Good morning,
Survivors of the Minna cell of death have finally spoken. Thirty-seven suspected illegal miners died in NSCDC custody, and those who lived say 65 men were packed into a single unventilated cell, banging on the door until they could no longer breathe. Twenty-four officers have been arrested. A panel is sitting. In Plateau, gunmen killed three women, and the killings continue to go unpunished. A tree fell on a tricycle and a car on Nsikak Eduok Avenue in Uyo, injuring two, barely six weeks after another tree killed a commercial motorcyclist on Abak Road. The state budgeted ₦400 million for pruning equipment and cannot say whether it was ever bought. Meanwhile, a medical doctor, Danielle Adewusi, has been crowned Ms Universe Nigeria. Congratulations to her.
The State Security Service has tripped over its own press release. On 30 August it announced its Director-General had directed the prosecutor to suspend Omoyele Sowore’s cyberstalking trial so he could campaign for 2027. On Monday, the prosecutor stood in court and denied any knowledge of it, urging Justice Muhammad Umar not to rely on social media. The case returns on 2 October. In Osogbo, hundreds of residents who paid upfront for cheap rice, oil and spaghetti have watched the company shut its doors and vanish, another discount scheme collapsing into the familiar MMM pattern. And a Nigerian healthcare worker in the UK lost her job after posting a video about a colleague’s dismissal, learning the hard way that japa comes with confidentiality clauses.
The money question remains unanswered. The Budget Minister has admitted Nigeria cannot reach a $1 trillion economy on its current budget, because the envelope is too small, tax-to-GDP is among the lowest in the world, and debt service eats the rest. In Ogun State, that arithmetic has a picture: a viral video shows a long fleet of brand-new campaign vehicles donated to the President’s and governor’s re-election efforts, prompting a critic to ask whether the entire state public health sector even has 50 ambulances. Campaign fleets are counted in dozens. Ambulances are counted in hope. The Federal Government, meanwhile, is targeting 70 per cent local production of essential medicines by 2030, with $2 billion in financing and tariff relief for 87 manufacturers, and one million outsourcing jobs by 2030 through the Hire From Nigeria campaign launched in New York.
On the brighter side of infrastructure, the Federal Government has approved the modernisation of Onne, Rivers, Delta and Calabar ports to reduce the cargo concentration around Lagos, alongside approvals for Ibom, Bakassi, Agge, Gateway, Ondo and Bonny deep seaports. The plan is comprehensive on paper. Finally, a woman in a viral video poured buckets of water into her ex-boyfriend’s room after a breakup, because apparently heartbreak now requires a mop.
A cell of death. A falling tree. A vanishing food scheme. A fleet of campaign vehicles. A budget that admits its limits. These are not separate stories. They are the same story: a country where the warnings are written, the budgets are approved, the promises are announced, and the people are still waiting.
Warmly,
Lolade