Gloria Okon: When the Nigerian State Looked Away

Nigeria has many ghost stories. Not the Halloween kind with creaking doors and dramatic music, but the far more disturbing type—stories where real people simply disappear, and the state, having played a starring role in the opening act, suddenly develops amnesia. One of the most chilling of these is the case of Gloria Okon. In …

Land Use Act 1978, Governors and Revocations and Economic Growth in Nigeria by Lawson Akhigbe

Nigeria land The Land Use Act. My position remains beautifully uncomplicated. Once land has been lawfully allocated to a citizen, only a court should have the power to decide whether it can be revoked on the grounds of “overriding public interest.” Not a Governor. Not a Governor’s cousin. Not a Commissioner who attended a weekend …

The Coloniser Who Cried “Colonisation” Now With Billionaires by Lawson Akhigbe

Bumper sticker History, when irritated, develops a sharp tongue. A minority once sailed into other people’s lands, drew borders with imperial indifference, renamed mountains, and installed themselves as the managerial class of entire continents. The model was perfected by the British Empire—a project so vast it required both a navy and a filing system. The …

Ignorance is not a defence

Have you ever unintentionally broken the law? I would not commence my day confessing to Joe Public on what I may or not have not done with respect to the law. I have not intentionally and or not intentionally broken the law, I have taken legal advice on the matter. If you are aware that …

The Curious Case of Britain’s Fear of Being Ruled by Itself by Lawson Akhigbe

Newcastle sends a Member of Parliament to Westminster. Aberdeen sends a Member of Parliament to Westminster. So does Birmingham, Bristol, Bolton, and Basingstoke. In fact, all 650 constituencies of the United Kingdom do exactly the same thing. This is called representative democracy, a system so basic that even Westminster interns understand it before their first …