Nigeria is to launch a major security operation after a wave of retaliatory violence between Christians and Muslims claimed as many as 169 lives in the centre of the country. A curfew was declared in Plateau State in an attempt to end one of the deadliest episodes of an increasingly bloody conflict between Muslim cattle …
Malaysia’s $6.5 Billion Scandal Almost Sank Its Democracy by Alex Helan
The cover-up of the 1MDB affair was taking the country toward autocracy — until the people won the day. Indonesian officials boarded the luxury yacht 'Equanimity', reportedly worth some $250 million and owned by Jho Low, a former unofficial adviser to the Malaysian fund 1MDB, at Benoa Bay in Bali on February 28, 2018. On …
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Failed state BY: Naazneen H. Barma
Failed state, a state that is unable to perform the two fundamental functions of the sovereign nation-state in the modern world system: it cannot project authority over its territory and peoples, and it cannot protect its national boundaries. The governing capacity of a failed state is attenuated such that it is unable to fulfill the …
Life-saving optimism: what the west can learn from Africa by Chigozie Obioma Chigozie Obioma
Nigeria, like most African nations, has been taught and dictated to since its independence, largely seen by the rest of the world as a receptacle for ideas rather than a generator of them. But is there something the world could learn from us? During the past few weeks in Nigeria, I’ve interviewed some 40 strangers …
Lords of the parks: Lavish lifestyle of Lagos ‘big boys’ transporters By Afeez Hanafi
Upon the entrance of the 15th passenger into his drab yellow commercial bus, he jumped onto the steering, beaming with vigour characteristic of a lad on a mission to complete a herculean task in a hurry. All is set for Dele, as he preferred to be identified, to embark on his first trip to Yaba, …

