In Lekki, one of the poshest suburbs of Lagos, the Nigerian army removed the cameras, turned off the street lights & LED billboard and killed "over 78" #EndSARS protestors singing the national anthem…then put the dead bodies in their trucks 1/7
thetelegram.com/opinion/local-…
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation (200M people), is really two countries. The southern, mostly Christian half, with all the oil, ports & most industry, is around 95% literate. Only 1 of the 19 northern, mostly Muslim states is over 50% literate 2/7
thetelegram.com/opinion/local-…
50% of young women in northern Nigeria have no formal education. Only 27% of southerners live below poverty line; 72% of northerners do. Yet it is young southerners on the brink of revolt, cos it is the political domination of the north that keeps ruling kleptocracy in power 3/7
Nigerian army officer corps has been dominated by Muslim northerners. Northern military dictators & elected presidents have ruled Nigeria for 38 of the 60 years since independence, but even Christian presidential candidates from the south are in hock to northern interests 4/7
The southern kleptocrats who buy the votes have an equally strong interest in the system, as it lets them go on stealing: one-third of Nigeria’s oil revenues over the past 50 years have ended up in foreign bank accounts 5/7
The young men and women in the streets of Lagos may not realise that their rebellion could endanger this entire system, but those who benefit from it certainly do — which is why their response has been so extreme 6/7
What happens next matters a lot, because 25 years from now Nigeria will have overtaken the US and become the 3rd biggest country in the world. It would be nice if by then it was a stable, well-educated democracy where prosperity extended beyond the south 7/7

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More from @cobbo3

23 Oct
The wall network of Benin City was collectively 4 times longer than the Great Wall of China and consumed roughly 100 times more material to build than the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt 1/5
humanprogress.org/centers-of-pro…
Benin City was also notably AMONG THE FIRST urban centres to have a likeness of street lighting. There were large metal lamps that burned palm oil, standing many feet high, placed around the city 2/5
The Benin wall network extended for some 16,000 kilometres in all. Dug by the Edo people, they took an estimated 150 million hours of digging to construct, and are perhaps the largest single archaeological phenomenon on the planet 3/5
Read 6 tweets
7 Sep
Struck up a conversation with the chap who cuts pineapple & other fruits at the Nairobi Carrefour where I shop. Seems he was puzzled, then surprised, that a customer would want to talk to him in any serious way. But he has a story 1/5 #NairobiPineappleCutter
Over the last 3 years, and he's gotten very adept at slicing pineapples. I asked him how many pineapples he has cut. Another puzzled look. He laughs, and says, "ah, they are too many to count".
I tell him, "You can, just write them down each day" 2/5 #NairobiPineappleCutter
I continue; "You know, if you work 330 days a year, and cut 10 to15 pineapples, over the last 3 years you have cut about 10,000".
"Wow", he says 3/5
#NairobiPineappleCutter
Read 5 tweets
4 Mar
“No Roses from My Mouth” .@drstellanyanzi’s collection of poetry (159 of them, some were seized) that was written in prison, is a deliberately provocative – and apt – response to a dictatorial regime that fails to see the folly of imprisoning writers 1/8
theelephant.info/features/2020/…
We have not had a book like “No Roses From my Mouth” this in this region. It is hard to think of another writer doing what Nyanzi is doing - A. K. Kaiza 2/8
From “No Roses From my Mouth”:
There will be no orgasm
Coming from my mouth
Who cares about pleasure during war?
Instead there is venom and acid 3/8
Read 8 tweets
29 Feb
On 1 March 124 years ago, Ethiopian Emperor Menelik's warriors, farmers, pastoralists & women routed a well-armed Italian army in Adwa. The spectacular victory ensured Ethiopia’s independence, making it the only African country never to be colonised 1/4
theconversation.com/the-battle-of-…
Before it was defeated, Italy’s expansion across Ethiopia was facilitated by the devastation caused by rinderpest that killed up to 90% of the country’s livestock. Famine & disease had also wiped out over 30% of Ethiopia’s population between 1888 & 1892 2/4
One of the key leaders of the Ethiopian forces at the 1 March 1896 Battle of Adwa was Etege Tayitu Bitul, wife of Emperor Menelik. A fearless strategist and brilliant administrator, she led 6,000 cavalry & employed traditional music and war chants to motivate the warriors 3/4
Read 4 tweets

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