8 May 2026
What Communities Say Off-Camera
There are always two conversations happening in Nigerian public life. The first is the one on camera. Measured, grateful, and politically legible. The community head thanks the ho…
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THE COMPLETE INDEX
Browse every essay and reading note.
A permanent index of published writing, with individual article pages.
1 May 2026
Why Leaders Must Listen Before They Decide
The elder who speaks first in council has heard last. The elder who hears last speaks best. The Illusion of Understanding There is a particular vanity that afflicts well-meaning l…
27 April 2026
The Architecture of Protection
Why Governance Structure Matters More Than Intent
27 April 2026
Hunger is a Governance Choice
In a world that produces more food than it needs to feed every living person, mass hunger is not a natural disaster. It is a political verdict and the state that renders it bears…
24 April 2026
What Effective Governments Do Differently
There is a temptation, when studying governments, to begin with ideology. It is a temptation worth resisting. History suggests that governments which improve the lives of their ci…
23 April 2026
Governance
The road to national ruin is paved not with malicious governance but with well-meaning governance that forgot to build the institution. The Tyranny of Good Intentions Nigeria has…
17 April 2026
Food Policy as a Governance Stress Test
"Tell me what a government does when its people are hungry, and I will tell you everything about that government worth knowing." The Diagnostic Power of Hunger Every government pe…
9 April 2026
Securing Oyo’s Food Future: Policy and Practice
"A fi ọgbọn ṣe oko, a fi agbára gba ọja Wisdom cultivates the farm; it takes strength to hold the market." ~ Yoruba Proverb The Paradox of the Breadbasket Oyo State is, by any rea…
2 April 2026
Charity Can’t Replace the Social Contract
A Generous Nation and Broken State Walk through any market in Ibadan on a Friday afternoon and you will see a trader quietly setting aside food for the woman who could not afford…
30 March 2026
The Weight of a Calling
“The great affair, the love affair with life, is to live as variously as possible, to groom one’s curiosity like a high-spirited horse, and to continually inquire what’s possible.…
21 March 2026
The State We Carry Within Us
Ilú ni bàbá omo The community is the father of the child. ~ Yoruba Proverb The Government That Is Not on the Map There is a government operating in Nigeria that does not appear in…
21 March 2026
Patience and Power
I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one onl…