Author: Elwin Mandowa

It is the bounden duty of every citizen to hold the government to account. In fact, citizenship is a call to duty – for the state. And there is no compelling duty which supersedes citizens subjecting their employees – the government – to scrutiny and constant vigilance. Criticising the government is within the rights of every citizen, and active citizenship demands taking the government through its paces. No government is without criticism, and none is too special for criticism.  However, we must distinguish between any government and Nigeria as a…

On Monday, April 12, 2021, Nigerians and the rest of the African continent read the important tweet that the owners of Twitter decided a few hours earlier to make Ghana its African headquarters.  Why?  What happened to the giant of Africa, Nigeria – which has more Twitter users than the entire population of Ghana?  Nigeria, who did this to you?  The tweet came from the CEO Jack Dorsey, who commended the forward-looking people of Ghana: “Twitter is now present on the continent. Thank you Ghana and President Nana Akufo-Addo.” Ghana’s…

I was visiting a senior over the weekend when our conversation devolved into the soul of the Nigerian banter: how is the country going, I asked? He paused. After a moment of reflection, he took a deep breath and said, “There is tension.” I thought that was obvious and required no special gift to see. The tension sucks. There is tension between those in government and those who are not. Even among those in government, there is tension between the cabal and the fringe players. Tension between those who think…