Many Nigerians experience visa refusal daily. They don’t need the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, to invoke hell against any country to make the point.

Unfortunately, Ribadu’s fury after the Canadian High Commission refused visas to Chief of Defence Staff Christopher Musa and other officials for the winter Invictus Games in Vancouver Whistler was directed at an unlikely target. Canada can be criticised for many things, but Ottawa’s faults do not include consular meanness.

In the last five years, Canada has been the third-biggest destination for Nigerian immigrants, especially students, after the US and the UK. Multiple sources, including reports by Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), suggest that Canada, New Zealand, and the United Arab Emirates have relatively friendly visa policies for Africans.

Schengen refusals

If Ribadu needs any idea of what a visa hell looks like, he should look at Europe, specifically the Schengen area. According to a BusinessDay report, Nigeria ranked among the top five countries globally for Schengen visa refusals between 2022 and 2023.

Nigerian applicants submitted 86,815 requests three years ago, with 39,189 rejected—a 45.1 percent refusal rate. By 2023, the number of applications had increased to 105,926, but 42,920 were denied, reflecting a slightly lower rejection rate of 40.8 percent. At the rate at which President Donald Trump is going, sooner than later, the US might upstage Schengen as the world’s meanest visa gateway.

There will hardly be anyone to speak up for the casualties. When ordinary citizens are denied visas, they must deserve it, right? But Musa is not an ordinary citizen. He is the jewel of Nigeria’s military top brass and should receive full consular courtesies on a good day without a fuss.

What happened?

So, what happened? Why did the Canadian High Commission refuse to issue visas to Musa and the delegation of military officers for the Invictus Games? Let’s dial back.

Many years ago, citizens didn’t need visas to visit other Commonwealth countries, at least for the first 60 days.

Even by 1962, when many of these countries imposed visa requirements due to immigration pressures, a few, including Canada, maintained visa-free policies longer than most. It still maintains a visa-free policy for a few Commonwealth countries, while Britain has a much longer list of visa exemptions for some Commonwealth countries, including Malawi and Botswana.

Africa talks the talk

Today, even intra-African travel is a big struggle for Nigerian passport holders, despite all the talk by AU about visas on arrival. Thanks to the shameful conduct of a few desperadoes who have elevated the risk factor of the green passport and successive irresponsible governments that have plunged the country into the current mess, travelling with a Nigerian passport is not easy.

If the country’s status has moved from visa-on-arrival up to the early 1970s in many Commonwealth (and even non-Commonwealth countries) to a status of cautious admission and even outright hostility toward ranking government officials, Ribadu does not need to invoke hell. It’s a metaphor that painfully reminds us of our odyssey. Why was a four-star general in the Nigerian army denied a visa in a manner that has turned into a street brawl?

Cracks within

A few days after Ribadu asked the Canadian High Commission to “go to hell”—an expression that might have shocked even the hosts of hell’s consular services—it came to light that the refusal may have had more to do with the tardiness of a desk officer at the army’s protocol department than with the Canadian High Commission in Abuja.

The Nation newspaper quoted competent sources as saying that the Army failed to attach the note verbale from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that should have accompanied the visa applications.

If that is correct – and the military authorities have not denied the report – how was that Canada’s fault? The question still needs to be asked: How did 14 of the 21 soldiers enrolled get visas when the officials and delegation leader could not be processed?

Calm down…

Ribadu is not just another government official. He would be justified in feeling slighted about a perceived diplomatic slight on Nigeria’s contingent, even if it was a contingent attending the Munich beer festival. But his office demands a sober and dignified response, not the sort of thing Idi-Amin might have said on the eve of evicting thousands of Asians from Uganda.

The report of official tardiness was sobering enough, but the purpose was no less puzzling. Of course, Prince Harry's brilliant idea of the Invictus is to give wounded servicemen and veterans a chance to connect and bond with others as they remind us of their sacrifices for our safety and security and rediscover meaning in a shared humanity. But since its start in 2014, Invictus has been a summer game.

Their winter games

If the organisers decided to extend it to the winter to include adaptive sports, such as alpine skiing, Nordic skiing, skeleton and wheelchair curling, among others – hardly core Nigerian sports – that is fair enough. Yet, how any of these sports seriously concern Nigeria when only 15 African countries have participated in the Winter Olympics in 58 years between 1960 and 2022, and of this number, only seven have done so more than once, is another matter.

