A recent report by the Cadre Harmonisé (CH) on Acute Food and Nutrition Insecurity has projected that 30.6 million people across 26 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) will face a food crisis between June and August 2025. The report, conducted by federal and state governments with support from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and other development partners, highlights that this figure includes 150,978 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

Currently, an estimated 24.9 million people, including 116,765 IDPs, are already experiencing a food crisis, a situation that could worsen by May 2025. The CH analysis warns that during the lean season from June to August, households are likely to face increased food shortages, potentially pushing more people in high-risk areas into critical food insecurity.

The report identifies conflicts, climatic shocks, and macroeconomic reforms as key factors driving the crisis. These challenges have limited households' purchasing power and ability to secure adequate food. Additionally, the analysis highlights critical levels of acute malnutrition in the Northeast, particularly in Central Borno, Northern Yobe, and parts of Eastern Sokoto. Local Government Areas such as Mobbae and Ngarcail in Northern Borno, as well as Mashi in Northern Katsina, are among the most affected.

The primary drivers of the food crisis include ongoing conflict and insecurity—such as insurgency, banditry, and kidnapping—as well as high vulnerability levels that hinder households' ability to cope with shocks. Other contributing factors are soaring food prices, dwindling household food stocks, limited income-generating opportunities, inadequate food consumption, and poor access to clean water and sanitation.

FAO Country Representative Koffy Dominique praised the Federal Government and stakeholders for completing the February-March 2025 CH analysis cycle, which began on February 20 across 26 states and the FCT. He noted that Nigeria has experienced its worst inflation in over two decades, exacerbating economic hardship for many families and making it increasingly difficult to afford food and essential goods. Dominique also pointed to the devastating impacts of extreme weather events, such as flooding, alongside armed conflict and organized crime, which have prolonged insecurity and worsened food insecurity.

The CH analysis workshops, held twice a year, aim to identify populations and areas at risk of food and nutrition insecurity and propose measures to prevent or mitigate crises. Dominique emphasized the importance of these efforts in addressing the country's growing food security challenges.

Marcus Ogunbiyi, Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Aviation, highlighted the role of fuel subsidy removal and insecurity in driving up food prices. Represented by Okwudule Onyema, Director of Food and Strategic Reserve, Ogunbiyi reaffirmed the government's commitment to leveraging the CH report's findings to tackle the food and nutrition crisis. He also called on humanitarian organizations to use the report to guide their interventions nationwide.

The report underscores the urgent need for coordinated action to address the root causes of food insecurity and prevent further escalation of the crisis.

The World Health Organization says it will send leprosy drugs to Nigeria this weekend after resolving testing hold-ups that led to a year-long delay in thousands of patients, including children, getting the medicine they need to prevent disability.

Africa's most populous nation, Nigeria reports over 1,000 cases of leprosy yearly, a disease caused by a bacterium, Mycobacterium leprae, and mainly affecting the skin, peripheral nerves, and eyes. It is curable with multi-drug therapy, but without treatment, the disease progresses and causes disfiguring sores and disabilities like blindness and paralysis. Patients also face significant stigma.

But Nigeria ran out of stock of the multi-drug therapy in early 2024 as a bureaucratic delay in supplies and new domestic testing regulations on imported medicines held up the drugs in India, where one of the components is made.

The delay, which caused significant suffering in Nigeria, is just one example of the vulnerability of a global system that has seen stockouts in countries including India, Brazil and Indonesia in recent years, the U.N. special rapporteur for leprosy told Reuters.

A WHO spokesperson told Reuters that Nigeria had run out of leprosy medications, and the U.N. health agency, which organises shipments of the drug, had asked for a one-time waiver on the new testing policy. In January that waiver was granted.

"A dispatch of leprosy drugs from India has been confirmed for 8 March, with arrival in Nigeria on 9 March," the spokesperson said by email.

'THE PAIN IS WORSE'

At ERCC Hospital in Nasarawa state, 200 km (124 miles) west of the capital Abuja, only two leprosy patients were admitted when Reuters visited in February, after 26 others had been sent home since last year due to the shortage, raising the risk of spreading the infectious disease, which is thought to spread through respiratory droplets and prolonged contact.

Awwal Musa, one of the patients, said her health had deteriorated in the past year since her treatment stopped. All her fingers were clawed and her legs discharged pus.

"Before last year, my wounds were getting healed but now they are getting worse. The pain is worse," she told Reuters during a visit to the health facility.

Health workers at ERCC said their goal in the past year was to prevent patients from being permanently disabled.

"If they lose their fingers, where are you going to get the fingers and give them again? If they lose their sight, who will give them sight? The complications are increasing day by day," said Kuzeh Thomas, a director at the hospital.

