Below The Headlines - 76
Nigerian-Cambodian kids have entered the group chat and Dizzy is sending home some money
Welcome to this week’s abridged edition of BTH. Normal service will resume next week.
Enjoy!
Outside Nigeria
An incredibly fascinating video about Nigerians in Cambodia. Most of them went there to play football but the chair of the Nigerian diaspora there says he went to visit in 1997 for some basketball event and he ended up staying 26years and counting
Have you ever seen a mixed-race Nigerian-Cambodian child? Of course they exist. Watch on:
If you’re in the market for new luggage, you can check out Horizn Studios new H5 Essential Wura Edition:
A limited artist edition of 100 pieces, designed by acclaimed Nigerian-American artist Wura-Natasha Ogunji, who draws inspiration from daily interactions in Lagos. All proceeds will go to Rolling Safespace (ROSA), a charity selected by Wura and close to our hearts, that provides a safe space for women fleeing.
Another feature piece on Divine Iheme, the world’s fastest 15 year old:
When Divine Iheme crossed the finish line in a race in Essex on Sunday, it was only after a friend had conducted a brief piece of research on their phone that the outrageously gifted 15-year-old sprinter realised the magnitude of what he had achieved.
He ran immediately towards his mother and coach, Nkiruka. “Mummy,” he cried out. “I’ve broken the world record.” To be precise, it was a world indoor age group best for a 15-year-old over 60m.
The record had belonged to an American, J-Mee Samuels, who clocked 6.74sec back in 2003. Iheme, a British athlete born in Oxford, bettered that mark not just once but twice at Lee Valley at the weekend, running 6.71 and 6.72. For context, Christian Coleman’s senior world record is 6.34.
To those who follow athletics closely, this may not have come as a huge surprise. Just as astonishing from Iheme was a world best for 14-year-olds of 10.3 for 100m last summer, almost a second quicker than Noah Lyles, the Olympic champion in Paris, at the same age. By then he had also set an English Schools Under-15 record of 10.65, claiming the prestigious title in the process.
His parents were both athletes. “Both me and my husband, Innocent, ran internationally for Nigeria,” Mrs Iheme, or NK as she likes to be called, told The Times. “All three of my boys are good at sport but Divine likes the track. It is in his genes.”
Mum is coach not just to her son but to 21 other young athletes who are members of the PWD Athletic Academy she founded “to help young people” and “share” what she too describes as her “gift from God”.
She certainly seems well-qualified. As well as sprinting at international level, with a hand-timed best of 10.8 for 100m, she served for nine years in the British Army. “I worked in logistics and I have my military voice for coaching,” she says, laughing. “It’s business when we’re at the track but I also try to make it as enjoyable as possible.
“Divine is simply another one of my athletes when we are training but I regard all of them as my children. Their parents trust me to take care of them and I get so much pleasure in seeing these young people improve.”
The UK’s Channel 4 has a new documentary on banditry and kidnapping in Nigeria:
Banditry is booming in Nigeria, with thousands kidnapped last year.
The mass abduction of schoolchildren is a terrifyingly common occurrence. Just days ago gunmen on motorbikes kidnapped at least 46 people and torched homes in the northwestern Zamfara State.
Our Africa Correspondent Jamal Osman is the first foreign journalist granted access to the Nigerian army’s anti-banditry campaign as part of a push to restore stability to the impoverished north.
If you’re passing through Sharjah this year, you can join a celebration of Nigerian art and literature there:
The dynamism of African and Emirati literature will be celebrated at two new festivals in Sharjah this year.
The inaugural Sharjah Festival of African Literature, being held from January 24 to 27 at University City of Sharjah district and organised by the Sharjah Book Authority, will host two Nobel laureates – Nigeria's Wole Soyinka and Tanzanian-British novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah – for discussions about their work and those from the continent.
Joining them is Kenyan author Mara Menzies and Nigeria's Wole Talabi, the latter best known for the science fiction novel Brass Head of Obalufon. Wendy Njoroge, co-founder of Kenyan publishing house Soma Nami Books and Nigerian literary advocate Ifeoma Esiri will also be in attendance.
