When Broke States Buy Dangote Shares and Build Empty Airports: Nigeria’s Fiscal Carnival Continues

And it appears the less financially viable these states are, the less practical their ideas become. Two of them, Zamfara and Gombe, have now proposed (and in Gombe’s case, actually begun) buying Dangote IPO shares for their poor people without any serious legal or financial framework. One is sprinkling roughly 20 shares each on 36,176 …

When Political Godfathers Confess: Oshiomhole, Wike and the Price Edo State Pays for Personal Vendettas By Lawson Akhigbe

There are moments in politics when a confession is more revealing than an investigation. A politician, carried away by the confidence that comes with power, may disclose what an entire opposition party has spent years trying to establish. In Nigeria, where political memory is often shorter than a campaign promise, such admissions deserve to be preserved for posterity.

The Failure of Governance and the Assault of Politics: How Edo Was Left in the Dark By Lawson Akhigbe

There is a peculiar affliction in Nigerian politics: some politicians cannot distinguish between winning an election and acquiring ownership of the state. To them, victory at the polls is not a temporary mandate to govern the people. It is a licence to command institutions, domesticate independent organisations and demand political obedience from everyone within reach of government.