Below The Headlines - 28
Renewed Hope in an empty box and Drizzle L'omo turned out to be an internet fraudster
This week Tobi reviewed a paper examining the link between fuel prices and food inflation in Nigeria and found a nuanced link.
Welcome to the final month of the year. Don’t panic that the year is almost over and you haven’t achieved all your goals. Reading this newsletter about Nigerian shenanigans every week is in itself an achievement.
Enjoy your week and stay away from Cassava and all its derivatives.
Inside Nigeria
The Budget of Renewed Hope came in a special box. I really enjoyed this rich story especially after the legislators stood at attention for the rendition of On Your Mandate, Nigeria’s new national anthem:
When the BBC reporter insisted that the president was seen laying the “document”, Mr Galambi said when the lawmakers checked they couldn’t find anything in the boxes laid by Mr Tinubu.
Outcome of an EFCC investigation sees a chap sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in Kaduna. His crime was organising a fake online beauty contest for which he charged a woman more than N700,000 to participate. The really odd thing is that he never bothered to announce a winner:
According to the post, Oluwasola’s journey to the Correctional Centre began when a petitioner, Suzzie Solomon, petitioned the EFCC alleging that she came across a beauty contest post on WhatsApp and indicated interest.
The post revealed that Solomon joined the group and participated after which she was selected as one of the contestants.
She said she was constantly making payments for votes amounting to N740,000, to an account provided by the group admin with no winner announced.
Police have arrested an enterprising young scammer:
“The suspect had in September 2023 created a bogus but convincing online advertisement purportedly by Dangote Cement, claiming a massive price slash. ”
The police spokesperson also stated that, “Numerous unsuspecting customers fell prey to the scam, losing millions of Naira to the suspect. ”
A truly amazing read about an argument between the Ogun State government and Dangote Cement over the demolition of a school by the company that it said was in the way of its mining licence. Bottomline is that the school, and whatever education goes on inside it, is no more than a nuisance:
The company’s Special Duty and External Affairs Officer, Prince Yomi Gbadebo, said the school would still be affected as it falls within the company’s mining licence.
Gbadebo said, “We have a mining licence issued to Dangote Industries by the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development. That school falls within our mining licence and we are about to build our Itori Cement PLC.
A man in Ebonyi put his 4 children in a tricycle to get them to school and the rider disappeared with them. Once more, the way education works in Nigeria is astounding:
My name is Chimaobi Agah, from Amasiri in Ebonyi State. I went to work in Enugu on Monday and my wife prepared my four children for school. She paid a KEKE (tricycle) driver to take them to school. In the afternoon when school was supposed to dismiss they did not return, and my wife went to their school to look for them. “ She was told by the school authorities that they did not come to school at all. My wife called me and I returned to Umuahia on Tuesday morning. I went to the school and was told the same story.
And more on education:
Federal Capital Territory, (FCT), command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, (NSCDC), has denied reports in a section of the media, of the killing of two students in a Junior secondary school in Abuja.
Reacting via a communique, FCT Commandant of the agency, Olusola Odumosu, said that no students were killed as reported.
He however said that two students sustained gunshot wounds following an attack on the school during examination by suspected cultists who were former students of the school but had been expelled.
News from Abuja:
“During the continuation of our city sanitation exercise in Mabushi opposite the Mobile filling station on Ahmadu Way, we discovered an illegal refining site where oil and diesel are being adulterated. We have done the needful by moving the items to the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps.
LUTH apparently shut down 5 wards due a doctor shortage:
Speaking during an oversight visit to LUTH, Idi-Araba, the health committee chairman reiterated that “Nigeria as a nation has found itself in a precarious moment, especially in the healthcare system where japa has taken centre stage. We used to have japa only for nurses, and doctors, but now it has even gone to many departments in the health sector.
“We saw significant problems here. Right now, there are about five wards in LUTH, totalling about 150 beds that have been shut down because there are no nurses and doctors to work in those wards. And these are a result of the ‘japa’ syndrome we are having.
A common yet depressing story about staff theft and infrastructure vandalism:
Thirteen suspects, 10 of which were casual workers, engaged by a Chinese company have been arrested for vandalism of armoured cables and other associated equipment of Abuja mass transit rail.
Their arrest was effected by a private guard company contracted to safeguard the infrastructure.
The casual workers engaged by the Chinese company to work on the railways, were said to have used the opportunity to cannibalise the facility.
Update on the taxpayers of Zamfara:
Over a hundred individuals have been abducted by terrorists on Friday night, Nov. 24, for reportedly refusing to comply with a tax demand from a terrorist in Mutunji, Maru Local Government Area, Zamfara State, Northwest Nigeria.
According to a local source, the terrorist, known as Damina, issued an ultimatum to the villagers, demanding a staggering sum of 50 million Naira within a week. The deadline expired on Friday, culminating in the abduction of the villagers who couldn’t fulfill this coercive demand.
Outside Nigeria
The Nigerian airline that recently made the news for taking Abuja-bound passengers to Asaba went to meet with the Texas governor about starting direct flights there from Nigeria:
The team from United Airlines Nigeria, led by Professor Obiora Okonkwo, had what they described as a "fruitful" meeting with Dallas Forth Worth International Airport(DFW) and separately met the Governor to discuss the flight options. The Nigerian airline does not currently have any aircraft capable of making the transatlantic hop. Still, a codeshare agreement could be made with a US carrier such as American Airlines, which has a large hub at DFW.
FT report on how Nigerians in the teeth of the current economic crisis are increasingly turning to payday lenders to tide them over:
The country now has almost 200 licensed online lenders, according to Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, with more believed to be operating illegally.
