Below The Headlines - 80
A pretty face and bad character is not enough to hold a marriage and who is Qing Madi?
If you’re new to this newsletter, here’s a brief introduction: Below The Headlines simply tries to cover the stories you may have missed in the past week involving Nigerians in Nigeria and around the world. We try to spot trends and follow them as things develop.
As we cover a fair bit of crime, the goal for you as the reader is to ensure that your name never appears in this newsletter.
This past week on 1914 Reader, I shared my thoughts after re-reading Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. And if you are a fan of horror charts, Tobi shared a simple one yesterday. Not for the squeamish.
Finally, here’s a chart that appeared in The Economist’s feature piece on online scams around the world:
Enjoy this week’s selection below
Inside Nigeria
Cost of education in Nigeria is bad enough but then schools come up with stuff like this to make things even worse:
Magdalene Matkwap, another parent, cried that government and private school policies are also contributing to the cost of education in the country.
She said: “The cost of education in the country is something else. As a parent, it is not easy. Let me give you an instance, my sister bought textbooks for her first child worth N190,000 last year and this year, the school said the second child cannot use it. This is a serious problem in Nigeria.
“I remember, when we were growing up, we used our brother’s or sibling’s textbooks. But now, you cannot use them. Buying those books for one child every year is not easy. That is not proper. It is not easy buying regularly now considering the economic situation. It is something else. Government has to look into it to be able to resolve this problem because parents are not smiling at all.”
These stories never stop amazing me:
A relative of recently kidnapped Benue community leader, Emmanuel Yaji, has confessed to masterminding the abduction to extort money from his own family, police authorities have revealed.
Emmanuel Yaji, leader of the Kunav United Development Association, was abducted on December 30, 2024, at his country home in Tsar Mbaduku, Vandeikya Local Government Area of Benue State. Gunmen stormed a relaxation centre where he was with friends around 10pm and took him hostage.
Less than 24 hours later, police rescued Yaji, killed one of the kidnappers, and arrested another.
Providing an update on Thursday, the Benue State Police Command spokesperson, Catherine Anene, a Chief Superintendent of Police, said further investigations led to the arrest of additional gang members, including Yaji’s relative, Teryima Yaji, who orchestrated the abduction, and a native doctor, Terna Sule, who allegedly prepared the gang for the operation.
Fake tax officers arrested:
The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC has arrested four suspects for issuing tickets to tricyclists in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital.
DAILY POST recalls that the Kogi State government had banned all transportation unions from collecting daily fees on government infrastructure under the Infrastructure Maintenance Levy.
Parading the suspects at the command headquarters in Lokoja, the Public Relations Officer of the NSCDC, Kogi State command Abdullahi Aliyu noted that the four suspects identified as Umar Yakubu, Mohammed Danjuma, Agulu Yahaya and Ibrahim Yabagi were caught in the act.
According to him, the suspects are being charged with Criminal conspiracy and illegal collection of revenue.
How does a court just dissolve a marriage over ‘bad character’?
A Grade I Area Court in Lugbe, Abuja, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has dissolved the four-year-old marriage between a man, Shuiba Abdullahi and his wife, Aisha Abdullahi, on the grounds of the latter’s bad character.
Shuiba in his petition stated that his wife disrespects him all the time.
According to him, he no longer finds peace in the marriage and has lost total interest in it.
The presiding judge, Aliyu Kagarko, after listening to the respondent who also consented to the request for divorce, confirmed and granted the divorce between the former couple.
He however ordered the petitioner to allow the respondent pack her properties from the house within 24 hours.
It’s a lot of money but it also highlights the point we have repeatedly made in this newsletter: a lot of internet fraud in Nigeria involves really pathetic sums of money. This is evident once you take into account the number of fraudsters involved here:
Justice A. Owoeye of the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos, has ordered the interim forfeiture of digital wallet assets valued at $222,729.86 to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
This ruling follows the recovery of the assets from an alleged syndicate of 792 cryptocurrency investment and romance fraudsters arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) during a surprise operation on December 10, 2024.