Winter is not our thing. The urgency of the task at home – a stubborn rise in the wave of insurgency in the Northeast and North West, despite reported gains in some areas – requires the full attention of the military’s top command. Musa should have delegated attendance.

How not to be angry

Managing the refusal was no less scandalous. If a bunch of secondary school students on a Sudoku exhibition tour to Kathmandu was refused visas and decided to moan about it on TikTok, I can understand that.

But it defies common sense that Nigeria’s top security adviser would dramatise a matter well within his reach to investigate and take remedial steps, if necessary. Ribadu neither did himself nor Musa any favours by his intemperate remarks. He gave ordinary folks something to jeer about and made the country look ridiculous.

Can’t stay down

Idiots may have brought the country to its knees, down from a place where Africa, the Commonwealth, and the rest of the world looked up to us and our passport ranked among the most respected. But nothing says we must stay there.

The job at hand is to dig us out of that hole, a significant point Ribadu made but sadly lost in his fit of anger. Modern consular diplomacy includes, among other things, a timely, trusted, and secure data-sharing system that gives parties to a transaction reasonable comfort. Where that fails, nasty surprises are inevitable.

Not much can get done by tantrums or by a false sense of entitlement.

** Ishiekwene is the Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP and the author of the book Writing for Media and MonetisingIt.

Jodie Cook

Most people spend their life making concessions. They play small to avoid rocking the boat. They stay within the limits others set. But ultra successful people operate differently. They create their own rules and live by them without apology. And you can join them.

Your path to success means demanding more. Breaking free from patterns that hold you back. Surrounding yourself with excellence. Here's how ultra successful people protect their standards and time, with ideas for your next moves.

Smart standards for huge success

They don't negotiate

Beyoncé Knowles states her terms. Larry Ellison sets his price. Ultra successful people take "negotiate" out of their vocabulary. They understand their value and expect others to meet it. Nothing less. They don't chase opportunities or beg for business. They build empires that attract the right people.

Build your worth so high that others want to work with you. Create offerings people can't refuse. Make yourself the obvious choice through excellence and reputation. Start turning down work that doesn't meet your standards. Fix your prices and stick to them.

Copy this mindset today. Share your intentions with confidence. Say no to low-value projects. Build your brand until you become the prize. Watch what happens when you stop haggling and start owning your worth.

They don't waste time

Time equals money, results and progress. Ultra successful people guard their schedule like gold. They don't queue for coffee, wait around for late friends, or waste hours in traffic. Their time matters more than that. They make moves that protect every minute of their day.

Buy back your hours with premium upgrades. Pay for fast delivery, first-class travel, and efficient service. Get help running errands. Book time slots that work for you, and don’t return to tardy suppliers. Plan ahead to eliminate waiting. When you compare the cost of the time saved to your hourly rate, this always makes sense. Think what you could achieve with those saved hours.

Start today by listing your regular time drains. Calculate the cost of waiting versus paying for speed. Upgrade your daily habits to save precious minutes. Book the best times, pay for priority, skip the lines. Your future self will thank you.

They don't lower their standards

Ultra successful people demand excellence in every area. Average hotels, basic food, or mediocre service won't cut it. They invest in premium experiences that fuel their success. Their standards apply to their surroundings, their circle, and their self-care without exception.

Level up your daily experience. Choose quality over quantity. Hire experts to handle tasks. Book better accommodation. Upgrade your wardrobe. Find friends who push you higher. Cut ties with energy vampires who drag you down. Make excellence your new normal and become the new you.

Review your current standards and find places to upgrade. List five areas ready for improvement. Maybe it's your morning coffee, your gym, or your work setup. Make one change this week. Keep going until premium becomes your baseline.

Your standards set your success: make three upgrades today

Ultra successful people protect their worth, value their time, and demand excellence. They know success comes from raising standards, not lowering them. You have everything you need to reach this level. Start treating yourself like the success you want to become.

Forbes

Nigeria has filed a lawsuit against cryptocurrency exchange Binance, seeking $79.5 billion in damages for alleged economic losses and an additional $2 billion in back taxes, according to court documents released on Wednesday.

The suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1444/2024, was brought before Inyang Ekwo of the federal high court in Abuja on February 11.

