A two-week tally of Nigerian violence: 106 incidents, 445 casualties, 256 people kidnapped. The North West accounted for 83 per cent of the abductions.

Tinubu has ordered a National Threat Assessment and a rolling five-year defence plan. The committee reports in November. The vote is in January.

Three South West states have declared Thursday a public holiday for Ìṣẹ̀ṣe Day. Lagos alone expects more than three million people, at an event the state has now backed four years running.

Analysts keep modelling a northern realignment that would put Tinubu under real pressure. The modelling usually assumes a level of coordination that has not so far materialised.

An estimated 34.7 million people were projected to face Crisis-level food insecurity or worse during the June to August lean season. It has barely featured in the opening of the campaign.

Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar are running separately again. The arithmetic that produced 2023's result has not changed, and neither has the incentive that keeps them apart.

Petrol averages roughly N1,600 per litre nationally and the naira trades near N1,350 to the dollar. Three years of reform have produced a macroeconomic case the government can defend and a household reality it has to survive.

As the campaign opened in Abuja, retired military personnel planned a protest at the Ministry of Defence over unmet pension adjustments. The timing was not an accident.

The three main candidates are selecting campaign directors-general, and the names under consideration tell you more about the coming five months than most manifestos will.

Campaigning is legal from today. Between now and 16 January, Nigerians will be promised a great deal. A short guide to reading what is coming.

Ahead of campaigning opening, the presidential candidates and party leaders signed a National Peace Accord pledging issue-based campaigns and rejecting violence, hate speech and ethnic or religious incitement. The document has no enforcement mechanism.

INEC's timetable named Wednesday 19 August as the day campaigning could legally begin for the presidential and National Assembly elections. Nigeria now has just under five months of open politics before it votes.

Nigeria's external reserves have climbed above $52.5 billion, their highest level in 17 years, giving the country nearly a year of import cover and beating the CBN's own target for 2026.

Air Peace has launched two new multi-city routes linking Lagos to Bamako, Conakry, Douala and Libreville, part of a push to make Lagos the connecting hub for travel across West and Central Africa.

Nigerian tech founders have until August 19 to apply for the iDICE Startup Bridge Growth Lab, a Bank of Industry programme offering up to $350,000 per startup to twelve early-stage companies across the country's six geopolitical zones.

GITEX Nigeria returns for a second edition from August 31, splitting a four-day programme between an Abuja government summit and a Lagos tech expo, built around Africa's projected $1 trillion AI opportunity.

MTN Nigeria marked 25 years of operations this month with a half-year profit up 70.6%, a ₦1.6 trillion network investment, and a fresh reminder of how much infrastructure sabotage still costs the industry.

Africa Finance Corporation led a $2.5 billion equity raise for Dangote's refinery this week, oversubscribed 3.7 times over, as the company confirmed plans for a retail-focused October IPO.

Nigeria's stock market hit a record ₦160.42 trillion on Monday, then shed ₦3.8 trillion over four sessions — its steepest weekly pullback since June, even with the index still up 55.91% for the year.

Flutterwave is acquiring a bank in East Africa, CEO Olugbenga Agboola has confirmed, the clearest sign yet that Nigeria's fintech giant intends to become a continental banking player.