The Return of the Crown: Billionaires and the New Absolutism by Lawson Akhigbe

From time immemorial, societies have wrestled with power. Kings once ruled by divine right, their word indistinguishable from law. The only real constraint was conscience—if they possessed one. As even Donald Trump recently suggested in a moment of candour about executive power, a ruler’s restraint may lie chiefly in the mind of the ruler himself. …

Governance in the Dark: When Witches Run the Arms of Government by Lawson Akhigbe

As a journalist and researcher attempting to document the activities of the Nigerian government, I have come to a disturbing conclusion: we are not being governed by the Constitution, but by witchcraft. Not the theatrical kind. The administrative kind. The kind where rules exist—somewhere—but not where citizens can see them. If you have ever tried …

Oshiomhole: From radical to rascal by Adelakun Adunni Abimbola

What struck me about the recent viral video of Adams Oshiomhole caressing the feet of a young woman on a chartered jet is that this man still dons an outfit reminiscent of his radical socialist days. As a labour leader, he wore khaki as a sartorial expression of repudiating capitalist excess, a symbol of his …

Nigeria’s Constitutional Freedom of Movement… Except When You’re Stuck in an IDP Camp by Lawson Akhigbe

Nigeria is a country where the Constitution guarantees you the freedom to roam from Sokoto to Sagamu, from Bauchi to Benin, without police asking unnecessary questions—well, in theory. In practice, some Nigerians cannot travel from the front of their village to the back of it without risking an encounter with men who believe AK-47s are …

Trump, Epstein, and the Women By David Remnick

Photograph by Heather Diehl / GettySave this story The Epstein files are a vast trove of documents and will take time to absorb, but Trump made his attitude about women clear long ago. Just weeks before the 2016 Presidential election, the American public was provided with dispositive information on Donald Trump’s beliefs about women, sex, and …