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Nigeria’s fragile electricity supply is leaving households and businesses increasingly vulnerable as an intensifying El Niño threatens to expose millions of people to extreme heat, raising the cost of cooling homes, disrupting businesses and increasing health risks in a country where reliable power remains out of reach for many.

Nigeria has some of the world’s largest energy access deficits, with about 92 million people lacking access to electricity, according to data from Austria-based Sustainable Energy for All, an international organisation working in partnership with the United Nations.

This data is compounded by warnings from researchers at the University of Chicago’s Climate Impact Lab, who said Nigeria could record 31,400 additional heat-related deaths between September 2026 and February 2027, making it the country with the highest projected toll from the weather phenomenon of El Niño. The estimate is part of a wider forecast of 66,800 additional deaths across Africa’s Sahel region.

For Africa’s most populous country, the development is becoming more urgent as electricity distribution companies struggle to secure sufficient power from the national grid, forcing consumers to endure shorter supply hours and rely on generators, inverters and other costly alternatives to keep essential activities running.

Data from Nigeria’s electricity distribution system showed that 11 distribution companies had a combined allocation of 3,176 megawatts as of 1 p.m. Nigerian time on October 23.

Abuja Disco received the most at 575 MW, followed by Ikeja Disco at 467 MW and Eko Disco at 458 MW. Ibadan Disco was allocated 355 MW and Port Harcourt Disco 291 MW. Benin (240 MW), Enugu (230 MW), Kano (173 MW), Kaduna (167 MW) and Jos (146 MW) got far less. Yola Disco, serving the north-east, received just 74 MW.

The northern allocations matter because that is where the heat is most severe due to distance from the Atlantic Ocean, proximity to the Sahara Desert and low rainfall. The Nigerian Meteorological Agency recorded 41°C in Nguru, in Yobe State, in recent days. Lagos reached 34°C.

Heat of that magnitude, combined with unreliable power, leaves people with few ways to cool their homes or keep food and medicine cold.

‘Not having stable electricity during this heatwave period is very disastrous,’ said Toyosi Akinbobola, head of energy at Sofidam Capital.

Gas shortages compound the problem. The generators’ association says supply to thermal plants is below 43 percent of daily need. Pipeline vandalism destroyed 128 transmission towers in 2024.

‘Nigeria’s stranded power crisis is a transmission failure, not a generation failure,’ Joy Ogaji, chief executive of the generators’ association, said in July.

She described the toll on small businesses: ‘A small tailor earning N4,000 a day can spend N3,000 of it on generator fuel.’

Greg Odogwu, national coordinator at Centre for Renewable Energy, said Nigeria’s power shortages make it vulnerable to global heatwaves.

‘Even households connected to the grid may be unable to depend on electricity throughout the hottest hours of the day,’ Odogwu said. ‘When supply fails, consumers with sufficient resources turn to petrol or diesel generators, solar systems, batteries and inverters. Others have no practical alternative.’

BusinessDay’s findings showed the resulting costs extend beyond household comfort.

Shops may need to run generators for longer, manufacturers face additional operating expenses, and healthcare facilities must maintain power for essential equipment and medicines that require controlled temperatures.

Apart from rising costs, the weather risk is climbing at the same time.

Celeste Saulo, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), said the current El Niño could peak toward the end of 2026, with effects lasting well beyond that.

El Niño is a natural pattern, marked by warming surface waters in the central and eastern tropical Pacific. But climate change is adding to its force, raising baseline temperatures and widening the gap between what people face and what they can cope with.

Researchers behind the Climate Impact Lab analysis said the numbers reflect poverty and power shortages as much as the weather.

Michael Greenstone of the University of Chicago and Tamma Carleton of the University of California, Berkeley, wrote in an analysis published by Gavi’s VaccinesWork that ‘this makes Nigeria the country most likely in the world to have the highest heat mortality under the super El Niño.’

They added that ‘much of Africa lacks the electricity needed for air conditioning,’ and that ‘poorer, hotter countries will lack the money and reliable electricity needed to protect people.’

‘More than 60 percent of Nigerians were estimated to live below the national poverty line in 2025,’ Chicago researchers noted, and even homes with electricity connections face frequent outages.

The most exposed are people who work outdoors, such as farmers, traders, construction workers and commercial drivers. They are joined by residents of communities with little access to cooling, steady power or health care.

Hospitals and clinics that rely on diesel generators face higher fuel costs and the risk of equipment failure just as heat-related admissions rise.

In Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, residents have been enduring sweltering conditions with limited relief.

‘The heat is unbearable, and with no power, we can’t even turn on fans or air conditioners to cool down,’ lamented Adeola Okonkwo, a resident of Mushin Local Government Area in Lagos. ‘It’s like being trapped in an oven.’

For those who can afford it, the answer is self-supply. Generators and solar-battery inverters have become routine in Nigerian homes and shops, but they are expensive to buy and run.

Diesel and petrol costs eat into household budgets, and small firms that need cold storage, such as food sellers and pharmacies, face rising overheads or spoiled stock.

This development means wealthier urban households can buy their way through a heat wave while poorer families in dense neighbourhoods and rural northern states, where temperatures are highest, mostly cannot.

Man has come a long way from the days of Aesop, the ancient Greek storyteller who developed a style of travelling to the animal world to draw lessons for men and women. History has a bouquet of his jungle stories and their morals: The ant and the grasshopper (You can shape your tomorrow today); The boy who cried wolf (It’s the lie you’re used to which will be remembered, not the truth you only tell once); The fox and the grapes (One can’t accommodate what’s beyond your reach; you will despise it).

Modern novelists also write to instruct or entertain us, some from forest life, like Nigeria’s Daniel Fagunwa (Ogboju ode ninu igbo irunmole, 1936) and the Englishman George Orwell (Animal Farm, 1945), with others strictly seeking inspiration from the world of human beings as Professor Tunde Ope-Davies has done in his work, Winds Against My Sails.

Ope-Davies dispenses with creatures of the thicket to relate his account; but he also proffers great precepts not virtuously different from those we receive through the writers who commune with the woods. Either way, the readers are enriched, hugely tutored to change perceptions as they reap a harvest of predictable and unexpected twists in the tale.

We have plenty of them in the work of Ope-Davies (Opeibi), a professor in Digital Humanities, Digital Cultures, English and Discourse Studies at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, beginning with a tell-tale autobiographical title for a work of fiction. About the Author back cover section of the book conceals the dark days of the author’s own headwinds. But critics wouldn’t consider it unreasonable to look at Professor Wale Jones in the novel and apply poetic license to unveil him as the alter ego of Opeibi, himself a heavily garlanded don like his creation.

