Diran Debanjo

Consumer journey enthusiast. Talk to me on Consumer Experience. Always asking why not?

[Nigeria Tennis Live @naijatennislive]

SEUN OGUNSAKIN IS IN A GRAND SLAM MAIN DRAW 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️

The Nigerian tennis sensation has just defeated Canada’s Benjamin Azar 6-3, 6-1 to reach the Main Draw of the #wimbledon Junior Championships!

Congratulations, Nigeria. THIS IS A MASSIVE WIN FOR OUR SPORT 💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽

[Sunday Dare,CON @SundayDareSD]

Right of Reply:
THE UNFILTERED MIND OF ABIMBOLA ADELAKUN.

“ She wants the skyscraper without the foundation”.

​There is a particular brand of intellectual vanity that blossoms in the sterile, air-conditioned comfort of diaspora academia. It is a posture of superiority that masquerades as empathy while harbouring a profound, almost visceral disdain for the very people it claims to champion. Abimbola Adelakun, a regular purveyor of this cynicism, has once again treated the Nigerian public to a masterclass in this elitist arrogance.

In her latest broadside, she attempts to dissect the “unexamined life,” yet in doing so, she reveals nothing but the breathtakingly shallow, unfiltered mind of the professional critic, a mind that is as divorced from the grit of the Nigerian reality as it is obsessed with the sound of its own polemics.
​Adelakun’s prose is a performative act of scourging. She writes not to illuminate, but to diminish.

To her, the Nigerian woman frying akara by the roadside is not a person of agency or a symbol of resilience; she is a sordid prop in a narrative of state failure. She looks at the sweat of a mother’s brow and sees only a failure of national imagination. It is a putative approach to discourse: if a solution is not perfect, if it does not immediately transform a developing nation into an industrialized utopia, then it is not merely insufficient, it is a crime.

​What is most scathing about Adelakun’s position is its inherent dishonesty regarding the nature of progress. She mocks the "day of small beginnings," dismissing the micro-economic activities that have sustained millions as "petty" and "subsistence" farming masquerading as enterprise.

One must ask: what is the alternative? Does she propose that these millions of women, while waiting for the elusive, fully-industrialized Nigerian miracle she demands, simply fold their arms and starve? Her critique of the "ladder" is a prime example of the intellectual trap she sets for herself. She frames the pursuit of micro-capital as an attempt to "trap the poor." This is the ultimate elitist fallacy.

It assumes that those who start small are doomed to stay small, and that any effort to help them grow is a cynical ploy. It is a rejection of the fundamental history of commerce. Wealth, in every corner of the globe, has always been a ladder. It is built rung by rung. To suggest that a small grant or the act of trading is "unproductive" is to display a profound ignorance of how capital multiplies. It is the language of those who have never had to build anything from nothing, yet feel entitled to judge those who do.

​Adelakun’s piece is rife with the pillaging of history to suit a predetermined outcome. She attempts to invalidate the progress of my generation by claiming it was achieved in a "functioning Nigeria." This is a convenient revisionism. Every generation has had its monsters; every generation has faced its demons. The difference is that while she chooses to dwell in the darkness of what has been lost, millions of Nigerians are choosing to build in the light of what is possible.

​She attacks my own journey, as if the story of a mother selling goods in Jos is somehow negated because I now serve in government. She demands to know why that mother did not become a multi-billionaire, as if the purpose of every small enterprise is to reach the scale of a global conglomerate, and as if a child rising from humble origins to contribute to their nation’s leadership is not the very definition of success. Her resentment is palpable. She is not interested in the "dignity of the labourer", a phrase she borrows and strips of its meaning, but in the humiliation of anyone who dares to suggest that the Nigerian spirit is not yet defeated. Adelakun sneers at the informal sector as a sign of poverty, oblivious to the fact that it is the engine room of global resilience.

[Oyindamola🙄 @dammiedammie35]

“You can be an intelligent women and be a very bad First Lady, because you’re good at business does not make you sensitive enough to deal with a country”

Tinubu supporter: I don’t think the message is the problem, I think it’s the messenger. You have a problem with the messenger and by extension, her husband, the president

[UNCLE DEJI™️ @DejiAdesogan]

FG APPROVES HISTORIC NYSC REFORM, TO BE CIVILIAN-LED FOR FIRST TIME IN 53 YEARS

The Federal Government has approved a sweeping reform of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), marking the first comprehensive overhaul of the scheme since its establishment 53 years ago.

