Below The Headlines - 56
If you don't like your Police rank, you can promote yourself and 'toasting' is now a minimum of 2 years in Namibia
Hope you enjoyed your week? Because if you didn’t, this newsletter is unlikely to improve your mood.
But go ahead and enjoy the usual selection anyway.
Inside Nigeria
Incredible things continue to happen in the Nigerian Police:
The Nigeria Police Force has dismissed a Corporal, Buba Adamu, for refusing to report to his new post in Kaduna State.
The spokesperson for the Cross River Police Command, SP Irene Ugbo, made this known at a press briefing on Thursday in Calabar, the state capital.
PUNCH Online learnt that Adamu was transferred from Cross River command to Kaduna nine years ago, but failed to report to his new base.
The corporal was also said to have promoted himself to the rank of Superintendent and operated illegal activities in Calabar until he was caught and arrested.
Who are the buyers? Who are the brokers? What exactly is going on with this stuff?
Nuhu Ezra, a resident of Gosa Kipikipi village, Lugbe, was caught with a human skull and bones on July 9, 2024, at about 9:00 p.m. by operatives from the Iddo police division.
According to the police, Ezra was found with the human remains while hunting in Kuje and intended to sell them for N600,000.
The police public relations officer, SP Josephine Adeh, confirmed the arrest and urged residents to be vigilant and report any suspicious activities.
“The suspect, Nuhu Ezra, stated that he picked up the human skull and bones from the bush while hunting in Kuje. He intended to sell them for six hundred thousand naira (N600,000),” she stated.
I regret to inform that the clerics are at it again:
The Yobe State Police Command has begun the probe into the case of a self-proclaimed marabout, Auwalu Haruna, arrested for allegedly abducting and impregnating his wife’s friend.
PUNCH Metro gathered that the 20-year-old girl, after days of disappearance, was found pregnant at Haruna’s custody in Anguwan Arewa, in the Gaya Local Government Area of Kano State.
In a telephone interview with PUNCH Metro on Thursday, Dungus Abdulkarim, the spokesperson for the state police command, revealed to our correspondent that Haruna was accused of hypnotising the victim with a concoction that rendered her unconscious.
Abdulkarim said the case was transferred to the state Criminal Investigation Department, and a discreet investigation was ongoing.
“The suspect is just like a marabout, he does rituals for people. So, he allegedly forced her to drink a certain medical concoction that made her fall in love with him, then he eloped with her to Anguwan at Kano.
Huge development coming out of Akoko:
Crisis is brewing in Arigidi Akoko community in Akoko Northwest local government area of Ondo over the choice of a date for the new yam festival.
While the traditional ruler of the community, the Zaki of Arigidi, Oba Olanipekun had reportedly approved July 20 as previously celebrated in the past, an indigene of the town, Gani Ashiru, was said to have fixed the celebration for tomorrow, July 13.
Distancing from the announcement and radio jingles placed by Ashiru, the community heads have said the date for the new Yam festival remains July 20, saying Ashiru fixed the date for the festival without consulting with relevant stakeholders.
A terrible tragedy yesterday in Jos that is still unfolding:
Plateau Commissioner for Information and Communication, Mr Musa Ashoms, has confirmed that about 200 students were trapped in the Jos school building that collapsed in Jos.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the Saints Academy, a secondary school in Jos, collapsed on Friday, while students were writing their third term examination.
Ashoms, who visited the scene in the company of other commissioners, including that of secondary education, said that the school had a total population of about 400.
The commissioner said that part of the school that collapsed was accommodating about 200 students.
”The collapsed building has resulted in casualties, and injured students are still being evacuated to hospitals.
”We cannot however, ascertain the exact number of casualties until the evacuation is completed
Barely a month after declaring a governorship aspirant wanted (and releasing a poster to boot), Police say they can’t remember ever doing so:
Eguaoje Funmilayo, the Force Criminal Investigation Department’s public relations officer, has told FIJ that the unit is not aware of the police’s case against Musa Salihu Mubarak, the former Kogi State governorship aspirant declared wanted in June.
Funmilayo told FIJ this on Friday, when this newspaper inquired about Mubarak’s whereabouts and the police’s current position on the man it sought to arrest.
“I am not aware of the case,” Funmilayo told FIJ via text. This was after a call failed to connect with the FCID PRO’s phone.
