Biggi Bassey

At 6:30 a.m. on a typical morning in rural Katsina, a farmer climbs onto his motorcycle and heads toward a nearby village. He is not a criminal. He is not a bandit. He is simply trying to buy fuel for his water pump before the day’s farming begins. A few kilometres away, a widow walks to the nearest POS operator to withdraw ₦5,000 sent by her son working in Kano. But the POS shop is shut. The operator has been ordered to close.

The tension in Ibadan took a more emotional turn on Tuesday as social media activist Martins Vincent Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), led a large group of youths to the Oyo State Government House, demanding urgent action over the abduction of schoolchildren and teachers in the state. The protest, driven largely by young Nigerians under the Ratel Movement, was marked by frustration, urgency, and repeated calls for the safe return of the victims.