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Anambra 2025 governorship poll and tasks before Soludo

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  Election is like planning for a wedding. It takes a long time but the actual wedding solemnisation takes just a day. So, the Independent National Electoral Commission gave a year notice of poll for the November 8, 2025 governorship election in Anambra. 13 activities were highlighted by INEC and 11 of those activities had actually been carried out before the new sheriff in town, Professor Joash Amupitan was inaugurated as the new chairman of the Commission. Some of the activities include continuous voters’ registration, procurement of sensitive and non-sensitive election materials, recruitment, training and deployment of poll workers, party primaries and candidate nomination, accreditation of poll agents, observers and journalists, voter education, campaigns, signing of peace accord and ultimately the voting, sorting, counting, announcement of results and declaration of winner. After 150 days of campaign and polling, last Saturday, the candidate of the All-Progressives Grand All...
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CPC listing: Tinubu, solve Nigeria’s insecurity!

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  Since last Friday, October 31, 2025, when US President Donald Trump redesignated Nigeria as a country of particular concern, a sort of blacklist, I have been interviewed on the controversial listing by several media platforms.   Trust TV; LN247 Television; Galaxy Television; Citizen 93.7 FM, Abuja; Asaase Radio 99.5 FM, Accra, Ghana; Impact Business Radio 92.5, Ibadan; Channels Television and Pinnacle Daily   (online newspaper) have all sought my opinion on the issue. I am steadfast in my belief that while there may be concerns about persecution of the Christian minority in some states in Northern Nigeria, it cannot be categorised as a genocide. The dictionary definition of genocide is “the deliberate and systematic killing or persecution of a large number of people from a particular national or ethnic group to destroy that nation or group”. I am of the considered view that both Christians and Muslims have been victims of insecurity, particularly insurgency. While the...
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Governor Soludo, you’re in breach of campaign finance laws

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  The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC ought to disqualify Anambra State governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo. Why? He’s gunning for third term as a governor.   Meanwhile our law only permits two terms for a governor. That’s on a lighter note anyway. Yes, he was former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria from 2004 to 2009, a position he was appointed to by former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Thus, he’s been elected as Anambra governor once and is eminently qualified to seek reelection. I foresee a victory for him on November 8, 2025 when he will be contesting to retain his governorship seat under the All-Progressives Grand Alliance. Soludo is a brilliant economist who graduated with a first class at the University of Nigeria Nsukka and became a Professor of Economics at the tender age of 38. His tenure as CBN governor was memorable as he successfully carried out bank consolidation exercise under which there was mergers and acquisition of money deposit banks leading...
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#EndSARS at five and the #FreeNnamdiKanu protest

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  Monday, October 20, 2025 was the fifth anniversary of the #EndSARS protest that claimed scores of lives and humongous public and private assets.   In my column of October 28, 2020, I had observed that “The #EndSARS protests and their unsavoury aftermath are pointers to the trust deficit in government. When the protests began, they started off on the social media and escalated to street protests. Though the federal and state governments acted fast to calm frayed nerves by quickly acceding to the five initial requests of the #EndSARS protesters, the youths who participated in that epochal protests were not mollified because despite previous assurances, government had done little or nothing to assuage their fears and meet their demands. For example, they claimed that the dreaded SARS had been previously disbanded in 2017, 2018 and 2019 yet they continued to operate with impunity. Who then is fooling whom? As the saying goes, “if a man deceives me once, shame on him, if twice, s...
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Amupitan, INEC and challenge of credible elections

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  Last Thursday, October 9, 2025, President Bola Tinubu nominated Prof. Joash Amupitan as the next substantive chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission. He takes over from Prof. Mahmood Yakubu who was the first chairman to have served two consecutive terms of five years each. Amupitan, a professor of law and Senior Advocate of Nigeria was until his appointment Deputy Vice Chancellor (Administration), University of Jos. Aged 58, he came with his own number of firsts. He is the first Yoruba and first SAN and first person from North Central Nigeria to be so appointed. It will seem INEC job is now made strictly for professors as the last four INEC chairmen from Prof. Maurice Iwu to Prof. Attahiru Jega to Prof. Mahmood Yakubu and now Amupitan had all been from the academia. In time past we have had Prof. Humphrey Nwosu who conducted the landmark June 12, 1993 presidential election and introduced the Option A4 method of conducting party primary into our political lexicon. Th...
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Celebrating Jide Ojo’s 35 years of media advocacy

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  Today, October 12, 2025 marks exactly 35 years I started writing for the media. This is a milestone because if I were to be a civil or public servant, I should be retiring from service today. However, am far too gone to quit the stage now, more so as the media have come to define my personality. Not many know that I have my main job rooted in the development sector where I have equally paid my dues since 1998. I have said previously that the seed of media advocacy was sown into me in 1988 when I was attending Extramural class for my ‘A’ Level exams at the University of Ibadan. The planter was Prof. OBC Nwolise of the Department of Political Science (now retired). An activist of sort, Prof, then Dr. Nwolise will always charge us in the Government class not to be docile or complacent with the mismanaged governance system by the Nigerian military at that time.   And that there are several ways of advocating for good governance beyond ‘aluta’ street protests which students are...
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Averting another ‘Gen-Z’ protest in Nigeria

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  Who are the Gen-Z?   An online source said “Gen Z (Generation Z), also called zoomers, are the demographic cohort born roughly between the mid-1990s and early 2010s, generally from 1997 to 2012. They are known as the first generation of true "digital natives," having grown up with the internet and smartphones from a very young age. This generation is also noted for its diversity, its pragmatic approach to finances, concern for social and environmental issues, and a focus on work-life balance.” They are preceded by the Millennials which another online source says are also known as Generation Y. They are a demographic cohort generally defined as those born between 1981 and 1996. They are the generation that came of age during the new millennium and are characterised by being "digital immigrants" who are comfortable with technology and value immediacy and efficiency. Gen-Z are succeeded by Generation Alpha or Gen-A.   Generation Alpha are people born from roughly 2...
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