Jones, the main character, leaves rustic Jadesore to embark on what the author calls the Voyage of Life. The name of his village challenges the ambitious to venture out for breakthroughs eluding them. Yet, it doesn’t reveal that you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs. Wale gets the delicacy alright; but it is at the expense of much travail, trauma and toil.

There are near-death experiences; there are fatalities; there are several heartbreaks as well as betrayals; missed opportunities that present no second chances are also recorded; we equally learn of juvenile escapades that could have shortened the life of the hero; there is a battle over the choice of a marriage partner; a time of abandonment by family, friends and loved ones is also shared; we read of days of hunger when biscuits and mint sweets miserably cater for hunger; there’s story of an absentee father; when he’s home however, he fails to model virtue as he engages in nocturnal drinking orgies with friends in the presence of impressionable children; there are assaults of ill health and threats of death at childbirth.

To be sure, some of these are occasioned by poverty. Not all, though. How about the struggles Jones encounter even after the young man has crossed the threshold, in a manner of speaking, and he begins to get local and global recognition denied peers and mentors? The winds against his sail don’t cease in the ivory tower. They are personified by Katakiti, ”who had remained at the same rank for years. To watch Wale, once his student, rise above him was a bitter pill.” There’s also a season of character perfidy when Wale Jones is accused of being ”too friendly with female students” and ”selling a colleague’s textbook to students, a practice the university had outlawed.” Wale attributes all what he’s facing to ”politics of the system.”

Rightly, the blurb concludes that Wale’s faith in God and ”an unyielding spirit of perseverance” are the steps he mounts to overcome the winds of adversity.

So, like Karl Marx, the legendary German co-founder of Scientific Socialism, whose bronze memorial he gazes at in an unnamed European city, Professor Jones becomes ”a man who faced his fires and emerged remade,” ready to change his defective system as Marx attempted to.

Now, in view of an opening poem that predicts ultimate victory for the voyager ”Because He that stillest the noise of the Seas”, is with the explorer, it may be tempting to dismiss Professor Ope-Davies’ Winds Against My Sails as a simplistic literary contraption primed from the beginning for a happy end, regardless of the protagonist’s tumultuous killer adventures. That would be an unbalanced ruling that misses the Olympian plot of Opeibi’s epic. He brings his story under a roof of sweeping flashbacks, critical commentary, history (ancestral and contemporary), objective philosophy, Biblical theology, all of which reveals the author’s catholic mind.

These are carried by a language rich in fluid prose. metaphor and semiotics.

Let’s examine, for instance, Opeibi’s capture of ‘dust’ to take the readers through their own semiotic journeys. as it were. It first appears as ”chalk dust” in Chapter One. Later, he says ”Dust rose like spirits over the playing fields…” And when Wale Jones got the new birth in Christ, we saw the dust called to action again: ”…he bent his knees on the dusty ground and gave his life to Christ.”

Thus, in the literary construct of Professor Ope-Davies’ world, there’s a sustained imagery of the lowly dust and chalk, both of which appear to have sentenced Wale to limitless and hopeless penury. Once, the lecturer is seen collapsing ”at the foot of a chalkboard.” But, to get into Divine embrace wherein is final liberation, Wale must align with ”the dusty ground” and look up to God from that lowly position. He must stoop to conquer.

Is Ope-Davies testing the waters of fiction with Winds Against My Sails after a string of acclaimed nonfiction publications, including the biographical Kumuyi: Defender of the Faith, which he wrote with co-members of the Editorial Board of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry?

This is a heuristic quest with the possibility of turning in a new-look Tunde Ope-Davies.

Dangote Cement Plc Gboko Plant has awarded multi-million-naira scholarships to tertiary and secondary school students from its six host communities in Benue State.

The company also presented starter packs, working tools and certificates to graduates of its Youth Empowerment Programme to enable them establish their own businesses, apply the skills acquired during the training and become financially reliant.

Henry Dele Alake, minister of Solid Minerals Development, lauded Dangote Cement Plc for its community development interventions, calling on other private sector players to adopt similar initiatives to promote socio-economic development in their host communities.

Represented by Achi Gregory, the Federal Mines Officer of the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals Development in Benue State, urged the company to sustain its commitment to implementing community development programmes agreed upon with its host communities.

Speaking at the official presentation ceremony, Wakeel Olayiwola, Group Head, Social Performance, Dangote Cement Plc, said the implementation of the Community Development Agreement underscores Dangote Cement’s commitment to equipping young people with practical skills and resources to promote entrepreneurship, create employment opportunities and improve livelihoods in its host communities.

Represented by Johnson Nor, the Head of Social Performance of the Dangote Cement, Gboko Plant, said the scholarship and youth empowerment programmes came against the backdrop of several other programmes recently executed by the company, which include farmers and women empowerment programmes.

Arbind Singh, the Acting Plant Director, Dangote Cement, Gboko, said: ‘This annual scholarship scheme for indigent students of the host communities is an indication of our company’s commitment to its Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR).’

Represented by Tabershima Soon, the company’s General Manager, Production, said: ‘The Gboko Plant has already launched 150 Women Empowerment Programme and 50 Farmerss Empowerment Programme where women were provided with cash to support their businesses, and farmers were supported with farm inputs.’

The beneficiary communities for these programmes are: Tse-Kucha, Quarry, Amua, Mbazembe, Mbatur, and Pass Brothers.

Speaking on behalf of the Benue State Attorney-General, the Chairman of the Mineral Resources and Environmental Management Committee (MIREMCO), Dooshima Orosaga, commended Dangote Cement Plc for its compliance with the Community Development Agreement (CDA), urging the beneficiaries and host communities to maximise the benefits of the company’s interventions.

Yina Elias, chairman of the Gboko Local Government, said the government will continue to provide the support needed for the company to succeed, adding that the Dangote Cement Plc is an exemplary company in Corporate Social Responsibilities programmes.

In his remarks, Tsegba Igbarumun the District Head of Ukpekpe, commended Dangote Cement Plc’s Gboko Plant for its contributions to the community, assuring the company of the community’s continued support, adding that the community valued its mutually beneficial relationship with the company and would continue to serve as its ambassadors.

A beneficiary of the Youth Empowerment Programme, Ignatius Aondohemba, expressed appreciation to Dangote Cement Plc for the support, pledging to put the skills and resources provided to good use and build a business that would enable him to become an employer of labour.

The Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment has inaugurated the Diving Governing Board, headed by Kamil Shoretire, the Permanent Secretary, following concerns over safety and a regulatory gap in the sector.