[…]
The NPF declared Mubarak wanted on June 3 after he failed to honour the police’s invitations.
This declaration came two months after FIJ reported how Mubarak, the CEO of Almubee Group and Kogi governorship aspirant under the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), took N153 million from seven clients and refused to allocate the plots of land he agreed to offer them in the Wuye area of Abuja.
The police declared Mubarak wanted “for failing to honour police invitation over an allegation of obtaining money under false pretence, cheating and breach of trust”.
He remains at large.
Nigerian agriculture continues to be built on flimsy foundations. As a result, food security remains very far away:
In effect, the potato price skyrocketed, and just barely one month ago, a 65kg of potato which was bought at between N30,000 and N35,000 about a year ago rose to N180,000. The price increment was consistent for several months until last month when it dropped to N45,000 per bag. At first it started to drop to N150,000 to N120,000 to N100,000 to N80,000 until the downward trend continued and got to the current N45,000.
Speaking on the current price, a dealer, Faruq Rabilu, said the drastic drop was due to bumper harvest, and that many farmers were now flooding the market with the produce from all the producing LGAs.
He advised that intended buyers should quickly do so as that in the next two months upwards the potato would become scarce again, with the price likely to go up.
Rabiu explained that another reason why the crop was earlier scarce and expensive was not only because of the inflation and the economic hardship in the land, but that because some persons also hoarded it and were banking on the price hike to sell them at exorbitant prices.
Another day another story of a bunch of young men arrested and tried for internet fraud. And the sums involved are just pathetic:
“Four of the convicts were ordered to restitute the following sums: Emediong Bassey One Thousand Five Hundred Rands (R1500); Otu Samuel One Million Naira (N1, 000, 000.00); John Okpokpo One Hundred and Fifty United States Dollars ($150 US) and Asogwa Lucas One Hundred United States Dollars ($100 US). The six convicts forfeited all gadgets used in committing the crimes to the Federal Government.
“The convicts were arrested in Uyo between May and June 2024, following verified intelligence regarding their criminal activities on the internet.”
All the evidence is pointing towards a tiger nut drink as the source of the recent cholera outbreak in Lagos:
In an interview with BBC, Chimela expressed disbelief over his brother’s sudden death. He explained that he had bought the contaminated tigernut juice from an intern at his office on Monday.
Initially, his brother was fine, but when he went back to buy four more bottles on Tuesday, he started vomiting and purging for six hours, which ultimately led to his death.
Chimela recounted, “The event that led to my brother’s death started when he bought tigernut juice from an intern on Monday. He drank it and was okay.
But on Tuesday, he bought four bottles, and that’s when the trouble began. That particular Tuesday, he started purging and vomiting for more than six hours.
Eventually, he collapsed and died. That’s what really killed him.
Outside Nigeria
A lawmaker in Namibia is proposing that anyone marrying a Namibian needs to have been in a minimum 2 year relationship with them before marriage. But why?
The chief whip said there have been cases of individuals “scamming” Namibians for marriage certificates to obtain citizenship.
However, these individuals often do not follow through with the deal and go missing, she said.
“And then the person promised to pay them every month, disappear with the certificate after the marriage.
“These poor women are afraid to come out to the minister, because this is fraud,” she said.
The Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security in 2020 announced the investigation of 70 cases of alleged sham marriages between Namibians and foreign nationals. Of this number, 10 were already concluded at the time and arrests were made.
Citizens of Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Pakistan and especially Egypt made up the majority of perpetrators, targeting mostly women between the ages of 25 and 40 to obtain permanent residence in Namibia, Dienda said.
A number of people are pressuring the US Congress to classify the jailed Binance executive in Nigeria as a hostage:
Pressure is now mounting within the US Congress for the Biden administration to treat him as what his supporters argue he has been all along: a hostage, held illegally by an unaccountable foreign country.
On Wednesday, US congressman Rich McCormick, who represents Gambaryan's district in his home state of Georgia, submitted a resolution to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs that both urges the Nigerian government to release Gambaryan and calls on the US government to recognize that Gambaryan is being illegally detained as a hostage in an effort to extort his employer, Binance. That resolution represents the latest in a series of growing calls from Congress for the White House to step up its pressure on Nigeria to release Gambaryan, a former federal agent who led many of the most significant cryptocurrency-related criminal cases of the last decade during his time as an IRS criminal investigator.