Authorities have accused Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, of exacerbating Nigeria’s currency crisis. In 2024, the government detained two Binance executives, citing concerns that cryptocurrency platforms were being used for speculative trading of the naira.

Binance, which is not registered in Nigeria, has yet to comment on the lawsuit. However, the company previously stated that it was cooperating with Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to address potential historical tax obligations.

The FIRS contends that Binance maintains a “significant economic presence” in Nigeria, making it liable for corporate income tax. The agency is seeking a court ruling to enforce tax payments for 2022 and 2023, along with a 10% annual penalty on any outstanding amounts. Additionally, it is requesting a 26.75% interest charge on unpaid taxes, based on the Central Bank of Nigeria’s prevailing lending rate.

Binance is already facing four counts of tax evasion in Nigeria following a government crackdown on the cryptocurrency sector last year. The charges include failure to pay value-added tax and company income tax, non-filing of tax returns, and allegedly aiding customers in evading taxes.

In March last year, Binance announced it was halting all naira-based transactions and trading activities.

The company is also battling separate money laundering charges filed by Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency, which Binance has denied.

The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) bounced back impressively on Wednesday, with investors gaining N505 billion as the All-Share Index rose 0.87% to close at 108,609.51 points.

This positive performance effectively reversed Tuesday's losses and pushed the market capitalization up to N67.8 trillion.

BUA Foods emerged as the day's top performer, surging 9.91% to N410.50 per share. Other notable gainers included RT Briscoe (+6.91% to N2.63), Eterna (+6.25% to N42.50), and Sunu Assurances Nigeria (+6.13% to N6.92).

However, some counters faced selling pressure, with University Press and International Energy Insurance both declining 9.8% to close at N4.60 and N2.21 respectively. Union Dicon Salt fell 9.52% to N6.65, while McNichols dropped 8.57% to N1.60.

Trading activity moderated compared to the previous session, with 343.7 million shares worth N8.63 billion changing hands across 12,970 deals – representing decreases of 16% in volume, 23% in value, and 8% in transaction count.

Access Holdings led market activity with 65.1 million shares traded, followed by Fidelity Bank (50.7 million), Zenith Bank (22.1 million), and Sterling Bank (13.2 million).

Sector performance showed mixed results, with Consumer Goods leading gains (+4.16%), followed by the Main Board Index (+1.47%) and Insurance (+0.29%). The Oil and Gas Index remained under pressure, having lost 3.82% over the past week and 4.58% year-to-date.

Wednesday's rebound comes after Tuesday's session saw investors lose N166 billion following Nigeria's January 2025 headline inflation reading of 24.48% after rebasing.

The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has announced a ban on fuel tankers with a capacity exceeding 60,000 litres from operating on Nigerian roads. The decision, revealed during a press briefing in Abuja on Wednesday, is set to take effect on March 1, 2025, as part of efforts to reduce road accidents involving heavy-duty petroleum tankers.

Ogbugo Ukoha, NMDPRA’s Executive Director of Distribution Systems, Storage, and Retailing Infrastructure, explained that the ban aims to address the rising number of truck-related accidents, which have resulted in significant loss of life and injuries. He cited a tragic incident on January 18, when a petrol tanker explosion at Dikko Junction in Niger State’s Gurara Local Government Area claimed at least 80 lives and left many others injured.

Ukoha disclosed that the first technical stakeholders’ committee meeting, held on Wednesday, established a timeline for implementing 10 key resolutions to curb truck-related incidents and fatalities. The meeting included participation from critical agencies such as the Department of State Services (DSS), Federal Fire Service, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), and the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG). Other stakeholders, including the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN), and NMDPRA, were also present.

During the discussions, stakeholders unanimously agreed that, starting March 1, 2025, no tanker exceeding an axle load of 60,000 litres of hydrocarbon would be permitted to load at any depot. Ukoha emphasized the significance of the consensus reached among all parties, stating, “For the first time, consensus was built amongst all stakeholders, and we’re continuing to encourage that we will work together cohesively to ensure the safe transportation of petroleum products across the country.”

The move is expected to enhance road safety and reduce the risks associated with the transportation of petroleum products in Nigeria.

Gaza Arab plan may involve up to $20 billion regional contribution, sources say

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is expected to travel to Riyadh on Thursday, two Egyptian security sources said, where he is due to discuss an Arab plan for Gaza that may include up to $20 billion from the region for reconstruction.

