Below The Headlines - 91
Kundus to MC Oluomo and book your tickets for the FBI tour coming to Nigeria
Last Sunday, Tobi and I did a podcast on what the effects of Trump’s Tariffs might be on Africa and where the opportunities might be. Catch it below if you missed it
Enjoy the usual selection of stories below
Inside Nigeria
The arithmetic of how 180 goes into 20 is causing my brain to overheat as I think about it:
Following overcrowding occasioned by inadequate infrastructure, the purported plan by the state government to sell the staff quarters and some land of Queen Amina College, Kaduna, is raising dust.
The school, Daily Trust gathered, is facing severe overcrowding as it is reported that 180 students occupy a room meant for 20 or 30 students, with three girls often forced to share a single 6-inch spring bed due to lack of adequate accommodation.
Daily Trust reports that just like Queen Amina College, other state government-owned schools are facing similar fate, some of which are the Government College, Kurmin Mashi, the Sardauna Memorial College (SMC) and Rimi College all within the state metropolis.
When Holy Water is not so holy:
The Kano Hisbah Board has given reasons for the demolition of a “healing water” site located in Hotoron Arewa, within the Kano metropolis.
The site has attracted thousands of residents and visitors who believe in the site’s purported spiritual healing powers.
There were particularly widespread claims that the site contains the footprint of Prophet Mohammad.
The site consequently drew large crowds of Muslim faithful after a muddy imprint resembling a footprint purportedly appeared on the ground, with water seeping from the spot.
Rumours quickly spread that the site contained “Holy Water” and bore the footprint of the Prophet, prompting people to visit in search of spiritual healing and blessings.
The board said it acted swiftly after receiving reports of mass gatherings and unverified spiritual claims.
Kundus to MC Oluomo I guess:
Musiliu Akinsanya, popularly known as MC Oluomo, has responded to widespread online ridicule over his spoken English with a fiery comeback, emphasising legacy over language.
In a now-viral video clip from a recent public gathering, the Lagos transport union boss addressed critics who mocked a slip he made while speaking English, particularly his mispronunciation of “kudos” as “Kundus.”
Rather than apologise or shrink from the criticism, MC Oluomo doubled down, asserting that while English may not be his strength, his life achievements far outweigh any grammatical errors.
“I stayed there and worked hard, but I wasn’t educated. See, they said I said Kundus, is Kundus not my son/ You are educated; what have you done? They should go and compete with my children. I raised my children in wealth. My children are citizens of America, citizens of the UK. I worked hard to get to that level. Kundus, kudos, what’s the difference? What do you want to hear? English is not my mother tongue, Yoruba is,” he said.
MC Oluomo, who rose from being a bus conductor in Lagos to becoming the chairman of the Lagos State Parks and Garages Management Committee, used the moment to highlight his journey of resilience.
He credited his success to sheer determination and strategic effort, stating that his lack of formal education did not prevent him from making an impact or securing a better future for his family.
Selling real estate that does not exist should be surprising but I am not surprised:
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested a fake land vendor, Nwobo Williams Chibuike, in Abuja. He was arrested for allegedly defrauding members of the public through offers of fake plots of land in Kurudu, Sabon Lugbe East Extension, Kpeyegyi, and Jikwoyi Village Extension, all in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Investigations revealed that Chibuike, the self-styled Managing Director of C&C Realty & Construction Limited, Dream-Krest Homes and Properties Limited, and Dan Faith Shelters Limited, was marketing fictitious and non-existent landed properties in several locations in the FCT, and collecting payments from victims ranging from N60 million, N24 million, N11 million, to N3.5 million for plots in areas such as Karsana, Pyakasa, Jikwoyi, Kurudu, Katampe Extension, Guzape 2, Kuje, and other parts of the FCT.
The commission’s enquiries with the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) revealed that none of the locations marketed and sold by Chibuike and his agents are legitimate.
We are looking for the people behind CBEX. If you know any of them, contact this newsletter so we can split the reward:
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has declared four Nigerians wanted over the CBEX Ponzi scheme that saw thousands of Nigerians lose millions of naira.
The agency on Friday published the names and photographs of the wanted individuals on its official X handle.
Their names are Seyi Oloyede, Emmanuel Uko, Adefowora Oluwanisola, and Adefowora Abiodun Olaonipekun.
This is good from Chude. I was a doubter when he started with a paywall right off the bat but I grew to admire the courage to ‘start as you mean to carry on’. Because it is not very easy to switch a product from free to paid:
Chude Jideonwo, the media personality, has opened up about his initial doubts and the eventual success of his podcast WithChude.
