On an eco resort near Lagos, distilled palm sap outlawed by colonial authorities is making a comeback

Since the pandemic, Lola Pedro has been spending a lot of time at an eco-tourist hamlet in Badagry town, on the outskirts of Lagos, surrounded by coconut and African apple trees next to chalets with showers open to the sky.

The hamlet’s beach house serves as operations base and brainstorming centre for “Nigeria’s first premium spirit”, as the 42-year old researcher, who was raised in London, describes the brand she co-founded in 2018.

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© Photograph: Toketemu Ohwovoriole/The Observer

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© Photograph: Toketemu Ohwovoriole/The Observer

Gynecomastia – the benign growth of male breast tissue – is easily fixed but at a prohibitive cost for most Nigerians, leading many men to experience stigma and poor mental health

It was a few days before my 21st birthday in 2017 when my mother pointed out a small lump on my chest. I was weightlifting at the time and often walked around the house shirtless. Three weeks later, the lump had doubled in size. I went to a hospital, where a doctor diagnosed gynecomastia, a benign condition where an imbalance between the hormones testosterone and oestrogen causes an overdevelopment of breast tissues.

The irony was not lost on me: I was weightlifting because I aspired to the kind of masculinity typified by a chiseled chest and bulky muscles, but instead I had acquired a distinctly feminine trait.

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© Photograph: mihailomilovanovic/Getty Images

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© Photograph: mihailomilovanovic/Getty Images

A compliance officer for the cryptocurrency exchange told senior executives and Nigerian contacts that the company had been asked to pay $150 million in crypto.

© Abraham Achirga/Reuters