Arab states are expected to discuss a post-war plan for Gaza to counter U.S. President Donald Trump's proposal to redevelop the strip under U.S. control and displace Palestinians, a prospect that has angered regional leaders.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar are set to review and discuss the Arab plan in Riyadh before it is presented at a scheduled Arab summit which takes place in Cairo on March 4, four sources with knowledge of the matter said.

On Friday, a gathering of Arab state leaders, including Jordan, Egypt, the UAE and Qatar, was expected in Saudi Arabia, which is spearheading Arab efforts on Trump's plan, although some sources said the date had not been confirmed yet.

Arab states were dismayed by Trump's plan to "clean out" Palestinians from Gaza and resettle most of them in Jordan and Egypt, to create a Middle East Riviera. The idea was immediately rejected by Cairo and Amman and seen in most of the region as deeply destabilising.

The Arab proposal, mostly based on an Egyptian plan, involves forming a national Palestinian committee to govern Gaza without Hamas involvement and international participation in reconstruction without displacing Palestinians abroad.

A $20 billion contribution from Arab and Gulf states towards the fund, cited by two sources as being a likely figure, may be a good incentive for Trump to accept the plan, Emirati academic Abdulkhaleq Abdullah said.

"Trump is transactional so $20 billion would resonate well with him," Abdullah said.

"This would benefit a lot of U.S. and Israeli companies," he added.

The Palestinian Authority's cabinet said in a statement on Tuesday that the first phase of the plan under discussion would cost approximately $20 billion over three years.

Egyptian sources told Reuters discussions are still under way as to the size of the financial contribution by the region.

The plan sees reconstruction taking place over a three-year timeframe, sources said.

"My conversations with Arab leaders, most recently King Abdullah, have convinced me they have a really realistic appraisal of what their role should be," Senator Richard Blumenthal told reporters in Tel Aviv during a visit to Israel on Monday.

Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar said Israel was waiting to evaluate the plan as it comes together but warned that any plan in which Hamas continued to have presence in Gaza was not acceptable.

"When we hear it we will know how to address it," he said.

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Trump and Zelenskyy war of words heats up even as US looks to wind down war in Ukraine

President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy exchanged terse insults on Wednesday, following meetings between U.S. and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday without representatives from Ukraine. 

Trump repeatedly has said that he is the only one who can bring an end to the war between Ukraine and Russia, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump was in contact with Zelenskyy and was working to ensure "that all parties are heard" during the peace talks. 

Yet Ukraine’s absence from the negotiations on Tuesday appears to have exacerbated a wedge between Washington and Kyiv. 

While Zelenskyy accused Trump of perpetuating Russian "disinformation" on Wednesday, Trump clapped back and labeled Zelenskyy a "dictator" who has failed his country. 

"A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left. In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only ‘TRUMP,’ and the Trump Administration, can do," Trump wrote in a social media post Wednesday. 

"I love Ukraine, but Zelenskyy has done a terrible job, his Country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died." 

Trump’s post included a series of inaccurate statements, including that Zelenskyy "talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn't be won, that never had to start." Meanwhile, Congress has appropriated $175 billion since 2022 for aid to Ukraine, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. 

Trump’s comments build on statements he delivered Tuesday at his Florida Mar-a-Lago estate, where he said that Russia wasn't the only one exerting pressure to force Ukraine to hold an election. One of Russia's conditions for signing a peace deal includes Ukraine holding an election, nearly a year after Zelenskyy's five-year term was slated to end. 

But Zelenskyy has remained in his position leading Kyiv because the Ukrainian constitution bars holding elections under martial law. Ukraine has been under martial law since February 2022. 

Additionally, Trump chastised Ukraine on Tuesday for not ending the war sooner, and also appeared to suggest that Ukraine started the conflict, even though Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

"I think I have the power to end this war, and I think it's going very well. But today I heard, 'Oh, we weren't invited,'" Trump said Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. "Well, you've been there for three years. You should have ended it three years (ago). You should have never started it. You could have made a deal."

In response, Zelenskyy delivered his own jabs toward Trump, and said the U.S. president lived in a "disinformation space" peddling inaccurate information that originated from Russia. 

"We have seen this disinformation," Zelenskyy said Wednesday at a news conference before meeting with retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellog, the U.S. special envoy for Ukraine and Russia. "We understand that it is coming from Russia."

