Across Nigeria’s North-West and parts of the North-Central, a dangerous idea has quietly taken root: that peace can be bought by negotiating with armed bandits who have not been defeated. Exhausted communities and desperate local authorities have embraced ceasefires, dialogue, and informal agreements with violent groups in the hope that insecurity will subside. The evidence,…
Fresh political whispers drifting through news salons and media columns suggest that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is quietly weighing alternative running mates ahead of the 2027 presidential election. The names most frequently mentioned are not obscure. They are prominent northern Christian figures with national visibility and symbolic weight. Former Speaker of the House of Representatives,…
A garrisoned state should not wake up to the disappearance of one hundred and seventy-seven citizens and then drift into equivocation. Kaduna State is one of the most securitised states in Nigeria. Barracks dot its landscape. Checkpoints punctuate everywhere. Intelligence formations abound. When such a place loses an entire community to abductors, the first duty…
We are here at last in the decisive year before the 2027 General election; and under a political sky shaped by cooptation, consolidation, realignment and fatigue. The governing order described in the first part of this essay has narrowed the arena of contest and redrawn the boundaries of participation. Power has been personalised through coordination…
By Abdul Mahmud This new year scarcely requires a seer to reveal its gravity. It stands as a decisive threshold for both Nigeria’s political class and the country itself. As the final full year before the 2027 general election, it unfolds within an atmosphere markedly defined not by open contestation but by cooptation, not by…
Most Reverend Matthew Kukah has spoken again. This time, he tells Nigerians that the country is not experiencing a Christian genocide. He cites numbers, he questions sources, and he dismisses claims of persecution. He reminds us that genocide is defined by intent, not by pools of blood and burnt out churches. The bishop speaks as…
