DISPATCHES
Climate negotiators push back against AU plan for common position on gas and nuclear energy playing a ‘critical role’ in short to medium term
The African Union’s plan to ramp up oil and gas production launched at a preparatory meeting with national negotiating teams has triggered a row with climate experts and green ener...
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A new security team is emerging to take on rising crime, threats of terrorism and political unrest in the Niger Delta as President Olusegun Obasanjo consolidates power. Here, consi...
After two months in the global spotlight, the insurgency in northern Nigeria is fast turning into a national political crisis
The deepening security crisis in northern Nigeria and along the borders with Cameroon and Niger has galvanised more attention internationally than in Abuja. This week, it was Brita...
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Jonathan says fuel subsidies will end on New Year’s Day but few people expect that he can pull off such a momentous change to Nigerian life
The federal government’s decision to remove fuel subsidies from 1 January 2012 is dividing the public and raising the spectre of unrest. The government insists that it cannot affor...
From the surrealism of ‘missing president’ Umaru Yar’Adua, linked to the outside world via a ghostly voiced interview with the BBC, and with attendant disputes of legitimacy and sovereignty, Nigeria has solved the crisis in its own way, by effecting what some call a ‘democratic coup’. One by one, the elected institutions of state (the powerful governors’ forum and both houses of the National Assembly) and several non-elected regional councils met and agreed to support the handover to Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan.
Whatever the constitutional doubts that remain, the 9 February resolution by the National Assembly, citing the ‘doctrine of necessity’, to recognise Vice-President Goodluck Jonatha...