"I think Putin and the Russians are very happy, because questions are discussed with them," he added. 

Zelenskyy has stressed in recent days that Ukraine must be involved in negotiations for a peace deal with Russia, and said Sunday that Ukraine wouldn’t accept a peace deal if his country was absent from negotiations. 

He also announced on Tuesday that he would postpone a scheduled trip to Saudi Arabia until March, after revealing during a joint press conference with Turkish President Recept Tayyip Erdoğan that Ukraine wasn’t invited to the U.S.-Russia discussions in Riyadh.  

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, White House national security advisor Mike Waltz and Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff met in Riyadh with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin’s foreign affairs advisor Yuri Ushakov to hash out ways to end the conflict. 

The first action the U.S. plans to take after the meetings with Russian officials is to "reestablish the functionality of our respective missions in Washington and in Moscow," Rubio told reporters from The Associated Press and CNN.

"For us to be able to continue to move down this road, we need to have diplomatic facilities that are operating and functioning normally," Rubio said, according to a State Department transcript. 

Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, and Trump vowed on the campaign trail in 2024 that he would work to end the conflict if elected again.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russian forces enter new Ukrainian region – Putin

Russian troops have entered Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy Region for the first time since 2022, President Vladimir Putin has said. He briefly spoke about the situation of the battlefield with reporters in St. Petersburg, a day after the US and Russia held first high-profile talks in three years. 

According to Putin, in the early hours of Wednesday, the soldiers from the 810th Naval Infantry Brigade “crossed the border between the Russian Federation and Ukraine and entered the enemy territory.” 

“Our troops are on the offensive in all sections of the front line,” he added, without providing more details. 

The Russian Defense Ministry posted videos of an Iskander ballistic missile hitting Ukrainian artillery positions in the Sumy Region and Russian naval infantrymen flying kamikaze drones into the enemy trenches. The ministry did not report any major advancements in the area in its daily update on Wednesday. 

Kiev provided a different account of the events. Andrey Kovalenko, the head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, claimed that Ukrainian troops have “destroyed” a reconnaissance unit that had tried to cross the border. He denied a “large-scale offensive” in the area. 

Russia first invaded the Sumy Region in the early days of the conflict in February 2022 and withdrew two months later. In August 2024, Ukraine used the area to invade Russia’s Kursk Region and capture several border villages, as well as the town of Sudzha. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has since said that he had planned to use an incursion across Russia’s internationally recognized borders as leverage during potential peace talks. 

The Russian troops have since been fighting to gradually push the Ukrainians from Kursk, with the MOD reporting the liberation of the village of Sverdlikovo on Wednesday. “We took many prisoners,” a soldier from Russia’s battlegroup North told RIA Novosti. 

The teams led by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed paths to end the Ukraine conflict in Riyadh on Tuesday. While no breakthroughs have been archieved, both sides agreed to work towards the normalization of bilateral ties that were suspended by the Biden administration in 2022.

Fox News/RT

One of the earliest University graduates to join the Nigerian Military and the first University Graduate to govern the old Western State, Brigadier-General Oluwole Rotimi turns 90 today.

A gentleman Officer and noiseless achiever Rotimi made remarkable achievements while he was at the helm of affairs in the Western State.

In addition to creating peaceful atmosphere in the state he devoted most of his energy on Agriculture and industrialization.

Born 20 February 1935, in Abeokuta, Rotimi attended Agooko Methodist School, Lisabi school, Olowogbowo Methodist School as well as Kings College Lagos, after which he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University College Ibadan.

Rotimi joined the Nigerian Army in 1960 and served as part of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He rose to become the first African Deputy Quartermaster General and the third non-white Quartermaster General of the Nigerian Army in 1966.

During the Nigerian Civil War Rotimi provided logistics support for the Federal Government's war efforts. He became the commander of the Ibadan Garrison between 1969 and 1970.

After the war Rotimi became the Military Governor of Western State  in 1971, under  General Yakubu Gowon in succession to Major General Adeyinka Adebayo.

The Cement Factory at Sagamu,

the Wire and Cable Factory in Ibadan, the Ceramic Factory in Abeokuta, the Wood Processing Factory in Ondo and the Palm oil Mill at Okitipupa were some of the landmark projects established by his administration.

