GboyegaD: I am trying to do some investments in monetary instruments however, to keep the value of the money, I am planning to keep them in USD. For those very conversant with the Nigerian Money Market, what bank would you suggest I go with?
I have written to Standard Chartered and I am yet to get a response from them. With Stanbic IBTC, the documents they are asking for KYC threw me off. They asked for the list of post-secondary institutions I attended, all the places I have worked, and a few other things I feel are very mundane without asking for evidence on the main source of funds which makes me bother if they are really serious or they are just out to pissing people off.
Bump. @GboyegaD,
I recently noticed some sponsored ads in my YouTube timeline indicating that the international bank with branches in Nigeria [Ecobank] now offers savings accounts denominated in USD. You can check that out if it fits into your financial needs of keeping the value of your money in USD.
Those demands from Stanbic IBTC seem invasive and off-putting but then again, I'm aware that the bank is a big-ticket financial institution and they offer special bank accounts which individuals can open with N1 billion and above deposits. The KYC will definitely be important to them for such big-ticket clients.
bolaayenimo: "As long as anybody has Yoruba roots, was born in Lagos and has the love of Lagos State at heart, then you can be the Governor or Deputy Governor"
I agree with the facts you stated here.
@bolaayenimo I appreciate your positive feedback right above to my post.
This one thing in shawarma can destroy you Aproko Doctor TV • May 30 2026 #AprokoDoctor #ProcessedMeat #ColonCancer That shawarma in your hand looks completely innocent. But there is one ingredient inside it that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has officially said causes cancer just like in cigarettes. And nine out of ten Nigerians eating it right now have absolutely no idea.
In this video, Aproko Doctor breaks down the truth about what processed meat is doing to your stomach year after year, quietly, before anything grows wrong.
In this video, we discuss: → Why the WHO classified this dangerous ingredient as a Group 1 cancer causing substance in 2015, the same category as tobacco and asbestos. → The exact maths: what 50 grams of eating this meat every day actually does to your colon cancer risk. → Why colon cancer that used to be an old person’s disease is now showing up in Nigerians in their 20s and 30s. → How our food changed completely in one generation → The one sentence to say at any shawarma stand that protects you without giving up your shawarma. → What pregnant women specifically need to know before touching another sausage roll.
This is not about fear. It is about information they will never put on the package. Watch till the very end and then share it with that your friend who always orders double sausage.
"Avocado Banana Ice Cream Recipe - Healthy Cooking Web Series - Season 1, Episode #3"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7KyHdU3aU0 Healthy Cooking With Jack - Web Serie • Sep 25 2014 In today's cooking episode of this groundbreaking healthy cooking show, Chef Jack shares a cool, neat dessert recipe: Avocado Banana Ice Cream! Yum!!!!
All natural. Vegan. Free from any animal products. The ingredients...just fruit and soy milk!!!
Welcome to HEALTHY COOKING WITH JACK, an innovative, groundbreaking cooking show, where Chef Jack shares great nutritious and mouth-watering recipes that help with weight loss, health, nutrition, diet and a healthy lifestyle. While having fun doing it!!!
Recipe👇 Ingredients 1 cup of chopped avocado 2 medium bananas, sliced 1/2 cup milk (dairy or non-dairy) 1–2 tbsp honey
Instructions Add the avocado, banana slices, milk, and honey to a blender. Blend until smooth and creamy. Pour the mixture into a freezer-safe container.
Freeze for 2–3 hours, or until firm. Let it sit at room temperature for about 5 minutes before scooping and serving.
🇺🇸 U.S. national debt hits $40T. What's the secret to keeping the borrowing going? 💵 U.S. financial hegemony. 💰 Borrow new money to pay the old bills & kick the can down the road -- sounds like a perfect plan. 🌍 But what if the can hits others? And how long can it keep… pic.twitter.com/ATj1I2xbGZ
When we worship a god that do not look like us, and that gave its permission and consent for his Arab people to carry out a highly cruel TransSaharan Slavery against Black people, are we surprised that today Arab countries continue that destruction of the Black Race? Hiding it under religion to instigate Terrorism in Africa.
Well, with the help of the true God, what Arab countries are doing against Africans is being exposed. So the eyes of Africans are being opened to see who the enemy is and the Instrument the enemy uses in these evil schemes of theirs.
#DeArabizeAfrica #BlackLIBERATION
Bump.
The de-Arabization of Africa isn't gonna be completely possible because they already have their biological footprints and religious ideologies on that continent called Africa ever since those Arabs moved out of their ancestral homelands in the Arabian Peninsula 1300 years ago into North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) via Morocco after the death Mohammed.
FSBoperator: So the collapse is begining with cracks now showing within the US domestic energy supply system.
An international airport in Buffalo, New York state just issued a notice to air man report (NOTAM) over non availability of Aviation fuel.
Note that Buffalo Airport, NY is an international airport that serves also as an alternate aerodrome to John F. Kennedy Intl, airport.
The airport processed over 77,000 flights last year ferrying over 5 million passengers so it isn't some low traffic airport .
This is just one of several supply gaps showing up in the US with more to come.
Seems no matter how much Trump lies about the Straits of Hormuz being opened to traffic and now under US sovereignty just to keep the markets calm, such pronouncements can not automatically fill up the inventory gap of 30 million barrels of crude being cut off the global market.
This is how the Soviet Union slowly began to crack.
First a few shortages here and there until there was shortages of everything.
The US strategic oil reserves are getting drained to meet the domestic needs to cushion the drop in global oil supply but this isn't a viable solution as the US dept of Energy has warned that the reserves are getting critically low which could trigger the salt caverns holding the reserves to collapse.
Official estimates state the reserve is being drained at about 5 million barrels weekly but this is false as the US domestic demand stands at 15 million barrels daily and so the volume being removed is far higher than reported.
Also consider that crude prices are going up and Trump's own Treasury Secretary admitted on live TV recently that he doesn't know why crude prices are going up.
Add the precarious US treasury bills that are now being ditched with the US Treasury being the only one buying them back with fiat currency, and you have major cracks showing in the US economy and energy sector .
An inventory gap or short-fall of 30 million barrels is huge!
FSBoperator: When asked by a reporter on what he is doing to address the US bonds crashing owing to no one wanting to touch it, Trump said he will activate the US military to secure US bonds.
Now a pedestrian response will be that Trump has gone bunkers or suffering from dementia to make such a statement and one will ask how can military might be used to secure a sovereign debt instrument like the US Treasury bonds?.
But Trump isn't speaking like the idiotes he is.
He meant every word he said by stating he will explore US military intervention in getting US bonds to be accepted by other countries.
A little background for the ignorami crowd here on NL....
1. Since Russia was kicked out of the western liquidity markets, Russia has now totally de-invested from the USD and other sundry western investment instruments. This has seen the world's richest resource country now completely bypassing US and western liquidity markets in preference to investing in currency swap deals within BRICS alliance.
All that Russian exports of raw materials and oil is now being traded outside the USD and far from the financial markets in the west.
2. China has stopped investing in US bond markets although they still hold a significant amount in US securities but it has fallen sharply from its high of $1,2 Trillion in 2013 to just under $625bn - a whopping 50% drop.
China has been slowly selling off it's hold on US debt these past 13ys and is no longer buying US bonds.
3. Japan holds the highest US debt at around $1.3 Trillion. But economic recession occasioned by low exports (due to stiff completion from Chinese EV exports) and high trade deficit has put Japan in tight financial straits that they needed to sell some of their US bonds to buoy their declining Yen currency. The US Federal Reserves wasn't having that but instead limited Japan's liquidation to just $3bn worth of Treasury bills which the Feds bought by themselves since no one wants to touch US Treasury bills . This didn't help Japan in anyway as it was a band aid solution to an axe wound on the skull.
4. Gulf Kingdom states were investing heavily through private companies in not just US stock markets but also US bonds . Their consistent purchasing order due mostly possible from oil sales was guaranteed and was one of the reason why US bonds were in demand. With the closure of the straits of Hormuz by Iran all that sweet oil money isn't coming in and going back to propping US sovereign debt.
5. US total debt rose to record $40 Trillion dollars with a daily interest repayment of $3bn. The current US debt at $40Trillion (and climbing) is now twice of US GDP. If any country had this bad credit rating and debt burden on relative terms, no one would loan them money anymore.
All 5 of the reasons above is why US Treasury began increasing rates on their treasury bills to attract investors but no one is coming.
If the US can't secure bonds , it goes to say it will be lights out for it.
The US is like your average American who lives pay check to pay check and depends heavily on credit card debt to get through the month.
Once that credit facility increases in interest rates or is outrightly cut , such an individual will automatically become destitute.
That is the current situation playing out in the US govt which relies on credit lines to keep the lights on.
So the situation is really desperate for the US as things stand.
Increasing interest rates will only cause more debt and future inflation by spilling into the domestic debt market. Interest rates will increase and average Americans will pay more on their already maxed out credit cards than they used to.
So when Trump says he will explore using the military he isn't talking as someone whose only tool available is a hammer and every problem a nail , Trump really means something more sinister.
The US military has been the arm twister that forced most of the world into its Petrol dollar hegemon.
The USD is the global currency not out of choice but by pure military force and decree.
Any country that refuses to trade their exports in USD and keep reserves in same USD will automatically qualify for Freebombs aka Freedom wars.
Qaddafi , Assad , Chavez and Iran have one thing in common , they rejected USD as a primary.means of trade and as a reserve currency.
So when Trump says he will use the military to secure US treasury bills , he means getting smaller countries to all be forced to invest in long term US treasury bills in order to kick the can that is US insolvency down the line.
Ironic, that Trump being US President during its point of declaring bankruptcy is no surprising since Trump knows more than anyone how to file for bankruptcy..
Now if the US can not get enough countries to be forced to invest in US treasury bills , one thing is sure and that is the US will instigate third World war to bring about another global reset.
That is if they survive the war.
Whoa! A potential WW3 nightmare scenario to deflect total attention from the real issues.
Ruke1991: US embassy is not all about travel. It's also about hiding secret CIA assets, running covert millitary operations. It is a military base for CIA activities carrying out stealth surveillance, spy operations and phone tappings. The infrastructure may be built and made to operate as a secret military base under the guise of embassy. That's why it is the world largest US embassy. Iranian strikes recently hit a CIA base within the US embassy in Bahrain and report said secret CIA base are hidden in the US embassies. The US was shocked how Iran uncovered the exact location within the embassy the CIA base was hidden
Succinctly stated.
It's a well-known FACT that all the United States embassies in foreign countries are extensions of U.S. territory. Same applies to other nations' embassies or consulates.
With the shift of the HQ (global operations) of jihadi terror groups to the Sahelian Region of West Africa (after they got degraded in the Middle East by U.S. covert and overt military operations) the United States under the former President Joe Biden's administration had raised an Intel alarm in 2024 that jihadi operations in Sahelian West Africa (majorly in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger Republic, and the Lake Chad Basin) poses a direct threat to the United States homeland if allowed to spread... Hence the importance of this modern, BIGGEST consulate in Eko Atlantic.
First Nigerian Hospital To Introduce Technology That Allows Removal Of Prostrate Without Surgery Emerges
An Umuahia-based medical facility, Eleos Specialist Hospital has become the first hospital in Nigeria to commence Bipolar Enucleation of the prostate.
This is a new technological advancement that allows the removal of prostates completely irrespective of the size without opening up the body of the patient.
Older methods of achieving the same thing according to Dr P.E Ngwu, a Consultant Urologist and Laparoscopic Surgeon, include Holmium and Thulium Laser enucleation.
He said that unlike the conventional endoscopic methods for removing the prostate, with this method even the biggest of prostates will not need an open Surgery.
He added that this method also offers the advantage of very short hospital stay as patients go home a day or two after the procedure and also return to work much earlier.
The procedure he stated is also very safe and more affordable.
The hospital can be reached through the following means;
eddie7: The Nigerian Drone King Just Chose Ghana Over Nigeria. Here's Why You Should Be Terrified, and Thrilled.
Let me tell you something that should keep every Nigerian leader awake at night.
A 24-year-old founder from Nigeria just broke ground on Africa's largest drone factory. 34,000 square feet. 50,000 units a year. 120 engineering jobs.
He built his first factory in Abuja. His second, bigger, better, faster, is going up in Accra.
Not Lagos. Not Port Harcourt. Not the special economic zone in Lekki that took ten years to approve.
Accra.
The name is Terra Industries. The founder is Nathan Nwachuku. And he is quietly building the most important defence company you have never heard of, right under our noses.
Here is what is actually happening.
The Sahel is burning. Al-Qaeda and Islamic State affiliates conducted at least 89 drone operations between 2023 and 2025. In January 2026, suicide drones hit Niamey International Airport. Not a military base. A commercial airport.
African militaries have spent billions on Turkish drones, Bayraktars, Akıncıs, beautiful machines, to hit back. But here is the dirty secret no one tells you, they have almost no counter-drone defence.
You can buy a $500 commercial drone, attach an explosive, and fly it into a hydropower dam. Nigeria has dams. Ghana has dams. The entire continent is sitting on critical infrastructure that is basically naked.
Nathan looked at this problem and decided to build the solution himself.
The Archer VTOL. Long-range surveillance and strike. The Iroko UAV. Rapid tactical deployment. And then the Kama, the interceptor drone that does 300 kilometers per hour, designed specifically to hunt and kill other drones.
He raised $34 million in 2026. Two rounds. From 8VC. From Lux Capital. From Flutterwave's own CEO. The most-funded defence-tech startup in African history.
And then he did something that should embarrass every Nigerian policymaker.
He went to Ghana.
Because Ghana had the talent pool. Ghana had the political will to become a serious defence exporter. Those are his words, not mine.
Nigeria has the biggest economy in Africa. Nigeria has the most brilliant hackers, engineers, and tinkerers on the continent. Nigeria has a founder who wanted to build here.
But he is building his flagship factory in Accra.
Think about that. A Nigerian company. Nigerian technology. Nigerian ownership. Manufacturing in Ghana. Not because the capital left. Not because the engineers left. Because the enabling environment left.
The factory will create 120 engineering jobs. In Accra. The assembly lines will roll 50,000 drones by 2028. In Accra. The export hub for African defence, the continent's answer to Anduril and Palantir, will be in Accra.
And we will be here, in Lagos, waiting for the next fuel subsidy debate.
Here is the part that should scare you.
Terra already protects roughly $11 billion in assets across eight African countries. Hydropower plants. Lithium mines. Oil facilities. They are not a startup, they are a sovereign defence partner.
They signed a deal with DICON, Nigeria's defence corporation, to set up a joint venture. They appointed a counter-insurgency specialist as VP of Military Relations. They are doing everything right.
But their biggest factory is in Ghana.
Because Ghana made it easy. Because Ghana wanted it. Because Ghana understands that the 21st-century arms race is not about tanks and fighter jets. It is about software-defined drones, autonomous interceptors, and who can manufacture at scale.
Ghana wants to be a defence exporter. Nigeria is still debating whether to let Flutterwave list on the NGX.
The gap is not technology. The gap is imagination.
Nathan Nwachuku is 24 years old. He has raised $34 million. He has built a drone that can intercept another drone at 300 kilometers per hour. He is protecting $11 billion in assets.
And he is building his biggest factory in Accra.
Not because he loves Ghana more. Because Ghana loved him first.
The question is not whether Terra will succeed. They already are. The question is whether Nigeria will wake up before the next Nathan chooses Rwanda, Kenya, or Côte d'Ivoire.
Because they are watching. And they are taking notes.
The Sahel is burning. The drones are coming. The engineers are ready. The capital is waiting.
The only thing missing is the will.
And Accra just proved it has it.
Nigeria, the ball is in your court. The factory is in Accra. The clock is ticking.
Terrified yet? You should be. Thrilled? Also yes. Because somewhere in Lagos, a 24-year-old is sketching the next great African defence company. The question is whether he will build it here or somewhere else.
This yam seller is either a far Northern Nigerian or from Niger Republic. This person ought to be urgently prosecuted and jailed for constituting a health hazard to Lagos State and Nigerians. In my 21 years of using this NL discussion forum, I've seen videos and read shocking articles of some of these Northern folks using the drainage or gutter water in parts of Lagos State and other Nigerian cities to store fruits such as oranges, carrots, peppers, and now yams! Enough is enough.
It's about time to use the radio stations in Hausa language such as the BBC Hausa Service to educate these semi-literates to desist from this habit. The same thing goes for some highly IRRESPONSIBLE farmers around Nigeria who use harmful cancer-causing chemicals to quickly ripen fruits and for eliminating weavils in stored beans.
Better to make purchases of fresh vegetables, fruits, meat, seafoods, and yams, etc, from reputable modern organic farms and shopping malls such as Spar Markets. Period.
See how the crowd in Bebeji LGA, Kano State, was asked, “Are you voting for Peter Obi?” They shouted, “Nooo!” Then they were asked, “Who are you voting for?” The response was loud and clear: “Sai Tinubu!”
TruthU87: Elon Musk has suffered the biggest ever loss of personal wealth after a dramatic fall in the value of SpaceX.
The trillionaire’s net worth dropped by $350bn (£264bn) in a week following a decline of almost 30pc in his rocket company’s share price from its peak last Tuesday.
The world’s richest man’s fortune has fallen from $1.45tn to just under $1.1tn, according to Forbes calculations.
Eriokanmi: Iwa, you know what ? We are not moved by their perpetual lies anymore. Things will change from next year as we're assiduously working towards it. There are must be a change of baton. A non-indigenes can not dictate to us how to run our state anymore. We're not moving forward as resources are landing in the hands of wrong people, who are mostly outsiders. They use us as stepping stones 99% of the time. Had hon falrke had his way, he'd be kogi governor. See how yayi drained us in lagos west and moved the money to ogun to nurture his political ambition.
Very soon, they'd come up with their usual deceit of 4th mainland bridge and state-owned airport in 3D as the election approaches. A ti gbon . Sanwoolu would be the worst governor to rule lagos by the time he finishes next year. In 2023 when he was growing lean , begging us he'll do better in his 2nd term, we considered him. I didn't like GRV cos of his controversial past so we voted sanwoolu. May God spare uncle Doherty's life. He's the next governor of our state. .
While I agree strongly with the brilliant original article from the journalist that Governor Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu and his team of Commissioners have to step up and develop a stronger sense of URGENCY in tackling obvious environmental degenerations and a lack of strong maintenance culture from government facilities managers in Lagos State, [I want to affirm here and now that YOU sometimes talk erratically and garrulously Eriokanmi!
Are YOU paternally an indigene of Lagos State as well? You have NEVER hidden the FACT here on NL that you are from Edo State so what's all the noise you are making here? You once told me and others before that you are from a Yoruba-speaking community in Edo State while your late mother has her roots on Lagos Mainland. Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu is an Ijebu man and Ijebuland extends right from the Ajah Area of the Lekki Peninsula to the 3 LGAs of Ikorodu, Ibeju-Lekki and Epe LGAs of Lagos State right across the border into Ijebuland in Ogun State. They are essentially the same people of the Yoruba people. Same with the Awori-Yoruba folks whose lands extend from the 17 LGAs out of the 20 LGAs in Lagos State right into Aworiland in Ogun State.
Doherty himself is ancestrally and paternally from Ilaro in Ogun State by ancestry BUT his direct male ancestor from a royal family was captured as a war prisoner in the 1800s. He was rescued by the British Navy patrol ship from an intercepted slave ship along the Atlantic coast while headed to the Americas, and that's how he and other captives were rescued and resettled in Freetown, Sierra Leone (just like it happened to Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther and others on that Portuguese slave ship heading for Brazil) before leaving Sierra Leone to resettle on Lagos Island in Yorubaland where the Doherty family house is located till date. The Doherty family history of the 1800s from Ilaro in Ogun State is well-known in the public domain, so quit talking glibbly about Governor Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu (who grew up on Lagos Island) not being an indigene of Lagos State (which YOU from Edo State are NOT!). As long as anybody has Yoruba roots, was born in Lagos and has the love of Lagos State at heart, then you can be the Governor or Deputy Governor. But I also believe that from here on out, the bonafide Lagos State indigenes of Ijebu/Remo, Awori, and Ogu extractions should start making themselves more visible to become Lagos State Governors while others can be Deputy Governors.
I remember back in the 1979 election cycle, Alhaji Abdulateef Jakande who was born into a Yoruba family from Kwara State on Lagos Island (just like the now President 'Bola Ahmed Tinubu was born on Lagos Island) to parents who were indigenes of Omu Aran in that same Kwara State had his hands raised up by the great Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo to endorse him as the Governorship Candidate of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) alongside Alhaji Jafojo who was an Awori indigene of Lagos State as his deputy. They won the election and NOBODY raised eyebrows back then. Just performance was all that was needed.
Former Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State too was born in Epe to a father from a royal family lineage in the Ilaje-Yoruba area of the current Ondo State. His father was posted by the Government of the Old Western Region of which Epe was a part of as a teacher. When he died, he had to be buried in Ilajeland and NOT Epe because his teacher biological father was from a respected royal family. Period.
That was indeed a very balanced and succinct article. I've observed the same "LACK of sense of urgency" from Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu and his Commissioners who have displayed lethargy in some areas of development. The over 100 electric and CNG fueled buses have NOT been delivered yet to the public as promised since the December 2024 delivery date. The Phase 1 of the fantastic "Epe Central Logistics Food Hub" project to was supposed to have been ready since May 2025 according to the FIRST EVER Lagos State Commissioner for Agriculture and Systems, Ms. Olusanya when she spoke to the media in early 2025 but the that too had NOT been ready yet so that food cost can drop by 50% of the current price by cutting of the middlemen.Lagos State residents have complained about the outrageously high rent costs and the Lagos State House of Assembly which claimed they are doing something about it haven't done anything to mitigate the rent challenges of those Lagos residents. There's just too much poosyfooting around when there should be a sense of URGENCY to deliver on campaign promises and get genuine votes from the citizens!
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu MUST take this fantastic article as a strong cue to perform BETTER and ensure that President 'Bola Tinubu himself gets significant votes in Lagos State in 4 months time because it's the good performance of the Governors in the APC-led States that would be used to transfer legit votes for the current Nigerian President. Babajide Sanwo-Olu MUST ALSO ensure that he follows the recent brilliant advice of Ben Murray-Bruce on how to deploy cheaper mass transportation in Lagos State so that residents can have more disposable income.
The use of massive numbers of CNG-fueled haulage trucks in Lagos, Ogun, and other States would ensure that cheaper food items are transported from the interior farm locations to the major markets in the city centers hence there would be NO need to increase workers' salaries when the citizens are able to conserve money they otherwise would have spent on buying expensive food items, paying daily for expensive transportation and high rents especially in Lagos State. Period.
dominique: Ex-Liberian VP Jewel Howard-Taylor's 2021 Meeting With Nigerian Socialites Obi Cubana, E-Money, Ned Okonkwo Resurfaces After Drug Trafficking Charges
The Nigerian socialites visited Monrovia in October 2021 as part of a trade mission that explored investment opportunities in Liberia, including real estate, tourism and other sectors.
Former Liberian Vice-President Jewel Howard-Taylor, who has been charged with drug trafficking, money laundering and other offences in connection with an alleged transnational narcotics network, hosted Nigerian businessmen and socialites Obi Cubana, E-Money and Kennedy “Ned” Okonkwo on a trade and investment mission in Monrovia in 2021.
Howard-Taylor was arrested on August 19, 2026, while attempting to leave Liberia through Roberts International Airport and was subsequently charged with offences including the unlicensed importation, sale, distribution and transportation of controlled substances, drug trafficking, criminal solicitation, criminal facilitation, criminal conspiracy and money laundering.
Her arrest and the charges have prompted renewed scrutiny on social media of her past political and business associations, including her 2021 meeting with the Nigerian delegation comprising Obi Iyiegbu, popularly known as Obi Cubana, Emeka Okonkwo, known as E-Money, and real estate entrepreneur Kennedy “Ned” Okonkwo, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Nedcomoaks Limited.
The Nigerian socialites visited Monrovia in October 2021 as part of a trade mission that explored investment opportunities in Liberia, including real estate, tourism and other sectors.
Contemporary reports described the delegation as a broader Nigerian trade mission invited by Howard-Taylor to explore investment opportunities in sectors including energy, education, youth development and real estate. Howard-Taylor also convened meetings between members of the delegation and Liberians involved in trade and commerce to discuss possible investment opportunities.
In a May 19, 2023 interview published by Global News Network Liberia (GNN Liberia) and conducted by Michael Adeboboye, then-Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor was specifically questioned about the controversy involving Nigerian businessman Obi Cubana and Sheik Bassirou Kante.
The interviewer referenced a May 10, 2022 report by FrontPageAfrica, which said Cubana had visited Liberia and held discussions with Howard-Taylor about a possible business partnership.
Responding, Howard-Taylor said Cubana’s visit was part of a broader trade mission involving people seeking business opportunities in Liberia’s tourism sector.
“As it relates to Business Tycoon Obi Cubana, he came to Liberia for the first time as mentioned in search of business opportunities in the tourism sector. He was a delegate on a trade mission with many others who had similar ideas,” she said.
“As one of the voices for showcasing Liberia’s many opportunities, I met the delegation and afforded them a chance to see Liberia as a great investment opportunity. I believe any patriotic citizen will take advantage to showcase their nation, try to attract investors and seek good and legitimate partnerships which will help Liberia’s economy expand.”
The account is also consistent with a November 2021 report by Nigerian writer Hope Eghagha, which described an African Children’s Talent Discovery Foundation (ACTDF) delegation to Liberia hosted by Howard-Taylor.
Eghagha specifically named Kennedy Okonkwo, Obi Cubana, Kcee and E-Money among those who attended a corporate lunch with members of Liberia’s business community. According to the account, discussions included proposals to build a five-star hotel and invest in agriculture.
Photographs from the meeting were widely circulated on social media at the time, showing the Nigerian businessmen with Howard-Taylor.
The meeting has now resurfaced on X and Facebook following Howard-Taylor’s arrest, with some users revisiting the delegation’s visit and describing it as a “legitimate trade mission.”
An X user, Roy Biakpara, who shared photographs from the meeting, wrote:
"Obi Cubana, Ned Okonkwo & E Money went to visit this same woman in late 2021 when she was Vice-President. Purportedly on a trade mission, discussing potential investments such as in tourism. She later confirmed hosting that same “delegation” to promote business opportunities.
“1 and 1 could be 2 or 11. The choice is yours.
“Me #ImWalkingAway.”
Another X user, Udeabor Chimezie, wrote: “It keeps getting messier.”
DEMON (@OlaYinkaDem) wrote: “I know their occupation nah that sources of income I want know.”
Nzesam (@MrSam_UJ) said, “What do you all think this (sic) men do for a living? Na them hustle pass or get business idea pass. Lo.”
Howard-Taylor’s Drug Charges
The development comes amid a major crackdown by Liberian authorities on cocaine trafficking.
According to the Liberian government, Howard-Taylor’s charges form part of an investigation into an alleged transnational narcotics network. She was detained after being stopped at Roberts International Airport as she attempted to leave the country.
Authorities have also charged three foreign nationals, two Croatians and a Ukrainian, in absentia over their alleged roles in the network and said they would pursue their arrest through domestic and international channels.
The charges followed Liberia’s seizure of several tonnes of cocaine worth hundreds of millions of dollars, although authorities have said the drug seizure and Howard-Taylor’s case are not connected.
Howard-Taylor served as Liberia’s vice-president under former President George Weah from 2018 to 2024.
She entered politics after her former husband, Charles Taylor, left power. Charles Taylor, a former rebel leader, was elected Liberia’s president in 1997 and remained in office until 2003.
He was later arrested and convicted by a UN-backed court of aiding and abetting rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone during the country’s 1991–2002 civil war, in which about 50,000 people died.
Howard-Taylor later became George Weah’s running mate and served as his deputy throughout his presidency.
The Liberian government has vowed to pursue everyone allegedly involved in the narcotics network, saying:
"No office is too high, no political connection is too powerful, no nationality provides immunity, and no individual is beyond the reach of the law," it said in a statement.
According to a recent BBC report, West Africa has increasingly emerged as a major transit route for cocaine trafficked from South America to Europe, with criminal networks exploiting porous borders and weaknesses in enforcement across parts of the region.
Investment › Re: Advice On Dollar Investment In Nigeria by AlphaTaikun: 2:57am On Aug 27
. Sanwoolu would be the worst governor to rule lagos by the time he finishes next year. In 2023 when he was growing lean , begging us he'll do better in his 2nd term, we considered him. I didn't like GRV cos of his controversial past so we voted sanwoolu. May God spare uncle Doherty's life. He's the next governor of our state. .