1
THE POISON LETTER
El-Rufai walked into the EFCC this morning. Yesterday he accused the government of importing poison to kill him.
The letter names the substance — thallium sulphate, colourless, odourless, tasteless — and claims the opposition intercepted the communications that revealed it. The NSA says it never happened. The Presidency says El-Rufai is playing games.
The DSS, which took his passport at the airport without a warrant four days ago, has said nothing.
2
THE MANUAL FALLBACK
The Senate reversed itself on electronic transmission. Nigerians celebrated. They shouldn't have.
There's a clause buried in the amended Electoral Act that says where network fails, the paper form takes over. In Nigeria, network always finds a way to fail.
That paper form is the same one that disappeared and reappeared at tribunals throughout 2023.
3
TWO HUNDRED TRAINERS
American troops landed in Maiduguri on Thursday night. The official story is training and counterterrorism.
But they arrived the same week US Congress introduced a bill to freeze the assets of a Nigerian opposition senator. And Trump is still telling his base he sent them to protect Nigerian Christians.
Nigeria says its sovereignty is intact. The harder question is whether anyone asked before it wasn't.
4
THE NAMED MAN
Five US congressmen just introduced a bill that would freeze Kwankwaso's accounts and cancel his visa.
He's a former governor, a former presidential candidate, and a current member of the same opposition coalition as El-Rufai and Atiku. Every other northern governor who implemented Sharia law is absent from the bill.
Only Kwankwaso is named. The timing is worth asking about.
5
YOUR PUMP PRICE
Dangote dropped petrol to ₦774 last Tuesday. Your station is still charging ₦905.
The refinery is undercutting imported fuel. The math should mean lower prices at the pump within days. It hasn't.
The distance between a working refinery and your tank runs through a country that hasn't fixed its roads, its pipelines, or its logistics chains. That gap has a cost. You're paying it.
6
ISAAC SATLET
He was 22. He was a month from graduating. He drove e-hailing to pay his fees.
On February 11, he picked up two passengers in Pretoria West. His body was found in Atteridgeville. A suspect appears in court today.
Nigeria and South Africa have an agreement to protect Nigerians abroad. NiDCOM says South Africa has never implemented it.
7
PETER OBI IS RUNNING
He made it official this weekend. 2027. Labour Party. He's in.
The opposition field now has Obi, Atiku, and Kwankwaso — one facing a US sanctions bill, one navigating coalition politics, one watching his allies walk into the EFCC one by one.
Eighteen months to the election. The race looks like this already.
8
₦874 BILLION
That's what INEC wants to run the 2027 elections. Nearly three times what was released for 2023.
The Senate just spent two weeks arguing that Nigeria's infrastructure is too broken to guarantee transparent voting. The same Senate is now being asked to approve almost ₦1 trillion for the exercise.
Nobody has explained how the money fixes the problem they just described.
9
FIVE DAYS
Abuja votes on Friday. Area Council elections. The Electoral Act Conference Committee is still meeting.
FCT Minister Wike has already said he will only back candidates loyal to Tinubu. The rules for how results get transmitted are still being finalised.
The first test of the amended Electoral Act is happening in the capital city before the ink is dry.
10
ARGUNGU
Kebbi State is standing waist-deep in water this week competing for fish. Eighty years of this festival and no government has managed to stop it.
Not the military. Not structural adjustment. Not subsidy removal. Not whatever this week in Abuja is.
Some things in Nigeria run on a different clock entirely.
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