In 1975, Rotimi was removed from office as governor of Western Nigeria after the 1975 coup d'état. The following administration led by General Murtala Mohammed, commissioned a panel to investigate corruption amongst the immediate past governors of the previous administration. Rotimi, together with Mobolaji Johnson-Brigadier (Lagos State Governor) were  the only two governors exonerated.

in retirement, Rotimi was appointed Nigerian Ambassador to the United States by the Obasanjo administration in succession to George Obiozor.

Happy Birthday and many happy returns in robust health.

The recent arrest of an Ilorin-based cleric, Abdulrahman Bello, who allegedly murdered and dismembered Ms Yetunde Lawal, a final-year student at Kwara State College of Education, in the same town has seen us doing the same things we do virtually every time the situation arises. We point accusing fingers at religion and certain sectarian beliefs, culture, society, and one another while wheeling out the squeaky machines of ethical reforms in the bid to charge ourselves to good behaviour. Religious and traditional rulers have been making routine calls for moral reforms.

According to reports, Ilorin Emir Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari not only condemned the killing but specifically directed Islamic leaders to ensure their sermons are more pointedly focused on moral values, ethics of hard work, and respect for humanity. Indeed, such moral charges are urgent in a society where the life of a whole human—if one goes by the amount of money Bello allegedly sold the young woman’s dismembered body parts—is far cheaper than that of goats and cows.

The fantastical imagination that money can be procured out of the air rules our society with a force that propels men to do some really terrible things. That is why one cannot entirely rule out the possibility that Bello was into the so-called money rituals even though he—like most who have been arrested for the same crime—looks seriously impoverished. Every single person who has been arrested due to their claims of possessing power to make money through supernatural means always looks like they would faint if they ever saw a million naira (just naira o!) in cash laid out at their feet.

When these things happen, we never get to know anything about the apprehended killer beyond labelling them as misguided youths looking for money. There is a serious shortage of knowledge about these individuals and their circumstances that leads us to assume that this is always what they say it is. But what if these guys are bipolar and have a history of delinquent behaviour or anti-social character? For instance, if it is true that Bello has a collection of women’s property stored in his bedroom as a trophy, that might be a pointer to the nature of his psychopathy. We might be dealing with an extreme case of misogyny, a man killing a woman (or women) just to feel like a man.

In Nigeria, once we diagnose “money ritual” as the standard explanatory paradigm for a type of homicide, all judgment on what else might be at play gets suspended. We turn to ourselves and begin to preach about our materialism and how we ought to shun the path of quick wealth, sermons that will find no feet to stand on the complex grounds of Nigerian reality. How do you sincerely preach the virtues of hard work to people who have seen industry systematically diminished by the socio-political and socio-economic processes? Even our religious and traditional leaders who make the call embody the same phenomenon of wealth without work. They are also the ones who legitimise the crooked people who have managed it to build wealth.

The truth is, you do not need to “work” in the traditional sense of being productive before you can be wealthy and celebrated in present-day Nigeria. You only need to be connected to a grid of individuals whose social network allows them to access the political power that allocates resources. Nigeria is that one place where you can sleep poor and wake up stupendously rich, and that is only because you managed to get into bed with the right person. Since such magical transformation is not seen to be produced by anything tangible other than mere social connections, it acquires a spiritual character.

The yawning gap in the reality of the route it takes to become wealthy is what the likes of Bello exploit by claiming they too have the power to connect others to the source of such wealth. Since you have a moneyed class who do not produce, pretenders of various hues also claim the expertise of the charms of creating something out of nothing. That is why our society is currently swarming with snake oil merchants, charlatans, crass illiterate and self-commissioned prophets, and simonist preachers, all of them promising to help us access magical prosperity.

In all the various calls for moral reforms, nobody seems to be asking professionally trained experts in the academy and elsewhere to divine the nature of the problem we are dealing with so we can accurately direct our moral reform efforts. What if the individuals amid the various instances of the killings for so-called money rituals are just people with varying levels of mental health issues? What if much of what we call “money rituals” are just psychopathic manifestations that very much interact with our larger cultural psychology?

From the reports, it seemed self-evident that this is another case of money ritual. But certainty can also be the enemy of truth. Is there a method to the killing that suggests that there are other psychological factors at play? This is not me asking to be perversely entertained with the lurid details of a homicide, but accounting for the underlying psychology of the alleged killer.

