Below The Headlines - 72
It was Dogo Gide not Lakurawa who did it and Pastor Tobi is on his way for Detty December
2024 has now entered the final stretch. Be careful out there and don’t over indulge. What am I kidding; of course you are going to.
We published the final piece in our read-along of Capitalism in the Colonies during the week. I hope you enjoyed it and it was worth your time. It certainly was for us.
Back to regular programming: Tobi and I turned an Instagram account into a parable about economic development in Africa and the role China is playing in it.
Enjoy this week’s selection below
Inside Nigeria
A story about bees and honey in northern Nigeria:
The Gashaka-Gumti National Park is the largest park in the entire West Africa region. The vast forest covers a thousand square kilometres and is protected against all forms of unfriendly environmental activities, so the fauna and flora are second to none.
This park is home to lots of bees that find it a safe haven, and they are said to produce the best honey in the country.
Findings by Weekend Trust revealed that Gashaka and Toungo areas, all located within the National Park, produce the highest quantity as well as best top-quality pure honey in the entire Northern Nigeria.
Musa Yakubu, a honey dealer in Serti town, Gashaka LGA, told our reporter that beekeeping and honey business is very lucrative but it was neglected because of lack of knowledge and business initiatives by the local inhabitants until recently when there was high demand for honey from Gashaka.
He said the demand for pure honey exceeds local production, which is why honey is very expensive—a development that caused more of the local farmers to go into honey production and business.
According to him, there is high demand for honey from Gashaka because it is pure and high in quality.
He said Gashaka-Gumti National Park provides a safe colony for bees and they feed on the best flowers that are rarely found in other parts of Nigeria.
“Currently, a litre of Gashaka honey costs between N3,500 and N4,000 while a 20-litre Jerry can is sold at N80,000. A lot of the beekeepers are making good fortune annually even though many of them lack the capacity to produce large quantities of honey.”
Another dealer, Musa Yakubu, told Weekend Trust that 70 per cent of honey consumed in Northern Nigeria is sourced from neighbouring Cameroon Republic, but that if farmers in Gashaka-Gumti and other forest reserves are encouraged and supported, the gap would be bridged.
He said unlike forests in Nigeria where deforestation is taking place on a daily basis, in Cameroon the reverse is the case, where there are strict rules regarding logging and other illegal activities.
Does this judge think Yahoo Boys are not really a problem because the victims are outside Nigeria? I’d say they are equally as destructive. There is nothing stable about a society overrun with Yahoo Boys:
Justice Muhammad Lawal Shuaibu, a Presiding Judge at the Court of Appeal, Sokoto Division, on Monday urged anti-corruption agents to focus on larger figures involved in corrupt practices, rather than targeting “yahoo boys.”
Justice Shuaibu made this call during the opening of the North West Zonal Attorney General’s Anti-Corruption Forum (AGAF), organized by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), with support from the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption (RoLAC), the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), and funding from the European Union (EU).
He emphasized that targeting high-profile individuals was crucial for achieving a stable society. “At the NJI, I criticized the EFCC Chairman, though we disagreed. Since 2007, when I stopped handling corruption trials, I can’t recall a significant case. Now the focus is on yahoo boys. I implore all of you to target the bigger fish. Only then will we have a stable society,” he said.
News from Anambra:
A Chinese national and five other suspects were arrested by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Anambra State Command, in collaboration with the Federal Mines Officer in the state, for illegal mining activities in the state.
The Head, Media and Tactical Ops of the Command, SC Edwin Okadigbo, disclosed this in a press statement on Thursday.
Okadigbo stated that the NSCDC state commandant, Olatunde Maku, paraded the suspects at the command’s headquarters in Awka, on Thursday.
He listed their names as Udoka Nwankwo, male (25); Amaka Samuel, female (18); Onyi Ijeoma, female (45); Chimezie Aniefuna male, (25); Chinaza Omrba, female, (18) and the Chinese national identified simply as “Babajeje” (47).
I mean, LOL:
SOME of the people living illegally under the Eko Bridge in the Ebute-Ero area of Lagos Island who were recently ejected by operatives of the Lagos Environmental Sanitation Corps (LAGESC) are yet to vacate the place, investigation by Saturday Tribune has revealed.
Many of the people have refused to relocate weeks after their forced eviction. They are carrying on with life under the bridge albeit without re-erecting their demolished shanties.