New Nigerian horror movie just dropped:
A British-Nigerian horror film inspired by Jordan Peele and 'spooky' African folklore has landed on Amazon Prime Video today (July 12).
A Song from the Dark is the debut feature-film from award-winning director and writer Ogo Okpue. Starring Vanessa Vanderpuye, it follows Nigerian-born spirit hunter Ashionye, who now living in England, who has been hired by her former guardian Isioma (Shanty Town's Nse Ikpe Etim) to expel a malevolent spirit that's been tormenting her family since the mysterious death of her husband, Magnus (Apple TV Foundation's Wale Ojo).
Ashionye reluctantly accepts the job as a way to repay the debt she owes Isioma. But as Ashionye digs deeper into Isioma’s family situation, she finds herself standing against a familiar force that has brought about her own trauma since childhood.
Another Japa article, this time from the BBC:
Nigerian graduate Olotu Olanrewaju is facing a choice between remaining in the country he loves and the possibility of a better life elsewhere.
He adores the culture, food, music and family mentality at home, especially how people look out for each other and share common goals.
But the 24-year-old electrical engineer feels he is being held back professionally.
“I’m looking for greener pastures and better opportunities, rather than getting stuck here in Nigeria,” he tells the BBC’s What in the World podcast, adding that he thinks his degree would be “more appreciated” abroad.
Dr. Kelechi Opara…sigh:
A doctor who claimed money for double-booked shifts while working in a Nottingham hospital has been suspended. Dr Kelechi Opara was paid to work in both the spinal department and A&E at the Queen's Medical Centre for two nights in a row in July 2022.
He also "dishonestly" submitted a time sheet for a 10-hour night shift and forged the signature of a colleague to sign it off. The doctor, who had not long moved from Nigeria, said it was acceptable to work in two places at once in his home country.
He explained he was under "emotional and financial pressure" at the time, having to be the sole earner for his family. A tribunal held on June 26 determined Dr Opara would be given a nine-month suspension.
A panel noted his "genuine remorse" and the fact he had returned the money, but said his actions created a potential for patient harm. At the time of the misconduct, Dr Opara was employed by Nottingham University Hospitals ( NUH ), working in the spinal department and undertaking locum shifts in A&E.
The Guardian reviews Bushman and awards it 5 stars:
Here is a unique document: a 1971 work by US musician and film-maker David Schickele, long neglected but now restored and reissued. It is a vividly beautiful and dynamic monochrome work resembling something by Godard or Cassavetes but with something special and specific; an amazing real-time transcription of the life of a young black man in San Francisco in the fraught year of 1968.
The focus is Paul Eyam Nzie Okpokam, a young Nigerian nonprofessional actor playing a lightly fictionalised version of himself called Gabriel: enrolled in college in San Francisco, hanging out, having romantic relationships with black and white women, trying to earn money. Scenes from Garbriel’s life are interleaved with an interview he is apparently giving to an off-camera questioner, speaking with warmth and articulate charm about his experiences back at home and in the US, and how as an African national he is considered an exotic outsider in the US, and almost exempt from the racism dished out to black Americans, who seem white to him. All a terrible irony, considering what is to take place.
The Makinde family are facing deportation to Nigeria after 6 years in Canada:
After six years living in Ottawa, a father with Canadian-born children is waiting in jail as he, his wife and one daughter face deportation to Nigeria.
Dapo Makinde was detained on June 25, two days before his family was required to report for deportation, and is now being held at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre.
The African Canadian Association of Ottawa is fighting for the Makinde family to stay. It says removing them would uproot a family with deep ties to Canada formed while waiting for applications to inch through the bureaucracy.
Nigerian food is now inspiring other foods in random places. This is a sign and a good one at that:
Freshly cooked rice is delightfully tender and fragrant, but not the best choice for fried rice due to its soft, moist texture. In this Nigerian-inspired curried meal-in-a-skillet, we use plain, chilled cooked rice so the grains “fry” up light and fluffy.
The recipe, from our newest cookbook “Milk Street 365: The All-Purpose Cookbook for Every Day of the Year,” seasons the rice with curry powder, dried thyme and a handful of aromatics. Beef liver and an assortment of vegetables are classic ingredients, but we opted for chicken thighs and green beans.