The EFCC’s legal counsel, Zeenat Atiku, filed an ex parte application for the forfeiture, citing intelligence on a large-scale fraud operation involving foreign nationals in Lagos.
The court was informed that the syndicate financed its activities through a company named Genting International Co. Limited (GICL).
There is nothing that cannot be faked in Nigeria. Indeed here we have a fake property agent:
A 30-year-old man, Ayodeji Ayeni, was on Thursday brought before an Ado-Ekiti Chief Magistrates’ Court over alleged N2 million fraud.
The defendant, whose address was not given, is facing a two-count charge of fraud and impersonation.
The prosecutor, Insp Akinwale Oriyomi, told the court that the defendant committed the offences on Nov. 28, 2024 at Olorunda Zone 1 in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State.
Oriyomi alleged that the defendant obtained the sum of N2 million from the complainant, Mr. Balogun Ismaila, on the pretext of selling an uncompleted building to him.
He also alleged that the defendant claimed to be an estate agent, which was later discovered to be false claim.
Man embarks on a 700km bicycle journey across Nigeria. His eyes saw things:
On Wednesday January 15 this year, Mr Daniel Ephraim Williams, popularly known as ‘Babadan’, took off from Eket, in Akwa Ibom State on a bicycle. His destination was the Redemption City, in Ogun State. Armed with few groceries, the Bible, Open Heavens, (a daily devotional of RCCG) and gospel tracts, his mission was to celebrate the birthday of the General Overseer of the Church, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye who will clock 83 on March 2, 2025 and also to key into Vision 2032 of the Church to expand RCCG membership to 40 million.
In the course of the nine days of his journey, Mr Williams, who is also a minister in the Church, went through a terrifying experience which he admitted wasn’t easy
[…]
“Climbing and descending hills was very tasking and most times there would be about four hills to climb one after the other. Going down the hill would be easy but climbing the hills was very strenuous, it took a lot of calculations, strength and energy. Bad roads really gave me a tough time. I would have to wait for trailers, buses and other cars before I could navigate these bad roads and this drained my energy a lot. I also had to change the back tyre of the bicycle three times.
“The roads were lonely, and there was the fear of insecurity. The roads were so lonely that I could describe them as ‘no man’s land’. I encountered accidents on the road. There was one accident I saw at Abudu Bridge, which was very pathetic. A truck fell into the river with all the passengers and there was no one to rescue them. The scene really shocked me.
“I also encountered extremely frightening big snakes on the road and had to stop and wait to allow them crawl back into the bush. It wasn’t an easy experience cycling through seven states (Akwa Ibom, Abia, Imo, Anambra, Edo, Ondo and Ogun) covering 668.1 kilometers of the journey.
Outside Nigeria
Heat-proof cows are coming to Nigeria via Brazil:
As the planet warms, Nigerian farmers are looking to breed cattle that can take the heat, importing semen from a Brazilian breed suited to balmy tropical weather.
In Africa, European cattle struggle against the heat, while local breeds produce too little milk. The average cow in Africa supplies just a couple of liters of milk daily, compared with 30 liters for the average cow in the U.S., Bloomberg reports.
“Producing milk in a country like Nigeria is not easy,” said Yvonne van der Vorst, of dairy giant FrieslandCampina. “The climate does not lend itself very well to dairy farming.” To breed more productive cattle, FrieslandCampina is working with thousands of farmers across the country to inseminate their cows with semen from Girolando bulls from Brazil.
“I will do much better with the Girolando breed,” Nigerian farmer Moyosore Rafiu told Bloomberg. “They will survive more in our farms, and I’m seeing the signs in the calves already in this farm. It’s going to be a big transformation.”
If cattle become more productive, then conceivably fewer will be needed to meet the demand for milk. That would be good news for the climate, as belching cows are a major source of heat-trapping gas.
If you have two Girolando cows instead of four local cows, it will put “less pressure on resources,” Mario Herrero, a professor of food systems at Cornell University, told Bloomberg. “That is the way that it needs to happen.”
The couple that scams together goes to prison together:
A Nigerian couple has been sentenced to federal prison for their involvement in a “catfishing” scheme using the U.S. Postal Service.