When the LAGESC spokesman, Lukman Ajayi, was asked about the illegal traders, he said the task force would be visiting again to root them out, noting that they had grown so bold to the extent of appointing market leaders known as the Iyaloja and the Babaloja.
Important clarification here:
Residents of Unguwar Yargaladima in Zamfara State have countered the explanation given by the State police command that the recent deadly explosion in Gusau-Dansadau Road was carried out by Lakurawa terrorists.
According to them, the explosives, which occurred in two separate locations, were planted by bandits within the axis.
A resident, Mallam Ibrahim Usman attributed the attack to a local bandit kingpin, Dogo Gide.
Usman, who spoke to journalists in Gusau, alleged that the police did not want to tell the world the truth.
He said that Gide and his gang members had been targeting Unguwar Yargaladima in retaliation for the recent killing of a bandit kingpin, Sani Black, by the villagers.
“This attack has nothing to do with Lakurawa terrorists.
“It was planned perfectly by Dogo Gide’s gang. They have been planning to attack the community for a long time but failed because we were prepared.
“This time, they planted explosives on the road after learning that security personnel were on their way,” he disclosed.
According to him, Lakurawa terrorists, who he said were foreigners from Niger and Mali, were distinct from the Fulani bandits operating in Zamfara State.
The Guinness Book of World Records hustle is still going on:
Caroline Ejibunu, the Nigerian lady from Ondo state, has completed her attempt to set a new Guinness World Record (GWR) for the most hairstyles created in 24 hours.
The hair maker, who began the quest on December 4, was able to create 200 hairstyles in 24 hours.
Speaking about the attempt, Carolaura, as she is fondly called, said the exercise is a proof that “no dream is too big”.
She also expressed gratitude to her family, friends, team and the Ondo kingdom for their support.
A story about children mining gold illegally in Zamfara:
Abdulwahab Salisu walked through a murky puddle; each footfall stuck firmly into the slippery soil. He stretched the dirt pan he held towards his fellow, who was already knee-deep in sludge, hacking out the muddy earth. It was a Saturday morning in October 2024. Salisu took the dirt-filled pan back to the puddle and began sieving it. His hands moved with a certain ease that comes from years of practice as water swirled brown and thick around his wrist.
At 15, Salisu is an old hand at tracing specks of gold. His fingers were still moving when his eyes caught a glimmer in the pan. He paused and rinsed the specks into a small steel bowl before returning to the pit.
Salisu’s daily routine is to wake up every morning for prayers, take his breakfast and head straight to the mining site in the Kabai area of Maru, a town in the northwestern Zamfara state. With other children from his village and nearby communities, he toils hard to dig for precious stones till later in the evening, when he attends an Islamic school. Salisu makes himself available during school hours at the local junior secondary school, but his mind often wanders through the mine in the passing hours.
“I earn between ₦3,000 and ₦4,000 from now until dawn,” he told HumAngle. “My earnings vary – there are times I make that amount or even less. It’s possible to earn more, depending on how hard I work.” He leaves earlier than his classmates at school to meet his daily quota at the mining site. The paycheck makes it worthwhile, he said.
At his young age, Salisu has carved pieces of himself — some little scars here and healing wounds there — to carry the weight of the pain buried within the earth. There’s one he sustained recently. He had just returned from school on a Friday, taking off his uniform and heading straight to the mining site. He had an unusual feeling about the day. But it wasn’t enough to keep him away from the site. He was in a shallow well dug along the waterway, shovelling the earth into the pan, when he felt a sudden, sharp pain in his leg. He didn’t think much of it until he doubled over to see blood gushing out of his right toe. He said he was lucky.
Outside Nigeria
Mayor Yemi Mobolade of Colorado Springs looks to be in some trouble over a faked hate crime:
Mayor Yemi Mobolade on Wednesday further denied any involvement with a faked hate crime that took place during Colorado Springs’ 2023 mayoral election.
A federal grand jury earlier this month indicted Derrick Bernard Jr., Ashley Blackcloud and Deanna West for staging an incident on April 23, 2023, when a burning cross was placed in front of a Mobolade campaign sign that was defaced with a racial slur. The act was allegedly meant to galvanize support for Mobolade during the middle of the mayoral runoff election between Mobolade and Wayne Williams.
