Who has the mandate?
Constitutions and laws distribute authority. The practical question is whether responsibility is clear enough for action and accountability.
Public writing on Nigerian institutions
Systems & Society
A column about who holds responsibility, why delivery breaks down, and what must change together.
Recurring questions
Policy problems do not respect ministerial boundaries.
The column follows the dependencies that conventional debate often separates: authority from capacity, policy from implementation, and infrastructure from the institutions that sustain it.
Where does delivery break?
Budgets, regulators, utilities, courts and local institutions form a chain. Public outcomes are often determined by its weakest link.
What must change together?
Durable reform aligns incentives, capability, infrastructure and public legitimacy instead of treating each failure in isolation.
Featured column
Featured Essay
Can Tinubu explain why Nigerian cement is cheaper abroad than at home?
DOES President Bola Tinubu know that Alhaji Aliko Dangote says the cement he exports from Nigeria is cheaper than the cement he sells to Nigerians at home? If he does, has anyone in his government satisfactorily explained to him why? We, the people, demand an explanation. These questions have become necessary following disturbing findings by […]
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Recent writing
The physical and financial losses in Nigeria’s power sector
TODAY, I begin a four-part investigation into Nigeria’s power sector, drawing principally on Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) quarterly reports covering April 2025 to March 2026.
Nigeria’s balance sheet is not the households—Will someone tell NRS chairman, Adedeji?
IT was refreshing to see Dr Zacch Adedeji, Chairman of the Nigeria Revenue Service, on Seun Okinbaloye’s Politics Today on Channels Television last week. Few senior Nigerian public officials appear to explain government’s stewardship.
Projects are not a power system: Is Minister Tegbe confused?
LAST week, I intended to discuss how record-breaking heatwaves are increasing demand for cooling, prompting the International Energy Agency (IEA) to warn of mounting pressure on electricity systems. Nigeria must treat grid restructuring and coordinated distributed energy systems as national priorities for affordable electricity, industrialisation and economic development. The question is: what electricity system should […]
Should the NBA continue to monopolise the administration of justice?
MY original intention this week was to discuss a different subject. Record-breaking heatwaves are increasing demand for cooling, prompting the International Energy Agency (IEA) to warn of mounting pressure on electricity systems. I intended to argue that Nigeria must urgently treat grid restructuring and coordinated distributed energy systems as national priorities for affordable electricity, cooling, […]
NBA election: Can Nigerian lawyers guard Nigerian democracy?
THE Nigerian Bar Association recently elected Mrs Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, SAN, as its 33rd President, making her only the second woman to lead the Association and the first elected to the office.
Subject index
Enter the argument from a public question.
Each subject connects to a wider institutional system. Counts show the verified records already tagged across the site.
Working definitions
Five ideas used across the columns.
A shared vocabulary makes disagreement more precise. These definitions connect the public writing to the wider research and book projects.
01
Energy Systems
The connected infrastructure, technologies and institutions through which energy is produced and used.
Read definition →02Federalism
The design and distribution of authority across levels of government.
Read definition →03Institutional Design
How rules, incentives and public structures shape collective outcomes.
Read definition →04National Integration
The institutional and civic foundations through which diverse societies build shared national purpose.
Read definition →05State Capacity
The capability of public institutions to translate legitimate authority into effective, accountable action.
Read definition →From column to book
The Unfinished Nigerian Project
The forthcoming collection extends these arguments across constitutionalism, state capacity, institutional design, infrastructure and Nigeria’s search for nationhood.
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Find a column by subject, source or year.
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