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Professor Pat Utomi once said President Buhari could make all his political appointments from one village as long as those he brings in can get the job done. “Let’s get serious. Let’s get to move this country forward and away from all this small, petty issues. To me, it is not an important issue and …
Continue reading "Federal Character: From One Village To One Faith by Lawson Akhigbe"
What’s the weirdest movie you’ve ever watched? I watched from behind the curtains and I didn’t get it. Catchy title but I failed to get the movie and I still have not watched it again.
From the 1950s to the 1970s, it was not at all uncommon for West African children and babies to be fostered via newspapers and childcare journals. The above advert was placed by a Nigerian mother looking for someone to care for her three-month-old.
There is a comfortable explanation for why Nigerian officials behave as though accountability is an imported eccentricity, like fondue or the metric system. The explanation runs roughly like this: Nigerians have an authoritarian political culture, inherited from precolonial kingship and reinforced by military rule, and this culture manufactures leaders who cannot be shamed because shame requires a moral vocabulary the culture never built.
In the grand theatre of Nigerian federalism, few performances are more impressive than watching a state government loudly applaud a Supreme Court judgment while simultaneously rewriting the script so the money still ends up in the same old pockets. Anambra’s Local Government Administration Law of 2024 is that performance, complete with standing ovation from the Governor’s Lodge and polite confusion from anyone who actually read the judgment.
