Public Affairs Analyst

“I know that one thing that is dear to your hearts is what the elections in this country will look like next year. But let me use this unique opportunity to reassure you and I am conveying this to my brothers, your heads of government, that our elections next year will be free and fair. It will be peaceful in nature that will even surprise the whole world” -President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday, July 24, 2014. Last Wednesday, July 23, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, addressed a press conference in Abuja. At the interactive session, Jega listed seven hurdles before the commission for it to have a credible, peaceful and acceptable elections in 2015. The challenges listed by the INEC chairman are: “Insecurity, funding, attitudes of the political class, apathetic and inactive citizenry, delay in amendment to the legal framework, completion of the review of electoral constituencies and polling units and prosecution of election offen...

Nigeria has been aptly described as a rich-poor country. That is a country that is well-endowed, well-resourced and blessed but grossly underutilises or wrongly utilises her potential. Indeed, had the country got her acts together, she would not have had any pact with poverty. Nigeria’s successive leadership has failed to harness her potentials for national development. What has been happening is that personal aggrandisement, ethnic consideration, religious affiliation, political leaning, and other primordial sentiments have been allowed to becloud our sense of nationhood. Self-interest or at best class interest rather than national interest has been the basis of governance. When I consider how blessed Nigeria is in terms of human and material resources, I shed tears for the underdevelopment in which we have had to wallow. All the indices of a failed state are present in Nigeria. Decaying infrastructure, insecurity, corruption, high mortality rate, soaring unemployment and grinding po...

It is 16 days since the Nigerian Medical Association called out its members on a total and indefinite strike. In the course of that period, the death toll at most of the government-owned hospitals has risen. Families of patients who could afford treatment at private hospitals within and outside of the country have had to take the painful option of seeking help there. Those who have no money resorted to faith clinics, herbal homes or simply entrusted their fate in the hands of ‘chemists’ and ‘pharmacists’, some of whom are charlatans. Many commentators have poured invective on Nigerian doctors for their decision to embark on the strike. I actually hold an opposing view to this. I blame the government. The question we need to ask our imperial government is why it fails to implement agreement reached previously with the doctors? Why the perpetual poor funding of the social sector like education and health? Why has the National Assembly failed to pass the National Health Bill? The hea...

“No evil deed can go unpunished. Any evil done by man to man will be redressed, if not now, then certainly later; if not by man, then certainly by God, for the victory of evil over good can only be temporary” - Dele Giwa (March 16, 1947 – October 19,1986)  Merchants of deaths, who are they? Are they only in Nigeria? What is their modus operandi? How do we check them? In truth, merchants of deaths are ubiquitous. They are found in every clime, creed and cranny. Africans believe in witchcraft, sorcery and forces of darkness that are capable of using some metaphysical powers to destroy lives, property and destinies. They form a part of the merchants under discourse. What about the terrorists and insurgents? I mean the Boko Harams of this world, the campus cultists, the armed robbers, the kidnappers, the ritual murderers, the hired assassins who kill, maim and destroy not with any supernatural powers like witches and wizards but with rifles, bayonets, grenades, Improvised Explosiv...

God has blessed mankind with various agricultural produce. Among them are fruits. There are so many of them such as paw-paw, orange, pineapple, cashew, sugar cane, apple, garden egg, water-melon, mango, pear, guava and others. Doctors and nutritionists advise that we should take a lot of fruits because they are beneficial to the body. They contain vitamins and a lot of other nutrients needed by humans. There is another fruit that is however not edible, yet very valuable. This fruit takes about nine months from the seed planting to harvest-time. The produce is called a child. The Bible in Psalm 127 verse 3 referred to a child as the ‘fruit of the womb’. There, the holy book also called children the “Lord’s heritage”. Initially, we hear of people selling their sperm, blood, kidney and other body parts for money. Nowadays, the notorious trade has graduated to include sale of children. The ‘modus operandi’ is broadly threefold: There are those who voluntarily offer their biological chil...

The June 21 gubernatorial election in Ekiti State is adjudged by accredited observers and political watchers as being very successful, peaceful, credible and reflective of the wishes of the electorates. The election created an upset as the incumbent governor, John Kayode Fayemi lost totally in all of the 16 local government areas of the state despite his acclaimed splendid performance in government.   Many tongues have been wagging on why he lost. One of the allegations leveled against the outgoing governor is his failure to provide ‘stomach infrastructure’ for the citizens of the state. By this, they mean he did not provide welfare packages, or to put it more crudely, he was not sharing money to the people. But is that true? It is on record that the Fayemi government in Ekiti State embarked on social security scheme for the elderly people in Ekiti State. Under the system about 25,000 senior citizens who are 60 years and above were being paid a stipend of N5,000 monthly allo...