And here’s a piece exploring all the Nigerian spices you need to have in your pantry:
In Nigeria, we don't have pantries. What one calls a pantry in Europe and North America, we call a "store," and no two are the same. Each home store is a melange of local, regional, and global ingredients. Some ingredients—palm oil, crayfish, fermented seasonings—speak volumes about all the ways Nigerians are similar despite our many different languages and cultures.
The store is where we house and preserve many of the ingredients that give us flavor and sustenance, and it's where you'll see a mix of influences, from local and regional exchanges to the deep-seated legacies of colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade. It is also where you'll find forms of personal expression, both large and small, like preserves, ferments, dried herbs, and more.
Nigerian meals tend to be made up of mixed plates of starches, soups/sauces, and proteins, and the store reflects that. There will likely be an abundance of starches in the form of grains, legumes, and flours; there are oils and fats like unrefined red palm oil, groundnut oil, and shea butter; there's a stunning array of greens used in meals—leafy, herby, in a range of colors, both fresh and dried; there's a plethora of spices, like grains of Selim, calabash nutmeg, and alligator pepper, as well as a range of spice blends; there are dried seafood products like "crayfish" and smoked fish, oysters, and periwinkles; and there are fermented seasonings and condiments, nuts, seeds, and gums.
The damage that food inflation is doing to Nigerians cannot be overstated. The Economist weighs in:
In a video on social media, Amarachi makes a stew that replaces pricey tomatoes with more affordable watermelon chunks. “Today we say bye-bye to tomatoes,” she says. As Nigerians adjust to soaring food prices, the video has gone viral.
Tomato prices that fluctuate with the seasons are normal in Nigeria, but the record annual pace of food inflation, which hit 41% in May, is not. Most pinched are the poor. Staples such as beans and maize cost 400% more than they did a year ago, while a 100kg bag of sorghum has more than tripled in price. Since wages have barely moved, the result is a deepening food crisis. Whereas hunger was once concentrated in conflict-ridden areas in northern Nigeria, now it affects poorer households nationwide (see map). Of the 44m people in west Africa and the Sahel who do not get enough to eat, more than half are Nigerian.
Elsewhere, the FT has a big piece on one year of President Tinubu’s ‘reforms’ which they describe as ‘shock therapy’. But can something be shock therapy if it involves a huge expansion of money supply? I don’t think so:
Fatai Oluwa, a patternmaker in Lagos, Nigeria’s teeming commercial capital, has started sleeping in the tailor shop where he works, often on his cutting table, so he can save on soaring commuter costs.
Since the snap removal last year of petrol subsidies by Nigeria’s president Bola Tinubu, the 24-year-old says the return bus fare for the 64km journey to his home in Ogun state has doubled to N7,000 ($4.50). That is a ruinous bite out of his monthly pay cheque of roughly $95, which also supports his widowed mother and two younger siblings at a time when he is already skipping meals to bring his daily food costs down to $1.60.
The end of the petrol subsidy, which made Nigerian fuel among the cheapest in the world, has torpedoed Oluwa’s life chances and driven millions of citizens deeper into poverty. The drastic measure is part of the shock therapy implemented by Tinubu — a set of policies that, almost inevitably, has become known as “Tinubunomics”.
Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos and a wealthy wheeler-dealer whose presidency is entering its second year, says that subsidy removal, together with a massive devaluation of the naira, is necessary to inject market discipline into the distorted and flat-on-its-back economy.
A belated happy ending for the Lijadu Sisters is coming:
The remastered and restored version of the duo’s 1979 album Horizon Unlimited is now available on DSPs and set for a physical release in September.
The Lijadu Sisters and Numero Group have signed an expansive new partnership that seeks to bring justice to the legendary Nigerian duo's catalog, it was announced on Wednesday (July 10).
Composed of identical twin sisters Taiwo and Kehinde Lijadu -- who are second cousins to Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti -- the Lijadu Sisters arose as fearless and groundbreaking leaders in the male-dominated Nigerian pop music scene. The duo fused Afrobeat, pop, psychedelic rock, reggae, disco and jazz music with messages about gender equality, government corruption, love and more in both English and Yoruba. They toured with Nigerian jùjú musician King Sunny Adé, David Byrne, Ginger Baker and Art Blakey and, during a 2014 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, performed in the Atomic Bomb! band tribute to Nigerian musician William Onyeabor.
