On Sunday, the All Progressives Congress National Leader, Bola Tinubu, commended Kano State governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, for his efforts in strengthening anti-corruption institutions. The efforts, of course, were tied to the office building of the Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission Ganduje renovated. Tinubu went on to state that “in ensuring Nigeria becomes a member of a committed international community that frees us from the burden of corruption, this and similar edifices could play an important role in that.” This comment was repeated across several publications, so it was no misquote that he tied “edifices” like a renovated building…

My last article, “Further notes to the Nigerian Left” (late February 2021), was a deliberately condensed message. It was so because I feared that Nigeria was approaching another dangerous bend in its history. I therefore wanted to indicate, even for my own self-assurance, where the movement could stand and all that it could do and should do if it was forced to maturity. For, I have, for some time now, been convinced that the Nigerian Left will, one day, be pushed to maturity because Nigeria’s ruling class, as we see it today, cannot lead the country out of this national…

Brazil has proved a disaster in the management of Covid-19, but there are other areas where we can use their examples. Like what to do about failing refineries. This hot-button topic returned to the front burner after the Nigerian government recently announced plans to repair the Port Harcourt Refinery. That refinery and the ones in Warri and Kaduna have a combined refining capacity of 410,000 bpd, an output far less than the local daily demand, but which all three refineries have only struggled to meet since they were installed. According to a recent report in The Guardian, Nigeria has spent…

In June, Commonwealth heads of government will meet in the Rwandan capital Kigali, a city advertised by their Tutsi host, the 63-year-old Paul Kagame, as ‘the Davos of Africa’. Kagame, Rwanda’s de facto leader since 1994 — and boasting more honorary degrees than Barack Obama, although he never finished high school — has become the ‘donor darling’ of the international community. He is why the World Bank has donated in excess of $4 billion, and why, until recently, the biggest bilateral donor has been the UK. ‘As far as I’m concerned,’ says the Tory MP Andrew Mitchell, ‘he is a…