With Vice-Presidential placeholders likely to be substituted and rumours about “third-force” party alliances, a lot can happen between now and February, but as of June 9, there are officially 17 presidential candidates presenting themselves for Nigeria’s 2023 Elections. The governing APC party will be led by its long-time patron Bola Ahmed Tinubu, while the PDP ticket went to former Vice President Abubakar Atiku. Peter Obi, formerly of PDP, defected during the primaries and is gaining popularity under the Labour Party banner. 

The 2022 Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting was held in Rwanda in June, the first since the COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting saw a quasi-apology from Prince Charles over Britain’s role in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and a heated election for the body’s next Secretary General. It was also held against the backdrop of a controversial agreement between the UK and Rwanda that would see the latter permanently host unwanted UK migrants, and global conversations around the relevance of both the Commonwealth and the monarchy. 

• Check out @africannovelbot on Twitter, an automated account that tweets passages from African authors new and old. https://mobile.twitter.com/africannovelbot 
• Cameroonian-American novelist Patrice Nganang’s new novel, A Trail of Crab Tracks, is the latest in a trilogy exploring Cameroon’s national history. The novel covers the period from independence to the 2017 civil war. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/02/books/cameroon-nganang.html 
• The UK’s new visa for immigrants from elite educational institutions draws criticism around its assumptions. The list of eligible schools features no African universities. https://theconversation.com/uk-work-visa-for-elite-graduates-is-exclusive-and-based-on-flawed-assumptions-184953 
• Greek-Nigerian basketball star Giannis Antetokounmpo’s story is told in a new documentary on Disney+. https://www.okayafrica.com/disney-antetokounmpo-rise-nigeria/