There have been different instances of women killings that were chalked down to ritual murder. At a time, women’s corpses would be found in hotel rooms where they had been killed by a supposed paramour who lured them into those places. Knowing how our morally pretentious society reacts to the news of a woman visiting places like a hotel, some of those murders merely became avenues for sermonising to women about their virtues and the companies they ought to keep. But what if some of those killers are merely hiding behind the popular narrative of ritual murder to perpetrate other sick fantasies? We should not foreclose the possibility that some of these people are sick men who found an outlet for their proclivities through spiritual work.

In Western societies, where serial killings also take place, and where they do not have terms like “money ritual” in their vocabulary to explain seemingly senseless killings, they are more prone to exploring such delinquency more objectively. Fans of crime documentaries will readily testify to the methodical ways they approach those killings to find the killer and understand their underlying motivations. For us, it is always just “money rituals”, as if society and its people cannot also be more complicated. Part of the problem is that the police do not report a forensic investigation into these crimes. Virtually everything we get to know comes from gossipy uninformed media networks more interested in catering to sensationalism than offering clarity. But what if, in our bid to provide a moral explanation for the murders and advocate for ethical reforms, we are lumping different things into the big basket called “money ritual”?

Let me make it clear that asking for some clarity into the nature of the malady that disturbs these killers is not a call for their exoneration. The point is not to give them an alibi that allows them to walk free but to arm the observing society to speak of these things beyond the standard (and superstitious) explanations.

A correct understanding of the substance of psychopathy will go a long way in addressing how, in diagnosing money rituals, we use official means to propagate what might be objectively untrue. The trouble with making money rituals the standard explanatory paradigm is that it becomes a self-reproducing truth. There are people out there who will think there might be some truth to the whole affair and indulge in it too. They will, of course, never make any money but will take lives testing the bunkum!

Punch

Nigeria's inflation rate has significantly decreased from 34.8 percent in December 2024 to 24.48 percent in January 2025 following the rebasing of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The NBS, in a statement released Tuesday, explained that the rebased CPI reflects an updated price reference period with 2024 as the base year and a weight reference period of 2023. The statistician-general, Adeyemi Adeniran, said the "all-items index which is used to measure headline inflation for January 2025 was 110.7," resulting in the new headline inflation figure.

The rebasing exercise, announced in October 2024, also revealed substantial drops in other inflation measures: food inflation decreased from 39.84 percent to 26.08 percent, core inflation fell from 29.28 percent to 22.59 percent, urban inflation declined to 26.09 percent from 37.29 percent, and rural inflation dropped to 22.15 percent from 32.47 percent.

However, economic experts caution that the dramatic decline in inflation figures does not reflect an actual improvement in economic conditions for everyday Nigerians. The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) emphasized that the sharp deceleration was primarily a statistical effect resulting from the rebased calculations and seasonal spending patterns.

"The drastic deceleration in inflation should therefore be cautiously celebrated. The reality of high prices has not changed and remains a major factor in the cost of doing business, cost of living and poverty equation in the country," said Muda Yusuf, director of CPPE, in a statement.

Yusuf clarified a critical point that many Nigerians may misunderstand: "It is important to clarify that a drastic reduction in inflation figures is not tantamount to a reduction in price level. Inflation reduction simply means a reduction in the rate of increase in the general price level, not a reduction in price."

The fundamentals of the Nigerian economy remain essentially unchanged despite the new inflation figures. Households and businesses continue to struggle with the same economic challenges they faced before the rebasing, including high energy costs, currency weakness, elevated interest rates, import expenses, transportation costs, and security concerns.

The CPPE noted that December's higher inflation rate was partly due to increased festive spending, while January typically sees slower economic activity as disposable incomes decrease following holiday expenditures. These seasonal factors, combined with the technical recalculation, explain much of the statistical decrease rather than any fundamental economic improvement.

While the government may point to the lower inflation numbers as a positive development, the lived economic experience of Nigerians remains characterized by high prices and financial strain. What citizens truly need, according to the CPPE, is actual disinflation – a genuine reduction in the general price level from the extraordinarily high levels experienced throughout 2024.

The NBS has announced it will begin publishing additional special indices to better inform policymakers, including Farm Produce Index, Energy Index, Services Index, Goods Index, and Imported Food Index, with year-on-year rates for these new measures commencing in January 2026.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​