The three defendants were also accused of spreading disinformation about the hate crime hoax after the fact with anonymous tips to news organizations and civic groups.
"I had no knowledge, warning, or involvement in this reprehensible act," Mobolade said in the new statement released Wednesday.
"I fully cooperated in the investigation, and it is important that the judicial process is followed to allow for a successful prosecution that brings justice for our community," Mobolade said.
The federal indictment Nov. 12 referenced communication between then-candidate Mobolade and Bernard in the weeks around the incident. According to the indictment, the two had a roughly five-minute phone call April 26, 2023 — three days after the cross burning occurred.
The indictment also cites text messages and Facebook messages Bernard sent to Mobolade before and after the incident. Bernard mentioned in a message 10 days before the alleged crime that there was a "plot amidst" and that he was "mobilizing my squadron in defense and for the final push."
Questions about the mayor’s role in the crime were raised last week when The Daily Wire website published an interview with an anonymous FBI agent. The agent alleged, without offering evidence, that Mobolade had denied any contact or communication with Bernard during two separate FBI interviews during the investigation and that the bureau had considered charging him with lying to federal agents.
News from Northampton Crown Court:
Two men who tried to claim that they had consensual sex with a 17-year-old girl have each been sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Tosin Dada, 34, previously of Knox Road, Wellingborough, and Solomon Ibukun Adebiyi, 39, previously of Stanley Street, Northampton, were both charged with three counts of rape each in connection with an offence in 2022.
The incident happened in the early hours of March 12, when Dadi and Adebiyi raped the girl multiple times in a room above the Exotic Cuisine Restaurant in Abington Square, Northampton.
During the horrific assault, the girl repeatedly pleaded with them to stop.
Both men denied rape when they were arrested, claiming that the sex had been consensual. However, following a police investigation, they were both charged with three counts of rape.
Their nine-day trial took place at Northampton Crown Court at the beginning of September with both men being found unanimously guilty by the jury on all charges after eight hours of deliberation.
They returned to the same court last week (November 29) where they were each sentenced to 14 years in prison.
It looks like Pastor Tobi will be returning home in time for Detty December:
A Nigerian pastor whose church was shut down over an alleged £1.87 million fraud has lost his fight against deportation, despite claiming it would breach his human rights.
An immigration tribunal has ruled that Tobi Adegboyega, 44, the cousin of John Boyega, the Star Wars actor, should be deported back to his native Nigeria after investigations, including by The Telegraph, exposed misuse of funds by his church.
Mr Adegboyega was head of SPAC Nation, a controversial church shut down after failing to properly account for more than £1.87 million of outgoings and operating with a lack of transparency.
He claimed deportation would breach his right under the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) to a family life – having married a British woman. He also said the attempt to remove him by the Home Office failed to take account of his community work with SPAC.
Describing a “charismatic” community leader of a large, well-organised church, his legal team claimed that he had “intervened in the lives of many hundreds of young people, predominantly from the black communities in London, to lead them away from trouble”.
He claimed his work had been “lauded” by politicians including Boris Johnsonand senior figures within the Metropolitan Police, although no testimony by them was submitted to the court. He said that without his personal presence in London, projects that he had masterminded would fall apart or reduce in size.
However, the tribunal was told the Home Office contended “all is not as it seems”.
“Various manifestations of [Mr Adegboyega’s] church have been closed down, by either the Charity Commission or the High Court, because of concerns over its finances and lack of transparency,” according to the judgment.
Joke Bakare makes the FT’s list of 2024’s most influential women:
Adejoké Bakare is a very special chef. She gives us food that breaks new ground and excites the heart as well as the taste buds. In her restaurants, first a pop up in Brixton and more recently at Chishuru in Fitzrovia, she gives us conviviality. This is a place you want to meet friends and explore new culinary horizons.
Nigeria-born Adejoké is a trailblazer. This year she became the first Black woman to gain a Michelin star in the UK, for Chishuru, which is Nigerian-Ghanaian-global. Her restaurant is a fitting exemplar of this diverse, dynamic city. She is a proud bearer of her country’s and her continent’s culinary traditions, as we saw when she cooked a memorable dinner last autumn at Tate Modern. Only weeks after Chishuru opened she left her kitchen and cooked in honour of legendary Ghanaian artist El Anatsui on the occasion of his Hyundai Commission, “Behind the Red Moon”. The art and food were thrilling.
