Mind, Body and Country by Njideka Maduka

By Njideka Maduka | News Explainer Nigeria has one confirmed case of Ebola disease caused by the Bundibugyo virus, with 53 contacts under surveillance. The NCDC has also approved weekly financial support for people placed in isolation or quarantine. Here is what the latest situation report reveals and what Nigerians need to know. Nigeria's response to the confirmed case of Ebola disease in Abuja has entered another phase, with health authorities monitoring 53 contacts and introducing emergency financial support for people placed in isolation or quarantine. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) provided further information about the case in its Ebola Disease Situation Report dated October 24, 2026 . At a briefing the following day, NCDC Director-General Dr Jide Idris explained the expansion of contact tracing and announced a weekly payment of ₦100,000 for eligible contacts in isolation or quarantine. Here is what the two updates reveal, and what Nigerians ...

By Njideka Maduka   Media literacy is something I think people should begin to take more than a cursory look at, especially as the editorial integrity of some media organisations is beginning to raise questions in my mind. Media literacy, by definition, is the ability to access, analyse, evaluate and create media in various forms. It also involves reflecting on one's media choices, identifying sponsored content, recognizing stereotypes, analysing propaganda and understanding the benefits, risks and harms of media use. Understanding these concepts should make the audience more critical of the information it consumes. It should encourage people to ask questions about why a media platform focuses on a particular message and what informs that choice. Without this understanding, many people fall into the trap of offering unending support to media organisations without questioning their editorial decisions. Ebola Coverage and Editorial Priorities On Tuesday, October 20, 2026, Nigeria...

Last Thursday, we had a conversation on Breakfast Diary with Dr. Paul Alaje, Chief Economist and Partner at SPM Professionals, and one thing he said has stayed with me since: fuel subsidy wasn't Nigeria's real problem, it was a symptom of a deeper one. We were reacting to President Tinubu's Independence Day speech, in which the President pointed to delayed subsidy removal and exchange rate unification as some of the difficult decisions that had held Nigeria back for years. Dr. Alaje pushed back on that framing. In his view, the deeper issue is low productivity, and until Nigeria fixes that, cheaper petrol or a stable exchange rate alone won't deliver the prosperity we're being promised.  He made a strong case for reliable electricity, good roads and rail infrastructure as the real foundations for growth, and he was just as firm about the need for Nigeria to earn more from outside oil. I've shared the excerpt above. If it gets you thinking the way it got me think...

By Njideka Maduka   Part of our radio conversation today was centred on what should be the focus of the campaign for the 2027 general election, particularly for the presidential candidates. As we know, the 2027 election campaign season started last Wednesday, August 19. My position was that, outside security, the economy should be our biggest focus as far as the 2027 election is concerned. Thankfully, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Atiku Abubakar, has already started that conversation. Now, what's Atiku bringing? Atiku has proposed a return to fuel subsidy. His proposal is to replace the old import-subsidy model with a targeted, capped and independently audited production subsidy for domestic refiners, with the stated aim of lowering petrol prices while encouraging local refining. He has said this would be on a temporary basis. It's not every day that a politician backtracks on an earlier position, especially on an important issue like thi...

B y Njideka Maduka I didn’t plan to write a memorandum on Nigeria’s National Policing Bill today. Honestly, I didn’t. A few weeks ago, during one of our paper review sessions on radio, my team and I discussed the proposed National Policing Bill and mentioned that the Presidential Working Group on the Bill, chaired by the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, had invited Nigerians to make submissions. We talked about it, as we have done with several issues surrounding the proposed reform of policing in Nigeria. But I did not immediately think, “I should write a memorandum.” Then this morning, August 13, 2026, I saw the story again in the newspapers. And there it was: 5 p.m. was the deadline for public submissions. While discussing the story on air, I suddenly said to myself: “I think I should contribute.” And that was how it started. After the programme, I began putting my thoughts together. Initially, I thought it would be straightforward. I would simply write down my gen...

Mrs. Rachael Alamu recounts 56 days in captivity with her pupils.  By Njideka Maduka   There are interviews that report the news, and there are interviews that preserve history.  For 56 days, the forest became a classroom without walls, a shelter without a roof, and a prison without certainty. Mrs. Rachael Alamu, Principal of Community High School, Esiele, lived through that ordeal alongside her pupils after they were abducted in Oyo State by terrorists. In this interview granted few days after their rescue, she speaks with remarkable composure about fear, faith, survival, the resilience of the children, and the hope that kept them going. Among the many striking moments in the interview, one sentence captures the faith that sustained them through those difficult days: "We survived because we believed people were praying for us." Below is the interview transcript which I personally extracted from a television interview.  REPORTER: Now you've taken us through ...