BusinessDay gathered that the move will help to strengthen the enforcement of safety regulations and protect workers engaged in commercial diving operations across Nigeria.

Annah Daniel, Head of Press and Public Relations of the Ministry, in a statement on Saturday, said the move will ensure effective implementation of the Factories (Diving at Work) Regulations, 2018, and address safety risks associated with offshore, inshore and inland water diving operations.

Maigari Dingyadi, the Minister of Labour and Employment, described the inauguration as a significant step towards strengthening the regulation of commercial diving and eliminating longstanding safety gaps in the sector.

He said the expansion of Nigeria’s maritime activities, oil and gas exploration, port development and underwater engineering had made the safety and welfare of commercial divers a national priority.

‘As Nigeria’s blue economy expands rapidly through maritime investments, oil and gas exploration, port developments, and underwater engineering, the safety and welfare of our commercial divers have transitioned from being a peripheral concern to a top national priority,’ the Honourable Minister said.

Dingyadi, who described commercial diving as one of the most hazardous industrial occupations, added that ‘the sector had faced regulatory gaps, inadequate standardisation and unacceptable risks to human life over the years.’

He said the inauguration of the Board was intended to bridge the gap between the existence of safety regulations and their effective implementation.

‘However, a legal framework is only as effective as the institution driving its implementation,’ he said.

The Minister charged members of the Board to ensure strict compliance with the Factories (Diving at Work) Regulations, 2018, stressing that diving projects must not commence without the required medical fitness certification, approved operational plans and competent personnel.

He also tasked the Board with working with recognised training institutions, including the Nigerian Navy Diving School and accredited civilian centres, to establish transparent certification pathways for commercial divers and address reliance on unverified foreign credentials.

Dingyadi further urged the Board to establish a transparent register of approved diving contractors, supervisors, instructors and medical examiners to eliminate unqualified operators and improve accountability in the industry.

He reminded the board members that their responsibility extended beyond regulatory compliance to protecting the lives of Nigerian workers engaged in hazardous underwater operations.

‘You carry the heavy responsibility of ensuring that every diver goes to work and returns home safely to their families,’ he said.

The Minister assured the Board of the Ministry’s administrative and logistical support, urging its members to establish clear operational guidelines and ensure strict enforcement of safety standards.

‘We expect you to hit the ground running, institute transparent operating guidelines, and restore absolute discipline and safety to the nation’s commercial diving sector,’ he added.

Earlier, Kamil A. Shoretire, the Permanent Secretary, described the inauguration as a critical step towards the effective implementation and enforcement of the Factories (Diving at Work) Regulations, 2018.

He explained that the regulations were developed as subsidiary legislation under the Factories Act, Cap F1, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, to address emerging workplace safety challenges and strengthen protection for workers in high-risk environments.

Shoretire said the Ministry had continued to discharge its statutory responsibility for occupational safety, health and welfare through the enforcement of the Factories Act and its subsidiary regulations, as well as advocacy, stakeholder engagement and other promotional activities.

He noted that workplace machinery, equipment, materials and operational methods had changed significantly with advances in science and technology, making it necessary for regulations to respond to emerging occupational hazards.

‘It is in realization of the limitations of the Factories Act that would arise over time that provision was made in Section 49 of the Act empowering the Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment to issue regulations as the need arises, for securing the safety, health, and welfare of workers in our workplaces,’ he said.

The Permanent Secretary stressed that strict compliance with the diving regulations was essential to preventing accidents, injuries and fatalities associated with hazardous diving operations.

‘The importance of this Diving Governing Board inauguration, therefore, cannot be overemphasized, considering that diving operations are commonly in use in various workplaces in Nigeria, and constitute very hazardous and high-risk operation due to the risks that may be associated with diving in confine spaces,’ he said.

He warned that failure to observe prescribed safety measures could result in occupational illnesses, deaths and extensive damage to plant and equipment.

Shoretire therefore called on stakeholders across the economy to comply strictly with the regulations, noting that effective implementation would help prevent workplace accidents and improve safety standards in the diving sector.

The Diving Governing Board is expected to provide strategic oversight for the implementation of the regulations, promote standardisation of training and certification, and strengthen compliance with safety requirements governing commercial diving operations in Nigeria.

Akin Osuntokun’s latest intervention, titled ‘Atiku Abubakar Cannot Heckle His Way to the Presidency,’ published in THISDAY on October 16, 2026, is a curious mixture of selective history, political prejudice and recycled allegations masquerading as informed commentary. It is remarkable that at a time when Nigerians are grappling with unprecedented economic hardship, insecurity and growing uncertainty about their future, Osuntokun considers it more important to excavate alleged private conversations from over two decades ago in an attempt to disqualify former Vice President Atiku Abubakar from seeking the presidency.

Of particular interest is his resurrection of a story attributed to former Cross River State Governor Donald Duke, who claimed that former military President Ibrahim Babangida once told President Olusegun Obasanjo that Atiku could not rule Nigeria. This is precisely the sort of tale by moonlight that should have no place in serious political analysis.

According to the account, Babangida allegedly pretended to have forgotten his keys, returned to Obasanjo’s private study and whispered a warning about Atiku. We are then invited to treat this extraordinary recollection of a supposed private exchange as a definitive assessment of Atiku’s presidential suitability.

But where is the independent corroboration? Has Babangida publicly authenticated those precise words? Even assuming, without conceding, that the conversation occurred exactly as narrated, since when did an alleged private judgment made over twenty years ago become a permanent disqualification from democratic leadership?

The irony is that Osuntokun chooses to dwell on what Babangida allegedly said in private while conveniently sidestepping what Obasanjo subsequently declared in public. On October 11, 2018, Obasanjo openly endorsed Atiku for the presidency. He acknowledged their past disagreements, reconciled with his former deputy and offered an unambiguous assessment of his leadership credentials. His words deserve to be recalled: ‘You surely understand the economy better.’ Obasanjo went further, praising Atiku’s business experience, national and international reach, accessibility and capacity to provide leadership superior to that of the incumbent administration.

These were not anonymous whispers behind closed doors. They were public declarations made before political leaders, religious figures and the Nigerian media. Indeed, Obasanjo acknowledged that there had once been an understanding for Atiku to succeed him. That documented admission is considerably more relevant than Osuntokun’s speculative reconstruction of conversations from another political era. One would have expected a commentator concerned with historical accuracy to reconcile these facts rather than cherry-pick episodes that reinforce his preferred conclusion.

