Public Affairs Analyst

It is three days to the end of 2016. In another 72 hours, we will be shouting Happy New Year 2017 with a lot of handshaking, backslapping, phone calls, text messaging and other expressions of joy for seeing the end of this year and the beginning of a new one. It is thus in order at this point in time to weigh in and consider how Nigeria and Nigerians have fared in the last 12 months. I must say that this is a subjective analysis due to the fact that it is my personal view of the situation on the ground. My analysis shall span different sectors such as the economy, politics, education, security, and sports. ADVERTISING inRead invented by Teads In the outgoing year, the biggest news about the economy was the official announcement that the country had slipped into recession. The budget for the year was passed late having been embroiled in controversies over “padding” by both the executive and legislative arms. By the time the appropriation bill was signed into law in May, th...

On December 14, 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari presented financial estimates of N7.3tn to the National Assembly.  The financial plan was labelled as the Budget of Recovery and Growth. It is based on a benchmark crude oil price of US$42.5 per barrel; an oil production estimate of 2.2 million barrels per day; and an average exchange rate of N305 to the US dollar. The N7.298tn budget is a nominal 20.4 per cent increase over the 2016 estimates. However, 30.7 per cent of this expenditure will be capital. The fiscal plan will result in a deficit of N2.36tn for 2017 which is about 2.18 per cent of the GDP. The deficit, according to government,  will be financed mainly by borrowing, which is projected to be about N2.32tn. About 46 per cent of this borrowing, which translates to N1.067tn  will be from external sources while, N1.254tn will be borrowed from the domestic market. ADVERTISING inRead invented by Teads Last Thursday, a day after the budget proposal was pr...

“Don’t forget that nobody even knew that the team would emerge victorious; if we were confident they would emerge victorious, all the federation would have done is to plan for process of participation and entitlement…” ADVERTISING inRead invented by Teads – Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung After two weeks of trading tackles (November 19 – December 3, 2016) Nigeria’s Super Falcons in Yaounde, Cameroon won the 2016 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations for the eighth time after beating host Cameroon 1-0 before a capacity 40,000 crowd. An 84th minute goal from Desire Oparanozie was all Nigeria needed to retain the trophy they won in Namibia two years ago, when they beat the same Indomitable Lionesses 2-0. To get to the final, the Super Falcons beat Mali 6–0, played 1–1 with Ghana and trounced Kenya 4–0 to get to the semi-final. In the semi, the Super Falcons defeated South Africa 1- 0, the same margin with which they beat Cameroon in the final. Super Falcons have dominated...

Today, December 7, 2016, about 15.7 million Ghanaians are filing out to vote a new president and 275 members of parliament. Ghana, since the coming into force of her 1992 Constitution, has established herself as a bastion of democracy in Africa. The Electoral Commission of Ghana under the leadership of Dr.   Kwadwo Afari-Gyang was able to conduct successive peaceful and credible elections that have become reference points in the continent and the world at large. Unlike in Nigeria where chairman and members of the Independent National Electoral Commission holds office for a maximum of two terms of five years each, chairman of Ghana electoral commission has the same terms and conditions of service as a Justice of the Court of Appeal while the two Deputy Chairmen of the Commission have the same terms and conditions of service as are applicable to a Justice of the High Court according to Article 44 (2) and (3) of 1992 Constitution of Ghana. This security of tenure helps to strength...

The November 26, 2016 gubernatorial election in Ondo State had been won and lost.   The candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Oluwarotimi Odunayo Akeredolu, SAN was declared winner by the Returning Officer, Professor Abdul Ganiyu Ambali, having polled a total of 224,842 votes to defeat 27 other candidates.   The Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Eyitayo Olayinka Jegede, who polled a total of 150,380 votes came second while Olusola Alex Oke of the Alliance for Democracy placed third with a total of 126,889 votes. Akeredolu won out rightly in 14 out of the 18 Local Government Areas of the state but had the required 25   per cent of valid votes cast in the entire LGAs of the Sunshine State. The state has a total of 1,647,973 registered voters and 584,997 were accredited for the election while a total of 580,887 votes were cast. A total of 551,272 votes were valid and 29,615 votes were rejected.   Ahead of the election, during and after the poll, I had the...

