Below The Headlines - 53
Below The Headlines - 53
Another unfortunate whale and some Ibibios are chilling in Tokyo
Hope you had a restful week eating all that salah meat?
The show continues with the usual selection below.
Inside Nigeria
A really crazy story:
There was palpable tension in Ojurowo, Folumo in the Isale Eko area of Lagos Island, Lagos State, on Friday after members of the public caught an unidentified woman for kidnapping and selling children.
City Round learnt that the woman had kidnapped the children from the Ijora area of the state and brought them to Isale Eko to sell them.
In a video clip trending on X which was seen by our correspondent on Friday, people gathered around a building suspected to be where the woman was caught while conducting her illegal business.
According to the person heard speaking in the video, the woman confessed that she was going to sell the children for the sum of N250,000.
“They caught five children with her. She said she sells each of them for N50,000, making N250,000. They said she brought the five children from Ijora. If you know anyone looking for their child in Ijora, please come to Isale Eko in Ojurowo,” the man was heard saying.
The impact of food inflation is being felt in prisons:
The increasing cost of food stuffs and gas has led to grumblings among some inmates in the nation’s various prisons.
Relatives of some inmates who confided in Vanguard, noted that the rising cost of foodstuffs has impacted negatively on their wards behind bars.
They are, therefore, asking state governments to liberalize bail conditions for petty crimes in a way that offenders could easily meet their bail conditions and attend trial from home.
Nigeria currently has 256 prisons with 81,647 inmate population as of May 31, 2024.
This is made up of 5,853 for federal offences, comprising 3,774 pre-trial detainees and 2,079 convicts, while those for state offences are 75,794, comprising 51,934 awaiting trial and 23,860 as convicts.
Recall that in 2021, the federal government had after a sustained public outrage, reluctantly increased the feeding allowance per inmate from N450 to N750 daily.
It was gathered that when taxes, cost of gas and profits for the food vendors are taken from this N750, the actual amount used for feeding an inmate in a day could be less than N500.
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, has finally identified the root cause of banditry in Nigeria:
“The other one on social impact is reverting to our old national anthem. A lot of people are not aware that there was a panel made up of Nigerians set up to receive input from all over the world in 1959.
“So, when people say we are bringing colonial anthem, please look into the history of the “Nigeria, We Hail Thee”.
If we kept to that anthem, we probably would not have banditry today in Nigeria, because if you took your neighbour as your brother you would not want to kill your brother, if you took your neighbour as your brother, you would not want to into the farm and behead your brother.”
Being a PoS operator is a risky business as you might imagine:
A source said, “The people came on Okada and shot at him from close range, killing him on the spot. He was a popular PoS agent in this area because he always had cash.
“They even took all his money and phones away because he was just settling down for the day’s operations as a PoS agent, you know they deal mostly with cash.
“The government must be alive to its responsibilities now because these killings are troubling now that it is happening in the state capital in broad daylight. We have had killings in this Ado-Ekiti in the last few weeks.”
Another unfortunate whale beached in Nigeria. Whales are supposed to be really clever so I don’t know why the word hasn’t spread among them yet to avoid Nigeria’s coast as they frolic in the water:
The people of Okpoama community in Brass Local Government Area of Bayelsa State have butchered another giant whale which was grounded in the seaside community.
The whale measuring about 15 metres long and five metres wide at a height of about three metres was dead when residents saw it on the beach on Wednesday morning.
It is believed to have come in with the high tide on Tuesday night and was left on the shore as the sea water receded at a low tide.
A community source, Tarinyo Akono, told PUNCH Metro on Wednesday that “they are butchering the whale” saying the people were using machetes, hacksaws and axes to cut the animal to pieces.
I don’t like to blame the victim but how can a generator be ‘fuelless’? Of course Andy’s line won’t connect after collecting money:
Clinton Ugoh, a Lagos-based man, has recounted how a syndicate of fraudsters running the many Ecotech Fuelless Generator pages on Facebook defrauded him of N60,000.
He told FIJ that he was using the Facebook app on May 2 when he saw an advertisement for a fuelless generator that caught his fancy.
