Nigeria

Who's who in the line-up against Boko Haram?

Rumours of Farida Waziri’s imminent demise as head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had been circulating for weeks before President Goodluck Jonathan administered the coup de...

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...

The United Nations Security Council does not lack for African problems: the continent’s woes take up about three quarters of the Council’s time. Later this month, a new...

Suspicion has been growing in Nigeria that some of the billions recovered from corrupt public officials may have been stolen again. A human rights group, the Socio-Economic Rights...

A group of power-brokers and fortune-seekers is taking shape around President Goodluck Jonathan. Often rivals, most have interests in the oil business, whose centre is his native Niger...

The United States was engaged in the ‘rendition’ of prisoners from Nigeria to the USA even before the attacks of 11 September 2001, according to US State Department...

On 3 August, the oil giant Shell agreed in the London High Court to settle a compensation claim for oil spills in Bodo, in the Niger Delta. This...

As the Bodo case was being settled, a damning United Nations report estimated the cost of an environmental clean-up in Ogoni at US$1 billion over up to 30...

The former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, does not bother with false modesty. Neither does he demur at the description of himself as patron of...

Asiawaju Bola Tinubu, James Ibori and Diepreye Alamieyeseigha stand at extremes on the spectrum of life after Government House (see Feature). There are several points in between. Plateau’s...

Thousands are fleeing Maiduguri, Borno State, where attacks by the Islamist militia Boko Haram and clashes with the army’s Joint Task Force have left scores of people dead...

President Goodluck Jonathan shows little desire to impose himself on the country as the 36 state governors and the National Assembly jockey to push their nominees into the...

President Goodluck Jonathan’s cabinet was not complete when we went to press. Here are some key appointments and some of those tipped for appointment soon.

Few seem convinced by President Goodluck Jonathan’s assurances that the security situation is under control following the bombing on 16 June of Louis Edet House, the national police...

Community control of oil can worsen local strife, to judge by the experience of the Neconde Group, which won the bid for Shell’s 45% of Operations Management Licence...

The United Nations’ latest projection of world demographic trends* predicts that Africa’s population will reach 2.2 billion by 2050, 24% of the global population. Nigeria’s population, according to...

The bloody aftermath of Goodluck Jonathan’s victory in the 16 April presidential election will require decisive action from his new government to prevent a dangerous and widening gulf between north...

For ambitious politicians, the exalted office of state governor is worth fighting for, sometimes literally. That made the 26 April gubernatorial elections in 24 of Nigeria’s 36 states a hefty test...

Parliamentary elections on 9 April showed that Nigerians are no longer willing to be taken for granted by the People’s Democratic Party, which has towered over the political...

Until now, every Nigerian national election has been more or less managed under an elite pact. The richest and most powerful people informally agree to accept the outcome,...

The six states of south-west Nigeria may determine the national elections for President Goodluck Jonathan, whose People’s Democratic Party lost much of its following in the region under...

Opposition parties claim that over US$27 billion is missing from state accounts, managed by the People’s Democratic Party government under President Goodluck Jonathan and his late predecessor, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. Coming just...

Political violence in the Niger Delta is escalating in the run-up to the April elections, threatening to plunge President Goodluck Jonathan’s power base into chaos again and compromising...

Rivalry between two former loyalists of President Goodluck Jonathan and his People's Democratic Party in his home state of Bayelsa presages fierce confrontations before April's elections. The split in the Bayelsa...

President Goodluck Jonathan clinched the presidential nomination of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) on 14 January with an unexpected 77% of the votes. Jonathan, the insiders quickly learned,...

All the ingredients in the presidential and parliamentary elections due in April make for a fierce political battle. The dominant national party for over a decade is losing...

As Foreign Minister, Odein Ajumogobia leads an outspoken diplomatic corps. Nigeria urged Laurent Gbagbo to quit after losing Côte d’Ivoire’s presidential election. As the crisis dragged on, Ajumogobia condemned the West...

Addax, a British-listed oil and gas company controlled by China’s Sinopec, may benefit from this month’s decision by the Nigerian and Cameroonian governments to collaborate in the Bakassi...

Big deals between the Nigerian government and Chinese companies have fallen through, providing yet another chapter to the up-and-down drama between Beijing and Abuja. On 10 February,...

Another attempt at privatising fixed-line operator Nigerian Telecommunications Ltd. (Nitel) and mobile operator Mtel has failed.