It is 48 hours to the fourth off-cycle governorship election the Independent National Electoral Commission will be conducting after the 2015 general elections. In November and December last year, INEC conducted governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa states. Then, on September 28, 2016, it was the turn of the Edo State. On Saturday, November 26, it shall be the lot of the people of the Sunshine State of Ondo to vote their next governor who will take over the leadership mantle from the medical doctor-turned politician, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, popularly known as Iroko. Mimiko is serving out his second term having got judicial victory on February 23, 2009 almost two years after the April 2007 election in which INEC declared former Governor Olusegun Agagu as the winner. Both Justices Garuba Nabaruma and Umaru Abdullahi panels of the Electoral Petitions Tribunal and Appeal Court respectively had reversed Agagu’s victory and declared Mimiko the rightful winner of the 2007 governorship elect...

It is no longer news that the country’s economy is in recession. Many Nigerians are cash-strapped. This is as a result of salaries and wages not being paid as and when due, low patronage being experienced by those in business due to high cost of goods and services, non-payment of debts owed local contractors (this was estimated at about N7tn) and unemployment. This dire situation has made many to resort to borrowing to survive. However, many of us who are in the habit of incurring debts needs to watch it. The catch is not in borrowing but in repaying the loan. Yes, sometimes it is inevitable to borrow but in doing so we must think things through. I borrowed a lot when I was on my housing project. Wisely, I avoided borrowing from the bank, cooperative societies, the Shylock money-lenders, or any of such. I borrowed at no interest rate from colleagues, friends and family members. Thankfully, after a long while, I have repaid all the loans.   I have at different times borrowed ...

It is the day after the widely publicised November 8, 2016 United States of America’s general elections. Though there were elections into 435 House of Representatives positions, 34 out of the 100 Senate seats, 12 governorship seats and a lot of partisan and non-partisan local elections and referenda, the most talked about was the presidential election. Deservedly so! POTUS or better still, the president of the United States of America is the most powerful political position on planet earth. By the time you’re reading this, citizens of America both home and abroad would have determined who their 45 th president would be. While there are many presidential candidates, the real contenders were Senator Hillary Clinton of the Democratic Party and business octopus, Donald Trump of the Republican Party.   For more than a year, the duo had campaigned hard around the 50 states of the US soliciting for votes of the delegates to emerge flag bearers of their respective political parties be...

“ I pay tribute to the courage of all media personnel who put their lives on the line for the sake of truth, and I call for immediate action to secure justice in cases where journalists were attacked, harassed or killed.” -   Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the 2016 International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists. Did you know that November 2 of every year has been declared by the United Nations as International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists? Did you know that there have been 827 known killings of journalists over the past 10 years and that of this number only eight per cent of perpetrators have been held accountable? Did you know that 2012 is the deadliest year for journalists with 123 journalists murdered in cold blood? Did you know that 2015 is the second deadliest year for journalists with 115 journalists assassinated including the 10 media workers murdered in the unprecedented attack against the French satirical weekly, Charlie He...

“Non-implementation of the National Health Act 2014 which provides for not less than one per cent Consolidated Revenue Fund as basic health care provision fund has further worsened the travail of the health sector particularly at the grass roots, where the greater burden of the health disease resides. It has also added to the financial burden of the citizens in their quest to seek quality health care which in most cases is non-existent” – Nigerian Medical Association President, Prof. Mike Ogirima   As part of activities lined up to mark the 2016 Annual Physicians’ Week, the leadership of Nigerian Medical Association staged a protest march last Wednesday, October 26, to press for the implementation of the National Health Act 2014. It has been two years since former President Goodluck Jonathan signed the bill into law in December 2014. Unfortunately, the Act has been observed in breach since then. Worried by this ugly development, the NMA has threatened a lawsuit against th...

For some time now there have been heated debates on how Nigeria can fix her deplorable road network. Many are of the opinion that government is not doing enough to give Nigeria drivable roads. It is perceived as a double standard for the law to empower Vehicle Inspection Officers to certify vehicles road worthy and impound rickety ones from plying the road while relevant government ministries, departments and agencies are not held responsible for the bad roads which in no small measures contribute to damaging vehicles that drive on such roads. There have been several agencies set up to undertake road maintenance at federal, state and local government levels. I recall the existence of Public Works Department as an agency under Ministry of Works and Transport in the 60s. More recently, we have Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA). Yet, a trip on some Nigerian roads is like embarking on suicide mission given the depth of despoliation on such roads. They are filled with potholes, gull...