Despite worsening poverty and institutional dysfunction, Nigerians remain among the most generous and humane people in the world — a testament to the nation’s enduring social spirit even as governments at all levels continue to fail their citizens.

This paradox is starkly illustrated in the 2025 UN World Happiness Report, which ranks Nigeria 7th globally for helping strangers, placing it ahead of many wealthier nations in acts of spontaneous kindness and personal generosity. The report, produced by the University of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Centre in partnership with Gallup and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, covers 147 countries and evaluates well-being through self-reported happiness and prosocial behaviors like donating, volunteering, and offering help to strangers.

However, beyond this glowing endorsement of Nigerians’ humanity, the report exposes a more troubling reality: Nigeria ranks 105th out of 147 countries in overall happiness and well-being — a sharp indication of the depth of dissatisfaction and hardship experienced under the country’s broken public systems.

Strong People, Fragile Institutions

What emerges is a familiar pattern: a compassionate, community-oriented people navigating life in a country where institutional trust is dangerously low and government structures routinely fail to deliver basic accountability, justice, and social support.

A simple question in the report — what happens if you lose your wallet? — paints the picture clearly:

• 33rd: If found by a stranger

• 71st: If found by a neighbour

• 126th: If found by the police

Nigerians overwhelmingly trust individuals over public institutions — a devastating commentary on law enforcement and public governance. Citizens turn to each other, not the state, for help and protection.

The report identifies this as part of a broader trend in sub-Saharan Africa where personal networks compensate for government failures. Kenya (4th), Liberia (2nd), and Sierra Leone (5th) also rank high in helping strangers but fare poorly in overall happiness and institutional trust.

Kindness Is Not Enough

The report warns that while Nigeria’s grassroots compassion is admirable and resilient, it is also a coping mechanism — not a substitute for functional systems. Helping strangers, the study suggests, becomes a vital, direct way to do good when larger structures have collapsed.

This dynamic also explains Nigeria’s lower ranking in formal charitable donations (45th) compared to its high rating for direct kindness. In a nation where public institutions are widely distrusted, Nigerians prefer face-to-face giving over channeling support through official platforms.

Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, one of the report’s editors, summarized the dilemma:

“Societies that rank high for kindness but low for institutional trust may struggle to scale social support beyond immediate, individual interactions.”

In other words, Nigerians are doing the best they can — but without strong, transparent institutions, their efforts cannot be transformed into sustainable national progress.

The Real Message for Nigeria’s Leaders

The findings present a clear indictment of governance in Nigeria. Citizens continue to show the world their generosity, empathy, and moral strength, even as they are betrayed by a political class that has failed to build credible institutions or deliver meaningful reforms.

What Nigerians need is not just admiration for their kindness, but action — public accountability, institutional reform, and a reorientation of governance toward service rather than power.

Until then, the story of Nigeria will remain one of a good people failed by bad systems — heroic in individual acts, but weighed down by the absence of collective justice and functional governance.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has prohibited independent non-executive directors (INEDs) from assuming executive positions, such as chief executive officer (CEO), within the same company or its group.

In a June 20, 2025 circular, the regulator notified public companies and capital market operators of its stance on the "Transmutation of Independent Non-Executive Directors and Tenure of Directors."

The SEC stated that allowing INEDs to transition into executive roles undermines their neutrality and objectivity, conflicting with governance principles in the National Code of Corporate Governance (NCCG) and the SEC Corporate Governance Guidelines (SCGG).

“Public companies and significant capital market operators must immediately cease the practice of converting INEDs into executive directors within the same company or group,” the SEC directed.

New Tenure Limits for Directors

The commission also introduced a 10-year maximum tenure for directors in major public interest entities, extendable to 12 years within the same group. Additionally, CEOs and executive directors must observe a three-year cooling-off period before becoming chairman.

Under Section 355(r)(iv) of the Investments and Securities Act (ISA) 2025*, the SEC mandates that former CEOs or executive directors appointed as chair may serve no more than four years in that role.

“These directives take immediate effect and are mandatory. Companies must incorporate them into board appointments and succession planning,” the SEC emphasized.

Existing tenures of affected directors will count toward the new limits. The move aims to strengthen corporate governance by ensuring board independence and preventing excessive concentration of power.

