₦airaland Forum

A Lagos-based National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member, Ushie Rita, has raised an alarm after allegedly receiving thrëätening messages following her viral video crïtïcizing the Tinubu’s government over rising inflation and economic härdship.

In the widely circulated video, Rita expressed frǔstration over the deteriorating economic conditions in Nigeria, lamenting how hard work seems futile in the face of the country’s financial struggles.

She openly crïtïcized President Bola Tinubu, calling him a “tërrible leader,” and questioned what steps the government is taking to ease the suffering of citizens. Additionally, she described Lagos State as a “smelling state,” complaining about its odor and living conditions.

Shortly after her video gained traction, Rita claimed she began receiving thrëätening messages, allegedly from NYSC officials, pressuring her to take down the content.

Frǔstrated by the backlash, she expressed her disappøintment at attempts to silence her, maintaining that she only spoke the truth about Nigeria’s reality.

Lagos NYSC member claims thrëäts after speaking on härdship, inflätion
Sharing some thrëätening messages received on her Instagram page @iamraye__, she stated:

“Deleting this content is of no use: because they already know me, however deleting it means whatever they do to me nobody would know, if they decide to give me a hefty pǔnishment nobody would know because I used my own hands to cover it by deleting what I started.

She’s asking people to Identify me? I’m not a criminal. Reading the NYSC rules, i didn’t commit any crïme. Ask the Nysc lady to stop asking people to point me out, ATP she’s acting scary.

All I did was lament, all I did was complain. I’m getting tons of messages like this from my fellow corpers. What is wrong with just 1 person complaining! Why are they looking for me like I’m a crïmïnal. I’m not dǔmb.

I made sure to not accuse the government of anything maliciously! I questioned them. I asked questions. As an NYSC Corper I didn’t sign off my freedom of speech.

leave me alone bruh. they keep calling me and I’ve switched of my phones now they are texting me my personal details on WhatsApp to inform me they know me well.

Dear NYSC if you say a Corper has faǔlted you wouldn’t treat them like this and scare them! You are scaring me for my dear life. Please leave me alone. You told me to report to the office on Monday. Okay! What else? Why are you looking for me? I just exercised my right to using the “FREEDOM OF SPEECH” this is the right of every citizen. Except they tell me being an NYSC Corper removes me from being a Citizen.”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday announced sanctions against officials from Thailand, a US ally, for their role in deporting at least 40 Uyghurs to China, where Washington says the members of the Muslim group will face persecution.

The US is "committed to combating China's efforts to pressure governments to forcibly return Uyghurs and other groups to China, where they are subject to torture and enforced disappearances," the State Department said in a statement.

The move appeared intended to discourage Thailand and other countries from such deportations.

While the United States has imposed sanctions in the past on Thailand, including by suspending military aid after military coups, and has also targeted Thai individuals and companies for violating sanctions on third countries, a leading Southeast Asia expert said he could not recall sanctions on Thai government officials, who were not named in Rubio's announcement.

Thailand's February deportation of the Uyghurs, held in detention for a decade, came despite warnings from United Nations human rights experts that they were at risk of torture, ill-treatment and "irreparable harm" if returned.

Cheapgadget:
May you live longer than your father 🙏🏿

The US House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee approves sanctions on Nigeria over the widespread killing of Christians and religious violence.

The United States House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, has given President Donald Trump the green light to impose stringent sanctions on Nigeria in response to the widespread killing of Christians in the country.

The decision followed a congressional hearing on Wednesday, during which lawmakers condemned the Nigerian government for failing to protect Christian communities from escalating violence.

The committee also cited a 2024 report by the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa, which revealed that Nigerians accounted for 90 per cent of all Christians killed worldwide each year.

The report documented that between October 2019 and September 2023, a staggering 55,910 people were killed, while 21,000 others were abducted by terrorist groups operating in the region.

During the hearing, Committee Chairman Chris Smith, who highlighted the severity of the crisis, pointed to testimony from Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of the Diocese of Makurdi, Nigeria, as a viable witness.

He said: “One of our distinguished witnesses today—Bishop Wilfred Anagbe—travelled a long distance to be with us, and his testimony is both compelling and disturbing.

