Information reaching us as at 10.05 pm is that one of the coordinators of the #WeAreHungry Protests slated for tomorrow 12 June 2024 has been arrested by security agents in Lagos, following series of threats by the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigerian Police Force to clampdown on peaceful democracy day protest.
Around 10 pm, Comrade Sanyaolu Juwon, the National Coordinator of the TIB sent distress messages to members of the movement saying he has been arrested and taken to an unknown location. Efforts to reach him have been futile. We are not surprised at this strategy of intimidation but the news we have for this tyrannical and ruinous Tinubu regime is that the arrest is rather too late. The veil is off and Nigerians can see through the cluelessness of this government.
We want to state categorically that the tactics of the Nigeria Security apparatus already mobilized by the Presidency, is too late. Nigerian are not deterred as they have resolved to protest against hardship and nothing shall stop them tomorrow.
We also want to advise that instead of wasting time on harassment and arrests, the Police should release him immediately as these acts of human rights violation will be heavily resisted now and beyond.
Our demands, in the midst of the wicked policies of the Tinubu regime, are that hardship must end, gruesome hunger must end, insecurity claiming lives of thousands must end, hike in fees must stop, fuel hike must end etc.
In conclusion, we again urge Nigeria’s longsuffering people not to concede to threat and intimidation. Protest is an alienable right under a democracy. We shall not relent until victory is achieved.
SIGNED 1. Speaker Bright, Coordinator, TakeitBack Movement, North West 2. Peluola Adewale, National Mobilization Officer, Joint Action Front (JAF) 3. Hassan Taiwo Soweto, National Coordinator, Education Rights Campaign 4. Comrade Ayoyinka Oni, Chairman, African Action Congress (AAC), Lagos Chapter 5. Kunle Wizeman Ajayi, National Chair, Socialist Workers League
Nigeria is facing its worst economic crisis in decades, with skyrocketing inflation, a national currency in free-fall and millions of people struggling to buy food. Only two years ago Africa’s biggest economy, Nigeria is projected to drop to fourth place this year.
The pain is widespread. Unions strike to protest salaries of around $20 a month. People die in stampedes, desperate for free sacks of rice. Hospitals are overrun with women wracked by spasms from calcium deficiencies.
The crisis is largely believed to be rooted in two major changes implemented by a president elected 15 months ago: the partial removal of fuel subsidies and the floating of the currency, which together have caused major price rises.
A nation of entrepreneurs, Nigeria’s more than 200 million citizens are skilled at managing in tough circumstances, without the services states usually provide. They generate their own electricity and source their own water. They take up arms and defend their communities when the armed forces cannot. They negotiate with kidnappers when family members are abducted.
But right now, their resourcefulness is being stretched to the limit.
A map of Nigeria locating Kano, Ibadan and the state of Nasarawa. Lagos and Abuja are also located.
No Money for Milk
On a recent morning in a corner of the biggest emergency room in northern Nigeria, three women were convulsing in painful spasms, unable to speak. Each year, the E.R. at Murtala Muhammed Specialist Hospital in Kano, Nigeria’s second-largest city, received one or two cases of hypocalcemia caused by malnutrition, said Salisu Garba, a kindly health worker who hurried from bed to bed, ward to ward.
Now, with many unable to afford food, the hospital sees multiple cases every day.
Mr. Garba was sizing up the women’s husbands. Which source of nutrition he recommended depended on what he thought they could afford. Baobab leaves or tiger nuts for the poor; boiled-up bones for the slightly better off. He laughed at the suggestion that anyone could afford milk.
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Salisu Garba, a community health worker, treating patients at a hospital in Kano, Nigeria’s second largest city, last month.
More than 87 million people in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, live below the poverty line — the world’s second-largest poor population after India, a country seven times its size. And punishing inflation means poverty rates are expected to rise still further this year and next, according to the World Bank.
Last week, unions shut down hospitals, courts, schools, airports and even the country’s Parliament, striking in an attempt to force the government to increase the monthly salary of $20 it pays its lowest workers.
But over 92 percent of working-age Nigerians are in the informal sector, where there are no wages, and no unions to fight for them.
