Nigeria's movie industry continues to captivate audiences and attract significant foreign investment. With vibrant storytelling and improved production quality, foreign investors are now eyeing a slice of one of the world's largest film industries.
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Security guard Mallam Magaji Garba says he needs 50kg of rice, which costs 75,000 naira ($56; £44), to feed his family each month, before taking other expenses into account.
The minimum wage is currently 30,000 naira, which the government is offering to double.
Nigeria's unions under the umbrella of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress are demanding it be raised to 494,000 naira, which they say reflects the current economic realities.
Nigerian information minister says accepting the union demands would cripple the economy and lead to job losses because business would not be able to pay their workers and so have to close.
The walkout has caused disruption at the country’s busiest airport, Murtala Muhammed International in Lagos, with passengers saying they have been left stranded outside the domestic terminal.
Workers in health, banking, aviation and other major sectors are expected to stay away from work, a move that will cripple the West African country's economy.
Mr Magaji, who works for the education ministry in the northern city of Kano, says he and his family of 14 are struggling to survive.
“I am calling on the government to consider us and increase the minimum wage so that we can live and eat decently.
“It’s not fair that we have top government officials earning millions monthly and the smallest workers earn so little and finding it difficult to feed.”
The 59-year-old said he sometimes has to walk to work as he cannot afford to pay for transport.
Nigerians have been hit by a double whammy of the removal of a fuel subsidy and a collapse in the value of the naira since President Bola Tinubu took office a year ago.
Mr Tinubu says the measures are necessary to reform the economy so it works better in the long term but in the short term, inflation has risen to nearly 34%.
The government has ended the policy of pegging the value of the naira to the US dollar, allowing it to dramatically depreciate. Whereas 10,000 naira would have bought $22 last May, it will now only purchase $6.80.
Mansur Abubakar, BBC
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Despite cervical cancer being preventable and treatable, the disease remains a major killer in Nigeria. Authorities are hoping an ongoing massive vaccination program against the HPV virus, which can cause the cancer, will save lives.
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As Mr Tinubu begins his second year as president, most Nigerians score him very low on the economy, according to results from a new national Africa Polling Institute (API) poll.
At least 84 per cent of respondents expressed sadness with the current state of affairs in the country under Mr Tinubu while 81 per cent said that the president is driving the country in the wrong direction.
One such Nigerian dissatisfied with Mr Tinubu’s performance is Abubakar Ibrahim, a development worker in the Nigerian capital and former supporter of the president.
Mr Ibrahim told PREMIUM TIMES that he was no longer happy to have voted for Mr Tinubu and remains sceptical of how much he can achieve. Mr Ibrahim, 31, sees Mr Tinubu’s first year as one of “ups and downs.”
“The biggest problem that continues to face us is inflation and in turn the cost of living crisis. Unfortunately, these are problems induced by the president’s policies,” Mr Ibrahim said.
The latest API national survey brings to light a stark reality, said Bell Ihua, the API’s executive director. “Hunger, poverty, and dissatisfaction are the harsh realities of President Bola Tinubu’s one year in office.”
In terms of the biggest challenges facing the country under Tinubu’s stewardship, 36 per cent of respondents said hunger, 28 per cent identified with inability to meet basic needs and 13 per cent said unemployment. This is followed by heightened insecurity (9 per cent) and poor electricity supply (5 per cent).
Similarly, about 74 per cent of respondents affirmed that their economic situation has deteriorated over the last year, compared to 20 per cent who said their economic situation had remained the same and a meagre 5 per cent who said it had improved.
“The impact of the cost of living crisis we are in is weighing heavily on me,” Muhammad Sani, a resident of Kano State, told PREMIUM TIMES. “The prices of goods have more than doubled under this administration. There are basic things we can’t afford now as a family and that has impacted our living standard negatively.”
“The biggest problem that continues to face us is inflation and in turn the cost of living crisis. Unfortunately, these are problems induced by the president’s policies,” Mr Ibrahim said.
The latest API national survey brings to light a stark reality, said Bell Ihua, the API’s executive director. “Hunger, poverty, and dissatisfaction are the harsh realities of President Bola Tinubu’s one year in office.”
In terms of the biggest challenges facing the country under Tinubu’s stewardship, 36 per cent of respondents said hunger, 28 per cent identified with inability to meet basic needs and 13 per cent said unemployment. This is followed by heightened insecurity (9 per cent) and poor electricity supply (5 per cent).
Similarly, about 74 per cent of respondents affirmed that their economic situation has deteriorated over the last year, compared to 20 per cent who said their economic situation had remained the same and a meagre 5 per cent who said it had improved.
“The impact of the cost of living crisis we are in is weighing heavily on me,” Muhammad Sani, a resident of Kano State, told PREMIUM TIMES. “The prices of goods have more than doubled under this administration. There are basic things we can’t afford now as a family and that has impacted our living standard negatively.”
By Kabir Yusuf, Premium Times
Nigeria has reverted to a national anthem it dropped nearly 50 years ago after lawmakers replaced the current one, prompting widespread criticism over the lack of public consultation on the change.
The country’s president, Bola Tinubu, confirmed the law on Wednesday, a day after it was approved by both chambers of Nigeria’s national assembly, which is dominated by the governing party. The federal lawmakers introduced and passed the bill in less than a week – an unusually fast process for important bills that usually take weeks or months to be considered.
Nigeria’s economy has plunged during Tinubu’s first year in office, with inflation reaching a 28-year high of 33.2%, and the change of anthem was dismissed by some as a cynical distraction from an escalating economic crisis.
The reintroduced anthem was played publicly for the first time at a legislative session attended by Tinubu. Titled Nigeria, We Hail Thee, it was introduced in 1960 when Nigeria gained independence from Britain. It was written by Lillian Jean Williams, a British expatriate.
It was replaced in 1978 by Arise, O Compatriots under the military government of Olusegun Obasanjo. That anthem was composed at a time when the country was reeling from a deadly civil war and calls on Nigerians to “serve our fatherland with love and strength” and not to let “the labour of our heroes past [be] in vain”.
The change was met with incredulity by some Nigerians as the country reels from the economic crisis and deteriorating security.
“It is a waste of time,” said Cheta Nwanze, lead partner at SBM Intelligence. “What is more important are inflation and security problems: that is what the government should squarely be looking at.”
Oby Ezekwesili, a former education minister and presidential candidate, said the law showed that the country’s political class did not care about the public interest.
“In a 21st century Nigeria, the country’s political class found a colonial national anthem that has pejorative words like ‘native land’ and ‘tribes’ to be admirable enough to foist on our citizens without their consent,” Ezekwesili posted on X.
Supporters of the new anthem argued it was wrong for the country to use an anthem introduced by the military.
“Anthems are ideological recitations that help the people to be more focused. It was a very sad development for the military to have changed the anthem,” said the public affairs analyst Frank Tietie.
