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Where are Nigeria’s lawyer-statesmen? By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

On the eve of his decision to nominate Oliver Wendell Holmes as Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt wrote to his friend, Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, that “the ablest lawyers are men whose past has naturally brought them into close relationship with the wealthiest and the most powerful.” What he left unsaid was that they are also men who profit from such relationships. Profiting from the deployment of unrivalled skill and intellect in the service of the wealthiest and the most powerful is not criminal but it is possible to achieve material wealth and end up craven or hollow.

Continuing his letter to Senator Cabot Lodge, President Roosevelt also expressed his joy and gladness at being able to find the great lawyer who “has been able to preserve his aloofness of mind so as to keep his broad humanity of feeling and his sympathy for the class from which he has not drawn his clients.”

When Holmes turned 90 in 1931, Benjamin Cardozo, no slouch in the pantheon of great judges himself, described Holmes as “the great overlord of the law and its philosophy.” Posterity would prove a lot less generous.

At the fortieth anniversary of Holmes’ death in 1977, his literary executor, the Harvard Law School, declined to publish the essay of Yale Law School professor and his authorized biographer, Grant Gilmore, because it was explosively critical. Gilmore regarded Holmes as “the only man of the law who ever became a folk hero”, but concluded that “the real Holmes was savage, harsh, and cruel, a bitter and lifelong pessimist who saw in the course of human life nothing but a continuing struggle in which the rich and powerful impose their will on the poor and weak.” Gilmore died in 1982, his work on Holmes unpublished.

Sheldon Novick, author of arguably the most authoritative published biography of Holmes, answered “no” to the question “would you have wanted Justice Holmes as a friend?” University of Chicago law Professor, Albert Alschuler, concluded that Holmes’ was a life of “Law Without Values.”

The greatest lawyers somehow manage to both profit from their association with the great and the good and simultaneously make a lasting contribution to the lives of the class from which they have not drawn their clients. Former US Chief Justice, William Rhenquist, had an appellation for this genre. He called them “the Lawyer-Statesman.” Former Dean of the Yale Law School, Anthony Kronman, writes of such lawyers that they care “about the public good and is prepared to sacrifice his own well-being for it, unlike those who use the law merely to advance their private end. He is distinguished too by his special talent for discovering where the public good lies and for fashioning those arrangements needed to secure it.”

Hard won forensic battles will always be acknowledged in the law reports but that is for interested lawyers only. They’re getting fewer. Ten days before he died of cancer in January 2001, George Carman Q.C., arguably the most celebrated English Barrister of his generation, requested his son, Dominic, to undertake a post-humous biography. Published in 2002, the son’s No Ordinary Man: A Life of George Carman, QC, painted the picture of a sad, insecure, violent man who “was so intelligent and articulate and yet so brutal and barbaric.”

The material appurtenances of vocational success will be easily visible to those who care but those are irrelevant as measures of greatness. It is possible to make money and win cases while hollowing out the law and making life impossible for ordinary people. In Nigeria today, that species can be found in abundance. Here, comparisons with leading lives in the law and justice from other African countries may be useful.

Nelson Mandela needs no introduction. But Bram Fischer does. He was lead counsel to Mandela at the Rivonia trial. Scion of a most privileged Boer family, Bram chose to deploy himself in the transformation of South Africa. Born in 1908, his father was the Judge-President of the Orange Free State, and his grand-father was the Prime Minister of the Orange River Colony. As South Africa’s leading Silk, Bram had nothing to gain from placing his considerable skills, intellect, and pedigree at the disposal of a struggle that offered him what appeared to be no direct benefits. For this he was to pay the ultimate price.

Persecuted and jailed by the Apartheid regime, Bram Fischer died in 1975 of cancer diagnosed in prison. He was released on 10 March to die on 8 May 1975. Nelson Mandela considered him the greatest South African. At the first Bram Fischer Memorial lecture in June 1995, Mandela explained why: “Bram was a courageous man who followed the most difficult course any person could choose to follow. He challenged his own people because he felt that what they were doing was morally wrong. As an Afrikaner whose conscience forced him to reject his own heritage and be ostracised by his own people, he showed a level of courage and sacrifice that was in a class by itself. I fought only against injustice not against my own people.”

Maison des Avocats (Bar centre), which houses Senegal’s Bar in Dakar, was the only home of Dr. Lamine Guèye, Senegal’s first lawyer, who died in 1968. Admitted to the French Bar in 1921, Guèye mentored Senegal’s independence leaders, including Leopold Senghor whom he introduced into politics. An early anti-fascist and advocate of the human rights of women, Guèye emerged in 1937 as leader of the French section of Workers International. La loi Lamine Guèye which granted the citizenship of France to all inhabitants of France’s overseas colonies on 7 May 1946, memorializes his egalitarian advocacy. Guèye was the President of Senegal’s legislature and is widely credited with laying the foundations of that country’s inclusive politics.

Centenarian, Abdoulaye Wade, is Senegal’s oldest living president. He is also Senegal’s senior-most lawyer and law Professor. Wade was founding dean of the faculty of law and economic sciences at the Université Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar. Professor Wade was also an outstanding advocate whose distinguished list of clients included Ahmed Ben Bella in Tunisia, Houari Boumediene in Algeria, Omar Bongo in Gabon, and the French hydro-carbons behemoth, Elf Aquitaine. Back home, Professor Wade was also an equally energetic advocate of open government and alternance in a country that was until the tail end of the last millennium a de facto single party State. Even as a mere professor, Wade’s modest home in Dakar was a city landmark. It remains so.

Moleleki Didwell Mokama was Botswana’s first indigenous lawyer and first Ambassador to anywhere. At the independence in 1966, he was designated Botswana’s High Commissioner to Britain, with concurrent accreditation to all the then six member States of what later became the European Economic Community. He was also Botswana’s first indigenous Attorney-General and first Chief Justice. Like Nelson Mandela, Mokama was a product of Fort Hare University in South Africa.

