Author: damazah@gmail.com

Tosin Clegg In today’s Nigeria, the display of extravagant wealth on social media has become almost routine. Luxury cars worth hundreds of millions of naira line the entrances of exclusive nightclubs, while expensive champagne, cognac and limited-edition whiskies are ordered by the crate, often with little public curiosity about how such fortunes were made. While legitimate wealth has grown through technology, entertainment, entrepreneurship and the digital economy, the scale of conspicuous consumption has also fuelled difficult conversations about the country’s growing fascination with quick money. Increasingly, many Nigerians are asking whether society has become too comfortable celebrating wealth without questioning…

President Bola Tinubu has congratulated former Kaduna State Governor and ex-National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, on his 70th birthday, describing him as a statesman whose public service was defined by integrity and exemplary leadership. Tinubu, in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, on Friday, described Makarfi as a “quintessential public servant and statesman” and a “perfect gentleman” whose contributions to governance and national development had earned him respect across political divides. Makarfi, who clocked 70 on Saturday, August 8, served as Kaduna State Commissioner for Finance before becoming…

Scammers in New York have been using gold bars to steal money from victims, primarily seniors, and made off with more than $100m over the past two years, the state’s attorney general announced on Friday.The scheme starts with victims receiving a fake pop-up message that states their computer or financial account has been compromised, the press release stated. The message includes a phone number to call, and when they do, the scammers convince the victims to provide remote access to their computers, which allows them to access their financial information or online bank accounts.The victims are then directed to someone…

The Super Falcons of Nigeria will battle Cameroon in a high-stakes 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) quarter-final in Casablanca on Sunday, with a place at the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil on the line. The defending champions will face their familiar rivals at Stade Larbi Zaouli, knowing that victory would secure Nigeria a place at next year’s global tournament and keep their title defence alive. Read Also: Super Falcons crush Egypt 6–2 to book WAFCON quarter-Final clash with Cameroon Falcons renew World Cup rivalry The quarter-final will rekindle memories of the teams’ last meeting at this…

Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 139, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, welcome, barbecue sauce, and also you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage.)This week, I’ve been reading about Johnny Knoxville and Google Zero and the history of the bicycle, @all-ing everyone in all my WhatsApp chats just because I can now, rereading There Will Come Soft Rains because this week is when it happens, seeing if Sabbath can help fix my screentime problems, once again moving everything around in my home office, eating altogether too…

Madeleine Finlay is joined by Ian Sample, Guardian science editor, to discuss three eye-catching science stories including an investigation that has identified four distinct types of thinker. Also on the agenda is the unprecedented cyclosporiasis outbreak in the US which has now been linked to two fatalities, and the funding cuts that threaten the iconic Jodrell Bank world heritage site, home to the Lovell telescope

Nigeria’s four representatives in the 2026/27 CAF inter-club competitions have discovered the opponents they must overcome in their quest to reach the group stages following the Confederation of African Football (CAF) preliminary-round draws. Rangers International and Rivers United begin their CAF Champions League campaigns from the first preliminary round, while Shooting Stars and El-Kanemi Warriors will compete in the opening round of the CAF Confederation Cup. In the Champions League, Rangers have been drawn against Benin Republic’s AS Sobemap in the first preliminary round. Should the Flying Antelopes progress, they will face either Niger Republic’s ASN Nigelec or Algerian giants…

This dramatised trial takes Henrik Ibsen’s 1882 play about a man’s campaign to expose the secret scandal of contaminated water in his town and turns it into a modern day interrogation: of speaking out versus remaining silent, of a family at war and of fiction and reality itself.In fact, is this a drama at all? It starts off as such but minutes later, the celebrated Brazilian screen actor Wagner Moura, playing Ibsen’s Thomas Stockmann, seemingly breaks character to talk to us directly. Stockmann still sits invisibly on stage and we as an audience are here to judge him, he says,…

The means of communication chosen to hatch a plot or stage a surprise is critical to the success of the plan. For some whose names surfaced in the alleged coup investigation, communication was not limited to ordinary telephone calls. Messages were exchanged through WhatsApp, while some conversations were taken to Zangi, a lesser-known messaging application built to guarantee privacy and secure communication. The distinction is important. WhatsApp is one of the world’s most widely used messaging platforms, familiar to virtually everyone with a smartphone. Zangi is, however, different. Its appeal is centred more explicitly on private communication. The application has…

The Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) rescued 363 victims and arrested scores of terrorists, informants, logistics suppliers and other criminal suspects in one week during operations nationwide. The Director of Defence Media Operations, Michael Onoja, a major general, made this known on Friday in Abuja, while providing weekly updates on ongoing military operations. Mr Onoja said the operations also resulted in the neutralisation of terrorists, recovery of arms and ammunition, disruption of logistics networks and dismantling of illegal oil refining facilities. In the North-east, he said the troops of Operation HADIN KAI rescued 35 victims, including women and children, while…