According to Ugoh, upon investigation, he found other sellers online, whose presence further confirmed that the product existed and was a good item.
Intrigued by the product, Ugoh engaged with Michael Andy, a member of the Ecotech sales team, who informed him that the generator, typically priced at N250,000, was available at a promotional rate of N150,000. But despite his initial interest, Ugoh delayed the purchase to conduct further research.
[…]
When FIJ contacted Andy, the man who received the N60,000 sent by Ugoh, his line did not connect. He also had not responded to the text sent to him at press time.
The dispute over a chieftaincy stool in the Ijaw community of Ondo state is headache inducing. Trespassers from Edo and Delta?:
The people of Ijaw Furupagha Ijaw community in Odigbo local government area of Ondo state, on Monday protested over the proposed agreement to rotate the
Ibeodiowe of Ebijaw chieftaincy stool between Ebijaw and Taribor Communities in the area.The protesters who storm the Alagbaka Governor’s office kicked over the forceful agreement to rotate the chieftaincy stool between the two groups using the state government to sustain the peace in the area.
Armed with placards of various inscription, the youths and elders of Furupagha -Ijaw distanced themselves from the agreement they said was designed to balkanise their land and share it with trespassers from Edo and Delta states.
Outside Nigeria
I wish I had known about this when I visited Japan last year. Ibibio art in Western Tokyo?!
When I first encountered these statues, I was simply minding my business on the way to Tachikawa Station. I was struck dumb, paralyzed damn near mid-step. The contrast with what I had come to expect on the streetscape of a country consisting predominantly of people to whom statues of Nigerian ancestors lurking in bushes might result in heart attacks and brain hemorrhages was not lost on me, either. I might’ve gone into cardiac arrest myself if I hadn’t remembered I resided in one of the safest countries on the planet, so there had to be a reasonable explanation for this.
By “reasonable” in this day and age — and country — I mean I actually scanned my surroundings expecting to spot a camera crew intent on capturing my Black reaction to what (in my mind, at first blush) had to be an obvious ploy or an elaborate prank like you might see on those wacky game shows Japanese TV is famous for. This work, in this location, is that perplexing!
I was staring so intently at each of these faces, marveling at their detailing and artistry, that if one of the statues had suddenly stood up (revealing itself to be a Japanese comedian in blackface — certainly not unheard of in these parts), I would have given up the ghost.
But I had it all wrong. This was not a recent installation commissioned to virtue signal to the world Japan’s ostensibly growing comfort with multiculturalism. These tribal statues, resting amid a whole host of other eclectic artworks from creators the world over, predate the dawn of so-called wokeness by three decades. This untitled work was completed and installed in 1994 by a prominent Nigerian artist named Sunday Jack Akpan.
News from the United States Secret Service:
NEW YORK - Today, indictments were unsealed in federal court in Brooklyn charging four defendants for their participation in a series of fraudulent business email compromise (BEC) schemes and related romance schemes that resulted in more than $50 million in losses by individuals and small businesses located within the Eastern District of New York and throughout the United States. The defendants Animashaun Adebo, Idowu Ademoroti, Nelson Ojeriakhi and Noguan Marvellous Eboigbe, together with their network of co-conspirators, misappropriated victim funds and laundered them through shell company accounts in the United States and abroad, sometimes using unsuspecting middlemen, including escrow attorneys and other victims, to further obscure the audit trail and disassociate the funds from the frauds.
[…]
Animashaun Adebo, also known as “Kazeem” and “Kazeem Animashaun,” was charged with wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to receive stolen funds and receipt of stolen funds. As alleged, Adebo conspired to perpetrate multiple internet-based fraud schemes on victims and directed others to launder the proceeds of those schemes through shell company accounts, through the purchase of luxury watches, and through an illegal money exchange operation run by his co-defendant Ademoroti. Adebo ultimately received fraudulent proceeds in corporate bank accounts located in Nigeria. If convicted, Adebo faces a maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment on each of the wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy charges, five years’ imprisonment on the conspiracy to receive stolen funds charge, and 10 years’ imprisonment on the receipt of stolen funds charge.