At the Inns of Court in London, Mokama was a pupil of legendary trial lawyer, Dingle Foot Q.C. In his professional life, he was for a long time on the Board of the solid-minerals conglomerate, De Beers. Botswana’s tradition of rigorous governance of its solid minerals earnings owes a lot to his temperance, restraint, and institutionalized legality. As Attorney-General, Mokama singularly persuaded the government of Botswana, then under pressure from Apartheid South Africa, against imposing emergency rule. At considerable risk as Chief Justice, Mokama ensured that the ruling party did not alter the law to overturn unpopular judgments of a fragile judicial system. When he died in 1997, the country paused in unison to pay its respects to a son who lived to make his people better.

As different as they were, these five men were all pioneering lawyer-statesmen for whom the law provided an Archimedean point to transform for the better the world and institutions that they met. At the price of considerable personal discomfort, and through commitment to goals greater than mere legalism or the winning of debating points in law’s name, they chose to transcend the law by transforming the mechanisms and institutions that make it. Millions of their compatriots are better for their having been lawyers. Where can we find their ilk in Nigeria?

A lawyer and a teacher, Odinkalu can be reached at [email protected]

The views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Law & Society Magazine.

EFCC faces new legal barrier as Appeal Court says it must honour 19-year-old Rivers’ judgment it never appealed 

A Court of Appeal verdict in Port Harcourt has reopened debate over the powers of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the extent to which state governments can resist federal anti-corruption investigations.

In its decision delivered on Friday, the appellate court ordered the enforcement of a 2007 High Court judgment that barred the EFCC from investigating the accounts of the Rivers State Government.

The court held that the anti-graft agency was still bound by the original ruling because it never appealed the judgment when it was first issued nearly two decades ago.

The case traces back to February 16, 2007, when the High Court of Rivers State restrained the EFCC from probing the state’s finances. The matter that later reached the Court of Appeal in 2011 focused not on whether the original judgment was correct, but on whether it should be implemented.

According to the appellate court, the answer was straightforward: the EFCC failed to challenge the 2007 ruling and therefore cannot ignore it years later.

The judgment is already drawing attention from lawyers, anti-corruption advocates and political observers who believe it may influence how other states respond to federal financial investigations.

Some analysts argue that the ruling could encourage more state governments to seek legal shields against EFCC scrutiny, especially in a country where questions around public spending, debt and accountability remain politically sensitive.

Reacting to the decision, legal scholar and public affairs commentator Prof. Chidi Odinkalu suggested the ruling may deepen concerns about selective enforcement in Nigeria’s anti-corruption campaign.

“Other states will claim benefit of this decision,” Odinkalu wrote. “One consequence could be that the EFCC will double down on harassing students and hair salons in order to form activity. The politicians meanwhile can double down on plunder under cover of judicial protection.”

His remarks reflect wider criticism often directed at the commission over the visibility of raids targeting young Nigerians and small businesses, while several politically exposed corruption cases remain unresolved for years.

The speed with which a certified true copy of the judgment became available also drew attention online.

“In case you have not noticed, the judgment was issued yesterday and there is already a certified copy,” Odinkalu noted. “That is a small miracle in a country where judgments can take months to break cover.”

The EFCC has yet to publicly comment on the ruling.

Beyond the legal implications, the judgment has revived broader questions about accountability and institutional credibility. For many Nigerians already frustrated by rising living costs, growing public debt and failing infrastructure, the case adds to concerns about whether public institutions are equipped to effectively monitor government finances.

The ruling may ultimately become more than a Rivers State case. It could shape future disputes over how far federal anti-corruption agencies can go in scrutinising state governments — and how easily those powers can be limited through the courts.

Obidients and the Gambo Sawaba Constant, By Chuks Iloegbunam

Hajiya Gambo Sawaba (1933-2001) is one of the reasons no one is prepared to teach anyone a thing about contemporary Nigerian history. Had this political activist’s remarkable odyssey been generally known, people would long have internalised protest against state-sponsored injustice as a way of life. She was routinely subjected to torture. She once told an audience that all her front teeth were artificial, the natural ones having been knocked out by oppressors. On one occasion, a piece of broken bottle was used to shave off her hair. She was chased from Kano, ordered never to return to the commercial city, and forcefully deposited in Zaria, from whence she came. With 16 incarcerations, she holds the record for the most imprisoned Nigerian woman.

Wetin the woman do sef? Plenty! To begin with, she had the temerity to campaign from the rooftops for gender equality right in the heart of conservative territory. She preached against child marriages, against forced labour and – wonderment! – against the law that denied women the vote. All the persecution she suffered made her stronger and more defiant in her life struggle for socio-political justice. Sawaba’s formal education ended in primary school. But she routinely argued better-educated folks to the ground floor of their unreasonableness. Extra-generous, this mother of only one daughter had a home always teeming with adopted and homeless children. There was more to her uniqueness.

Dig this: On weekdays, while others prepared for work, for travel or for idleness, she readied herself for the courts. If a notorious judge was scheduled to deliver judgment, Sawaba pushed other concerns to the back burner to witness it. Inside the courtroom, she would post herself in the front row, staring unblinkingly at the judge, saying absolutely nothing. Whether in an Alkali, Magistrates’ or High Court, it was a settled matter that any day Gambo Sawaba installed herself in a courtroom, magomago abruptly went on leave. No judge or qadi dared to miscarry justice in her presence. Without practising or advocating violence, she represented the potent force of moral authority, charging no fees for wrenching justice for victims.

Dear Obidients. Sawaba’s example teaches that the regular national fare of injustice must be fought all the way down to a humiliating capitulation. Yet, the consequential fight for justice never means burning tyres on road intersections, torching houses, shattering craniums and ending human lives. It only means appropriating courage and integrity and employing them for resolutely uttering, whenever and wherever necessary, a resounding NO in the face of thunder. That is the Gambo Sawaba Constant. The Obidient Movement must cultivate this attribute now that it has reached a fork in the road.

Disreputable characters are desperately trying to discredit the movement, setting it up for institutional hammer blows. To sunder it, agent provocateurs are disseminating the objectionable in its name. One clown even crashed into social media to claim that he had established the Obidient Movement for a different purpose, only for Mr. Peter Obi to hijack it for his vested political interests! In the light of these vexations, the movement must strengthen its structures for real political change by going beyond theory and social media action to engage in direct praxis.