For the Afolabi family in Ibadan, in southwestern Nigeria, the descent into poverty started in January with the loss of an electric tuk-tuk taxi.
Forced to sell the taxi to pay his wife’s hospital bills after the difficult birth of their second child, Babatunde Afolabi turned to occasional construction work. It paid badly, but the family managed.
“We had no thoughts about starvation,” he said.
Patients wait to be seen at the Murtala Muhammad General Hospital. The crowds are thinner than they used to be, as many can no longer afford the bus fare.
But then, he said, cassava — the cheapest staple in many parts of Nigeria — tripled in price.
All they can afford now, he said, is a few biscuits, a little bread, and for their 6-year-old, 20 peanuts a day.
A Country Built on Gas
Nigeria is a country heavily dependent on imported petroleum products, despite being a major oil producer. After years of underinvestment and mismanagement, its state refineries produce hardly any gasoline.
For decades, the national soundtrack has been the hum of small generators, fired up during daily power outages. Petroleum products move goods and people around the country.
Until recently, the government subsidized that petroleum, to the tune of billions of dollars a year.
Many Nigerians said the subsidy was the only useful contribution from a neglectful and predatory government. Successive presidents have pledged to remove the subsidy, which drains a hefty chunk of government revenue — and later backtracked fearing mass unrest.
Nigeria is a country that runs on imported gasoline, which the government has long subsidized to the tune of billions of dollars a year.
“It was a necessary action for my country not to go bankrupt,” Mr. Tinubu said in April, at a meeting of the World Economic Forum in Saudi Arabia.
Instead, many Nigerians are going bankrupt — or working multiple jobs to stay afloat.
Mr. Garba, the hospital worker, used to be solidly middle class, even though 17 family members, including 12 children, depended on him.
After shifts at the hospital, where he is setting up the first statewide ambulance service in addition to working in the emergency room, for which he is paid $150 a month, he heads to the Red Cross. There he occasionally receives a $3.30 volunteer stipend for helping tackle a severe diphtheria outbreak.
At night, he works at the pharmacy that he and a colleague set up. But few people have money for medicine anymore. He sells about $7 worth of medication per day.
Last year, Mr. Garba sold his car when the gas subsidies were removed, and now takes a tuk-tuk to work. Unable to power the generator, he reads medicine labels at the pharmacy by the light of a small solar lantern. He can only afford to buy rice and cassava in small quantities.
Life under the previous government was very expensive, he said, but nothing like today.
“It’s very, very bad,” he said.
It’s gotten so dire that there have been several deadly stampedes for free or discounted rice distributed by the government — including one in March at a university in the central state of Nasarawa where seven students were killed.
The vast majority of Nigerians work in the informal sector, with no salaries, unions, or safety net. And because of skyrocketing inflation, many can no longer afford basics, like food.
Mr. Tinubu promised to create a million jobs and quadruple the size of the economy within a decade, but has not said how. The International Monetary Fund said last month the state has started subsidizing fuel and electricity again — though the government has not acknowledged this.
“There’s still very little clarity — if any — on where the economy is headed, what the priorities are,” said Zainab Usman, a political economist and director of the Africa Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
The Tapping Craze
A spate of new crypto-mining games that promise to generate income the more the user plays has people across Nigeria spending all day tapping on their smartphone screens, desperate to earn a few dollars.
People tap as they pray, in mosques and churches. Children tap under desks at school. Mourners tap at funerals.
Many Nigerians desperately hope that hours spent tapping on smartphone cryptocurrency apps will eventually earn them a bit of cash. One man, Rabiu Biyora, says he made millions of naira this way.
There’s no guarantee any of them will ever benefit from the hours they put in mindlessly tapping.
Then again, they can’t count on the national currency, the naira.
The government has twice devalued the naira in the past year, trying to enable it to float more freely and attract foreign investment. The upshot: It’s lost nearly 70 percent of its value against the dollar.
Nigerians can become paupers almost overnight. So they’re searching for anything that might hold its value — or ideally, get them rich.
“People are looking for me everywhere,” said Rabiu Biyora, the undisputed king of tapping in Kano, opening one of his five foldable phones to add to his 2.7 billion taps on the TapSwap app. “Not to attack me, but to collect something from me.”
