Democracy abi Democrazy?

he Nigerian government is allegedly mismanaging its disaster prevention funds

Good morning, Big Brains. Happy Democracy Day to you if that’s your vibe. There isn’t much for me to celebrate today. I’m still fighting the Nigerian government and the chokehold of capitalism.

- Margaret

Word count: ~ 1,000
Reading time ~ 5 mins

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Let’s get into today’s edition:

• The Nigerian government is allegedly mismanaging its disaster prevention funds

• Elon Musk is done crashing out

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The Big Deal

The Nigerian government is allegedly mismanaging its disaster prevention funds

The devil couldn’t get you, so he sent the most questionable leaders to do his dirty business in your life. Today is Democracy Day, and we’re supposed to pretend we’re living the Nigerian dream, but that move has gotten boring over the years. We’d rather talk about everything that’s wrong with our government, and there’s plenty to talk about today.

It’s been almost two weeks since a flood incident in the Mokwa area of Niger State took the lives of over 200 Nigerians. On paper, this looks like just another natural disaster, but a public affairs expert named Sam Amadi says he’s calling B.S

According to Amadi, only 30% of Nigeria’s yearly ecological fund is spent on helping states avoid ecological disasters.

He added, during an interview with Arise News , that the effects of these floods can be managed better, especially in flood-prone states, if the government starts taking its job more seriously.

Why is this a big deal?

The Maiduguri flood of 2024, the worst in 30 years, was one of the events that brought more attention to this fund mismanagement problem. Even though the Borno State government received ₦816.34 million from this fund between January and June 2024 to prevent national disasters, it spent only 2.45% on flood control.

And according to a four-year audit by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), this fund hasn’t exactly served its purpose for a long time,

In 2007, ₦33 billion entered the Ecological Fund account. NEITI discovered that ₦6.8 billion from that money went to the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), not for flood control, but for building a mall and providing engineering infrastructure to satellite towns like Kubwa and Karshi.

Some parts of the funds also went to random ministries, departments, agencies, and even the military, none of whom had any business touching ecological funds in the first place.

Another 2024 report by the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) shows that 12 out of Nigeria’s 36 states have spent only ₦3.6 billion out of the ₦7.3 billion ecological fund they received on environmental projects.

So, Amadi’s allegations don’t seem very far from the truth. If we keep going down this road, the climate issues will displace more people, and many more Nigerians will lose their lives.

Elon Musk is done crashing out

We know we’ve been in America’s business a lot more lately. Allow it. Their problems are typically less intense than ours, and it’s not every day we see two powerful men crash out on social media.

Last week, US President Donald Trump and his billionaire friend, Elon Musk, fell out, and the whole world got front-row seats to the political drama.

We thought we left the drama behind but Musk just said “I think not.” In a surprising turn of events, he experienced an intense wave of regret on Wednesday, June 11. He said some of his posts about Trump “went too far” and publicly apologised to his former bestie. This apology came a few days after Trump threatened him with “serious consequences” for allegedly trying to sabotage the controversial Big Beautiful Bill.

We don’t know how conspiracy theorists feel about the drama between these two because it’s interesting that Trump, who was singing Musk’s praises as he stepped down from his role at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), is now calling him “disrespectful” and promising to make him pay. It’s even more interesting that Musk is acting like he didn’t casually tweet that the president got honourable mentions in Jeffrey Epstein’s files, a man who happens to be a child sex offender.

Whatever “went too far” means, we’ll probably have follow-up details for you in the coming week.

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Your next big read

→She Moved to Japan as a Teaching Assistant with Less than ₦7 Million: Mfon* (28) was broke, depressed, and recovering from the psychological effects of a toxic job, until she decided to change her life. In this story, she shares how getting a foreign job and relocating to Japan with less than ₦7 million has taken most of her problems away.

→June 12: The Day Nigeria Found Its Voice?: It’s Democracy Day. Major operational institutions are closed. If you tune in to the radio and TV stations in the country, everyone is talking about the significance of June 12. This is a day that has come to represent Nigeria’s democracy.

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The Big Picks

We Will Welcome You To APC Whenever You Decide, Tinubu Tells Wike: President Bola Tinubu says he will welcome Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister Nyesom Wike into the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) whenever he chooses to join officially.

Tinubu Cancels June 12 Presidential Broadcast, To Address Nigerians At NASS: The Presidential National Broadcast of President Bola Tinubu, earlier scheduled for 7 am in commemoration of Democracy Day on June 12, has been cancelled.

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This Week’s Big Question

“What’s your hottest Nigerian take?”

Deborah’s response - “Nigeria has lost the right to blame its problems on colonialism. The white man is no longer our problem.”

You can also share your response here, and if it’s as interesting as Deborah’s, we’ll feature it in the next edition.

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Let’s settle this thing…

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Take a quiz before you leave

How Many Five Letter Words Can You Make From “Democracy” in 3 Minutes?: Share your results and tag us on social media.

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Play catch up

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