Africa's push for local currency payments systems - once little more than an aspiration - is finally making concrete gains, bringing the promise of less costly trade to a continent long hobbled by resource-sapping dollar transactions.

But efforts to move away from the dollar face strong opposition and the threat of retaliation from U.S. President Donald Trump, who is determined to preserve it as the dominant currency for global trade.

The move by Africa to create payments systems that do not rely on the greenback mirrors a push by China to develop financial systems independent of Western institutions. Countries like Russia, which face economic sanctions, are also keen for an alternative to the dollar.

But while that movement has gained a sense of urgency due to shifting trade patterns and geopolitical realignments following President Trump's return to the White House, African advocates for payment alternatives are making their case based on costs.

"Our goal, contrary to what people might think, is not de-dollarisation," said Mike Ogbalu, chief executive of the Pan-African Payments and Settlements System, which allows parties to transact directly in local currencies, bypassing the dollar.

"If you look at African economies, you'll find that they struggle with availability for third-party global currencies to settle transactions," he said.

Africa's commercial banks typically rely on overseas counterparts, through so-called correspondent banking relationships, to facilitate settlements of international payments. That includes payments between African neighbours.

That adds significantly to transaction costs that, along with other factors like poor transport infrastructure, have made trade in Africa 50% more expensive than the global average, according to the UN Trade and Development agency.

It is also among the reasons so much of Africa's trade - 84%, according to a report by Mauritius-based MCB Group - is with external partners rather than between African nations.

"The existing financial network that is largely dollar-based has essentially become less effective for Africa, and costlier," said Daniel McDowell, a professor at Syracuse University in New York specialising in international finance.

HOMEGROWN SYSTEMS

According to data compiled by PAPSS, under the existing system of correspondent banks, a $200 million trade between two parties in different African countries is estimated to cost 10% to 30% of the value of the deal.

The shift to homegrown payments systems could cut the cost of that transaction to just 1%.

Systems like PAPSS allow a business in one country, Zambia for example, to pay for goods from another like Kenya, with both buyer and seller receiving payment in their respective currencies rather than converting them into dollars to complete the transaction.

Using currencies like the Nigerian naira, Ghanaian cedi or South Africa's rand for intra-Africa trade payments could save the continent $5 billion a year in hard currency, Ogbalu told Reuters.

Launched in January 2022 with just 10 participating commercial banks, PAPSS is today operational in 15 countries including Zambia, Malawi, Kenya and Tunisia, and now has 150 commercial banks in its network.

"We have also seen very significant growth in our transactions," Ogbalu said, without providing usage data.

The International Finance Corporation, the World Bank's private sector lending arm, has, meanwhile, started issuing loans to African businesses in local currencies.

It views the switch as imperative for their growth, relieving them from the currency risks of borrowing in dollars, said Ethiopis Tafara, IFC's vice-president for Africa.

"If they are not generating hard currency, a hard-currency loan imposes a burden that makes it difficult for them to succeed," he said.

GEOPOLITICS AND THE TRUMP FACTOR

Africa's campaign to boost regional payments systems has found a platform at the Group of 20 major economies, with South Africa leading the charge as holder of the G20's rotating presidency.

It held at least one session on boosting regional payments systems when South Africa hosted a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors. And South Africa wants it to follow up the talk with concrete actions. The next meeting of G20 finance officials is scheduled for mid-July.

"Some of the most expensive corridors for cross-border payments are actually found on the African continent," Lesetja Kganyago, South Africa's central bank governor, told Reuters during a G20 meeting in Cape Town in February.

"For us to function as a continent, it's important that we start trading and settling in our own currencies."

Talk of moving away from the dollar - either for trade or as a reserve currency - has drawn aggressive reactions from President Trump, however.

After BRICS - a grouping of nations including Russia, China, India and Brazil along with Africans like South Africa, Egypt and Ethiopia - weighed reducing dollar dependence and creating a common currency, Trump responded with threats of 100% tariffs.

"There is no chance that BRICS will replace the U.S. Dollar in International Trade, or anywhere else, and any Country that tries should say hello to Tariffs, and goodbye to America!," he wrote on Truth Social in January.

In the months since, Trump has demonstrated his willingness to use tariffsto pressure and punish allies and foes alike, a strategy that has upended global trade and geopolitics.