As for Babangida, any serious examination of his assessment of Atiku must account for the full history of their political relationship, including subsequent engagements, rather than elevate an uncorroborated remark into an eternal verdict. Neither Obasanjo nor Babangida holds a hereditary franchise to determine who may govern Nigeria. Whatever they may have thought about Atiku at different points in their political lives, the final authority belongs to the Nigerian electorate.

Osuntokun also suggests that Atiku’s age and repeated presidential contests should persuade him to surrender his ambition and become a mentor to younger politicians. This argument is as selective as it is unpersuasive. If age, experience and repeated electoral contests are legitimate subjects of political scrutiny, they must apply equally to all candidates, including President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. They cannot suddenly become disqualifying considerations simply because the candidate under examination is Atiku Abubakar.

Age does not confer competence, but neither does it automatically extinguish it. The appropriate questions concern judgment, capacity, policy, integrity and the ability to assemble a credible governing team.

Atiku has offered Nigerians his experience in public administration, economic management, enterprise development and national leadership. These credentials are open to legitimate scrutiny, just as Tinubu’s performance after more than three years in office must be subjected to rigorous examination.

On zoning, Osuntokun advances the argument that another northern presidency would violate an expectation that power should remain in the South for eight years. Regional balance is important to national cohesion. But zoning is a political arrangement, not a constitutional prohibition against qualified Nigerians seeking elective office. More importantly, it cannot become an instrument for shielding an incumbent from accountability.

Nigerians are entitled to consider regional equity alongside competence, performance, national security and economic survival. It is for voters, not columnists, to decide how these considerations should influence their ballots.

Osuntokun’s attempt to portray Atiku as the principal architect of opposition fragmentation is equally simplistic. The crisis within the opposition cannot credibly be attributed to one individual while ignoring the ambitions, choices and conduct of other political actors. Political parties are collective institutions, and responsibility for their successes and failures must be assessed accordingly. Atiku has participated in efforts to build a broader opposition coalition and now leads the ADC presidential ticket alongside Rotimi Amaechi. Whether that coalition persuades Nigerians is a matter to be settled democratically, not through predetermined assertions about his supposed unelectability.

Then there is Osuntokun’s fascination with Atiku addressing the President as ‘Bola.’ When did addressing a public official by his given name become a constitutional offence or a measure of political desperation? Bola is the President’s name, not an insult. Those who regard its use as an affront should explain why the substance of public accountability matters less to them than presidential titles.

The real political pollution is not calling a president by his name. It is the growing tendency to treat legitimate criticism of public officeholders as an act of disrespect. What Nigerians require from political commentators is a searching examination of governance. How have the administration’s economic policies affected household incomes? What has happened to the purchasing power of wages? How secure are communities? What measurable relief has reached ordinary Nigerians?

These questions deserve more attention than an alleged conversation about misplaced keys in Aso Rock more than twenty years ago. Osuntokun is entitled to his preferences, prejudices and political conclusions. He is even entitled to believe that Atiku should not be President. What he is not entitled to is the pretence that his personal judgment constitutes the verdict of the Nigerian people. In a democracy, presidential ambition is neither granted nor extinguished by the approval of political columnists.

On January 16, 2027, Nigerians will have the opportunity to examine the competing candidates, evaluate their records, consider their proposals and exercise their constitutional right to determine who governs them. They will not be required to consult Osuntokun’s preferred political history before casting their ballots. Atiku Abubakar does not require Akin Osuntokun’s permission to seek the presidency, any more than Bola Tinubu requires his endorsement to pursue re-election.

Both must submit themselves to the sovereign judgment of Nigerians. Ultimately, Atiku’s presidential fate will be determined by the votes of Nigerians, not by Akin Osuntokun’s biases, recycled anecdotes or tales by moonlight. That is democracy. And that is the verdict that matters.

Ezekiel Ikotun, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Flinchglow Travels Limited, company that services the travel value chain, shook the audience at a workshop on air travel in Port Harcourt with how Nigeria’s prosperity in the tourism industry has been stifled.

Spoke at the workshop which took place at the Ogeyi Place in the GRA 2 section of the Garden City where he revealed how insecurity had badly affected the growth of the tourism sector. It was a workshop that brought together the airlines and agencies in the sector.

Explaining more to newsmen on the drawbacks, Ikotun said: ‘The first thing is insecurity which drives people away. Who wants to come to a space where you hear about a lot of kidnapping, hear about bandits, and all of that?

‘If insecurity can come to an end, and better business architecture where there’s certainty in the business area is installed, you’ll see investors coming in to invest heavily in our space, and we’ll see how tourism is going to grow exponentially.’

He said people want to come to Nigeria because Nigeria has a lot of natural endowments across the entire region of Nigeria.

Setting at the seminar in PH

‘There’s no area that does not have something natural for which people can fly in from anywhere in the world to come and see. But in terms of investment, government support is not there. But if we can have that, have security, everything will be fine.’

On how the event came about and its inspiration, the CEO said it is called ‘Partner Plus Connect’. ‘We are a travel consolidator. We are agents’ agent. So, we service everybody within the travel space. We buy from airlines in bulk and resell to other travel agencies.

‘For the fact that we are driven by volume, we get better discounts because of our position, then we can resell better to other travel agencies.’

In the past, he said, ‘We discovered that there’s been a lot of uneducated travel agents in the Nigerian space. And part of the product that we offer is to ensure that all our travel agencies are better positioned in terms of awareness, in terms of capacity building.

‘If you look at the engagement today, you can see that all airlines are coming to make presentations about their products and services, and then in turn, our partners, our sub-agents can ask questions or be better enlightened on how best they can do their business.

‘Most of them don’t even have the opportunity or the privilege to have this kind of gathering, if not for us coming up with it to bring all of these airlines together and other GDSs to be able to serve them better.’

On benefits to travelers and agents, he said it is an ecosystem which is connected. ‘It means that if the sub-agents are properly educated, that means they will serve the traveler better.

‘Now, for the agents also, once they can serve better, they can have better businesses. For those who are in our own ecosystem, that simply means they will know better about the business, and they can serve their customer better.

‘Look at this information now about Ethiopian Airlines, it’s coming to them firsthand. They now have the contacts of these airlines so they can reach out to them and go through us for ticket issuance. So, they have firsthand information about how best they can service their customers.

Let all airlines sell tickets in Naira:

On what the FG should be doing to lift agents to make the sector more formidable, the expert pleaded on forex as the greatest challenge they faced. ‘We are asked to issue tickets in dollars, remit in dollars, but we have limited dollar access. So, if that can be properly handled, our local currency is Naira. If all the airlines can be mandated to sell in Naira, then we can remit in Naira. So, we don’t have any problem when it comes to remittances.’

