Public Affairs Analyst

In November 2015, news broke that the Office of National Security Adviser un­der the leadership of Col. Sambo Dasu­ki (Retd.) has been used as a conduit pipe to fund the failed re-election bid of Pres­ident Goodluck Jonathan. It has been al­leged that part of the sum of $2.1bn meant for the procurement of arms and ammu­nition to fight insurgency, particularly in North East Nigeria was funneled into the presidential campaign of former President Jonathan in the lead up to the 2015 Gen­eral Elections. The Dasukigate otherwise known as Armsgate has thrown up many revelations. Aside the diversion of funds for election purpose, fraudulent arms contract deals have also been uncovered by the mil­itary audit panel set up by incumbent Presi­dent Muhammadu Buhari to look into arms procurement in the last eight years. A January 15, 2016 press statement is­sued by Senior Special Assistant to Pres­ident Buhari on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, said a number of of­fences were outlined by ...

The magic wand that secured President Muhammadu Buhari’s electoral victory in the March 28, 2015 presidential election was his anti-corruption antecedents and pledges. While he was a Head of State between January 1, 1984 and August 27, 1985, he set up several military tribunals to summarily try elected politicians of the Second Republic (1979 – 1983). Many of them were found guilty of graft and abuse of office and sentenced to long years of imprisonment. The electorate in 2015 wanted change from the deepening rot in governance and decided to vote for a man who they perceived had done it before and who had promised to do it again. That was how Buhari, on his fourth attempt as presidential candidate, was able to do the impossible in Nigerian history by defeating an incumbent President! President Buhari has been in the saddle for the past eight months and expectations are high. Since his inauguration on May 29, 2015, Mr. President has taken a number of bold steps aimed at fighting corr...

Election is very central to democracy and there are two election management bodies saddled with that Herculean responsibility in Nigeria. They are the Independent National Electoral Commission and State Independent Electoral Commission. Both were established by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended in 2010. While INEC takes care of elections into the office of the President, Senate, House of Representatives, Governor, State Houses of Assembly and the six Area Councils of the Federal Capital Territory; on the other hand, SIECs are to conduct elections into the offices of the Local Government chairman and councilors. Section 197 of the Nigerian Constitution says that each state shall establish its own State Independent Electoral Commission. The idea behind the establishment of SIECs is to ensure that INEC is not overburdened and that in tandem with our federal structure states are empowered to take responsibilities for the conduct of elections into L...

Fifty years ago, on January 15, 1966, the Nigerian military staged the first coup in the country led by Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu. Last Friday, January 15, was this year’s Armed Forces Remembrance Day. President Muhammadu Buhari and top military officers and other high ranking government officials marked the day in Abuja with the laying of wreaths in honour of the “unknown soldiers” who fought gallantly to keep Nigeria united. There were prayers for the repose of their souls, the release of pigeons as well as fundraisers for the legionnaires. One of the key reasons the five Majors, the masterminds of the January 15, 1966 coup, took over the rein of government from the elected civilians of the First Republic, is corruption. They accused the politicians of graft, nepotism, election rigging among other vices. Over the years, Nigerian military elite ruled for an added period of 28 years out of the country’s cumulative 56 years of nationhood. In fact, this Fourth Republic has been th...

As at the time of writing this piece last Thursday, the Federal Government 2016 budget presented to the Nation­al Assembly on December 22, 2015 have been reported missing by the Senate. My initial re­action is that this must be a crude joke. Howev­er, when Senate President had to set up a com­mittee to find the missing document, reality dawned on me. This is incredible and prepos­terous! How can a sensitive document like a nation’s appropriation bill develop wings and flew away from the hallowed chamber of the Senate? On Wednesday, January 13, House of Representatives Speaker, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara asked Clerk of the House to display the House’s copy of the budget. The FG 2016 budget has been a subject of intense controversies since it was presented late last year. For me, the document is a mixed grill of the good, the bad and the ugly. In par­agraph six of his budget speech delivered by President Muhammadu Buhari, he stated: “This Budget proposal, the first by our Gov­ernment, s...

