Promises of grand economic growth have been torpedoed by the Covid-19 pandemic and crashing oil prices
This time last year President Muhammadu Buhari and his numerous economic policymakers were optimistic that 2020 could see growth acceleration, job creation, significant infrastructure investments and progress on...
Official denials over the Lekki shootings fail to stand up against the mounting evidence, while activists are targeted in a clampdown
Nigerian government officials continue to downplay the army shootings at youth-led protests against the rogue Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) police unit in October, and are doubling down on...
Determined to use the #EndSARS protests for their own ends, the securocrats have reasserted their role at the heart of government
The Nigerian army's version of the shootings during the October protests was spelled out at a bizarre press conference in Abuja on 2 November by Attorney General Abubakar...
Targeted with live rounds in Lagos, campaigners against police brutality step up their protests and political ambition
Pressure is mounting on President Muhammadu Buhari's government after the shooting of protestors at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos on 20 October with the African Union and...
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Rival candidates in Ondo State's elections campaigned for their national ambitions more than local issues
After losing the Edo state elections last month, the ruling All Progressives' Congress (APC) held on to Rotimi Akeredolu's governorship of Ondo State on 10 October – a...
After 20 years of lobbying, a bill to reform the country’s energy industry is being pushed through the National Assembly – with a good chance of success
There has been consensus in the country on two things since the return to civil rule in 1999: the management of oil and gas, which dominates the export...
The pandemic has forced the government to end subsidies and move towards cost-reflective electricity pricing – and risk the fallout
Shrinking oil revenues and the wider economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic are putting pressure on policymakers to limit the damage. In the short term that will mean...
The opposition PDP claims its success in a fiercely contested governorship poll will relaunch it for the next national elections
The contest for Edo State governor on 19 September was set to be bitter and partisan with a heady mix of local and personal rivalries, just as the...
Planning to spend over 20 billion dollars on grand projects, the Buhari government is raising tariffs and tolls as well as taking on more debt
Many Nigerians are disappointed that, as President Muhammadu Buhari is a year into his second term, he has not done more to halt the scourge of corrupt trading...
Watching the confusion and rivalries in Abuja, the states are trying to take control of resources and security
Timipre Sylva's meeting with Nyesom Wike at the governor's mansion in Port Harcourt on 23 August bore all the signs of an old friends' reunion. Both are political...
State elections next month in the heart of what was once West Africa’s biggest empire is testing the coherence of the country’s two main parties
Last month, a massive new video screen appeared at the busiest intersection in Benin City, centre of a once towering kingdom and now capital of Edo state. Where...
A proposal that the President's election should be based wholly on merit – not rotation between north and south – has caused a storm
Politicians and pundits in Nigeria have shown a rare unanimity in outrage at comments by Mamman Daura, widely regarded as President Muhammadu Buhari's most influential advisor, about the...
After hearing the arguments, a London court is about to rule on whether Abuja can challenge a record-breaking US$10 billion award against it
A substantial part of Nigeria's foreign financing strategy and the fortunes of a New York hedge fund, in partnership with an obscure entity registered in the British Virgin...
Plummeting prices prompted a radical plan to restructure the state oil company – then the vested interests fought back
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and several of the country’s most senior ministers recommended hard-hitting reforms to rein in the sprawling and notoriously unaccountable state oil company earlier this year...
Abuja's support for Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as next head of the WTO faces unforced errors and political hurdles
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Abuja's candidate and emerging front-runner for the top post at the World Trade Organisation, faces tough questions about her campaign's use of lobbyists who advocate for...
President Buhari has papered over rifts in the ruling party but they will re-emerge ahead of national elections
With the Covid-19 pandemic spreading and the economy on the slide, the country's top politicians have taken refuge in the familiarity of an old-fashioned internal power struggle. Rival...
A plan to restart oil production in Ogoniland amid a failing environmental clean-up risks repeating all the mistakes of 25 years ago
This week lawyers for the 40,000 people in the Ogale and Bille communities in the Niger Delta have been pressing their case in London's Supreme Court to hold...
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President Buhari's top aide Ibrahim Gambari faces an array of rival interests trying to shape the government's direction
In the best traditions of international bureaucracy, Ibrahim Gambari, 75, has been consulting widely but quietly as he acclimatises to his new role as President Muhammadu Buhari's chief...
Abuja challenges a gigantic court judgement against it by arguing that the claimants had planned it all as a scam from the start
Faced with the prospect of its oil and gas revenues falling this year by at least US$26.5 billion, President Muhammadu Buhari's government sees the dismissal of a $10bn...
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The oil price crash and the pandemic have the potential to force the diversification of the economy and end the patronage system
In the boom times, oil and gas generated 95% of the country's export revenues and the recycling of that cash powered over 60% of the economy. In the...
Despite grandstanding by some senior politicians, it is the doctors and nurses who are winning public support in the fight against the coronavirus
Criticisms are mounting about the lack of a coherent national strategy to manage the coronavirus pandemic. The missing piece is effective leadership from the national task force, under...
Chief of Staff to Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari
Abba Kyari was neither an administrator nor a politician. So, he was not an obvious choice for the post of chief of staff to the president, a job...
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The clean-up of Delta oil spills is still being held up by feuding politicians, bureaucrats and businesses as low oil prices hit public finances
As oil prices crash to an 18-year low in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, weakening global demand, and a price war, President Muhammadu Buhari's spending plans are...
After speculation about his health and whether he was even in the country, President Muhammadu Buhari gave a belated televised address on 29 March announcing a lockdown of...
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Sacked after clashing with Kano’s governor, Lamido Sanusi may be heading for an overt political role
For the second time in as many decades, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi has been pushed out of a top institution, with opinion divided over his future. Again, he will...
Escalating violence in Borno and surrounding states as leaked memos show tensions between senior aides – and a now familiar inertia
It was the worst-kept secret in Abuja. Officials in President Muhammadu Buhari's government blame one another for the administration's failings, especially in areas such as security. After a...
Confusion is growing about the mounting cost and sluggish progress of the UN-mandated clean-up of Ogoni, in Nigeria's oil-producing Niger Delta.
The army is in retreat before the Islamist insurgents. Corruption, indifference and a lack of resources are blamed
Speaking to journalists on 7 February, the army's theatre commander for north-eastern Nigeria, Major-General Olusegun Adeniyi, repeated the government's frequent assertion that Boko Haram has been defeated. Yet...
The mooted new West African currency stands no chance of success unless its architects persuade Abuja to join
Francophone West African countries' decision to convert their CFA franc into a first version of the 'eco', a planned single currency for the whole region, has sparked furious...
President Buhari will push through more economic nationalist policies. Beyond that, the picture gets cloudy
As he wrestles with mutually reinforcing economic and security problems, President Muhammadu Buhari can no longer blame an uncooperative national assembly or opposition state governors if his planned...