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Passports are supposed to be the great equalizers of national identity. If two people carry the green-backed book stamped with the Nigerian coat of arms, the constitution insists they share the exact same claim to fundamental dignity and justice. But citizenship, like roaming data on a prepaid SIM, appears to depend entirely on which borders your passport happens to cross.
Behold the main character of British politics in 2026: a white, elderly gentleman, clearly leaning on a sturdy wooden cane for support, accredited badge swinging proudly from his neck at the Reform UK conference. Mouth open in mid-roar, eyes locked in righteous fury, he has somehow decided that the greatest threat to civilisation in that moment is a young woman holding a handbag. The crowd of fellow pensioners and patriots looks on with varying degrees of encouragement. Somewhere in the background, the usual sea of white hair and earnest lanyards nods along
There is an eternal, almost Newtonian law of modern politics: wherever a politician loudly proclaims they are "standing up for the forgotten working man," you will inevitably find a discreet corner table in a private Mayfair club where someone is eagerly trying to launder foreign money.
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.
Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State was re-elected for a second term in the 15 August governorship contest. It was an off-cycle election like no other before it, in the build-up, with its eerie elements of tension, violence and resultant deaths.
Centre for Nigeria Progress 