The Ancient Art of Buying Silence: How Rulers Have Always Turned Critics into Courtiers by Lawson Akhigbe

Political co-optation is not a Nigerian invention. It is one of the oldest and most elegant tools in the authoritarian toolkit far more refined than the crude business of jailing poets or shooting journalists. Why break a man’s spirit when you can simply rent it? Offer him a title, a salary, a motorcade, and watch the moral thunder turn into polite applause. History is littered with the wreckage of principles that met a well-timed appointment.

Edo State Moribund Local Governments — The Glorified Cashier by Lawson Akhigbe

The narrative above is replicated across the 774 local governments in Nigeria. The Supreme Court judgment on Local Government financial autonomy remains iced over in practice. State governors continue to treat local councils as administrative subsidiaries rather than an autonomous arm of government.

The cost of getting a certified true copy of a document at the High Court

A Certified True Copy (CTC) is an officially certified duplicate of an original document kept in court records or government custody. In Nigeria, CTCs are commonly required for court appeals, land matters, visa applications, verification processes and legal transactions involving public documents.

State Police in Nigeria: Between Constitutional Necessity and Historical Fear by Lawson Akhigbe

Nigeria is once again standing at a constitutional crossroads. The growing insecurity across the federation, from banditry in the North-West, secessionist violence in the South-East, kidnapping in the South-South, farmer-herder clashes in the Middle Belt, and urban criminality in Lagos and Abuja, has pushed the debate over state police from intellectual seminars into the centre of national survival.

From Governor Akpabio to Senate President Akpabio via Ministry of Niger Delta: When the Niger Delta’s Biggest Enemy remain in Government by Lawson Akhigbe

Back in 2017, human rights lawyer Inibehe Effiong caused a stir when he accused former Akwa Ibom governor Godswill Akpabio of looting the state treasury on a scale that could fund neighbouring Ebonyi State for decades.