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Over the years, Tobi and I have built up a body of writing and podcasts that we think are quite useful. We have now decided to consolidate them (as much as possible) under this brand. Going forward we will be doing more podcasts under the name Frontier Matters.
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In the meantime, enjoy the usual selection of Nigerian stories below.
Inside Nigeria
A reminder that Nigeria’s cybercrime act is one of the most expansive anywhere in the world and the punishment can be quite severe:
A Federal High Court in Lagos has convicted blogger Adewale Ajimisogbe for cyberbullying and defaming the General Overseer of the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, Dr Daniel Olukoya.
Justice Ambrose Lewis-Allagoa delivered the verdict after Ajimisogbe entered into a plea bargain agreement with the police and pleaded guilty to all charges.
Ajimisogbe and a former MFM member, Ayotunde Richards, were arraigned on March 20, 2024, on a 12-count charge bordering on conspiracy, cyberbullying, and libel.
While both men faced three joint charges of conspiracy to commit cyberstalking and defamation, Ajimisogbe alone faced nine additional counts of libel.
According to police prosecutor Nosa Uhumwangho, the offences were committed between December 2023 and February 2024.
He told the court that Ajimisogbe used his blog, “Postreporters,” to publish a defamatory article titled: “He is a criminal and behind all illegal acts – Ex-MFM Church singer sues founder Daniel Olukoya and others, seeks N15.5bn in damages for illegal detention and breach of human rights.”
Uhumwangho said the publication violated Sections 27 and 24 of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act, 2015.
There is something called plantain fibre hair, allegedly:
For a few years now, the cost of living has clashed with the cost of fashion and lifestyle, particularly for women.
From clothes, shoes, undergarments, among other things, their prices have seen continuous increase, women have only had to improvise and adopt other cheap alternatives.
Economy&Lifestyle discovered that one of these alternatives is the switch to plantain or banana fibre hair extension, as against the costly human hair extensions.
Plantain hair extensions are made from fibres extracted from plantain or banana stems. They are softened and dyed in various colours.
Despite the claim that plantain or banana fibre hair extensions are organic and affordable, compared to human hair, it does not go without wondering how some classy ladies, for instance, could agree to wear plantains on their heads.
However, many women say there is actually no difference, arguing that instead, the plantain hair is organic and more classy.
These guys actually came back to finish shaving heads with a razorblade. Wonders shall never end:
Despite an ongoing investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the digital trading platform Crypto Bridge Exchange (CBEX) has resumed operations and begun clearing the transaction histories of its old users.
According to new messages shared in the CBEX user group on Thursday and obtained by Tribune Online, the Ponzi scheme, also operating under the corporate identity of ST Technologies International Ltd, Smart Treasure/Super Technology, has assured users of renewed commitment and compensation plans, despite the controversies surrounding its shutdown and fraud allegations.
One of the messages reads, “ST has consistently faced various challenges head-on, formulating specific action plans and timelines to mitigate losses for every user. At the same time, new policies have been introduced to swiftly respond to market changes, ensuring the shared goal of mutual benefit for ST, CBEX, and users.”
To address the concerns of long-time users affected by the platform’s previous inactivity, the platform stated that it has extended the account verification period until June 25.
“For existing users, ST has extended the account verification period for old users until June 25th. This allows those who have not yet raised the necessary funds for verification or have been affected by rumours ample time to receive compensation from the ST fund.”
The messages detailed the process of verification and compensation, which, according to the platform, includes depositing $100 for accounts with balances up to $1,000, and $200 for accounts exceeding that amount.
“After the recharge is completed, the affected account will receive the corresponding compensation funds within 1 to 24 hours.”
People will steal anything. The piece has a photo of the items in question:
The Niger State Police Command has arrested two suspects in the Brighter area of Minna, the state capital, for allegedly stealing a 35″ plasma TV, a remote control, and two aluminium pots.
The command’s public relations officer, SP Wasiu Abiodun, made this known in a statement in Minna.
According to him, the suspects allegedly broke into a house through a window and stole a 35″ plasma TV, a remote control, and two aluminium pots, which they concealed in sack bags.
The two suspects, identified as Musa Audu, 43, and Abdullahi Garba, 45, are residents of the Kwangila area in Minna.
Nigerian men, is it true?
Tiwa Savage, the award-winning songstress, says that “Nigerian men are not romantic”.
In a recent interview on Thoughts In A Culli, the ‘Water and Garri’ hitmaker acknowledged their charisma and generosity but insisted they fall short when it comes to genuine romance.
