Reporting News and opinions
For decades, we were instructed to nod politely at global summits while elites proclaimed that the rule of law is universal. Except, like a discount gym membership, universality apparently comes with fine print, blackout dates, and VIP exemptions reserved exclusively for nations backed by Western firepower.
His administration, he argued, is practical rather than bureaucratic. It is interested in action, not process. The legacy programmes of his predecessor, Godwin Obaseki, have largely been dismantled. EdoBEST has gone. The Security Control Centre has gone. EdoGIS is going. Consultants have gone. Due process, one gathered, has become something to be viewed with suspicion rather than embraced as the machinery through which modern government functions.
This was enabled by authoritarian control: no independent legislature or judiciary, weak oversight, and a patronage network treating public coffers as extensions of personal or regime power. International complicity—lax due diligence by banks—facilitated laundering through U.S. institutions and bond deals.
The Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission, popularly known as the Oputa Panel, remains one of the most significant yet controversial attempts at transitional justice in Nigeria's history.
There are two kinds of students in life. The first studies history in order not to repeat the mistakes of the past. The second studies history carefully, identifies where the money was hidden, and repeats the exercise with greater efficiency.
Centre for Nigeria Progress 