Vol 53 No 24 | NIGERIA Boko Haram looks to Mali 30th November 2012 As the army steps up its crackdown, the Islamist militia’s leaders are strengthening their ties with northern Mali The bombing of a church in Kaduna State on 25 November and attacks on a police station in Abuja on the following day seemed designed, at least in...
Vol 53 No 24 | NIGERIA How politicians help insurgents 30th November 2012 The federal government has played politics with the Boko Haram insurgency, using it to silence opposition from northern politicians who claim that President Goodluck Jonathan has broken the...
Vol 53 No 22 | NIGERIA The $100 billion bash 2nd November 2012 Government efforts to ignore a comprehensive new report on oil and gas industry corruption arouse deep suspicions Findings by a government-commissioned task force that over US$100 billion has been siphoned off from Nigeria’s oil and gas industry since 2002 is causing a political storm. It...
Vol 53 No 22 | NIGERIA Shell and the Delta litigations 2nd November 2012 The next hearing of the case of the 11,000 people of Bodo versus the Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell in the High Court is scheduled for 5 November, when...
Vol 53 No 20 | NIGERIA Financial faultlines 5th October 2012 Rising oil theft, the insurgency in the North and fuel subsidy fraud make it hard for the government to survive unless it agrees to hard-hitting reforms So far, those blocking reform are winning hands down in the running battles with reformers in the government. Yet their victory could prove to be a hollow one...
Vol 53 No 14 | NIGERIA Dazzling statistics 6th July 2012 The government’s financing gap is opening up and the reformers are being blocked but the investors keep on coming Which are the more stunning figures? The billions of dollars of investment sluicing into Nigeria despite its deepening security crisis? Or the billions of dollars of oil and...
Vol 53 No 14 | NIGERIA Turning security upside down 6th July 2012 A new political strategy would be more use in the fight against Boko Haram than sacking officials The latest wave of attacks on churches, police stations and even building workers across northern Nigeria seems to be the insurgents’ response to President Goodluck Jonathan’s sacking of...
Vol 53 No 13 | NIGERIAUNITED STATES Fine gesture 22nd June 2012 The United States Securities and Exchange Commission is giving ‘appropriate consideration’ to a request that it share with the victims the financial penalties (‘disgorgement’) it levies on companies...
Vol 53 No 11 | NIGERIA Fuel fraud fans public anger 25th May 2012 Jonathan has to choose between penalising his friends and the final collapse of his government’s credibility over the fuel subsidy racket The belated announcement by President Goodluck Jonathan on 22 May that he wants the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to act on the US$6.8 billion fuel subsidy fraud...
Vol 53 No 9 | NIGERIA Star-struck James Ibori 27th April 2012 Delta State’s most famous son is now in prison, while accomplices and other governors walk free Ex-Governor of Delta State James Ibori could be back in Nigeria as early as late 2016. He was sentenced to 13 years in gaol for $50 million worth...