No matter its intentions in moving to more local currency transactions, Syracuse University's McDowell said Africa will struggle to distance itself from more politically motivated de-dollarisation efforts, like those led by China and Russia.

"The perception is likely to be that this is about geopolitics," he said.

Reuters

No fewer than 15 persons have been killed in renewed violence by gunmen in Bokkos and Mangu local government areas of Plateau State.

The recent violence happened on Thursday night at Manja community of Chakfem kingdom in Mangu, and Tangur community in Bokkos.

It was gathered that the attackers stormed the communities at different times.

While Tangur attack was around 9pm when people were already retiring to bed, that of Chakfem was much earlier.

The attackers, it was learnt, operated for a while during the attacks before disappearing.

Sources from Mangu and Bokkos confirmed to our correspondent that seven people were killed in Mangu, while eight people died in Bokkos.

According to one of the sources, the gunmen came to their community and started shooting sporadically, while breaking into peoples homes.

Shohotden Mathias Ibrahim, Director of Culture Mwaghavul Development Association and Director, IDP (Pilot Science) Camp in Mangu, confirmed the death toll of the Mangu attack to our correspondent, saying there is currently tension in the community.

Our correspondent’s messages to some community leaders and members in Bokkos were yet to be replied.

The Plateau State Command’s spokesperson, Alfred Alabo, was yet to respond to calls and text messages (SMS/WhatsApp) by our correspondent, as at when filing this report on Friday morning.

Daily Trust

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russia not seeking Ukraine’s surrender – Putin

Russia is not seeking Ukraine’s surrender, President Vladimir Putin has said.

During a plenary panel on Friday at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin was asked whether Moscow has been seeking Ukraine’s “unconditional surrender,” as US President Donald Trump is demanding from Iran.

“We are not seeking the surrender of Ukraine. We insist on recognition of the realities that have developed on the ground,”Putin said, noting that the Ukraine conflict was “completely different”from the ongoing escalation in the Middle East.

During a Q&A session, Putin was also asked about Moscow’s military plans and the advance beyond the former Ukrainian territories that became part of Russia as a result of referendums in 2022. Putin did not give a direct answer, suggesting that in a certain sense, the entirety of Ukraine is Russian.

“I have said many times that I consider Russians and Ukrainians to be one people, in fact. In this sense, all of Ukraine is ours,” he said, stressing that Moscow has never denied Ukraine’s right to be an independent country.

The president did not rule out seizing the Ukrainian city of Sumy and pushing the “buffer zone” designed to protect Russia’s border areas from attacks deeper into Ukrainian territory.

“We don’t have the goal of taking Sumy, but in principle, I don’t rule it out,” Putin stated.

Russian troops entered Sumy Region earlier this year, after expelling Kiev’s invasion force from Russia’s Kursk Region, which Ukraine attacked last August. According to the Russian president, the “buffer zone” in Sumy Region is 10-12km deep already.

The attack on Kursk Region has only created more problems for the already thinned-out Ukrainian troops, Putin said, adding that the ranks of Kiev’s military are currently filled to only 47% on average. The invasion of Kursk turned into a “catastrophe” for the Ukrainian military, which lost around 76,000 troops there, he went on to say.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Putin says 'the whole of Ukraine is ours' - in theory

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that in his view the whole of Ukraine was "ours" and cautioned that advancing Russian forces could take the Ukrainian city of Sumy as part of a bid to carve out a buffer zone along the border.

Ukraine's foreign minister denounced the statements as evidence of Russian "disdain" for U.S. peace efforts and said Moscow was bent on seizing more territory and killing more Ukrainians.

Russia currently controls about a fifth of Ukraine, including Crimea, more than 99% of the Luhansk region, over 70% of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and fragments of the Kharkiv, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

Asked about fresh Russian advances, Putin told the St Petersburg International Economic Forum that he considered Russians and Ukrainians to be one people and "in that sense the whole of Ukraine is ours".

Kyiv and its Western allies say Moscow's claims to four Ukrainian regions and Crimea are illegal, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has repeatedly rejected the notion that Russians and Ukrainians are one people.

He has also said that Putin's terms for peace are akin to capitulation.

Putin, who ordered troops into Ukraine in 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine, said on Friday he was not questioning Ukraine's independence or its people's striving for sovereignty, but he underscored that when Ukraine declared independence as the Soviet Union fell in 1991 it had also declared its neutrality.

