With the United States court mandating that Chicago State University release some of President Bola Tinubu’s records, Atiku Abubakar, the Peoples Democratic Party candidate and Tinubu’s rival in the last general elections, won a moral victory bigly. While this might not translate to legal gains in the upcoming Supreme Court, many Nigerians seem thrilled by the turn of events. I understand that feeling. This is one of the rare instances where a court judgment repudiates the almighty power that the Nigerian presidency embodies. For a nation where it is near impossible to compel its leaders to answerability, watching a higher…

Both pro- and anti-Tinubu news outlets and blogs are selectively reporting the documents that Chicago State University handed over to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar yesterday. Here are 6 non-partisan tidbits I discovered from poring over them: 1. Chicago State University’s Office of the Registrar affirmed that Bola A. Tinubu indeed attended the university “from August 1977 through June 1979” and was “awarded a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with Honors on June 22, 1979.” The registrar also swore to this under oath. The penalty for lying under oath in America can be steep. It is punishable by up…

Saudi Arabia is undergoing a nationalist transformation. During this year’s Saudi National Day, on September 23, people across the Kingdom – especially the young people who constitute a majority of the population – turned out in droves to wave flags, dance, and marvel at military flyovers. Promoted by Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (widely known as MBS), the surge in patriotic displays sheds light on the motivations behind the country’s recent political and economic reforms. Begin with the foreign-policy front, where Saudi Arabia has agreed to a détente with Iran, facilitated by China; entered into…

Humour and laughter often serve as a powerful tool in driving home words that may otherwise be difficult to communicate. An example is Nigeria celebrating her 63rd anniversary and yet enmeshed in several dysfunctions that cannot be explained. One of the many popular jokes about the Nigerian crisis available on the streets has attempted to humourize the ailment and drive home the complexity of the Nigerian problem. It goes thus: “There is absolute (turmoil) – economic collapse, political commotion, wars, social dislocation, tsunamis, etc – in the world, and all nations decide to meet God in Heaven to ask for…