Below The Headlines - 94
Davido for governor or anything else and Chinese art is being enjoyed in Abuja
We had a busy week here at 1914 Reader. The CBN Governor lamented that Nigerians don’t read economic reports put out by the CBN and others. So I went to read a few and reported what I found. Tobi wrote a short response on how the background of the people who make policies in Nigeria and the bias for banker types. Finally I wrote a piece on the new FT ranking of Africa’s fastest growing companies and what the profile of the Nigerian companies on it tells us.
Hope you enjoy all of that and the usual selection below!
Inside Nigeria
A story about drug use and the drug business in Abuja:
Cynthia once had a promising life, but things changed in 2018 when a friend introduced her to drugs while in her final year studying Accounting at a university in Cotonou, the capital of Benin Republic. Since then, her life has never been the same.
Seven years later, at 29, Cynthia, who has worked as a banker for three years in Kano and later as a staff of a construction company in Kaduna, now lives with regret. Drug addiction has consumed her life and forced her into selling two cars and a laptop and later forfeiting her high-paying job.
“I don’t want this life; it is currently affecting my new job in Lagos,” a sober Cynthia told our reporter. Found within the suburb of Lungun Gurguwa, around Lagos Street in Garki, which has been notorious for many vices, including drug dealings, Cynthia explained that she had travelled to Abuja while on leave to ‘cool off.’ “If I don’t take drugs, I could strip. I don’t like the way my life is going,” she said, explaining her body’s reaction to withdrawal from drugs.
Cynthia’s story is a familiar one among many young addicts living around Lungun Gurguwa. Like her, many of the addicts who spoke to Weekend Trust, expressed deep regret over their choices. But it is not one they can readily quit. Addiction has them trapped in a circle that many find unable to break without professional help.
Whenever I see a story about people selling babies, the first thing I check for is the sale price. In this case it just under $2,000:
Operatives of the State Criminal Investigation Department of the Lagos State Police Command have arrested at least five suspects in connection with the abduction and sale of a two-week-old baby boy.
This was disclosed in a statement released on Thursday by the Command’s spokesperson, CSP Benjamin Hundeyin.
According to the statement, “The State Criminal Investigation Department of the Lagos State Police Command has arrested five suspects for abduction and child stealing.”
The case was initially reported at the Ajah Police Division on May 5, 2025, by a man who raised concern over the disappearance of his 16-year-old cousin, identified as Miss Happiness.
The complainant told the police that the teenager had been impregnated by an unknown person and, due to financial hardship, was handed over to one Nonye Osi for shelter during the pregnancy.
“However, Nonye Osi conspired with others to relocate Miss Happiness to an unknown location. When she was eventually found, she was no longer pregnant, and the baby was missing,” the police statement said.
The matter was subsequently transferred to the SCID for further investigation, which led to the arrest of five individuals: Nonye Osi (female), Akintan Adedayo (female), Jimoh Bashiru (male), Elizabeth Bishop (female), and Bukola Oladapo (female).
The suspects were alleged to have conspired and sold the baby for N3m.
Once again the EFCC comes to the defence of the sacred Naira:
Justice R.M. Aikawa of the Federal High Court sitting in Kaduna, Kaduna State, has jailed Instagram and TikTok content creator, Muhammad Kabir, over Naira abuse and mutilation
The content creator’s conviction and sentence were secured by the Kaduna Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The EFCC explained that the convict was arrested on April 13th, 2025, at Tudun Wada, Kaduna State, for making a video on his TikTok and Instagram page while spraying and matching on naira notes and daring the operatives in Hausa language to arrest him in his said location.
According to the statement, Kabir’s action violated “the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Act, which prohibits the abuse and mutilation of the Naira.”
The agency further explained that Kabir pleaded guilty to his one-count charge, which prompted the Court Justice Aikawa to sentence him to six months in prison or an option of a fine of N300,000 to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Note that the real story here is the widespread use of ‘performance enhancing’ drugs for sex. Back in the day, I used to note how even the reputable newspapers in Nigeria openly advertised these drugs on their websites:
The Rivers State Police Command has arrested a 43-year-old woman identified as Gift for allegedly biting off the tip of her lover’s penis during a domestic dispute in the Mile 3 area of Diobu, Port Harcourt.
The incident, which occurred on Thursday, sent shockwaves through the densely populated Bishop Okoye Street when news of the act emerged.
According to sources, the altercation began when Gift’s lover, identified only as Sunday, requested to have sex.
Gift reportedly refused, accusing him of using sex-enhancing drugs that made their encounters excessively prolonged.
A resident who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity said, “Mr. Sunday became angry and allegedly descended on his female partner for her refusal.
“In the process, Gift managed to get hold of the man’s manhood with her mouth and chop off the cap of the penis.”
