What she said.

I have spent a decade plus studying anti-gay laws in Africa and I can tell you the Ghana version is even CRAZIER than all the others.

I mean, over-the-top, paranoia induced, way out of line, extremely batshit crazy.

Let me do a list of the top hits.

https://twitter.com/rightifyghana/status/1766216041992945997

Every Ghanaian now has a duty to ‘promote and protect’ heterosexuality.

Seriously people now have the job of going around to campaign for heterosexuality - as if heterosexuality ever needed assistance. (Section 2)

We Yoruba people are now basically led by smugglers, drug lords, low-level politicians, and patronage entertainers.

Gone are the intellectual and industrial giants, the scientific innovators, and the ideological politicians who crafted critical essays to articulate their vision. Our best are gone elsewhere, leading innovation abroad. Our worst are here winning elections with the support of our people just because they are Yoruba - people who, back in the day, would have been chased away with stones as thieves and brigands.

Reminder that the the antidote to a civilian dictatorship/weak democracy is not a military coup.

The antidote is civil society pushing for strong institutions through critical opinion, protests, litigation, and electing candidates who are anti-elite interests.

Never soldiers. When the military runs the govt, every soldier - from the private to the General - becomes an extension of government. The entire military becomes a political institution. While the Generals are fighting the West, the soldiers on the streets are dealing with everyday citizens.

What @cchukudebelu said about politicians repeating the mistakes of the 1st and 2nd Republics is critical.

History is replaying not just at home but all around. Coups are on the rise again and are being welcomed by the masses. This is very alarming and our leaders are to blame. When military interventions started deposing democracies of the 1960s, nobody was surprised except the politicians.

They were still jostling for appointments and sharing contracts while everyday people were fuming.

When the house came down, they did not see it coming.

So, about last weekend’s events.

I had come to Abuja to facilitate a human rights meeting with several NGOs and my accommodation was also booked at the hotel where the meeting would be taking place. 🧵 Soon as I landed, I sent messages to my friends in Abuja confirming that I was around.

As always, whenever I am in Nigeria, my friends would come welcome me at my accommodation, share a drink or two and generally gist. This time was no different.

For now.

This piece of history is often overlooked: Abeokuta had a separate treaty with Britain in 1893 and was not under the Southern protectorate but existed as a sovereign kingdom. In 1914, Lugard broke the treaty, sent troops into Abeokuta and forcibly annexed the kingdom to Nigeria.

https://twitter.com/MoghaluKingsley/status/1634628638929813505

The colonisation and amalgamation of Nigeria is often told as a linear narrative where the main actor is the British. But the different societies had their own stories of resistance and surrender. Some very compelling. Nigerian school curricula should focus more on these.

Let's talk about hegemonic Islam in Northern Nigeria today.

Hegemonic Islam, as a political ideology, is aimed at POWER and SOCIAL CONTROL through the imposition of value systems.

Hegemonic Islam is different from the practice of Islam as an individual’s PERSONAL religion. Islam as a hegemonic system in Northern Nigeria started from the conquest of the old kingdoms/communities that now constitute Northern Nigeria by Usman dan Fodio in the early 1800s.

This conquest resulted in the creation of new emirates to replace those kingdoms/communities.

Constitutional issues are usually ignored by many Nigerians until their rights are affected in a visible and direct manner.

However, here is your periodic reminder that the 1999 Constitution is a flawed document, and cannot work for the benefit of the majority of us Nigerians. 1. The Nigerian Constitution is, literally, a military enactment.

It was singlehandedly decreed into law by General Abdulsalam Abubakar as Decree 24 of 1999, without public input, without public debate, and without a public vote on it. This is absurd in a democracy.

Social indiscipline starts with leadership indiscipline. If a minister or commissioner does not have to queue in line or wait in traffic like everyone else, why would anyone else? Nigerian leaders are not indisciplined because society is indisciplined, it is the other way round. The next question then is: why are Nigerian leaders indisciplined? Because the political system allows them to be. It confers so much powers, privileges, and discretions on our leadership that, by law, they can act anyhow without accountability or consequences. And they do.

@Don_TEE A lot of the things we amass wealth for are for basic things. House, transportation, good food, security, relaxation. A majority of people stop at thar and live happy lives when they have those. Not everyone wants a private jet or a mansion on a private island. @Don_TEE And, as I explained, in the places I have lived, people have their house, a car or great public transportation, good security, etc with only minimum cash in their bank account. Because their society works for everyone. You don't need to have savings even if you get cancer.

This 700k salary debate drives home again the sad reality of how Nigeria monetises life such that any money you can get in Nigeria is valuable and yet any money you have in Nigeria is still too small.

In the end, both sides of the debate are still saying the same thing. Our reality as Nigerians is that we have to keep earning fresh income TILL WE DIE - if they want to live comfortably. This is because we have to keep paying hard cash for costly utilities every day. This is not normal in societies with proper credit systems and social welfare.

Let me do a quick thread on how the Nigerian legal system is used to systematically oppress the people while enabling corruption, nepotism, and patronage. So some of you can understand why we need restructuring/radical reforms.

https://twitter.com/ayosogunro/status/962265324371562496

Executive discretions like these exist in many of our laws. They are a heritage from colonial laws that exempted the British administrators from the general legal rules. Back then, private individuals could not legally carry firearms, except white folks. And now, rich folks.

There are some 40 to 50 'third force' parties in Nigeria. Choose one, vote wisely. But don't expect any to affect the election of those who have been in control of the political economy since 1960s.

Fixing Nigeria is not by elections, but by mass agitations for systemic reform. If elections were won by good sense in Nigeria, Gani Fawehinmi would have been president and Obasanjo in jail.

A third force cannot progress when the road has not been constructed for it. We need to create an enabling political environment first before urging people to contest.

A politician who refuses to campaign with corrupt money will not get elected in Nigeria. The one that gets elected will not arrest funders. This is why we need to protest for some constitutional referendum, allowing people to vote directly on redesigning Nigeria's structure.