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It has no postcode. It does not appear on Google Maps. There are no street signs pointing towards it. Yet, whenever one of its inhabitants is caught saying something outrageous or doing something politically or legally questionable, suddenly we are told that the offending words or conduct belonged there.
This is not merely a personality clash. It is a blot on the democratic experiment. It reveals how thin the democratic impulse runs in the organs of government and the people who staff them. Effectively, the FCT is under non-democratic governance inside a country that still insists on calling itself a democracy. The Minister acts. The Senator is sidelined. The President remains serenely above the fray. The National Assembly discovers urgent business elsewhere. The circle is complete.
Speaker Edo State House of Assembly Blessing Sheriff Agbebaku How Governors Became Kings and Assemblies Became Yes-people. Ah, the “rubber stamp” that delightful term in Nigeria’s democratic theatre, where lawmaking meets the executive like a eager intern stamping “APPROVED” on every memo. Far from a harmless office gag, it’s a glowing indictment of institutional surrender. …
Continue reading "The Persistent Comedy of “Rubber Stamp” Legislatures in Nigeria by Lawson Akhigbe"
There is an eternal, almost Newtonian law of modern politics: wherever a politician loudly proclaims they are "standing up for the forgotten working man," you will inevitably find a discreet corner table in a private Mayfair club where someone is eagerly trying to launder foreign money.
There was something important about Andy Burnham's intervention at Prime Minister's Questions. Not simply because of what he said, but because of what it appeared to recognise: Britain has not merely been badly governed. Britain has been travelling in the wrong ideological direction for decades.
Centre for Nigeria Progress 