Good morning,
We begin with tragedy. Yesterday, a Nigerian Air Force ATR-42 aircraft crashed near the Naval Base in Igbokoda, Ondo State, killing all 32 people on board. 25 passengers and seven crew members were on a routine flight from Benin City to Lagos when air traffic controllers lost contact. The President has confirmed the deaths, and the nation is in mourning. May their souls rest, and may their families find the strength that this country so often demands of them without warning.
The same week, the systems that are supposed to protect us showed both their teeth and their failures. In Ondo’s Owo forest, a joint operation by the Army, DSS and Amotekun killed Abdussamad Ohida, a senior ISWAP commander who was planning attacks on civilians during the Yuletide season and disruption ahead of 2027. He was the man behind the Kuje Correctional Centre attack, the Ogaminana police station killings, and the Ipele invasion. That is a victory worth naming, and one that intelligence and coordination delivered. But in Lagos, a suspected thief was brutally beaten at Computer Village, because jungle justice is still the first court many Nigerians trust. In Edo State, residents blocked men in government Hilux vehicles from pulling down an NDC billboard featuring Peter Obi and Kwankwaso, a reminder that in the 2027 campaign, posters are being fought over in the streets. And INEC has announced that the national voter register now stands at over 103 million ahead of the general elections, with 10.7 million new registrants and a completed biometric cleanup. A register is only as credible as the process that feeds it. Voters will be watching INEC like hawks.
On the economy, the contradictions continue to stack up. PowerLabs, a Lagos-based energy startup founded in 2023, is building an “intelligence layer” that manages grid, diesel, solar and storage as a single responsive network, addressing the coordination failure that keeps costs high and the lights low. It is a rare story of Nigerian innovation solving a Nigerian problem. But TechCabal Insights reports that African startups founded in 2016 raised $1.89 billion over a decade and produced almost no liquidity, with 89 per cent of capital going to just 34 companies. Flutterwave alone raised about $475 million, while 166 smaller companies averaged $1.25 million each across ten years. Capital concentrates. Exits are rare. That is the ecosystem Nigeria is building, and it will not fund the next generation unless it learns to recycle.
And in football, the NPFL has fined Inter Lagos ₦5.25 million and deducted three points and three goals after match officials were assaulted following their Matchday 7 draw with Katsina United at Mobolaji Johnson Arena. The first assistant referee was attacked on his way to the vehicle because the club failed to provide adequate security. It is a heavy punishment, and a fair one. A league that cannot protect its referees will not protect its integrity.
32 dead in a riverine crash. An ISWAP commander killed. A billboard defended. A voter roll expanded. A startup building intelligence for a broken grid. A league punishing violence. These are the same story: a country that loses and wins in the same week, and keeps going because it has no other choice.
Warmly,
Lolade