Ike Okonta, an Abuja-based policy analyst and writer, is currently a fellow of the Open Society Institute, New York.
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Ike Okonta
Commentaries by Ike Okonta
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Nigeria’s Poverty-Powered Insurgency
LAGOS – Nigerian security forces recently razed a northeastern fishing village, leaving almost 200 people dead and destroying some 2,000 hom…
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The Nigerian Crucible
LAGOS – Nigeria’s president, Goodluck Jonathan, who was elected only eight months ago, is already swimming in a sea of troubles. On January …
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Nigeria’s Homegrown Terrorists
LAGOS – Abuja, Nigeria’s sparkling new capital, is a city under siege. In August, Boko Haram, a shadowy and violent Muslim sect operating in…
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Nigeria, Slouching Toward Nationhood
ABUJA – Nigerians like political theater, particularly if it is loud, colorful, and has a rich cast of “good” and “bad” characters. Such mel…
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Nigerian Democracy Grows Up
ABUJA – Nigeria’s legislative elections, to be followed by a presidential poll on April 16, indicate that the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Par…
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Goodluck Nigeria
LAGOS – The bombs that exploded in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, as the country was celebrating its golden jubilee earlier this month are a dist…
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Nigeria’s Resurgent Oil Diplomacy
Russia is not alone in seeing oil as a means to transform its global standing. Nowadays, the mantra of President Umar Yar’Adua, who took pow…
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Nigeria’s Lost Chance
Nigeria’s first attempt since independence in 1960 to transfer power from one civilian government to another has just ended – farcically. In…
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Obasanjo’s Troubling End-Game
In Nigeria today, the key question nowadays is not whether President Olusegun Obasanjo will quit after his second (and final) term expires n…
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The Ghost of Biafra
When Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo made his surprise announcement on 13 January to begin a nationwide dialogue to discuss constitutio…
