately, when a locally-made gun was shot at him to ascertain the efficacy of the charm, it failed and he was killed in the process” - Punch

Human stories from the consequences of medical quackery in Nigeria: “Also, in January 2023, this newspaper reported that a joint committee of security personnel and government officials inaugurated by the chairman of Tudun Wada Local Government Council in Kano State, Alhaji Ahmad Tijjani, had discovered 130 hospitals and pharmacies allegedly operated by quack doctors. The committee alleged that some of the hospitals were manned by holders of Senior Secondary School certificates” - Daily Trust

“In a bold statement on his official Instagram page, Bobrisky declared his readiness to risk anything, even his life, to become the most beautiful woman in Nigeria. He believes that a higher level of beauty attracts a wealthier social circle, and he is determined to be a part of that elite group” - Guardian

A very optimistic thief I must say: “A motorboy identified as Bolaji Johnson allegedly absconded with a truck loaded with 600 bags of cement on Tuesday” - Punch

There is a lot going on here: “Justice Nathaniel Ayo-Emmanuel of the Federal High Court in Osogbo, Osun State, has jailed five men for obtaining a sum of N38 million from the former Justice Nathaniel Ayo-Emmanuel of the Federal High Court in Osogbo, Osun State, has jailed five men for obtaining a sum of N38 million from the former Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly, Timothy Owoeye over his viral nude video” - Vanguard

Photos from the Palestine solidarity rally in Oyo state - Vanguard

“The dragnet of the command caught up with the cleric after purposeful investigations and tracking around Ogbere-tioya Area, Ibadan, under Ona-ara Local Government Area. The suspect was found in possession of items suspected to be fresh human head and two hands,” which he said were given to him by one Tijani Waheed, now at large,” Osifeso said” - Daily Post

Boko Haram are still doing what they do even if they no longer occupy the headlines like before: “In yet another horrific incident, at least 11 farmers were brutally killed on the evening of Sunday, Nov. 5,  near Zabarmari, a village situated in the Jere local government area of Borno State, northeastern Nigeria. This area previously witnessed the massacre of nearly 110 rice farmers by Boko Haram in November 2020” - HumAngle

A very strange story of firefighters responding to a call in Ibadan to put out a fire. Halfway through, they ran out of water and this angered the locals so much they beat them up: “We contacted firefighters immediately and they came around but unfortunately, their water finished halfway. We then resulted to self-help. Though, people did not allow them to go scot-free. They were beaten mercilessly” - Tribune

A breakthrough in wheat farming in Nigeria: “Rain-fed wheat research in Plateau has recorded success, thereby raising hope for a breakthrough in the country’s attempt to produce the crop during both wet and dry seasons and close the huge domestic demand gap” - Daily Trust

Creating a scarcity of hotel rooms in the run up to elections appears to be a new front opened by politicians in the ever evolving battle for electoral supremacy: “Also, at the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) secretariat in the state capital,  much of the discussion was on the difficulty of security rooms to lodge in hotels” - ICIR Nigeria

The organ theft fever has subsided. However in Benue: “He said that immediately someone raised the alarm that his organ had disappeared and pointed at the middle-aged man who was just passing by. In a jiffy, some young people stormed the scene and started beating him” - Tribune

Guy converted N30,000 to dollars on an online platform then realised he could not spend the dollars so converted it back to Naira and got N18,000 back: “To worsen the situation, the Payday user has not been able to withdraw the remaining N18,868 since Monday morning, when the incident happened” - FIJ

Outside Nigeria

An American green energy company was defrauded of $800k when hackers took over the email account of its supplier and sent an invoice to it. Somehow $50,000 of the money ended up in the bank account of Dr. Kelechi Ofoegbu, who was recently redeployed by President Tinubu as an Executive Commissioner at Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC): “He said he has been banned from travelling to the U.S. and was only made aware of the Nordex fraud after Forbes contacted him about the allegations.” - Forbes

One of the less obvious ways in which Nigerian music is now so popular in the recent Grammy nominations: “The gritty-voiced, 77-year-old soul survivor Bettye LaVette embraces 1970s-style Nigerian Afrobeat, with its chattering saxophone and curlicued guitars, in “Hard to Be a Human,” as she wonders about humanity’s irredeemable flaws” - New York Times

