The Liberalist

An investigative report published by The Liberalist has won the Alfred Opubor Next-Gen Award, organised by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID). Published on the 19th of February, the story “Abandoned Clinics, Neglected Staff: The Grim Reality of Healthcare in Sokoto’s Remote Areas,” was authored by Shereefdeen Ahmad, a staff writer at The Liberalist, as a part of the Frontline Investigative Program, an initiative supported by the Africa Data Hub and Orodata Science. Shereefdeen also emerged as the runner-up for the Best Environmental Story category. Read more: https://lnkd.in/dP-sV4Gk ?TheLiberalist #AfricaDataHub #AlfredOpuborNextGenAwards #Award #HealthStory #CJID #Data #OrodataScience #TheLiberalist

Protectionism is one of the major challenges facing African economies. Countries like Libya and Nigeria impose restrictive import licensing systems and tariffs, which limit market access and reduce competition. These policies may be intended to protect local industries, but they ultimately harm consumers by limiting access to affordable goods and services. #freedom #economy #africa

"As global economic freedom declines for the third consecutive year, Africa, in particular, fares poorly." In this week's Letters of Reasoning (LoR), we analysed The Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom Index, showing that African countries suffer from self-inflicted policies like protectionism and bureaucratic bottlenecks.

Nigeria’s #judiciary has become a symbol of dysfunction, sabotaging the very fabric of justice and eroding public confidence. But things could change with the wake-up action of an uncompromising oversight judicial body that consistently calls the #judges into account.

Amidst the crashing of public trust in Nigeria's judiciary, the National Judicial Council Nigeria NJC has made a significant stride: recommending the compulsory retirement of two heads of court and imposing sanctions on several other judicial officers. In a petition submitted to the council, Justice T. E. Chukwuemeka, the Chief Judge of Imo state, and Kadi Babagana Mahdi, the Grand Kadi of Yobe state, were alleged of falsifying their dates of birth. Swearing to an affidavit to fraudulently change dates of birth is a breach of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act that criminalises “falsification,” an intentional act of altering or creating information to mislead and defraud others. Read more as written by Shereefdeen Ahmad: https://lnkd.in/dNK5Qj23 ?The Liberalist #AgeFalsification #Judges #Judiciary #NationalJudicialCouncil #NJC

In Africa, unfavourable regulations, including internal and external, are limiting growth, creating barriers to market access, and reducing competition. Specifically, regulation constraints like high tariffs and import taxes hinder inter-country trade. While countries like Algeria, Nigeria, and Libya may impose these taxes to protect local industries, this system hikes the prices of imported products, which hampers foreign investments and a seamless intracontinental trade. Click link in our bio to read full analysis. #AfricanGovernments #EconomicFreedom #EconomicFreedomIndex2024

The Fraser Institute‘s Economic Freedom of the World 2024 report recently revealed a disturbing trend: global economic freedom has fallen for the third consecutive year. Africa, in particular, performs poorly, with Algeria ranking 161 out of 165 evaluated economies, Libya 157, South Africa 81, and Nigeria 113. This is due to the fact that several African countries have a similar habit of protectionism, especially the act of restricting imports in favour of local products. But this is at the detriment of consumers who could have enjoyed lower prices of goods. Research reveals that African countries’ poor performance is a result of several regulatory bottlenecks hindering business innovations, development and expansion. However, the continent can still trim things around if the policymakers prioritise regulatory reforms and invest in institutional capacity building to reverse the declining economic freedom trend. Read full analysis here as written by Favour Adeboye: https://lnkd.in/dxCJ3G-h ?TheLiberalist #AfricanGovernments #EconomicFreedom #EconomicFreedomIndex2024 #economy #FraserInstitute #FreeMarket

FiNCON Abuja 2024 by Ominira Initiative came with many Libertarian insights and how Africa can mitigate the challenges to promoting Free Entreprise across the continent and even back home. Our partnership during the conference solidified the joint efforts of CSOs in Nigeria to bridge the gap towards policy reforms and sustainability. We are thrilled to have had our Programs Director Eric Mobu join the poll of speakers at this conference to discuss with other Think Tank founders, discuss on the Civil Responsibilities of CSOs in advancing policy reforms for economic advancement.

By imposing an age limit on access to SSCE and UTME, the government is veering away from the spirit of the UBE Act. Instead of expanding educational opportunities, this policy narrows them, limiting students’ access to tertiary institutions based on arbitrary age criteria rather than academic readiness. The age-pegging policy contradicts the core principle of merit-based access to education, enshrined in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that “higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.” Check out the article here: https://lnkd.in/dU4BSR9Y #UTME #SSCE #Education #EqualAccess

Check out our latest newsletter titled — “Nigeria Might Be Asking Its Future to Wait”. It is apparent that Nigeria is set to delay innovation, progress, and growth. In August, Nigeria’s Minister of Education announced a policy that will bar candidates under 18 from sitting for the entrance exams to tertiary institutions. This policy only means one thing—that Nigeria is giving other nations a head start in harnessing the potential of their youth. There is a need to rethink this policy and prioritize merit-based education. Read more on this: https://lnkd.in/dU4BSR9Y #EducationForAll #MeritOverAge #TheLiberalist #Newsletter