If there was a prize for Nigeria’s number one letter writer, journalist-turned-lawyer and one-time minister, Tony Momoh, would appear to be the undisputed champion. The late Momoh performed the difficult task of making sense of General Ibrahim Babangida’s largely messy and convoluted political and economic programmes by writing regular letters to “fellow countrymen”. His extensive and elaborate undertaking later packaged as a book entitled, Letters to my Countrymen, was, to put it mildly, a labour of misery. It was a thoroughly thankless job. But how can Momoh’s letters ever hope to compete with those of former President Olusegun Obasanjo? It’s…

On Wednesday, Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, along with the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, and some other high-ranking public officials formally unveiled the re-designed N1,000, N500, and N200 notes. Such a gathering is, of course, expectedly full of festivity, bluster, and the regurgitation of the same vapid and soulless speeches that typify these public gatherings. At the end of it all, one can conclude that no other official action typifies the many bitter disappointments, artificiality, and even the abject lack of self-reflexivity that has characterised this administration better than redesigning naira notes that increasingly buy you…