The number one song in America this year is ‘A Bar Song’ by Shaboozey:
Americans have made “A Bar Song” this year’s biggest hit. Some may be drawn to it for spotlighting their economic woes—or for suggesting how to drown those worries in a long boozy night. “A Bar Song” is all about downing double-shots of whiskey, waking up drunk at 10 a.m. and then doing it all over again.
The tune, which reworks a 2004 hip-hop hit, “Tipsy,” deftly blurs hip-hop and country in a way that appeals to multiple audiences. It has racked up nearly 1 billion Spotify streams, inspired 3 million TikTok videos and landed Shaboozey, a 29-year-old Virginia musician, five Grammy nominations, including best new artist and song of the year.
[…]
“A Bar Song” has also benefited from success on streaming services and TikTok; the surge in interest in country music, along with country bars and line-dancing; and the ongoing pop and hip-hop-ification of country (see Morgan Wallen, Post Malone, Jelly Roll). Then there is Shaboozey’s own intriguing outsider status as a Black artist of Nigerian descent in a mostly white genre. (His real name is Collins Obinna Chibueze.)
Nigerian-Italian cuisine has arrived, courtesy of Chef Tayo Ebi-Ayo:
Chef Tayo’s Ebi-Ayo Supper Club brings together Nigerian and Italian influences to create a unique dining experience that goes beyond the plate. In this Q&A, Chef Tayo shares the inspiration behind his dinner series, the role storytelling plays in his menus, and how his events foster meaningful connections in an increasingly virtual world. Get a glimpse into his creative process, his challenges as an entrepreneur, and what’s next for this innovative chef blending culture, community, and cuisine.
Export corn, go to prison. The choice is yours:
Nigeria's Senate has passed a bill seeking to make it a crime to export large quantities of unprocessed corn in an effort to alleviate hunger in the West African nation, documents seen by Reuters on Friday showed.
[…]
The Senate bill, which will need the president's assent to become law, will make it illegal to export unprocessed corn from a minimum of 1 metric ton.
Violators would pay the value of the corn in fines or face a one-year prison sentence.
Netflix is chilling on Nigeria:
Netflix has denied reports it is pulling out of Nigeria but local film producers and industry insiders told Semafor Africa the streaming giant has been cutting back on original productions.
“We are not exiting Nigeria,” wrote a Netflix spokesperson in an email.”We will continue to invest in Nigerian stories to delight our members.”
However two filmmakers who have worked with Netflix on Nigerian productions said some local filmmakers were told last month that their Netflix original projects were either being put on hold or shelved. The conversations with filmmakers were said to have come days after Netflix threw a glamorous “Lights, Camera… Naija!” party on Nov. 2 with a raft of Nollywood actors and celebrities at a venue in Lagos.
The devaluation of the local currency and runaway inflation are said to have made production costs unsustainable in the near term.
And another one:
Lateju (pronounced Lat-eh-jue) arrived at The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey in the summer of 2022 having played just one year of seven-on-seven flag football in Nigeria on a coed team with players of all ages. He took a chance to attend a boarding school in the United States to pursue academics and football, and it paid off. Lateju’s natural athleticism and strength made him a menace as a stand-up edge rusher, to the point that he earned a dozen major college scholarship offers a year and a half after starting the sport.
His high ceiling, coupled with the fact he doesn’t have many bad habits as a player because he is so new to the sport, makes him an appealing prospect. Lateju is one of three outside linebackers in the class, along with Williams and Clayton. Darryl Peterson and Sebastian Cheeks are the only upperclassmen on the roster at the position, which could give a younger crop of players a chance to earn snaps.
The Vice-Chancellor of Buckingham University, Professor James Tooley (author of The Beautiful Tree, one of my favourite books on education), has been suspended from his job after a petition written by his Nigerian wife:
The vice-chancellor of the UK’s leading private university was suspended partly because of allegations about a past love affair overseas with a young woman whose student fees he helped to pay, The Times has learnt.
Friends and allies of Professor James Tooley, 65, vice-chancellor of Buckingham University, claimed his sudden suspension eight weeks ago was an attempt to oust him because of his “anti-woke” agenda.
Tooley’s supporters say he faced internal opposition at Buckingham for championing academics who had been cancelled at other institutions and for trying to appoint Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an outspoken critic of Islam, as the inaugural Thatcher Chair for the Constitution of Liberty at Buckingham.
