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Mandela

The Betrayal of Mandela’s Apartheid Liberation Movement

Andile Zulu·
October/November 2025South Africa
·October 5, 2025
Necessary Fiction

A Vision for Nigeria’s Queer Future

David Emeka·
NigeriaOctober/November 2025Reading
·October 5, 2025
Charly Boy

Charly Boy Bus Stop and the Politics of Official Renaming

Dengiyefa Angalapu·
NigeriaOctober/November 2025
·October 5, 2025

October/November 2025

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The essential guide to the ideas, trends, people and stories shaping Nigeria and the broader African continent. Subscribe from N5,000/$5.99 monthly.

The Vanishing Dream of Nigeria’s Middle Class #O The Vanishing Dream of Nigeria’s Middle Class #OnSite⚡️⁠
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Between the 1960s and 1980s, a Nigerian university graduate could secure government housing, get a car loan within a few years, and send their entire family to quality schools all on one civil service salary. Jola Sonowo writes that parents pooled resources to send one child to university, confident that a graduate would lift the whole family out of poverty. And often, they did. Fast forward to 2025: A civil servant's salary that once fed a family and bought land now barely covers rice and nappies. Bus fares and fuel prices have skyrocketed. Professionals skip meals to feed their children. Families choose weekly between food, transport, and power. Meanwhile, 2.14 million passports were issued in 2023 alone, a record surge driven by the 'japa' wave. The middle class isn't just shrinking, it is educated, exploited, exhausted, and voting with its feet. But the danger is not just capital flight or oil running dry; it is losing the very people who could rebuild the nation. Yet within this crisis lies hope: if Nigeria can restore security, opportunity, and trust, the story could shift. The dream of a strong, thriving middle class hasn’t vanished, it is only waiting to be rebuilt.⁠
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Read the full story at the link in our bio. ⁠
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📝: Jola Sonowo⁠
📷: Photo Illustration by Ezinne Osueke (@ezinne.o.osueke) / THE REPUBLIC. Source Ref: WIKIMEDIA. ⁠
🔍: Osione Oseni-Elamah (@osione_e), Yusuf Omotayo (@yusufomotayo)⁠,Peace Yetunde Onafuye (@yetundeandbooks); Editors.
Is This the Federation Nnamdi Azikiwe Fought For? Is This the Federation Nnamdi Azikiwe Fought For? #OnSite⚡️⁠
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Nnamdi Azikiwe’s life was a symbol of Nigeria’s unity in diversity. Born in Zungeru (present-day Niger State) in the North, raised by Igbo parents from Onitsha in the East, and educated in Lagos in the West, he embodied the idea of one Nigeria.  At independence in 1960, standing before a newly liberated nation, Azikiwe cast a vision of a collective future: 'Come and join Abubakar with me, Sardauna, Awolowo, Akintola, Osadebay, Okpara, Ikoku, Aminu Kano, Ibrahim Imam and Tarka. Let us bind the nation's wounds and heal the breaches of the past, so that in forging our nation there shall emerge on this continent a hate-free, fear-free and greed-free people.' Yet, six decades later, Nigeria still battles with the very fractures Azikiwe sought to mend. Ethnic and regional divisions have not only endured, they have deepened across generations and platforms, repeatedly weaponised by politicians who thrive on disunity. Yusuf Omotayo writes that this year’s Independence anniversary must serve as more than a ceremonial marker. It should be a moment of sober reflection: does today’s Nigeria resemble the nation Azikiwe and his peers envisioned? If not, then Nigerians must refuse to be pawns in the game of toxic polarity and unite across ethnic and religious lines to build a different country, one that honours the dream of, in Azikiwe's words, a 'hate-free, fear-free and greed-free people.'⁠
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Read the full story by clicking this post at the link in our bio⁠
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📝: Yusuf Omotayo (@yusufomotayo)⁠,⁠
📷: Photo Illustration by Ezinne Osueke (@ezinne.o.osueke) / THE REPUBLIC. Source Ref: WIKIMEDIA. ⁠
Today in 1960, Nigeria declared its independence f Today in 1960, Nigeria declared its independence from Britain. #RPUBLCHistory⌛⠀⁠
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Read more about Nigeria’s independence by clicking this post at the link in our bio. ⁠
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Today's history post is brought to you by @annuvahomes⁠
