When major corporate milestones unfold, they often bring complex legal questions in their wake. Recently, discussion has swirled around whether public-private partnerships involving state governments and philanthropic foundations to buy shares in the historic Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals Initial Public Offering (IPO) run afoul of corporate laws—specifically regarding a company financing its own shares.
Key Points Arising From The Oputa Panel
The Oputa Panel’s report remains one of Nigeria’s most thorough official indictments of its own recent past and one of its most thoroughly ignored. After receiving more than 10,000 petitions and hearing only about 150 of them in public, the commission delivered a seven-volume catalogue of institutional failure that still reads like a national audit of impunity.
All Quiet on the Western Front (Benin City Edition): The Great CCTV Ghost Town by Lawson Akhigbe
Remember six months ago when the Edo State government decided it was moonlight-and-magic time for law enforcement? With the flourish of a decree and a fanfare that probably woke up the entire length of Akpakpava Road, officials announced that every single business in Benin City must install closed-circuit television (CCTV).
A Bankrupt State, a Billionaire’s IPO and a Very Quiet Appropriation Bill by Lawson Akhigbe
Every so often a state government invents a policy so novel that the law has not yet had time to catch up with it. Zamfara has done this and, with admirable efficiency, skipped the part where anyone checks whether the law would permit it.
The Fire Brigade That Lit the Fire: Shettima and the Great Implosion That Never Was by Lawson Akhigbe
In 2015 the APC unseated the PDP and has governed Nigeria ever since. That is eleven years, which in political terms is not so much a tenure as a tenancy with squatter's rights. Mr Tinubu spent the first eight as the party's national leader, with Osinbajo, reportedly his nominee, installed as vice president. Since 2023 he has been president, with Kashim Shettima beside him. Whoever invented the phrase "continuity of government" clearly never imagined it applied this literally.

