News
S’Africa denied me entry while white people had free access – Nigerian billionaire
From Abdul Samad Rabiu, Nigerian billionaire business tycoon, came a startling depiction of the raw deal Africans suffer in South Africa that indicate the sharp difference with other races of the world.
South Africa, once home to the most degenerate human oppression in history – apartheid, is currently an enclave where citizens have turned against their brothers on the African continent in many years of xenophobic attacks.
Regardless of the attempt by the authorities in the country to downplay the situation, Rabiu, who is also Africa’s second richest man, used his personal story to underscore the scant regard of Africans in the country, even after escaping from the oppressive regime some three decades ago.
At the ongoing Africa CEO Forum held in Kigali, Rwanda, Rabiu told his story at one of the forums, tagged: Africa at scale: Capital, policy, and the architecture of growth, how the incident, occurred in February 2025 while he was travelling to Cape Town for the Mining Indaba.
He said: “I had a personal experience. Last year February, I was travelling to Cape Town for the Mining Indaba. And as we landed… I tendered my passport, and the immigration officer looked at it and was like, where is your visa, and I said, ‘My visa is there.’
“Unknown to me, my visa had expired the day before. Unfortunately, our crew did not check the visa… We were there for four hours, but at the end of the day, I had to turn back. I was turned back to Lagos.
“But the issue is, while we were waiting… there were like three international flights from Europe. All three flights were mostly Europeans. I was standing there by the immigration desk, and every passenger on those three flights went into Cape Town without any visa.
“I do not have a problem with the fact that I was there without the visa and I was returned. I took full responsibility of that. I had an issue with being an African in Africa, being turned away because I do not have a visa and foreigners from other continents were coming in and were allowed to enter without a visa. This must change.”
Lamenting that such barriers undermined the spirit of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), he stressed that fragmentation continues to limit cross-border business expansion.
His words: “At BUA Group, as we expanded our regional investment, we actively sought to supply several African markets under the AfCFTA framework. While some countries embraced the spirit of agreement, others were less supportive in practice… limiting our ability to participate fully in regional trade.
“So really, AfCFTA is not working as it should… we were actually frustrated. Capital to finance ambition, policy to enable execution, infrastructure, the foundation of growth, value-addition to unlock the full value of our resources, and integration to unlock scale.
“The reality is clear: Africa is not short of capital, it is short of coordinated mobile capital deployed at scale. What is required is clear and transparent rules, predictable enforcement and coordinated industrial strategies across borders.
“The 21st century will not reward detached brilliance, but coordinated execution. African leaders must move from policy declarations to implementation-driven development.”
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
-
News4 days agoBREAKING: Mystery death! *Female student dies a day after arriving Umahi’s home!
-
News4 days agoDon’t jump to conclusion! *Umahi speaks on mysterious death of female students!
-
News3 weeks agoBREAKING: Court sentences Nigerien, two others to death over terrorism
-
News2 weeks agoBREAKING: EX-SSG mowed down by gunmen! *He resisted being kidnapped – driver
-
News4 weeks agoTwo hours after Igboho’s ‘red-eyes’ to ‘Fulani’ leaders, gunmen free kidnap victims!
-
News3 weeks agoAbductors of Oyo teachers panicking, freedom coming for victims soon!
-
News3 weeks agoChicagogate: Nigerians return to court! *Move to stop Tinubu from 2027 polls
-
News9 hours agoBREAKING: Terrorists strikes another school! *Kidnap principal, students, NECO official!