News
God will rescue abducted schoolchildren: David Umahi
David Umahi, a former governor of Ebonyi State and Minister of Works, has pushed back against criticisms of President Bola Tinubu’s government over heightened insecurity in the country, saying that God will rescue the abducted schoolchildren in captivity.
Mr Umahi, in a viral video seen on social media on Friday, berated Nigerians for politicising and weaponising insecurity and insulting Mr Tinubu as if insecurity started under his administration.
“What is in national discuss now is the issue of security and insecurity. When people talk about insecurity, especially extreme politicians, and insult the President as if insecurity just started within the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, it is very unfortunate,” Mr Umahi said.
The minister wondered why insecurity heightens in the country in the run-up to elections, adding that prayers should be intensified for the release of the abducted schoolchildren.
“Security is the job of everyone. Security should not be politicised. Why is it that anytime we are approaching elections, there is heightened insecurity? It is very unfair. Anyone who takes the life of another person under any guise, God is watching,” Mr Umahi said.
He added, “We will continue to pray for all our children, who are in captivity. God sees them, wherever they are hidding. Their hands will be losen by God. And they will return.”
Mr Umahi’s statement comes amid public outrage and criticism of Mr Tinubu over the abduction of 46 schoolchildren and teachers in Oyo State on May 15.
For more than 20 days, the abductees have remained in captivity, sparking protests across major cities in the country, including Lagos, Ibadan, Ogbomosho, Abeokuta, Bayelsa and Plateau.
BY NKECHI NAECHE-ESEZOBOR—AIICO Insurance Plc has reinforced its position as a leading player in Nigeria’s insurance and financial services sector, following a successful Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on June 5, 2026.
During the meeting, shareholders commended the company’s strong financial performance and approved all resolutions presented.
In a robust show of confidence in the company’s growth trajectory and strategic direction, shareholders approved the payment of a dividend of 12 kobo per share, amounting to a total payout of ₦4,392,633,121.44.
The meeting also marked a significant evolution in the company’s governance structure with the appointment of three accomplished professionals to the Board as Non-Executive Directors.
Tunde Mabawonku joins as a Non-Executive Director, bringing over two decades of experience across banking, finance, strategy, and corporate services, with a strong background in digital and retail financial services.
Rolake Akinkugbe-Filani, HCIB, also appointed as a Non-Executive Director, contributes deep expertise in capital markets, energy finance, and risk governance, with extensive experience operating across multi-jurisdictional environments.
Sadiq Mohammed joins as an Independent Non-Executive Director, offering over three decades of leadership across asset management, pensions, infrastructure, and investment advisory, alongside significant boardroom experience.
Collectively, these appointments further strengthen the depth, diversity, and strategic capability of AIICO’s Board, positioning the company for sustained growth and enhanced governance.
In addition, Mr. Olalekan Akinyanmi was announced as the new Chairman of the Board, succeeding Mr. Kundan Sainani. Mr. Akinyanmi is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of LEKOIL Nigeria Limited, an Africa-focused oil exploration and production company.
With over 30 years of experience in the global energy sector, he has led significant capital raises and landmark projects, bringing strong leadership and strategic insight to his new role as Chairman.
Commenting on the outcomes of the AGM, the MD/CEO, Mr. Babatunde Fajemirokun, stated that the company is deeply grateful to its shareholders and investors for their continued confidence and support.
He noted that their trust remains a strong validation of AIICO’s strategic direction and business progress.
He emphasized that strengthening the Board reflects a deliberate commitment to robust governance, disciplined oversight, and long-term value creation.
With the depth of experience and diversity now represented at the Board level, the company is well-positioned to enhance its decision-making and sustain its market leadership.
He added that as the company continues to evolve as a financial services group, the focus remains on building a resilient, forward-looking institution that consistently delivers sustainable value to all stakeholders.
AIICO Insurance is a leading composite insurer in Nigeria, with a 63-year record of accomplishment in delivering quality service to its clients. Founded in 1963, AIICO provides life and general insurance, health insurance, and investment management services to create and protect wealth for individuals, families, and corporate customers.
The post AIICO Insurance Shareholders Approve ₦4.39bn Dividend, Welcome New Board appeared first on Business Today NG.
For years, our social media experiences have been dominated by Big Tech players like Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp), Google (YouTube), Snapchat, TikTok, and X. But a growing number of startups are taking aim at these giants by building new, often smaller and more personal social networking experiences to connect people with friends, interests, and tighter-knit communities.
If you’re looking for a way to extricate yourself from the grip of traditional social media and Big Tech products in general, there are a number of interesting alternatives available. Many of them cater to Gen Z and younger, a group that’s often more willing to build their social networks within new spaces compared to people with well-established networks that sit on aging platforms.
Below are some of our favorites, all of which are worth a download.
Retro
Retro is a thoughtfully designed photo-sharing app focused on building connections with friends in a more private format. Created by two former Instagram team members, Nathan Sharp and Ryan Olson, the app offers simple ways to share photos with the people in your life who matter, as well as others that help you reconnect with your own memories. You can select certain photos to highlight every week, dump photos into albums, and find and follow others via search features. You also have your own user profile that includes privacy controls that allow you to choose which of your friends can see more than your most recent month’s worth of photos.
