Beyond the “Government of the Bush”: Inside Nigeria’s Escalating Kidnapping Crisis by Lawson Akhigbe

From a single brazen phone call to a national emergency: In 2021, kidnapper Sani Jalingo's boastful call to a Hausa radio station, where he declared himself part of the "government of the forest," was a chilling preview. Today, that localized threat has exploded into one of Nigeria's most severe security crises, with recent months witnessing …

Oversight Without Looking: Nigeria’s Legislative Blindfold Championship by Lawson Akhigbe

Nyesom Wike The Nigerian Senate is, on paper, the oversight body for the Federal Capital Territory. In reality, it is more like a concerned neighbour who hears loud noises next door, peeps through the curtains once, shrugs, and goes back to watching Netflix. The minister of the FCT, Mr Nyesom Wike, has therefore been left …

Trump’s Media Lawsuits: How American Outlets Fold While the BBC Stands Firm by Lawson Akhigbe

In recent months, former President Donald Trump has secured multi-million dollar settlements from major U.S. media companies like ABC and CBS in defamation lawsuits widely viewed by legal experts as weak and unlikely to succeed in court. This strategy reveals a pattern of using litigation not to win in court, but to force financially vulnerable …

Summary of Nnamdi Kanu’s European Parliament Speech 2019

When Nnamdi Kanu arrived at the European Parliament in 2019, he essentially delivered a TED Talk titled: “Nigeria: How Not to Run a Country.” If the EU expected diplomatic niceties, Kanu came with PowerPoint slides of wahala. 1. Nigeria Is in Crisis — Shocking, Right? Kanu began by informing Europeans of something Nigerians already know …

Trump v BBC: How to Lose $5 Billion in America Without Even Turning on Fox News by Lawson Akhigbe

Donald J. Trump has filed a 33-page, $5-billion lawsuit against the British Broadcasting Corporation. Thirty-three pages. Five billion dollars. Against the BBC. If litigation were performance art, this would already be hanging in the Tate Modern with a trigger warning. The complaint alleges that the BBC, in a moment of editorial wickedness reminiscent of colonialism …