Ishola Oyenusi was one of Nigeria's most notorious criminals I heard about growing up; an effective cautionary tale: "Don't join bad gang, or you'll end up like Oyenusi."

Until last month, I'd never heard him speak for himself. Then I found a 1971 edition of DRUM magazine, featuring an interview conducted just hours before he faced a firing squad at 28. We shared it on Twitter.

In today's Nigeria, the social and economic pressures that once made figures like Oyenusi possible still shape the choices of many young people. The methods have shifted, but the logic is familiar: desperation fills the gap when credible opportunities are scarce.

My childhood lesson was incomplete because Oyenusi's life isn't just a warning about crime, but also neglect. Societies that punish outcomes without confronting the conditions that produce them don't leave the past behind.

What Happened In April 2025

Midway through the month, the Archivi.ng team gathered for a two-day dig-in to review our progress in the first quarter and refine the path toward this year's central goal: giving power to the power user. Our endgame is to make the platform supremely valuable to a broad and varied audience.

Here's everything else we did last month.

27,000 New Pages!

• Providing public access to archival materials is a key pillar of our work. We started in October 2023 with 50,000 pages from P.M. News. Progress was slow afterwards, with Nigeria Magazine added early this year. However, April proved to be a transformative month.
• We added over 27,000 more pages from 39 newspapers and magazines, all now available on the website. 
• Newly accessible titles include Newswatch, TELL, African Farmer, Katsina Newsweek, Africa Events, National Newsenquiry, Africa Today, Free Nation, Africa Week, Insider, African Business, Newbreed, Africa Now, Analysis, Sardauna, Newsweek, Abuja Newsweek, Nigerian Newsweek, AfricanAGE, Citizen, AfricAsia, The Analyst, Crystal, AfriScope, African Concord, Business, African Review, AFRICA, Africa International, Prime People, Quality, The African Guardian, The New Nation, The Source, The Sunday Magazine (TSM), TheNEWS, TheWeek, Today’s People, and West Africa.
• This marks meaningful progress in our commitment to making history accessible. I encourage you to explore the newly added publications on our website and share your thoughts.

The Digitisation Ministry Is Moving

• One of our key objectives this year is to digitise at least three major publications from each of Nigeria's six geopolitical zones. The regional breakdown of our current digitised titles stands as follows: South West (33), North Central (4), North East (4), North West (2), South South (2), and South East (1). 
• In addition, we've digitised seven African diaspora and non-Nigerian publications. While these aren't part of our regional coverage goal, they're just as essential to understanding Nigeria.
• Although we've made strong progress in some regions, others remain underrepresented. We're addressing this imbalance with greater intentionality than before. Much of what we've gathered so far has come through public goodwill, and we'll continue to rely on that as we refine our strategy for a truly balanced archive of Nigerian history.
• If you have leads on publications that can help close these gaps, or know how we might track them down, please don't be shy to reach out.

It's (Almost) A Wrap For The Archivist

• In the last dispatch, I mentioned that we carried over four stories for the third issue of The Archivist into the new quarter. We published three of those stories in April, exploring topics I found particularly compelling.
• In case you missed them, we ran a double feature interrogating the barriers Nigerian women face in politics, both in gaining office and navigating the persistent gendered disrespect that often follows.
• We also carried out an experiment that invited modern women to respond to the personal concerns that led Nigerian women in the 1970s to write to magazine agony aunts. The responses offered striking contrasts and surprising continuities. You should check it out.
• We'll soon conclude the edition with a final story spotlighting five women from different eras, each one a reminder that Nigerian women have never fit into a single box.
• In keeping with the issue's theme, we also partnered with gst to produce a story on how limited access to funding has historically affected women's participation in business. The story highlights how this long-standing barrier continues to shape outcomes today and why it demands focused attention.
• We're always open to collaborations that help to deepen public understanding of Nigeria's past through well-researched, accessible storytelling.

Hello, Goodbye

• Our April team dig-in was also an opportunity to say goodbye to Esther Eze, who led the operations team and is now moving on to other pursuits. She will be missed.
• We welcomed Ibilolia Daniel Akahome as our new operations lead to build on the foundation Esther leaves behind. She prefers to be called IB and spends her spare time digging through the internet for awkward videos, memes, and music.
• As a new addition to the Archiving Operations team, Kehinde Oni-Ajayi has already become instrumental to our renewed digitisation efforts. She has a talent for organising complex ideas and is quick to question dubious portrayals of history on screen.

What's Next: May 2025

April brought substantial progress towards our mission, and the priority now is to sustain that momentum. A key target going forward is to upload newly digitised materials weekly, with a focus on high-demand publications and recently acquired collections.

Issue 4

We've been hard at work on the fourth issue of The Archivist, but its launch has to wait until we wrap up the third. I'd love to share everything we have planned for the new edition, but I'll leave that to our soon-to-be-published editor's note, written by Temitayo Akinyemi. It offers a compelling glimpse into the stories we're pursuing and why they matter. Look out for it in the coming days.

One thing I'm particularly looking forward to in May is the upload of a magazine from our archive that happens to be a personal favourite. I'll explain why in the next dispatch.

See you on June 1.