One of the great mysteries of Nigerian politics is the remarkable journey politicians undertake between the words "I want nothing" and the phrase "I am honoured to accept."
The Man Who Wanted Nothing By Lawson Akhigbe
THE SUSPENSION HABIT: WHEN A GOVERNOR FORGETS WHAT A COMMISSIONER IS By Lawson Akhigbe
Suspension is a civil service instrument. It exists to protect an officer's rights while an allegation is tested, precisely because civil servants have due process protections built around tenure and pension. Commissioners have no such tenure to protect, because they were never promised any. Subjecting them to the ritual of suspension does not protect them it borrows the aesthetics of bureaucratic discipline and drapes them over an office that was never meant to carry that indignity.
Welcome to Nigeria: Where Premium Security is a Myth and Survival is a Sport by Lawson Akhigbe
Whether you are in your living room, a classroom, a place of worship, or just trying to navigate a highway without praying for divine intervention, lives are being lost to blood-thirsty bandits. Thomas Hobbes once described life in the state of nature as "short and brutish." If he were alive today, he’d probably look at Nigeria and say, "See? I told you so."
The Presidential Echo Chamber: From Buhari’s Attack Dogs to Tinubu’s Spin Doctors By Lawson Akhigbe
Daniel Bwala One of the easiest ways to understand a President is not to listen to his speeches. Listen to his spokesmen. A President’s spokesman is like a family portrait hanging in the living room. It may not be the President himself, but it tells you everything about the owner of the house. Spokesmen do …
The Art of the Political Seance: How to Deconstruct a Presidential Address by Lawson Akhigbe
When Donald Trump took to the podium on July 16, 2026, he wasn’t just delivering a speech he was conducting a political seance, summoning ghosts of conspiracies past and layering them over a very meticulously curated reality.
Centre for Nigeria Progress 