Julie Okoronkwo and her husband, Edwin Okoronkwo, were convicted of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and aggravated identity theft, according to the Department of Justice. Julie was sentenced to 25 months in federal prison, two years of probation, and deportation. Edwin received a 75-month sentence, three years of probation, and deportation after serving his full sentence. The couple will be responsible for repaying $337,535 and $342,535, respectively.
The couple, permanent resident aliens living in Omaha, Nebraska, used multiple social media profiles to target victims online. They posed as high-ranking military officers and sometimes as military members on secret missions.
The couple received funds through FedEx, the U.S. Postal Service, and online wire transfer methods such as Zelle and PayPal.
“The Okoronkwos used victims’ personal identifying information (PII) obtained from identity theft victims to open bank accounts and other online financial services accounts, including peer-to-peer digital payments platforms (e.g., PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, and Cash App),” the DOJ detailed the operation in a press release.
You must forgive me but I heard about Qing Madi for the first time 5 minutes ago:
Hours before the release of her debut studio album, Qing Madi is all smiles, with a level of self-awareness and assurance that is rare for a teenager — but then again, Madi isn't your average 18-year-old.
Nigerian singer-songwriter and budding superstar Qing Madi, born Chimamanda Pearl Chukwuma, has been making waves globally and across the continent since her breakout single “See Finish” went viral in 2022. Madi is an acute talent who values precision and a timeless sound, which is to say that she wasted no time following up that viral success with another hit, “Ole” featuring BNXN, more critically acclaimed singles, and a self-titled 2023 EP; that same year, she hit more than a dozen U.S. cities while supporting BNXN on his North American tour. Madi spent 2024 showcasing her versatility as an artist, even co-directing the music video for the remix of her record “Vision” featuring Chlöe.
Now, Qing Madi is kicking off 2025 with her first full-length album via JTON Music, an ambitious, diaristic, genre-defying 13-track offering titled I Am the Blueprint. Madi had already been in the conversation — she was on nearly every Artist to Watch list of 2024, rubbing shoulders with megastars like Tyla and Bloody Civilian — but with the release of her debut album, she is poised and proven to be one of the biggest African acts of the 2020s.
A feature on the life and times of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti:
By legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, the progenitor of Afrobeat, whose name meant “He who carries death in his pouch”, was a philosopher-warrior – a mythical mix of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Leonidas of Sparta and Che Guevara – who took every beating dictators could hand out and came back for more; who single-handedly smoked more dope than the entire Rasta nation; whose simultaneous marriage to 26 (or was it 27?) women only boosted his outrageous sexual appetite; whose gigs lasted not hours but days. Was he really just a misunderstood family man?
[…]
Then there was his polygamy, even misogyny. Seun, the son of one of the wives he married in 1978, points the finger at western attitudes: “In Kalakuta, after Fela the most important people in the house, the most powerful, were the women. So he actually thought of them as very strong politically. Now look at Bill Clinton: he was married and sneaking into the Oval Office to get a blow job. If Clinton was an African, he would have been getting a blow job in his house, he could have been chilling with the kids and his wife, his second wife.”
Meanwhile, the Nigerian government kept on Kuti’s back, keeping him in court throughout the first half of the 1980s. A 1984 tour of America proved to be eldest son Femi’s big break when he had to stand in for his father, imprisoned on trumped-up smuggling charges. Yet even he would soon depart.Fela had discovered an Egypt-centric African spirituality, which left him out of step with even the most sympathetic ears in the western world. In 1984, he told the NME’s Len Brown that Queen Elizabeth had come to Egypt in 1470 to steal power from the Yoruba people, then the explorer Mungo Park brought back a witchpot to Buckingham Palace, thus stealing African technology for Europe.
“I’m giving you fact whether people like to know it or not. Science uses words like theory to debase spiritual happenings.” Fatally, that was an attitude he took towards the arrival of a new disease in Africa.