A relaxed, businesslike 39-year-old followed everywhere by young tech-savvy acolytes, Mr. Biyora would only say that he made “over $10,000” from the previous tapping craze.
With the proceeds from his tapping, Rabiu Biyora is opening an office in Kano to promote and educate people on cryptocurrencies. Nigeria already has the world’s second highest cryptocurrency adoption rate.
He profits from everyone else’s taps, so he encourages them in posts on social media, and by providing free internet to anyone willing to sit outside his house. Nigerians don’t need much encouragement — despite the risks and volatility, Nigeria has the second highest cryptocurrency adoption rate in the world.
So every evening, struggling young men gather by Mr. Biyora’s home and tap.
Pleas for Help
In much of Nigeria, it’s normal to share with your neighbors and give alms to the poor.
Every day, people come to the gate of Kano’s Freedom Radio station to drop off sheets of paper containing heartfelt appeals for help paying medical bills or school fees, or to recover from some disaster.
A radio presenter chooses three to read out daily, and often a sympathetic listener calls in to pay the supplicant’s bill.
But lately the appeals have multiplied, and offers of help have dried up.
Good Samaritans used to come to the E.R. and pay strangers’ bills for them, Mr. Garba said. That rarely happens now either.
Still, Mr. Garba said, the number of patients coming to his hospital has almost halved in recent months.
Many of the sick never even make it. They can’t afford the 20-cent bus ride.
A presenter on Kano’s Freedom Radio station reads out petitioners’ requests for assistance. But these days, few listeners have the means to help.
Pius Adeleye contributed reporting from Ibadan, Nigeria.
A correction was made on
June 11, 2024
An earlier version of a map with this article misstated the name of a state in central Nigeria. It is Nasarawa, not Asarawa.
When we learn of a mistake, we acknowledge it with a correction. If you spot an error, please let us know at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..Learn more
Ruth Maclean is the West Africa bureau chief for The Times, covering 25 countries including Nigeria, Congo, the countries in the Sahel region as well as Central Africa.
The former Governor of Jigawa State, Sule Lamido has stated that the Nigeria Government is rich enough to afford any amount as the new national minimum wage.
Recall that Organised Labour, which initially demanded ₦494,000, later reduced its demand to ₦250,000, while the government offered ₦62,000.
Amid the ongoing negotiations, state governors had declared that they couldn’t pay the ₦62,000 proposed by the government.
Reacting to the development on Monday during an appearance on Channels Television, Lamido argued that if the government could spend ₦17 trillion for the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway without passing through the National Assembly, then it can afford to pay any amount as minimum wage.
He said, “Nigeria is very rich with resources and can overcome any problem and pay any amount we feel is responsible for Nigerians.
“If the government can embark on an N17 trillion project that is not in the budget, not advertised, not tendered for, or did not go through due process, it means that Nigeria got the money.
“How can a government execute a budget of N17 trillion without a budget or passing through the National Assembly, it means the money is there; there is money in Nigeria.
“If they can carry out such a project then they can pay any minimum wage.”
Suspected Boko Haram insurgents have abducted passengers along Maiduguri/Kano highway.
Sources told Daily Trust that the insurgents struck between Garin Kuturu and Mannanari village near Auno, which is along Damaturu highway at about 5:50:pm on Monday.
They reportedly blocked the highway before forcefully taking away some passengers.
The incident left hundreds of travelers and commuters stranded on both ends of the ever-busy road.
They had to return to Benishek and Auno respectively.
“There was an incident between Mannanari and Garin Kuturu where some Boko Haram fighters came out to block the upcoming vehicles and some passengers were abducted.”
“We are not sure of the number as we speak but certainly there was an abduction on Monday evening.”
Residents narrated how many commercial drivers took refuge in their community momentarily when the insurgents were operating between Garin Kuturu and Mannanari villages.
“They came out with three wheelbarrow and I believe they were looking for food stuff. We don’t know how many people abducted but some commercial drivers came back and later returned to Maiduguri before reinforcement of military arrived.”
A passenger, who craved anonymity, said he alongside others were stranded for hours.
