Good morning,
For three weeks, the people of Aleto in Eleme watched a gas pipeline leak. Daniel Chuma, the Leader of the Eleme Legislative Council, wrote to the Nigeria Gas Company. He petitioned NOSDRA. He copied the police. He asked for a joint investigation and urgent repairs. Nobody came. On Thursday evening, the pipeline exploded. At least 20 people were injured. More than 50 houses were destroyed, along with commercial stalls, a mechanic workshop and several vehicles. The fire was still burning when advocates issued statements. This is the Niger Delta’s oldest story: ageing infrastructure, ignored warnings, and a community that pays for the negligence of companies and the indifference of regulators. “We asked for a joint investigation,” Chuma said. “We don’t know what they did before they left.” They did nothing. Then it burned.
The macro numbers, meanwhile, are telling a different story. Headline inflation eased to 14.63 per cent in September, the fourth consecutive monthly decline and 6.35 percentage points lower than the 20.98 per cent recorded a year earlier. Food inflation fell to 19.59 per cent, with month-on-month prices dropping for grains, rice, eggs, onions and tomatoes. Foreign exchange inflows rose 23 per cent to $35 billion, driven by diaspora remittances and portfolio investments after the naira convergence. Reserves sit at $55 billion. On paper, the economy is healing. On the ground, the healing is uneven. The APC and ADC spent the week arguing about whether the reforms saved Nigeria or broke it. The APC says floating the naira prevented “utter disintegration.” The ADC says 17.9 million more Nigerians fell into poverty between 2021 and 2024 and wants a targeted subsidy restored. Both parties are campaigning. The voters are still buying rice.
Some of the week’s news reads like a country trying to fix itself, and some reads like a country that has given up. The House of Representatives has advanced a bill to establish the National Authority for Renewable Energy, consolidating functions currently split across NERC, the Rural Electrification Agency and the Rural Electrification Fund, with 40 per cent of the Rural Electrification Fund earmarked for the new body. Nigeria’s power sector is fragmented, and coordination is weak. The intention is sound. Implementation is years away. In Lagos, the state has begun the controlled demolition of GNI House on Lagos Island, a distressed commercial building that could have collapsed at any moment. Roads were cordoned off. Businesses were evacuated. Safety came first. But Lagos Island is a heritage area, and every demolition erases something that cannot be rebuilt.
And then there is Rivers State, where a suspected Vikings cult group renovated a police station. They operated under the name Trans Marine Platoon. Videos showed participants in red shirts. Police officers attended the unveiling. A banner read “SAY NO TO CRIME & SOCIAL VICES.” The renovators are accused of being the crime. Nobody was arrested. Naija Confra asked the only question that matters: “If cultists renovate or build police stations, will the police still arrest them in the same police stations they built?” The answer is obvious. The lines between enforcement and accommodation have been blurred for years. This renovation just made them visible.
A pipeline that leaked for three weeks. A police station renovated by cultists. A bill for renewable energy that will take years to matter. A building demolished before it could kill. Inflation falling while hunger persists. These are not separate stories. They are the same story: a country where the numbers are improving, the systems are not, and the people keep waiting for the state to show up before the fire starts.
Warmly,
Lolade