Political Turmoil in Nigeria

During the past few months, Nigeria has been in the news for the national Twitter ban that the country’s President Buhari instituted over the summer. What used to be a platform that gave international reach to Nigeria’s #EndSARS protests during the summer of 2020 is now banned for use in the country; President Buhari instituted this ban after Twitter deleted one of his tweets that threatened violence against Nigerian secessionists and temporarily banned his account. This ban is emblematic of a trend towards authoritarianism in the country. Among many other issues that Nigeria is grappling with, such as insurgent groups and economic insecurity, growing authoritarianism is a development that has worrying implications. Today on the podcast, we discuss the implications of rising authoritarianism and other threats to Nigerian security with guest Matthew Page.

Matthew T. Page is a nonresident scholar with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, an associate fellow with the Africa Programme at Chatham House, and nonresident fellow with the Centre for Democracy and Development in Abuja. He does consultancy work and co-authored Nigeria: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2018). Until recently, Page was the U.S. intelligence community’s top Nigeria expert at the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research. He has also served on the National Intelligence Council, at the Defense Intelligence Agency, and as an international affairs fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations.