The Federal Government on Wednesday defended its $21.7bn supplementary external borrowing plan submitted to the National Assembly, describing it as a strategic investment programme rather than debt accumulation.
It revealed that the administration it succeeded had printed over N30tn, equivalent to more than $20bn at the time, and the country is still absorbing its inflationary impact.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, made the claim when he briefed State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu at the State House, Abuja.
Oyedele, who spoke on the state of the economy, had presented 10 memos, all of which were approved by the council.
The first, he said, was a €155.9m credit facility from Deutsche Bank and other banks to upgrade 132/33kV substations under the Presidential Power Initiative Phase One, which he said would improve power reliability for homes and businesses and lower energy costs. The second was a $970m syndicated term loan from Standard Chartered and the Africa Finance Corporation for rolling stock on the Karu–Maradi rail line, intended to boost freight, regional trade, and the Northern Economic Corridor while reducing logistics costs.
The third was a €76.8m credit from the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development to Bauchi State for a transport infrastructure development programme, covering rural and urban roads and farm-to-market access routes to support food security.
The fourth was an approval for non-intrusive inspection scanners for the Nigerian Customs Service to speed up cargo clearance, reduce smuggling and misdeclaration, and intercept contraband and small arms.
He explained, “As I said, there were 10 of them. I’ll just briefly speak to about four of them. One of them was a 155.9 million euro credit from Deutsche Bank and some other banks directed at upgrading about 132/33 kV substations and a few other ones. There are five of them, actually, five new ones under the Presidential Power Initiative Bash One. Essentially, this is a government intervention that will help ensure more reliable power for homes and businesses and lower energy costs.
“Another memo was with respect to a $970m syndicated term loan by Standard Chartered Africa Finance Corporation on rolling stock for the Karu-Maradi rail line. What is the essence of this? This will give us shipper freight, regional trade, the Northern Economic Corridor and lower prices for logistics, inflation and price levels.
“Another one was 76.8 million euros. This is from the ECOWAS Bank, and it is credit to Bauchi State for the Transport Infrastructure Development Programme, and this is going to help us with rural and urban roads, and to build farm-to-market access roads that will help with food security.
“And finally, council approved the investment in a non-intrusive inspection scanner for technical support, repairs, and maintenance to the Nigerian Customs Service. What is the essence of this? It will help with faster cargo clearance, less smuggling, and less misclassification. And we can then detect when some evil people want to bring in contraband and dangerous small weapons to our country.”
On the $21.7bn supplementary external borrowing plan, obtained by our correspondent from a presidential aide, Oyedele pushed back against critics who had described it as debt, insisting that the Tinubu administration was simply investing in critical infrastructure.
“So, another part of this presentation is on the borrowing plan that was presented to the National Assembly. Altogether, if you convert the euro amount and add it to the dollar amount, it comes to $21.7bn. And we’ve seen some people with commentary saying that we are borrowing X, Y, Z.
“I’m pleased and excited to inform you that actually this does not qualify as borrowing. This qualifies as investment, and I will explain that to you in the next few minutes. Now, so what is this all about? This is an amount or a plan.
“First and foremost, this is a plan. It doesn’t even mean that we borrow all of it. So it’s a plan. The average lifespan of the project under this plan is five years, by the way. So, this means countries need to plan. You can’t be doing everything based on spontaneity and randomness. Now, these amounts, about $10.6bn out of it, are for investment in transportation infrastructure,” he explained.
According to the document, the plan covers 46 projects across 11 sectors, with 29 on concessional or blended terms.
Transportation led with $10.6bn, including sections of the Lagos–Calabar and Sokoto–Badagry highways and the Kano–Kaduna Metro Rail. Ten flagship projects accounted for 58 per cent of the total, at $12.5bn.
The social sectors, agriculture, energy, social protection, climate, and education, totalling $4bn, will be funded entirely on concessional terms.
According to the document, about $7.9bn will come from multilateral and bilateral development partners, led by the World Bank with $5bn at an average rate of 2.1 per cent.
The remaining 11 lender groups include regional development finance institutions, export credit agencies, and commercial banks.
For the commercial component, the average indicative rate is 7.8 per cent, below the 9.1 to 9.6 per cent yield on Nigeria’s November 2025 Eurobond.
Oyedele attributed the gap to credit rating upgrades by Fitch, Moody’s, and S&P.
He noted that $4.8bn of the total was for subnational and agency borrowing, with $3.3bn going directly to states and $1.45bn channelled through agencies and development finance institutions including the Bank of Industry, Development Bank of Nigeria, Transmission Company of Nigeria, and electricity distribution companies.
“The Federal Government has the constitutional duty to be the interface for all external borrowing. So when people say we are borrowing $21.7bn, they need to know that a significant chunk is for states, the FCT, and agencies, not for the Federal Government alone,” he said.
Drawing a comparison with private sector financing, Oyedele argued that the plan would generate returns well in excess of its cost.
He argued, “If Aliko Dangote was going to save money to build his refinery, it would not have been built in his lifetime. He had to take the financing to make it happen. $20bn is now listed in less than four years, and the value has more than doubled. This is exactly what we are doing for our country.
“There are people who will tell you borrowing is bad. You just need to ask them: in which country on this planet do you run an economy without borrowing? To the extent that you borrow one naira to create value of more than one naira, you should please borrow more.”
On food price stability, which was adopted by the council as a priority resolution, Oyedele said the Federal Government was pursuing a national approach coordinated with state governments under the National Economic Council’s 90-day action plan.
“The short term is to ensure that in the coming months, leading up to the end of the year, the price of the most important staple items, rice, yam, beans, maize, remains stable or comes down,” he said.
He said the government would map the gap between local consumption and local production to calibrate targeted imports, adding that only unprocessed brown rice would be imported to preserve local milling jobs and processing capacity.
Over the medium and long term, the plan envisaged expanded irrigation farming to allow year-round agricultural production, improved crop yields through science, and significant reduction of post-harvest losses.
“We will not only be food sufficient; prices will be stable and affordable, and we will export, and a lot of it will be processed before we export. There is nothing that says people cannot be rich doing farming. This is the level we are getting into,” Oyedele said.
Speaking earlier, Oyedele contrasted the state of the economy in May 2023, describing Nigeria as having been weeks away from a full economic collapse when the Tinubu administration took office.
He said, “Inflation was at 22.41 per cent, and our reserve was net of $859m, not even enough to cover one month of imports. We had a spread between the official rate and the parallel rate of over 60 per cent premium, enabling round-tripping by the highly connected, while businesses, including manufacturers, could no longer access foreign exchange.
“We had printed altogether over N30tn to spend, and the impact of that amount, at the time, this was more than $20bn, is what we are dealing with today in inflationary pressure. Debt service at the time was consuming 97 per cent of revenue, nearly 100 per cent, and about 27 states could no longer reliably pay salaries. They were owing arrears of pension and gratuities.”
He said without the reforms, Nigeria would have slipped into hyperinflation and a full currency collapse far more severe than the devaluation that has taken place.
On petrol subsidy removal, Oyedele traced the policy to 1973, noting that a litre of premium motor spirit sold for six kobo then and N195 when the subsidy was removed in 2023, a 3,050-fold increase over 50 years that never resolved the underlying problem.
“Each time we increased the PMS price, Nigerian people suffered for it, but no benefit came. This is the first time in that half-century that the problem has now been solved, and the benefits are now accruing to our country,” he said.
The minister said growth had accelerated from 2.74 per cent in May 2023 to 4.43 per cent as of the second quarter of 2026, more than 60 per cent improvement, and Nigeria’s dollar-term growth rate in the first half of 2026 stood at 17 per cent, placing it among the world’s fastest-growing economies.
“This is the reason why we are classified by the IMF as one of the top 10 countries in the world contributing to global GDP growth,” he said.
On inflation, Oyedele said the September 2026 print of 14.63 per cent was down from 20.98 per cent a year ago and from a peak of about 34 per cent at the height of the inflationary pressure.
He added that month-on-month food inflation had fallen by 1.55 per cent, describing it as deflation in food prices.
Foreign reserves, he said, had risen to an 18-year high of over $55bn, with net reserves now exceeding $45bn, up from less than $1bn three years ago, a 45-fold increase.
The naira, currently trading between N1,330 and N1,350 to the dollar, was projected to appreciate further.
“Even the IMF estimates that the naira is about 25 per cent undervalued. So anybody who wants to bet against the naira should make provision for their losses. The currency to hold is the naira, even more than the US dollar or pound sterling,” Oyedele said.
He said the tax-to-GDP ratio rose from barely 7 per cent in 2023 to about 12.5 per cent at the end of 2025, while the debt service-to-revenue ratio fell from 97 per cent to under 60 per cent and was still declining.
Federation Account allocation grew 44 per cent from 2024 to 2025, with a projected 50 per cent growth from 2025 to 2026, and a real growth rate, stripping out inflation, of over 80 per cent across the two years.
Internationally, he said Fitch, Moody’s, and S&P had all upgraded Nigeria’s credit rating, with outlooks recently adjusted from stable to positive. Nigeria had also exited the Financial Action Task Force grey list and the European Union’s deficiency list, he added.
Responding to what he described as a recurring question about the gap between macroeconomic improvements and the lived experience of average Nigerians, Oyedele cited a series of direct interventions.
He stated, “To date, we have N372.6bn disbursed through NELFUND to more than 1.5 million students, which means their parents and guardians do not have to worry about tuition and stipend. We have more than 10 million households that have received cash transfers worth more than N600bn, and the target is to reach at least 15 million households,” he said.
Over 800,000 micro, small, and medium enterprises had received single-digit subsidised loans, mostly through the Bank of Industry, he added. Also, low-income earners earning up to N100,000 per month had been exempted from personal income tax, while small businesses with annual turnover of not more than N100m, representing about 97 per cent of over 40 million small businesses, were exempted from corporate income tax, VAT obligations, and withholding tax deductions.
The minister also noted that the capital market had grown from about N30tn to over N160tn, a more than fivefold increase in three years, and that more than 90 per cent of capital market investors were small investors who had been granted capital gains tax exemptions.
Council, he said, adopted a resolution to target single-digit inflation by the end of 2027 or earlier, stabilise and reduce food prices, and sustain fiscal discipline through the election cycle.
Oyedele’s defence comes amid criticism of President Bola Tinubu’s request to the National Assembly for approval of the loan plan.
The presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Atiku Abubakar, the Makinde/Daura Campaign Council and others have criticised the Federal Government’s borrowing plan.
On Tuesday, Atiku urged the National Assembly to suspend consideration of the request until the Federal Government made public the projects the loans were intended to finance.
A seven-year-old boy, Abdullahi Rabi’u, has been found dead hours after he was abducted in the Majema area along Ring Road in Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State.
Narrating the incident, the victim’s uncle, Sukairaj Danladi Me Gado, said Abdullahi was sent on an errand to a neighbour’s house on Monday evening but did not return.
He said the family became concerned when the boy failed to return, adding that all efforts to locate him were unsuccessful.
Me Gado further explained that the family received a call from an unidentified number on Tuesday morning demanding a ransom of N2.5m and informing them that the victim had been kidnapped.
According to the victim’s uncle, the family had agreed to pay the ransom, but their hope of securing the boy’s release was shattered when news emerged later that his body had been found near their residence on Tuesday.
He said, “The boy’s body was reportedly discovered on Tuesday evening in a narrow passage near his family’s residence. The tragic incident has thrown the family and residents of the neighbourhood into mourning.”
The deceased’s uncle expressed deep sorrow over the incident and alleged that the perpetrators might be familiar with the neighbourhood, calling on security personnel to investigate, apprehend those responsible and bring them to justice.
The spokesperson of the state police command, SP Alfred Alabo, did not respond to inquiries from our correspondent as of press time.
VIDEO: Ahmed Zakka, who was abducted in Millennium City, Kaduna, is appealing for help in a heartbreaking video. He is being held alongside his wife and their baby by bandits.
A whole family in captivity, including an innocent baby😭
Ahmed Zakka, his wife and child, who were kidnapped from their house at Millennium City in Kaduna State, last week. A couple abducted alongside their six-month-old daughter from their residence in Millennium City, Kaduna State, have appealed to security agencies to secure their release.
They made the appeal in a viral video, showing the husband, Ahmed Abubakar Zakka, holding their baby while his wife sat beside him, with a gun pointed at him by one of the kidnappers.
The duo were abducted on October 6, 2026, when bandits attacked Alrahus Estate in Millennium City, Chikun Local Government Area of the state.
The attackers reportedly stormed the estate at about 11:30 pm and went from house to house in search of victims. Zakka, his wife and their infant daughter were abducted after the gunmen broke into their residence.
Speaking in Hausa in the 40-second video, Zakka said his captors were demanding N300m ransom to release the family.
“My name is Ahmed Abubakar Zakka. I’m seeking assistance. I was abducted on Monday around 11:30 pm, myself, my wife and our daughter at Millennium City. Please, we are seeking assistance because they are demanding N300 million. In the name of God, we are seeking assistance,” he said.
The video showed Zakka holding the crying naked baby, while his wife’s voice could also be heard pleading for their lives.
The bandits also abducted a pregnant woman, whose husband, Abdulkadir Bello, was away in Abuja at the time of the incident.
Bello said his wife called him around 11:30 pm and informed him that some people were trying to force their way into their compound.
He said he tried contacting the police but could not get through before reaching out to the military, which deployed personnel to the area.
Bello later confirmed that the assailants eventually took his pregnant wife and contacted him for a ransom.
The latest incident has intensified concerns over repeated attacks and abductions in Millennium City and neighbouring communities on the outskirts of Kaduna metropolis.
Barely five days before the attack, bandits reportedly killed a man identified as Sikiru and abducted his wife and son alongside six other people in the PW Babban Saura area. Sikiru’s wife, Hafsat, and their 14-year-old son, Abdulsalam, are still in captivity, while the bandits demanded a huge ransom.
Millennium City, Kaduna ‘Abducted couple had child 6 years after marriage’
A family member of Zakka, who pleaded not to be named, said the victims were both orphans who had been married for six years without a child before welcoming their six-month-old baby girl, Fatima, shown in the viral video.
“They were both orphans who lost their parents before they got married. They had been married for six years without a child before they were blessed with a baby girl, Fatima, six months ago,” he said.
The source said he grew up with Zakka in the same family house and that they had lived together during their teenage years. According to him, the victims relocated to the estate about a year ago.
“We grew up together in my family house and stayed together during our teenage years. We are pleading with the authorities to help secure their release unharmed,” he said.
Reacting to the video on Monday, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar called on security agencies to act swiftly to rescue Zakka, his wife, their baby and other Nigerians being held captive.
Atiku, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), in a post on his Facebook page, described the video as a painful reminder of the insecurity threatening lives and tearing families apart across the country.
“No Nigerian should have to plead for their life or the safety of their family in the hands of criminals. The thought of an infant caught in this ordeal is especially heartbreaking.
“I urge the relevant security agencies to act swiftly and decisively to secure the safe release of Ahmed Zakka, his wife, their child and every other Nigerian still held in captivity,” he said.
Atiku said kidnapping had compounded the hardship faced by Nigerians struggling with the rising cost of living.
“This tragedy comes as families are already struggling with the crushing cost of living. Nigerians are battling the rising cost of food, transport and other essentials; they should not also have to live in fear of being abducted in their homes or on the roads. Insecurity deepens hardship, disrupts livelihoods and leaves families bearing both emotional and financial burdens they can scarcely afford,” he said.
The former vice president urged the government to move beyond assurances and take sustained action to rescue abducted persons, protect vulnerable communities and dismantle criminal networks.
“The government must move beyond assurances and deliver an effective, sustained response: rescue those in captivity, protect vulnerable communities and dismantle the networks responsible for these crimes. Every Nigerian deserves to live, work and raise a family without the constant fear of violence,” he said.
He expressed sympathy with the Zakka family and others whose relatives remained in captivity, stressing that the protection of citizens must remain a priority.
“My thoughts and prayers are with the Zakka family and all families enduring the trauma of kidnapping. The protection of every Nigerian life must remain an overriding responsibility of the government,” he added.
No part of Millennium City is safe – Amnesty Int’l
Amnesty International Nigeria warned that no part of Millennium City in Kaduna State is safe, with armed men operating freely at any time of the day.
In a post on X, the organisation said attacks and kidnappings had increased in and around the neighbourhood.
It said, “Bandits and other gunmen operate in the area at any time, with utter impunity. On 19 August, gunmen invaded Kyauta area and abducted over a dozen people. Abductions take place in broad daylight.
“In some parts of the area, people are setting up vigilantes to defend themselves while others are abandoning their homes and moving out of the area to safety.
“No part of Millennium City Kaduna is safe now. People live perpetually in fear, always bracing for the next attack or abduction — or both. Some residents have to suspend the education of their children.
“Incessant killings, abductions and the stunning failure of the authorities to end them and bring suspected perpetrators to justice have been and continue to be a threat to the right to life in Kaduna State.”
Police arrest 12 suspects, recover AK-47 rifles
Meanwhile, the Kaduna State Police Command has arrested 12 people, including eight suspected kidnappers and four alleged informants, during security operations in Millennium City and Maraban Rido.
The command also recovered AK-47 rifles during the operations conducted in collaboration with other security agencies to tackle kidnapping and other criminal activities in the affected areas.
In a statement on Monday, the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Mansir Hassan, said the arrests followed intensified clearance operations, targeted raids and patrols in response to recent security challenges in the areas.
He identified the suspected kidnappers as Dauda Murna, Usman Abdullahi, Abubakar Sulaiman, Saleh Abdullahi, Usman Muhammed, Mathias Moses, Makama John and Tafarki Audu.
The four suspected informants were identified as Shuaibu Sabiu, Audu Makama, Simon Moses and Amadu Mathew.
Hassan said preliminary investigations indicated that two of the suspects allegedly confessed to leaking information about police operations to criminal elements.
He said the alleged disclosure of security movements and operations undermined efforts to combat crime and endangered the lives of security personnel and residents.
The police spokesperson added that investigations were ongoing to determine the extent of the suspects’ involvement, identify other accomplices and prosecute those found culpable.
He also disclosed that the Kaduna State Government had released three additional armoured personnel carriers (APCs) to the police command to strengthen its operational capacity in Millennium City and surrounding communities.
The Commissioner of Police, Muhammad Rabiu, also urged residents to remain vigilant and report suspicious movements to the nearest police station, noting that Millennium City was surrounded by forested areas on the outskirts of Kaduna metropolis.
The statement added that the commissioner had ordered the immediate deployment of additional tactical personnel, operational vehicles and other security resources to the affected communities to strengthen surveillance, improve response times and prevent further crimes.
Rabiu appealed to residents to remain calm and cooperate with security agencies by providing credible and timely information to help tackle kidnapping and other criminal activities.
Three sisters who drowned in the sea in Brighton collectively decided to end their own lives, a coroner has ruled.
The bodies of Jane Adetoro, 36, Christina Walters, 32, and Rebecca Walters, 31, all from London, were recovered from the sea off Brighton in the early hours of 13 May.
An inquest into their deaths heard on Thursday that in the days before they died, the three women made a trip together to Birmingham to visit the former home of their mother, who died by drowning in 2010.
The inquest at Woodvale coroner’s court in Brighton heard that the sisters travelled by taxi to Birmingham on 11 May and were dropped off at 11.36pm at Linton Walk. The address is close to Brookvale Park Lake, where their mother, Janice Adetoro, died. They were picked up to return to the flat they lived in together in Greenford, west London, at 1.28am on 12 May.
DCI Mark Cullimore, of Sussex police, told the hearing there was no CCTV to show what the women did in the time they were in Birmingham.
On the evening of 12 May, they took a pre-booked taxi to Brighton and arrived near the seafront at 10.21pm. They are thought to have last been seen alive on CCTV from the beach at 2.42am on 13 May.
The bodies of Jane Adetoro and Christina Walters were located by a RNLI lifeboat crew; Rebecca Walters’ body was recovered from the shoreline on Brighton beach.
The senior coroner Penelope Schofield told the court on Thursday: “In hours of darkness, they entered the sea at Brighton, they could not swim and sea conditions were adverse.”
A postmortem found all three women had drowned. There was no evidence of any drugs or alcohol in their bodies and no evidence to suggest they had been subjected to violence.
The coroner concluded that the medical cause of death for all three women was drowning and that they had died by suicide.
Schofield told the court: “These three sisters lived very secluded lives, they were incredibly private. We don’t know why they took this course of action or indeed why they chose to do it in Brighton. It is not for the court to speculate and sadly these reasons may never be known.”
The inquest heard that Christina Walters had suffered from anxiety and depression since her mother’s death, but no such issues were recorded for her sister Rebecca. Adetoro was not registered with a doctor.
The women’s father, Joseph Jacobson, who attended the hearing by video link, said in a written statement: “There are no words that can adequately express the pain of losing a child. To lose all three of my precious daughters, Jane, Christina and Rebecca, is a heartbreak beyond anything I could ever have imagined.”
He said he could not understand why their lives had ended so suddenly, adding: “You were my daughters, you will always be my daughters and I will love you for the rest of my life. May your beautiful souls rest in perfect peace.”
No wonder there is a proverb which says that a fØ0l and his money are soon parted.
Elderly people are queueing up to collect loaves of sliced bread from APC campaigners. Instead of giving to the poor or investing in a business that will elevate his status in society, he's digging himself into debt with compound interest to support a failing regime.
Biohacker Kate Tolo is doing world's first experiment on nighttime 'female erections' using 'techno tampon'
A biohacker known for having a ‘top one percent vagina’ has published the results of her latest study – documenting the nighttime female erection.
If you haven't heard of Kate Tolo before, you'll more than likely be aware of her boyfriend, Bryan Johnson, aka the man who transfused blood from his teenage son, documented the ‘de-ageing of his penis’ and poured millions into his goal of never dying.
Tolo herself is also a keen biohacker, sharing intimate details about her body in hopes of further understanding our medical knowledge of endometriosis.
And now Tolo has shared the results of her investigation into overnight arousal in women, collecting data via a device she refers to as a 'techno tampon'.
So what did she find?
Nighttime erection data, sexual dysfunction and heart health
For most people, erections are something traditionally believed to be a biologically male-exclusive experience, however this is not the case at all.
Recent studies have revealed that the clitoris not only contains tens of thousands of nerve endings but also the same erectile tissue as the penis. MRI studies have also revealed that the clitoris engorges by around 50 to 300 percent when aroused, which certainly sounds like a type of erection.
So why could measuring the female erection be important?
Erectile dysfunction in men is known to be a precursor to heart disease known as atherosclerosis, a condition where fat builds up in the arteries. However, this has never been tested on women.
Nighttime measurement of penile blood flow can also help understand whether or not erectile dysfunction is physical or psychological. If erections are recorded during REM sleep, it proves that the blood vessels and nerves are working as they should, meaning the issues are more than likely psychological. Again, these studies are yet to be replicated in women.
"I've tracked my nighttime erections for years," Johnson explained. "It's a tier 1 longevity marker [and] one of the best signals I've found for vascular health."
However, Johnson notes that his data is 'only useful for half the population', with the couple hoping the results of Tolo's research will determine whether or not the same applies to women.
"If nighttime genital blood flow predicts heart disease in women the way erectile function does in men, this is one of the most important measurements we're looking at," he added.
"Men's nighttime erections have been studied extensively for decades... Women's are barely measured."
While some of Johnson and Tolo's health experiments are more than a little left-field, measuring erection tracking data with your son or publishing the details of your vaginal microbiome to the world aren't activities which most people engage in, you can't deny that Tolo's work isn't revolutionary.
As the 30-year-old points out in her research data, studies surrounding female nighttime erections haven't evolved since 1975.
While Johnson can measure how many times he unconsciously stands to attention with a £207 ($275) publicly available smart sensor which connects to his phone via Bluetooth, Tolo's tracking method is a little more complex.
In order to conduct the experiment, she had to use a 5cm internal probe, which hasn't been updated since it was invented over five decades ago, which is taped to her leg and hooked up to lab equipment via a laptop. The laptop also has to stay on overnight otherwise the data is lost.
Price-wise, Tolo's device costs around £11,881 ($15,723.68) and isn't available on the high street.
"Men's nighttime erections have been studied extensively for decades... Women's are barely measured," Tolo said.
"If the data turns out to matter the way it matters for men, someone should build the device."
If Tolo's research revolutionises our understanding of women's sexual health, I promise to never laugh at Johnson's more bizarre studies ever again.
Mr Ote Dollar, so you actually want us to believe that the growth of our foreign reserves is due to Tinubu's "genius" when we all know that it is the result of Nigeria earning significantly more income from oil since 2022 as a result of the compounding effects of the Russia-Ukraine war, the Hamas-Israel war and the blockade/ closure of the Hormuz Strait by the United States Navy?
We are cursed with self inflicted ignorance in this country.
Billionaire businessman Femi Otedola said on Tuesday that he remains proud of President Bola Tinubu following what he described as his “bold and forward-thinking reforms”.
Mr Otedola posted a photo of himself and Tinubu on Instagram, saying they had a private dinner in Paris, France, Monday night.
According to Otedola, President Tinubu’s reforms have put the Nigerian economy “firmly on a path of sustainable growth”.
He continued in his post, “The results are increasingly evident top Nigerian companies now included on the FTSE Russell Frontier 50 Index, the NGX at historic highs, increased foreign direct investment and renewed economic confidence, a unified and more stable foreign exchange market, foreign reserves standing strong at about $55 billion, and so much more.”
“I remain proud of you, Mr. President!” Otedola added.
Tinubu is expected back in Nigeria on Tuesday following a four-week leave that began on August 30 when he departed Abuja for London.
After spending about a week in London, the president travelled to Paris, where he held meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron and businessman Vincent Bolloré, whose business interests include Canal+, MultiChoice and Universal Music Group.
The president, according to his aides, will arrive in Lagos on Tuesday where he will mark Nigeria’s 66th Independence Anniversary on October 1 before returning to Abuja at the weekend.
I was watching the UN General Assembly and I saw these two countries walk out as Bibi Netanyahu was addressing the Assembly along with all other muslim countries and a handful of liberal woke European countries.
The truth is, they need a common enemy to be united against or they will destroy themselves.
That has been their history right from the beginning.
If you look at the very earliest history of their religion, 3 out of the first 4 Caliphs or successors to their prophet were assassinated by their fellow believers.
One of the sons a a caliph called Husain was actually beheaded and his head was paraded as a trophy on the streets for hours.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has finally solved his Chicago problem. It is a dream come true for the president of the most populous African nation on earth: he is NOT coming to the United Nations General Assembly.
Yes! Yes! Yes! Not this year!
I know he didn't come last year. I know that he didn't come the year before.
But the United Nations' General Assembly gathering came and went all those years without him. All those pesky leftist reporters gathering in New York,sharpening their pencils and rehearsing questions about what happened many, many years ago in Chicago, can stand down.
No UNGA. No New York. No Chicago questions.
Tinubu is home free.
Sometimes, the best diplomatic strategy is simple: don't show up.
Nobody missed Tinubu last year! Nobody stood at JFK with a placard wondering, "Where is Nigeria's president?"
Okay, some of us missed him. Some of us had sewn our own version of his special agbada with the accompanying signature hat.
We missed him.
We missed the opportunity to listen to him inspire us with his oratory. (Apologies, Professor Femi Otubanjo)
We missed an opportunity to eat ewedu and amala in his presence.
What a blessing that would have been.
We missed an opportunity to have him break out into a quick Buga dance, with our kolokolo eye watching, not just what we see in a video.
Those who have been lucky enough to see it live say it is the most wonderful experience in the world.
We missed that, and many other possibilities, for real. Kai!
So far, Vice-President Kashim Shettima will most likely represent Tinubu at NUGA.
He did it for the last two years. It went well. No licking of his fingers to turn the page of his speech in front of the world.
No walking around the UN building like someone about to miss his step and fall.
(The UN people are so mean that they do not provide a minder to hold the hand of a president as he approaches the podium. A step Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Emmanuel Macron know if necessary when hosting Tinubu.)
Shettima may be boring, but he gets the important business of reading the speech done without hiccups. Nigerians do not hold their breath, fearful that he would let out one bulabula in the middle of the speech.
But who wants to party with Shettima? Not me!
He doesn't smoke Silk Cut. And looking at the way he doesn't give a hoot about restructuring, I doubt he has a sidechick. Such men are not fun to hang around with.
If Shettima dances for a minute, Boko Haram members in the buses of Sambisa will give up and surrender. Don't even talk about flashing a smile. Smiling, my foot!
All you need to know is that Shettima gets the job done. Be it at the African Union, BRICS, or VIP funerals, he has done so without calling anyone — a nice man who should be selling popcorn and ice cream instead of leading.
I am willing to wait for Tinubu's triumphant return to America. After all, Tinubu has four more years left for him to come and speak at the UN, if he plays his cards well. By playing his cards well, I mean handling the little Chicago matter. To be fair to him, he has done well so far.
In fact, it was going to be a done deal if not for one stupid lobbyist whose name I do not want to mention because he loves to sue people and I don't have the money to hire a lawyer.
Tinubu really worked hard to be at the UN this time. But the universe did not align. He gave and gave. Anything they asked for, he gave. Send Okezie Ikpeazu to Spain; he signed off. Send Reno Omokri to Mexico; he signed off. Get Peller and Jarvis to marry; he made it happen.
The media even published a report about the memorandum of understanding that Tinubu was going to sign at the sidelines of the UNGA in New York City. It would have been perfect: Trump and Tinubu on the same stage. All newspapers in the world would have captured the handshake of the two men of timber and calibre for eternity. That would have made Tinubu's 2027 re-election win a foregone conclusion.
But there was a little problem. The same silly Chicago problem. Unconfirmed reports had it that the world media had been prepped, and they were salivating with unflattering headlines of Trump shaking hands with a leader of a "shithole" country, a man with questions to answer about drug money forfeitures. These are things that can make Trump send special forces to a country to pick up such a leader.
Trump did not care, personally. He was okay with announcing the rare earth minerals he had secured from Nigeria and the Zamfara gold to be used in decorating his new White House ballroom. He believed that talking about tonnes of lithium coming from Nigeria soon would dull all criticism around meeting Tinubu.
He was sure his MAGA base would not care about Nigeria's president's little "infractions" in Chicago in the 1990s. After all, they do not care about the Epstein files and the pedophiles walking around the US, free. Trump was only worried about the pesky leftist media. CNN, MS NOW, and Politico. He wished he could ban them so they would stop putting their noses into his affairs. Luckily, some people begged Trump.
His aides told him to wait until after the midterm election so he would not be blamed if American voters choose not to re-elect Republicans. Because Trump doesn't like to be blamed for anything that goes wrong, he relented.
He can meet Tinubu after the midterm. He may even offer a state visit if Nigeria's quantities of rare earth minerals, gold, and lithium make the Chinese cry like babies.
So, for those mocking Tinubu, the Jagaban will have the last laugh. His triumphant reentrance into America was only delayed. Remember that the stone the builder delayed using becomes the one on which the front door eventually rests. (Trump 7, Verse 7)
Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo teaches Post-colonial African History, Diasporic African Literature, and African Folktales at the School of Visual Arts in New York City..
And this is one of the pivotal doctrines of that global faith:
Sahih al-Bukhari 2658 Narrated Abu Sa`id Al-Khudri:
The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Isn't the witness of a woman equal to half of that of a man?" The women said, "Yes." He said, "This is because of the deficiency of a woman's mind."
What a faith!
ola20ng: From One Man in the Desert to a Global Faith: The Divine Promise Behind the Rise of Islam
“It is He who has sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth to manifest it over all religion, although those who associate others with Allah dislike it.” (Qur’an 61:9)
This verse makes a profound claim: Muhammad ( May peace be upon him) was not merely a man who created a religion; he was a Messenger sent by Allah with guidance and the true religion. Allah further declares that He would cause this religion to prevail despite the opposition of its enemies.
The historical development of Islam provides a remarkable context in which to consider this declaration.
From One Man to a World Religion
Islam did not begin in the capital of a powerful empire. Muhammad ( S. A. W.) began his mission in Makkah, in seventh-century Arabia, without an army, empire or sophisticated political institution. He proclaimed a message of pure monotheism in a society deeply attached to established religious and tribal practices. His message was fiercely opposed. He and his followers endured ridicule, persecution, social pressure and attempts to suppress the new faith. Yet the message survived. After the Hijrah to Madinah, the Muslim community became increasingly organised, and within a remarkably short historical period Islam expanded beyond Arabia. Muslim forces confronted and defeated territories belonging to two of the great powers of the period, the Byzantine and Sasanian empires and Islam subsequently spread across large parts of the Middle East, North Africa, Persia and beyond. What began as the preaching of one man in an Arabian desert eventually became a civilisation extending across continents.
The Qur'an Had Already Announced the Outcome
This is where Qur’an 61:9 becomes particularly striking. The Qur’an does not merely say that Muhammad ( S. A. W.) would preach a message. It says:
“He is the One who sent His Messenger…”
The source of the mission is Allah.
Then it says:
“…that He may make it prevail over the religions, all of them…”
The Qur'an therefore presents the eventual establishment and widespread manifestation of Islam as part of Allah's purpose for the Messenger's mission. And the historical record presents an extraordinary correspondence with that declaration.
Islam did not disappear when Muhammad ( S. A. W.) died in 632 CE. On the contrary, it continued to expand, establish communities and influence societies far beyond Arabia.
Islam Did Not Remain an Arab Religion
Perhaps one of the most significant aspects of this development is that Islam did not remain confined to the people among whom it began. Today, Muslims are found across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America and Oceania. The largest Muslim populations are not even concentrated in the Arabian Peninsula. Countries such as Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Nigeria contain enormous Muslim populations. This is important because Islam's global presence cannot simply be reduced to Arab nationalism or ethnic expansion. The religion crossed linguistic, ethnic, cultural and geographical boundaries. A message that began in Arabia became a faith embraced by people who had no connection to the Prophet's tribe, language or homeland.
Nearly Two Billion Followers
The scale of this development is remarkable. Pew Research Center estimated that the world's Muslim population reached approximately 2 billion in 2020, making Islam the world's second-largest religious group.
One may claim that numbers alone do not prove divine revelation since other religions have millions or billions of adherents. Agreed, but consider these circumstances:
# Islam began with one man.
# He preached in a relatively remote Arabian society.
#He faced intense opposition from his own people.
# His followers suffered persecution.
# His message survived his death.
# It spread beyond Arabia with extraordinary speed.
# It confronted established religious and political systems.
# It crossed ethnic and geographical boundaries.
# It developed into a civilisation spanning continents.
# Fourteen centuries later, approximately two billion people identify with the religion.
All of this is considered alongside the Qur'anic declaration that Allah Himself sent the Messenger and would cause the religion he brought to prevail.
Muhammad ( S. A. W.) did not begin with the resources normally associated with the establishment of a world religion. He did not inherit an empire. He did not command a global institution. He began by calling people to worship one God and accept him as His Messenger. Yet the message survived its founder, crossed the boundaries of Arabia and became one of the world's largest religious traditions.
For Muslims, this is not an accidental historical development. It is consistent with the Qur'an's repeated declaration that Allah sent Muhammad ( S. A. W.) and would establish the religion of truth despite opposition (61:9; 9:33; 48:28).
Be honest. The statement that women are mentally deficient comes from a very important source in Islam:
Sahih al-Bukhari 2658 Narrated Abu Sa`id Al-Khudri:
The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Isn't the witness of a woman equal to half of that of a man?" The women said, "Yes." He said, "This is because of the deficiency of a woman's mind."
Kinikini: Actually, men in the West have the same opinion. It has nothing to do with Islam. The comment was a personal opinion of the Afghan governor. I am not just saying it to appease the Islamophobic gang. The Prophet learnt trade from his first wife, Khadijah.
The Afghan Taliban are Muslims just like the Iranians. The Taliban kept their woman uneducated while Iran educated theirs. The current state of Afghanistan and Iran tells which one is right or wrong. Iran is standing in science and tech, while Afghanistan is wallowing in poverty.
So essentially, you're saying that the Islamic brotherhood of prophets idea is more of a spiritual concept than a biological one?
ola20ng: Your alleged error with Moses and Aaron being from the same mother comes from a semantic misunderstanding. “The prophets are brothers of different mothers” is an idiomatic analogy, not a universal genealogical proposition.
The expression refers to paternal half-brothers and is being used metaphorically to show that the prophets share one fundamental religious origin, even though their particular laws, circumstances and communities differ.
So, Moses and Aaron having the same biological mother does not contradict the hadith, because the hadith is not saying that every prophet must have a different biological mother from every other prophet. This interpretation of yours turns an analogy into a literal genealogical claim.
In simple terms, your mistake is a category error: taking a figurative comparison and treating it as a literal historical statement. It is also an example of semantic literalisation, where the wording is interpreted more literally than its context and intended meaning require.
So what are the lessons in semantics? Moses, Aaron and their sister Miriam are the only children of Amran and his wife Jochebed. So why would Allah claim that all prophets do not have the same mother?
ola20ng: This is not the issue of being honest. No Muslim will deliberately claim what has no evidence in the Qur'an, Hadith or Islamic histories. Anybody can misquote or misinterpret.
There is no error in the quoted Hadith. It's you that need some lessons in semantics.
I see. Well, at least you seem to be more honest than most of your co-religionists.
The hadith which your fellow muslim shared actually has one glaring error. According to your Prophet, all Prophets are brothers but they have different mothers. I thought Moses and Aaron are considered to be Prophets in your religion. Moses and Aaron have the same mother. So clearly, this hadith is wrong even if we're going by the logic of your religion.
ola20ng: You came late. There's nothing like that. Those are friendly jabs between me and the fellow.
True. Even in the hadith collection it is referred to as a hadith of the three men from the Children of Israel.
They really loved plagiarising from Jewish Rabbinic literature which is not even divinely inspired.
BlackViper: This story borrows heavily from a much older Jewish story in the Talmud, specifically the Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 98b, involving Rabbi Joshua ben Levi and Elijah.
The Kebbi State Police Command has arrested a 29-year-old man, Abubakar Musa, over alleged desecration of the Qur’an and involvement in a fetish ritual in Zuru Local Government Area of the state.
Musa, a resident of Rafin Mose Village in Zuru, was arrested following an incident reported in the Zango area of the town on August 9, 2026, at about 7pm, according to a statement issued on Friday by the command’s Police Public Relations Officer, Bashir Usman.
The police said preliminary investigations linked Musa to two other suspects, identified as Rabi’u Tela, husband of Zarau Hassan, and Hamza Zango, who are currently at large.
According to the command, the suspects allegedly dug a pit inside Hassan’s room and buried a copy of the Qur’an along with semen, white and red kolanuts, underwear, dead animals and other items described by the police as fetish materials.
The police alleged that the act was intended to make Hassan “more submissive to her husband, Rabi’u Tela.”
The command said the incident could have caused a breach of peace among Muslim residents in the area.
Musa is being investigated for alleged criminal conspiracy, abuse of religious books, use of spells and hypnosis, and inciting disturbance, the police said.
The command said efforts were underway to arrest Tela and Zango, while Musa would be charged to court after investigations are completed.
Kebbi State Commissioner of Police, Umar Hadejia, condemned the alleged act and warned against actions capable of threatening religious harmony and public order.
“The command will deal decisively, within the law, with individuals whose actions threaten religious harmony, public order, and peaceful coexistence,” Hadejia said.
The police said investigations are ongoing and efforts will continue to apprehend the remaining suspects before the case is taken to court.
This is either going to be great for pharmacy or be a disaster if it falls into the hands of bio-terrorists.
They should always weigh the ethical implications of allowing this type of technology to be freely available because not everyone will use it with good intentions.
meobizy: Create a virus which consumes cancers. Sha, why am I hoping? All these medical news, you hear of them today and nothing again.
Mynd44 lalasticlala nlfpmod please share this on the front page.
Shariah law is considered to be the legal and moral code which all muslims are expected to live by. You can't be a muslim and not live every aspect of your life in accordance with shariah law. In some cases, shariah law even supercedes the Koran as a source of guidance for muslims
Politics › FG Defends $21 Billion Borrowing Plan, Cites Infrastructure Needs by DiamondsAreFore(op): 7:17am On Oct 29
