Friday April 03, 2026
The Nigerian state keeps raising prices it can't afford to pay for itself.
There's a pattern in today's edition that doesn't need much unpacking. The government raised the gas price for power companies on April 1. It still owes those companies ₦6.5 trillion from before. It paid 3.7 percent of what it owed last year. The lights are not getting better.
That's the spine. And everything else in today's edition is a version of the same thing. The man who ran Nigeria's legal machinery for eight years is now inside it, and 57 properties suggest the gap between official income and accumulated wealth is large. Twenty-five thousand graduates who did everything right are still waiting for a system that has no urgency to complete what it started. They got the degree, got the clearance, registered with NYSC. Nigerians in South Africa had their property burned this week, and the home government's answer was an advisory telling them to keep a lower profile.
The cost of the fuel that makes the lights come on just went up. The people who can least afford it are absorbing it. Today's edition traces who pays for what the state can't, or won't, pay for itself.
Six stories. Easter Friday. Let's dig deeper.
1. THE PRICE OF DARKNESS
Nigeria raised the gas price for power companies effective April 1. Gas produces over 75 percent of the country's electricity. The sector that will now pay more for that gas is owed ₦6.5 trillion by the Federal Government. It received ₦71.49 billion of that last year. That's 3.7 percent.
The chain runs like this. Gas suppliers are already threatening to cut supply because power companies owe them ₦3.3 trillion. Power companies can't pay because the government hasn't. The government raised the input cost for a sector it hasn't settled its last bill with.
The question is not when the lights get better. The question is whether the arithmetic that produces the darkness can change when the government keeps adding to one side of it without paying the other.
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2. THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL'S PROPERTIES
The EFCC filed this week to permanently seize 57 properties linked to Abubakar Malami, Nigeria's chief law officer from 2015 to 2023. The properties are in Abuja, Kebbi, Kano, and Kaduna. They include hotels, companies, and a university. The EFCC says they're disproportionate to his declared income and acquired partly through proxies.
Malami oversaw the legal framework the EFCC is now using against him. The asset forfeiture process. The investigative powers. The same institutions he once directed are now directed at him.
Both readings are honest. This could be accountability working. It could be accountability being applied selectively after a political alignment changed. The case can't settle which one it is. But it does raise a question nobody's asked loudly yet: if the 57 properties existed all along, who knew?
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3. SEVEN YEARS AND STILL WAITING
Over 25,000 Nigerian graduates studied at accredited universities in the Republic of Niger. They got Ministry of Education clearance. They registered with NYSC. They fulfilled every legal requirement. That was up to seven years ago. They still can't mobilise.
NYSC completion is mandatory for most employment in Nigeria. Without it, you can't formally enter the workforce. These graduates are in their late twenties and thirties. They followed the rules. The system that demanded their compliance has found no urgency to finish what they started.
The Nigerian state created the requirement. It accepted the compliance. Then it discovered complexity. The cost of that complexity isn't falling on the institution. It's falling on the graduates who trusted it.
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4. THE LOW PROFILE
On March 24, an Igbo community in South Africa's Eastern Cape installed a community leader under the title "Igwe Ndigbo Na East London." Political parties marched. The march turned violent. Vehicles were burned. Buildings belonging to foreign nationals were attacked. Police deployed stun grenades.
The Nigerian High Commission issued a 10-point advisory. Nigerians were told to moderate their movement, suspend cultural activities, maintain a low profile, and avoid inflammatory statements on social media.
That is the full response of the Nigerian state to its citizens having their property burned in another country. Not a demand for protection. An advisory. If you're Nigerian in South Africa or Ghana right now, this is the week that clarified what home owes you.
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5. THE WEEKEND BRIEF
Three things from this week worth carrying into Easter. Gas prices went up on April 1 into a sector the government owes and hasn't paid. INEC moved against the ADC within 24 hours of Kwankwaso joining the opposition. It had been sitting on the relevant court order for three weeks. And Nigerian property burned in South Africa while Abuja issued an advisory.
The voter who was almost ready to try again in 2027 is watching the INEC story and doing the maths. The Nigerian in the diaspora is watching the South Africa story and doing a different set of calculations. The person running a generator this Easter is watching their fuel gauge.
These three things don't resolve over the Easter break. They just wait.
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6. TWO VOICES, ONE FAMILY
On Wednesday, Simi posted on Instagram. No announcement, no campaign. Just maternity photos. And a caption. "+1. 3.10.26. God bless my little family. #mommyof2." The baby arrived March 10. She kept it to herself for three weeks.
Adekunle Gold commented one thing. "Daddy of 2, and My Baby Omo Nla." The internet, which had spent the week arguing about corruption and elections and burning vehicles, stopped briefly to be happy for two people.
That's not nothing. Some weeks, it's the cleanest thing in the newsletter.
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