I write to commend the Monday, January 11, 2016 CBN decision to stop the sale of foreign exchange to the Bureau De Change operators and the lifting of ban on bank customers who hitherto had been barred from depositing foreign currencies in their domiciliary accounts. I am of the opinion that these steps have been long overdue. I think CBN ought to have stopped the sales of FOREX to BDCs long ago given the fact that it was not an international best practice, in fact Nigeria is the only country where such is done worldwide. Second, the BDC in spite of the CBN noble intention had refused to support the stabilisation of the Naira. Rather, they are blinded by their own personal ambition for super profit. Imagine a situation where they buy Dollars at about N197 per dollar only and   sell same to ordinary Nigerians   at N250 per dollar or more. No wonder, as CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele observed that there was an exponential increase in the number of those seeking to obtain ...

“Sadly, however, the election was conducted at the price of several lives lost and mayhem visited on many communities by mindless brigands clearly summoned by those who do not respect the democratic process and have equally scant regard for the sanctity of lives and property” – Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State in a press statement on January 10, 2016 I am saddened, and greatly grieved, by the electoral bloodbath in Bayelsa State last weekend. How come a civil exercise metamorphosed into a war? Are Nigerian politicians ready for democracy? Can it be truly said that politicians contest elections in this clime to serve? How long shall we continue to shed human blood on the altar of elections? Will the victims of electoral war in Nigeria ever get justice? Will the arrowheads and masterminds of the January 9 and 10, 2016 electoral violence in the state ever get caught and prosecuted for this heinous crime against humanity? So many questions begging for answers. The Independe...

Government will lead the aggressive intervention to increase supply, by undertaking construction of public housing and formulate policies that will invariably lead to private sector participation and ownership to reduce our housing deficit. – Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fasola (SAN) in his inaugural ministerial press briefing on December 8, 2015. According to the renowned American Psychologist, Abraham Harold Maslow in his hierarchy of needs theory, there are some basic physiological needs of human beings. Of these, three are basic. They are food, shelter and clothing.   In Nigeria, there is an estimated 17 million housing deficits. It must be stated that most of the shortages are in the urban centres. Little wonder some Nigerians live under bridges and some ramshackle makeshift contraptions just to shield them from the inclement weather and protect them from potential dangers. It is the dream of many Nigerians to cease being tenants and own their h...

With the dwindling income from sale of crude oil, it has become imperative for government at all levels to scout for alternative sources of income to fund development projects and programmes as well as oil the wheel of governance. There have been several suggestions on how to boost the internally generated revenue of government. These include right investments and policies in agriculture, solid minerals and sports. Cross-cutting benefits will accrue to government from all private and public investments in the identified areas in form of tax. An online source defines tax as “a compulsory contribution to state revenue, levied by the government on workers’ income and business profits, or added to the cost of some goods, services, and transactions.” According to the Federal Inland Revenue Service, which is the Federal Government agency in charge of tax administration in Nigeria, some of the taxes operational in the country are: Personal Income Tax; Companies Income Tax; Petroleum Profit...

Happy New Year folks! My prayer to family, friends and colleagues when­ever they are celebrating their birth­days is that ‘may they never experience a bet­ter last year’. Indeed, everyone should say that prayer. However, having a fruitful, success­ful, glorious, blissful and better year should not be a mere wishful thinking. It’s some­thing all and sundry who desire it has to work hard to achieve. As it has become very obvious, govern­ment at all levels alone cannot give the cit­izen a better year. In Nigeria, the forecast is very scary. There are austerity measures in place with threat of pay cut or outright retrenchment facing government workers. Even some private companies have start­ed right-sizing and downsizing in order to reduce overhead and other running cost. We have already been told to brace up for increase in the price of electricity while the 50k or thereabout official reduction in the pump price of a litre of Premium Mo­tor Spirit pales into insignificance as pet­rol sel...