To reading at least one book every month for the rest of the year. This January, I started with The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives. Here's what I thought about the book by Lola Shoneyin: taliusdike.medium.com/i-unco…

I'm 35. At this point in my career, I know people earning ₦1m–₦10m monthly remotely and if you ask them what exactly they do all day, the answer is they over see activities. One guy disappears for hours during workdays, goes to the gym, runs errands, attends family events and still gets "great job" from his manager. Another works for a foreign company, travels constantly and seems to spend more time at airports than on Zoom. Then I know brilliant people working 10-hour days, commuting through Lagos traffic and earning a fraction of that. The modern job market is one of the strangest things I've ever seen. The hardest worker is not always the highest paid. Not even close.

Today my first book, THE YAHOO BOYS: Love, Deception and the Real Lives of Nigeria’s Romance Scammers (FSG), is finally out in the US. The book follows four love scammers in Lagos as they scam lonely Westerners while dealing with the worst economic crisis in Nigeria in a generation. It started with my mum falling for an American soldier who was, in fact, a Nigerian scammer. But it grew into something much bigger. I’ve spent the last four years of my life working on this: travelling to and living in Lagos, reporting, taking notes, reading, writing and rewriting. I did more than 250 interviews and spent countless hours with the main characters of this book. I poured tens of thousands of euros into the project, to the point where I was dead broke by the end. I’ve seen the best and the worst of human beings. I’ve laughed and cried and eaten so much jollof and egusi. I’ve had a gun pointed at me in Kentucky. I’ve read conversations with too many people talking about taking their own lives because they were lonely. I’ve met Nigerian families who split an egg four ways for dinner. Many interviewees broke into tears in front of me. I’ve learnt that being a human being is a difficult business. I hope you buy and read the book, so you can experience some of this for yourself.

Long before The Yahoo Boys (which I'm about to get and read), Adaobi Nwaubani wrote what I regard as the best 419 novel ever written: I Do Not Come To You By Chance (2009). It's since been made into an award-winning 2023 Nollywood film (produced by Genevieve Nnaji) that premiered at @TIFF_NET. I do not recall anyone accusing Adaobi or the filmmakers of stereotyping Nigeria - the book was brilliant, revealing, funny, and sobering all at once. x.com/toluogunlesi/status/20… If the unspoken point is that @CarlosBarraganT cannot write about 419 because he's not Nigerian, the very fact that the book emerges out of his mother's narrow escape from Yahoo Boys -- see here x.com/CarlosBarraganT/status… -- totally undercuts that argument. Victims and targets - wherever in the world they might be - have every right to write. The more the merrier, let's read from all angles -- fiction, non-fiction, poetry, from home and abroad -- about this terrible thing that has wormed its way into our DNA as a country and a people. Let's discuss it, let's debate it, let's feel the collective and weighty shame of it in full force. Especially at a time when so many forces seem keen on normalising it. The way to fight the 'stereotype' is not to shun the books being written about the crime, or to cast the writers as enemies. The way to do it is to fight the crime itself with everything we've got, in homes and schools and religious houses across the country.

One of the most underrated actors ever 👏🏻

You just unlocked fond memories.

Mediocre scripts Horrible camera work Terrible scene composition Nobody can deliver a line to save their lives And the same 5 story lines since 2014 Theater in 2010 was in a better place than it is in 2026

One of the strangest things about being a young professional in Nigeria is having a job, dressing well, leaving home every morning and still calculating whether you can afford chicken.

If the job isn't a CEO..CFO..COO..or any C-suite/SE position...there's absolutely no reason for Four rounds of interviews!!

Brain Jotter: 'On mandate your mandate we shall stand’

I often think about the episode of the Blacklist where a woman doctor kidnapped anti-abortion male politicians and implanted a fetus into them. They either had to have the child or get an abortion, and it was one of the most fascinating and vindicating stories to watch.

Christ Embassy really did something to me. As a new member, you are required to attend classes and write an examination. I attended all the classes, wrote the exam, and passed successfully. After all the stress of attending classes and passing the exam, I was then told to pay ₦6,500 for a certificate and a graduation gown. That got me wondering: how much does it cost to print a certificate in UTC or Area 10? About ₦500 at most. 😂 I even found myself asking whether this is the certificate angels will check at the gate before allowing anyone into paradise. They had not even bothered to find out whether a new member had food to eat or was coping financially, yet the certificate and gown fee was mandatory. That said, I won't lie, I still miss their songs and their swag.