When an attempted crime is so stupid that its actually funny:
A 16-year-old female SS 2 secondary student (name withheld) in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State capital, has allegedly faked her kidnapping and demanded N2 million ransom from the family.
The State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Joshua Ukandu, who disclosed this to newsmen, said the teenage student allegedly carried out the plan with support from one of the family’s friends.
“According to the teenage student, on getting to town, she decided to go to the house of one of their family friends who was not aware of her missing,” Ukandu said.
“With the man’s phone, she chatted her brother and told him that she was kidnapped and that they (her family) would pay N2 million ransom before her release. So, the brother requested that she give the phone to those that kidnapped her so that he can bargain with them and know the location to bring the ransom but she refused and blocked her brother’s line.
“After some time, the brother now requested that an account number be forwarded to the family for digital transfer of the N2 million ransom. Before you know it, the girl collected and sent the account number of the same family friend hosting her and the same person she was using his phone to chat the family to fake her own kidnap. With that evidence, the family alerted the police who stormed his house and arrested them.
“We are still investigating just to be sure because there were other people in that house that night. She slept there one night and the next one. While she was going out to buy something, her family members who were already suspicious and laying ambush there saw her and the police arrested them. We are still investigating, particularly concerning that their family friend who harboured her, gave her phone and account number to receive ransom.”
One should never take the law into their own hands but this story is an example of the underlying tensions going on where the state is totally weak to enforce property rights:
A 40-year-old security guard, Adamu Yahaya, appeared before a Life Camp Chief Magistrates’ Court in Abuja on Friday, over allegations of poisoning his neighbour’s goats and sheep.
Yahaya, a resident of Idu Industrial Area, Abuja, was charged with mischief, criminal intimidation, and voluntarily causing hurt without provocation.
According to the prosecution counsel, Mrs. Charity Nwachukwu, the case was reported by the complainants, Kingsley Ayawa and Maywell Kanu, both of Tasha I Gwagwa, Abuja, at Karmo Police Station on May 9.
Nwachukwu informed the court that Yahaya had previously threatened to kill the livestock if they continued grazing on the pepper he cultivated on his farm.
She said the defendant carried out the threat on May 8, resulting in the death of 20 goats and three sheep, estimated at a value of N2.7 million.
Ben Bruce opens his mouth and words come out:
Ben Murray-Bruce, the former senator, has suggested that Afrobeats superstar Davido may one day aspire to become the future governor of Osun.
Murray-Bruce, in a recent video message shared on X, pointed to Davido’s “strong political lineage” and “widespread influence” as key factors that could propel him into leadership.
In the footage, the 69-year-old politician highlighted Davido’s family “deep political roots” in Osun and the singer’s “untapped potential”.
The founder of Silverbird Group added that the ‘Assurance’ hitmaker’s global fame and connection with young Nigerians make him a formidable future candidate.
“David Adeleke, the global phenomenon better known as Davido, is undeniably an international artiste and a true Nigerian superstar,” he said.
“He stands as one of Nigeria’s most valuable cultural exports. However, beneath the surface of this music icon lies a side that many may not be aware of.
“He is, by his own admission, a political animal with deeply held views and a clear-cut political ideology. This revelation, which came to light through a personal discussion, perhaps, shouldn’t be entirely surprising when you consider the DNA of the Adeleke family.
Outside Nigeria
Ok, some news from ‘Straya. Not really about Nigeria but Ms. Ley was born in Nigeria so I’m including it:
Sussan Ley will be the new Liberal leader, beating conservative rival Angus Taylor to become the first woman to lead the federal party in its 80-year history.
The 63-year-old former deputy leader, who was backed by the moderate faction, received 29 partyroom votes compared to Treasury spokesperson Mr Taylor's 25.
Addressing the country as leader for the first time, Ms Ley said she planned to "do things differently" and shepherd in a "fresh approach" after the Coalition's ruinous election loss earlier this month.
Ted O'Brien, who was most recently the party's energy spokesperson and one of the key architects of the Coalition's nuclear plan, will take the role of deputy leader, defeating Phil Thompson in the ballot 38–16.
[…]
Ms Ley now faces the mammoth task of uniting the party after a landslide Labor election victory that saw former Liberal leader Peter Dutton ousted from his own seat.
Both candidates for leader were senior members of Mr Dutton's team and, therefore, are closely associated with the failure of the Liberal campaign.
The Coalition currently holds just 42 seats in the House of Representatives compared to the government's 93, with three electorates still too close to call.
Ms Ley pitched herself as the more centrist option, declaring ahead of the vote that the party needed to "reflect a modern Liberal Party" and that appointing her as leader would "send a strong signal to the women of Australia".
