Public Affairs Analyst

In order to shoot an arrow one needs to draw it backward with the bow-string. The same applies with planning for the future. It is always important to assess previous activities before one can effectively plan for the next phase of implementation. It is some 48 hours to the end of Year 2015 and it falls due to take stock of epochal events of the outgoing year so that we can draw the necessary lessons for the oncoming year. Of the few memorable events of Year 2015 none compares in magnitude to the 2015 elections. It was the fifth general elections since the country’s return to civil rule in 1999. Our elections got better and against the grain of palpable public apprehension about likelihood of widespread bloodbath, the elections were held after being shifted by six weeks from the initial February 14 and 28 to March 28 and April 11. By the time the votes were counted across five different political offices viz. president, Senate,   House of Representatives, Governorship and St...

The world celebrates the International Human Rights Day on December 10 of every year. This year was not an exception. The theme for 2015 was "Our Rights. Our Freedoms. Always." There were roadshows and symposia organised by the National Human Rights Commission in Nigeria while a number of electronic media outfits also held discussions around the human rights situation in Nigeria. In a vox populi conducted by one of the television stations, many of the respondents said they do not believe there are human rights in Nigeria. They hinged their submission on the parlous state of the economy as there is raging poverty, unemployment, decadent infrastructure, insecurity, etcetera. If one reads reports from international organisations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, one would be tempted to say that there is absence of human rights in Nigeria. However, I beg to differ. There are several international legal instruments on human rights. Some of them include, th...

The new INEC Chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu and five nation­al commissioners were inaugurated on Monday, November 9, 2015 after they had successfully undergone Senate screen­ing and confirmation. It would be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari at the maiden meeting of the National Council of States held on Wednesday, October 21, 2015 appointed Prof. Yakubu as Chairman of INEC; Mrs. Amina Bala Zakari as mem­ber representing North West; Prof. Anto­nia Taiye Okoosi-Simbine as Commission­er in charge of North Central; Alhaji Baba Shettima Arfo from Borno as Commission­er representing North East; Dr, Moham­med Mustapha Lecky from Edo as Com­missioner representing South-South and Prince Soyebi Adedeji Solomon from Ogun in charge of South West. Right now the new board is settling down to business. It would be nice to know what Yakubu’s INEC thoughts are on the issue of political finance breaches perennially being perpetrated by Nigeria’s registered political parties. I am saying thi...

It is gratifying to note that President Muhammadu Buhari has eventually presented the 2016 proposal to the National Assembly. The president came across as someone who appreciates the enormity of the expectations of Nigerians from his government.   According to PMB, the budget seeks to stimulate the economy, making it more competitive by focusing on infrastructural development; delivering inclusive growth; and prioritizing the welfare of Nigerians. I am fascinated by the following pledges made by the president in the appropriation bill: Home-grown public primary school feeding and free education for science, technology and education students in our tertiary institutions. Federal Government’s   plan to   collaborate with states and local governments to tackle the “chronic shortage’’ of teachers in public schools across the country by planning   to recruit, train and deploy 500,000 unemployed graduates and NCE holders to strengthen basic education, especially in ...

It’s dry season again! It starts about Octo­ber and ends around March of the follow­ing year. However, while it begins early in savannah region, it usually commence late in tropical rainforest or coastal region. In addi­tion, the climate change phenomenon aris­en as a result of ozone layer depletion from global warming has made it difficult to define precisely dry season in a country like Nigeria. There are several things I like about this peri­od of the year. It’s time for jollification. Most festivities take place during the dry season as it’s time when farmers harvested their cash and food crops like cocoa, palm oil, cotton, yam, maize and other cereals. As such, there is plenty of cash with more than enough to eat and drink. No wonder most celebrations are fixed for the period. Apart from Christian festivals such as Christmas and New Year which from time immemorial are celebrated on December 25 and January 1 respectively, most people ar­range for their weddings, funerals, house-...

Long before the discovery of crude oil in Oloibiri in present Bayelsa State in 1956 or thereabout, palm oil had been discovered, cultivated and used for diverse purposes. During the trans-Atlantic trade and colonial era, palm oil was very much sought after by the Europeans as raw materials for some of their factories.   According to WebMD.com, industrially, palm oil is used for manufacturing cosmetics, soaps, toothpaste, waxes, lubricants, and ink.   In a drama piece entitled “All Because of Oil” written by renowned playwright, Professor John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo which I was privileged to watch the stage play at the University of Ibadan Arts Theatre many years back, he featured how palm-oil brought so much pains and troubles in the colonial days leading to the deposition of King Jaja of Opobo in order to pave way for the control of the palm-oil trade by the Royal Niger Company. With every opposition exiled or gagged, the white colonialist was able to have a field day...