An art exhibition in Washington examines the interchange between African and African-American artistes between 1947 and 1967: “Some artworks here represent strong, original voices. Ben Enwonwu’s carved ebony portrait sculpture “Head of Imade” (c. 1949) is imbued with the tranquility of a bodhisattva” - WSJ

More on the fallout from the CAB Payments IPO, the fintech whose shares have collapsed following Nigeria’s currency reforms: “The Africa-focused private equity firm Helios Investment Partners sold 40 per cent of its stake in the company at IPO, netting an estimated £300 million” - The Times

An Australian investigation into sextortion and blackmail of young men online concludes that: “Nigeria is the main source of this type of offending that we have noticed” - Guardian

Laughing gas, or nitrous oxide, is now the drug of choice in Lagos it seems. One canister costs about N100,000: “While Seun also takes other substances like rohypnol (or rephnol), codeine and molly (MDMA or ecstasy), he says he prefers laughing gas because of the extreme escape it provides. Unlike other drugs, laughing gas does not have its own colloquial name yet, mostly because it is expensive and has not become wildly popular among low-income users, who still get by on cheaper gateway drugs” - Al Jazeera

Some details on the new digital birth and death registrations launched by Nigeria recently: “Funding for the project was provided by Barnksforte Technologies Limited, a digital services and biometric software company, via a Public-Private Partnership” - Biometric Update

“Nigeria has canceled the visit of Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala and his business delegation at the eleventh hour, citing its government's inability to provide an adequate reception to them. However, the Czech media reported on Tuesday that the Nigerian government's refusal on Monday, just one day before Fiala and his business delegation visit, is linked to Prague's pro-Israel stance in the UN on the ongoing Israel-Palestine armed conflict” - Anadolu Agency

Is solar becoming more popular in Nigeria as a result of the removal of fuel subsidies? “A third of these generators are in Lagos, where people can muster 15,000MW of energy by some estimates, 15 times more than what the grid supplies” - Bloomberg

Nigeria has announced goodies from Saudi Arabia. Will it be true this time? “Information Minister Mohammed Idris said the Saudi government pledged to make "a substantial deposit of foreign exchange to boost Nigeria's forex liquidity". In addition, the Saudi government, through Saudi Aramco (2223.SE), will invest in the revamp of Nigeria's four decrepit state refineries which is expected to be completed within two- to-three years, Idris said” - Reuters

Investors in a synthetic exchange traded fund (ETF) have lost a fair bit of money because: “Nigerian stocks accounted for 4.8 per cent of the £68mn Xtrackers S&P Select Frontier Swap Ucits ETF (DX2Z) until October 31. However, on November 1, S&P Dow Jones Indices stripped Nigeria from the S&P Select Frontier index that the ETF tracks at a “zero-price”. As a result, this portion of the fund’s portfolio has been written down to zero” - Financial Times

I did not know this: “In 2017 Nigeria rejected eu inducements to take back its people on the grounds that Turkey struck a better deal a year earlier” - Economist

An article about an Iranian militia based in Lebanon that recently launched a drone attack on Israel that hit a school includes this line: “In its first years, the division operated mainly in Syria, under the direction of the commander of the Iranian Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, who was eliminated in 2021, and since then, Alfakar's status has risen even further. Today, the militia he heads has 6,000 operatives of various nationalities, most of them Shiites, from Nigeria, Mali, Niger, Lebanon, and Afghanistan who were recruited, trained, and trained for a religious war in exchange for a salary of hundreds of dollars every month and new and advanced weapons” - Jerusalem Post

The trial of Evangelist Timothy Omotoso in South Africa will continue after he failed to have the charges against him dropped: “Omotoso allegedly directly or indirectly through his co-accused, paid and arranged for the complainants to travel to his hotel, Durban, Israel, or Nigeria. However, once the complainants arrived, Omotoso or his assistants would inform them of house rules which included that their cellphones be switched off or told not to contact male companions and were to further abide by his instructions” - The Sowetan