Gotta Catch 'Em All!

The APC is collecting governors like Pokémon. Also, Nigeria wants Israel, the US and Iran to chill out, FAAN tried a silly cashless policy, and Tinubu is playing around with potential pandemic.

Mar 06, 2026

Good morning, Big Brains. It’s been almost a week, but the Citizen Townhall 2026 is still living rent-free in my head. It was awesome seeing so many young Nigerians passionately debate politics and governance. And the speakers? Insightful doesn’t even begin to cover it. I’m still chewing on some of the many nuggets of wisdom they shared. I could go on about the Townhall all day, but let’s get into what happened this week in Nigeria.

-Franklyn

Word count: ~ 2200 words

Reading time ~ 10 mins

In the madhouse that is Nigeria, many things go down within the week, and it can be difficult to grasp them all. This limited edition of The Big Daily newsletter cuts through the noise and sifts through the debris to bring you the four biggest news stories that shaped the week.

Let’s get into this week’s Big-4:

The APC is collecting governors like Pokémon
The Federal Government wants Israel, the US and Iran to chill out
Nigeria’s Airport Authority tried a cashless policy it wasn’t ready for
Nigeria still doesn’t have a handle on the Lassa outbreak

The APC is collecting governors like Pokémon

You’ve probably heard the saying “politics is a game.” Well, the All Progressives Congress (APC) clearly believes it. And for them, the game is Pokémon Go, except they’re collecting state governors.

The governor of Adamawa State, Ahmadu Fintiri, has defected from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC. He announced his defection on Friday, February 27, 2006, a move that means the APC now controls 30 out of 36 states.

The only non-APC governors left are:

Alex Otti of Abia — Labour Party (LP)
Charles Soludo of Anambra — All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA)
Bala Muhammed of Bauchi — PDP
Ademola Adeleke of Osun — Accord Party (A)
Seyi Makinde of Oyo — PDP
Dauda Lawal of Zamfara — PDP

Fintiri’s words were telling. He said: “I have taken this decision after wide consultations and in the best interest of the development of our dear state.”

But Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President and current opposition presidential aspirant, who is also from Adamawa, described the move as an act of survival. Atiku believes Fintiri was pressured and intimidated by the ruling APC.

Two weeks ago, we reported how the APC-led Federal Government has been “flexing its muscles” on opposition state governments. Dauda Lawal in Zamfara and Ademola Adeleke in Osun accused the FG of withholding funds to force them into switching camps. Bala Muhammed of Bauchi has also said law enforcement agencies are being used to intimidate him and his commissioners.

After the 2023 elections, APC had 21 governors. Now they have 30. Whatever tactics they’re using is clearly working, because just a day after Fintiri’s announcement, Zamfara’s Dauda Lawal reportedly held an emergency meeting with his cabinet to discuss defecting to the APC.

Lawal’s spokesperson, Sulaiman Bala Idris, told Channels Television that the governor was consulting stakeholders across Zamfara’s 14 local government areas but had not made a final decision yet.

Lawal has also claimed that while other states have received as much as ₦500 billion in palliative funds, Zamfara has not seen “a single kobo” since he was elected in 2023. This is especially painful because Zamfara is one of Nigeria’s poorest states and among the worst hit by terrorism and banditry.

It is simply evil for the FG to withhold funds as a tactic to pressure opposition politicians. This kind of state capture is an attack on democracy. But beyond politics, it is a direct attack on Nigerians. Ordinary people should not be punished because of their governor’s political choices.

Whatever moves politicians make, Nigerians must remember that withheld funds have meant four years of deprivation and undeserved suffering. Four years of punishment in the name of political games.

What Nigerians cannot afford to do in 2027 is mistake party switching for popularity. It doesn’t matter how many governors a party has. On election day, each governor is just one voter; their ballot counts the same as yours.

Hoarding governors means nothing when millions of Nigerians show up to vote. As repeated at every panel session of the Citizen Townhall 2026, voter participation is the real secret weapon. Nigerians must come out in their numbers in 2027.

To stay indoors is to reward a political strategy that holds Nigerian lives hostage. To sit at home is to accept that politics is a game won by collecting governors like Pokémon.

