Teaching Comparative Government

Armed warfare in Nigeria As the presidential campaign begins in Nigeria, the warfare in the northeast continues and gets more complex. How will politics reflect this continuing warfare? Nigerian Islamists kill scores of soldiers in military base attack Islamic militants in Nigeria may have killed as many as 100 soldiers in an attack on a military base, according to media reports and security officials. The reported death toll is among the highest since President Muhammadu Buhari came to power in 2015 and comes as the country prepares for elections in three months. The worst losses came when militants overran a military base in the village of Metele in the north-eastern state of Borno on Sunday. The area is the centre of an insurgency waged by Boko Haram, which was founded nine years ago to bring strict Islamic law to swaths of Nigeria, and a second newer group linked to Islamic State. Nigeria’s military and government have repeatedly said they are on the point of defeating the milita...

Is this a sign that the economic elite in Mexico no longer control government expenditures? Mexico's incoming president says he'll cancel partially built $13-billion airport Buoyed by the results of a controversial nationwide referendum, Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Monday that his administration will cancel construction of a partially completed, $13-billion international airport and instead move forward with plans for a less expensive alternative. Texcoco airport project “The decision is to abide by the mandate of citizens,” the president-elect, who assumes office on Dec. 1, said at a news conference. “This is democracy.” The revised plan, he said, would save Mexican taxpayers the equivalent of more than $5 billion. But abandoning the new airport in the Texcoco area northeast of Mexico City also means the loss of some $5 billion that already has been spent on the project. The airport in Texcoco, which would have been the third largest commercial air...

A remarkable effort might return a huge pile of money to Nigeria. 'Abacha loot' to be given to poor Nigerians Money looted by Nigeria's former military ruler Sani Abacha is to be distributed to poor families, the government says. The distribution is to start next month after more than $300m (£228m) was returned by the Swiss authorities. The money, stolen by Abacha in the 1990s, is due to be given to around 300,000 households, with each getting around $14 a month. Critics fear the handouts could be a way to influence next year's election. At this rate, the payments - to be made to residents in 19 of Nigeria's 36 states - should last for about six years. The money was originally deposited in Luxembourg, and is a fraction of the billions of dollars allegedly looted while Abacha was in power from 1993 to 1998. He ruled Nigeria with an iron fist until his sudden death on 8 June 1998 after an apparent heart attack. President Muhammadu Buhari made the recovery of stolen as...

Strict laws about campaign financing don't mean much without enforcement. Mexican campaigns awash with dirty money, pre-election report finds For every peso spent by Mexican parties on campaigning and reported to electoral authorities, another 15 pesos goes unreported, according to a new study showing that the country’s political campaigns are awash in cash from dubious sources. The report, published… by the anti-graft group Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity, comes four week’s before the country’s presidential elections… Mexican political parties are showered with public funding and electoral laws impose strict spending limits in election campaigns. But individual campaigns regularly race past those limits while illegal money can also come from corrupt local governments, businessmen buying future concessions and contracts, and even drug cartels. Until 2000, the outcome of Mexican elections were never in doubt as the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) ruled uninterrupt...