Tuesday 14 April, 2026
The Air Force bombed a market. Two colonels are dead. Your petrol costs 12% more than it should.
On Saturday, Nigeria's Air Force killed over a hundred people at a weekly market along the Borno-Yobe border. The military called it a successful strike on a terrorist hub. The market traders called it market day.
This is the same week a brigadier-general and a colonel were killed in separate insurgent attacks, five days apart. The same week the government announced N3.3 trillion to fix a power sector it has spent a decade underpaying. The same week the World Bank told Nigeria that suspending petrol import licences has made your fuel 12% more expensive than the global price.
All of it connects. The state is spending money it can't account for, killing people it cannot identify, and losing commanders to bombs it cannot anticipate. What follows is today's full picture.
Let's dig deeper
1. THE MARKET AT JILLI
Four Nigerian Air Force jets struck Jilli Market on the Borno-Yobe border last Saturday. At least a hundred people died. Some accounts put it closer to two hundred. Amnesty International confirmed they had photographs of the dead. The Air Force's first statement described a successful strike on a terrorist logistics hub. It said nothing about a market.
By Monday, Tinubu was meeting security chiefs behind closed doors. The US embassy had already authorised voluntary departure for non-emergency staff, citing a deteriorating security situation. Nigeria is now defending a mass casualty event to international media.
This is the sixth time since 2017 that a Nigerian military airstrike has killed civilians. Nobody was held responsible for the previous five.
2. WHEN THE BOMB FINDS THE COLONEL
On Sunday night in Monguno, insurgents attacked a military base and retreated. Colonel I.A. Muhammad drove toward the position to assess the situation. His vehicle hit an IED. He was killed alongside six soldiers.
Five days earlier, Brigadier-General Oseni Braimah was killed when ISWAP fighters stormed his base at Benisheikh. He tried to escape in an armoured vehicle. The vehicle wouldn't start. That was April 9.
Two commanding officers in five days. A third, Lieutenant Colonel Umar Farouq, was killed in a similar attack in Kukawa in March. ISWAP is placing bombs on the roads that commanding officers drive down when their troops call for help. The military has had seventeen years to notice this.
3. THE N3.3 TRILLION THAT DIDN'T TURN THE LIGHTS ON
Tinubu approved N3.3 trillion to settle Nigeria's power sector debts. Fifteen generating companies have signed. N223 billion has already been disbursed. The government calls it a full and final settlement.
The Association of Power Generation Companies says the real figure owed is N6 to N7 trillion and they were not included in the verification. Electricity available to distribution companies fell to 3,345 megawatts by April 3, down from 5,000 megawatts last year. The World Bank confirmed this week that generation has declined even as the bailout concluded.
Settling the old debt doesn't fix the pricing structure that creates new debt. The machine that keeps the lights off is still running.
4. YOUR PETROL IS 12% MORE EXPENSIVE
The World Bank's April 2026 Nigeria Development Update found that Nigeria's petrol is 12% more expensive than the global import-parity price. Nigeria's ex-depot price in March was N1,275 per litre. What competition would have produced is N1,122 per litre.
The gap exists because import licences were suspended in February, leaving Dangote's refinery as the country's dominant supplier. Dangote has reportedly threatened to export all its production if licences aren't fully shut down. The Trade Union Congress has warned petrol could hit N2,000 per litre.
Nigeria removed fuel subsidies to end market distortion. The policy that followed created a different kind of distortion. One supplier. No competition. You pay the difference.
5. YOU HAVE NO LIGHT HERE
On April 2, Tinubu flew to Plateau State to console families of the 28 people killed in the Palm Sunday massacre. He met with them at Yakubu Gowon Airport and stayed for about ten minutes. He said the airport had no electricity. "You have no light here. I fly out in ten minutes."
Peter Obi posted that clip alongside Tinubu's 2023 campaign pledge. "If I don't give you constant electricity in four years, don't vote for me for a second term." When Tinubu took office, Nigeria's average generation was above 4,000 megawatts. It is now below that. Tariffs have risen.
Tinubu did not create Nigeria's power crisis. But he promised to fix it. He is three years in. The airport had no lights.
6. PRIMROSE HILL
On April 7, Finbar Sullivan, a 21-year-old film student, was stabbed on Primrose Hill in London. He died at the scene. On Monday, Oluwadamilola Ogunyankinnu, 27, of Enfield, appeared at Stratford Magistrates' Court charged with his murder. He was remanded in custody and appears at the Old Bailey tomorrow.
Two weeks earlier, 14-year-old Eghosa Ogbebor was shot dead in Woolwich. A 16-year-old from Romford has been charged with his murder.
Two incidents. Two weeks. Both connected to the Nigerian-British community in British crime coverage. The community is not reading the news this fortnight. It is inside it.
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