Shortfall In Care: How Weak Neonatal Care Governance Is Costing Nigeria Newborn Lives
Nigeria’s persistently high neonatal mortality is not a failure of medical knowledge, nor is it primarily a consequence of insufficient specialised equipment. It reflects weak neonatal care governance: a system […]
From Policy to Practice: Strengthening Local Governments to End Open Defecation in Nigeria
Executive Summary Nigeria’s traditional authority system—long central to local governance—is becoming increasingly unstable due to weak institutional frameworks, inconsistent legal standards, and rising political interference. Across rural and peri-urban communities, traditional rulers play vital roles in dispute resolution, land management, and community mobilisation. Yet the mechanisms governing their recognition, suspension, and removal remain fragmented and unpredictable. Between 2020 and 2025, at least 30 publicly reported chieftaincy disputes across several states revealed systemic governance failures rather than isolated incidents. These disruptions are driven by gaps in local government administration, divergent state laws, prolonged judicial processes, and weakly formalised advisory systems. Executive discretion—particularly during electoral cycles—has further intensified instability, undermining procedural credibility and public trust. The consequences are immediate and material: leadership vacuums delay development projects, weaken local security coordination, and erode institutional legitimacy in already fragile settings. Despite their continued relevance, traditional institutions operate within a constitutional grey zone, lacking clear and enforceable governance standards. This brief argues that stabilisation—not expansion—of traditional authority is required. It proposes four priorities: ● Standardizing due-process safeguards, ● Accelerating judicial resolution, ● Institutionalizing structured consultation, and ● Modernizing administrative systems. Strengthening these mechanisms is essential to restoring predictability, legitimacy, and coherence in Nigeria’s subnational governance.
Closing Gendered Governance Gaps in Nigeria: Strengthening State Capacity
Why Gendered Gaps Matter for State Performance Nigeria enters a period in which institutional performance will determine whether the state can manage tightening fiscal space, rapid demographic expansion and a […]
The Price of Power in Nigeria’s Parties
By Dr Izuchukwu Christiantus Anyanwu
Governing Digital Engagement: Civilian Oversight and Institutional Failure in West and Central Africa
Introduction Digital connectivity has expanded political participation across West and Central Africa, yet this expansion has coincided with an unprecedented erosion of civilian authority. Between 2020 and 2023, the region […]
Financing Access And Accountability In Nigeria’s National Examination System
Introduction Standardised national examinations occupy a central position within Nigeria’s education governance architecture. They function not only as instruments for assessing learning outcomes, but also as institutional gateways that regulate […]
False Typhoid Diagnoses and The Erosion of Diagnostic Governance in Nigeria
Nigeria’s health system is increasingly shaped by a quiet but consequential distortion: the routine overdiagnosis of typhoid fever. What appears, at first glance, as a clinical convenience is, in fact, […]
Beyond Force: Poverty, Hunger and Nigeria’s Security Failure
By Oladiran Blessed
From Audit to Architecture: Fixing Nigeria’s Ghost Worker Problem
The Fiscal Stakes: Why Payroll Integrity Is Urgent Nigeria’s payroll system sits at the intersection of fiscal policy, public service delivery, and state legitimacy. The sheer scale of the public […]
Fixing Nigeria’s Foundational Learning Crisis Curriculum Reform, Institutional Alignment, and Political Feasibility
Diagnosing Nigeria’s Learning Crisis Weak Foundational Outcomes To understand the scale and implications of Nigeria’s learning crisis, it is necessary first to examine foundational literacy and numeracy outcomes among primary […]