By rejecting the investigators' verdict on the Lekki shootings Governor Sanwo-Olu has lost voters' trust
A year after admitting that it was likely that the military had killed civilians at the Lekki toll gate in protest against police brutality in October 2020, the...
Public opposition to the elite's handling of the #EndSARS protests will cost votes in the coming national elections
The Lagos state government's handling of last October's Lekki Toll Gate shootings has angered many in the commercial capital, especially young voters. That could derail the chances of...
What is holding up publication of a major report into how oil spills have wrecked the ecology of Bayelsa state in the Niger Delta? The Bayelsa State Oil...
As the government ends fuel subsidies, the president plans to introduce an even costlier social grant to over 40 million citizens
Just over a year before he's due to step down, President Muhammadu Buhari is taking some uncharacteristic risks. His government is phasing out politically sensitive subsidies and allowing...
The row over the shootings at Lekki toll gate in Lagos a year ago is set to spill into the campaign for national elections in 2023. After an...
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The latest oil spill devastation comes as political tensions rise in a region that has seen little benefit from its production of the country's main export
Since local producer Aiteo first reported a spill in the Niger Delta on 5 November, thousands of barrels of crude oil have flowed into the network of creeks...
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After winning the governorship in Anambra, Charles Soludo has positioned himself for a future presidential campaign
Former central bank governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo stormed to victory in Anambra state's gubernatorial elections on 6 November in a blow to the two biggest parties and militant...
Activists doubt that evidence of systematic killings by police and soldiers will prompt a serious response by government
The report by the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry was damning and contradicted all official accounts, especially those by the army and police, of what happened at...
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Bitter legacy in the Niger Delta 26 years after the execution of Ken Saro Wiwa and eight others
Just weeks after President Muhammadu Buhari signed into law far-reaching reforms of the oil and gas industry, national production is lagging behind forecasts and revenues are falling short.
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The death of a notorious jihad leader has shifted the balance of power among terrorist groups in the region
An unrelenting campaign of terror by Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) continues to gather steam as it positions itself to succeed Boko Haram, from which it splintered,...
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FIRST PERSON DISPATCHES | Arguments and debates about the issues that matter most to Africa | By Tim Concannon
Protests in Britain by Extinction Rebellion this year have seen two constant features: confrontations with police, and First Nation activists from Central and South America calling for an...
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Ruling party apparatchiks are luring their opponents to defect as parties choose their presidential contenders
Fear of the unknown and super-charged ambition are driving record numbers of opposition party governors and other top officials to cross over to the ruling party. Many more...
In Anambra state, the Catholic Church’s blessing could prove crucial for a business executive running for governor
A proxy war between the Catholic Church and the Church of England has become one of the main subplots in the governorship election in a commercial hub on...
A push for regional states to collect and spend their own VAT is gathering steam, as Lagos passes its own new tax law
Nigeria's Supreme Court is set to rule on the right of states to individually collect and spend value-added taxes in their domain in a landmark case that could...
A high court ruling in favour of local tax collectors could threaten the federal government's authority more than insurgents and kidnappers
A federal court ruling on 7 September backing the right of Rivers State to collect Value Added Tax (VAT) on commodities sold within its borders is a critical...
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Vol 62 No 18 |
- NIGERIA
- RUSSIA
President Buhari's government says it wants arms and technology, not troops, from the West but even those might be heavily rationed
There is no comparison between the military deployments and trillions of dollars spent by the United States and its allies in Afghanistan and the West's involvement in the...
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Reforms speed up shift from oil to gas and trigger a new race for influence over contracts and regulation
Even before the ink was dry, officials and their sponsors had already begun to lobby for top jobs in the new oil sector management structures created by the...
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Shell retreats from Niger Delta operations as oil reforms pass into law and Ghana steps up plan to boost production
Three months ahead of the UN Climate summit (COP26) in Scotland and the rising toll of extreme weather, floods, drought and forest fires, African governments say they...
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The architects of industry reform bid a long goodbye to oil and welcome the brave new world of gas for all
Energy companies, trades unions and politicians are beginning to get to grips with the prospect of wide-ranging reform of the oil and gas industry, the foundation of the...
Trumpeting their commitment to a democratic ethos, the two main parties argue over how to rewrite the electoral rules
For years the National Assembly in Abuja is lambasted as hosting among the best paid but least productive legislators. Then within the same month they steer through two...
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British officials say they asked for access to Nnamdi Kanu while Beninois authorities delay return of Sunday Igboho
Behind the photo opportunity shots of President Muhammadu Buhari meeting British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in London on 29 July at the Global Education Summit diplomatic tensions are...
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The security services haul in militant separatist Nnamdi Kanu then narrowly miss Sunday Igboho in Ibadan
The Department of State Services (DSS) emerged from the shadows at the end of last month with all guns blazing, literally. Its targets were two hyper-populists from the...
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After 20 years of politicking, the National Assembly has passed a landmark law to reform the country’s oil and gas industry
Reaction to the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) 2020 through the Senate and House of Representatives on 30 June veered from relief in government, quiet excitement...