The music star made it clear that their “lack of romance” is a key reason she’s currently avoiding relationships with Nigerian men.
“Nigerian men do have swag but they are not really romantic when it comes down to it. They know how to swag and splash cash but I am not looking for that,” she said.
An amusing and deeply ironic story about parents and their kids homework:
It has become a common norm now to see parents take to their social media to rant over the way and types of homework given to their children from school.
Some of these parents complained that some of the homework is beyond the level of their kids and as a result, it is left for them to handle while others complained that they as parents cannot handle some of the homework as well.
A parent took to her Tik Tok handle named For Mama Annie 01 and said: “I am tired of doing assignments every day. I am done doing assignments every day.
“If you are a teacher or a principal, this video is for you. Not all parents are educated, some of us want to educate our children because we are not educated and some of us went to school but what we were taught in school is not the same thing you are teaching this generation today. Stop sending these children with homework every day.”
She said when they bring it to her, she will send them to their father and the father will send them back to her saying he is busy.
“I am also busy and have things to do. You will send children home with homework every day, not even easy subjects but with maths and tell them to come and find X, where do you expect us to find X. We will take our time to help the children do the homework, when they bring it to school you will say it is wrong,” she said.
“If you are looking for a way to tell these children that we don’t have sense, do it and stop cutting corners. Just imagine me sitting down to do homework with my child and he takes it to school and they tell the child that the answers are not correct, how do you expect my child to be looking at me and some of us told them how we used to take 1st position in class, please teachers stop doing this.
Outside Nigeria
A feature on the dandy that is Iké Udé:
Iké Udé will tell you that he is not a dandy, and that he wonders why Americans are so keen to categorize people. “I don’t think I should elect to call myself anything,” he said.
If pressed, though, the elegant Mr. Udé, a New York artist born in Nigeria, will acknowledge that “dandyism is a discipline,” one that he does practice, even while refusing any label.
Yet dandyism is all about refusal — of fixed identities, of mediocrity, of gender conventions, of the boundary between life and art. Dandyism blends literary and artistic creation with the art of personality, the careful cultivation of image and behavior — all of which applies to Mr. Udé’s practice.
Mr. Udé, 60, has long enjoyed a reputation as a pre-eminent dandyist artist; in fact, his portrait appears on the cover of “Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity,” the landmark 2009 study by Monica L. Miller, a professor of Africana studies at Barnard College.
This season, Black dandyism — and Mr. Udé — are very much in the conversation. Andrew Bolton, curator in charge of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, invited Professor Miller to help organize this spring’s exhibition, “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style,” which was inspired by her book.
Mr. Udé served as a special consultant to the exhibition, a work of his appears in the show, and he also provided the catalog’s epilogue, written partly in dandyist aphorisms. He was also tapped to photograph a related cover story for Vogue’s May issue, a profile of the actor and producer Colman Domingo, who is a co-chair of this year’s Met Gala.
When I was growing up in Kaduna, Dambe was on TV every Sunday afternoon:
Nigerian traditional boxing is set to get a boost on the global stage with backing from an African private investment firm and a Hollywood producer.
Silverbacks Holdings, a firm domiciled in Mauritius, invested late last year in Nigeria-based sports venture African Warriors Fighting Championship whose major product is Dambe, a centuries-old boxing sport indigenous to the country’s northern region. Sanford R. Climan, a former Universal Studios executive whose work included producing Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator, is joining Silverbacks as an advisory board member and will personally invest in the wrestling outfit, the investment firm said.
The move comes weeks after AWFC announced a partnership with UK-based sports streaming service DAZN to bring Dambe to a global audience.
Ibrahim Sagna, who heads Silverbacks, said AWFC’s appeal lay in its ability to reach a global audience who were familiar with other combat sports. “It is a sport that’s already commanding a massive appetite — UFC [Ultimate Fighting Championship], PFL [Professional Fighters League] — you see a trend. You check the valuation of those companies, there’s already a massive demand.”
“If you think about human nature in its essence, what were the Roman arenas? There’s always been an appetite for this. It’s just that now it’s commercialized at scale,” said Sagna.
AWFC founder Maxwell Kalu said the fighting league, which has around 300 fighters and has previously been sponsored by online betting company Stake, had amassed 900 million views across social media and partner platforms since its launch in 2019. He added that the largest audiences were in Nigeria, the US, and Brazil.