Documentaries on sextortion are now getting made. I am currently reading an advanced copy of the same internet scam phenomenon by a journalist who spent time in Nigeria interviewing dozens of Yahoo Boys. It is mind blowing:
Rizzle Kicks star Jordan Stephens will hunt down an individual who has blackmailed him for a Channel 4 documentary exploring “sextortion”.
The film is part of the broadcaster’s Untold documentary strand, which is back with a new season that includes an investigation into dating apps, fronted by Love Island star Chloe Burrows.
For the purpose of the film, Stephens gets himself “sextorted”, which is a form of online blackmail in which criminals threaten to release sexual images, videos, or personal information of victims unless they pay money or comply with other demands, according to the Metropolitan Police.
Stephens, 33, will travel to the streets of Nigeria to track down his blackmailer in an attempt to confront them face-to-face.
And another one:
A TikTok video shows a young man fanning out a stack of $100 bills. A second flexes his designer clothes. Another man posts a video of himself dancing and wearing a heavy gold chain. They boast to their eager followers about their path to wealth.
“BM got me a new car,” states one caption on a video. “$5,000 in a few hours.”
Unlike conventional social media influencers hawking travel, brands or recipes, their selling point is crime. The men are all based in Nigeria, and their get-rich-quick scheme is blackmailing other social media users – usually based in the United States and other western countries – by posing as potential female romantic interests and tricking their victims into sending nude photos.
Then the threats of distributing the victim’s images and demands for money begin.
The proclaimed scammers call themselves the “BM Boys”. “BM” means blackmail, and hundreds of young men in west Africa are now engaging in these schemes. The videos flaunting their lifestyles, publicized on TikTok to hundreds and sometimes thousands of followers, draw admiration and ambition from other young men who follow them and plead to be included in their scams.
Story from a couple of weeks ago:
When a Parma Heights finance employee opened an email in June 2023, nothing seemed amiss.
The email from a contractor who fixed a road as part of a joint Cuyahoga County and Parma Heights project sought payment for the city’s portion of the bill—$504,576.01
The city wired the money to the account listed in the email, just as the city does about every day to pay for expenses.
Except the email didn’t come from the contractor. It came from scammers who had hacked into a city email, patiently monitored the account and struck when the opportunity presented itself, according to authorities.
“I ultimately found out that they had been in the system for three to four weeks just looking for invoices,” said Parma Heights Police Chief Steven Greene, who investigated the case before his promotion to the top cop in the city.
Greene said the city’s cyber insurance covered more than half of the loss.
Greene’s investigation led him to work with J.P. Morgan’s security team, a sheriff‘s office in Georgia, a police department in Washington and ultimately with the FBI, who on Tuesday arrested one of the suspected hackers, Chinedu Opute, in Atlanta.
Authorities say the Opute’s group used the same “email takeover” scam to swindle a Bedford commercial construction company out of $337,000 and a car dealership in Everett, Washington, out of $250,000.
In all, the group stole more than $1.1 million in less than a week, according to the indictment.
Opute, a Nigerian citizen living in Sandy Springs, Georgia, was charged Wednesday in federal court in Cleveland with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and aggravated identity theft. Joseph Habachy, an attorney who represented Opute at his initial appearance in Georgia, declined comment.
Opute is a Nigerian Afrobeats artist who released several songs in the late 2000s and early 2010s, according to the Nigeria People’s Gazette.
I wish Taiwo Awoniyi, a fine gentleman of a footballer, all the best as he recovers from his recent freak injury. The Athletic have taken the opportunity to do a nice feature on him:
When he was growing up in Ilorin, Nigeria, Taiwo Awoniyi had to be fiercely practical as he tried to fulfil his football dreams.
His family couldn’t afford the boots he required to play and train in. Left with only a damaged pair, he found old boots someone had thrown away and glued and sewed them back together.
Resourcefulness and determination have been a core part of his character throughout his journey to the Premier League.
Those traits will be called upon now after he was placed into an induced coma following the serious abdominal injury he suffered late in Nottingham Forest’s game against Leicester City on Sunday.
Awoniyi, a devout Christian, is often described as being warm and friendly by his team-mates — a nice man. Somebody whose trademark broad smile is a constant.
At Forest, he is fondly known simply as ‘T’, a nickname that is the physical representation of the 27-year-old’s broad-shouldered frame.
A piece modelling what might happen to kids in Nigeria after the cuts to USAID. Grim:
The computer model runs by simulating a population of individuals who can experience malnutrition, disease, or death based on the risks seen in their local area in Nigeria, as informed by the 2021 Global Burden of Disease study. In Nigeria, which is home to the greatest annual number of deaths attributable to child malnutrition of any country, current programs to treat acute malnutrition save an estimated 39,000 child lives annually. However, existing programs fall well short of meeting need.
