The inscription on his shirt was glaringly ironic: ‘Say no to crime’. But Officer Monday and the caption were worlds apart. “Fuel business is easy,” the police officer told TheCable during visits to Seme and Owode-Apa, two of Nigeria’s border towns with the Benin Republic, where fuel smuggling thrives and sustains the local economy. “I […]
CONTINUE READINGThis journey began in January 2017, at a time when the Nigerian military said it had “accidentally” bombed a civilian camp in Rann, the capital of Kala Balge LGA in north-east Nigeria. I travelled to the region to tell the story. I met hundreds of victims of the bombing, which killed more than 120 people […]
CONTINUE READINGBY OMOLOLA AFOLABI Calm as a millpond, Mufeedah Aliyu cooed infectiously. She waved her fingers and snuggled close to her grandmother, who cuddled her, then whipped out a bottle filled with congealed pap with which she fed her. It had been months since Mufeedah’s mother, Halimat, died as a result of a snakebite in the […]
CONTINUE READINGDespite getting its fingers burnt and running into debt over existing power deals, the federal government is set to provide more sovereign guarantees to 14 new solar power projects. Nigeria is currently choking under multi-million dollar “take or pay” power and gas deals which Nigerians are unable to fully benefit from largely because of national […]
CONTINUE READINGHaving lived in the internally displaced persons (IDPs) camp in Gwada for over two years, Auta Bala is tired of idleness and living from hand to mouth — but she has learned to mask her sadness, burying it beneath her smile. The 13-year-old can often be found roaming around the camp joyfully, hopping from one […]
CONTINUE READINGPoor infrastructure in Nigeria’s public tertiary institutions has been a source of concern for decades — and this cuts across polytechnics, colleges of education and universities. It is one of the reasons the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) recently embarked on its 16th strike in 23 years. To determine the present state of things, […]
CONTINUE READINGWhen President Muhammadu Buhari declared ‘Decade of Gas’ in 2021, he promised that his administration will ensure that gas development is a national priority — to stimulate economic growth, further improve Nigeria’s energy mix and provide much-needed jobs for citizens. To buttress this point, the president delivered an ambitious speech at the opening plenary of […]
CONTINUE READINGBY OMOLOLA AFOLABI Like an orchestra that stopped at an intermission, Fatai Wasiu’s booming transport business ended abruptly in November 2020, following a tragic accident while taking a private trip on his motorbike. Before then, Wasiu had used a refurbished Peugeot 505 — a common means of transportation on the Saki-Okerete road — to convey […]
CONTINUE READINGA life disrupted. Normalcy abruptly aborted. A reality filled with uncertainties. Welcome to the everyday life of Nigerians whose existence has been upturned by bandits and kidnappers in northern Nigeria. Since 2013, thousands have abandoned their communities while over 1,000 schoolchildren have been abducted. Victims and survivors now live in fear, traumatised by the jarring […]
CONTINUE READINGWhen a group of heavily armed men invaded communities in Niger, many residents were forced to flee to Central Primary School, Gwada — a town in Shiroro LGA of the state. Azumi Markus is one of them — she once lived in Sabon Kabila in Munya LGA before she was pressured out of the village […]
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