The Obidient Movement should adopt Order as its motto, for wherever order is in ascent, election rigging is anathema. Order denotes a state of organisation and peace. Wherever it reigns, harmony thrives. The Obidients could adopt the Black Power salute as a symbol of defiant salutation. At the 1968 Mexico Olympics, American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos used it during a medal ceremony to protest racial injustice in their country. Obidients should use it to abominate criminal politics, perverted governance, electoral fraud, treasury plundering and divisive policies. The Obidient Movement’s identity must outlast the present political generation.

It should become the benign breeze to blow into Nigerians a new heart of interethnic and interreligious harmony. In terms of praxis, what to do is straightforward: Follow who know road ! Sawaba knew the road. Mrs. Margaret Ekpo (1914-2006) knew the road, as did Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti (1900-1978), who mentored both Sawaba and Ekpo. All three were detribalised. All three championed human rights. All three taught the masses with the thesis of personal example. People of the threesome’s distinction abound in today’s Nigeria. They include Mrs. Nnenna Otti, a professor of Soil Science and a university Vice Chancellor, who, rejecting vicious threats and dollar-denominated backhanders, bluntly refused to falsify the 2023 presidential election results in Abia State.

The Obidients must emulate these honest, dedicated and courageous women, and pay no attention to menopausal professors who announce election results at 3 a.m. or deny their social media imprints because of payoffs, ambassadorial portfolios and such ephemerality. Obidients should not be despondent because Professor Oti has no national honours. Those honours have become the exclusive and intangible toys of convicted criminals with transcontinental disreputations. The concrete honours for Ekpo, Oti, Ransome-Kuti, Sawaba and other patriots, both male and female, are global, enduring, meaningful and straight from the hearts of rational Nigerians who genuinely recognise and appreciate their legacies.

Obidients should celebrate nationals with impeccable moral rectitude, not hypocrites who postulated half a century ago that “justice is the first condition of humanity,” only to be speechifying the unwary today about the imperative of justice genuflecting before the altar of ethnic bigotry. People were in this country when someone called President Goodluck Jonathan a drunken fisherman. People were also very much around when someone else called First Lady Patience Jonathan a sheppopotamus . When such pretenders shriek today on the fine points of decorous language, the Obidients must respond with this retort: “ Tishas , don’t teach us nonsense!”

The Obidients must, like Sawaba and Company, go into the countryside, teaching the long-suffering that the Greek gift of stone-riddled rice is insolent to parents whose sons and daughters perish daily on account of abject destitution and unprecedented insecurity. They should be teaching the pauperised that N10,000, which can hardly produce a decent meal today, debases anyone who collects such filthy lucre to vote for demons. The Obidients should understand that when, to manipulate elections, any thug calls himself a Master of Ceremonies for Mayhem and Chaos (MC 4 MC), even in Oshodi, Lagos, their cadres must confront his platoon of illegally armed marauders with a million-strong, flag-waving chanters of patriotic songs.

Obidients should replicate Czechoslovakia’s 1989 Velvet Revolution. When a judge is to pronounce on electoral matters, a million chanting Obidients should deluge the court’s precincts. Following any unjust verdict, the judge must run the gamut of their numbers, to trade unfelt handshakes with 500,000 unsmiling males and embrace the formidable bosoms of 500,000 grimacing women. Such mass rallies will brand base judicial psyches with the truisms that khaki no be leather and kinkana no de sour.

Obidients should number heavily among permanent and ad hoc electoral personnel, preventing shifty hands from election-day superimposition of falsity on already counted and signed votes. Obidients should, in their millions, occupy the approaches to polling booths and collation centres, certain that neither uniformed force nor hired hoodlums can erase a people thoroughly fed up to the hairline with kakistocracy. Dear Obidients. Remember that a peaceful disposition does not discount the human right of self-defence. Never forget that your name is Order. Your name is Courage. Your name is Presence.

The views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Law & Society Magazine.

International Day of the Boy Child 2026: The alarming truth about Nigeria’s forgotten boys

By Lillian Okenwa

As conversations around gender equality and equity continue to evolve globally, a difficult question is beginning to surface in Nigeria: What happens when an entire generation of boys grows up emotionally unsupported, economically vulnerable and socially adrift?

This year’s International Day of the Boy Child is forcing that question into the open.

Behind the speeches, hashtags and ceremonial messages lies an increasingly troubling reality. Across schools, communities and digital spaces, many boys are quietly battling pressures that few adults fully understand and even fewer institutions are prepared to address.

Read Also: [Video] International Day of the Boy Child: The forgotten ones…

The warning signs are everywhere.

Millions are out of school. Many are struggling silently with emotional distress. Others are being drawn into cybercrime, cultism, drug abuse and violence long before adulthood. Beneath it all sits a deeper crisis — a culture that teaches boys to endure pain privately while offering little guidance on how to process fear, rejection, anxiety or failure.

For years, conversations about vulnerable children have understandably centred on girls. But child development experts, educators and advocacy groups now say the neglect of boys is becoming impossible to ignore.

Recent field findings from the Elizabethan H&H Foundation reveal just how fragile many young boys have become beneath the surface.

Through its Missing Curriculum and Uplifters’ Club initiatives, the foundation conducted structured engagements involving over 450 students, with 300 responses later analysed in detail. What emerged was not the portrait of rebellious or morally lost teenagers often portrayed in public discourse.

Instead, researchers encountered boys struggling with identity, emotional pressure and an overwhelming need for acceptance.

According to the foundation’s founder, Mrs Oyinade Samuel-Eluwole, the central issue was not a lack of knowledge about right and wrong. Many boys already understood the consequences of harmful choices. The real problem was their inability to withstand social pressure once they found themselves inside difficult environments.

The data was striking.

Out of 249 students who admitted peer pressure affected their daily decisions, 93 said their biggest fear was being mocked or ridiculed. Seventy students said they simply wanted to belong. Sixty-seven feared losing friendships if they resisted group influence. Another 60 admitted they often did not know how or when to say no.