More than 1,000 people, including 745 civilians, were killed in the two days of clashes between Syrian security forces and fighters loyal to the former Assad regime and ensuing revenge killings, a war monitor has said, one of the highest death tolls in Syria since 2011.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitor, said 745 civilians were killed mostly execution-style, while 125 Syrian security forces and 148 Assad loyalists were killed. Death tolls from the two days of fighting have varied wildly, with some estimates putting the final death toll even higher.

Fighting began on Thursday after fighters loyal to the ousted Assad regime ambushed security forces in Jableh, in the coastal Latakia province.

The wide-ranging, coordinated assault was the biggest challenge to the country’s Islamist authorities so far, and came three months after opposition fighters led by Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham toppled the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

To crush the rebellion, the Syrian government called for re-enforcements, with thousands of fighters converging on Syria’s coast from all over the country. Though fighters are nominally under the auspices of the new Syrian government, militias still persist, some of which have been implicated in past human rights abuses and are relatively undisciplined.

The Syrian government has insisted that “individual actions” led to the killing of civilians and said the massive influx of fighters on the coast led to human rights violations.

On Sunday, Syria’s transitional president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, said the developments were within “expected challenges” and called for national unity.

“We have to preserve national unity and domestic peace, we can live together,” he said in a video circulated by Arab media, speaking at a mosque in his childhood neighbourhood of Mazzah in Damascus.

“Rest assured about Syria, this country has the characteristics for survival … What is currently happening in Syria is within the expected challenges.”

In a speech on Friday, Sharaa had said that “anyone who harms civilians will face severe punishment”.

Videos showed the bodies of dozens of people in civilian clothes piled up in the town of al-Mukhtariya, where more than 40 people were killed at one time, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights. Other videos showed fighters wearing security uniforms executing people point blank, ordering men to bark like dogs and beating captives. The Guardian was not able to independently verify these videos.

The Syrian coast is heavily populated by the minority Islamic Alawite sect, from which the deposed Syrian president hailed, though most Alawites were not associated with the Assad regime.

Syria’s new authorities promised Alawites that they would be safe under their rule and that there would be no revenge killings. Government security forces’ killings of hundreds of mainly Alawite civilians this week, however, have sent waves of fear through the religious minority community.

A man from the town of Snobar, Latakia, detailed how gunmen killed at least 14 of his neighbours who were all from the Arris family, including the execution of a 75-year-old father and his three sons in front of the family’s mother.

“After they killed the father and his boys, they asked the mother to take her gold off, or they would kill her,” said the man who was close to the family but spoke under the condition of anonymity for his safety.

Another resident of Latakia said that power and water to the area had been cut off for the past day, and that they had been sheltering in their house, scared of the militants on the streets.

“There’s no water and no power for more than 24 hours, the factions are killing anyone who appears in front of them, the corpses are piled up in the streets. This is collective punishment,” the Latakia resident said.

The UN envoy for Syria, Gier Pedersen, on Friday urged civilians to be protected, while France condemned what it said was violence targeting “civilians because of their faith”. The French foreign ministry also urged Syria’s authorities to make sure that “independent investigations can shed light on these crimes and that the perpetrators are sentenced”.

Rights groups said that a real commitment to transitional justice and an inclusive government was key to preventing Syria from spiralling into a cycle of violence. Syria’s transitional authorities are set to announce a new government this month, which will be scrutinised closely for being representative of Syria’s religious and ethnic diversity after this week’s violence

America’s 80-year run as the world’s strongest power, a relatively benevolent hegemon that attracted willing partners and allies, has been rooted in two major U.S. initiatives launched in response to the upheaval of World War II.

One was to convene the 1944 Bretton Woods conference, which enshrined the idea of free trade and low tariffs, generating unprecedented prosperity for the West. The other, five years later, was to lead the establishment of NATO, an alliance that won the Cold War and has ensured peace in Europe.

Both of these legacies are being undone with stunning speed by President Trump. His second administration has targeted America’s closest allies with punitive tariffs, has ordered an abrupt stop to military assistance for Ukraine, has frozen foreign aid and is raising the prospect of a geopolitical realignment toward authoritarian Russia.

His moves have sent the rest of the world scrambling for a response, a profound reshaping of the international order in which America’s erstwhile allies are starting to view the U.S. as not just no longer reliable, but perhaps as an outright threat to their own security.