Nigeria continues to be proof that the whole can be lesser than the sum of the parts; we are individually great but collectively poor. This is not just about economic poverty, but also about the general state of our governance. We have some of the most expensive cars being driven on the worst roads. Our people carry around modern gadgets that cannot be powered by the public power supply. Our wealthiest build impressive mansions but they have little or no public security for these. The country with Africa’s richest man is also the country with the highest extreme poverty rate in the world.

The Director-General of the National Council for Arts and Culture, Segun Runsewe, has been on my mind lately, and not with admiration. He represents the typical policy dysfunction that is a trademark of our political system: one where people with the least understanding of a nuanced issue are given the task of directing it.

In the years leading up to and after 2015, corruption was the dominant issue in Nigerian public debates. The idea that Nigeria’s main challenge was tackling corruption was so widespread that it propelled Buhari into office.

Political news in Nigeria is generally depressing. This is not because it is bad news – which it mostly is – but because it is, tiringly and achingly, an endless torrent of reality show drama featuring politicians and their antics. There is no political discourse, no ideological direction, and no intellectual proposals. Our news is either just politicians fighting politicians or politicians reconciling with politicians; it is a hot mess of political gossip and low drama where every issue starts with an ego tussle and ends with a power struggle.

Quite often, I have found myself compelled to defend the fundamentals of human rights to supposedly educated people in Nigeria. The generic ignorance of foundational social concepts, particularly on the rule of law and the sanctity of human rights, is a clear demonstration of the declining quality of our ‘educated’ middle class.

Any Nigerian child with a fair level of social-awareness can tell you one or two negative things about the Nigerian police. The Nigerian Police Force is perceived as the primary symbol of corruption, administrative inefficiency, and state brutality in Nigeria. Bribery is seen as the official language of the uniform; investigative procedures are often dismissed as…

Any Nigerian child with a fair level of social-awareness can tell you one or two negative things about the Nigerian police. The Nigerian Police Force is perceived as the primary symbol of corruption, administrative inefficiency, and state brutality in Nigeria. Bribery is seen as the official language of the uniform; investigative procedures are often dismissed as…

Sometime in May 2015, in Abuloma, Port Harcourt, a man named Charles was harassed, beaten, and robbed by his neighbourhood security watch. What was his crime? He was perceived to be homosexual. When he reported this incident to the police, he was advised to leave the area if he wanted to avoid future ‘embarrassment’. In…

When Muhammadu Buhari won the 2015 presidential elections, he famously promised in his inaugural address: “I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody”.

The Nigerian military is sick and requires urgent intervention. Clearly, public intervention in military affairs is a sensitive issue, and our politicians generally avoid commenting on military issues except when it affects their electoral interests. However, the rest of us must not remain mute when it is clear that an intervention is needed. In the…

Nigeria is not progressing in any meaningful way. Except that modern technological advances continue to insulate us from the worst effects of bad governance, we are deteriorating rapidly in several ways.

Last week, the United States Ambassador to Nigeria opined that social injustices and a disregard for the rule of law were much more damaging issues in Nigeria than the theft of public funds. Although this statement made headlines, this thinking is not novel. For example, back in the late 1980s, Dele Giwa once described Shehu…