“We were heading for Kano from Maiduguri when the driver got hinted about the attack and took a detour,” he told Daily Trust.
“We have been waiting for the military to clear the road but we don’t know when. We are stranded here.”
Malawi’s Vice President Saulos Chilima was killed in a plane crash, the nation’s president said on Tuesday, after searchers located the wreckage of the aircraft in a foggy forest.
The military plane carrying Chilima, 51, and nine others disappeared on Monday, after it failed to land in the northern city of Mzuzu due to bad weather and was told to return to the capital, Lilongwe.
“The search and rescue team have found the aircraft … completely destroyed with no survivors, as all passengers on board were killed on impact,” Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera said addressing the nation.
The Tinubu Address
“Words cannot describe how heartbreaking this is,” he said, describing the accident as a “terrible tragedy.”
Photographs shared with AFP by a member of the military rescue team showed army personnel standing on a foggy slope near debris bearing the registration number of the Malawi Army Air Wing Dornier 228-202K aircraft.
Rescuers had been combing a fog-cloaked forest south of Mzuzu on Tuesday, after authorities located the last tower it transmitted to before the plane disappeared.
Earlier, army commander General Paul Valentino Phiri said other countries, including Malawi’s neighbours, had been aiding the search effort, with support including helicopters and drones.
The group departed just after 9:00 am (0700 GMT) from Lilongwe on Monday to attend the funeral of a former cabinet minister some 370 kilometres (230 miles) away in Mzuzu.
Malawi’s former first lady Shanil Dzimbiri was also on board.
– Widely loved –
Chakwera said he had previously flown on the same aircraft for similar trips. The crew had successfully operated it just hours before the accident, he added.
“And yet, despite the track record of the aircraft and the experience of the crew, something terrible went wrong with that aircraft on its flight back to Lilongwe, sending it crashing down,” he said.
First elected vice president in 2014, the charismatic yet stern-talking Chilima was a widely loved figure in Malawi, particularly among young people.
But in 2022, during his second stint in the job, Chilima was stripped of his powers after being arrested and charged with graft over a bribery scandal involving a British-Malawian businessman.
Last month, a Malawian court dropped the charges and he resumed his official duties.
“Chilima was a good man, a devoted father and husband, a patriotic citizen who served his country with distinction and a formidable vice president,” Chakwera said.
“I consider it one of the greatest honours of my life to have had him as my deputy and counsellor for the past four years.”
Akwa Ibom state government has the largest social welfare programmes in almost every sector in the country, but adding free football tickets could be counterproductive. The government provides free education for all primary and secondary school students with free books, and this has been going on since 1999. It pays about N700 million yearly as WAEC fees to its students and, in addition, there’s a scholarship and bursary scheme for university and polytechnic students.
Gov. Umo Eno has increased the bursary to N100,000 per student from what his predecessors offered. He is also extending generous financial help to all students with disabilities, including those who are not from the state as recently published lists of beneficiaries indicate. In terms of medical care, there is free health care for pregnant women and children under five years of age. Women who have multiple births are also generously provided for. The government also routinely sponsors people on pilgrimage to Israel. It is common to see some persons with the suffix ‘’JP’’ attached to their names. It stands for ‘’Jerusalem Pilgrim’’.
The current governor has gone a step further to provide free foodstuffs to thousands of the very poor across the state. A new body known as Akwa Ibom Bulk Purchase Agency has been set up by law to drive the program whose aim is to offer succor to vulnerable citizens facing hard times. The Umo Eno administration has also introduced a free housing scheme for widows and the poor.
Known as the Arise Shelter Initiative, the scheme plans to deliver 100 homes for the poorest of the poor in the 31 LGAs. The gesture was first introduced by Mrs Unoma Akpabio as a pet programme of her NGO when her husband was governor, but the incumbent governor has upgraded it into a government programme.
It all started when Gov. Eno watched a video of a young girl celebrating the completion of her NYSC with her aged father at home in Obubra, in neighbouring Cross River. Reports say the governor was so moved by the wretchedness of what passed as her family home that he ordered a brand new three-bedroom house to be built for her father.
