🥤Lagos is submerging, still

👋 Good morningg. It's been raining like crazy all week, and the damage has been real. People have lost homes, entire neighbourhoods have been affected, and it's not just Lagos. Accra is dealing with it too. Geographers have pointed to reasons why this keeps happening, and honestly, the bigger concern is whether we'll still be talking about it when the sun comes back out. Because if we don't, we'll be here again next year.

Let's get into it.

In this edition: why is everything a joke to Nigerians, this week in pop culture, a playlist, and more.

If you’re enjoying this, don’t forget to subscribe and join The Juice community. We’re building this together ♡.

Phrase of the week

Rice wey dey bottom pot today go later dey on top cooler tomorrow

🗞️ THIS WEEK IN POP CULTURE

🎵 MUSIC

Davido has announced his sixth studio album, Oriadé, 13 tracks, one already out. Knowing him, we're hoping for a bop. Also, Wizkid and Jorja Smith's collab Alive is out now, the lead single off her upcoming album, What Are The Odds.

🏛️ POLITICS

The Presidency has cleared Femi Gbajabiamila of bribery allegations. A convicted forger, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, had claimed he paid ₦400 million for an appointment, but the Presidency says the council he claimed to have been appointed to doesn't even exist.

✊ YOUTH & EMPOWERMENT

This week, the NYSC scheme underwent a reform. The orientation camp will be six weeks long and will focus on digital skills and entrepreneurial training. Paramilitary training will also be scrapped, and the Passing Out Parade replaced with graduations.

📽️ FILM

C.J. Obasi is returning with more goodies in hand! This time, he is directing, producing and co-writing The Boy Who Runs, a biopic on Ugandan athlete Julius Achon.

🚨 TRENDING

University of Osun’s Vice Chancellor addressed the nation on how uniformed men broke into the institution to rob and rape students. It is quite unsettling that the very people sworn to protect us are the ones harming us.

When you add AI to your app, the data profile changes overnight. Every prompt, response, and user interaction becomes a timestamped event. That's not your app's usual row count.

Vanilla Postgres handles it until it doesn't. Query times creep up. Dashboard refreshes slow down. You start reaching for a second database or a data pipeline to offload the load.

TimescaleDB extends Postgres for exactly this. It doesn't replace what's working. It makes Postgres stay fast as AI-generated data piles up.

Hypertables partition your data automatically as volume grows. Hypercore compression cuts storage 10x. Continuous aggregates keep your dashboards live without re-querying everything. No pipeline. No second database. No migration.

Same Postgres. Same SQL. Just built to handle what AI features actually generate.

Get $1000 Credit To Start

MAIN SQUEEZE

Lagos is submerging, still!

Lagos is sinking. Year in, year out, this becomes the cause of uproar. After the occasional four months, we make jokes about it, go about our daily businesses, and move on until the next annual rainy season comes knocking. Then, we remember.

The damage caused by the rain and intense flooding does not go unseen, yet it is Lagos, and work must continue. Under the rain and after wading in water is the resident 9-5er amongst others, who must make their way to work.

We spoke to Tinuoluwa Adeniji, a 27-year-old Content Strategist in Lagos. She talks about her viewpoint, how she navigates the situation, and keeps her head up at her place of work. 

What has your daily commute looked like since the flooding started?

I’ll say it has been erratic. On some days, I have to pass alternative routes or pay more because I get charged more by transport workers (not that they can be blamed).

It hasn't been easy for weeks. At times, I just want to sit back home and not go anywhere. 

Has your workplace made any adjustments, or is it still business as usual?

Actually, yes. The management has been so considerate during this time. On days when the rain starts before work hours, we are allowed to check in when we can make it.

A hybrid working structure has also been set in place. They've been magnanimous in the doings which I, and my coworkers, do not take for granted. 

Have you ever had to choose between your safety and showing up to work?

To be honest, yes. When the rainy season just started, I had to make sure I got to work despite the weather conditions.

