Point One

 They have gold dust in their soil and that, ideally, should have meant enhanced living conditions for residents. But, no. They are today in mourning, having been bereaved in one swoop of more than a score of their young ones who died in a Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) cell on suspicion of illicit gold picking. It’s all about the Nigerian curse of natural resource. Thirty-seven artisanal miners aged between 14 and 18 years became fatalities on 17th September after suspected illegal miners were arrested by Niger command NSCDC operatives in an operation they carried out in the M.I. Wushishi and Lukoto areas of the state over the two days preceding. Many underaged persons, reportedly including a six-year-old, were nabbed and allegedly cramped into an overcrowded holding facility to which more arrested suspects were added by the day until there apparently was no room to breathe. Female illegal miners were as well arrested. Survivors recounted terrifying moments when...

On Monday, 7th September, Sierra Leonean President Julius Maada Bio hosted his predecessor, Ernest Bai Koroma, on a reconciliation visit to the State House in Freetown. That was barely 24 hours after Koroma returned to the country from some two and half years of exile in Nigeria. “I am back home. And home will always be home. There will never be any substitute for home,” he said upon his return on Sunday, 6th September, capturing the personal meaning of a homecoming that carried wider political significance for his country. Koroma, who was president from 2007 to 2018, had been living in Nigeria since January 2024 following diplomatic engagements led by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to save him from possible jail time over his alleged complicity in a November 2023 armed assault aimed at destabilising the Maada Bio administration. Koroma denied involvement.  Freetown had convulsed with violence on 26th November, 2023, when armed insurrectionists stormed a mil...