A lovely piece on Bukayo Saka. As anyone who knows anything about the family might tell you - they are the loveliest people you will ever meet and it is no surprise their son has turned out the genuine role model he is:
The assistant head teacher at Greenford High School in west London, said Bukayo, which means “adds to happiness” in Yoruba, had been kept humble and made resilient by his mother and father, Adenike and Yomi.
The couple, who are devout Christians, originate from Nigeria and moved to London in the 1990s as economic migrants before he was born. They hail from the Yoruba tribe and value hard work and education, Harvey said.
“They kept him grounded when he was growing up. His dad would make him do his homework in the car as they were travelling up and down the country to games.”
This commitment helped Saka end up with four A*s and three As at GCSEs. Harvey said that in five years at school, Saka missed handing in his homework only once. “For someone who was away as much as he was with his football commitments, that’s amazing,” he said.
Harvey believes this intelligence has helped Saka succeed on the pitch: “He would always see a level or two above what was happening. He had a really clear vision of what he wanted to do. He also had an incredible work ethic — and never shied away from constructive criticism.”
Saka’s mother is a chartered accountant who was educated in Lagos before studying veterinary medicine at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. After relocating to London, she obtained a diploma in accounting from the University of West London. She has held roles as a project accountant at O2 and contributed to Telefonica’s smart metering scheme. It is understood that she is still working.
An article about 70+ year olds travelling round the world features Chris Allsop, 72, who has been visiting various countries on his bike. He has been to Nigeria and you might think that is never going to end well. But here’s what he had to say:
I was nervous about two parts of the trip in particular — Guinea and Nigeria. I’d been told that in Guinea the roads and food were awful and the officials on the border were not to be trusted. But the mountains of Guinea were among the most beautiful places I saw. In Nigeria, people told me, I’d be held at gunpoint, mugged in the street or stabbed, but it was all a load of rubbish — the country was an absolute revelation and its people are the nicest on Earth.
Anyone who has a motorbike in Nigeria joins a biker club, and I was taken under the wing of one almost as soon as I arrived. Many bikers there are lawyers, oil executives or doctors. When I left a city they would escort me; in new cities they came and met me. I was helped by some delightful people who wouldn’t let me pay for food and got me very drunk indeed. They treated me like a revered elder statesman.
A very nasty story:
A fake groom has been jailed for at least 30 years for stabbing a 25-year-old man to death and holding his mother captive after falling out over a sham marriage scam.
Jurick Croes was paid £500 to engage in a sham marriage but hatched a plan to rob Bernadette Ortet because he had been expecting £50,000, the Old Bailey heard.
When he and two accomplices went to her house near Elephant and Castle, south-east London, in November 2020 Ms Ortet’s son Riches Obi tried to protect her and was fatally stabbed.
The three intruders had bound Ms Ortet with cable ties and a scarf in a bedroom at the property.
[…]
Ms Ortet, who is in Nigeria, submitted a victim impact statement to the court detailing her trauma and grief.
She condemned the “heartless” defendants, saying her son was killed in the “most gruesome manner” and “slaughtered like an animal”.
She described her son as the “cornerstone” of the family, and a selfless gentleman who had a simple life lived by the “highest values”.
She said: “My mind knows nothing but trauma and terror. I lost the full function of my neck since I was assaulted.”
Remember the terrible explosion in Ibadan that killed a lot of people and was said to be down to improper storage of explosives? Trust me, it’s linked to this story:
Lithium boom has turned to lithium bust over the last two years as a wave of new supply overwhelms weaker-than-expected demand for electric vehicle (EV) batteries.
The CME contract for lithium hydroxide has collapsed from a 2022 high of $85,000 per metric ton to $11,930. The CME carbonate contract was above $40,000 when it began trading in July 2023 and has since slumped to $12,850.
[…]
One little-discussed element of the current glut, however, is the surge in artisanal mining (ASM) in Africa, particularly in Nigeria and Zimbabwe.
Research house CRU estimates that artisanal miners accounted for almost two-thirds of African lithium supply in 2023 with volumes nearly equivalent to the global market surplus last year.