There is an old saying in Nigerian governance that has practically become an article of faith: "We don’t have a money problem; we have a spending problem."
The Great Nigerian Magic Trick: More Revenue, More Debt, Less Breath by Lawson Akhigbe
The Man Who Wanted Nothing By Lawson Akhigbe
One of the great mysteries of Nigerian politics is the remarkable journey politicians undertake between the words "I want nothing" and the phrase "I am honoured to accept."
Welcome to Nigeria: Where Premium Security is a Myth and Survival is a Sport by Lawson Akhigbe
Whether you are in your living room, a classroom, a place of worship, or just trying to navigate a highway without praying for divine intervention, lives are being lost to blood-thirsty bandits. Thomas Hobbes once described life in the state of nature as "short and brutish." If he were alive today, he’d probably look at Nigeria and say, "See? I told you so."
The Presidential Echo Chamber: From Buhari’s Attack Dogs to Tinubu’s Spin Doctors By Lawson Akhigbe
Daniel Bwala One of the easiest ways to understand a President is not to listen to his speeches. Listen to his spokesmen. A President’s spokesman is like a family portrait hanging in the living room. It may not be the President himself, but it tells you everything about the owner of the house. Spokesmen do …
Crocodile Tears and Caliphate Dreams: The Selective Christianity of Washington’s Nigeria Policy By Lawson Akhigbe
Let it be said plainly: Christians are dying in Nigeria's Middle Belt and northeast, in numbers that shame a government which has spent a quarter-century treating internal security as a procurement racket rather than a constitutional duty. That much is not in serious dispute, whatever Abuja's spokesmen protest on television. But sincerity and self-interest are not mutually exclusive states, and it takes a special sort of credulity to receive Donald Trump's sudden solicitude for Black Christians in the Sahel as anything other than what it plainly is a foreign policy improvised from a domestic culture war, deployed by an administration whose relationship with racial minorities at home has rarely troubled itself with tenderness. One does not have to admire
Centre for Nigeria Progress 