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📝: Adams Adeosun and Tomisin Awosika⠀⁠
📷: 1) Students celebrating Nigeria’s independence on Oct. 1, 1960. William Vanderson/Fox Photos/Getty Images.⠀⁠
2) Celebrating Nigeria’s imminent independence in September 1960. Associated Press.⠀⁠
3) Celebrating Nigeria’s independence from Britain in London in 1960. PA Images/Getty Images.⁠
4) Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello and Chief Obafemi Awolowo. African Globe.
Nigeria’s Anthems of Division and the Promise of Nigeria’s Anthems of Division and the Promise of Democratic Feminist Nationalism #OnSite⚡️⁠
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Today's story by Ololade Faniyi explores how Nigeria's elite weaponize cultural difference to maintain power, in contrast with the revolutionary legacy of Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti (FRK). Faniyi writes that while today's politicians exploit ethnic victimhood, FRK embodied democratic feminist nationalism, culturally rooted in Yoruba traditions yet committed to cross-cutting solidarity. She understood that genuine nationalism required challenging all hierarchies, not just replacing white colonial administrators with Black male elites. Her intersectional approach connected women's liberation to democratic governance and economic justice for all. This isn't just Nigerian history; it's a global pattern. From India to America, to South Africa, ethnonationalism thrives on manufactured divisions that distract from shared material oppression. But FRK offers a different path: one where cultural pride builds rather than fragments, where diversity becomes democratic rather than divisive. As Nigeria's Independence Day approaches, the question isn't whether we'll accept symbols of regression, but whether we'll choose the harder path of building solidarity across difference. The democratic possibilities that #EndSARS glimpsed are still within reach.⁠
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Read the full story by clicking this post at the link in our bio⁠
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📝: Ololade Faniyi (@lolamargaret_)⁠,⁠
📷: Photo Illustration by Ezinne Osueke (@ezinne.o.osueke) / THE REPUBLIC. Source Ref: WIKIMEDIA. ⁠
🔍: Yusuf Omotayo (@yusufomotayo), Wale Lawal (@wallelawal); Editors.
10 African Writers on How They Actually Wrote Thei 10 African Writers on How They Actually Wrote Their Books. #OnSite⚡⁠
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In this week’s First Draft column, we asked African writers, including Abi Daré, Tomilola Coco Adeyemo, Fatima Bala and Arinze Ifeakandu, to share the writing processes that helped them finish their books. Here’s what they told us.⁠
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Whose writing process spoke to you the most? Let us know in the comments.⁠
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Swipe to see their responses and read more answers by clicking this image at the link in our bio.⁠
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📝: Ijapa O (@ijapa_o)⁠
🎨: Laila Lalami; Maame Blue; Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ. Illustrations by Kevwe Ogini (@dfutureart)⁠
🔍: Peace Onafuye (@yetundeandbooks); Editor
The Absence of Stains #OnSite⚡️⁠ ⁠ This #F The Absence of Stains #OnSite⚡️⁠
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This #FictionFriday, dive into The Absence of Stains, an intimate story of love, secrecy, and the weight of choice. Mariam and Tariq navigate desire, tradition, and the ghosts of what’s left unspoken. What begins as tenderness grows complicated, testing the limits of loyalty and the sacrifices we make for love. Read it free (today only) on our website.⁠
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It is the latest instalment in The Republic’s original fiction stories, curated and edited by acclaimed author Chigozie Obioma. ‘The ‘Absence of Stains’ is published in our latest issue: 'An African Manual for Debugging Empire'. ⁠
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Read the full story by clicking this post in the link in bio. ⁠ ⁠
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#RPUBLCHacksBack👾⁠⁠��⁠
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📝: Yasmine Zohdi⁠
📷: Illustration by Shalom Shoyemi (@theshalom_effect) / THE REPUBLIC.⁠
🔍: Chigozie Obioma (@chigozieobiomaauthor), Peace Yetunde Onafuye (@yetundeandbooks), Yusuf Omotayo (@yusufomotayo), Wale Lawal (@wallelawal); Editors.
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