Cosmos
Are you the creative type who’s sick of the AI slop on Pinterest? Another app, Cosmos, could offer an escape. Dubbed a “space for inspiration,” Cosmos allows you to search by color, keyword, or image, to shape a profile based on your taste. You can also follow friends and other tastemakers and collaborate with others on collections. Overall, the app is a bit more elevated than Pinterest, and it can also be used to shop for interesting products that match your style.
Indigo
Looking to get off X but don’t know which decentralized social network to choose — Mastodon or Bluesky? Indigo’s app solves that problem by offering a single app where you can participate in both networks at once. The app offers a unified timeline and a composer that lets you cross-post to both services at once, access to your custom feeds, and tons of personalization tools and configuration settings. The app has some polish, having been co-created by Ben McCarthy, who also developed the Obscura line of apps and others, alongside freelance iOS designer Aaron Vegh.
Indigo: iOS only
Corner
Corner says it best, calling its app “Google Maps but social,” which is an apt description. The company has a growing community of some 125,000+ users who curate their favorite places both locally and abroad into lists that they can “gatekeep” or make public for others to discover. With a definite Gen Z vibe, this isn’t just a place to find “good restaurants near me,” but to uncover unique lists, like those focused on where you can find the best dumplings, queer nightlife, live jazz spots, places to dance that aren’t clubs, indie bookshops, and anything else you want to categorize, organize, and recommend. The app also provides a personalized map where you can view your favorite places, those you want to try, other people’s suggestions, and more. It’s like Google Maps if someone from 2026 designed it.
Corner: iOS only
Divine
If you’re still missing Vine (thanks a lot, Twitter), you’ll want to download the reboot called Divine. Enterprising developer Evan Henshaw-Plath, an early Twitter employee, imported the Vine archive into his team’s new app, which aims to offer a home for short-form video creators. The app hosts roughly 500,000 videos from nearly 100,000 original Vine creators and allows users to make their own six-second videos once again. Several early Vine creators have returned to the app, as well, like Lele Pons, JimmyHere, MightyDuck, and Jack and Jack, among others. The project also has financial backing from Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey’s nonprofit, “and Other Stuff,” which aims to back open source social projects.
Mesh
While not exactly a social network in the sense that it’s a platform for connecting directly, Mesh is a helpful tool to throw into your lineup of networking apps. The app is something like an address book on steroids, as it lets you track what people in your network — personal, professional, and otherwise — have been up to, by tracking LinkedIn or X bio changes, posts, publications, and more. Plus, Mesh provides tools allowing you to reach out and reconnect on a cadence you configure, somewhat like a personal CRM. Acquired by WordPress.com owner Automattic in 2025 (when it was then known as Clay), Mesh plans to offer deeper integrations with Automattic’s universal messaging app, Beeper — which, by the way, you should download too.
Fable
Book club community app Fable recently got an upgrade that makes it worth another look, even if it’s not your main book tracker. The company is now offering a bundled service with digital reading subscription provider Everand (as they’re both owned by Scribd), which offers access to 1.5 million ebooks and audiobooks from the major publishers and more. Your ratings and reviews then sync over to Fable, where you can also see the recommendations from others and join virtual book clubs. Goodreads who?
To be fair, there are so many book trackers to choose from these days that it’s hard to narrow things down. I personally also enjoy Bookshelf, Reading Journey (which has a great widget), Margins, TBR, and PageBound, but there are even more! We truly have a wealth of choices in this space, so why not just download them all?
Locket
Locket is one of the pioneers of the idea to put your friends directly on your iPhone’s Home Screen. The social app offers a live widget that updates as your friends upload new photos or messages, which you can respond to through a lightweight chat option. You can also engage in weekly photo dumps, follow your favorite artists, and more.
Airbuds
Apple and Spotify never got social networks built around music right, but Airbuds seems to have done it. The app is a social network where you share what you’re streaming with your friends, then builds on top of that functionality to offer a range of other features. You can react to your friends’ music choices with emojis, stickers, or selfies, play clips of your friends’ recently streamed songs, message friends, configure your profile with favorite bands, or engage in music-related activities like music quizzes, getting your music style roasted, or finding out which friend has matching musical taste, to name a few.
The Mall
Newly launched app The Mall turns online shopping into a social experience. The app offers a universal feed for following updates and new releases from your favorite brands, largely fashion — though you can add others that have an online e-commerce storefront. Plus, you can visit friends’ profiles to see what sort of items are in their collections and “mall” and get inspiration and recommendations of other brands you might like, based on your tastes and style.
The Mall: iOS (waitlist)
Shelf
Shelf’s central idea is to offer you a way to organize your taste — meaning the music, movies, TV shows, books, and other things you’re into. By doing so, Shelf lets you learn more about yourself, get personalized recaps, dive into trend breakdowns, and more. But a social element comes into play here, too, because you can browse friends’ shelves as sources of discovery and inspiration. Plus, unlike much of traditional social media, Shelf is private by default because it’s not about gaining clout; it’s about keeping a history of your own digital life and interests, and that of your friends.
Shelf: iOS
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