In terms of awareness, he said the aviation industry worldwide is one of the most viable sectors. ‘If you look at the GDP of the world, what travel and tour industry is contributing is not a small fraction. So, if a lot of investment can be done in that regard like Kenya does. People travel from America to Kenya simply because of how their tourism industry is being structured.

‘So, if you have something similar in our space in Nigeria, that means that industry will even give more to the GDP of Nigeria.’

He said they were excited about the next move. ‘AI is taking the front door of every conversation. If you look at the investment globally, this year is over $1 trillion, the investment. Meaning any industry that is a bit structured is going to be heavily hit by AI.

‘So, the next phase is about building a robust architecture technology that can accommodate some of the things we talked about in terms of automation, in terms of availability of products and services, access to technology, and all of that. So, what’s next for us is to see how we can be a major player when it comes to that particular ecosystem where technology will meet AI, then automation makes work a lot easier for both the travel agency and the travelers.’

Oluremi Olusunde, CEO of Realms Travels and Tours Limited: How to survive as an airline agent

Also speaking to newsmen, Oluremi Olusunde, CEO of Realms Travels and Tours Limited, admitted that the event was smoothly executed, saying it was a time of learning. ‘It was a time of getting renewed information in the travel industry.’

He said the panelists were just simply brilliant and interesting. And for the airlines that came, all the questions they had about their services, their offers, their perks were answered adequately. It was really a time well spent.

‘I have been over a decade in the industry. The industry has its challenges, however, I think that it is a huge place. And if you are able to carve a niche market for yourself, and you’re able to adequately update yourself regularly, you can keep your customers and you will thrive in the industry.’

‘On how this event was organized, I am beyond impressed with this meeting. I’m someone who doesn’t like to stay out, to take a lot of time out of work, but for this meeting, I think for every minute I’ve spent here, it’s been worthwhile. It’s been a nice experience.’

How to use AI in this industry:

He went on: ‘Yes, we came to this training on AI, and I want to say AI is everybody’s friend as long as you know how to use it. AI does not replace human intelligence. It is artificial intelligence for a reason. It is faster but you always need human intelligence because you need that balance to be able to curate things according to how humans will need it curated.

AI just gives you data. Human intelligence filters the data and adapts it to every individual.

So I don’t think AI challenges my position in the industry. I just think it’s a tool that I can use to make myself better.’

Ethiopia Airlines happy to return to PH:

The airline was at the seminar in Port Harcourt and revealed their plans to resume flights to the Garden City.

Speaking, Firiehiwot Mekonnen, Area Manager – Nigeria, Ethiopian Airlines, gave her take home from the seminar, first saying the event was very good. She profusely commended Finchglow Travels for bringing all travel partners together.

‘It’s really an amazing event, and they keep on doing it every year. So, we really want to appreciate and thank you, Finchglow Travels, for that.’

She also said she was glad that they were able to meet and discuss with all the travel partners, travel agencies around this area. ‘They have already expressed their support for Ethiopian Airlines. They have expressed their appreciation for Ethiopian Airlines to commence flights to Port Harcourt.

‘As Ethiopian Airlines, we are also really happy and excited to start our fifth frequency or fifth destination in Nigeria, which is Port Harcourt. We expect that this operation, which we are starting with four frequencies per week, is going to grow to daily frequency with the support of Finchglow Travels and all the travel partners that we have met today.

‘We have also taken all their comments and feedbacks, and we are committed to working on that.’

She described their experience in Nigeria one of resilience. ‘You know, Ethiopian Airlines started operating to Nigeria right after one month of Nigeria’s independence. So, this year we have celebrated our 65 years of anniversary in Nigeria.

‘And in Ethiopian Airlines, since we have started, we have been continuing, we have never stopped through thick and thin, no matter what. There are times where so many airlines were challenged and suspended their flights, but Ethiopian Airlines never did that.

‘So, throughout all these years, we kept on adding and making sure that we bring the best to the Nigerian public. We bring the best of the airlines. We fly with A350,000 to Lagos, Abuja, and then we are going to bring that as well to you.’

She said Nigerians love Ethiopian Airlines. ‘So, the experience that we have had in operating in Nigeria is very good. It’s a Nigerian airline, that’s what we can say and that’s how our passengers claim as well. So, the experience is very good, very vibrant people, very warm people, and then we keep on growing and we keep on giving back to Nigeria.’

Explaining further, she said she just arrived from Lagos. She said her colleague, Agitu Tesfaye, will be working in Port Harcourt. She said she considered it good news to the agents.

‘So, Mr. Agitu is going to be the Traffic and Sales Manager of Ethiopian Airlines here in Port Harcourt; someone who is going to be closely working with you.

‘We will just give you a brief overview of Ethiopian Airlines. This airline has been flying to Port Harcourt, and this presentation is like a discussion, an interaction.

‘Ethiopian Airlines has been flying to Port Harcourt back in 2019. Now, we are resuming our flights in December 2026. So, I just want to give you a brief introduction about Ethiopian Airlines, and then I want us to discuss.

‘I want you to ask, request, and comment as well on our services. Ethiopian Airlines is an 80-year-young airline. So, this is just to give a note about Ethiopian Airlines. Ethiopian Airlines was founded in 1945. This year, we have already celebrated our 80th year anniversary. It is fully owned by the government.’

Chigozie Nnah: Key lecture on ticket pricing mechanism:

Nnah is the Account Manager, Lufthansa Airlines, Port Harcourt, and he spoke on what he called continuous pricing mechanism in the industry.

He said: ‘We are used to our Reservation Booking Designators (RBDs), K-class, Lima class, and the rest of them. Now, what this continuous pricing normally does is that when it looks at a booking situation in any period and sees that there are seats not sold and the other ones the seat before that or the RBD before that is sold.

‘So, what the system does is instead of if K-class is N90,000 and then Lima is N100,000, instead of charging you N100,000, what it does is it tries to do what we call a little of differentiation and gets a price in between and offer it to anyone who is booking.

So, it’s only applicable or available within a specified period of time. The moment you book it and you do not pay, you want to wait until the next day, it may not be available.’

Now, he said, the New Distribution Capability (NDC) is a win-win game, so to speak. ‘We have attractive NDC smart offers, transparent, value-added, full customization and personalization deals. What do we mean by personalization? Individualization to suit each and every customer if you so wish.

‘And then the technology, the trade and technology partner, we have better servicing functionalities, value-based commercial models, and it comes with increased efficiency.