Only 10 students expressed confidence in resisting pressure completely.

What these figures reveal is a generation of boys deeply influenced by the emotional politics of acceptance and exclusion.

In many cases, the desire to fit in is becoming stronger than personal conviction.

That vulnerability is increasingly intersecting with criminal behaviour.

Among 130 students assessed during one of the sessions, 79 disclosed they had experienced pressure to engage in cybercrime-related activities. The finding offers a disturbing glimpse into how internet fraud and other illegal activities are becoming normalised within certain adolescent peer circles.

For many young boys, cybercrime is no longer viewed purely as criminal behaviour. It is increasingly being packaged socially as survival, status or proof of success.

Experts warn that this shift is dangerous.

Once criminality becomes socially acceptable among teenagers, intervention becomes significantly harder.

The psychological dimension of the findings may be even more worrying.

Out of another group of 170 students, 126 admitted they had made decisions they later regretted — not because they lacked information, but because emotions, fear, confusion or pressure overpowered judgment in critical moments.

Perhaps most concerning was the emotional isolation uncovered during the sessions. Thirty-six students admitted they had nobody to talk to when stressed. No trusted adult. No counsellor. No emotional outlet. This reflects a wider cultural problem affecting boys across Nigeria and beyond.

From childhood, many boys are raised within rigid expectations of masculinity that leave little room for vulnerability. They are taught to suppress emotion, absorb pressure and endure hardship quietly. Asking for help is often interpreted as weakness. Emotional honesty is discouraged. Pain is internalised.

The result is a generation learning survival before emotional maturity.

Globally, mental health experts have repeatedly warned about the consequences of this model. The World Health Organisation notes that men account for significantly higher suicide rates worldwide, partly because they are less likely to seek psychological support.

In Nigeria, where economic hardship and insecurity continue to intensify daily pressures, the consequences may be even more severe. The educational crisis alone is staggering.

An estimated 7.4 million Nigerian boys are currently out of school. Many are forced into street hawking, child labour, begging or survival-driven migration at an early age. Others become vulnerable to recruitment by criminal gangs, armed groups, political thugs or extremist networks.

Advocates say these realities are not disconnected from the country’s broader insecurity crisis.

Neglected boys often become vulnerable men and vulnerable men are easier to radicalise, manipulate or exploit.

The problem extends far beyond classrooms.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Nigeria is facing one of the world’s most severe substance abuse crises, with roughly 14.3 million Nigerians reportedly involved in drug use. Young males remain among the most vulnerable demographics.

Meanwhile, UNESCO data shows boys globally are increasingly underperforming academically, while the International Labour Organisation estimates that boys make up 97 million child labourers worldwide.

These trends are beginning to reshape the future of young men across many developing societies.

Yet perhaps the most devastating aspect of the crisis is how invisible it often remains. Many boys do not openly rebel. They simply withdraw.

Some become emotionally numb. Others embrace dangerous ideas in search of belonging or identity. Many silently absorb anxiety about unemployment, financial instability, academic failure and an uncertain future.

More than 270 students engaged during the foundation’s sessions expressed deep worries about career direction, university admission and future survival.

Far from being indifferent, many boys appear terrified about what lies ahead.

That fear is unfolding within a society already stretched by inflation, insecurity, unemployment and weakening social support systems.

But amid the growing anxiety, educators and child development experts insist the situation is not beyond repair.

What many boys need, they argue, is not condemnation but guidance.

They need environments where emotional honesty is not mocked, where mentorship is accessible and where strength is redefined beyond aggression or silence. They need schools that teach emotional intelligence alongside academics, parents willing to listen without judgment, and institutions prepared to invest in counselling, vocational development and safe support systems.

Experts say practical interventions can make a significant difference.

Simple changes such as mentorship programmes, structured after-school engagement, digital literacy education, sports development, peer support groups and accessible mental health services can help redirect vulnerable boys before destructive influences take root.

There are also increasing calls for schools to introduce life-skills education focused on decision-making, emotional regulation, conflict resolution and responsible masculinity.

Advocates believe these conversations must start early, long before boys encounter pressure from the streets, social media or criminal networks.

Community leaders and parents are also being urged to rethink long-standing cultural expectations that discourage boys from expressing emotion or seeking help.

This is because many boys are not refusing guidance. They are starving for it. This broader emotional burden is also affecting adult men.

The recent killing of Mallam Bashar Sani in Zamfara State became a haunting example of the crushing expectations many Nigerian men carry privately. Sani reportedly spent years paying huge ransom sums to secure the release of abducted relatives before eventually being kidnapped and dying in captivity himself after further demands and alleged torture.

His story resonated nationally because it reflected a painful reality many men understand intimately: the pressure to protect, provide and remain emotionally unbreakable, even under impossible conditions.

The tragedy is that many men are suffering quietly while pretending to cope.

And boys are watching.

This is why advocacy groups increasingly argue that conversations around the boy child must move beyond symbolic recognition and become a serious national development priority.

A number of organisations are now pushing interventions centred on emotional intelligence, mentorship, resilience, identity formation and practical life skills.

The goal is not to compete with the empowerment of girls. It is to prevent boys from becoming emotionally abandoned in the process.

Supporters argue that healthy societies require emotionally healthy boys as much as empowered girls.

This is because when boys grow up disconnected from guidance, emotional support and opportunity, the consequences rarely remain personal. They eventually spill into schools, homes, streets, politics and national security.

As Nigeria marks the International Day of the Boy Child 2026, one message is becoming increasingly difficult to dismiss:

Many boys are not just growing up loud or rebellious; they are growing up unheard. And when emotional struggle is ignored for too long, it rarely disappears. It often resurfaces as anger, isolation, violence, addiction, or despair.

A lawyer and equity advocate, Lillian can be reached at [email protected]

Max Amuchie, CEO of Sundiata Post, joins ResearchGate, expanding global reach of The Insecurity Triad

ABUJA, Nigeria – Dr. Max Amuchie, CEO and Theorist-In-Chief of Sundiata Post and author of the weekly syndicated column ‘The Sunday Stew’, on Friday joined ResearchGate — the world’s largest academic networking platform with over 25 million researchers from 193 countries — completing his strategic presence across the leading global academic research and networking infrastructure.

