Monday brief: David Hundeyin's astonishing exposé on the origins of Boko Haram
+ Violence in Anambra & the Pandora Papers
* The Naira/Dollar rate was calculated by averaging buying rates from several Nigerian FinTech startups.
* Today’s Covid figure is from Sunday.
Good morning.
Welcome to the Monday briefing. This newsletter keeps you updated with the latest news from Nigeria. Don’t forget to subscribe to receive it in your email before 7 am (WAT) every weekday.
Hundeyin’s Boko Haram exposé
I’m sure you’ve read Cornflakes for Jihad: The Boko Haram Origin Story published by David Hundeyin on Sunday.
Hundeyin, currently one of Nigeria’s most talented reporters, digs into the roots of Islamist extremism and suggests that high-profile government officials, including Minister Isa Pantami and President Muhammadu Buhari, are complicit in the terrorism that has swept through most of the North-East in the past decade.
The underlying data for the report is mostly sourced from public records, but Hundeyin’s genius is knowing where to look and then being able to connect the dots and draw perfect lines between apparently unrelated ideas or events.
The story feeds into a popular narrative that suggests powerful figures in the North are hellbent on Islamising Nigeria and ‘colonising’ the South. It also confirms the well known assertion that powerful political forces are behind the decades-long insurgency that has embroiled the North.
What next: Most of the politicians and powerful figures indicted in the report are likely to continue life-as-usual. The evidence is mostly circumstantial and Hundeyin’s story can be passed up as cheap propaganda. But it has got people talking, not just on Twitter but on Facebook and WhatsApp groups. And that’s a very powerful result.
Violence continues in Anambra
As the November 6 governership election looms, the air in Anambra remains tense. On Sunday, gunmen reportedly set ablaze an operational base of the Department of State Services in Nnewi.
Other buildings, including the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) building in Umudinkwa, were also set ablaze in the raid.
An APC politician, Joe Igbokwe, said his residence had been razed by the gunmen.
Last week, gunmen in the state had murdered Dr. Chike Akunyili, husband to Nigeria’s late drug czar Dora Akunyili. More high-profile killings have been reported.
Many politicians have gone into hiding as a result of the activities of rampaging gunmen, according to Daily Trust.
IPOB: Most people accuse the separatist group of fomenting trouble across the South-East in its quest for a Biafra state. And the situation in Anambra is believed to be connected with the group’s activities, although IPOB has not officially claimed responsibility for any of the attacks.
Pandora Papers indict powerful Nigerians
Premium Times from today will begin to publish a series of stories that implicates some of the most influential Nigerians in shoddy financial dealings.
The stories were sourced from the Pandora Papers, a new global investigation exposing the offshore hideaways of some of the world’s most powerful personalities.
According to Premium Times, a former Chief Justice of Nigeria, current and former state governors, past and present lawmakers, businesspeople, a popular pastor and many others, were fingered in the years-long investigation.
Some of these individuals set up shell companies and warehoused huge financial assets in notorious, secret jurisdictions and may have broken the law.
Warning: Don’t expect the heavens to fall, because Nigeria is designed to protect the corrupt and powerful. When the Panama Papers were published in 2016 and indicted then Senate President Bukola Saraki, among others, no heads rolled. Expect more of the same.
Note: Also, engaging in offshore transactions isn’t necessarily a crime. There are perfectly legal reasons, including security, to be involved in such dealings, but powerful Nigerians have a long, dark history of siphoning public money and corrupt funds through these international financial havens.
What else is happening?
Ethiopia: President Buhari is in Addis Ababa to attend the inauguration of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed for another five-year term in office. Abiy is being sworn-in as the country fights a civil war in one of its regions, Tigray.
SERAP: The civil society group has asked President Buhari to withdraw his conditions for lifting the ban on Twitter. The President, in his independence speech, had said the ban will be lifted after Twitter had met certain conditions.
VAT dispute: Some Northern states - Adamawa, Plateau, Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara - are believed to be ready to join the federal government in court to keep the collection of Value Added Taxes away from states.
IPOB: The proscribed group has called on the South-West and Middle-Belt to observe a one-month sit-at-home if its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, is not produced in court on October 21.
Enoch Adeboye: The popular pastor says that despite Nigeria’s problems, the country “will survive.” He has also recently said he will rather get vaccinated than get barred from preaching the gospel of Christ in other countries.
Oladipupo Williams: Despite being fully vaccinated, the 74-year-old Senior Advocate of Nigeria has reportedly died of Covid.
Big Brother Naija: Fan favourite Whitemoney has emerged winner of the reality television show, bagging the mouth-watering grand prize of ₦90 million.
And that’s it for today. See you tomorrow.