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Why the Apostles of Awo Went to Dodan Barracks: A Case Study in Mistaking a Trojan Horse for a Taxi

Every faith has its parable of the believer who walks into the wrong building. For Awoism, a doctrine built on discipline, planning and a near-liturgical suspicion of the Nigerian military, the parable arrived in November 1993. General Sani Abacha forced Ernest Shonekan to resign on 17 November 1993 and took over as head of state, and within days the high priests of the progressive tradition were queuing for ministerial briefs.

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When the Father Becomes the Son: Tinubu’s Osun and the Ghost of Obasanjo by Lawson Akhigbe

The Wound That Made Him Every origin story needs a villain, and for a long stretch of Bola Tinubu's political life, that villain wore Olusegun Obasanjo's face. In 2004, Governor Tinubu carved 37 Local Council Development Areas out of Lagos's constitutionally recognised 20, arguing that a city of that density could not be governed from …

Continue reading "When the Father Becomes the Son: Tinubu’s Osun and the Ghost of Obasanjo by Lawson Akhigbe"

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The 34 Fee Tollbooth: Who Really Owns Nigeria’s Maritime Gates? By Lawson Akhigbe

Screenshot If you recently bought a phone charger, a box of paracetamol, or a loaf of bread, congratulations! You just paid six people whose names appear nowhere on your receipt. In Nigeria, nearly everything you eat, wear, or swallow arrives by sea. Over 70% of the nation's pharmaceuticals and almost all its daily essentials pass …

Continue reading "The 34 Fee Tollbooth: Who Really Owns Nigeria’s Maritime Gates? By Lawson Akhigbe"

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The Fire Brigade That Lit the Fire: Shettima and the Great Implosion That Never Was by Lawson Akhigbe

In 2015 the APC unseated the PDP and has governed Nigeria ever since. That is eleven years, which in political terms is not so much a tenure as a tenancy with squatter's rights. Mr Tinubu spent the first eight as the party's national leader, with Osinbajo, reportedly his nominee, installed as vice president. Since 2023 he has been president, with Kashim Shettima beside him. Whoever invented the phrase "continuity of government" clearly never imagined it applied this literally.

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