Public Affairs Analyst

Nigerians seem so accustomed to man-made tragedies, bad governance and routine negative news that we fail to acknowledge little positive steps and achievements when they occur. We are inured to negative news so much that nothing shocks us anymore. When there are tragic events like terrorist attack, road accident, flashflood, epidemic and so on, we shrug it off and go on with our business as if nothing has happened. The common catchphrase is, “And so what? Life goes on! Today, I have decided to recall some of the positive, soul-lifting stories that happened in the recent past. I have decided to chronicle the silver lining in our nation’s dark sky. The first is the increasing use of law as an instrument of social engineering and the incremental positive output from public interest litigation and judicial activism. Not long ago, a Lagos-based lawyer, Festus Keyamo, won a case against the Federal Government over the appointment of military service chiefs. Delivering judgment in a case i...

“ In him you find the discipline of a trained soldier, the consummate nobility of a gentleman and the astuteness of a man of honour” – Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State paying tribute to Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Samuel Odulana Odugade 1 on his centennial anniversary. . Hearty felicitations to Kabiyesi, Oba Samuel Odulana Odugade 1, the Olubadan of Ibadanland on his 100 th birthday anniversary. In truth, I have never physically met the Olubadan but I have been attracted to the royal father by few similarities we share. First is that we were both born in Ibadan. Second, we are both Christians. Third, we were both educated in Ibadan. Fourth, we both taught in Ibadan and lastly, we were both born in April; while he was born on the 14 th , I was born exactly two weeks after.   Beyond the comparison, the life and time of Oba Odulana is a moral legation. He has been aptly described as a living legend. A man of many parts. He has been a civil servant (teacher and administrat...

On April 1, 2014, the Federal Civil Service Commission rolled out the drums and celebrated with pomp the 60th anniversary of the Service.  There were a lot of speeches, backslapping and conviviality at the event. All of these are in order. However, it is also the time for introspection and retrospection; a time for stock-taking. What is the scorecard of Nigerian civil servants in the eye of the public? How efficient, effective and professional have the average civil servants been in performing their assigned duties? How significantly have Nigerian civil servants contributed to national development? These are some of the posers the management and members of staff of the Nigerian Civil Service must find answers to. In principle, civil service is the engine room of policy as well as project formulation and implementation for any government. It forms the nucleus of government bureaucracy and ensures continuity in governance. There are administrative, executive, professional and cler...

On Wednesday, March 26, 2014, Nigeria’s Senate confirmed the nomination of Mr. Godwin Emefiele as the Nigeria’s Central Bank Governor Designee. The consummate banker who was head-hunted or poached from Zenith Bank Plc where he was until his new appointment the Group Managing Director has his job cut out for him. He succeeds the incumbent governor of the bank Sanusi Lamido Sanusi who was on February 20 suspended for acts of financial recklessness among other crimes. If a book will be judged by its cover, one would say that given Emefiele’s conservative mien he would most likely not want to introduce radical reforms the kind of which typifies his successor, SLS, tenure. But one could be mistaken on that. The new CBN governor has however promised to face core functions of CBN and has specifically said he would maintain strong exchange rate and not devalue the nation’s currency. He most likely will see to the full implementation of the CBN’s reforms such as the introduction of cashl...

Beautiful! Awesome! Scintillating, are some of the adjectives I used to describe my experience at the Ikogosi Warm Spring during my visit to the tourist site on Friday, April 4, 2014. I did not have it in my plan when I left Abuja on Wednesday, April 2 to attend the national conference on how to ensure credible governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun States as well as during the     2015 general elections. Organized by the Centre for Civic Education better known as Transition Monitoring Group, the conference was held at Fountain Hotel, Ado Ekiti on April 3. It attracted wide range of participants from the academia, civil society, media, political parties and the Independent National Electoral Commission. We deliberated and came up with potpourri of recommendations which we believed will lead to the conduct of credible gubernatorial elections in Ekiti and Osun States come June 21 and August 9, 2014 respectively as well as the February 2015 general elections. With the da...

How do you identify an American, Indian, a Ghanaian, and an Australian? What tells them apart? It is their culture. Their geographical locations, languages, food and drinks, fashion and style, literature, music, names, mores and values, all serve as means of identity. Recently, I have been reflecting and getting worried at the way our African, nay Nigerian identity, is being gradually eroded by a largely western culture. The affliction called neocolonialism has made us to despise our own customs and traditions while upholding American and European ways of life. The Information Communication Technology has been largely used by the western world for cultural imperialism. Through the traditional media (radio, television, billboard, newspapers, etc) and the social media ( Youtube, Facebook, Twitter , and blogs powered by the internet), we’re being systematically and subtly brainwashed to jettison our own cultural identities. The more we watch western films, reality shows, beauty pageant...