Priorities of political elite criticised as violence grips nation

It has been described as Nigeria’s wedding of the year - and it took place only weeks into the new year.

- By Eromo Egbejule ABUJA

In February, five sons and five daughters of the junior defence minister Bello Matawalle married their spouses in an opulent six-day celebration in Abuja. The sheer scale of the extravaganza in the capital prompted one of the comperes to exclaim on Instagram: “First of its kind ... @guinnessworldrecords check this out.”

The guest list read like a roll-call of the political and business elite. At the wedding fatiha on 6 February, the flowing robes of the presidents of Nigeria and nearby São Tomé and Príncipe competed for space with those of Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, alongside more than a dozen serving and former governors and ministers.

After blessing the couples, the presiding imam prayed that the tenure of Nigeria’s president, Bola Tinubu, “will bring hope to the hopeless”.

Hours later, 300km away in Benue state, gunmen stormed a night vigil at a Catholic church, abducting nine teenagers who remain in captivity. Meanwhile, in Kwara state, near the border with Benin, a mass funeral was under way for more than 150 people murdered by jihadists four days earlier.