Putin said Moscow wanted Ukraine to accept the reality on the ground if there was to be a chance of peace - Russia's shorthand for the reality of Russia's control over a chunk of Ukrainian territory bigger than the U.S. state of Virginia.

"We have a saying, or a parable," Putin said. "Where the foot of a Russian soldier steps, that is ours."

'COMPLETE DISDAIN'

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, writing in English on the X social media platform, said: "Putin's cynical statements demonstrate complete disdain for U.S. peace efforts."

"While the United States and the rest of the world have called for an immediate end to the killing, Russia's top war criminal discusses plans to seize more Ukrainian territory and kill more Ukrainians."

Wherever a Russian soldier sets foot, "he brings along only death, destruction, and devastation," Sybiha said.

Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address, said Russia had shown "openly and utterly cynically that they 'don't feel like' agreeing to a ceasefire. Russia wants to continue the war."

Zelenskiy said commanders had discussed action in Ukraine's northern Sumy region and that Russia had "various plans and intentions, completely mad as always. We are holding them back and eliminating these killers, defending our Sumy region."

Putin said Russian forces were carving out a buffer zone in the Sumy region in order to protect Russian territory.

"Next is the city of Sumy, the regional centre. We don't have the task of taking it, but in principle I don't rule it out," he said.

A 35-year-old American man has been found guilty of impersonating a flight attendant at least 120 times in order to avoid having to pay for plane tickets.

Federal prosecutors accused Tirone Alexander of entering the secure area of an airport under false pretenses and committing wire fraud at least 120 times between 2018 and 2024. The 35-year-old man reportedly took advantage of a common airline policy that allows flight attendants and pilots from other airlines to fly for free.

Alexander, who allegedly had worked as a flight attendant for regional airlines between 2013 and 2015, would go to various airline websites and check the “flight attendant” option during the online check-in process. The form required applicants to provide their employer, date of hire, and badge number, and Alexander used falsified information that apparently no one bothered to check.

“The evidence at trial also showed that Alexander posed as a flight attendant on three other airline carriers,” the Prosecution said in a statement.

“Ultimately, Alexander booked more than 120 free flights by falsely claiming to be a flight attendant.”

According to the evidence shown in Court,  between 2018 and 2024, Tirone Alexander fraudulently booked more than 120 flights on four different airlines, to destinations including Atlanta, Dallas, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. When filling out the online form, he claimed to have worked for seven different airlines and used approximately 30 different combinations of identification numbers and contract start dates. Tirone Alexander has been found guilty of four counts of wire fraud (each carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison) and one count of fraudulently accessing a restricted area of the airport, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. His sentencing in this case is set for August 25.

Oddity Central

Nigerian manufacturer Codix Bio Ltd plans to make millions of HIV and Malaria test kits at its new plant outside Lagos for the local and regional market to help fill gaps in the wake of cutbacks at U.S. donor agency USAID, a company executive said.

The United States, the world's largest humanitarian aid donor, has cutfunding for foreign assistance, half of which is

delivered via USAID.

The U.S. support to Nigeria, which reached $740 million in 2024 based on USAID data, is focused on preventing malaria and curbing HIV as well as delivering vaccines to local health centres across the country.

It is not yet clear how Nigeria will be affected by the cuts. The federal government has said it will raise funds to continue some of the programmes that donors supported.

Codix Bio general manager Olanrewaju Balaja said the company will roll out kits later this month from its plant in partnership with the South Korean pharmaceutical producer SD Biosensor and support from the World Health Organization.

The plant has an initial capacity to produce 147 million kits annually, but this can be expanded to over 160 million.

"From the statistics of what is supplied (by USAID and PEPFAR) for a specific programme year, and looking at what we have currently in capacity for Nigeria, we have enough capacity to meet the demand," Balaja told Reuters.

He said if the company scaled up operations, "we can go to West and Sub-Saharan Africa, including other African countries."

Nigeria has the highest burden of malaria globally, according to WHO, with nearly 27% of the global burden. The country also has the world's fourth highest burden of HIV, according to UNAIDS.

"The focus was for us to be able to play in the field of supply of rapid diagnostic test kits for donor agencies, which particularly USAID was at the forefront," Balaja added.

Reuters