Foreign
I’m scared of returning home – US-based bizwoman
President of the Bini Club of Houston, United States, Lydia Aguebor, speaks on her struggles in search for greener pastures, community leadership in Houston, and why she is scared of returning to Nigeria because of the way her mother died
How will you describe your stay in the US?
I’m a mother of three beautiful children in the US. I relocated to America in 2005. When I first settled here, it was quite challenging because I left my comfort zone to come to a land where I knew nobody. Settling here came with its challenges. I came here to start from scratch. It was a lot of battles. Basically, it was tough for me in terms of job search and career. I studied Law at the University of Benin. And being in the US requires you to have licences for the things you do.
What kind of challenges did you experience?
There were only menial jobs to do in the beginning. Even, there were jobs that I didn’t get because of overqualification. When I submitted copies of my resume to some places, they would tell me I was overqualified for the job. They called it a college degree here, and I was asked to lower my qualifications. I had to do it because I needed jobs to make money. After all, bills were mounting. I started working with a fast food outlet where chickens were sold. I did that for a year. Then I worked for the State of Texas for eight years. Then, I began working on my papers. I wasn’t really happy with what I was doing. Later, I decided to start my business.
You said you didn’t like some of the things you did at scratch. What were they?
When I worked as a cashier or more or less of an attendant at a fast-food outlet, I would pass the money to another person in the inner lobby who would bring the order for me to give to the customers. I also worked as a cashier at a place called Target like a grocery store. It could be likened to ShopRite in Nigeria.
Why did you leave Nigeria in 2005?
I never worked before leaving Nigeria. I was a full-time housewife. I started coming to the US in 2002 when I was a law student at the University of Benin. Anytime I came to the US, I just loved it and dreamed of settling there. So, I came here in search of greener pastures.
What kind of business did you venture into?
I started a legal business. It started in my living room. The company was about helping people file their travel and immigration documents. When my client base was increasing, I moved on to get a place. I still couldn’t afford an office for myself. I had to pair up with someone. I only just had a chair, desk, and printer in that office. I started my business in June 2014.
What factors contributed to your business growth in the US?
The whole factor was narrowed down to the clients in my community. I knew the people I wanted to render services to. I did the feasibility study to know the kind of people to attract to my business. I started giving out fliers. My clients were mostly Nigerians, Africans, and Hispanic communities like Mexicans. Basically, I targeted the immigrants. They were the markets I was looking at. These people needed the services I offered. Apart from that, I gave them good service. I had a passion for helping and serving people. This made my business grow because I began to get referrals. When immigrants came to the US looking for a way to stabilise themselves and get their papers, people referred them to me based on the good services I rendered to them or their relatives. If I wasn’t doing good jobs, I wouldn’t get those referrals. These helped my company.
How did you come about being a community leader?
I’m from Edo State. Therefore, I’m the President of the Bini Club of Houston. I was born and raised as a Bini in Benin City. When I relocated to the US in 2005, I first settled in Dallas for a year, before I moved to Houston. Then, in 2006, I wanted to associate with my people and tell them what I did for a living. That was when one of my aunties introduced me to the Bini Club of Houston. I registered as a member and in the following year, I became their secretary through election. I served as the secretary for eight years to different administrations. It was a two-year tenure, so I had four tenures. Two years ago, I became the vice president. When the president was leaving this year, I ran for the office. I emerged as the first female president of the Bini Club of Houston. This is just my 11th month as the president.
How long has the Bini Club of Houston been in existence?
It has been in existence for 35 years.
Nigerians in the diaspora say that it is not always greener on the other side. Do they say this to discourage those at home not to come and join you abroad?
That word is 100 per cent correct. America is not a bed of roses. I told you when I came here as a trained lawyer, I had to begin as a cashier. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t do that in Nigeria. But coming to the US to succeed requires a process. The mentality we get from our people is that they think when you get to America or other places, you will just start making money, but it isn’t like that. You have to start from scratch. Whoever you are, America will humble you. We’re not saying that word to scare people away from relocating. It is just the reality. The reason is that as a professional in Nigeria maybe a doctor, engineer, or lawyer, you need to get your certifications here. This requires a lot of processes with money. For some people, their immigration status prevents them from working as a professional, so we take all of these into consideration and say, ‘it is not always greener on the other side.’ We pay bills. The first thing is to regularise your papers and we have many ways of doing that. The lucky people were those who came in with a visa lottery and that has been blocked for Nigerians.
How do you cope with pressures from relatives who need financial assistance from home?
