Good morning,
A woman gave birth on a packed yellow danfo in Oshodi on Monday. The bus was stuck in traffic. There was no space. Passengers made room, offered cloth, and supported her. The baby arrived. The bus did not move. No ambulance came. Mother and baby were later taken to hospital and are stable. Roadside deliveries are not new in Lagos. In 2019, a woman gave birth at a bus stop in Ketu. In 2021, another delivered on the Third Mainland Bridge. The danfo is not an ambulance. The bus conductor is not a midwife. The birth was safe. It could have been otherwise. We wish the mother well, and the baby a long and productive life.
The state’s own books tell a similar story of emergency. NNPC is considering selling 5 to 10 per cent of its equity through an initial public offering, with preparation expected to take all of 2027. The listing is meant to strengthen governance, not raise capital. That is a remarkable priority for a company that has spent years cleaning up its records. Meanwhile, for the FG, personnel costs rose 7.35 per cent to ₦1.96 trillion in the first quarter of 2026, exceeding capital expenditure by ₦267 billion. No funds were released for ministries’ capital projects. Revenue stood at ₦5.08 trillion against a ₦9.22 trillion target. Debt service reached ₦4.63 trillion. Salaries and interest together exceeded revenue by ₦1.51 trillion. The government is borrowing to pay its bills and building nothing. The danfo is not an ambulance. The budget is not a plan.
The campaign is already fighting itself. Osun APC has rejected its State Presidential Campaign Council list, citing breaches of party guidelines and the exclusion of State Working Committee members. The statement questioned the composition of the council in relation to an earlier directive naming Governor Ademola Adeleke as Director-General. A party that cannot agree on its own list is asking voters to trust it with a country. Meanwhile, the Nigeria Customs Service intercepted 195 smuggling attempts across the South-West and seized goods worth ₦6.19 billion in four weeks, including 3.4 tonnes of cannabis and 23,220 machetes. The acting comptroller linked the machetes to potential electoral violence. The weapons are already moving while the campaign argues over who sits on the council.
In Abuja, the NYSC told a Federal High Court that the discharge certificate presented by former Minister Geoffrey Nnaji is fake. Yusuf Jumare, an assistant director in the certification department, listed four defects: the certificate number carried an “A” prefix the corps did not use until 1990; the call-up number had four digits when 1985 used five; the service year was 13 months instead of 12; and the copy was not signed by the director-general at the time. Nnaji, now the PDP governorship candidate for Enugu, denies the charges. In Lagos, police uncovered an indoor cannabis farm in Apapa and arrested a 49-year-old Polish national, Thomas Razvickas, and a 36-year-old Nigerian, James Chisome. The facility was hidden in a residential property and used high-tech equipment. Forgery and cultivation, both hidden in plain sight.
In Lagos, a landlady ordered her tenants out after repeated clashes. She said she had not known peace since they moved in. Images showed furniture and mattresses in the yard, and a man with bandages. Nigerian tenancy law does not permit self-help eviction. The Lagos Tenancy Law 2011 requires a notice to quit, then a notice of owner’s intention to recover possession, then a court order. The law exists. Enforcement does not. And Comfort Williams, the 10th Miss Taraba and assistant managing director of Prime Planet Event Managers, has died. Her cause of death was not disclosed. She was crowned in 2023 and had moved into management. A quiet loss in a loud country. The baby in Oshodi survived. The systems that should have helped her did not. That is not luck. That is a gap.
Warmly,
Lolade