The landmark reform, approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), will see the NYSC led by a civilian in its operational leadership, while the military will continue to provide security for corps members across the country.

As part of the decision, FEC directed the Attorney-General of the Federation and the Ministry of Youth to amend the NYSC Act and relevant regulations to enable the immediate implementation of the new framework.

The reforms are designed to reposition the NYSC as a skill-oriented, productivity-driven, and youth-empowering institution aligned with the Tinubu administration’s goal of building a $1 trillion economy.

Speaking on the development, the Special Adviser to the President on Policy Coordination, Hadiza Bala Usman, said the reforms would strengthen human capital development and better prepare Nigerian graduates for national development.

She explained that the orientation camp would be restructured into three phases: the first two weeks will focus on civic responsibility, national values and leadership development; the next two weeks will cover career mapping, financial literacy, business planning and access to finance; while the final two weeks will provide specialised training based on each corps member’s chosen career stream.

Under the new framework, corps members will select one of 11 specialised streams, including Agric Corps, Medical Corps, Education Corps, Tech and Digital Corps, Legal Corps, Public Service Corps, Infrastructure Corps, Green Corps, Enterprise Corps, Creative Economy Corps, and Paramilitary and Security Corps.

According to Bala Usman, the specialised streams will equip graduates with practical skills tailored to their academic backgrounds, career interests and the country’s workforce needs.

She described the initiative as the first holistic reform of the NYSC since its creation in 1973, saying it reflects President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to transforming the scheme into a modern institution focused on youth empowerment, skills development and national productivity while preserving its role in promoting national unity.

[Garry Tan @garrytan]

Intelligence is on tap now so agency is even more important

[Andrej Karpathy @karpathy]

Agency > Intelligence

I had this intuitively wrong for decades, I think due to a pervasive cultural veneration of intelligence, various entertainment/media, obsession with IQ etc. Agency is significantly more powerful and significantly more scarce. Are you hiring for agency? Are we educating for agency? Are you acting as if you had 10X agency?

Grok explanation is ~close:

“Agency, as a personality trait, refers to an individual's capacity to take initiative, make decisions, and exert control over their actions and environment. It’s about being proactive rather than reactive—someone with high agency doesn’t just let life happen to them; they shape it. Think of it as a blend of self-efficacy, determination, and a sense of ownership over one’s path.

People with strong agency tend to set goals and pursue them with confidence, even in the face of obstacles. They’re the type to say, “I’ll figure it out,” and then actually do it. On the flip side, someone low in agency might feel more like a passenger in their own life, waiting for external forces—like luck, other people, or circumstances—to dictate what happens next.

It’s not quite the same as assertiveness or ambition, though it can overlap. Agency is quieter, more internal—it’s the belief that you *can* act, paired with the will to follow through. Psychologists often tie it to concepts like locus of control: high-agency folks lean toward an internal locus, feeling they steer their fate, while low-agency folks might lean external, seeing life as something that happens *to* them.”

[Dr. Toks 🦇 @fimiletoks]

Asiwaju! We are rebuilding.

The combination of the NIMC Act 2026, the NIPOST Alphanumeric Digital Postcode, and the upcoming Biometric Census represents a foundational overhaul of Nigeria.

Together, these pillars merge identity data, precise location intelligence, and demographic tracking into a unified digital ecosystem.

- Mandatory NIN for all key services
- Biometric census with facial and voice recognition
- Geospatial Validation: physical address matching and population density checks.
- Registration of those without a permanent address.
- No ghost citizens no ghost villages. The government must know you exist wherever you are.

Geography doesn't lie. You can no longer invent a village of 100k people. They must link back to the NIN database, census and NIPOST postcodes for actual buildings.

Biometrics will override politics. If you like gto enerate fake census figures. You will provide biometrics that must be synced with NIN, and NIPOST geospatial information.

May PBAT succeed.