The festival will also honour authors including Nigerian poet and performer Deborah Johnson, whose work is focused on sociopolitical issues of her homeland. The career of Kenya's Yvonne Owuor will also be highlighted for her rich and compelling historical novels.
The festival will feature musical performances from South African soprano Ann McKayzie, as well as Nigerian musicians Ade Bantu and Maryam Bukar Hassan. All sessions are open to the public, with timings to be revealed soon.
The NYT’s annual list of 52 places to visit for the year features Benin City this time:
The Museum of West African Art, one of Africa’s most ambitious new exhibition spaces, opens this year in Benin City, the heart of a former powerful kingdom and the cultural hub of the Edo people. Designed by the British Ghanaian architect David Adjaye (who also designed the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture), the new museum will be anchored by an exhibition center clad in traditional pounded red earth and showcasing items like ancient terra-cotta statues, bronzes dating back to the Middle Ages and intricately sculpted musical instruments from the early 20th century. The space will also house a hall for local artisans and a vast gallery containing replanted rainforest flora. The institution joins a metropolitan cultural scene already noted for the Benin City National Museum, numerous art galleries, and traditional bronze and brass artisans.
Another day, another mass arrest of internet fraudsters:
Nigeria's anti-graft agency has arrested 105 people, including four Chinese nationals, for suspected involvement in an internet fraud scheme targeting hotels in Europe and elsewhere, a spokesperson said on Friday.
The suspects were arrested on Thursday during a raid on an apartment in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) spokesperson Dele Oyewale said in a statement. They are suspected of operating a hotel review job scam, he said.
Oyewale said investigations were ongoing and that once they were completed all the suspects would be sent to court for trial.
Last month almost 800 people, including 148 Chinese and 40 Filipino nationals, were arrested in a raid on a building suspected of being a hub for fraudsters who lured victims with offers of romance, then pressed them to hand over cash for phoney cryptocurrency investments.
Lakurawa who? They are the new armed bandits causing chaos around Nigeria’s border with Niger Republic:
In November, the Nigerian army acknowledged for the first time the existence of Lakurawa and said its members were operating from headquarters in the country’s Sokoto and Kebbi states.
Attacks by the group have killed dozens of people, and at least nine suspected members are known and have been declared wanted by the Nigerian army.
The northern region is one of the hottest beds of violence in Nigeria, with its states experiencing a toxic mix of armed attacks, kidnappings and banditry in recent years. The Nigerian army has also been grappling with a long-running battle with the Boko Haram armed group in the northeast for more than a decade.
Strained relations between Nigeria and Niger, stemming from Niger’s coup d’etat in July 2023, have also affected joint military operations and given the Lakurawa group more room to expand, officials say.
[…]
According to Nigerian army officials, Lakurawa fighters are believed to originally be from troubled Mali, a Sahelian country that’s currently under fire from a swarm of transnational armed groups seeking territory to govern.
Groups like Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and ISIL affiliate in the Greater Sahara are some of the armed groups destabilising Mali.
Officials in Nigeria say Lakurawa members are affiliated with the Malian groups but have for years settled in communities along the Nigeria-Niger border, marrying local women and recruiting youth.
Researchers tracing the origin of the group, however, note that its members have not just begun operating. Originally, Lakurawa members were herdsmen who would carry rifles for protection.
No amount is too small. Some Diezani money is being returned to Nigeria:
Nigeria and the United States signed an agreement on Friday to repatriate about $52.88 million in assets forfeited by former Nigerian oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke and her associates.
The agreement opens the way for the first repatriation to Nigeria of assets outside the West African country linked to Alison-Madueke.
Nigerian Justice Minister Lateef Fagbemi said the agreement with the U.S. enables "the repatriation of approximately $52.88 million arising from the forfeiture of the Galactica assets, linked to the former Petroleum Resources Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke and her associates."
The agreement follows a 2017 civil complaint filed by the U.S. Justice Department aimed at recovering about $144 million in assets allegedly obtained through bribes to the former minister.
The lawsuit alleged that two Nigerian businessmen conspired with others to pay bribes to Alison-Madueke, who oversaw the country's state-owned oil firm NNPC Ltd.