‘The most difficult thing for a man to do is change which is difficult, change is the only thing that is constant.’

He said when he hears people say they cannot change from the traditional way of booking to the new and the smart way such as the NDC that is a smart way of booking; ‘It clearly tells you that in the new way of doing business, it offers you more efficiency than the old way of doing your business, especially as time and tides change.

‘Again, we have its installer of innovative NDC smart offers. We have different offers available for our partners and the state-of-the-art shopping experience. Gradually the airline industry will come to a point like what you have on Amazon and the rest, where you have a shopping cart. You can pick this and put to that cart, put this and all in that one cart, and then at the end you have just a basket of all the things that you need. So, this is how it’s going to run, and that’s what is seen. It’s the state-of-the-art shopping experience, and it comes with value-based willingness to pay.

‘I need to talk about ancillary. This is one topic or one subject I think we have not actually fully utilized; ancillary.’

With additional services on the local government, he went on, travelers can make their journey even more individual and comfortable.

‘There’s ancillary, you have the extra leg room, there, you can make advance seat reservation. Recently, I had some people say, ‘I do not have the money to pay for premium, and I need comfort. You can simply book advance seats, make an advance seat reservation. That way, your customer becomes comfortable even though at that period is not able to pay for the higher class.

‘So, this is part of what we should offer as professionals, at least, give them the complete package, ensure that these ancillaries are effectively and properly utilized. We have the sleeper rolls and then the fixed price upgrade.

‘Many of you may not know about the fixed price upgrade. We have fixed price upgrade and bid upgrade, and even the excess bag rate.

‘For the fixed price upgrade, there’s a fixed price to upgrade for instance from one class to the other. For the bid price, if you make a booking even though you did it in your office, you can go online and then you can ask for an upgrade. That upgrade is not fixed. You’re allowed to make quotes or bid. You’re allowed to make an offer. And at the end of the day, when it’s close to the flights especially, the person that has the highest offer is given that offer to upgrade.’

He explained with examples: ‘So, sometimes, if somebody has bid at $100, another person bid $105, another one $112; at the end of the day they pick the one that had the highest bid. If there are other avenues to make some other upgrading, take them just like that. So, this is how it works.

‘The one I want us to dwell on is the one of the extra bag. Recently, we have seen cases of people who have been saying that the extra bag amount is quite on the high side.

‘Just this Tuesday, a passenger was traveling and he told me wanted an extra bag, and asked how much for it. I said $305, he shouted. I said, but you know you can go to Lufthansa website and ask for an extra bag at a cheaper rate. He did and at the end, he got it at $132.

That’s shocking. Look at the difference.

‘So, for partners here, you can give your customer better services, you can also save them money, you can as well make more money for yourself.

‘I want you to make some money when you click. Why should I go to the airport and pay $305 whereas I can do it online? You can do it online and give to my clients, and also get some fringe from it.

‘We have the latest services we just mentioned.

Now, allegries. It is our latest in the market in terms of seats. It’s only in Lagos. We have the allegries that come with our flights, dreamliner that comes into Lagos. The allegries is simply a new configuration of seats that gives you additional maximum comfort.’

It’s found in all the cabins in the business class. ‘The suites are the one in front. If you have someone who always flies first class, and he is so used to first class, and there is unfortunately on this route there is no first class.

When you book the person in business class, please, pay for that business suite.

If you go online it’s cheaper. It’s more or less like first class, the services are top-notch.

You can find same in premium and as well in economy class.

‘As experts (agents) you should be registered with Lufthansa experts. It is a where we communicate our products, services, and other information that ordinarily you cannot get anywhere else. Lufthansa gives you credit.

‘Some ask for group discount. Any class you book, your staff, the family, you are entitled to 20% discount. Contact the airline, or read down the ticket. We have Lufthansa group meetings, we call it miles meetings, incentive and all that. And then we have the partner plus benefit.

‘The green fares are part of the fair family on the Lufthansa fair basis. Green fair simply means the fair that helps to promote a greener environment, safer environment, reduce carbon dioxide emission.’

He said when anybody books green fair, what the airline does is a little bit higher, but the benefit that weighs what you pay is that whereas you pay surcharge to ask for refund or rebook, this one is free. ‘Again, the additional benefit for green fair is that a customer enjoys 20% more on their miles and more.’

Trade, investment and cooperation initiatives are opening new possibilities for all three economies. Whether they lead to shared prosperity or simply reproduce familiar patterns of dependence will depend on how value chains, financing and risks are organised.

About this time last year, Ambassador Geert Muylle’s reflections on the pressures reshaping Belgian industrial supply chains prompted me to examine the possibilities of moving from dependency to partnership. The argument was that Europe’s search for economic resilience could meet Africa’s demand for greater productive participation. Both needed to reconsider the terms of their engagement. As we approach the Nigeria Belgium Luxembourg Business Forum in Brussels on 28-30 October, the question has become more demanding. What would demonstrate that partnership is changing the distribution of opportunity?

My stake in both Europe and Africa makes that question personal. I want Nigerian businesses to retain more value from what they produce. I also want Belgian and Luxembourg enterprises to secure dependable returns from partnerships that last. Fair trade must make those ambitions compatible. Seven developments offer a useful basis for judging the possibilities. They include changing commercial flows, investment decisions and new cooperation initiatives. Their significance lies in the connections between them.

A contraction that should change the conversation

The first development is uncomfortable for an otherwise celebratory forum narrative. The Belgian Foreign Trade Agency’s May 2026 bilateral note records Belgian goods exports to Nigeria falling from approximately pound 4.09 billion in 2024 to pound 1.27 billion in 2025, a decline of 68.9 per cent. Belgian goods imports from Nigeria also fell, by 14.6 per cent, to pound 474.9 million. These are Belgian-reported merchandise figures, rather than a complete account of investment or services. The figures challenge the assumption that diplomatic activity automatically produces expanding commerce. They also invite a more useful question than how quickly the old totals can be restored. Which parts of the relationship should grow next?

A relationship built around supplying finished products can generate substantial turnover while leaving limited productive capacity with the buyer. A smaller flow of equipment, engineering and investment could, under the right conditions, help establish enterprises that support decades of exchange. Falling trade is no achievement in itself. But restoring dependence should not become the measure of recovery.

Refining is changing the direction of opportunity

The second development supplies an important part of that context. The US Energy Information Administration reported in August that Nigeria’s seaborne petroleum-product exports to Europe averaged 130,000 barrels a day in the second quarter of 2026, compared with 40,000 in 2025. It links the broader expansion in Nigerian product shipments to the Dangote refinery. These are Europe-wide flows; they should not be presented as exports specifically to Belgium. Nor do they explain every movement in bilateral trade.