This move forms part of a deliberate escalation to position The Insecurity Triad, his original analytical framework within international scholarly and policy circles. In under two months, Amuchie has built one of the most systematic original contributions to understanding Nigeria’s security crisis from outside the formal academy, developed through consistent public writing and now actively archived and shared on major academic platforms.

Global Academic Infrastructure Footprint

Amuchie has now established a verified presence on the core platforms that power contemporary open-access scholarship:
ResearchGate (joined Friday): The premier network for researchers to share, discover, and collaborate on peer-reviewed work, preprints, and projects.

Academia.edu: The world’s largest research-sharing platform with over 250 million users.

Harvard Dataverse: Harvard University’s trusted open repository for datasets and papers.

Zenodo (CERN/European OpenAIRE): Assigns permanent DOIs for citable research outputs.

OSF (Open Science Framework): Supports transparent, reproducible research workflows.

SSRN: Social Science Research Network, the leading social sciences preprint platform used by top scholars including Nobel laureates.

A presence across all six platforms is uncommon even for established academics. For a working journalist and public intellectual, it represents a significant achievement in bridging public commentary and scholarly engagement.

The Insecurity Triad Framework

The Insecurity Triad models Nigeria’s security crisis as a convergent system in which kidnapping (Money), banditry (Land), and terrorism (Mind) function as mutually reinforcing components rather than isolated threats.

The framework draws on key thinkers including Ali Mazrui, Claude Ake, Jean-François Bayart, Achille Mbembe, and William Reno, while offering an original synthesis tailored to West African realities.
It has been further developed into the Trinity of State Decay, which analyses the emergence of rival sovereignties — the Institutional Mirage and the Shadow Order — and outlines a strict recovery sequence: protection precedes compliance, compliance precedes territorial credibility, and territorial credibility precedes institutional function.

Five instalments of The Sunday Stew’s Insecurity Triad series have already been published. A formal ten-part scholarly series is now underway, with Part One — The Insecurity Triad (Part 1): Foundations of Convergence and Rival Sovereignty already published by Harvard Dataverse, Zenodo, OSF and live on Academia.edu with SSRN posting forthcoming.

Complementing this is the Sundiata Post Intelligence Unit, which produces a weekly Security Review applying the Triad’s classification system (Money, Land, Mind, Compound) with convergence risk scoring to current security incidents.

Strategic Significance

Amuchie’s academic infrastructure push aims to move the Insecurity Triad from Nigerian public discourse into the global citation economy, where ideas are rigorously engaged, cited, and built upon. The pipeline includes think tank papers, policy briefs for international organisations, and broader syndication efforts.
“Nigeria’s insecurity is not a collection of separate crises. It is a system,” said Amuchie. “Kidnapping funds the ecology. Banditry controls the terrain. Terrorism provides the ideology that holds the structure together. Until we engage it as a convergent system, interventions will keep treating symptoms while the underlying architecture grows stronger.”

The full scholarly series, scope statement, media kit, and academic abstract are available on the listed platforms.

Tales My Patients Told Me: Your life or your chicken?


By Emmanuel Fashakin, MD, Esq.

This edition of “Tales” is dedicated to Dr Rotimi Orekoya (Larry).

In response to a newly bulging midriff, I resumed my morning exercise about a month ago. Due to the difficulty of squeezing in the time in the busy morning hours, I resorted to jogging on the spot while doing other stuff like brushing my teeth and shaving. Occasional accidents are inevitable, and that was what happened ten days ago which resulted in my taking a dime-sized split-thickness skin graft from my scalp, at the junction of my parietal and occipital regions, on the right side of my head. Luckily, the bleeding stopped quickly and Abraham applied a large bandage to cover the wound.

All through the day, my patients expressed their sympathy for my head wound. Towards the end of day, a young Afghani lady, whom I had known and treated as a child, brought her husband to see me. The Afghani lady was sitting in a chair behind me and saw the head wound. Expressing concern, she asked: “Doctor, what happened to your head? Trying to sound brave, I quickly responded: “there were six of them attacking me in a dark alley, I floored four of them with my kicks and punches, but one them slid behind me and broke a bottle on my head.” The lady, who was probably used to my jokes over the years, saw through my fib and simply smiled, but I was surprised to see the sheer terror in the husband eyes. “How did you escape, Doc? How did it happen? etc.” I told him to relax, that I was simply joking. Then he told me his story.

Eight years ago, he arrived in New York from Pakistan, and speaking little English and finding no other work, he took up the job of manning the fried chicken store for a fellow Afghan in his Brooklyn store. Everything went well at first, but one night, a young man came to his store, announced that he was a gang member and that he needs three pieces of chicken — for free. My patient said he replied that he was not going to give him the chicken without paying. He said that the gang member threatened him, but he refused to give him the chicken. The gang member said that he was going to beat him up, and he replied: “look man, I am working now, and I am not ready for a fight. Come back at 9 p.m. when I finish my shift and I will give you a good fight.”

At nine o’clock, my patient stepped out of the store, and true enough, the gang man was there. But he wasn’t alone, he had two other guys with him. One of the men carried a switchblade, and the other seemed to have a bulge in his right pocket. “You’re ready for a fight?”, the gangman asked cheerfully. My patient said “yeah, I am ready, let’s do it”, standing his ground. The three men were completely taken aback by his bravery. One of them asked him “you wanna die?” The three men conferred among themselves, one said “let’s do it”, but they decided to leave him alone. They backed off and disappeared into the night.

The next morning he related the story to his boss. The boss almost had a stroke, and yelled: “you did what?”. My patient told the boss that since you did not tell me to give the chicken out free, giving it out to anyone without payment under any circumstances is “haram” to me. The boss told him: “you don’t understand. People get killed in Brooklyn for stuff like that all the time. The next time a gang member comes and asks for three pieces of chicken, give him five, the chicken is not worth dying for”. He told the boss that he now understood.

