Azu Ishiekwene

an image symbolically representing the rising cost of living in Nigeria

Cost of living crisis: A personal story

Economy /

Portion control was a frequent point of argument in my house. It’s a problem with men, of course, but it’s worse with African women brought up to believe that the proof of spousal care is in the size of the husband’s weight, measured by the amount of food on his plate. It’s considered taboo in many places, especially in the South of Nigeria, for example, for a man’s plate of soup to have only one piece of meat or fish. Or for his dough, famously called swallow, to appear miserly…the cost of living crisis is finally driving the point home!

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an image of a man in a suit pushing a boulder designed with a senegalese flag down a cliff

Sall Taking ECOWAS from Frying Pan to Fire

Africa /

A politically unstable Senegal is the last thing that the community needs at this time. Of course, it’s unlikely that the situation in Senegal will feature at the ECOWAS meeting, where an allegiance of hypocrisy, elegantly called the principle of “non-interference”, forbids members from telling one another the truth…Tinubu, who promised to promote a coup-free region when he assumed office as chair of ECOWAS last year, cannot afford another country added to the regional coup belt. He needs to pull Sall’s ear, behind closed doors, and ask him to stop playing games

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an image of herders in uniform and their cattle grazing

Miyetti Allah Vigilante Mocks Elite Hypocrisy

politics /

It would be a mistake to think that this once mostly feared and despised association of herdsmen and the police are in bed after only one evening of flirting. Of course, Miyetti Allah may have been motivated more by group self-interest, relevance, and survival. But the dalliance with the police, the indifference of the main press, and the muted public response are not an accident

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photo mix of the governors of Kano, Plateau, Zamfara, Lagos, Bauchi, Abia, Ebonyi and Cross River with a backdrop of the supreme court

The Road to Thanksgiving

politics /

Jurisprudential jiggery pokery has a very long history in Nigeria, even though it wasn’t always rampant or brazen. It was with a heavy, tormented heart, for example, that Justice Fatai Atanda-Williams said the judgment of the Supreme Court in the famous case of Awolowo v Shagari in 1979 was never to be cited as precedent. Today, the Supreme Court has made so many conflicting and confusing judgments that even if it were to make exemptions it would find itself too entangled in the knot of its own self-inflicted misery to know where or how to start

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A picture of Femi Adesina and his new book titled 'Working with Buhari: Reflections of A Special Adviser, Media and Publicity (2015-2023)'

Reflections on Adesina’s Work with Buhari

politics /

If military victory alone could guarantee peace, we might not have had the Second World War. The unfair terms of the Treaty of Versailles, for example, which included territorial annexation, demilitarisation and heavy war reparations, pushed Germany to the brink. It created conditions that led to the rise of Hitler. In its blind and desperate pursuit of the last “aggressive German” in particular, for example, the Allied forces sowed the seed that led to the rise of exactly what they hated the most: the Weimar Republic, and finally, Nazi Germany

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an image of Benjamin Netanyahu with a depiction of a boy growing from child to adult as a hamas soldier, on a backdrop of a war scene

In Pursuit of the Last Hamas

International Affairs /

If military victory alone could guarantee peace, we might not have had the Second World War. The unfair terms of the Treaty of Versailles, for example, which included territorial annexation, demilitarisation and heavy war reparations, pushed Germany to the brink. It created conditions that led to the rise of Hitler. In its blind and desperate pursuit of the last “aggressive German” in particular, for example, the Allied forces sowed the seed that led to the rise of exactly what they hated the most: the Weimar Republic, and finally, Nazi Germany

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a crystal ball with the cityscape of Nigeria, and 2024 written in the crystal.

What You Might Expect in 2024

Economy, International Affairs, politics, Sports /

In 2023, we had four years’ worth of politics in one year. Apart from a number of senior lawyers in particular who also made four years’ worth of money in one year, swathes of the political elite are broke, exhausted, and stranded. In 2024, they would be desperate for rehabilitation. Otherwise, their teeming supporters will dissipate, and their misery will be complete. Before June, some top politicians who had been discreetly reaching out to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for favours, would be obliged to take their fate in their own hands and pursue their ambition more openly and less shamelessly. By the end of the year, the scramble for presidential favours would leave an already fragmented opposition in a shambles

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a photo of nyesom wike with arrows projecting towards him

The Trials of Nyesom Wike

politics /

Happening on Wike’s 56th birthday, it was the most unlikely birthday present from the government of Siminalayi Fubara…If Wike was good enough to carry the governor through the dark, difficult days of their trials together when some of the governor’s ardent supporters today didn’t know him from Adam, the governor should be the last person to hang his benefactor out to dry so quickly

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