The government insists it can handle fast-mounting debts but increased security spending is stretching the budget
While the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) say Nigeria's growing debt is sustainable, worries are growing over the cost of debt servicing relative to revenues.
A government social media ban has handed secessionists a propaganda win and fired up other opponents of the President
'Backfire' doesn't quite cover the effects of the government's national ban on the Twitter micro-blogging site announced on 5 June, the day after the platform deleted a tweet...
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Accused of making political payments with agency funds, minister flies to region to dampen down tensions
Niger Delta militant leader Government Ekpemupolo, also known as Tompolo, issued an ultimatum to President Muhammadu Buhari and Niger Delta minister Godswill Akpabio. Appoint a substantive board for...
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Faced with a foreign exchange drought, policy makers are rapidly discarding the shibboleths of Buhari-nomics
Ending the fuel subsidy, devaluing the naira, incentives for big oil investors and privatising the power transmission network were all anathema to the policy predilections of President Muhammadu...
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In their different ways, the loss of the Army Chief in a plane crash and the death of the Boko Haram leader create new problems for the government
The crash that killed Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Ibrahim Attahiru, three brigadiers and seven other officers, as their air force plane tried to land at Kaduna...
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Political disputes between the federal and state governments are making the security crisis more intractable
Another day, another round of crisis meetings to tackle insurgents, armed criminal gangs and communal clashes. As the National Security Council of service and intelligence chiefs met in...
As the security emergency spreads across the core northern states, insurgents and bandits are devastating an already weakened regional economy
Until recently, governors in the northern states were chary of criticising President Muhammadu Buhari's government on security policy. That is changing as the crisis intensifies and elections loom.
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Niger State governor's claim that Boko Haram insurgents are 'two hours' from Abuja meets eerie silence at Aso Rock
It was meant to be an alarm call of the loudest kind. On 27 April, Niger State governor Abubakar Sani Bello announced that insurgent fighters with Boko Haram...
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Lobbying frenzy as parliament prepares long-awaited bill to reform and restructure energy industry
Leaks of apparent last-minute concessions on fiscal terms and overseas 'retreats' for lawmakers are the most tangible indicators in years that Nigeria may finally be at the point...
No reaction from Abuja as state governors in the south-east, like their south-west counterparts, launch a regional security organisation
After governors of the south-eastern states met in the city of Owerri on 11 April to mull a response to a wave of deadly attacks against farmers and...
Vol 62 No 8 |
- NIGERIA
- ECONOMY
The economy is in slightly better shape than feared months ago but faces a toxic combination of unemployment and inflation
President Muhammadu Buhari and Nigeria's economy policymakers will certainly welcome the modest improvement in the country's economic outlook. According to the Yemi Kale-led National Bureau of Statistics (NBS),...
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The recession may worsen security clashes across the country
Youth unemployment in Nigeria is now worse than in South Africa, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in Abuja. That means that in Africa's two biggest...
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Royal Dutch Shell and Italy's Eni and 13 individuals were acquitted by a Milan court in one of the world's biggest corruption cases on 17 March. After three...
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Parallel stories of economic and security breakdown are playing out without reference to each other
Some of Nigeria's most eminent cultural, diplomatic, business and religious figures warned on 6 March that the latest wave of criminality and violence was threatening the stability and...
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President Buhari rejects northern state governors' planned amnesty for gangs after latest armed abductions
The grim toll of armed attacks over the past week in northern Nigeria has reopened debate about the response from the over-stretched military and under-staffed national police force....
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The Anglo-Dutch giant is losing its battle to fight off international lawsuits over pollution
Shell is retreating from onshore oilfields in the Niger Delta under a cloud, facing lawsuits, recriminations and so far failing to deal with some of the most serious...
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Former head of state urges state governors to speak responsibly, reminding them of road to 1967-1970 civil war
General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who took over as head of state after the death of military leader Gen. Sani Abacha in 1998, stepped out of the shadows for a...
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Legal battles proliferate over pollution and tax as government braces for oil decline
As the pandemic recession and the push for a green energy transition hasten the winding down of the hydrocarbon economy, big oil companies are contending with falling profits...
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An army on the backfoot could get more resources but will have to beef up its fight against insurgents and tackle communal clashes
Sacking the four service chiefs was one of the few things on which Nigeria's Senate, its leading civil society groups and Western ambassadors were unanimously agreed. Insiders at...
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Despite differences with the IMF over devaluation, market expects further weakening of currency and more borrowing
Although central bank governor Godwin Emefiele is holding to the line that a formal devaluation of the naira is unnecessary – traders claim it is overvalued by as...
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Vaccine distribution, fishing subsidies and e-commerce agreement top the priority list for new the director-general
On 5 February, the race to lead the WTO ended, leaving Nigeria's former finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the sole remaining candidate. Early in the day South Korea...
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Sacking of the high command is part of a wider security reorganisation
Security experts in Abuja estimate that Nigeria's military, being deployed in over 30 of the country's 36 states, is under more pressure today than at any time since...
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As President Buhari looks to his legacy, the jostling for succession will begin in earnest
In May, President Muhammadu Buhari will reach the halfway point of his second and final four-year term. It is that point in Nigeria's political calendar, when the main...
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