Civil servants are not left out. Some 150 of them are getting free housing units out of the 236 apartments being built at Grace Housing Estate in the outskirts of Uyo.
Of all these, I detest pilgrimage sponsorship and offering free football tickets whenever the Super Eagles play at the state-owned Godswill Akpabio Stadium. It happened last Friday when the national team played against South Africa in a 2026 World Cup Qualifying game. The three categories of tickets cost N1,000; N2,000 and N3,000. These are quite affordable to the people, but the government chose to pay over N40 million to the NFF to buy off the tickets and fill up the 30,000 seats in the iconic stadium.
This is an ill-advised policy that was started by the Akpabio administration. Gov. Udom Emmanuel continued with it and now it would seem that it has become an agenda of the government. Over N600 million might have been spent on free tickets since the stadium was built ten years ago. We have to scrub the practice because the disadvantages are many.
In the first instance, watching football games (or any other games) at the stadium is a luxury pastime. It is not a necessity that the poor needs to survive. It is, therefore, wrong for the government to fund a hobby or lifestyle for people who can afford it. Second, the tickets are quite affordable and football fans in the state and neighbouring states can afford them.
Third, by asking Akwa Ibom people to go watch the games free, the government is unwittingly shutting out those who are able and willing to pay for the tickets, including hundreds of fans who would have come from Calabar, Benin, Aba, Port Harcourt and other places with enough money to buy the tickets and spend on hotels accommodation. Think of the economic benefits lost. By hosting the UEFA Championship league final last week at Wimbledon, the London economy is said to have gained $68 million.
Putting people on football welfare encourages indolence and is antithetical to basic economics and business principles. I understand the assumptions behind this practice. Football is the people’s favourite hobby, and whenever the national team is in an international competition, it deserves our support at the stadium. The government probably believes that the people are too poor to afford N1,000 ticket; and that it owes us a duty to provide the opium that football matches have become in these difficult times. That’s not true.
Truth is the games are organized by FIFA and it is the duty of the NFF to market and sell the tickets. Akwa Ibom government has done enough by providing the stadium free to the NFF who should actually be paying handsomely for its use. The stadium was built at a great cost and is maintained expensively by international facility managers. That is why it is still as beautiful as it was when it was completed in 2014.
This is not your typical federal government assets that are rotting away all over the country because of quota-driven incompetence. Akwa Ibom has done well for itself in just 15 years. We have an iconic stadium; we have a splendid airline; we have our own airport, with a first-class international terminal and an MRO soon to be put to use. We must benefit from these assets.
Football is a huge global business. It was wrong to have started this football welfare. Now, it may be difficult to wean the people off it, but we must do it. I implore the government to engage a reputable marketing communication firm to drive corporate advertisements for the stadium and discontinue the practice of giving out free football tickets. Interested fans can buy for themselves.
Dauda Lawal, governor of Zamfara, says President Bola Tinubu is not getting proper security briefing on the operations of bandits in the state.
After meeting with the president on March 26, Lawal described Zamfara as the “centre of banditry” in northern Nigeria.
He said the spate of insecurity in Zamfara may consume the northern part of the country if not urgently addressed.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Tuesday, Lawal said if the government is committed, banditry could be eradicated in two weeks.
“While we are trying to take care of the situation, somebody, somewhere, somehow, behind our back, is negotiating with bandits… as a governor of a state, without my knowledge,” he said.
“When the situation really got bad, I had to meet Mr President and complain one-on-one, and I told him the true situation of what Zamfara is facing in terms of security.”
When asked if he believes the president is “properly briefed” on the actual state of things, the governor said: “Based on the conversation we had, the answer is no. And I had to explain everything to him, what we are going through and what needs to be done.
“Zamfara state has become the hub of banditry in northern Nigeria. If you can take care of Zamfara today, believe me, you’d have solved 90 percent of the banditry issue in northern Nigeria as a whole.
“If we are committed, if we are serious, we can take care of this situation within two weeks maximum. But the political will is not there.”
THE STATE POLICE DEBATE
Lawal said as a governor, he does not have control over the military, police or personnel of the civil defence.
He said such a situation has rendered his government helpless in suppressing the operations of bandits in Zamfara.