[Depegan of Lagos 🇳🇬🇺🇸 @Mautiin01]

Cristiano Ronaldo Vs Thierry Henry& Zlatan Ibrahimovic Comparisons 🚶🏿‍♂️🐐✨

[Rasheedat Ajibade OON, OLY @Rasheedat08]

Hey you — yes, YOU. Have you heard that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life?

#happysunday #fam

[Primzy @lovyPrimzy1]

My American colleagues laughed when I brought jollof rice to the office potluck.

I was the only Nigerian in a team of 25 in California. Someone whispered

“Is that spicy ketchup rice?”
I smiled and kept quiet, but inside I was embarrassed.

By lunchtime the entire tray was gone.
People kept coming back for seconds, asking for the recipe, and one girl said
“This is better than my grandma’s jambalaya!”

My boss even joked that we should make it a monthly thing.

That day taught me something powerful… what feels too different or too much in our culture is often what people love most about us.

Stop shrinking your flavor to fit in.

[domaj @dollar_por]

In 2023, the only economic discussion that was worth mentioning was subsidy, so it was easy to say, "I will remove subsidy immediately" and get applause.

In 2026, the discussion has grown around tax laws, foreign reserves, rating agencies, closing the huge infrastructure deficit, education loans, FX liberalisation, IMF debts being cleared, loans being tied to specific infrastructure projects and released in phases, FDI inflows and commitments by companies like Shell, portfolio investments where NGX has hit the highest value in the history of this country, terrorists being jailed in phases and more being eliminated than under any previous administration.

We also have a phase-out plan for the power sector issues, such as moving electricity from the Exclusive List to the Concurrent List.

We have debt restructuring tied around bonds so that more money can come to operators to invest.

We have LG autonomy, regional commissions, and military operations that were once concentrated in a few locations now spread across different regions.

The Shell Bonga issue was settled.
The airport concession issue that lingered for decades was also settled.
Our airports are being actively developed.

Passports are now ready within days or weeks.

Nigerians are being treated like humans and brought back home from places like Ethiopia and even xenophobic attacks in South Africa, with government support.

We also have a LiveTV platform being launched to allow Nigerians access to over 100 stations free of charge.
Nigeria is now a construction site, with massive concrete roads that can last up to 60 years, saving huge maintenance costs.

We have the State Police bills passed and likely to become law soon.

CNG centres are springing up and people are adopting the alternatives; hence the queues at CNG stations. Slow, but moving.

Fuel scarcity is no longer the norm.

Civil servants have been placed on compulsory health insurance, and there is an agreement for a 40 percent salary increase for members of the armed forces.

Judges are getting homes, reducing the incentives for corruption in the first place.

We have the Renewed Hope Housing Scheme, where ordinary Nigerians can become homeowners through mortgages.

We have the clearing of airline backlogs, the centralisation of revenue collection, and the building of a data centre by the NIS.

I can go on and on, and the achievements and conversations will not stop.

You can argue that our children are in the bush, and yes, you will be right. It is never something that should be denied even BAT never denied unlike someone who said he was not in charge of security during Akuwazu SARS issue.

BAT accepts responsibilities.

You can raise the issue in every economic conversation, and Peter will be right because the lives of children are involved.

These incidents have happened many times in Nigeria, but for the first time, children are being brought back to their families in significant numbers, for example, Kuriga, Kaduna (about 300 children), Niger, Kano, Sokoto, Kebbi, and others.

The Oyo children and those in Borno will also be rescued.
Should it have happened? NO.
Will they be saved? YES.

Peter can limit his conversations to that issue, and he will be right.

But you see, BAT has, in fact, educated a lot of Nigerians, especially on policy and economics.

He started conversations around issues such as recharging Lake Chad, KPI's, Energy Mix etc and people like Peter could not even understand what was being discussed.

The issue here is that Peter is shallow and cannot have deep conversations around anything. Ask Peter about the internal issues within his party, and his answer is always, "Until I become president."

Is BAT perfect NO, Can he do better YES.

Finally, the conversations have grown. We are now discussing deeper issues affecting Nigeria, and Peter does not have that range, and he never did

[Ziyad Yakubu @Ziyad_yakubu]

I watched the recent Peter Obi interview with Rufai Oseni, and honestly, I found him uninspiring.

To be fair to him, there are things I respect.

