Why Nigeria Is the Greatest Country in the Africa by Lawson Akhigbe

(Now Featuring the Judiciary, EFCC, and Frequent-Flyer Miles)

Nigeria is the greatest country in the world, particularly for those who understand the system. For everyone else, resilience will be provided at no extra cost.

Take the judiciary, for instance — the last hope of the common man and the first refuge of the well-connected. Justice in Nigeria is not blind; it simply knows who to recognise. Cases last longer than some marriages. Injunctions are granted at midnight, on weekends, sometimes in total darkness — which is appropriate, given the power supply.

A matter can be “urgent” for ten years. Files go missing. Judges go on vacation. Litigants age gracefully. By the time judgment arrives, the subject matter has died, relocated, or joined a political party.

Then there is the EFCC, Nigeria’s most televised institution. Its core competence is press conferences. Arrests are dramatic, photographs are taken, and suspects are paraded like trophies. Convictions, however, are shy creatures — rarely seen in the wild.

Investigations move quickly until they meet a powerful name, at which point due process suddenly becomes sacred. Files are “under review”. Evidence becomes “technical”. Cases collapse mysteriously after elections, defections, or strategic apologies.

Anti-corruption in Nigeria is not about stopping corruption; it is about managing it. It is less a war and more a licensing regime.

And then we arrive at medical care, the clearest confession of state failure. Nigeria has teaching hospitals in name and foreign hospitals in budget. Politicians who assure us our hospitals are world-class somehow develop sudden faith in British, German, or Indian doctors the moment they sneeze.

They fly abroad for check-ups, return to commission dialysis machines they will never use, and cut ribbons at hospitals they wouldn’t dare enter awake.

The citizen, meanwhile, is advised to be patient. Or spiritual. Or both.

This is the Nigerian paradox: institutions exist, but only as theatre. Laws are written, but selectively applied. Systems function perfectly — just not for the public.

Nigeria is not short of laws, judges, or agencies.
It is short of sincerity.

A country cannot be great when justice is negotiable, corruption is curated, and leadership requires a visa for basic healthcare.

Until then, Nigeria will remain the greatest country in the world —
for those who can afford to escape it when it matters.