It is the case that 15% (i.e. 16 out 109) of all senators are ex-governors. This is part of Nigeria’s gubernatocracy. Gubernatocracy, the rule of Nigeria at federal level by ex-governors who have stolen vast amounts of money from their states’ treasuries and therefore can buy lots of political power. The logic is simple: hold…
Month: September 2015
Nigeria’s Brown Envelope Journalists
A documentary on corruption in Nigerian journalism. Narrated and produced by Nic Muirhead; featuring journalists, Nicholas Ibekwe and Kadaria Ahmed; political economist, Grimot Nane; and Special Adviser on media to President Buhari, Femi Adeshina.
Why is James Ibori Not on the Ministerial List of Gubernatocrats?
The Important Lesson from #FasholaGate: Faceless, Nameless and Objectless
Usually, corruption scandals in Nigeria are typically “nameless” and “faceless” after the fact. The best’ name and face’ a member of public or even a prosecutor usually gets are that of an individual(s) who acts as a ‘representative’ for any given scandal that covers if not ignores the names and faces of the numerous other…
When Empowerment Becomes a Euphemism for Corruption
The word and context of “empowerment” has come to take on in interestingly corrupt or perverse meaning of its own in everyday Nigerian parlance. Unlike its real meaning in everyday day society or academia, it has by way of customary euphemism come to mean the “corrupt and preferential distributions of rents (public goods or public…
Buhari’s House and the “Pacts” that Hold It Together
President Muhammadu Buhari has a political “house” he heads and it is the recently emerged All Progressives Congress (APC). New houses either collapse or withstand whatever the elements throw at them. What usually comes to mind when the strength or weakness of a house is mentioned is the nature of its foundation. How strong is…
Fraternities Are Viruses in Nigeria: Part 3 – The Manipulation
Fraternities Are Viruses in Nigeria: Part 3 – The Manipulation Many members of the public want to understand the thinking that perpetuates University Campus Grown Fraternities (UCGFs) in Nigeria for their multitude of hapless members. The analogy of the “Failed Abusive Father Syndrome” is quite useful. The failed abusive father is a man with a…
When My People Personalise the Truth
When My People Personalise the Truth Turning and turning in the widening gyre; The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. – WB Yeats I always felt William Yeats and Chinua Achebe were discussing how people desecrate the truth. And its consequences in the…