Recent unilateral decisions by the Indian, American, and British governments are part of a worrying trend in the world’s leading democracies. But instead of resorting to outrage, democrats everywhere should focus their efforts on protecting public debate, reinforcing key institutions, and limiting the personalization of power. By abruptly revokingthe special, constitutionally protected status of Jammu and Kashmir, India has become the latest major democracy to act against a minority community for short-term political popularity. Kashmir will henceforth be ruled more directly from the government in New Delhi, and Hindu nationalists are thrilled. Carefully maintained constitutional arrangements are in tatters. Meanwhile,…

Very soon, Nigeria’s airspace will be awash with drones. Virtually all the states in the Middle Belt and Southern part of the country that have been whacked by Fulani herdsmen and banditry violence are queuing up to acquire licence to procure drones from the relevant Federal authorities. The goal is to use this surveillance devise to monitor the movement of Fulani herdsmen and other bandits and terrorists in the forests from where they launch deadly attacks on hapless citizens and to which they retreat after their dastardly acts. Who ever thought Nigeria would come to this sorry pass! Thanks to…

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping have for years flexed their foreign-policy muscles and consolidated power at home. But Russia and China now appear increasingly isolated on the world stage, and the question now is whether they have finally gone – or soon will go – too far. Ongoing street protests in Hong Kong and Moscow have no doubt spooked the authoritarian duo of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Moscow protests, the largest in many years, must be keeping Putin up at night, or they wouldn’t be dispersed with such unabated brutality.…

One of Nigeria’s arguably most impactful rulers, Mr Ibrahim Babangida, was 78 years old yesterday. Combatant Officer of the Nigerian Army who joined the force in 1962, IBB, the acronym he became known by while he was Nigerian military Head of State, will go down in history as about Nigeria’s most audacious user of governmental power. Lethal to those who stood in his way, one of the qualities he possessed at the highest cusp of his rule which even his adversaries acknowledged, was his ambivalent disposition. He had the ability to stand at both ends of the hill and emit…