WHO data shows that Nigeria is one of 12 countries reporting between 1,000 to 10,000 cases annually, behind Brazil, India and Indonesia.

Each country requests leprosy doses, a capsular medication, administered over a period of 12 months, from the WHO every year. Health sources said Nigeria's request was late.

Nigeria's National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control did not respond to a request for comment.

The drugs are made by Novartis and donated for free to a WHO programme. Health sector sources said Nigeria's National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control required additional testing for doses produced by Sandoz, a spin-off company of Novartis, when the shipment reached Nigeria, because that component was made in Indian facilities.

A Sandoz spokesperson said "for contractual reasons, [we] cannot share details of our supplies to third parties." Novartis said it "remained committed to work towards the eradication of this disease" without giving further detail.

Quontrol, an India-based laboratory, told Reuters that it inspected the drugs but did not release the results of the inspection. The drugs were submitted for testing in Nigeria in November, and got approval in December 2024.

The U.N. Special Rapporteur on the elimination of discrimination against persons affected by leprosy and their family members, Beatriz Miranda-Galarza, told Reuters that "while the MDT (multi-drug therapy) distribution system appears well-structured on paper, in practice, it faces significant structural and political challenges."

Sunday Udoh, head of non-profit Leprosy Mission Nigeria added: "This is the first time we are seeing this kind of very strange, very painful situation where leprosy patients who belong to the poorest of the poor are not able to access this life-saving medication."

Reuters

Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has thanked the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, for reassigning his case to a new judge. The decision comes after Kanu raised concerns about bias in his trial before Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court.

In a statement released on Saturday by his lawyer, Aloy Ejimakor, Kanu expressed gratitude to the CJN and the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, John Tsoho, for acting on his request to transfer the case. He also thanked the public for their support in demanding a fair reassignment of the trial.

Kanu’s legal team confirmed that they had received two letters from the CJN and Tsoho, notifying them of the case’s transfer to another judge. This development follows Kanu’s earlier complaint about Nyako’s refusal to recuse herself from the trial, which he claimed was marred by bias.

During a court session on February 10, Kanu had openly criticized Nyako, accusing her of partiality and insisting that she step down from presiding over his case. His legal team argued that the proceedings under her oversight posed a threat to Kanu’s constitutional rights, including his entitlement to a fair and speedy trial.

Ejimakor stated, “Nnamdi Kanu instructed the legal team to publicly convey his sincere gratitude to the Chief Justice of Nigeria for her sound administrative discretion and the promptness with which she responded to our request. He also expressed profound appreciation to members of the public who supported our call for the case to be reassigned, as the law demands.”

The lawyer emphasized that Kanu has always been prepared to face trial, confident in his innocence. However, the events of the past six months—since September 2024, when the recusal issue arose—had raised serious concerns about the fairness of the proceedings. Ejimakor added, “We were compelled to take extraordinary measures to ensure that his case is properly reassigned and conducted in accordance with the law.”

With the case now reassigned, Kanu and his legal team are preparing to focus on building a robust defense. The development marks a significant step in addressing concerns over judicial fairness in the high-profile trial.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

At least 14 killed, 37 wounded in Russian missile strike on Ukraine, Kyiv says

At least 14 people were killed and 37 wounded, including five children, in Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukraine's eastern city of Dobropillia and a settlement in Kharkiv region overnight, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said on Saturday.

Russian forces attacked Dobropillia with ballistic missiles, multiple rockets, and drones, causing damage to eight multi-storey buildings and 30 vehicles, according to the ministry. The assault resulted in the deaths of 11 people, including five children, and left 30 others wounded.

The ministry also reported that three civilians were killed and seven wounded in a separate drone attack on the Kharkiv region in the northeast.

"Such strikes show that Russia's objectives have not changed. Therefore, it is crucial to continue to do our best to protect lives, strengthen our air defences, and increase sanctions against Russia. Everything that helps Putin finance the war must collapse," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Facebook.

On Friday, Russian forces damaged Ukrainian energy and gas infrastructure in their first major missile attack since the U.S. paused intelligence sharing with Ukraine, piling pressure on Kyiv as President Donald Trump seeks a swift end to the war.

The pause in U.S. military aid and intelligence may undermine Ukraine's air defences as it runs low on advanced missiles and struggles to track attacks as effectively, military analysts say.

Dobropillia, home to about 28,000 people before the war, is in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, 22 kilometres (13.67 miles) from the front line north of the key hub of Pokrovsk, which the Russian troops have been attacking for weeks.

FIGHTING CONTINUES

Amid U.S. efforts to sit Kyiv and Moscow at the negotiating table, the sides continue to engage in active hostilities in an attempt to gain an advantage.

A tank at Surgutneftegaz's (SNGS.MM) Kirishi oil refinery, one of Russia's largest, was damaged by falling debris during a major Ukrainian overnight drone attack, local official said.

