The book is nearly seven years in print but I didn’t get a hold of it until sometime last year. Someone very close, whom I had told I wanted to interview Kabiyesi Oba Sikiru Adetona, had sent a copy over to me in Abuja. He advised me to read the book before the interview. I have since read the autobiography – Awujale – twice and was not disappointed. We have SaharaReporters to thank for an excerpt that removed the pin from the grenade. Anyone who has read Awujale might agree that it was a bomb waiting to explode. The surprise…

A trip is often defined by its surprises, so here are my biggest revelations from six days in Lagos, Nigeria. Most of all, I found Lagos to be much safer than advertised. It is frequently described as one of the most dangerous cities on earth. Many people told me I was crazy to go there, and some Nigerian expats warned me I might not get out of the airport alive. The reality is that I walked around freely and in many parts of town. I didn’t try to go everywhere or at all hours, and I may have been lucky.…

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Pius Adesanmi’s “A Nigerian, Library and Lawmakers” (Sahara Reporters, December 24). I will like to add a footnote to what he has raised: hopefully, the likely beginning of a useful conversation around the subject of reading, literacy, politician-constituency relationship, and the normative/practical value of knowledge and research in governance. At the risk of over-simplification, Adesanmi’s argument is that Nigerian politicians, unlike their counterparts in Canada and I suppose elsewhere also, do not read. They don’t do research. Nigerian legislators don’t make use of libraries either for research or for any other purpose. The average Nigerian politician…

As the world reels from the Brexit shock, it is dawning on economists and policymakers that they severely underestimated the political fragility of the current form of globalization. The popular revolt that appears to be underway is taking diverse, overlapping forms: reassertion of local and national identities, demand for greater democratic control and accountability, rejection of centrist political parties, and distrust of elites and experts. This backlash was predictable. Some economists, including me, did warn about the consequences of pushing economic globalization beyond the boundaries of institutions that regulate, stabilize, and legitimize markets. Hyper-globalization in trade and finance, intended to…