In a recent interview on Arise TV, Jideonwo expressed his amazement that Nigerians willingly subscribe to the podcast at $9 (approximately ₦14,400) per month — a prospect he initially found hard to believe.
The TV personality emphasized his long-held belief that media should be treated as a business, which is why his upcoming WithChude Live event will also be a paid experience.
Jideonwo also argued that his podcast is the only talk show in Nigeria that people pay to access.
“I love Nigerians because my show, for instance, is the only talk show that people pay for and they pay on WithChude.com. It is $9 a month to watch the interviews, I never believed they would pay for it,” he said.
“The WithChude Live event is a paid event. I could have filled the hall on week one if it were a free event, but I have always believed, like you have said that the media is a business, this is my career, this is my job, and my gift.”
Outside Nigeria
An Uber driver in Philadelphia tragically got killed when some young men opened fire on his passenger:
Police in Philadelphia have confirmed that they are using the now-viral surveillance video that captured the moments an Uber driver and his passenger were shot Wednesday morning.
The shooting happened as 77-year-old Uber driver Olatunji W. Bolaji, of Norristown, sat in his parked black-colored Chevy Suburban on 18th Street around 2 a.m. on April 16, police said.
Bolaji was shot in the head and managed to drive his car to the corner of 18th Street and turned right onto Chestnut Street where his car jumped the curb and hit a light pole, according to police. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.
The 22-year-old passenger he was picking up was hit in the arm, leg and abdomen, police said. He was taken to the hospital in critical condition.
Emmanuel Eribo is the founder of LØCI and the son of two Nigerian doctors. The US is a big market for their trainers so the tariffs present a challenge and an opportunity:
Most of Loci’s shoes are made in Portugal but some are produced in Vietnam, which Trump hit with a 46 per cent tariff, now on pause for 90 days. Nike’s main factories are in China, which is subject to a 145 per cent tariffs, Vietnam and Indonesia.
After releasing its Dopamine range with Minaj in New York Eribo flew to Los Angeles “at the request of some of the biggest artists in the world” who called him seeking their own partnerships. He declined to name the potential new celebrity partners in case the deals fall through. It is a frustration he has felt before. “You’ll never know the deals we missed, and there have been some behemoths. Those are the ones that hurt.”
Eribo and his co-founders, his brother, Frank, and friends Philippe Homsy and Mark Quaradeghini, still have an impressive list of celebrity fans. Loci’s shoes have been worn by Ben Affleck, Eva Longoria, Wyclef Jean and Princess Eugenie. Eribo, a former equities trader at Morgan Stanley and Citi in London, said there was an accepted wisdom that young companies should concentrate on their home market before venturing overseas. “But that’s not the way we see it. We had global ambitions from the very beginning. Our aim is to be a strong British brand. There hasn’t been a big British shoe brand since Reebok.”
The company lost £2.7 million in the year to the end of April 2023 but Eribo said turning a profit was not the company’s near-term goal. “We’re trying to do cool shit, that’s it,” he said. “We will continue to run into the fire.”
The Economist has a long read on emigration out of Africa. Here are the opening couple of paragraphs:
After John Uwagboe moved to Scotland in 2008 he did not see another black man for several weeks. When at last he did, on the other side of a street in Edinburgh, he crossed over to meet him. Soon the strangers were hugging like long-lost friends. They went for lunch. “The guy wasn’t even another Nigerian,” recalls Mr Uwagboe. “He was from Ghana!”
In 2001 there were just 5,000 Africans in Scotland, or 0.1% of the overwhelmingly pasty-faced population. By the time of the most recent census, in 2022, that population had increased more than 11-fold, and will very probably have grown faster since. Mr Uwagboe, who came to study, then worked his way up the ranks of a bank and later became a restaurateur, says there are more than 3,000 members of a WhatsApp group for Nigerians in Edinburgh. There are ten branches of his Pentecostal church. “One thing for sure is that Africans will keep coming,” he says.
News from United States Attorney’s Office:
A Nigerian man has pleaded guilty in connection with a conspiracy to fraudulently obtain at least $10 million in COVID-19 unemployment benefits.
Yomi Jones Olayeye, a/k/a “Sabbie,” 40, of Lagos, Nigeria, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud conspiracy and one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. Senior United States District Judge Mark L. Wolf scheduled sentencing for Aug. 13, 2025. Olayeye was arrested in August 2024 upon arriving at John F. Kennedy International Airport and remains in federal custody.
Between March and July 2020, Olayeye and, allegedly others, defrauded three pandemic assistance programs administrated by the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance and other states’ unemployment insurance agencies: traditional unemployment insurance (UI), Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) and Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC).
