The performance requires a villain. Africa has been performing that role for free, and at some cost to itself for considerably longer than it should have.
If You Don’t Want Us, You Cannot Have Our Gold by Lawson Akhigbe
When Tactical Brilliance Meets Strategic Confusion: Washington’s Iran Problem by Lawson Akhigbe
But wars are not graded like Olympic gymnastics. There are no medals for technical execution if the end result leaves your opponent intact, emboldened, or—worse—adapted.
The Nigerian Police Force: A Colonial Machine That Never Changed by Lawson Akhigbe
To understand the modern Nigerian Police Force, one must first understand its origins. The uncomfortable truth is that the institution was never created to protect ordinary Nigerians. It was established to protect the interests of those who ruled Nigeria, first the British colonial administration and later the Nigerian political elite that inherited the colonial state.
BEAN TO BRAND, TARIFF TO TRAP by Lawson Akhigbe
Next in Abuja, four governments will do something that sounds, on paper, like a belated act of economic self-respect. Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire and Cameroon between them the source of roughly two-thirds of the cocoa that becomes the world's chocolate will sign the Abuja Declaration and stand up a Cocoa Value Addition Alliance, a coordinated attempt to stop shipping out raw beans and start capturing some of the value that currently accrues, almost entirely, to everyone else. Nigeria will additionally sign its own Cocoa Value Addition Accord, a domestic compact roping in governors, farmer groups, financiers and researchers into the project of turning bean into brand rather than bean into someone else's bar.
Tinubu, the Sahel and Nigeria’s Most Dangerous Foreign Policy Failure
There was a time when Nigeria did not wait for foreign capitals to define West African security. From the anti-apartheid struggle in Southern Africa to military interventions in Liberia and Sierra Leone, Nigeria projected power, influence and diplomatic leadership. Whether one agreed with its methods or not, nobody doubted who was leading.
Centre for Nigeria Progress 