Nigeria (or someone in Nigeria) is buying a lot of shrimp boats from the US and in the process providing a bailout for for some Americans:
While the U.S. shrimp fishery struggles through low prices and a glut of farmed shrimp entering the country, a number of West African nations are investing in expanding their wild shrimp harvests in order to feed a growing population and tap lucrative markets in Europe. Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu announced a new ministerial portfolio in August 2023, Marine and Blue Economy, and the country is buying refurbished U.S. shrimp boats by the dozen. “I’ve sent 17 boats over there this year,” says Joe Gazzier of Bayou La Batre, Alabama. “I’ve got 18 more ready to go.”
The 56-year-old Gazzier has spent a lifetime in the shrimp business and has been scouring the coast for vessels—mostly around 80 feet—that fit the needs of the Nigerians investing in the shrimping side of their country’s entry into the blue economy. “I’ve bought boats from around here, Mississippi, and about half in Texas, but they’re all Alabama-built,” says Gazzier.
Government encouraged farmers to plant more rice, bandits collected the taxes on them. Tragedy upon tragedy:
On a bright Saturday afternoon in April 2021, Ibrahim Umaru was carrying large sacks out to his fields in Sokoto State in northern Nigeria to lay out the rice he had harvested the day before to dry in the sun. Umaru’s pregnant wife puttered about in the shaded outdoor kitchen nearby. The rice was just one of the crops he grew, alongside onions, maize, beans and peppers, but it was his most lucrative. Great sheathes of rice stalks glittered gold in the early spring sunshine; the cerulean sky opened wide overhead. But their moment of pastoral bliss was shattered when armed men appeared on motorcycles, with one of their neighbors at gunpoint.
The bandits had come to collect what they claimed were taxes the rice farmers owed them for protection. The payments were late, and now they were taking extreme measures — seizing the money by force and kidnapping several farmers in the village for ransom.
[…]
Rice became big business for small-time farmers in some of the most isolated, economically challenged and food-insecure areas in the country. (UNICEF reports that some 2.9 million people in the country’s northwest are in need of critical food assistance.) In the wake of the Boko Haram insurgency, when hundreds of thousands of people in Nigeria’s north were displaced and instability reigned, rice was a way to find solid ground again. A rice farmer in the northwestern state of Sokoto could earn a handsome wage that enabled them to easily support their families and build for the future.
But the combination of booming business and flimsy law enforcement has created a market for exploitation, and Sokoto’s farmers are paying a hefty price. A monthslong investigation by New Lines reveals that since 2021, rice farmers in Sokoto have been coerced into striking deals, facing severe attacks and paying egregious illegal “taxes” to local bandits in order to plant, harvest and sell their crops. Many have been forced to pay years’ worth of profits, or give over their capital investments to armed groups, unaffiliated with the militant organizations also menacing the area, as a form of “protection.” Failure to do so can result in kidnapping for ransom or death.
New book just dropped:
Author Clare Brown joins Morning Joe to discuss the new audiobook 'New Nigeria County', which tells the fictional story of a white family that moves into an affluent Black community.
The story of Busayo Olupona and her eponymous clothing brand:
Since 2011, when Olupona first began working on her brand (which officially launched in 2013), Busayo has been explicit about celebrating the Nigerian diaspora through contemporary fashion. Vivid hues, intricate patterns, and luxe fabrics are the signature elements that make up a Busayo creation, many of which have graced the likes of Angela Davis, Ava DuVernay, and Madonna. In the beginning, though, the designer was simply searching for everyday workwear (for her former nine-to-five as a lawyer) that didn’t feel quite so drab, while also yearning for a deeper connection to her roots in Nigeria.
The WNBA has been growing exponentially lately and there are Nigerians in the mix:
"Arike. It's time." The message was clear before the Detroit Pistons ' Nigerian-American forward-center Chimezie Metu punctuated that post on X, formerly Twitter , with a Nigeria flag emoji hours after the 12-player USA Basketball women's national team roster for the Olympics emerged.
Caitlin Clark not being named as one of the dozen WNBA players selected was the headline omission , but Arike Ogunbowale was arguably the more surprising snub. The three-time All-Star has since shared that she withdrew from the process months ago after participating in a February training camp and getting bad vibes.
