Author: Prof Farooq Kperogi

At the African Studies Association conference here in Atlanta late last year, Professor Tade Aina, Senior Programs Director at the Andrew Carnegie Foundation and one of Africa’s most cerebral sociologists, called me aside and said while he appreciated my interventions on the insecurity engulfing Nigeria, he was disappointed that I had never explored how mining fuels it. I never stopped thinking about the insights he shared with me, which several other people have corroborated. This week, I decided to stop thinking and start digging. Let me be clear from the outset that illegal mining is not the sole driver of…

By Farooq Kperogi Now that Abdullahi Ganduje has issued a (tepid) denial of Nasir El-Rufai’s televised allegation of his complicity in Abubakar “Dadiyata” Idris’ unexplained disappearance, I have a few thoughts to share. Dadiyata and I followed each other on Twitter when I was active there, so I have a fair sense of what he tweeted about. El-Rufai correctly described Dadiyata as a Kwankwasiyya devotee. But Dadiyata was openly critical not just of Ganduje but of several APC figures, including Buhari and El-Rufai. Sadly, his Twitter handle has now been disabled, perhaps because of extended inactivity. When Dadiyata was active…

If the whispers from the smoke-filled inner rooms of northern political conclaves are to be believed, former President Goodluck Jonathan is being courted to return to the ring for the 2027 presidential bout. He may or may not be persuaded. It is an irony too rich for fiction: some of the same northern political personages who orchestrated Jonathan’s ouster in 2015 now seek his resurrection for their own self-interested political salvation. Nigerian politics, as I’ve said before, is a theatre of paradoxes, with actors whose alliances are often dictated by the weather vane of self-preservation. Contrary to popular misconception, which…