How can you hoard indomieennn?
Former lawmaker accused of mishandling palliatives gets new appointment from Tinubu
Welcome to a new week, Big Brains. I’ll be taking it easy with my goals for this week because why do I have to smash my goals every week? Unrelated but while writing today’s edition of TBD, I reaffirmed my decision to never live in America. But since the people endorsing gun violence are now becoming victims of gun violence, maybe they’ll soon have sense. Read through to get the deets.
- Margaret
Word count: ~1,000
Reading time ~3 mins
This Week’s Big Question - “If you could instantly master any skill without any effort, what would you choose and how would you use it to change your life?” Share your responses with us and if we think it’s fun enough, we’ll feature it in the newsletter :) so be on the lookout.
Let’s get into the news you missed during the weekend:
Tinubu gives former Lagos lawmaker accused of hoarding COVID-19 palliatives new appointment
Trump rally shooting investigated as possible assassination attempt
Dangote refinery to start petrol production in August
The Big Deal
Tinubu gives former Lagos lawmaker accused of hoarding COVID-19 palliatives new appointment
When we say we want more women in male-dominated spaces, we’re not talking about the Nigerian corruption space. Hell, we don’t even need any gender in that space. But Mojisolaoluwa Kehinde Alli-Macaulay, a former Lagos lawmaker, seems to have misread the memo.
In 2020, the lawmaker was accused of repackaging COVID-19 palliatives intended to provide temporary relief for vulnerable Nigerians as souvenirs for her birthday celebration. She denied the allegations, but the pictures and videos that made rounds later proved otherwise.
Alli-Macualey was once again on the wrong side of history after the October #EndSARS protests which led to the killing and arrest of many Nigerian youths. Her interesting opinion as a lawmaker was that Nigerian youths were “high on drugs all the time”. She also “solved” Nigeria’s persistent unemployment problem in literally seconds by suggesting that “instead of complaining all the time”, Nigerian youths would be better off seeking jobs in the informal sector.
This former lawmaker, with her history of corruption and insensitivity to the plight of Nigerians, has now been appointed as the Executive Director (Operations) of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) by President Tinubu. And obviously, Nigerians are not thrilled about this appointment.
Why is this a big deal?
NSITF provides compensation to insured employees for work-related diseases, disabilities, injuries, or deaths, whether they occur at the workplace or outside the workplace. Like their name suggests, they deal with funds gotten from the varying percentage they charge employers.
A former lawmaker whose corruption allegation was never investigated is probably not the right person for a position like this. If she couldn’t be trusted with cartons of indomie and rice, she certainly cannot be trusted not to mismanage funds at an advanced level.
Trump rally shooting investigated as possible assassination attempt
The world may have been laughing about the somewhat hilarious unfolding of the upcoming presidential elections in the US, but sh*t just got bloody serious and nobody saw it coming… literally.
On Saturday, Donald Trump was almost assassinated during a rally in Pennsylvania. Even though the former President’s team has confirmed that he’s “fine”, Trump left the rally with a bloody ear.
What makes this even more interesting is the fact that this is the first attempt to assassinate a presidential aspirant since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.
The suspected gunman has reportedly been killed by the Secret Service. Even though the shooter didn’t hit his target, he took the life of an innocent civilian.
President Joe Biden ,who is running against Trump, condemned the shooting saying, “There’s no place in America for this type of violence” even though guns can be purchased easily in American big chains like Walmart.
Trump himself has endorsed the circulation of guns in America. Earlier this year when he was trying to get members of the National Rifle Association (NRA) to vote for him, he said President Joe Biden, “gets four more years, they are coming for your guns, 100% certain. Crooked Joe has a 40-year-record of trying to rip firearms out of the hands of law-abiding citizens.”
He has also called himself “the best friend gun owners have ever had in the White House” even though the United States records disturbing numbers of deaths due to mass shootings. We wonder if he’ll remain the best friend of gun owners after his lucky survival.
Dangote refinery to start petrol production in August
Like someone rightfully said, we've never heard Dangote complain to regular ass people like us until recently. He's complained about many things including high lending interest rates and attempts by international oil companies (IOCs) to frustrate efforts at purchasing crude for his refinery.
Recall that the Vice President of Oil and Gas at Dangote Industries Limited, Devakumar Edwin, shared in June that the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) had been trying their best to allocate crude to the refinery, but IOCs were willfully obstructing their efforts. Edwin said, "It seems that the objective is to ensure that our Petroleum Refinery fails. It is either they are deliberately asking for ridiculous/humongous premiums, or they simply state that crude is not available."
At one point, Dangote had to pay $6 above the market price for crude, which forced the refinery to reduce output and import crude from distant countries like the US which increased production costs. But Dangote's perseverance has paid off, and the refinery is now on track to roll out its petrol production next month.
The richest man in Africa has announced that the refinery will finally start producing petrol by August. Dangote revealed on Sunday that the crude supply issue, which had delayed petrol production, was resolved last week with the federal government’s intervention. Hopefully, Nigerians will go back to knowing less about Dangote.
The Big Picks
Tinubu Condemns ‘Distasteful’ Attack On Trump: President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has condemned the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, calling the attack "distasteful."
Court Orders Lai Mohammed To Disclose Agreement Between FG, X: Justice Nnamdi Okwy Dimgba of the Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered former Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, to reveal the details of the agreement between the Federal Government and X, formerly known as Twitter.
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