It can now be disclosed that the decision to suspend Tooley from his £229,000-a-year post and begin an investigation was made after allegations were received about an intimate relationship he had with a woman in her twenties in India. The relationship predated his present marriage.
The allegations came from Tooley’s wife Cynthia, 42, from whom he is now estranged.
[…]
Mrs Tooley, a Buckingham alumnus, married the vice-chancellor in 2022. Born in Nigeria, she was awarded the MBE in 2017 for services to business and the community. She has a high-end cake-making business and runs a food poverty charity in Hertford and has appeared as a judge on television cookery programmes.
Is Detty December even going to happen? Reports reaching us say Lagos nightlife is really going through it at the moment:
Lagos’s world-famous nightlife reaches its raucous peak during the month, when festive abandon by locals coincides with an influx of foreign currency-carrying diasporans. “Detty” is a light-hearted alternative for “dirty” in Nigerian Pidgin.
But the worst cost of living crisis in a generation, a product of radical economic reforms introduced by President Bola Tinubu, has gutted the west African country’s middle class — and sapped the energy from Lagos’s party spots.
The crowd was thin on a recent “Taco Tuesday” at Bature Brewery, a cavernous open-air pub usually packed with professionals enjoying a cold drink after work in the sweltering megacity. A floor manager wistfully admitted to a drop-off in both visitor numbers and bill amounts as guests curb spending.
Fintech operations manager Queen, 32, who declined to give her surname, said her days of impromptu splurges were gone. “You can’t even come out to have a drink,” she said. “Have you seen the cost of transport?”
Reviewing Bature’s drinks menu — bottled water costs N1,000 ($0.60) while the most expensive cocktail costs N10,000 ($6.20) — she debated the best value cocktail with her friend before settling on a N8,000 mojito. The minimum wage in Nigeria is N70,000 a month.
“I plan every outing these days,” Queen said. “I need to have an idea of the prices because I don’t want any surprises.”
Across Lagos — an economic hub of 20mn people that is home to Afrobeats music and an often ostentatious party scene — bars, restaurants and clubs are feeling the pinch. And proprietors and punters are clear about the culprit.
Since his election last year, Tinubu has embarked on a radical project of economic shock therapy, introducing dramatic reforms that he has said are designed to end the dysfunction that has long plagued Nigeria. The country of 220mn has fallen from being Africa’s largest economy to its fourth.
Tinubu ended fuel subsidies, which for decades allowed Nigerians to pay some of the cheapest petrol prices in the world. The subsidies cull turbocharged inflation, which hit a nearly three-decade annual high of just under 34 per cent in October. The naira has also suffered, losing more than 70 per cent of its value against the US dollar following two devaluations.
These measures have plunged many into poverty, but also destroyed the purchasing power of Nigeria’s professionals, its cohort of tech workers, business executives and engineers who were supposed to be the country’s growth engine. They were also the ones paying for the imported wine and lamb chops offered at swanky haunts in Lagos.
The hearing into the Nursing exam test centre cheating is going on:
More than 700 exams to allow foreign nurses to work in Britain were done fraudulently as part of a four-year Nigerian test centre scam, a disciplinary hearing was told.
Would-be NHS staff were 'pressured' to use a proxy tester and had 'answers shouted at them' while they took the competency exam, the panel heard.
Part of the test that was supposed to take two and a half hours was completed in just 10 minutes, investigators found.
One of the fraudulent candidates, Obiageri Peace Onuhurironye, has now been struck off after a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) committee found she had got someone else to take the test for her.
And the hearing was told that none of the tests from the centre involved can now be trusted.
Almost 2,000 internationally educated Nigerian nurses have now been impacted by the scam, with some saying they feel 'thrown out into the cold' by the UK nursing regulator.
According to the Nursing Times, some of those affected that their 'whole lives are on pause' while they await outcomes of hearings and appeals.
Others have been fired by their employers, had visas revoked and have landed into debt and emotional turmoil as a result of the situation.
And in related news:
A quarter of nurses and midwives working in the UK are now recruited from abroad, figures show.
The record-high 200,000 foreign-trained members of the workforce now represent 23.8 per cent of the register, according to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).
Out of the total, 68,000 are from India, 50,000 trained in the Philippines and 15,000 are from Nigeria.