He clearly studies examples from other countries. When he talks about power, production, governance, security, or the economy, he often refers to places where those things are working. That is not a bad instinct. In fact, it is a good one. A serious country should learn from countries that have solved problems similar to ours.

He seems to operate with a simple principle: if you study what successful people are doing and apply it with discipline, you increase your own chances of success.

That part is commendable.

I also respect the fact that he is now speaking more deliberately about unity, inclusion, and not leaving any tribe or region behind. I wish he had discovered that language more clearly in 2023, but better late than never.

I also respect the fact that he keeps talking about doing only one term. Yes, the North-South power arrangement is informal, and if he ever became president, he could easily keep quiet about it, enjoy the advantages of incumbency, and position himself for re-election like most politicians would. Instead, he keeps bringing it up and putting it on record. Whether he will actually keep that promise remains to be seen, and politicians have broken bigger promises before. It is even possible that the one-term pledge is what he sold to Kwankwaso to agree to be his running mate. But regardless of the political calculation behind it, I still respect the fact that he is saying it openly.

So yes, I can give him credit where credit is due.

But my problem with him, he sounds like a man with good intentions, but good intentions do not rule Nigeria.

Nigeria is not a TED Talk.

Nigeria is not a spreadsheet.

Nigeria is not a country where you simply say, “I have seen how Egypt did it, I have seen how India did it, I have seen how Indonesia did it,” and then everybody should clap.

When Rufai pressed him on how he would deliver 10,000 megawatts of electricity, he refused to explain the details. His argument was basically: look at the person making the promise, look at my track record, trust me.

That is not enough.

Nigerians have been trusting people with beautiful promises since 1960.

The question is not only whether you know that other countries are working. The question is whether you understand the specific Nigerian obstacles that stop things from working here.

Power in Nigeria is not just about megawatts. It is about gas supply, transmission collapse, tariffs, distribution companies, debt, vandalism, regulation, political sabotage, and the federal-state confusion around electricity.

So when you say you will fix it, people have the right to ask: how?

And if your answer is “I will not tell you,” then you cannot be angry when some of us are not moved.

The same thing applies to insecurity.

When asked about insecurity, he spoke about commitment. He said he fought criminality in Anambra. He spoke about being ready to die for Nigeria. He said those who want peace will get negotiation, and those who want war will get war.

Again, good rhetoric.

But Nigeria’s insecurity is not just a problem of personal bravery.

It is an economy. It is intelligence failure. It is forest governance. It is arms flow. It is ransom financing. It is local complicity. It is weak policing. It is porous borders. It is corrupt security structures. It is politics. It is poverty. It is ideology. It is state absence.

So when you reduce all that to “commitment,” I get worried.

Because commitment is necessary, but commitment is not a security architecture.

This is where Obi’s politics worries me. He often sounds morally clean, but politically underprepared for the dirt of Nigerian power.

He left the PDP primaries because he believed the process was too transactional. I understand the argument. But if you cannot survive transactional primaries, how exactly will you survive transactional Nigeria?

What makes him think insecurity is not transactional?

What makes him think the National Assembly is not transactional?

What makes him think subsidy networks, power-sector interests, security contractors, oil thieves, governors, party structures, and ethnic power blocs are not transactional?

You cannot govern Nigeria by simply being the decent man in the room.

At some point, you must fight.

At some point, you must build a coalition.

At some point, you must bend people without breaking the country.

At some point, you must deal with people you do not like without becoming like them.

And that is where I still do not see the steel.

Then there is the northern question.

Obi’s supporters like to pretend that the North’s suspicion of him came from nowhere. That is not true.

Whether some of the allegations against him were false, exaggerated, or taken out of context, they exist in the political memory of many people: the “Yes Daddy” controversy, the mosque demolition allegation, the ID card allegation, and the general feeling around his 2023 campaign sectarian posture.

You cannot just shout “fake news” and move on.

Politics is not only about what is true. It is also about what people believe, why they believe it, and what you have done to repair that trust.

So far, I think Obi is trying to speak the language of unity now. That is good. But trust is not repaired by one interview. It is repaired by consistency, humility, and hard engagement with people who do not already love you.

That is why, overall, I still find him uninspiring.

He is not clueless or stupid. He is not unserious.

But I also do not see the extraordinary messiah that his supporters see.