There is no suggestion that Ogunbowale, 27, will petition to play for Nigeria in Paris as Elizabeth Williams and Nneka Ogwumike unsuccessfully did three years ago. But the Dallas Wings guard is well aware of her heritage.
Ogunbowale was born to Nigerian parents Gregory and Yolanda in Milwaukee, Wisconsin . Her father served his country in the military, while her mother attended DePaul University and was a softball pitcher. They are of Yoruba descent, and in the Yoruba language, ”Arike” means "a child you treasure, cherish, pamper and love." Fitting then for the youngest of three children as she is.
A nice story from Jos:
In a one-room apartment in Jos, Nigeria, instructor Wuni Bitrus and almost a dozen students gather around a table cluttered with equipment – a toolbox, a 12-volt adapter, a coding panel, a set of jumper cables, a mix of colored wires. The students’ idea: to build the prototype for a “smart” door that opens with the touch of a finger.
The students chat back and forth in sign language, and Mr. Bitrus signs back. The group discusses using Arduino, an open-source electronics platform, and one student wonders how fingerprints can be stored. Mindful of Nigeria’s electricity problems, Mr. Bitrus genially advises the group to use a battery-powered keypad lock system first and incorporate a fingerprint feature later.
“It works well, rather than waste time reinventing the wheel,” Mr. Bitrus says. After nodding in agreement, the students excitedly start working.
This is just another afternoon in a club run by the Deaf Technology Foundation, a nonprofit co-founded by Mr. Bitrus in 2017 that trains Nigerian children and young adults who are deaf in computer programming and robotics. The students also work to improve their reading skills, and receive career guidance and counseling to help them believe in themselves.
Disaster reporting from Nigeria is back (or did it never go away?) and there is no shortage of material right now:
An influx of extremely malnourished children have overwhelmed hospitals in northeastern Nigeria, where millions of infants are suffering from a lack of food.
Health workers told The Telegraph that they are running out of space to treat young children in Nigeria’s troubled Borno state, where a combination of inflation, protracted conflict and climate shocks have driven a huge increase in food insecurity.
“It has never been like this, the influx was so high,” said Ruth Simon, a nurse for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) at the Therapeutic Feeding Centre in Maiduguri, the capital of the northeastern region. “Last month in particular, there were so many casualties they had to lay down on the floor in the corridor between tents. There was simply no bed space.”
In April, MSF’s medical team in the city admitted 1,250 severely malnourished children with complications – double the figure for the same month in 2023.
The centre has raced to expand amid concerns the situation could deteriorate in July and August – known as ‘the lean season’, when food stocks run out and hunger peaks.
“We can’t keep repeating these catastrophic scenarios year after year,” said Dr Simba Tirima, MSF’s Country Representative in Nigeria. “What will it take to make everyone take notice and act?”
From the New York Times list of 40 best songs of 2024 so far:
Ibibio Sound Machine, ‘Pull the Rope’
The London-based, Nigerian-rooted band Ibibio Sound Machine has evolved into a starkly efficient electro-funk group, delivering community-minded messages in English and the Nigerian language Ibibio. “Pull the Rope” deploys an octave-hopping bass line, video-game blips and eventually a horn section to propel a constructive chant: “Even though we’re eager to trigger/Let’s pull the rope, together we hope.” PARELES
I always enjoy China modestly blowing its own trumpet about its work in Africa:
As a result of years of dedicated work, experts from the Chinese company Green Agriculture West Africa Ltd. (GAWAL) have developed a high-yield rice seed tailored to local conditions, which outperforms native varieties by over 20 percent. This seed, endorsed by Nigerian agricultural authorities, is now planted across two-thirds of the country's states.
Lawal Musa, a farmer from Jigawa State, has been growing this rice for several years. "Rice is vital in Nigeria and every family consumes it. With China's cooperation, Nigeria is on the path to achieving food self-sufficiency," he said, praising the rice for its high productivity and ability to withstand diseases and drought.
GAWAL, a leading seed company in Nigeria, contributed to the government's seed supply program by distributing over 30,000 tons of seeds across more than 30 states. Its effort has significantly boosted the country's rice production by more than 2 million tons.