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Since well before Nigeria’s return to elective governance in 1999, the country has been overtaken by a progressive escalation of what Hannah Arendt in her classic On Violence called “a massive intrusion of criminal violence into politics.” In contemporary Nigerianism, the word for this is “banditry”. “Bandits” is a conveniently capacious bogeyman for insecurity in Nigeria that precludes […]
Continue ReadingOn 31 December 1983, Sani Abacha, then an unknown Brigadier in the Nigerian Army, went on radio to announce the overthrow of the elected civilian administration of President Shehu Shagari, claiming that the military had done so “in the discharge of our national role as promoters and protectors of our national interest” because of “the great economic […]
Continue ReadingHaving gone to London to watch the crowning of England’s King Charles III earlier this month, a friend joked last week, President Muhammadu Buhari extended his stay so his dentist could crown his teeth. That was how he read the line from the presidency that the General Buhari had stayed back in London for a dental […]
Continue ReadingOn 17 August, 1980, the 6th Commonwealth Law Conference convened in Lagos, then capital of Nigeria. After the arrival courtesies were dispensed with, it fell upon Shehu Shagari, civilian president of Nigeria, then in office for ten-and-a-half months, to declare the conference open. The keynote speaker was Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and leader of the […]
Continue ReadingEvidence of the scope of the mess created by Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) under the crooked leadership of Mahmood Yakubu began to emerge this past week. It all suggests network egregiousness on a monumental scale that easily rivals the elections of 2007, until now seen as the nadir in Nigeria’s journey of elective […]
Continue ReadingThis week, the opening salvo will be fired to signal the onset of the final round of voting in Nigeria’s electoral marathon. This is not a reference to the state-level ballots that occurred around the country on Saturday, 18 March. I refer instead to something far more consequential. Democracy may be about choices and decisions […]
Continue ReadingDespite recent advances in Malawi and Zambia, elective government stutters and sputters to the uncertain rhythms of pathogens and politicians across Africa. The onset of 2022 served notice that #NigeriaDecides2023 is likely to be the most complex and most watched in a brutal biennium for elective governance in the continent. In Mali and Guinea, these uncertainties have produced […]
Continue ReadingNigeria first voted in presidential elections just over 43 years ago in October 1979. The introduction to this form of government was not very auspicious. Four years into the experience, in December 1983, Muhammadu Buhari, then a Major-General in the Nigerian Army, overthrew the system. Soldiers thereafter ran the barn for another 14 and a […]
Continue Reading“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” – William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, Act IV, Scene 2 Tamuno Igbikiberebima is an unlikely star in an action movie. He is a lawyer employed by Nigeria’s national hydro-carbons monopoly. On 17 December, 2020, Tamuno was at home in Rumuigbo, in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area (LGA) of Rivers […]
Continue Reading“Indeed, it can be claimed with a large measure of truth, that rigging of elections has become part of our political culture.” Report of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the Affairs of the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO), 1979-1983, Main Report, Paragraph 10:10 (1986) The electoral landslide of President Shehu Shagari’s National Party of Nigeria (NPN) […]
Continue ReadingDemocratic politics is by far the most brutal competitive sport invented. Unlike other sports where the combination of individual skill, perspiration, inspiration, and experience or team ethic can be dispositive, outcomes in politics can hinge on externalities unrelated to these, such as the security services, voters, the media, electoral management bodies or all of the […]
Continue ReadingThis past week, education came to a halt in Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT). It began with the order by the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, on July 25, closing down all six Federal Government Colleges (better known as Unity Schools) in the FCT, while the students were in the middle of their end of year examinations. […]
Continue ReadingOn Monday, June 27, General Muhammadu Buhari swore in Olukayode Ariwoola as Nigeria’s third Chief Justice in as many years, the fourth of his seven year-old tenure as president with electoral legitimacy. Ariwoola’s predecessor, Tanko Muhammad, departed from office earlier on the same day, the second successive Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) to be forcibly “resigned” from […]
Continue ReadingNigeria’s response to the onset of murderous mass violence has evolved through phases of co-optation, brutal reprisal, appeasement, and state incapacity. The two options that have never quite been attempted with conviction are effective accountability and civic inclusion. Through phases of anti-terrorism, counter-terrorism and, now, interminable and metastasizing counter-insurgencies, the country has found itself mired […]
Continue ReadingThe office of Attorney-General of the Federation is the only ministerial office or department created directly by Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution. Described in section 150(1) as “the Chief Law Officer of the Federation”, the Attorney-General is also supposed to be the repository and defender of the country’s highest constitutional and civic values. The acronym HAGF, for “Honorable […]
Continue ReadingGladys Ukeje was the daughter of Lazarus Ogbonnaya Ukeje, who died in Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria, in December 1981. He left behind property but did not make a Will. In June 1982, Lagos State granted his wife, Lois and son, Enyinnaya, the right to administer and share the estate to the exclusion of […]
Continue Reading“If everything is for sale, including the courts and the police, trust evaporates, credit vanishes and business withers” – Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, p 257 (2016) It is no longer news that Nigeria’s courts have normalised corruption and abuse of power. They have also put the corruption of courts […]
Continue ReadingThe rule of law is undergoing chastening times in many African countries as rulers and their parties – struggling to hang on to power – look for convenient devices to eliminate the uncertainties associated with democratic competition, kettle their opponents (both real and imagined), disrupt vocal civics and dismantle legal constraints to the abuse of […]
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