It wasn't because my work insisted; it was because I had some pending KPIs, and it was the only choice I had at the moment. I really hope such an incident doesn't happen again. It wasn't a nice experience. 

What's one flooding experience this season you'll never forget?

This particular day, the road network to my house was flooded. I managed to make it out of the street and even got a bike to my destination. On my way, the roads were definitely slippery.

One minute I was on the bike, and the next, I had fallen off and into the body of water. I was able to get on my feet early enough to secure my gadgets. 

Has this rainy season changed the way you think about living and working in Lagos?

Every once in a while, I think about it. I wish I had a fully remote job, or better still, relocate.

But since I cannot afford any of that right now, I have to make do and hope better solutions are sorted and reached by the government. It's been years of hoping and hoping things get better. 

With the rainy season only just beginning, what are you doing differently to prepare for the months ahead?

I can’t say I’m doing anything differently. I have my rain starter pack, which is my umbrella. For my house, the drainage is still holding up for now. And for work, the hybrid structure. 

🔪 THE PEEL

Why is everything a joke to Nigerians?

The discourse

Two scenarios unfolded this week. The First Lady, Remi Tinubu, in an interview clip, suggested Nigerians could alleviate poverty by engaging in local businesses like frying akara and groundnuts to make ends meet.

This sparked lots of conversations, and in response, people made memes and skits. One skit was made by skit maker Gilmore, who recreated the akara discourse for laughs, and in another video, mocked flooded victims residing in flood-prone areas. Once again, people laughed. 

Times Nigerians have used humour to cope

Humour has always been one of our greatest coping mechanisms.

It’s something we’ve learnt to hold on to and used to survive fuel scarcity, inflation rates, ASUU strikes, insecurity, and everything in between. It’s a recurring habit and also one of our biggest flaws. 

Shortly after the Oyo School Kidnapping, Nigerians camped on bandits’ TikTok Live to hustle and win giveaway money, while also making subtle and blatant jokes about not wanting to be “kissed” or “taken” by ‘bandits’ before marriage.

Those same bandits who have tormented young and old, displaced families, buried entire communities, and left children orphaned! 

Recently, a lady also stood inside her flooded home in Lagos, laughing as she filmed herself, saying at least she could enjoy the cool breeze and easily bathe with the water already inside her abode.

One could argue she's lightening the weight of her reality, but when does coping with humour begin to have boundaries?

This is the same flood that has most likely caused fatalities in their numbers, which, to be honest, often goes unrecorded in our country. How about during the peak of the #EndSARS protest when some grounds were turned to concerts and celebrity hangouts in some cities? 

Another layer

We all know we live in a world where people with the most likes, views, followers, and engagements get the brand deals and make money.

As a result, our conditions and our outrages expire long before our problems. After all, all we do is complain, trend for a while, laugh about it, and the cycle continues.

Because we are so good at making light of our sufferings, we lose our ability to demand action from those responsible.

In the long run, there are no solutions to our problems. People keep suffering, hopes are dashed, and we are back to square one. And at the global scale, no one is coming to save us.

The core

The conversation isn't against comedy relief, but there’s been too much of it.

We should make room for actions, seeking accountability, and demanding answers. We should learn to prioritise important moments and face them squarely. Not everything should be a joke.

Like the lyrics of Asa’s Fire on the Mountain that many of us grew up singing without fully understanding:

“One day the river will overflow

And there'll be nowhere for us to go

And we will run, run

Wishing we had put out the fire, oh”

🎵 PRESSED BY THE JUICE

Love can save the world, at least we hope it saves Nigeria. You can start the process by listening to our playlist, guaranteed to melt even the stony-hearted.

Don’t forget to save, we update frequently.

Do you have a song you’d like us to include? Put us on, reply to this mail, [email protected]

PHRASE OF THE WEEK

Rice wey dey bottom pot today go later dey on top cooler tomorrow - means no condition is permanent.