We’ve covered Kanye previously on this newsletter:
With a canvas the size of a football field, the Nigerian teenager's painting features a multicolored ribbon, the symbol for autism. The world painting record aims to raise awareness of autism.
In an effort to raise awareness of autism and the challenges faced by autistic people, a 15-year-old Nigerian has set a Guinness World Record for the world's largest art canvas.
Kanyeyachukwu Tagbo-Okeke, who is autistic, created a work of art with a multicolored ribbon — a symbol of autism — surrounded by "emojis" on a canvas measuring 12,304 square meters, much larger than the size of a typical football field, which is 7,140 square meters.
The artwork was created in November 2024. It was unveiled and officially recognized by Guinness World Records organizers in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, during World Autism Acceptance Day in April.
Some Nigerians have been sent back from home from the UK:
Some 43 migrants with no legal right to stay in the UK have been returned to Nigeria and Ghana, the Home Office said.
A charter flight included 15 refused asylum seekers, 11 foreign criminals who had served their sentences and seven who returned to the African nations voluntarily.
The move comes as part of Government plans to “restore order” in the immigration system.
[…]
The latest charter flight is the second to return people to Nigeria and Ghana, bringing the total to 87, under the current Government.
Border security minister Dame Angela Eagle said: “This flight demonstrates how international partnerships deliver on working people’s priorities for swift returns and secure borders.
“Through the plan for change we’re going further in restoring order to a broken system, accelerating returns of those with no right to be here and closing expensive asylum hotels.
“I thank the governments of Ghana and Nigeria for facilitating this operation, which reflects our joint commitment to disrupt organised immigration crime and protect our borders.”
Oyinlomo is going places:
Even though she is just 21 years old, Oyinlomo Quadre – a Nigeria native – has already traveled to the United States; France; Italy; Turkey; South Africa; Tunisia; Algeria; Lithuania; Macedonia and United Arab Emirates.
This weekend, Quadre can add another place to the list as her FIU Panthers women’s tennis squad will travel to Lubbock, Texas to compete in the NCAA Tournament.
FIU (15-4) will play Stanford (15-8) on Friday in the opening round. Stanford has won 21 national titles in women’s tennis.
The Panthers qualified for nationals by virtue of winning its third straight Conference USA title. Overall, the Panthers have made it to five straight NCAA Tournaments – all under coach Katarina Petrovic.
The Panthers’ top-three players are Ekaterina Khairutdinova, Quadre and Valery Gynina.
Khairutdinova and Gynina are from Russia. In fact, of the eight women on FIU’s roster, seven are from Europe.
The only exception is Quadre.
“It’s a secret,” Petrovic said when asked how she discovered Quadre. “I recruit the whole world.
“I start with the local girls. But the trend is that those girls want to go to Stanford, Cal, Duke or North Carolina.
“So, I must go international.”
Indeed, she found Quadre in Lekki, Nigeria, which is 5,635 miles from Miami.
Quadre’s story is fascinating.
At age 11, she struggled to find adequate competition in Nigeria. Recognizing her talent, Quadre’s family decided to send her to a tennis academy in Morocco, where she faced severe culture shock.
“In Nigeria, I could play tennis in shorts,” Quadre said. “But because Morocco is an Arabic country, I had to wear pants or leggings – even in the summer.”
Are Nigerians leaving Christianity for traditional religions?
Since early childhood, Chidi Nwaohia’s life has swung like a pendulum between two spiritual paths: Christianity and African traditional religion.
His life was always marked by mystery, says the 59-year-old who was raised a devout nondenominational Christian in Amachi Nsulu, near Aba in southeast Nigeria.
Before he had turned a year old, he strayed overnight and went missing. “I was found the next morning in the same trench they searched the previous day,” he said.
Three days later, he had a sudden fit and fell gravely ill. His parents took him to a hospital, but when his condition did not improve, they approached a traditional healer for answers. The dibia (priest and medicine man) attributed his illness to the gods, saying it was a sign of Nwaohia’s inescapable destiny to lead his people in the ancient traditions of the Igbo people.
“The dibia said I was the reincarnation of my grandfather,” Nwaohia said. “His return to the earth as a powerful traditional priest was foretold [before he died].”
Such doctrine is not uncommon in cultures and spiritual practices across West Africa. But Nwaohia’s mother, due to her deep Christian faith, received the prophecy with doubt and kept it from her son.