It’s era of change and given that the two gov­ernorship elections conducted after the as­sumption of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu as the chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission were inconclusive, some cynics have renamed INEC as Inconclusive National Electoral Commission. That is very uncharita­ble. Is it INEC’s making that the governorship elections in Kogi on November 21 and Bayelsa on December 5, 2015 were inconclusive? What many commentators on election do not know or choose to ignore is that conduct of election is a highly regulated exercise. Failure to follow due process and rules of engagement will result in nullification of the poll by the election peti­tion tribunals. At present, two major legislations guide the conduct of elections in Nigeria. They are the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act 2010. In ad­dition, section 153 of the Electoral Act empow­ers INEC to also issue regulations, guidelines and manuals for the purpose of giving effect to the provisions of the ...

Bayelsa State, better known as the Glory of all lands, had its governorship election on Saturday, December 5, 2015. Just like that of Kogi State earlier held on November 21, the Independent National Electoral Commission declared the election inconclusive. The Bayelsa election is one of the seven off-cycle elections in Nigeria occasioned by judicial pronouncements. The others are Anambra, Ondo, Edo, Ekiti, and Osun states. Bayelsa is the state with the smallest population in the country. It was created on October 1, 1996 and has a population size of 1,704,515 according to the 2006 census figures. The state derives its name from the acronym of three of its local government areas – Brass (BALGA), Yenagoa (YELGA) and Sagbama (SALGA). It is erroneously believed that Bayelsa is made up of only the Ijaw. This is untrue. The main ethnic groups in the state are the Ijaw, Kolokunu, Ekpetiama, Igbriran, Atissa and Biseni. There are 10 languages spoken in the state; of these, Izon, Nembe, Ogb...

On November 19, 2015, I moderated at the public presentation of Nigeria’s 2015 Open Budget Survey report. The event held at Barcelona Hotel, Abuja had in attendance participants from the civil society groups, media and representatives from some government ministries, department and agen­cies. Among them were the Central Bank of Nigeria, Fiscal Responsibility Commission, Office of Auditor General of the Federation, and Bureau of Public Procurement. The 2015 Open Budget Survey was conducted by the International Budget Partnership across 102 countries. The outcome of the opinion survey as regards Nigeria shows that the country has a long way to go in terms of open budgeting. The survey was held on three pillars. They are budget transparency, public participa­tion and oversight. On transparency, that is, Open Budget Index, Nigeria scored 24/100. This shows that the government of Nigeria provides the public with minimal budget in­formation. Similarly on Public Participation the country...

The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to effect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few states or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies” – Section 14 (3) of 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, as amended. On Tuesday, November 24, 2015, Speakers Corner Trust Nigeria organised a roundtable on the application of the federal character principle in the country. Among the resource persons were Olubunmi Ojo from the Federal Character Commission; Dr. Otive Igbuzor, who is the Executive Director of African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development and Mr. Henry Adigun, a public affairs analyst. The event was moderated by Ramatu Umar Bako who is the Country Director of SCTN. I was privileg...

Since the Sunday, November 22, 2015 unfortunate death of the former governor Abubakar Audu, the All Progressives Congress candidate in the November 21 governorship election in Kogi State, a lot of public commentators have offered legal opinions on what should follow given that the Independent National Electoral Commission had declared the poll inconclusive before the death of one of the 22 candidates in the race to Lugard House in Lokoja.   As the saying goes, the only similarity common to every human being is our differences. Expectedly, diverse opinions are being canvassed by both lawyers and non-lawyers alike. Even when INEC and APC took their respective decisions and communicated same to the public on the evening of Tuesday, November 24, 2015 that have further inflamed more passion rather than dousing the tension. In all honesty, both the Nigerian Constitution and Electoral Act never had clear cut provision on how to deal with the death of a candidate in an inconclusive ...

Trouble is brewing between the state governors and the Nigerian labour un­ions over the former's attempt to stop paying N18,000 minimum wage to Nigerian workers. The hint was dropped on November 18, after a meeting of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) at the Old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa. In a communiqué read by its chairman, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari, also the Governor of Zamfara State, he stated that the dwindling prices of crude oil had drastical­ly affected federation allocation to the states. He said: "The situation is no longer the same when we were asked to pay N18,000 min­imum wage, when oil price was $126 (per barrel) and when oil is $41 and the source of government expenditure is from oil, and we have not seen prospects in the oil industry in the near future". Very good and rational argument. It is a notorious fact that Federal Government since last year declared austerity measures arising from the fall in international oil market. Na­ira has had to...