The apps of market leaders OKash and Palmcredit have more than 5mn downloads. Many lenders attempt to shame borrowers into repaying their loans by messaging people in their phone contacts saying they are in default. Users of OKash are required to grant the apps access to their contacts, location, SMS, calendar and camera when they sign up. The company says on their website that this is “a very important part of evaluation process”.
Asake makes a list of the New York Times best albums of 2023, of course:
The second album by the Nigerian singer Asake captures the sound of exultant celebration. Rooted in the South African dance style amapiano, and playing with a range of more traditional Nigerian styles, it is elegant, careful and precious; as crisp as sunshine hitting skin, a restoration and a renewal.
Climate Change appears to be worsening malaria across the globe, with the rise concentrated in 5 countries:
There were an estimated 249 million cases of malaria around the globe last year, the World Health Organization said on Thursday, significantly more than before the Covid-19 pandemic and an increase of five million over 2021. Malaria remains a top killer of children.
Those new cases were concentrated in just five countries: Pakistan, Nigeria, Uganda, Ethiopia and Papua-New Guinea. Climate change was a direct contributor in three of them, said Dr. Daniel Ngamije, who directs the W.H.O. malaria program.
British-Nigerian guy, Idris Dayo Mustapha a.k.a Drizzle L’omo pleaded guilty in New York to stealing more than $6 million after hacking into brokerage accounts. And that was not the only type of fraud he was involved in:
Mustapha and his co-conspirators also developed romantic relationships online using the aliases “Melanie Saunders” and “Tracy Ben” in order to set up so-called “drop” accounts. After gaining their trust, they would convince unwitting targets to deposit checks and transfer money on their behalf.
On top of his cybercriminal career, Mustapha was one part of an Afrobeat music group called Built to Win Baller’s Club and recorded music under the name Drizzle Lomo
Drug prices have spiked due to a triple whammy - the fall in the value of the naira, the rise in the cost of fuel and the pullout of GSK from Nigeria. A very much underreported story:
Salamat Olashile takes a tablet from a white-and-green sachet. Five minutes later, her breathing is still laboured. “It will soon come down,” she says. She used to have an inhaler, which would have eased her asthma attack faster, but prices have increased dramatically since GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) “exited” the country. She is now reliant on a slower-working tablet called Araminol.
GlaxoSmithKline Nigeria, the country’s subsidiary of the British pharmaceutical firm, first announced in June that Nigeria’s economic problems and foreign currency crisis were severely affecting its work. In August, it said that it would be shutting down operations.
There is now an Afrobeats category in the Saskatchewan Music Awards:
A decade ago, it would have been unheard of for Saskatchewan to have an Afrobeat category at the Saskatchewan Music Awards - but things change. Immigration from African countries, especially Nigeria, has brought a vibrant music scene in Saskatchewan
Ethiopian Airlines has banned the use of Ghana-Must-Go bags:
In a statement Ethiopia Airlines said the ban was introduced because of "the frequent occurrence of damages to the conveyor belts at various airports, resulting in significant costs incurred by the airlines involved".
An analysis of the number of delegates sent by countries to the ongoing COP28 Summit in Dubai finds that Nigeria has one of the largest delegations. Although I don’t think they quite understand the ‘unique’ reason why Nigeria has such a large delegation:
Other delegations surpassing 1,000 include China and Nigeria who have both registered 1,411 people, followed by Indonesia with 1,229, Japan 1,067 and Turkey with 1,045.
While in the north, nature reserves have been taken over by bandits and franchisees of international terror organisations, in the south it is farmers who are encroaching on the reserves:
Situated in western Nigeria, some 70 kilometers (113 miles) east of Nigeria’s commercial city of Lagos, Oluwa Forest Reserve is facing severe pressure from smallholder farmers and big plantations. On Highway A121, a major route between Lagos and the city of Ore that bissects the reserve, Mongabay observed heavily loaded trucks and motorbikes driving plantain or banana bunches, bagged cocoa pods and logged timber out of the reserve to nearby cities, sawmills and markets.
Alhough Oluwa was gazetted in 1918, weak protection means that thousands of farmers have taken over much of the reserve, converting forest into farms and camps. A typical camp is dotted with mud bungalows, roofed by thatch or zinc, in addition to mosques, churches, pubs, community halls and, in some cases, palm oil mills.
Interior Minister says Passport ‘front offices’ will be opened in cities across the UK soon. A welcome development if it happens:
“I think there are only two places where we have this challenge now, realistically. I think in the UK—precisely, in London—and in the US—precisely, in New York. And that has to do with the concentration of Nigerians,” he said.
“There is no quick fix. But we have ensured Nigerians that by February next year, we will have opened our front offices such that we’ll have front offices in Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff in Wales, and Scotland,”
“So, once we have this, definitely, it will reduce the stress of Nigerians, it will reduce the waiting period, and of course, it will bring efficiency into the whole passport procurement system,” the minister said.
Photos from a pro-Palestinian rally in Zaria
Asian TV show about the art of negotiation, features Nigerians who negotiate with Book Haram in Season 2. You can watch the whole thing at the link below which goes into the business of kidnapping in Nigeria’s north east in a bit more detail:
A young negotiator in Nigeria goes head-to-head with terrorist group Boko Haram. At just 25 years old, she is tasked with the unimaginable - securing the release of 10 hostages without paying ransom.
Story from August. The Grenada government announced it had approved more than 2,000 citizenships for foreign investors who paid or invested $200,000. Exact breakdowns were not given but it said:
The Government’s public data do not reveal the original place of residency or birth for applications but during a migration discussion held in November 2022, it was revealed that the main source of applications are from Nigeria, China, South Africa, India and Russia.