Public Affairs Analyst

I am excited and very pleased with the success that the Muhammadu Buhari administration has recorded so far on electoral reform, ahead of the 2019 general elections. The journey has been very rough and tortuous. In my opinion piece of May 16, 2018, I expressed worry about three major impediments to a credible 2019 elections. They are the weak legal framework, late funding of the electoral management body and insecurity. It would be recalled that, unlike the last constitutional alteration attempt made in 2015 and thwarted due to the then President Goodluck Jonathan’s veto of   the amendments, the one embarked on by the eight National Assembly has succeeded as President Buhari has signed five out of the 12 constitutional amendment bills passed on to him for assent. The 12 bills were sent to the President by the Senate on April 17, 2018, according to Senate Leader, Senator Ahmed Lawan.   The first bill was the Not Too Young To Run Bill signed on Thursday, May 31, 2018. Also...

“I want to assure everyone here that despite a few lingering issues with the congresses in some states, our great party will emerge stronger after this convention. The unresolved cases we have is the price we have to pay for success, as everyone wants to be associated with a winning team. I am imploring all those with grievances to keep faith with the party until we put things right.”   President Muhammadu Buhari at the All Progressives Congress convention held on June 23, 2018 Hearty congratulations to all the newly elected National Working Committee members of the All Progressives Congress under the leadership of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.   I also felicitate with all the newly elected State, Local Government and Ward Executive Committee members of the party. Indeed, the   Governor Badaru Abubakar-led Convention Committee did a good job by ensuring a hitch free exercise. It is also heartwarming that the 7,200 delegates that elected the 65 member new NWC largely beh...

“We recognise that an error has been committed. We will no longer tolerate such perversion of justice. This honour is for the grievous injustice done to the country. It is meant to assist at healing the wounds and building national reconciliation of the 25 years of wounds caused by the annulment. I earnestly urge Nigerians to accept it in good faith and bury the past of June 12.” -   President Muhammadu Buhari while honouring Chief MKO Abiola with posthumous national honour of GCFR on June 12, 2018. Like a bolt from the blue, President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday, June 6, 2018 pleasantly surprised the pro-democracy movement when he issued a press statement changing Nigeria’s Democracy Day from May 29 to June 12 starting from 2019. He did not stop at that, he also tacitly recognised the un-inaugurated Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola’s presidency by conferring the highest national honour of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic on the presumed winner of the June ...

Research has shown that many Nigerians have poor savings culture. Under the guise that we do not earn enough to meet our immediate needs, we always end up consuming all that we earn. We rarely leave anything for the proverbial rainy day when we will not be able to go out to work. It turns out that as it is for individual Nigerians, so it is for our country. For decades after independence, we have no savings and stabilisation fund. We have been a mono-cultural economy, depending largely on oil and gas revenue while failing signally to use the proceeds therefrom to develop other sectors of the economy. When the price of crude oil falls in international market, our economy is negatively affected as there are no savings from which to draw to cushion the effects. On   Thursday, May 24, 2018, I was one of the participants at a roundtable on “The Savings and Stabilisation Mechanism for Nigeria”, organised by Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Foundation and the Nigerian Natural Resource Charter. ...