Just a few days later, a man staggered into the store alone, panting and sweating. He explained that he and his boys are hungry and he needs five chicken pieces immediately, and that there was no money. He gave him eight pieces and wrapped them up carefully, and the man sauntered out of the store. A few nights later on the way home, my patient ran into the gangman on the Subway. The gangman said, “ah chicken store man, thanks for the chicken the other day. I now have money to pay you.” Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a large wad of money and thrust some at him. “here”, he said. “Your cooperation saved me from committing a murder. That night, I had a gun on me, and if you had not given me the chicken, I would have killed you!”

I know from experience from another patient that it was not an idle threat. About 12 years ago, Barak, another Afghani immigrant, was supervisor in a chicken store when he heard commotion about someone taking chicken without paying in the front of the store. As he ran towards the commotion, the man drew a knife and thrust it into his right eye. He lost the eye and almost lost his life from orbital infections. He almost died, and has remained disabled till today.

So, if you come to New York City, especially Brooklyn, and someone asks you “your life or your chicken?”, please say “my life”, because pieces of chicken are not worth dying for.

Emmanuel O. Fashakin, M.D.,FMCS(Nig), FWACS, FRCS(Ed), FAAFP, Esq.
Attorney at Law & Medical Director,
Abbydek Family Medical Practice, P.C.
web address: http://www.abbydek.com
Cell phone: +1-347-217-6175

Security guards jailed for life over repeated sexual attacks on six-year-old for six years in Abuja

The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP)has secured conviction and life imprisonment of two security Guards, James Sule (30) and Adamu Yau (25), based in Abuja, for sexually violating a six-year-old girl for a period of 6 years.

The convicts were handed life imprisonment, without the option of fine, by Hon. Justice S.M.Mayana of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court Abuja.

According to NAPTIP, A victim, name witheld (12 years old in 2022 when the case was reported, but only 6 years old at the time of the offence), recounted that in 2016 her grandmother asked the suspect, James who served as their family security guard at that time to repair a broken toilet in their residence at Penthouse Estate, Lugbe, Abuja. While her grandmother returned to the kitchen, Sule remained in the toilet.

According to her, she was crying on the bed in the room over a cello tape she had spoiled when Sule called her into the toilet. He assured her he would help prevent her grandmother from punishing her. He then locked the door, forcibly removed her pants, and raped her while covering her mouth. Afterwards, he brought out a knife and threatened her not to tell anyone.

NAPTIP says this marked the beginning of repeated sexual abuse, fear, pain, and trauma that continued for six years.

The agency says in a bid to share the ‘sexual pleasure’ with his friends, the convict, James Sule, later recruited two other guards in the Estate, Adamu Yau, who is the second Convict, and one Muhammed, now at large. 

‘’Together, they had s#x with the victim whenever opportunities arose, threatening to kill and wipe out her entire family if she spoke to anyone about their act with her. The victim endured this traumatic abuse in silence for about six years. Over time, the victim’s parents noticed troubling changes in her behaviour. She became visibly agitated whenever Sule entered the house and refused to let him escort her to school or pick her up from the school bus.”

To get an explanation for the sudden, strange behaviour of the little girl, her parents took her to a prayer house where she confided in the Pastor that Sule, Yau, and Mohammed had been sexually abusing her, particularly whenever she returned from school before her parents arrived home.

‘’The parents immediately reported the matter to the Association for Reproductive and Family Health (ARFH), which subsequently transferred the case to NAPTIP. The convicts were immediately arrested. Following further investigation, charges were filed in court on 9 February 2023. Sule and Yau were arraigned on 23 October 2023 on two counts under Section 1(1), punishable under Section 1(2), and Section 5 of the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act, 2015. Both pleaded not guilty, and the trial commenced on 5 December 2023.

The prosecution presented five witnesses, including the victim’s mother, who testified tearfully. Also, 7 Exhibits were tendered, including a medical report showing that the victim’s hymen was breached; all witnesses were cross-examined.” the agency said

Speaking on the conviction, the Director General of NAPTIP, Binta Adamu Bello, OON, lauded the judiciary for the landmark judgment, which she described as a clear warning to all offenders across the Country.

“To Restore the Dignity of Man”: The slow decline of UNN and Nigeria’s broken promise

There was a time when Nigeria believed deeply in excellence.

Not the kind spoken about in political slogans or campaign speeches, but a genuine belief that the country could build institutions capable of competing with the best in the world. That belief shaped the founding of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in 1960.

Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe did not establish UNN simply to create another university. He wanted to build a new kind of institution for a newly independent African nation. It was designed on the American educational model and built to produce thinkers, innovators, professionals and leaders who would help shape Nigeria’s future.

UNN quickly became more than a university. It became a symbol of national ambition and intellectual confidence. Its motto, “To Restore the Dignity of Man,” reflected the vision behind it.

Today, that vision feels painfully distant.

Many of the hostels are overcrowded. Rooms originally designed for four students now contain far more. In some cases, students sleep on mattresses spread across floors. Broken facilities, poor water supply and deteriorating living conditions have become part of daily life for many students on campus.

Read Also: Built for Greatness, Now Breeding Survival: The tragedy of UNN

The physical decay is obvious, but the deeper concern is what it says about the country’s attitude toward education and young people.

Universities are supposed to nurture ideas, confidence and personal growth. Students are expected to learn, think critically and prepare for the future. But it becomes difficult to achieve those goals when basic living conditions are poor and survival itself becomes a challenge.

Environment matters. It affects learning, discipline, mental health and even self-worth. Across the world, respected universities invest heavily in student welfare because they understand that quality education goes beyond classrooms and examinations.

The contrast is difficult to ignore. While world-class universities continue to modernize their campuses and improve student life, many Nigerian public universities struggle with infrastructure that has been neglected for decades.

UNN’s decline is especially painful because of what the institution once represented.

This was one of Africa’s boldest educational projects. It produced generations of accomplished graduates across law, medicine, business, politics, academia and the arts. Many of Nigeria’s most influential figures passed through Nsukka at one point or another.

That is why the role of the university’s alumni can no longer be ignored.

