The Bridge
Nigeria’s president named the trap. Then walked straight back into it. That’s not hypocrisy. That’s the design. I want to start with a number that took me a while to sit with. Nigeria’s debt-to-GDP ratio is 32.3 percent. If you look that up, it...
The Bridge
Part 4 The hall cost two hundred thousand Naira to rent. Ola paid it himself because the party hadn’t confirmed whether events at this scale counted as official campaign activity. He didn’t ask again after the first time he asked. Thirty-seven people came....
The Bridge
Part 5 He was told about the birthday party on a Tuesday. The party was on Saturday. He was not on the list because there was no list exactly. Or there was a list but it was the kind of list that existed through knowing rather than through writing. His cousin Bisi...
The Bridge
Part Four. What Would Actually Have to Change Three parts ago, we started with a simple question. Nigeria is earning more from oil. So why is Grace buying rice in cups? By now you know the answer is not simple. You know the number she hears on the news is not the...
The Bridge
Part Three. Where the Dollar Goes After It Arrives Parts One and Two followed the dollar before it reached the Central Bank. The invisible IOU attached to the gross reserve figure. The five rooms it passes through, each one taking something. The NNPC parallel economy....
The Bridge
Part Two. The Journey of a Dollar Before a single dollar from oil reaches the Central Bank of Nigeria, it has to survive a journey that nobody has drawn on a single map. That is not an accident. The journey passes through institutions with competing interests,...