Vol 2 (AAC) No 1 | NIGERIACHINA The honeymoon is over 27th November 2008 The once thriving Abuja-Beijing relationship has hit problems The catastrophic failure in November of Nigeria’s US$340 million, Chinese-built satellite NIGCOMSAT-1, launched only a year ago, is the latest, most visible indication of increasing difficulties...
Vol 50 No 24 | NIGERIA Ailing president, procrastinating politics 4th December 2009 The latest illness of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua adds urgency to calls for far-reaching electoral and political reforms ahead of national elections due by early 2011. Despite mounting calls for Yar’Adua to step down on health grounds after he was spirited off to Saudi Arabia for treatment of acute pericarditis, his cabinet ministers insist he must remain in charge. Meanwhile, activists and opposition politicians are reorganising to challenge the incumbent People’s Democratic Party’s overwhelming grip on power. With national elections due by early 2011. The financial stakes are huge - control of some US$100 billion of annual oil and gas revenue. The last elections in...
Vol 60 No 22 | NIGERIA Command economics on trial 7th November 2019 As Africa’s biggest economy slows down with dangerous political consequences, policy-makers are looking for radical solutions With economic growth failing to keep pace with population growth, and the country far too dependent on oil and gas exports, President Muhammadu Buhari is trying to deal...
Vol 57 No 21 | NIGERIA Buhari's kitchen cabinet 21st October 2016 President Muhammadu Buhari stirred a predictable hornets' nest when he dismissed, in a most patriarchal manner, criticisms his wife had made of his presidency. On 14 October Aisha...
Vol 49 No 17 | NIGERIA Wasteful wars, foreign friends 22nd August 2008 A long history of failure does not discourage Western leaders who believe their intervention can improve conditions in the oil-rich Niger Delta. Yet judging from recent history, the capacity of outside intervention to make things even worse in the Delta looks assured. After the United States' stalled efforts at training Nigeria's military and Royal Dutch Shell's attempts at corporate responsibility, Britain and France have offered military assistance to tackle continuing violence in the Delta. Offering military assistance to a country that did not request it is extremely bad manners, responded a seasoned Nigerian analyst after French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British...