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The difference between the United Kingdom and Nigeria is not primarily in the letter of the law. It is in the general application and consistent enforcement of that law. This divergence reveals a deeper reality about how the Nigerian state relates to its citizens.
A rumour becomes a scandal. A disagreement becomes a conspiracy. An inconvenient question becomes evidence of a plot. An opponent is not merely wrong, but corrupt, compromised, bought, controlled or secretly working for somebody else.
In most functional societies, those quaint places where governments occasionally remember they exist to serve rather than to frustrate, when a citizen submits an application requiring official action, a few basic courtesies are observed. An acknowledgment. A request for missing documents if needed. Perhaps even a timeline, however optimistic. The machinery of state, however rusty, at least coughs to confirm it has received your papers.
History doesn't repeat, but it does enjoy a good remix. The Loony Left had its turn playing council-level foreign policy. Now the Loony Right is giving it a go with environmental policy. Same schoolyard energy, different decade, fresh set of headlines. One can only wonder what the right-wing papers will call them. The Sensible Pragmatists? Or will the satire wheel turn full circle?
We had transgender for everybody, men in women's sports, crime ravaging our cities, and the whole world was laughing at us as a nation. But not anymore. Two years ago, our country was dead. Now, we are the hottest country anywhere in the world.
Centre for Nigeria Progress 