[…]
The analysis focused on a handful of locations, including Nigeria. The simulation shows that a 49% reduction in treatment of malnutrition in Nigeria would result in an additional 19,000 annual child deaths, a 23% increase from what would be expected otherwise.
[…]
This finding highlights that even a more modest reduction in funding would lead to almost 10,000 young lives being lost. The increase in child fatalities estimated as a result of such treatment reductions would be a stark reversal of the consistent drop in child malnutrition deaths observed over the past 20 years in Nigeria.
[…]
Vivianne Ihekweazu, managing director of Nigeria Health Watch, says that support for USAID and other donor groups has been critical to Nigeria's health system. "USAID's programs are deeply integrated into service delivery at federal and subnational levels," Ihekweazu said via email. "Unfortunately, we are going to see the collateral impact of the abrupt pull out of funding that has not left enough time to make plans for alternative sources for many of the programs that will be adversely impacted."
Ezra Klein recently had Rebecca Wintrop on his podcast discussing AI and education. She referenced a recent trial in Nigeria:
You’ve talked a bit about a study in Nigeria. I never quite know how seriously to take these studies. But why don’t you say what it did and what it found?
I think that A.I. has real potential for very specific use cases, particularly around access gaps.
In Nigeria, what was done was: After school, twice a week, an A.I. tutor helped kids learn English. It was for six weeks, which is not long, in June, July, I think. And it moves to a randomized controlled trial. We’re still waiting for all the evidence to come through — but 0.3 standard deviations, which is pretty good. Equivalent to maybe two years of average English learning.
And we see that difference with other technologies, too. It doesn’t have to be generative A.I. — it can be rule-based A.I. or predictive A.I.
Doctor Who was so popular growing up in Nigeria. Every child I knew watched it:
"Whatever I was doing - maybe cleaning up or doing homework - when I heard the 'oooh-oooh-oooooh'," Adesoji Kukoyi says, mimicking the iconic Doctor Who theme tune, "I dropped everything and ran straight to the television."
As a child growing up in 1980s Nigeria, Mr Kukoyi was infatuated with sci-fi sensation Doctor Who. British shows like Allo Allo and Fawlty Towers aired regularly as a cultural hangover from the colonial era, but none captured Mr Kukoyi's imagination like the time-travelling Doctor did.
"He always spoke to me," 44-year-old Mr Kukoyi, who currently has a vintage Doctor Who theme as the ringtone on his phone, tells the BBC.
"Like there's somebody watching out for us... yes, we make mistakes, but we do our best, especially if we have a teacher that will lead us on the right path."
Mr Kukoyi has been watching Doctor Who for decades, so when he heard that on Saturday an episode will, for the very first time, be set in Nigeria, he was elated.
"I was watching last week's episode with my wife and the preview [for the following week] said: 'Welcome to Lagos, Nigeria'. I screamed like a little girl!" Mr Kukoyi says.
The setting is momentous not just for Mr Kukoyi - a native of Nigeria's biggest and liveliest city Lagos - but for the show too. Saturday's adventure will be the first primarily set in Africa.
It is fitting that the producers chose Nigeria for this milestone - in 2013, fans worldwide were delighted when nine lost Doctor Who episodes from the 1960s were unearthed in a Nigerian TV facility.
News from Abuja via China:
Scores of Nigerians in the capital of Abuja were held spellbound on Sunday, as a visiting group of performers from the southern part of China entertained and introduced them to Pingtan, a captivating traditional Chinese art form that masterfully blends storytelling with musical instruments while using simple props to enhance delivery.
At least 11 melodious tunes were delivered during the Chinese Pingtan art performance tagged "Wuxi Ballads: Portraits of Watertown," introducing the Nigerian audience, who converged on the China Cultural Center in Abuja, to the culturally rich art form which originated from the Yangtze River Delta region, encompassing provinces like Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and the bustling metropolis of Shanghai.
People from all walks of life, including Nigerian government officials, artists, scholars, and high school students, to mention a few, trooped out Sunday morning to experience the melodious Chinese storytelling art, taking the China-Nigeria cultural exchange a notch higher.
The audience was more fascinated with the intimate art of narration, as the performances typically featured one, two, or more artists clad in traditional long gowns, relying on their vocal prowess, subtle expressions, and the cords of their musical instruments to tell different stories in local Chinese dialects.
"As the saying goes, the foundation of state-to-state relations lies in people-to-people bonds, and the essence of people-to-people bonds lies in mutual understanding. We believe that cultural exchanges and mutual understanding are important ways to deepen the friendly feelings between the people of China and Nigeria," said Yang Jianxing, cultural counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria.