The Reform Party vs. The March of Time (and Melanin) By Lawson Akhigbe

There’s a peculiar kind of nostalgia brewing in certain Reform Party corners — a longing for the “good old days.” You know, when television looked like a snowstorm of beige, when sports were “proper,” and when diversity meant two kinds of pudding. Unfortunately for them, the 1950s called — and it’s not taking returns. It …

The Forged Nation: How Document Falsification Became Nigeria’s Silent Epidemic by Lawson Akhigbe

In Nigeria, a shadow industry thrives in plain sight. It operates from the dimly lit corners of cybercafés, the bustling stalls of roadside vendors, and the sleek interfaces of social media platforms. Its currency is not naira or dollar, but legitimacy itself. This is the epidemic of document falsification—a pervasive and alarming symptom of the …

Germany has agreed to return Nigeria’s looted treasure. Will other countries follow? By Danielle Paquette

Visitors sit before the Benin plaques exhibit at the British Museum in London. (David Cliff/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images) The bronze plaques from his birthplace looked strange at the British Museum.Enotie Ogbebor, a visiting artist, knew they were cultural treasures. West African sculptors had crafted them over six centuries to tell the history of Benin, a kingdom …

The Press Went Up the Hill… and Rolled Back Down by Lawson Akhigbe

The press has been climbing Mt. Trump for so long that you’d think CNN would at least apply for a mountaineering licence. Every few months, they scale a new peak with the same breathless excitement: “This is it! The big expose! The moment democracy finally unclogs its arteries!” And every time, Trump—like a political cockroach …

Legislative Abdication: When Our Lawmakers Forsake the Constitution for the Echoes of the Barracks by Lawson Akhigbe

The Nigerian constitution, for all its perceived flaws, embodies a profound spirit: that of a federating pact, intended to decentralise power and anchor the political process in the will of the people, from the ground up. This foundational principle is most evident in the meticulous processes it outlines for the most significant acts of political …