Alison-Madueke, whose whereabouts are unclear but was last known to be in Britain, has previously denied corruption charges against her.
She was minister under former president Goodluck Jonathan from 2010 until May 2015.
Finally, an international ranking where Nigeria is elite. But is it true? Who knows:
Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo earned the top spots for penile length, with an average of 7.07 in and 7.05 in, respectively. Ecuador was third with an average of 6.93 in.
Thailand, North Korea, and Cambodia took the bottom three spots at 3.72 in, 3.78 in, and 3.88 in, respectively.
The measurements were derived from self-reporting, opening the possibility that the men surveyed exaggerated the sizes of their members.
The global rankings ranked the US at number 68, with an average length at erection of 5.57 in. Many of America's peers ranked higher: Australia with an average of 6.18 in, France with 5.71 in, and the UK with 5.63 in.
Canada ranked lower than the US, though, with an average of 5.48 in.
The countries with the largest reported penis sizes are scattered across the continents, including South America, Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East
After Ecuador was the Republic of the Congo (the smaller country neighboring the DRC) and Ghana have average lengths of approximately 6.83 inches and 6.81 inches, respectively.
Nigeria rounded out the top five (6.69 in) followed by Venezuela (6.66 in), Lebanon (6.62 in), Colombia (6.59 in), and Cameroon (6.55 in).
A Yoruba video game is on its way:
Ohunyon says the team discussed what type of game they wanted to make and what the story should be before they settled on their own African culture, which they felt was underrepresented. He adds: "We made sure that we focused on the accuracy so that we don't shape or form a false identity of the culture that we're trying to represent.”
Legends of Orisha tells the story of a former soldier named Remilekun of the fallen ancient empire of Oyo. Existing between 1570 and 1836, the empire eventually grew to become the largest Yoruba-speaking state through the organisational and administrative efforts of the Yoruba people, trade and the military's use of cavalry.
The game follows Remilekun as he tries to find solace in retirement but a force from his past pulls him back into his armoured gear as he tries to fight back and protect those around him. The action role-playing game will have players using weapons and fight moves to battle enemies.
In 2023, the game was chosen to join ID@Xbox's Developer Accelerator Programme, whose mission is to empower underrepresented creators to bring their creativity, innovation and originality to Xbox.
The Oluwa Forest Reserve is being overrun by farming:
Oluwa Forest Reserve, located in southwestern Nigeria, contains some of the last large swaths of old growth — also called “primary” — forest in the region. These forests are home to a rich diversity of wildlife, including endangered species and subspecies such as red-capped mangabeys (Cercocebus torquatus), Nigerian white-throated guenons (Cercopithecus erythrogaster pococki), white-bellied pangolins (Phataginus tricuspis), and Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes ellioti).
But Oluwa and its wildlife are under increasing threat from both smallholder farmers and large-scale plantations. The reserve, established in 1918, has been severely impacted by land encroachment, with thousands of farmers converting forested areas into farms. This has led to significant deforestation, with satellite data from online monitoring platform Global Forest Watch (GFW) showing the reserve lost 18% of its primary forest between 2002 and 2023.
Preliminary data from GFW, as well as satellite imagery, show ongoing clearing of the reserve’s remaining primary forest. Satellite data from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) indicate the reserve has experienced an “unusually high” number of fires in 2024 — the highest since measurement began in 2012.
Oluwa is situated in the humid tropics, where nearly all fires are caused by human disturbance such as slash-and-burn agriculture — also known as “shifting cultivation” — and for industrial plantation expansion. Research shows that unlike ecosystems such as boreal forests that evolved hand-in-hand with fire, humid tropical forests are not adapted to fire and less likely to naturally recover.
Previous Mongabay reporting found that farmers, especially young people seeking livelihoods amid Nigeria’s high unemployment and poverty rates, view the reserve’s fertile land as an escape.
“This place has helped a lot of poor families,” Ayodele Aina, who has farmed in the reserve for more than four decades, told Mongabay in 2023. “For some of us, this is the only means of livelihood we know. And since there are no jobs in the cities, a lot of youths are returning to farming.”