Whether politicians switch or not, the real power lies with Nigerians. As long as people show up on election day, they are the ones who decide the results.

The Federal Government wants Israel, the US and Iran to chill out

Have you ever heard the neighbours fighting and rush over to calm things down because you know their drama will soon spill into your compound? That’s exactly how the Nigerian government has been feeling all week because the fight in the Middle East is affecting pump prices at home.

On Saturday, February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel dropped bombs on Iran, killing its supreme leader, Ali Hosseini Khamenei, along with other top officials. Since then, both sides have been exchanging missiles like party favours. And even though the fight is thousands of miles away, Nigeria’s federal government is sweating.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs quickly put out a statement begging both sides to put the missiles aside and use their words instead. Signed by spokesperson Kimiebi Imomotimi Ebienfa, it read: “Nigeria calls on all parties to exercise maximum restraint and refrain from actions that could intensify hostilities, and to prioritise dialogue over confrontation.”

Ebienfa also reminded everyone that Nigeria has always been a “longstanding advocate of non-alignment,” basically saying we don’t want beef with anyone. Considering Iran has been targeting countries with US military bases and Nigeria just welcomed about a hundred US troops to help fight terrorists, that clarification was wise.

But ending up on Iran’s missile list might not even be our biggest worry. By Monday, March 2, 2026, ECOWAS was already warning that the conflict could wreck West Africa’s economy, Nigeria included. In a statement, ECOWAS chairman and Sierra Leone’s president, Julius Maada Bio, explained that the Gulf region is central to global oil and gas supplies. Since Nigeria exports crude but still imports most of its refined petroleum, the war could trigger inflation, currency pressure, and rising transport and food costs.

And we didn’t have to wait long to see it play out. On February 3, Dangote Refinery raised its ex-depot rate from ₦774 to ₦874 per litre. The NNPCL increased the pump price of petrol from ₦875 to ₦960 per litre. Economist Paul Alaje, who spoke to Channel Television, even predicted prices could soon hit ₦1,000 per litre. Energy costs bleed into everything else, so food prices and food insecurity are next in line.

We’ve been here before. Russia and Ukraine are among the world’s biggest wheat exporters. Their war caused bread prices in Nigeria to spike by 80% between 2020 and 2021. So we already know how wars halfway across the world can mess up life at home.

Yet, the government hasn’t done much to shield Nigeria from these external shocks. And it stings even more because Nigeria is blessed with crude oil. We’re one of the top ten oil exporters globally and have the second largest oil reserves in Africa. We should be an energy giant. Instead, Dangote Refinery, a private project, is basically the only functioning refinery, while government-owned ones sit idle.

With our reserves, we should be relatively insulated from whatever happens in the Gulf. If we refined our own petroleum products, we would be. The government should be focused on giving Nigeria autonomy over energy and food security, not playing referee in someone else’s war.

We should call for peace because we hate unnecessary loss of life and suffering. Not because we’re scared petrol prices will shoot up at home. Crying for Israel and Iran to chill out because their fight affects our pump prices is pathetic.

Nigeria’s Airport Authority tried a cashless policy it wasn’t ready for

Every now and again, the federal government rolls out a shiny new policy with big talk about modernisation. But instead of making life easier, it ends up exposing how little they care about ordinary Nigerians.

On Sunday, March 1, 2026, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) launched its nationwide cashless policy. Between Sunday and Monday, many unsuspecting Nigerians showed up at Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA) in Abuja, ready to pay toll fees ranging from ₦500 to ₦1,000 with cash. But toll operators refused, insisting on cashless payments only.

On its X (formerly Twitter) page, FAAN listed four acceptable payment options:

FAAN Go Cashless Card – “The fastest and most seamless payment option.”
E-Tag – “Ideal for frequent users; enables automatic deduction without stopping.”
VIP Sticker – “For authorised vehicles with approved access.”
ATM/Debit Card via POS – “Available on-site; however, processing time may vary due to banking network issues.”

The result? Chaos. Travellers spent hours stuck in gridlock at the toll gates. Many had to start registering for cards on the spot or gamble with POS machines that kept failing.