Russian forces, for their part, have in recent weeks stepped up efforts to eject Ukrainian troops from Kursk, when Kyiv's forces staged a lightning incursion over the border and seized a swath of Russian territory in last August.

The Russian Defence Ministry said on Saturday its troops retook three villages in the Kursk region from Ukrainian forces.

Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield report.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russian military liberates multiple villages in Kursk Region

Russia has liberated three villages in Kursk Region, marking a new advance against the Ukrainian invasion force in the area, the Defense Ministry in Moscow announced on Saturday. 

The villages of Viktorovka, Nikolayevka and Staraya Sorochina are situated on the northernmost tip of the Ukrainian-controlled area in Russia’s Kursk Region. The settlements are located immediately to the west of the village of Malaya Loknya, a major stronghold for the Ukrainian force in the region, and across the eponymous river. The fall of the three villages puts the Ukrainian troops holed up in the area in a more precarious position.

Over the past few days, things have rapidly deteriorated for the Ukrainian force in the area. Russian troops continue pressuring the town of Sudzha, the largest settlement under Kiev’s control in Kursk Region. The invasion force has been experiencing logistics troubles and is now dependent on a single major cross-border road, which has been coming under constant Russian drone and artillery strikes.

This week, multiple media reports suggested that Kiev’s troops were on the brink of encirclement in the area, with between 6,500 and 10,000 soldiers at risk of being cut off completely. All bridges in the vicinity of Sudzha have reportedly been destroyed, while heavy damage to the road infrastructure is hampering the Ukrainian forces’ ability to resupply and, potentially, withdraw from the area.

Kiev launched a surprise invasion of Kursk early in August last year, seizing Sudzha and multiple settlements in its vicinity in a matter of days. Since then, the Ukrainian zone of control has shrunk more than twofold, while Russia has regained control over numerous locations in the area.

The Kursk incursion has taken a heavy toll on the Ukrainian military. More than 65,500 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or wounded in the area, while some 386 tanks, nearly 300 infantry fighting vehicles, 259 armored personnel carriers, and over 2,000 other armored vehicles have been destroyed or captured, according to the Russian military.

Reuters/RT

The shutting down of schools on the order of Hisbah (the morality police) in some predominantly Muslim states of northern Nigeria in the month of Ramadan, is a clear indication that Islamism has ascended new heights in the Muslim north. The entrenchment of a range of religiously inspired political ideologies that hold the belief that Islam should influence the socio-political and economic system of public administration (Islamism) in the Muslim north has resulted in the imposition of Sharia laws in the region and establishment of Hisbah to banish vice and enforce virtue. As the Nigerian state is increasingly weakened by the politics of religious identity, the influence of Islamism has expanded in a manner that has severely diminished the country’s secular constitutional democratic order and, in the process, given rise to the dominance of Muslims, while undermining the civil rights and freedoms of non-Muslims in the predominantly Muslim northern part of Nigeria

Fasting as an act of worship is enjoined upon Muslims in Quran 2:183 thus, “O Believers! Fasting is prescribed for you as it was for those before you, so you will become mindful of Allah,” thereby making it an obligation upon all Muslims from the ages of seven in the month of Ramadan, which is made holy by the divine revelation of the Quran therein. Ramadan is usually marked by abstinence from food, drinks and pleasures of the flesh, from dawn to sunset, for 29 or 30 days by Muslims. It is also a period of renewal of faith through pious living, reflection, contemplation and remembrance of Allah through various activities of worship, such as recitation of the Qu’ran, listening to preachings, observance of nightly voluntary prayers, and being charitable to the poor and needy.

Whereas fasting is obligatory for believing Muslims, there are exemptions made for the sick, infirm, aged, travellers and those whose peculiar circumstances make it impossible for them to observe the Ramadan fast. And to ease the difficulty of abstaining from food and water for a prolonged period during the day, Muslims are encouraged to take early morning meals before the beginning of the day’s fast, in order to maintain a balanced metabolism. This is because Muslims are not precluded from working, schooling and carrying out any other productive activity while observing the Ramadan fast, and they will require some residue energy to undertake these activities successfully.

For example, I am writing this article while fasting. And before putting final touches to this piece, I had gone for the newspaper review programme on AIT between 7 a.m. and 7:45 a.m. Once I send my material to my editor at about noon for editing and publishing the next day, I set out for the Abuja studio of Naija Info, where I am the presiding Chief Judge of Abuja secondary schools debate competition between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. By the time I get home by 6:30 p.m., I prepare for Iftar (the breaking of fast) by 6:50 p.m. Not to mention that Mohammed, my 12 year-old son is fasting and attending school between the hours of 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. And he appears to be coping better than his dad! This has been the norm all my life as a Muslim.

