Of African Literature, Nomads and New Garments

With ‘Nkan Nbe’, the late investigative journalist Kolawole Olawuyi achieved what many journalists aspire to: that the public get informed reportage about an issue, and that its perpetrators be held accountable. The show’s commitment to nurturing scepticism about the ‘unknown’ might be its most enduring legacy. 

Student unions in public universities played a significant role in Nigeria’s struggles for independence and democracy. Today, however, as godfatherism, repression and declining participation reshape campus politics, student unionism has become a microcosm of the very Nigerian political culture it once sought to challenge.

Since 2006, Nigeria has not conducted a nationwide population census. In the digital age, can we build a functional country without knowing how many people we actually are?

Decades of failed governance, banditry and economic collapse are driving young men from northern Nigeria across the Sahara in search of gold, dignity and a version of manhood Nigeria no longer offers them.