I watched this video expecting to come away thinking about the realities of raising a child with significant additional needs. Instead, I found myself reading the comments and wondering how we still have such a poor understanding of disability in 2026. What struck me was not people acknowledging that caring for a child with complex needs can be difficult. That is simply reality. Parents and carers live that reality every single day and there is nothing wrong with speaking honestly about it. What unsettled me was how quickly the conversation moved from ‘this looks hard’ to ‘this child should never have been born.’ I saw comments suggesting she should have been terminated. Comments suggesting her life was a burden. Comments suggesting that the mother’s devotion and care were somehow evidence that the pregnancy should have been terminated. As a social worker who has spent years working alongside disabled children, disabled adults and families caring for children with additional needs. I have seen exhaustion, grief, parents worry endlessly about the future, siblings make sacrifices, families fighting for support that should never have been so difficult to access. But I have also seen is love, joy, connection, resilience, humour, achievement and lives that have value far beyond the limitations that other people place upon them. The little girl in this video is not a thought experiment. She is not a political argument about abortion. She is not a cautionary tale. She is a child. A child whose life has worth simply because she exists. You do not have to pretend that raising a child with significant disabilities is easy. It isn’t. You do not have to believe you would personally be able to cope with that level of responsibility. Many people probably couldn’t. But there is a huge moral difference between acknowledging the challenges of disability and deciding that a disabled person’s life is less valuable than anyone else’s. Perhaps what disturbed me most was realising that some people watched that mother’s patience, love and commitment and saw tragedy. I watched the same video and saw a mother doing her absolute best for a daughter she clearly adores. If your first reaction to a vulnerable child is to question whether they should exist, then the issue is not the child. The issue is what has happened to our capacity for empathy.

A 24-year-old Polish tennis player arrived in Paris last week ranked 114th in the world, with no sponsors, no guaranteed income, and no certainty she could even pay for her hotel room. She had to win three qualifying matches just to enter the French Open main draw. Prize money is only paid at the end of the tournament, so a Polish sports drink brand quietly stepped in and covered her hotel bill. Her name is Maja Chwalinska. And today, she plays in the French Open final. Before this tournament, she had won exactly one Grand Slam main draw match in her entire career. She had battled depression so severe that in 2021 she couldn't get out of bed. She underwent knee surgery in 2022. She spent years grinding through small tournaments across Europe just to stay afloat. Then she arrived in Paris, won three qualifiers, and kept winning. Zheng Qinwen. Elise Mertens. Maria Sakkari. Diana Shnaider. Nine straight matches. One set dropped. She is now the first qualifier in French Open history to reach the final. The last time a qualifier reached a Grand Slam final, it was Emma Raducanu at the 2021 US Open. Raducanu won. By simply making the final, Chwalinska has earned more prize money than her entire career combined. The runner-up cheque alone is $1.6 million. If she wins today, she takes home $3.25 million. One week ago she couldn't pay for her hotel room.

John C. Reilly tried to convince Leonardo DiCaprio to turn down ‘TITANIC’ and instead star in ‘BOOGIE NIGHTS’. “[I said] ‘That movie ‘Titanic’ is about a boat that sinks. Everyone knows the boat sinks. No one's going to give a sh*t about who's on the boat.’” (Source: youtube.com/watch?v=-IeU1MUZ…)

About this abortion issue for fetuses with Down syndrome or pathological defects. I feel Nigerians are very performative and selective moralists. As far as e no affect them, they will ALWAYS take the moral high ground.

Can’t contain this. Ghostbusters: Night Shift, an original animated series is coming to Netflix in 2027.

Mimi licky-licky was an interesting addition to this series. #BloodSisters #BloodSistersNetflix

I think this conversation lacks nuance. Children should never be made to feel guilty for existing or responsible for their parents’ life choices. They didn’t ask to be born. At the same time, I don’t think we should pretend that parenting involves no sacrifice. Many parents give up sleep, opportunities, time, money and personal ambitions to give their children a better life. The difference is this: sacrifice should teach gratitude, not create guilt. Parenting should not leave children feeling indebted. But neither should it leave them unable to recognise the love, effort and commitment that raised them.

As a parent you shouldn't be telling your kids that you sacrificed your life for them, It’s hurtful and manipulative, and it’s not true. You chose to have your kids and nobody forced you to have them. Taking care of them is your responsibility.

By the time Starz and co are done milking the Power franchise TASHA and ANGELA's ghost would've probably had their own spin-off. #PowerTV #PowerStarz #PowerLegacy