The Five Fingers of a Leprosy Hand: From Abacha’s Ambition to Tinubu’s Politics of Political Capture By Lawson Akhigbe

Nigeria has seen this political movie before. The costumes have changed, the actors have acquired new titles, and the language of justification has become more sophisticated. But beneath the democratic vocabulary lies a familiar ambition: the concentration of political power in the hands of one man, the weakening of opposition, and the conversion of a multiparty democracy into a political arrangement in which everybody is expected to agree with the president.

Nigeria’s Foreign Aid Regulation Bill 2026: Transparency Push or Threat to Civic Space? By Lawson Akhigbe

Senator Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo Nigeria’s Senate is advancing a far-reaching piece of legislation that could reshape how foreign grants, donations and technical assistance are handled in the country. Senate Bill 1034, formally titled the Foreign Aid (Regulation, Coordination, Transparency and Disclosure) Bill, 2026, has already cleared second reading and is now before committees for further …

Senate Bill SB.1034 (full title: A Bill for an Act to Provide for the Regulation, Coordination, Transparency and Disclosure of Foreign Aid, Grants and Donations in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2026)

The above bill is sponsored by Senator Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo (Gombe North), passed second reading in the Senate on 22 July 2026 and was referred to relevant committees (including National Planning and Economic Development, Finance, and Foreign Affairs) for further consideration and public hearings. It seeks to create a centralised legal framework for all foreign …

A Bankrupt State, a Billionaire’s IPO and a Very Quiet Appropriation Bill by Lawson Akhigbe

Every so often a state government invents a policy so novel that the law has not yet had time to catch up with it. Zamfara has done this and, with admirable efficiency, skipped the part where anyone checks whether the law would permit it.