Clearly, the shutting down of schools in the month of Ramadan, even for the benefit of Muslims, is an innovation that has no basis in the Quran or Prophetic traditions of Muhammad [PBUH], as the true test of faith is being able to cope with your regular workload, while observing the Ramadan fast. But what makes this even more absurd and illegal is that it violates the freedom and right of non-Muslims indigenes and residents of these states to education in the month of Ramadan. They are not obliged by their religions to fast in the Muslim holy month. Whereas, fasting in the month of Ramadan is obligatory for Muslims, it cannot be compelled on both Muslims and non-Muslims by self-appointed agents of enforcement of religious morality, such as Hisbah.

Nigeria is a secular state and must remain so, as all faith groups can always find accommodation of freedom of religious practice, without infringing on the right of orders under the constitution. And the insistence on continuously violating Nigeria’s secularism by state actors in the Muslim north, approximates the violent struggle of non-state actors like Boko Haram to forcefully destroy secular Nigeria and erect an Islamic state in its place. What state actors are trying to achieve through political Islam is what Boko Haram is also trying to achieve through violent Islamist Jihadism. The closure of schools during the month of Ramadan is less about concerns for school children and more for the symbolic dominance of Muslims in multi-religious Nigeria, which is the ultimate goal of Islamism.

And if the Muslim north keeps insisting and expanding the frontiers of Islamism in Nigeria through the surreptitious use of political Islam, then it is time to stop the war on Boko Haram and seek for a negotiated settlement that will cede the region to Islamists, while the rest of Nigeria will get whatever it wants, including 100 per cent control of oil mineral resources and revenue within the framework of a restructured Nigeria.

** Majeed Dahiru, a public affairs analyst, writes from Abuja and can be reached through This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..  

Every year in January, I tell myself I’ll spend less on dinners out, read more, save money, and just generally embrace being at home — a task which should be easier considering the freezing temperatures. 

None of these goals are necessarily bad, but they might not actually increase my well-being, says U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. In fact, a lot of activities thought of as “self-care” may actually make us more lonely, and isolation is a condition linked to depression, heart disease and even premature death. 

In a 2023 report, Murthy wrote that we have an “obligation, to make the same investments in addressing social connection that we have made in addressing tobacco use, obesity, and the addiction crisis.” 

Especially because young people report some of the highest rates of loneliness.

“There are forces around us that are telling us that the way to fill the emptiness that many of us feel is to focus more and more on ourselves, right?” he recently said on The Oprah Podcast. “To acquire more, to achieve more.”

Murthy suggests focusing on factors outside ourselves instead. Building relationships, engaging in our communities, and acting in service of others, he says, can make us feel less alone.

“When we focus on connecting to something bigger than ourselves, that’s actually when we find joy,” said. “It’s why service is one of the most powerful antidotes to loneliness.”

His advice is a good reminder that being by yourself and thinking about yourself all the time is not a sound strategy for fulfillment. It’s OK, worth the money, and even healthy, for me to prioritize dinners with friends.

CNBC

Nigeria achieved a trade surplus of N3.42 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2024, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The country's exports totaled N20.01 trillion while imports stood at N16.59 trillion during this period.

Total trade for Q4 2024 reached N36.6 trillion, representing a 2.20 percent increase compared to the N35.8 trillion recorded in the third quarter. More significantly, this figure marks a substantial 68.32 percent increase compared to the N21.75 trillion recorded in the corresponding period of 2023.

Exports accounted for 54.68 percent of total trade value in Q4 2024. While this represents a significant 57.67 percent increase over the value recorded in Q4 2023, exports decreased slightly by 2.55 percent compared to Q3 2024.

Crude oil remained the dominant export commodity, valued at N13.78 trillion and representing 68.87 percent of total exports. Non-crude oil exports were valued at N6.23 trillion, accounting for 31.13 percent of total exports, while non-oil products contributed N2.84 trillion or 4.20 percent of total exports.

The Netherlands emerged as Nigeria's top export destination in Q4 2024, receiving goods valued at N2.09 trillion (10.44 percent of total exports). Other major export destinations included France (N1.91 trillion or 9.54 percent), Spain (N1.74 trillion or 8.68 percent), India (N1.60 trillion or 7.98 percent), and Indonesia (N1.41 trillion or 7.03 percent). These five countries collectively accounted for 43.67 percent of Nigeria's total export value during the quarter.

On the import side, China maintained its position as Nigeria's leading trading partner, supplying goods worth N4.61 trillion (27.80 percent of total imports). Other significant import sources included India (N1.89 trillion or 11.43 percent), Belgium (N1.38 trillion or 8.35 percent), the United States (N1.05 billion or 6.33 percent), and France (N501 billion or 3.62 percent).​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​