Around the world, strong alumni networks play a major role in sustaining great institutions. Former students contribute to infrastructure projects, research funding, scholarships and campus development. They understand that preserving the institution that shaped them is also a way of preserving their own legacy.

UNN needs that kind of intervention now more than ever.

Government support remains essential, but alumni, private sector leaders and philanthropists also have a responsibility to help restore the institution’s standards. The university requires modern hostels, improved facilities, research support, better healthcare services and sustainable infrastructure.

Most importantly, it needs renewed purpose.

Nigeria cannot continue to speak about national development while its universities deteriorate. No country builds a strong future by neglecting the institutions responsible for educating its young people.

The condition of many public universities today reflects a broader national problem: the gradual normalization of decline.

What makes the situation at UNN particularly heartbreaking is that the university was founded on the idea of dignity. Not just academic excellence, but dignity in learning, living and thinking.

That ideal still matters.

The question now is whether Nigeria is prepared to fight for it again.

Agbakoba Questions Nigeria’s Missing Trillions: While Nigerians Suffer, leaders live large

Senior Advocate of Nigeria and former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) Olisa Agbakoba has kindled a fresh national debate over government waste, missing public revenues and Nigeria’s escalating debt crisis with a provocative policy paper asking a question many frustrated citizens have long whispered in anger: Where is the money?

At a time when millions of Nigerians are grappling with crushing inflation, rising taxes, soaring fuel prices and deteriorating public services, Agbakoba’s intervention strikes at the nerve of growing public frustration over how Africa’s largest economy continues to generate trillions in revenue while basic infrastructure remains broken.

The report, titled “Where Is Our Money? Nigeria’s Federation Account Crisis and the Case for Reform,” paints a damning portrait of systemic leakages, opaque financial management and a political culture critics say is defined by waste and elite opulence even as ordinary Nigerians sink deeper into hardship.

Despite years of loans from the World Bank and other global lenders, alongside aggressive taxation and record oil earnings, roads remain dilapidated, hospitals underfunded, electricity unreliable and public universities chronically unstable.

Yet Nigeria’s political elite continue to attract criticism for extravagant lifestyles, bloated government spending, luxury convoys and costly foreign trips in a country where millions struggle to survive.

Agbakoba’s report argues that the crisis is not merely about insufficient revenue, but about what happens to the money after it enters government hands.

According to the document, ₦14.94 trillion in federation revenue was deducted in 2025 before it ever reached the Federation Account, the constitutional pool where revenues are meant to be shared among the federal, state and local governments.

That figure represents nearly 39 percent of Nigeria’s total federation revenue for the year.

“Out of every ₦1 the federal government earned last year, almost 70 kobo went to paying back loans,” the report stated, warning that Nigeria is increasingly borrowing to fund services that existing revenues should already be able to cover.

The report also revived concerns about transparency at NNPCL, Nigeria’s largest revenue-generating institution.

According to the paper, NNPCL was expected to remit ₦1.1 trillion into the Federation Account in 2024 but reportedly paid only ₦600 billion, leaving a ₦500 billion shortfall.

It also referenced an ongoing Federation Account Allocation Committee investigation into allegations that the oil company under-remitted $42.37 billion between 2011 and 2017.

At current exchange rates, that figure is estimated at roughly ₦12.91 trillion, more than Nigeria’s entire 2024 federal budget.

“These are just the leakages we know about,” the report warned.

The intervention comes as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu continues defending his administration’s borrowing strategy amid growing public concern over Nigeria’s mounting debt burden.

Tinubu recently argued that borrowing itself should not be demonized if the funds are used for productive national development.

“If we have to borrow, we borrow. Borrowing is not leprosy,” the president said while defending infrastructure spending and major projects under his administration.

The presidency has repeatedly maintained that borrowing is necessary to close budget deficits and finance long-term infrastructure projects, arguing that even advanced economies rely on debt financing.

But Agbakoba’s report is likely to intensify incisive probe over whether Nigerians are seeing meaningful returns from the loans, taxes and revenues flowing into government coffers.

Nigeria’s total public debt climbed to ₦159.27 trillion by the end of 2025, according to figures cited from the Debt Management Office.

Recent projections suggest the country could spend nearly $11.6 billion servicing debt in 2026 alone, consuming close to half of projected government revenues.

Critics warn that the combination of rising debt, weak transparency and extravagant public spending is pushing Nigeria toward a dangerous fiscal cliff.

The report further argues that weaknesses in Section 162 of the 1999 Constitution created loopholes that enabled decades of unauthorized deductions, hidden accounts and weak oversight mechanisms around the Federation Account.

Even reforms like the Treasury Single Account introduced under former Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala failed to fully address the deeper structural problems, the paper argued.

For many Nigerians watching their purchasing power collapse while political officeholders continue to display wealth and privilege, Agbakoba’s question is becoming impossible to ignore.

If Nigeria keeps borrowing trillions while internally generated revenues remain shrouded in controversy and leakages, citizens are increasingly asking whether the country has a revenue problem or a leadership and accountability crisis.

The full paper reads:

I want to ask Nigerians one simple question, and I want us to actually answer it together: WHERE DOES OUR MONEY GO?

The money you collectively earn as a country, every kobo of oil revenue, every customs duty, every company tax, every regulatory fee, and every court fine. The money that supposedly funds our roads, schools, hospitals, and police.

Most Nigerians do not know this, so let me start with something that may shock you: Nigeria has a special bank account. It is called the FEDERATION ACCOUNT. The 1999 Constitution created it in Section 162. Every kobo of revenue the federal government collects on behalf of Nigeria is supposed to flow into that one account. Then it is shared among the federal government, the 36 states, and the 774 local governments according to a sharing formula.

That is the law. That is what the Constitution actually says.

In 2025 alone, according to the World Bank’s Nigeria Development Update, ₦14.94 TRILLION of federation revenue was “deducted” before it ever reached the Federation Account. That is 39% — nearly two-fifths — of what Nigeria earned, gone before any state or LGA saw a single kobo.

In 2024, NNPCL — Nigeria’s biggest revenue generator — was supposed to remit ₦1.1 trillion to the Federation Account. It remitted ₦600 billion. Where is the ₦500 billion?