Olayeye, and allegedly his co-conspirators, used personally identifiable information (PII) they purchased over criminal internet forums to apply for UI, PUA and FPUC – falsely representing themselves to be eligible state residents affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Olayeye and his co-conspirators allegedly used the same fraudulently obtained PII to open U.S. bank accounts and prepaid debit card accounts to receive the assistance payments. Olayeye, and allegedly his co-conspirators, recruited U.S.-based account holders to receive and transfer the fraud proceeds via cash transfer applications. Olayeye, and allegedly his co-conspirators, then used the fraudulent proceeds to purchase Bitcoin via online marketplaces. Olayeye, and allegedly his co-conspirators, concealed the conspiracy’s connection to Nigeria by leasing Internet Protocol addresses assigned to computers located in the United States for use in the fraudulent transactions.
United States Attorney’s Office
The FBI are on tour in Nigeria:
Today, the FBI is announcing a global operation to combat financially motivated sextortion schemes operating out of Nigeria. In coordination with multiple law enforcement partners, the FBI conducted Operation Artemis—a surge of resources and personnel to Nigeria to address the high rate of sextortion related suicides attributed to Nigerian perpetrators. As a result of Operation Artemis, FBI investigations led to the arrests of 22 Nigerian subjects connected to financially motivated sextortion schemes. Of those 22 subjects, approximately half were directly linked to victims who took their own lives. This operation marks a significant step in the fight against child exploitation and brings justice and accountability to international perpetrators hiding anonymously behind screens.
“Operation Artemis exemplifies the FBI’s never-ending mission to protect our most vulnerable, and to pursue the heinous criminals harming our children -- no matter where they hide,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “This operation highlights the critical need for international cooperation to address this growing threat, and it’s a fight we can’t take on without our valued partners across the globe. We hope this message encourages parents and guardians to continue to educate their children about online safety and serves as a reminder of the FBI’s relentless pursuit of keeping our children safe.”
Interview feature on Zinoleesky of whom I’m a fan of his music:
There’s a lot of mythologising around Gen Z in the West, but the term takes on a whole new level of meaning of Nigeria. Over 65 per cent of the country’s 220 million people are under 25 (compared to just 23 per cent in the UK), and their perspectives will be pivotal on the global stage in years to come. They emerged out of the country’s rapid economic growth in the late 90s, encountering a digital and globalised environment wildly different from their parents’ generation, and it is precisely this reality that Lagosian street pop pioneer Zinoleeskyrepresents in his latest album Gen Z.
“Gen Z is my generation, I’m a ‘98 baby,” the 25-year-old tells Dazed. “Being Gen Z means we play by our own rules and traditional customs are out the window. Of course, we still respect them, but there are new, better ways of doing things. That energy shaped the whole album.”
This colliding of local and international influences is writ large across Lagos’ emerging street pop sound, pioneered by Zinoleesky himself as well as notorious Marlian Music label head Naira Marley. There’s afrobeats’ shuffling rhythms, but there's also trap triplets and 808s, wistful R&B melodies, and the stuttering basslines of South African gqom and amapiano.
“Street pop started from Afrobeats, but it’s really the sound of the streets,” Zinoleesky explains. “What makes it special is how it brings different vibes all into the Afro sound. It speaks the language of the people, the hustle, the vibe, the joy. For me, street pop is a celebration of where we’re from and where we’re going.”
The largest telco in Philippines has a new CEO. His eyes have seen things:
Carl Raymond Cruz, the incoming CEO of Globe Telecom, has experience with the “pecularities” of different markets. The Philippines’ native has worked in several different markets, including Sri Lanka, India and Nigeria. Cruz just took over the Filipino telco as its new chief executive, replacing Ernest Cu, who’s run the Southeast Asia 500 company for over a decade.
Nigeria, where Cruz was based before joining Globe, is an economy where “volatility was on steroids.” Cruz was the CEO of Indian telco Airtel’s Nigeria operations, from May 2023 to December 2024.
“During my time the local currency moved from 519.6 Naira to the dollar to 750 Naira to the dollar in a span of three weeks, and a further eight weeks onwards, that became over 1100 Naira to the dollar,” Cruz remembers. “Inflation shot up to close to 41-42% in parts of the country.”
Unexpected turn of events with Benin Bronzes in Boston:
When it began displaying a group of finely crafted treasures from the Kingdom of Benin in 2013, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, acknowledged that British soldiers had plundered thousands of such sculptures and other items from that land in 1897.