A textile museum in Canada is putting on a show about Nigerian fabric:
The museum, something of a sleeper institution hidden away in a condo building in downtown Toronto, is in the midst of a rethink. Long supported by an enthusiastic group of crafters, collectors and volunteers, the small institution has often been neglected by the larger arts community, partly because it lacks street presence let alone a splashy building. Yet its collection includes thousands of precious garments, hangings and rugs from around the world, and the museum is increasingly reaching out beyond those holdings to the communities they reflect.
A current show devoted to the Nigerian artist Samuel Nnorom, who makes soft sculptures from African fabrics, includes the museum’s own examples of 20th-century Nigerian textiles. Another exhibition imports modern Mayan paintings and sculptures from Guatemala and juxtaposes them with historic weaving from the collection. Meanwhile, the museum has flattened its administration, and hired a new co-director/curator.
[…]
The exhibition devoted to Nigeria’s Nnorom features 11 of his distinctive soft sculptures made from dozens of little stuffed bindles – those bag-on-a-stick packages carried by the archetypal hobo – that have been lent to the museum by Art Mûr, the private gallery in Montreal. Nnorom uses off-cuts of ankara, the brightly coloured Dutch wax prints so firmly associated with West African fashion. The pieces seem to take the shape of islands, continents or fishing nets, and include Meeting Points of 2023, a gathering of yellow and blue bindles strung together on rope, which the museum has just acquired.
Staffers Julia Brucculieri and Raven Spiratos, who curated the show, recount the textiles’ history by adding examples from Nigeria and Java: The Dutch tried to introduce their industrial textiles to their Indonesian colonies but the locals preferred their own batik. African markets, on the other hand, happily adopted the style of these bright prints and launched a local industry.
Believe it or not, the long running saga of a businessman who used fraud to fund his £4.5m divorce to his wife who left him for the former Arsenal, Barcelona and Chelsea star, Cesc Fabregas, has a Nigerian angle to it:
A tycoon who paid for his divorce with a massive property fraud after his wife left him for Cesc Fabregas has won his appeal against a £4.5m confiscation order.
Elie Taktouk, 50, married Lebanese model Daniella Semaan, in 1998 but they split 13 years later when she left him for the former Arsenal and Chelsea footballer.
Taktouk had lost his former family home in Belgravia to Miss Semaan, 49, and Fabregas after failing to block the £5.5m sale of the flat to the footballer at the Court of Appeal.
The Grade-II listed property, just yards from Buckingham Palace, had been put up for sale in 2013 so Taktouk could provide cash in the divorce settlement with his former wife.
[…]
During the confiscation hearing Taktouk accepted his father was a wealthy man, but said: ‘Any detail I knew about his wealth was based on what I understood, what I saw, what I assumed.’
Youssef Taktouk was one of the richest men in Ibadan, Nigeria, where he lived for much of his life.
Elie and his brother Dr Wassim Taktouk were shareholders in his father’s company Wasseli, the court heard.
Lithium mining in northern Nigeria looks like a really alarming phenomenon:
At an open-cast mine, Abdullahi Ibrahim Danjija carefully chisels away at a hunk of whitish rock before stuffing a sack with the pieces which break off the walls.
In the course of a day's work he manages to fill three 50-kilo bags which will net him 150,000 nairas ($100), or around double the monthly minimum wage in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation where more than one in two live below the poverty line.
Three years ago the 31-year-old miner came down from Kano in the north lured by promises of being able to make his fortune by contributing to the development of the artisanal lithium mining industry in the central state of Nasarawa.
There, as in other Nigerian states, the prospect of benefiting from a global explosion in demand for lithium, a critical metal in the manufacturing of electric batteries and mobile phones, is just too attractive to miss.
[…]
"We are very happy. Since lithium comes here everybody, children and women, are benefiting," as they are able to head into the bush, dig, and then sell the rocks which cost them nothing beyond their labour, said Danbala.
Lithium seller Muhammed, 43, explained that in this informal economy "most of the buyers are Chinese. Either they come to our warehouse to buy, or if possible, we take it to where they are.
"But mostly, they come to us to buy the material -- it puts everyone to work."
Very close shave in the matter of avoiding my name from appearing in this newsletter.