FAAN insists it did enough to inform the public. Henry Agbebire, FAAN’s Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, said: “We started sometime in October last year to sensitise people. We launched the Go Cashless card at FAAN. From that point on, we started sensitising, advertising, and onboarding people.”

But here’s the reality: Nigeria has over 46,000 flyers daily, yet FAAN only distributed 70,000 cards. That’s nowhere near enough. The numbers alone clearly show the launch needed to be delayed. Instead, ordinary Nigerians paid the price in wasted time and missed flights.

On Tuesday, March 3, FAAN’s Managing Director and CEO, Olubunmi Kuku, defended the policy despite the chaos. She called it a “temporary adjustment phase” and said it was necessary to block leakages and ensure maximum revenue remittance to the federal government.

Kuku’s defence isn’t surprising. She was appointed by President Tinubu as part of his drive to boost revenue across government agencies. In her first year, she doubled FAAN’s annual revenue. Corporate strategist Yakubu Dati even praised her “capacity to deliver on her mandate.” But that mandate, under Tinubu’s presidency, seems to be squeezing money out of Nigerians at all costs.

On Wednesday, March 4, Tinubu ordered the suspension of the policy. Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo announced that FAAN will now operate a hybrid system: those with access cards can use them, while others can pay with cash.

It’s good that the government realised its mistake, but this should never have happened in the first place. The numbers made the outcome obvious. Only 70,000 cards in a country of hundreds of millions? The gridlock was guaranteed. Either they were too blind to see it, or too obsessed with revenue to care.

Wanting to go cashless isn’t a bad idea. Blocking leakages isn’t wrong. But when revenue generation is placed above the welfare of Nigerians, it becomes unacceptable. We need a government that makes life easier, not one that manufactures difficulties out of thin air because it’s chasing money.

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Nigeria has been living with Lassa fever since 1969, yet the government still acts brand new, like we’re not sitting on a potential pandemic waiting to happen.

In 2018, we suffered a particularly bad outbreak, and since then, Nigeria has recorded Lassa fever cases every single year, with over 100 deaths annually. This year’s outbreak came early. In the first week of 2026 alone, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) recorded 21 new cases.

By Tuesday, March 3, the numbers had ballooned to 1,538 suspected cases, 326 confirmed cases, and 75 deaths across 14 states. That’s a case fatality rate of 23%, higher than the 19.7% recorded during the same period in 2025.

This outbreak has been particularly brutal on health workers. The NCDC has identified the lack of protective equipment as one of the reasons for the high number of infections among health workers this year.

Benue State, one of the hardest hit, has already lost 10 health workers. State Epidemiologist Msuega Asema confirmed that five doctors, four nurses, two community health extension workers, and one hospital porter have died.

So while the World Health Organisation (WHO) warns that Lassa fever has the potential to spark a future pandemic, Nigerian health workers are left to fight not just the virus but also a dysfunctional system.

Joseph Kontor, Chief Medical Director of the Federal Medical Centre in Makurdi, says poor power supply is crippling laboratory services and delaying test results. At Benue State University Teaching Hospital, Stephen Hwande says they need improved waste management systems and a functional emergency laboratory for on-site testing.

Health workers on the frontlines are not getting the equipment they need to save lives or protect themselves. Meanwhile, Tinubu continues to underfund the sector.

Back in 2001, African leaders gathered in Abuja and committed to spending 15% of their annual budgets on health. Fast forward 24 years, and in 2025, the World Health Organisation said Nigeria and other African countries actually need 20% health allocation to fix their poor healthcare systems.

Tinubu promised a 10% budget allocation in 2023. But here’s what he actually delivered:

2024 — 4.5%
2025 — 5.18%
2026 — 4.2%

All these are far below the Abuja Declaration, the WHO’s recommendation and even his own promise.

Protecting health workers should be the first priority. They should not have to pay with their lives for the government’s failures. Funding hospitals properly is non-negotiable if we’re ever going to build the resilient healthcare system Nigeria needs. Until then, every outbreak will keep exposing the same truth: Nigeria still doesn’t have a handle on Lassa fever, or on healthcare at all.

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