The Anatomy of a Rigged Election: Rivers State, Electoral Legitimacy and the Dangerous Silence After the Ballot By Lawson Akhigbe

The BBC reviewed results from more than 6,000 polling stations in Rivers State. Its investigation found that the polling-unit figures it could obtain suggested that Obi had won the state by a substantial margin. The BBC also reported that Tinubu’s official declared total was more than 106,000 votes higher than its polling-station tally, while Obi’s official figure was more than 50,000 lower. 

Kemi Badenoch and the economy: a plan stuck in the Tory comfort zone by The Guardian Editorial

To outlast a prime minister always counts as some kind of achievement for an opposition leader, although Kemi Badenoch cannot claim credit for Sir Keir Starmer’s downfall. Sir Keir’s wounds were mostly self-inflicted. To the extent that opposition pressure was involved, it was electoral threats from Reform UK and the Green party that stoked Labour party frustration to a regicidal pitch. The Tory leader’s role was largely as a spectator.

When Power Becomes Permission: The Retreat of the Rule of Law in Nigeria by Lawson Akhigbe

A state begins to lose its authority when the law is formidable when dealing with the powerless but negotiable when dealing with the politically connected. Nigeria is increasingly flirting with precisely that danger.