When Nwaohia turned 17 in 1983, he was baptised. But on the day of the baptism, he had an accident. “While riding my motorbike home with the man who baptised me, I suddenly veered into the bush and sustained fleshly injuries, but my co-rider was unscathed,” he said, later coming to the conclusion that it was a sign he was on the wrong path.
But back then, Nwaohia was still ignorant of the prophecy, so at age 18, he became a Bible teacher at a church in his hometown.
After another road accident – a car crash in 1987 – left him with a limp and leg injuries he said would not heal despite years of hospital care, he took a friend’s advice and went to a medicine man for help. The wounds, the dibia told him, were signs that Nwaohia’s calling to the priesthood in the African traditional faith was due.
Nwaohia, then 23, told his mother what the dibia said. She finally revealed the prophecy she received about him many years ago. Although she was hesitant about it, he felt his path was now clearer, and gradually, he accepted his new spiritual role.
Piece on how African leaders are using their ‘memoirs’ to rewrite history:
On June 12, 1993, millions of Nigerians stood in long lines under the burning sun, believing they were witnessing history in the making. For the first time, an election free of military interference had seemingly taken place. Hope was in the air, in what was regarded as one of Nigeria’s fiercest and fairest elections. Then, without warning, it was taken away. The election was annulled, its winner Moshood Abiola (popularly known as MKO) was denied his rightful position as president-elect and Nigeria was plunged into a political crisis that changed its trajectory. Now, decades later, the man responsible for this moment, the then-President Ibrahim Babangida, known as IBB and nicknamed “Evil Genius” by the Nigerian press, has decided to tell his side of the story. But is he telling the truth?
Babangida’s new book, “A Journey in Service,” has drawn a mix of reactions. The launch itself was a flashy affair, with hundreds of thousands of dollars raised from wealthy businesspeople and political heavyweights like Aliko Dangote and Abdulsamad Rabiu. This is a common tradition in Nigeria when it comes to big public events. It’s less about actually buying the book than about showing support, influence or loyalty.
But beyond the high-profile guest list and fanfare, the public response has been more complex. Some people have pointed out how shallow the book feels — more like a PR move than real reflection.
Nevertheless, the memoir has attracted a lot of interest, especially because it has reopened one of Nigeria’s most controversial debates, over the annulment of the election of June 12, 1993. When Babangida canceled the election, he derailed Nigeria’s path to democracy. The fallout was intense, and anger exploded in the streets of Lagos, Ibadan and Kano, with protesters marching defiantly. The military responded with full force. By the time the streets fell silent, over 100 lay dead. Following the annulment, the country was plunged into years of political instability, a brutal military crackdown and the imprisonment and eventual death of the presumed winner, Abiola.
Now, 32 years later, Babangida has tried to explain his decision. Yet, instead of settling the debate, his memoir raises even more questions. This is not unusual; political memoirs play a powerful role in shaping history, with leaders often using them to defend their actions rather than admit to mistakes. Some of these books serve as a way to control the narrative, protect reputations or justify controversial decisions. Instead of offering full transparency, they often leave out key details, raise new questions or rewrite events to suit the author’s perspective. Babangida’s is no exception.
Who is baby Lucy? A crazy story:
As they walked through arrivals at Manchester Airport, a couple seemed to be behaving oddly towards their baby.
Something did not sit right with Border Force officers. One worried the relationship between the three was "not genuine".
Officers pulled the couple for questioning. The man, Raphael Ossai, claimed to be the girl's father.
He handed them a birth certificate for the baby, which showed his travelling companion, Oluwakemi Olasanoye, as the child's mother.
But officers found a second birth certificate, hidden in the lining of the couple's luggage. It named another woman, Raphael's British wife, as the little girl's mother.
It was the start of a mystery that remains unsolved - the little girl's true identity is still not fully known.
What we do know is the child is not related to any of the adults. The girl, who we are calling Lucy, seems to have been born in rural Nigeria in September 2022, and given to an orphanage when she was just three days old.
The couple who carried her to the UK, Ossai and Olasanoye, pleaded guilty to immigration offences and were sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by deportation.
Now Lucy has been in care in Manchester for nearly two years. The Nigerian High Commission did not engage in depth with the case despite multiple requests from the High Court.
The propaganda around Burkina Faso’s new leader is quite astonishing:
He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Ibrahim Traore, the military leader of Burkina Faso.
"Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He's doing well for his country," Sanni said.
His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts -- many misleading or outright false -- portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country's dignity.
The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022 amid growing anti-French sentiments in the Sahel region.