We’re Nigerians and have to cope. I have a lot of relatives because my father was a polygamist. I’m number 10 of 24 children from eight mothers. By God’s grace, I can say everyone is successful because the family is big. However, there are still relatives, friends or other people who will come for one help or the other. Notwithstanding, my principle is to teach people how to fish not give them fish when they seek help. I prefer to help people with lasting solutions, not giving stipends here and there. With that, I don’t put unnecessary burdens on myself. This is different from just occasional giving like the festive periods because we are used to it. It is who we are. I learned that things are expensive in Nigeria now so it’s my responsibility to also try and give people more than what I gave last year.
How do you feel when you hear about the economic hardship in Nigeria?
It’s not a pleasant feeling at all. I feel bad. I think of how people survive in Nigeria. Honestly, I don’t understand. I hear people can work for months in some organisations without being paid. How do they cope? You can’t do that in the US. There are bills to pay. I own my home here, but I pay my mortgage every month. If I’m working for someone and I don’t get paid, it means I’ll be evicted from my house, my electricity will be cut, I won’t have food and others. It is a month-to-month country. My heart bleeds for people back at home. I don’t understand why the government treats citizens like that. I hear about the disturbing unemployment rate. I don’t understand how those who have jobs even cope because I was told a bag of rice is around N120,000.
As an American citizen, what are your thoughts on the election that returned Donald Trump?
For me, it is what is good for America that I stand for. I am a businesswoman, so I stick with what is good for the US. Both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have their qualities but it’s for the American people to decide who they prefer. I voted as a US citizen but won’t tell you who I voted for. American politics is interesting. We don’t have a choice but to embrace Trump as our president. We’re optimistic that he will do better than the last time he was there. Just like when President Bola Tinubu came in as president of Nigeria, a lot of people didn’t want him but he’s there today. There’s nothing anybody could do about it but to respect the process.
Will you lend your voice to the japa syndrome for Nigerians to search for greener pastures around the world or sit at home to survive?
It would have been better for all of us to stay back and use our skills to build Nigeria, but successive governments have proved that they don’t want to support the people. The skills that we’re taking to diaspora are the skills we should have used for our country. For me, if anybody has the opportunity to better their lives somewhere else, it is a welcome development. And there are still people who don’t want to go anywhere but make Nigeria great; that’s also good. We just have to do what is best for our lives as Nigerians.
What project do you have for the people back at home?
I have an initiative called Lydia Aguebor Foundation. I attended Idia College for my secondary school. I finished in 1988. Our alumni is strong in Houston and we give back to our community. So, I started my foundation when I turned 50. I will be 53 next month. So, I used that foundation during my birthday to sponsor students who are brilliant but can’t afford their WAEC fees. I paid for their WAEC fees. I will do it again this year. I also give them money to buy their sandals and backpacks.
Do you plan to relocate to Nigeria in the future?
I can’t decide that yet. Nigeria is my country. I love Nigeria. I’m always happy when I come. That’s the only time I don’t have to work. I make sure I eat all the organic foods that I’ve missed in the US. Having said that, I don’t know if I’ll settle in Nigeria. Maybe I can come when everything gets better. Security and healthcare are a big deal for me. I don’t see that yet in Nigeria. My mother died in 2022 in Nigeria because they removed the oxygen she was using before they could transfer her from one hospital to another. This always gets me emotional when I remember. Imagine, my mother was on oxygen and a particular hospital said they could not take care of her again. So, they took away their oxygen. How did they want her to survive from one point to another? I usually think that the poor healthcare system in Nigeria killed my mother. All of this gets me scared of coming back to Nigeria. But, when the government makes the country better, I’ll come. If the economy is stabilised, all of us in the diaspora will come back home.
Source: PUNCH
A Nigerian-born Roman Catholic priest, Anthony Odiong, has been convicted by a jury in Texas, United States, for sexually assaulting women under his spiritual care, The Guardian reports.
Odiong, 57, was found guilty on one count of first-degree sexual assault and two counts of second-degree sexual assault after a trial in Waco, Texas.
The jury, made up of eight women and four men, delivered its verdict after about two hours of deliberation on Friday.
The court heard testimony from two women who said Odiong used his role as a priest to manipulate and pressure them into sexual relationships.
He was accused of exploiting his position as a Catholic priest to pursue sexual relationships with women he was providing spiritual direction.
Odiong, who pleaded not guilty, could face life imprisonment on the first-degree charge when sentencing begins on Monday.
Prosecutors said the offences involved two women who testified in court that the priest abused his clerical authority during periods of emotional vulnerability.
One of the women, identified in court documents as Mary Doe, told the jury that Odiong began a sexual relationship with her while providing spiritual counselling during a difficult divorce.
She also testified that her son once walked in on her and Odiong during intercourse at her home.
Another woman, Jane Doe, testified that he pressured her into sexual acts under the guise of spiritual guidance.
The case followed a 2024 report by The Guardian, which first documented allegations of sexual misconduct and coercion against the priest during his ministry in Texas and Louisiana.
Prosecutors said that report prompted one of the victims to come forward to police with further allegations.
Investigators later gathered additional evidence, including DNA linked to a child fathered by Odiong during his time in Louisiana.
Odiong, a naturalised US citizen, was ordained in Nigeria in 1993 and later served in Catholic parishes in Texas and Louisiana.
Authorities said he was suspended from the ministry in 2019 following earlier allegations of misconduct.
His lawyers argued during the trial that the relationships were consensual, but prosecutors maintained that he abused his position of authority as a clergy member.
A United States-based 23 year old tech-developer, Tony Kabilan Okeke, led a five-man team of Drexel University, Philadelphia, Penn., U.S. alumni and students to develop Xploit, an automated cybersecurity testing tool for AI agents, an ambitious concept that addresses a growing problem in AI landscape.
Beside Tony Okeke who is the Team Lead, other members of the team are Kamdi Okeke, Kiitan Fawole, Dalu Okonkwo and Michael Moemeke.
Speaking to our reporter on the development, Tony said, “As more businesses deploy AI agents that can take actions and use tools on behalf of customers, these systems become potential security risks. Unlike simple AI assistants, agents have access to tools and can perform real actions – meaning a security vulnerability isn’t just a PR problem, it could have serious real-world consequences.”
3rd from right, Team lead, Tony, Kamdi, Dalu, flanked by UEV partners
The team envisioned a tool that could automatically test an AI agent for vulnerabilities – essentially playing the role of a digital attacker to identify weaknesses before real threats could exploit them. This was the outcome of their brainstorming on November 21, 2025, when Tony led the group to build and pitch Xploit in the “Start-Up In a Weekend” Hackathon hosted on November 21 – 23, 2025 in Philadelphia, by The Foundry & Velric, a Philadelphia-based founder-first community that act as a startup ecosystem catalyst.
Tony designed the system’s architecture and created the initial prototype of the user interface (UI). The UI concept was crucial: it needed to visually show how their automated attacker was thinking, strategizing, and attempting different approaches in real-time, all displayed through interactive graph showing the attack process as it unfolded.
Responsibilities were strategically divided amongst the team. Some members created sample AI agents to serve as “victims” for testing. Tony developed the core attacking system. One person refined the user interface, and others handled the technical infrastructure connecting all the pieces together.
The attacking system itself works like a strategic game player. It would first choose an attack strategy, then create a detailed plan, execute that plan step-by-step by sending messages to the target AI agent, and analyze the responses to determine whether to continue or try a different approach. Throughout this process, the web interface displayed everything happening in real-time, allowing users to watch the automated tester work.
The team then integrated everything — making the attacker communicate with the victim AI agent systems, ensuring the automated testing loop ran smoothly, and polishing the final product. They recorded their demo video and submitted their project before the 9 am deadline on November 23, 2025.
During the afternoon judging session, the team delivered their pitch, framing their project around a massive, unaddressed market shift, highlighting a critical market gap: while the explosion of AI agents in 2025 has seen enterprises deploy them to manage everything from infrastructure to sensitive tasks like financial analysis and customer support, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are left vulnerable because they cannot afford to test them for security flaws. Unlike tech giants, SMBs lack the resources for dedicated AI security teams. Xploit, automated cybersecurity tool, directly addresses this need, positioning itself within a booming continuous automated red-teaming market projected to skyrocket from $495 million in 2024 to $4.9 billion by 2032. Xploit democratizes AI safety, levels the playing field, allowing any business to automatically test and secure their AI agents before deployment.
The judges were impressed enough that they took an unusual step — they asked to see the team’s code and development history to verify the project had actually been built during the hackathon weekend. This verification was necessary because the judges found it hard to believe such a polished product could be created in just one weekend.
The team won the “new project track” award and $1,500 in prize money.
“What made the achievement particularly remarkable” according to Kamdi Okeke, “wasn’t just that we built it over a weekend — it was that, competing amongst a diverse group of 100+ of Philadelphia’s most driven creators, we built Xploit in less than a day of actual development time, transforming an abstract idea into a working, polished prototype through focused collaboration and strategic planning.”
Speaking further, Tony said, “The experience at yet another hackathon, UEV’s Venture Building Weekend hosted in Philadelphia, March 12 – 14, 2026, was a turning point for us. The mentorship and feedback we received from industry operators helped sharpen how we think about the problem and where our approach fits in the market.”
United Effects Ventures (UEV) is a Philadelphia-based pre-seed venture studio. Through its Venture Building Weekend, a competitive hackathon, focused on problem validation and go-to-market strategy, teams refined their ideas with guidance from experienced operators and investors. After a grueling 48-hour sprint, Xploit came tops, outperformed 15 other competing teams, earning a cash award and two advisory sessions with partners at UEV; and most importantly, industry experts validated Xploit’s focus on continuous red-teaming as a strong approach to discovering vulnerabilities in AI-powered products.
Mentors at the hackathon validated both the team’s identification of the problem – the growing security risks posed by AI agents operating autonomously in enterprise environment – and their approach of framing the product as continuous red-teaming platform, which could support an ongoing service model.
The accusation comes after US Central Command said its forces had on Monday attacked missile sites and boats in southern Iran that were trying to lay mines in the Gulf, while Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said it fired at US aircraft trying to enter its airspace.
“The US terrorist army, continuing its illegal and unjustified actions since the ceasefire… has, in the past 48 hours, committed a gross violation of the ceasefire in the Hormozgan region,” the Iranian foreign ministry said in a statement.
It added that Tehran “will not leave any evil unanswered and will not hesitate to defend the Iranian nation,” without elaborating.
Tuesday’s statement came as a top Iranian delegation was in Qatar for talks as part of a “diplomatic process” aimed at ending the war with the United States, which broke out on February 28.
AFP
Iranian authorities held mass public weddings in Tehran for couples who signed up to a state-sponsored scheme declaring their readiness to sacrifice their lives in the war against the US and Israel.
The ceremonies conducted late on Monday involved hundreds of couples in several major squares in the capital, including more than 100 in the vast Imam Hossein square in central Tehran, according to reports in Iranian media.
They were broadcast on state TV in a bid to boost wartime morale, with US President Donald Trump repeatedly threatening new military action against Iran amid a shaky ceasefire which halted the fighting that began on February 28.
Those involved had signed up, according to Iranian media, for the so-called “self-sacrifice” scheme (janfada in Persian) where people pledged to put their lives on the line in the war by, for example, forming human chains outside power stations.
Iranian authorities say millions of people, including top figures such as the speaker of parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and President Masoud Pezeshkian, have put their names forward.
Couples arrived at the Imam Hossein square in military jeeps with mounted machine guns and were married on a stage in a ceremony presided over by a cleric, AFP images showed.
The stage was festooned with balloons and with a giant image of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has yet to appear in public since being elevated to the position after the killing of his father and predecessor, Ali Khamenei, on the first day of the war.
“Certainly, the country is at war, but young people also have the right to marry,” one young woman in a white Islamic bridal dress, who was not named, said beside her groom in footage published by the Mehr news agency.
A man in a dark suit, beside his bride-to-be, said they were happy the occasion marked the anniversary of the marriage of the Prophet Ali, revered by Shia Muslims, to Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet Mohammed.
“We received their blessings. Furthermore, we came to offer our best wishes to the people in the streets,” he said.
Mehr said 110 couples had taken part in the Imam Hossein Square ceremony alone. The AFP images showed crowds of well-wishers clasping roses and watching on.
Since the start of the war, Iranian authorities have held, on a near-daily basis, major pro-government gatherings in a bid to highlight popular mobilisation amid the conflict.
AFP
The Nigerian community in the United States has been thrown into mourning following the sudden death of Eric Ezeokoli, a student of California State University, Long Beach.
Ezeokoli, who was born on October 6, 1960, reportedly died on Friday, April 11, 2026, at Saint Mary’s Hospital after a brief illness.
Until his death, he was studying Engineering at the university, also known as Long Beach State University. Sources disclosed that he had previously lived in San Jose before relocating to the Los Angeles area.
Tragically, at the time of his passing, Ezeokoli was said to be homeless and living in his car, with no fixed address.
The deceased was originally from Anambra State, although details about his exact hometown remain unclear. There are indications he may have hailed from Aguata, but this has not been officially confirmed.
Efforts are currently underway to locate his family members and relatives in Nigeria. Members of the Nigerian community and concerned individuals are appealing to anyone with useful information about Ezeokoli’s background or family to come forward.
A contact person, Paul Kizito Eze, has been designated to receive information that could help trace the deceased’s relatives.
The appeal has also been extended to people from Anambra State, particularly those familiar with communities in Aguata, to assist in identifying and notifying the family.
The situation has sparked renewed concern over the welfare of some Nigerians living abroad, especially those facing hardship and isolation.
Anyone with relevant information is urged to reach out urgently to assist in reconnecting the late Ezeokoli with his family for proper burial arrangements.
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