The collection of some 30 objects — including what the museum described as a “particularly excellent” sculpture of a warrior on horseback — had been lent by a wealthy scion and collector with the promise that over time they would be donated to the museum. To exhibit the works, known as Benin Bronzes, the museum created a gallery that included information about the looting and invited the kingdom’s royal leader, the oba, to the opening.
But several years later a new oba got in touch with the museum, seeking ownership of the items, museum officials said. For several years, they had conversations with the oba’s representatives and the collector, Robert Owen Lehman Jr., about how to handle that request.
Those discussions ended this week with an announcement by the museum that almost all of the items would be going back to Lehman.
“We strive to be a leader in ethical stewardship and reaching judicious restitution decisions,” Matthew Teitelbaum, who took over as the museum’s director in 2015, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, we were not able to make progress on a mutually agreeable resolution for our gallery of Benin Bronzes.”
18th century building in Puglia, Italy turned over to Nigerian art:
ON THE DRIVE FROM BARI TO PUTIGNANO in Puglia, a rustic landscape starts to reveal itself. I’m here in February, hardly tourist season, but the silvery ashen palette is perhaps more beautiful in the late winter light. Clouds of frothy wild flowers tickle the ankles of ancient olive trees; naked vines spread their bony stalks outwards. As we pass Putignano and wind deeper into the countryside, the dry-stone walls narrow, funnelling everything down: wild chicory, calendula, ancient mulberry trees and early blossoms show signs of new life. Dotted trulli, traditional Apulian huts, encourage the eye up a little. This is not a landscape of expansive vistas like Tuscany or Umbria, but rather compact and local: piccolo. Until, that is, you reach Casina Cinquepozzi, which has just opened its doors to guests.
[…]
Inside, the spaces on the first floor – the piano nobile – are exquisite. The couple struck lucky with room after room of original cementina floor tiles in salvageable condition – their patterns are bold and surprisingly modern. The wallpaper, spanning from the late 19th to the early 20th centuries, is a flurry of floral flock patterns, and the restored ceilings are decorated with delicate scroll, floral and lace motifs. Contemporary furniture such as a Bubble sofa by Roche Bobois, bespoke mirrors by local Peppino Campanella and a glittering modern chandelier keep it all in the present. West’s Nigerian heritage is evident in the curation, with paintings by artists including Rom Isichei and Samson Akinnire from a gallery in Lagos. As a jewellery designer, she has an understanding of proportion and palette, and these rooms are jewel-like in their intensity – when the Puglian sun streams through the windows in summer, the effect will be intoxicating.
Researchers at U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) are warning that Asian scam operations are spreading around the world:
The trend to hedge beyond the region has been consistent with continued reports of crackdowns targeting Asian-led scam centers that have been found operating in Africa, South Asia, the Middle East and select Pacific islands, as well as related money laundering, people trafficking and recruitment services discovered in Europe, North America and South America.
In Africa, Nigeria has become a hot spot, with police raids in late 2024 and early 2025 leading to many arrests, including people from East and Southeast Asia suspected of cryptocurrency and romance scams. Zambia and Angola have also busted Asian-linked cyberfraud operations.
Update on this story from a few weeks ago:
A lorry driver who killed a heavily pregnant nurse in a horror crash has been jailed.
Trevor Norgate was locked up for two years and eight months for the smash on the M8 in December 2023.
The 58-year-old was behind the wheel of his HGV when it drifted onto the hard shoulder where Evelyn Brown, 41, had stopped in her Kia Sorento.
The High Court in Edinburgh heard how footage of the smash, near Hermiston Gait, in Edinburgh, was captured on Norgate’s dash cam.
Ms Brown - known as Eve - passed away from her injuries. She was 34 weeks pregnant at time and her unborn baby did not survive either.
[..]
Yesterday, Norgate’s defence advocate David Nicolson KC told Lord Armstrong about how his client was ‘utterly devastated’ about the loss of life.
However, Lord Armstrong told Norgate that he needed to go to prison for his crimes.
He said: ‘No sentence that I can impose can in any sense be a measure of the value of the lives that have been lost nor provide a comfort to the family whose lives have been devastated.
‘Their lives have been changed radically for the worst.’
At earlier proceedings, prosecutor Jennifer Cameron told how Ms Brown was born in Nigeria and moved to the UK in 2015.
She already had two young children at the time of the crash and worked as an agency nurse for a company called Medline.
She had not long finished a 12-hour shift at East Lothian Community Hospital, in Haddington, when tragedy struck.
Miss Cameron said the mother had texted her sister to say she was on her way home.