There is currently an active FAAC investigation into allegations that NNPCL under-remitted $42.37 BILLION between 2011 and 2017. At today’s exchange rate, that is roughly ₦12.91 trillion. For perspective, that is more than our entire 2024 federal budget. From one company. Over six years. And remember, these are just the leakages we know about.

MEANWHILE, WE ARE DROWNING IN DEBT

Nigeria’s total public debt at the end of 2025 was ₦159.27 TRILLION (Debt Management Office, February 2026). In 2023, debt service consumed 78% of federal revenue. In 2024, it consumed 69%. The IMF and World Bank recommend countries keep debt service to 30–40% of revenue. We are nearly double that benchmark. Out of every ₦1 the federal government earned last year, almost 70 kobo went to paying back loans. That leaves 30 kobo for everything else: hospitals, schools, roads, police, military, civil service salaries, infrastructure, and security— for 220 million Nigerians.

And what are we borrowing for? In large part, we are borrowing to fund services that our OWN revenues — if they actually reached the Federation Account — should be funding. Let that sink in. We are borrowing money, at interest, to replace money we already earned but never collected properly.

This is why fuel is expensive. This is why school fees doubled. This is why your salary buys less every month. This is why hospitals have no drugs. This is why universities are always on strike. This is not corruption in the abstract. This is a constitutional account that has been broken for 25 years.

Section 162 of the Constitution created the Federation Account in 1999. But the Constitution did not say:

* Who is supposed to keep the account safely?

* How quickly money must be remitted after collection

* Who audits the account?

* What happens if you steal from it?

* Whether the public is allowed to see the records

Twenty-five years of silence on these questions has allowed every kind of administrative trick to take root. Agencies deduct “management fees” before remitting. NNPCL retains “costs” before paying in. Some agencies open unauthorised sub-accounts. Some collect cash and never remit. The 2023 House of Representatives investigation found that ₦8.7 trillion passed through the Treasury Single Account but agencies had proliferated unauthorised parallel accounts the whole time.

The Minister of Finance HERSELF admitted in 2024 that until August of that year, the federal government could not fully see its own balance sheet. Read that line again. In 2024, the people running the country could not see all the money the country had.

I know somebody will ask this in the replies, so let me address it now.

The Treasury Single Account was introduced in 2015 by Dr. Okonjo-Iweala as Finance Minister. It was a well-intentioned reform — consolidate government accounts, reduce leakage. And for a few years, it helped reduce the number of MDA bank accounts.

But here is the problem: the TSA is NOT in the Constitution. It was an executive memo. A circular. It can be undone tomorrow by any President. And worse, it covers Federal Government cash management — it does NOT solve the constitutional problem of revenues belonging to states and LGAs being deducted before they reach the Federation Account. The TSA addressed symptoms. It did not cure the disease. Hence ₦14.94 trillion still vanished in 2025 — a decade after the TSA was introduced.

Dr Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) released a policy paper this month titled “Where Is Our Money? Nigeria’s Federation Account Crisis and the Case for Reform.” I have read it. You should read it too.

The proposed fix is honestly so straightforward that it is almost insulting that we have not done it already.

Source: Dr Olisa Agbakoba Legal Policy Paper, April 2026 — “Where Is Our Money? Nigeria’s Federation Account Crisis and the Case for Reform.

Court of Appeal set for high-stakes banking showdown as First Bank, Obaigbena, AMCON clash over General Hydrocarbons

Nigeria’s corporate and financial sectors are heading into another major legal showdown as a series of high-profile banking and oil-sector disputes surfaced before the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal, setting the stage for what observers describe as one of the most closely watched commercial litigation battles in recent years.

According to a recent Lagos division Court of Appeal counsel list sighted by Law & Society Magazine, some of Nigeria’s most influential financial institutions and business figures are locked in a widening legal confrontation involving alleged debt exposure, corporate control battles, financial liabilities, and oil-sector interests centred largely around General Hydrocarbons Limited.

Among the headline-grabbing appeals is the legal clash between First Bank of Nigeria and General Hydrocarbons Limited in Appeal No. CA/LAG/CV/25/2025.

The matter is further complicated by another related appeal involving media mogul Nduka Obaigbena and others against First Bank of Nigeria Plc and others, signalling the deepening web of disputes surrounding the controversial transactions and relationships tied to the oil and financial sectors.

Court filings listed for hearing reveal a barrage of interconnected cases involving General Hydrocarbons, First Bank, Dolphin Drilling, AMCON, Titan Trust Bank, Union Bank and even the Central Bank of Nigeria, underscoring the scale of the unfolding legal warfare.

The counsel list shows no fewer than six separate appeals involving General Hydrocarbons Limited either as appellant or respondent, highlighting how the company has become the focal point of a broader financial and commercial dispute now threatening to reverberate across Nigeria’s banking and energy industries.

In another dramatic twist, the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria also entered the legal fray in multiple appeals against General Hydrocarbons Limited and others, a development likely to trigger fresh conversations about toxic debt exposure, financial risk management, and the long-running instability in Nigeria’s corporate lending environment.

The court schedule further revealed emerging battles involving Titan Trust Bank Limited, Central Bank of Nigeria and Union Bank of Nigeria Plc in separate appeals that could have broader implications for banking regulation, acquisitions, and financial oversight in the country.

Legal analysts say the concentration of heavyweight commercial disputes before a single appellate panel reflects the mounting pressure on Nigeria’s judicial system to resolve increasingly complex corporate conflicts at a time when investor confidence remains fragile, businesses face economic headwinds, and the financial sector continues to grapple with liquidity concerns, non-performing loans, and regulatory uncertainty.

The Court of Appeal notice also directed counsel appearing in the matters to submit authorities intended to be cited during proceedings, signalling the significance and likely complexity of the legal arguments expected in the cases.

With Nigeria’s economy still struggling under inflation, currency instability, and investor anxiety, the outcome of the appeals may carry consequences extending far beyond the courtroom — potentially reshaping commercial accountability, banking relationships, and corporate survival strategies in Africa’s largest economy.

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