Their strategic meaning is nevertheless substantial. Nigerian processing capacity is changing what the country can offer international markets. For Belgian businesses, the response can include engineering services, industrial maintenance, storage, emissions management and partnerships in downstream manufacturing. Nigeria gains more when industrial expansion develops local suppliers and technical competence. Belgian firms gain when their expertise becomes part of a productive system with continuing demand.

The fair-trade test also applies within Nigeria. Domestic refining must deliver competitive markets, environmental responsibility and public value. Replacing external dependence with excessive domestic market power would leave an essential part of the task unfinished.

Cocoa opens a different bilateral future

The third development is the growing prominence of cocoa in the relationship. In its December 2025 account of the previous forum, Nigeria’s Ministry of Livestock Development reported the observation of Ambassador Pieter Leenknegt that cocoa had overtaken crude oil as Nigeria’s leading export to Belgium. This is a meaningful change in the composition of engagement, although commodity rankings alone cannot establish an industrial transformation. Cocoa gives both countries a reason to think beyond the shipment of beans. Nigerian fermentation, quality control and processing could be linked more deliberately to Belgian food manufacturing, technical expertise and distribution.

Each proposed investment would still need to establish its commercial case, including reliable power, competitive costs and applicable market-access conditions. Yet that is precisely the discussion worth having. How much processing can take place competitively in Nigeria? Which skills and equipment are required? What purchasing commitments would make investment credible? Fairness begins to become tangible when the producer can negotiate a larger role in the value chain, and the buyer obtains a more reliable, higher-quality supply.

Sustainability rules are becoming a test of partnership

The fourth development is the approaching application of the EU Deforestation Regulation, with the European Commission identifying 30 December 2026 as the application date. Cocoa is among the commodities covered. European operators’ obligations create information demands throughout their supply chains, including evidence about where commodities were produced.

This matters directly to Nigerian suppliers and Belgian buyers. Forest protection is a shared interest. But the distribution of compliance costs will influence whether the transition strengthens the relationship or excludes smaller producers. A fair response would combine purchasing commitments with practical support for farm mapping, traceability and producer training. Nigerian authorities and exporters must strengthen their own systems; European buyers should consider how their procurement terms can sustain that effort. Compliance could become a field of joint investment, including opportunities for Nigerian technology firms. It should also improve farmers’ ability to participate in formal markets. A system that can trace a bean back to a poor household should be capable of asking whether that household receives enough to sustain responsible production.

Livestock cooperation now needs investable projects

The fifth development is explicitly trilateral. The Ministry of Livestock Development reported that the 2025 forum endorsed a Nigeria-Belgium-Luxembourg Livestock Investment and Cooperation Platform, intended to advance partnerships, technology transfer, capacity building and bankable projects. Endorsement establishes an institutional opening; it does not establish that investment has closed or facilities are operating.

The opportunity is to turn that opening into a small portfolio of credible ventures. Cold-chain services, feed production, veterinary provision and dairy processing deserve appraisal against actual demand and operating conditions.

Nigeria can bring producers, enterprise and markets. Belgian partners can contribute relevant equipment and technical capabilities. Luxembourg’s financial ecosystem could help structure suitable investment vehicles and connect qualifying projects with investors.

The terms matter. Producers need transparent pricing and dependable payments. Investors need enforceable contracts. Projects need responsible land arrangements, animal-health safeguards, and workable community relationships. Those conditions are part of commercial durability.

Ports determine whether productive ambition travels

The sixth development concerns the infrastructure connecting these possibilities. Reporting on an April 2026 meeting between the Nigerian Ports Authority and Belgium’s ambassador described discussions on Belgian participation in Nigerian port modernisation, including infrastructure and operational efficiency. The public account supports an emerging cooperation agenda; it should not be treated as evidence of a completed financing package.

For an exporter, port performance can determine whether a good product reaches its buyer competitively. For an equipment supplier, delays and uncertainty can undermine an otherwise viable investment. Belgian maritime expertise therefore has value well beyond an individual construction contract. Partnerships should be judged by measurable improvements in clearance, cargo movement, and service reliability, alongside local maintenance and operational competence. Nigerian agencies must deliver the regulatory coordination that physical investment requires.

A fair corridor must serve businesses at both ends. More efficient movement of European imports alone would leave its productive promise incomplete. Nigerian exporters also need predictable access to the route.

Development finance is offering another opening

The seventh development is a concrete financing decision. In July 2026, Belgium’s development finance institution BIO approved a US$5 million investment in Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund II. Nigeria is among the fund’s ten target countries. This is a regional fund investment, rather than a US$5 million allocation to Nigeria, but it identifies a route through which eligible Nigerian agribusinesses could access support.

Its relevance is the connection between agricultural resilience and investable enterprise. Productive partnerships need finance that recognises the costs of building supply systems and adapting to climate risk. Entrepreneurs still need sound governance and credible business models. Investors need to distinguish risks that can be reduced through technical support from those that require guarantees, different financing terms or a decision not to proceed. Calling a project promising cannot substitute for this work.

Luxembourg belongs in the financing discussion

Across these developments, Luxembourg’s contribution should be made specific. There is already a financial bridge to build upon: Nigerian Exchange records its 2019 cooperation agreement with the Luxembourg Stock Exchange and the subsequent cross-listing of Access Bank’s ?15 billion green bond. This is an earlier institutional foundation, not a newly announced 2026 transaction.

Its importance today is practical. Suitable Nigerian projects could be prepared for sustainable-finance markets through credible use-of-proceeds frameworks, external assessment and continuing reporting. Smaller ventures may first require aggregation or intermediary finance. A Luxembourg listing would neither guarantee affordable capital nor remove foreign-exchange risk. Projects earning Naira need financing structures that can withstand currency movements. Transparency about fees, ownership, and tax treatment must accompany any international structure. Luxembourg gains through financial services and investable opportunities; Nigeria gains only if the underlying assets become productive and financially sustainable.

The conversion platform the relationship needs

Taken together, these developments suggest a possible transition towards a relationship in which Nigeria participates more fully in production, Belgium earns returns from industrial and logistical expertise, and Luxembourg helps connect viable ventures with appropriate capital. The outcome will depend on choices still to be made.