He has the support of fellow ex-French colonies Mali and Niger, which have turned their backs on Paris in favour of closer ties with Moscow.
The foreign ministers of the three countries were in Moscow last month for the first talks as founding members of their newly-created confederation, the Alliance of Sahel States.
While critics of Traore have blamed his government for clamping down on freedom of expression, others on social media are casting him in a positive light.
"Ibrahim Traore is all the proof Nigerians need to know that a country takes the shape of its leadership," Nigerian actress and politician Hilda Dokubo wrote on her X account.
You all know what I think about the proliferation of PoS devices as the way to get cash in Nigeria. Anyway here’s a feature on the phenomenon. And please ignore Mr Isah when he says Nigerians ‘prefer’ this to ATMs. He would say that:
Cash is expensive in Nigeria. When undercover agents for the Central Bank of Nigeria tried to buy cash on the open market, they found sellers charging markups of 20 percent to 40 percent of face value, the bank governor, Olayemi Cardoso, said at a March event in Abuja. Since 2012, the Central Bank has promoted a series of policies to reduce the amount of cash in circulation and shift Nigerians to electronic payments, which are lower cost, more secure, and more traceable. The Central Bank releases limited cash to commercial banks, who in turn cannot match public demand. When the banks do have cash, middlemen often take it in bulk to sell onwards at a higher price.
[…]
Enter the point-of-sale (POS) operators. In urban peripheries and rural places with at least intermittent Internet connectivity, tens of millions of entrepreneurs have begun using POS terminals and bags of cash to do the work that conventional banks do not: provide an avenue to deposit or withdraw cash and make transfers. POS operators throng commercial roads throughout Nigeria, with the acronym often hand-painted on a shack or nearby wall. Other operators walk around markets, looking like restaurant waitstaff come to collect payment, but offering their services to anyone who needs cash or to make a payment, for a 1 to 2 percent transaction fee.
“The ordinary Nigerian prefers to go to the POS to get cash rather than go to the ATM,” says Zakari Isah, a POS operator and general secretary of the Association of POS Users of Nigeria (APOSUN).
That may be because getting and using cash in Nigeria is a quest unsuitable for the faint of heart. The biggest available bill is 1000 naira, equivalent to about US $0.63 (the average daily wage is around $5). There are only so many notes you can carry in even the fattest wallet, and that’s if you can find an ATM. There were only 21,500 ATMs (as of 2024) serving Nigeria’s 220 million people, putting Nigeria ahead of the sub-Saharan African average, but behind middle-income countries. If you manage to find an ATM, it must have electricity, an Internet connection, and sufficient cash, none of which are guaranteed for long in Nigeria. Many banks limit daily withdrawals to 20,000 to 50,000 naira ($12.60 to $31.50) per day, and still can’t keep up with demand.
Meta is threatening to cut off Facebook and Instagram in Nigeria. Cutting of Instagram might lead to a war but we shall see:
Facebook is by far the most popular social media platform in Nigeria and is used by tens of millions in the country for daily communication and sharing news. It is also a vital tool for many of Nigeria's small online businesses.
In July last year, Meta was asked to pay three fines:
The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) imposed a $220m fine for alleged anti-competitive practices
The advertising regulator fined the company $37.5m over unapproved advertising
And the Nigerian Data Protection Commission (NDPC) alleged Meta had violated data privacy laws and fined it $32.8m.
FCCPC chief executive officer Adamu Abdullahi said investigations carried out in conjunction with the data commission between May 2021 and December 2023 revealed "invasive practices against data subjects/consumers in Nigeria" but was not specific about what these were.
In its court submission, Meta said its "primary concern" was with the data commission, which it accused of "misinterpreting" data privacy laws.
Specifically, the commission has demanded that Meta seek prior approval before transferring any personal data out of Nigeria - a condition that Meta called "unrealistic".
The data commission also imposed other demands.
Meta was told it must provide an icon linking to educational videos about data privacy risks. This would be content created in collaboration with government-approved educational institutions and non-profit organisations.
The NDPC insisted that these videos highlight the dangers of "manipulative and unfair data processing" that could expose Nigerian users to health and financial risks.
Meta should add WhatsApp to the cutoff list...and demo shut it off for like 2 days...
That would be an interesting thing to see.
I prefer getting cash from POS vendors to trial and error with the ATMs. It's the old trade-off between expense and convenience, no?
Some people buy video games on day one. Others, like me, wait years and buy them for cents on the dollar.
Same thing.
But you fit do poll shaa.