Tag: Nigeria

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The Art of the Bureaucratic Shrug: Why Nigerian Public Officials Never Bring a Pen to an Interview by Lawson Akhigbe

he backdrop of the interview was heavy: a massive Senate investigation into the "Safe Schools Initiative," a program conceptualized to protect students after the harrowing 2014 Chibok girls tragedy. We are talking about tracking billions of naira and over $30 million in donor funding. It’s the kind of high-stakes scrutiny that should make any public servant sweat through their starch-pressed Agbada.

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The Speaker as a Herald: How Edo’s Power of the Purse Got Turned Upside Down by Lawson Akhigbe

On the surface, it sounds like great news for infrastructure. But listen closely to the phrasing: "The Governor has told me that he’s going to construct so many roads… The Governor has even approved the construction… Another road that the Governor has said he will also do…"

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We went to Northwest Nigeria. We interviewed a Gang of Bandits. We left with more questions than answers by Eromo Egbejule

In the southern forests, priests and priestesses of the goddesses in the rivers that run through them, are known to demand bottles of Fanta to open consultations or before any water infrastructure project commences. In the northern forests, gangs of bandits - usually ethnic Fulani - who use them as operational bases, crave bottles of Fanta as well.

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The Economy of Fear: How Kidnapping Became a Business Model in Nigeria by Lawson Akhigbe

The uncomfortable reality is that kidnapping in Nigeria increasingly resembles a functioning market. In this market, fear is the currency, human beings are the commodities, and safety has become a product available only to those who can afford to buy it.

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