Political History
The Deputy Governor Position Ngige Refused to Give Chris Uba
There was a point in Anambra politics when the question was no longer simply who had won the governorship.It was who would actually control...
How Chris Ngige Tried to Govern After Winning an Election He Knew Was Rigged
Chris Ngige had barely settled into the Anambra State Government House when the people who had helped put him there began demanding something in...
The Unwritten Deal That Turned Chris Ngige and Chris Uba Against Each Other
In Nigerian politics, some deals are made at party meetings. Others are made over dinners, behind closed doors or through trusted intermediaries.And then there...
Alvan and Samuel Ikoku 1957 Election: The Remarkable Father-Son Political Contest
The Alvan and Samuel Ikoku 1957 Election produced one of the most unusual episodes in Nigeria's pre-independence political history. Alvan Azinna Ikoku, the prominent...
In 1996, Nkechi Nwankwo Asked Nigeria a Question It Still Hasn’t Answered
In 1996, Nigeria was not exactly the place one would expect a journalist to publish a book asking whether its political system treated women...
How Hannah Awolowo Tried to Create a Way Back to Parliament for Her Imprisoned Husband
There was a problem in Nigeria's Parliament in the mid 1960s that could not be solved by an ordinary election.Obafemi Awolowo, one of the...
Colonial Federalism in Nigeria: 3 Powerful Forces That Reshaped Nationalist Politics
Colonial federalism in Nigeria developed alongside the country’s existing ethnic, cultural and political identities. During the final decades of colonial rule, constitutional regionalisation, uneven...
6 Defining Crises That Shattered the Nigeria’s First Republic in 1960–1966
Nigeria’s First Republic is often remembered through its dramatic ending: the military coup of January 1966. Yet the collapse of civilian government cannot be...
Political Patronage in Nigeria Before the Oil Boom: The Deep Roots of Power Before Petrodollars
Political Patronage in Nigeria Before the Oil Boom was already visible decades before the petroleum windfall of the 1970s transformed the financial power of...
8 Political Crises Before the Nigerian Civil War
Political crises before the Nigerian Civil War reveal why the conflict cannot be explained by a single coup, one ethnic grievance or the declaration...