Fair trade does not require identical trade balances or equal gains from every transaction. It requires meaningful room for each economy to develop capabilities, transparent allocation of risk and rewards, and commercial arrangements that can endure public scrutiny. Nigeria must improve its investment conditions. European partners must be willing to support productive participation as well as market access for their own firms. This is the context in which the Nigeria Belgium Luxembourg Business Forum is positioning itself as an indispensable conversion platform. Convened under the CBL-ACP Chamber, the 2026 edition combines plenary engagement with targeted business meetings and company visits. The forum programme places commercial priorities and implementation pathways at the centre of that approach.

The strongest contribution of the Business Forum is to bring the people who own an opportunity into direct discussion with those who can resolve its financing, technical or regulatory obstacles. A cocoa processor should leave with a clearer route to equipment, quality assurance and buyers. A livestock venture should establish what must happen before an investor can commit. A logistics proposal should identify the agencies and firms responsible for delivery.

To make this role indispensable, the forum is maintaining a disciplined process after Brussels: named project owners, agreed next steps and reviews at realistic intervals. A ninety-day review could distinguish opportunities that have advanced, those requiring further preparation and those that should be discontinued. Commercial confidentiality can be protected while aggregate progress is reported.

As someone involved in this work, I believe that is the standard we should welcome. The forum’s importance will grow through the transactions it helps make viable and the trust earned when participants follow through. Last year’s challenge was to recognise the opening for partnership. This year’s task is to organise the conversion into shared value. Brussels can become the place where the three economies turn that intention into commitments they can implement, measure and sustain.

Since its debut in the Nigerian visual art scene in 2022, Windsor Gallery, a dynamic contemporary art institution dedicated to amplifying West African and pan-African voices on the global stage, has continued to make bold statements with its projects.

One of such projects is its Artists in Residence programme, which creates a space for artists from across the continent to live, work, exchange ideas and engage with new cultural environments.

It is in furtherance of that commitment to building meaningful cross-border conversations around African art that the gallery is featuring Hako Hankson, a Cameroonian-born contemporary artist, at the latest Windsor Gallery Artists in Residence programme.

Hako, who has arrived in Lagos, is joining Douala, his base in Cameroon, for the six-week artist residency.

Speaking on the rationale for the programme, the gallery explained that Hako’s residency in Lagos forms part of ongoing effort to strengthen the connections between African artists, audiences and institutions – creating opportunities for exchange that move beyond borders and encourage new ways of seeing and understanding the continent through art.

Offering more details, the gallery said that over the course of six weeks, Hako will immerse himself in Lagos, developing new work while engaging with the city’s creative community, its people, histories and constantly evolving cultural landscape.

However, the residency will culminate in a solo exhibition at Windsor Gallery from October, where Hako will present the body of work developed during his time in Lagos and offer audiences an opportunity to encounter his practice through the lens of the new environment.

The highly anticipated solo exhibition by Hako, which is entitled ‘Hako’s Allegory’, will open on October 31, 2026, from, 1pm – 6pm at Windsor Gallery at #4C Goriola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.

On display would be the works created by Hako during the six-week Artist-In-Residence in Lagos.

Offering insights on the exhibition in its curatorial note, Windsor Gallery asked, ‘What if what we see is only a shadow of what is real’?

It further used Plato’s Allegory of the Cave to explain Hako’s Allegory’. In Plato’s case, the gallery said that ‘a group of prisoners are confined to a cave, able to see only shadows projected onto a wall before them. Having known nothing else, they mistake these shadows for reality.

‘When one prisoner is finally released and encounters the world beyond the cave, the experience is disorienting. What he believed to be true is revealed to have been only a limited perception of truth’.

With the above in mind, Hako’s Allegory takes the philosophical proposition as its point of departure.

‘Through a new technique developed on plexiglass, Hako Hanson creates works that exist between image and reflection, visibility and obscurity, surface and depth. The material becomes more than a medium; it becomes a metaphor for perception itself,’ Windsor Gallery stated in its curatorial note.

Plexiglass, according to the gallery, allows the image to be seen while simultaneously revealing the space beyond it and as light passes through, reflections interfere, and the viewer’s own position alters the work. What appears fixed becomes unstable.

The intrigue is that what seems immediately visible begins to question itself and like the shadows in Plato’s cave, Hako’s images ask viewers to consider whether seeing is the same as knowing.

‘The works operate within this tension between appearance and reality. They invite the viewer to look beyond the immediate image, to question the assumptions that shape what we perceive and to consider how much of our understanding is constructed by the limitations of our own perspective.

‘The journey out of Plato’s cave is not simply a movement from darkness into light. It is a confrontation with the possibility that everything we previously understood may have been incomplete’.

Hako’s works occupy this threshold and do not offer a definitive reality beyond the surface. Instead, they create a space in which reality remains fluid, fragmented and open to interpretation. The viewer is therefore not merely looking at the work, but participating in it – moving around it, seeing through it, seeing themselves reflected within it, and continually negotiating between what is presented and what is perceived.

But the allegory may not be about leaving the cave, but recognising that we are still inside one.

There are also reasons to see Hako’s Allegory at Windsor Gallery from October 31, 2026.

The self-taught Cameroonian contemporary artist is gifted. He works across painting, drawing, sculpture and mixed media, amid a practice that is deeply influenced by the traditions, rituals, mythology and spiritual heritage of West Cameroon, as well as the realities of contemporary African life.

The son of a sculptor and musician associated with the Royal Palace, Hankson grew up surrounded by masks, statuettes, totems and ceremonial objects. These early experiences became central to his artistic vocabulary. Although he trained as a car mechanic, he pursued art independently, developing his practice through observation, experimentation and engagement with the artistic community in Douala.

His works combine figures, masks, animals, symbols and expressive gestures, exploring memory, identity, spirituality, migration and everyday life. He has cited artists including: Jean-Michel Basquiat, AntoniTàpies and Jean Dubuffet as influences, while emphasizing the importance of energy and gesture in his own work.

Hankson has exhibited internationally, including with OH Gallery in Dakar, Primo Marella Gallery in Italy and Switzerland, and L’Atelier 21 in Casablanca. He participated in the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024 and his works are held in collections including the Fondation Cartier, MACAAL, Fondation H, Fondation Donwahi and the Benetton Collection.

In 2013, he founded the In and Off Art Center in Douala, supporting artistic exchange and emerging artists. His practice continues to connect Cameroonian cultural heritage with contemporary global experiences, creating a distinctive visual language rooted in memory, spirituality and human experience.

With all these going for him, ‘Hako’s Allegory’ will definitely live up the viewers expectations.

Once again, the solo exhibition will open on October 31, 2026, at Windsor Gallery at #4C Goriola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.