Democratic Nigeria
Nigeria’s democratic governments from 1999 to present, including presidential administrations, reforms, protests, and state politics.
Religion, Power and Political Tension in Nigeria
Religion has never stood outside politics in Nigeria. It has shaped authority, education, law, social identity and access to power for centuries. The country’s...
What Canada, Scotland and Ethiopia Reveal About Nigeria’s Struggle to Manage Diversity
Nigeria is often discussed as though its diversity is an unusual burden, but history shows otherwise. Many states have had to hold together peoples...
What the Aburi Meeting Actually Agreed, and Why It Nearly Remade Nigeria
By the time Nigeria’s military leaders gathered at Aburi, Ghana, on January 4 and 5, 1967, the country was already deeply fractured. The January...
How Nigeria’s First Republic Collapsed and Opened the Door to Military Rule
Nigeria did not enter military rule by accident. It emerged from a chain of political crises that weakened civilian authority and reshaped the balance...
How Structural Adjustment Changed Nigeria, The 1986 Reforms That Recast Power, Prices, and Public Trust
In 1986, Nigeria entered one of the most important turning points in its modern economic history. Years of declining oil revenue, rising debt obligations,...
The 1923 Tinubu Square Shooting, When a Lagos Courtroom Turned Into a Scene of Tragedy
In the history of colonial Lagos, few courtroom tragedies matched the shock caused by the killing of barrister Moronfolu Abayomi in August 1923. What...
Nigeria as West Africa’s Enforcer, ECOMOG, Intervention, and the Cost of Regional Power
During the 1990s Nigeria emerged as the central military power in West Africa. When civil wars threatened to destabilize Liberia and Sierra Leone, Nigeria...
Nigeria’s Paris Club Debt Relief Changed the Country, But It Did Not End the Debt Question
Nigeria’s debt relief agreement with the Paris Club stands as one of the most significant financial turning points in the country’s modern economic history....
Why Nigeria’s Democratic Crisis Cannot Be Solved by Military Rule
Nigeria’s Fourth Republic began on 29 May 1999 when military rule formally ended and Olusegun Obasanjo assumed office as a civilian president. The transition...
Rule by Decree, How Nigeria’s Military Governments Weakened Law, Courts, and the Press
Military rule in Nigeria was frequently justified as a corrective to civilian politics. Soldiers who seized power argued that elected governments were slow, divided,...