What I see is a regular Nigerian politician the know some statistics.

Nothing more.

Maybe that is enough for some people.

For me, it is not.

Nigeria does not need only a man who knows what is working elsewhere.

Nigeria needs a man who understands why things refuse to work here, who can explain how he will break those obstacles, and who has the political courage to fight the interests that benefit from national failure.

So far, Peter Obi has shown that he can diagnose Nigeria.

I am still not convinced he can govern it.

[Dr. Toks 🦇 @fimiletoks]

You guys are too daft.

- PBAT has signed the Electricity Act to allow states generate, transmit and distribute power.

- PBAT has transferred full regulatory powers to State Electricity Agencies to regulate and create their laws that fit their electricity market.

- PBAT is completing 2 major gas pipeline to pipe gas across the country for thermal plants - AKK and OB3. The last major pipeline Escravos - Lagos, was built in 1989.

- PBAT has floated a bond to pay N4trn legacy debts owed to Gencos for 13 years. This is will help restore investor confidence in the sector.

- PBAT has unbundled the TCN to create a Nigerian Independent System Operator stripping TCN of regulatory powers and allowing it to focus on physical infrastructure.

- The $2.3bn Siemens transmission expansion project is ongoing

- The Presidential Metering Initiative is ongoing.

You guys have zero ideas on how nations are built.

[Son of David @DrOlusesan]

Young John: I can build you a 4 bedroom duplex in 4 days.
Client: But you are not an architect, how is that possible? Ok, show me your plan.
Young John: sir, forget about the plan. Just give me the contact. Its not the plan, its the person talking to you.

I see the money coming!
I see the money coming!
I see the money coming!
I dey carry my body like Elumelu. Show what God cannot do!

[Rasheedat Ajibade OON, OLY @Rasheedat08]

I had the privilege of engaging with coaches in Jos, Plateau State, through the Rasheedat Ajibade Foundation's Coaches' Sensitisation Session on Safeguarding, Anti-Discrimination, and Code of Conduct.

Football is more than the game we play on the pitch; it is about creating safe, respectful, and inclusive environments where every player can learn, grow, and thrive.

I am grateful for the opportunity to share, learn, and contribute to conversations that will help shape a better future for our athletes and the sport we all love.

#RasheedatAjibadeFoundation #SafeguardingInSports #AntiDiscrimination #PlayerWelfare #FootballDevelopment #Jos #PlateauState

[Diran Debanjo @debanj]

@Rasheedat08 @PSG_Feminines God bless you Rasheedat

[Rasheedat Ajibade OON, OLY @Rasheedat08]

THIS IS WHY I STARTED. .

I am a product of a grassroots coach. Someone who showed up for me with no resources, no recognition, just pure belief that I could become something great.

And I did. By God’s grace, I play for @PSG_Feminines and I captain the Super Falcons of Nigeria.

But as my career grew, I started to notice something that broke my heart.

The coaches doing this work every single day across Nigeria on grassroots pitches, in communities, with barely any resources, no one is investing in them.

No certificate. No formal training. No support. Just passion. Just love for the game.

So I made a decision.

I started the Rasheedat Ajibade Foundation NIS Coaching Education Scholarship because I believe that if you invest in the coach, you invest in every single player they will ever coach for the rest of their career and for the rest of their lives.

Behind every great Nigerian athlete is a coach who believed in them first.

Let us invest in those coaches.

If you believe what I believe that Nigerian sport changes from the ground up, not the top down, share this. Invest in this. Be a part of this.

#RasheedatAjibade #RasheedatAjibadeFoundation #NISScholarship #GrassrootsFootball #NigerianFootball #SuperFalcons #PSG #CoachDevelopment #SportsEducation #NigerianSport #AfricanFootball #WomenInSport #GrassrootsCoach #InvestInCoaches #9jaFootball #ChangeTheGame

[Making of Champions @MakingOfChamps]

😳😳😳 Samuel Ogazi, what have you just done?

4️⃣3️⃣.3️⃣8️⃣s

Ogazi shattered the NCAA College record, becoming the 4th fastest man ever!

What a statement run from the Nigerian Gazelle

[Herbazon @cannilized]

@imohumoren live long enough to see victims turn to villians