Category: News

In constitutional democracies, outcomes matter—but process matters more. The current agitation around birthright citizenship in the United States risks collapsing that distinction, inviting courts to adjudicate substance while sidestepping the procedure that gives constitutional meaning its legitimacy. At the centre of this debate sits the United States Constitution, specifically the Fourteenth Amendment to the United …

Continue reading "Birthright Citizenship: When Procedure Is the Constitution by Lawson Akhigbe"

History, we are told, is written by the victors. In Nigeria’s case, it appears to have been edited by the survivors. The standard classroom narrative is neat and comforting: there were two coups in 1966 — the January coup and the July counter-coup. Full stop. But that tidy formulation obscures a constitutional contortion that deserves …

Continue reading "The Three Coups of 1966: Nigeria’s Constitutional Sleight of Hand by Lawson Akhigbe"

Oba of Benin The Kingdom of Benin, also known as the Edo Kingdom, was one of the most influential and sophisticated pre-colonial states in West Africa. Flourishing from approximately the 11th century CE until its annexation by the British Empire in 1897, it was centered in what is now Edo State in southern Nigeria—not to …

Continue reading "Introduction to the Kingdom of Benin"