Tag: Nigerian society

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WHEN THE FINE OUTLASTS THE SENTENCE: NIGERIA’S DIPLOMACY OF THE UNCOMPELLED By Lawson Akhigbe

Ambassador Yakubu Gambo did Nigeria the rare courtesy of telling the truth in public, which in the diplomatic trade counts as a small scandal in itself. Standing before Abike Dabiri-Erewa at NiDCOM’s Abuja headquarters, he confirmed what families of the detained have known for years without an official ever saying it plainly: Nigerians who have finished serving their Saudi jail terms remain locked up anyway, held hostage to fines they cannot pay and a government that has not worked out how to pay them either. He framed it as a welfare concern, a matter for coordination and consolidation of diaspora associations under one umbrella. It is, more accurately, a description of a state that has run out of leverage and is calling the shortfall a strategy.

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Rejoinder: BOOK REVIEW: Yakubu Gowon’s “My Life of Duty and Allegiance”, – Aburi Accord failed due to federal backtracking, not Ojukwu’s intransigence,’ says Onoh by Oluyemi Ogunseyin

Drawing from over a decade of deep, personal discussions with his late brother-in-law, Ojukwu, in his private residence and office, as well as his personal interactions with late Col. Achuzie and particularly his 1998–1999 conversations with late Maj. Gen. Philip Effiong, Onoh said his narrative is a firsthand account of the events.

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The Ghost Who Keeps Signing by Lawson Akhigbe

The Land Use Act of 1978 vested radical title to land in the state governor. Customary authorities were meant to operate within that framework, not around it. Yet when the formal system becomes a source of frustration rather than facilitation, human ingenuity finds other routes. Enter the late Oba. His name carries historical weight. The palace, however, maintains no functional modern archive capable of systematic verification. Oral history is the dominant method, and most of the original participants are no longer available for cross-examination. The result is a paper trail that is difficult to audit and easy to exploit.

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Edo State’s Land Reform Odyssey: From Land Grabbers to Digital Promises (and Back Again) by Lawson Akhigbe

In Edo State, land is never just dirt. It is history, inheritance, politics, and occasionally a full-contact sport. For years the system ran on a toxic mix of customary claims, Community Development Associations that behaved like private armies, multiple sales of the same plot, and a Certificate of Occupancy process so slow it could age a bottle of wine. Successive administrations have declared reform. The results have been a mixture of genuine progress, inherited messes, political score-settling, and the familiar Nigerian talent for turning every administrative problem into a morality play about fraud.

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Amupitan’s Yanga Wakes Trouble by Azu Ishiekwene

Six months after his appointment as the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Joash Amupitan appears determined to beat the record of Professor Maurice Iwu as the most mistrusted electoral administrator yet.

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