“In most cases, you get frustrated in terms of where do you get help from,” he said.
“When you need these people, they would be nowhere to be found. And therefore the best thing to do is to set up that kind of security outfit.
“There are a lot of security undertones in the security issues. Some of you find it difficult to come and say but I know what we are going through. But like I said, sometimes you are helpless and when you need them they are not there or even when they are there, they are given certain instructions on what to do and not to do.”
Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in 2023, says South Africa’s recent election was hitch-free and devoid of technical glitches.
Obi made the claim on Saturday while making comparisons between the elections in Nigeria and South Africa.
“The outcome of the recent South African election results remains a shining example of what a transparent and efficient democratic electoral process should look like,” the former Anambra governor tweeted.
“With about 60% voter turnout, over 90% of polling open on time, allowing diaspora voting, the results and updates were real-time without any form of technical glitches during the election.
“This demonstrated the robustness and transparency of their system. The seamless online dissemination of results further highlights their commitment to democratic principles and technological advancement.”
South Africa’s national and provincial elections were held on May 29. Later that same evening, results began to trickle in with the outcome eventually announced on June 2.
The elections grabbed global attention as the ruling African National Congress (ANC) lost the majority of seats needed to win the country’s parliament, forcing it into a coalition.
It is the first time the ANC, which has been in power since the end of apartheid in 1994, would fail to secure a majority of the votes.
President Cyril Ramaphosa accepted the outcome, saying it reflected the people’s wish.
Ramaphosa’s smooth concession earned him commendations from political stakeholders in and outside the country, including Obi.
But how factual were Obi’s claims in his observations?
CLAIM 1: SOUTH AFRICA’S ELECTIONS WERE HITCH-FREE
Verdict: False
One of Obi’s claims was that there were no technical glitches during the election.
This is incorrect.
In the early hours of May 31, the results page of the country’s Electoral Commission (IEC) went blank for roughly two hours.
The IEC apologized for the glitch without citing a reason for the disruption but assured that results were not compromised.
The development did not sit well with the uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party backed by former President Jacob Zuma which accused the IEC of “serious transgressions”.
Zuma claimed that the MK party has “proof” that vote-rigging allegedly went on “in the background” when the IEC dashboard crashed, threatening that his supporters would be provoked if the results were not amended.
CLAIM 2: ‘60% VOTER TURNOUT, DIASPORA VOTING’
Verdict: Partly correct
Obi claimed that the elections had a 60 percent voter turnout.
The turnout was a steep decline from the 66.05 percent recorded in the 2019 national elections.
However, Obi’s claim of diaspora voting was correct.
The IEC has been mandated to organise out-of-country voting since 2009 and the process was also used for last month’s election.
Citizens who wish to vote out-of-country must be registered to vote and must be able to produce a South African identity document (ID) when voting at an international voting station at an accredited mission.
VERDICT
Obi’s claims about the South African elections being hitch-free were mostly false. The elections had hitches and the voter turnout was lower than 60 percent. However, diaspora voting was in place.
The Correspondent Chapel of the Kano State Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) has declared boycotting all activities related to the Kano State Government, effective immediately.
This development followed an emergency congress meeting summoned by the Chairman of the chapel, Aminu Ahmed Garko, on Monday.
The outcome of the meeting attended by the correspondents was unanimously taken in response to the persistent and unacceptable maltreatment of members of the chapel in the state by the government and its agents while discharging their primary assignments.
The resolution reads: “Despite our efforts to engage with the government and its officials to address these issues, we have seen no improvement in the situation.
“Members of the chapel continue to face harassment, intimidation, and even physical assault while performing their duties.
“It is particularly concerning that the government has prioritized non-professionals over trained journalists, making it a state policy to sideline those who are best equipped to handle the job.
“As a result, we regret to announce that we will no longer participate in press conferences, cover government events, or conduct interviews with state officials until we see a tangible commitment to press freedom and the safety of journalists.”
The chapel urged all members to comply with this directive and join in the protest against the ill treatment of members in Kano State.
“We believe that a free and independent press is essential to a functioning democracy, and we will not stand idly by while our members are mistreated and intimidated,” the resolution concluded.
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