Public Affairs Analyst

History was made last Wednesday, January 23, 2019 when President Muhammadu Buhari assented to the Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act, 2018. It had been a long-drawn battle that spanned about 18 years, the last two National Assembly passed the bill, two successive presidents refused blatantly to assent to it. Securing the President’s assent this time round too was not easy. According to a Facebook post by one of the leading lights in the struggle to stop discrimination of persons with disabilities, David Anyaele of the Centre for Citizens with Disabilities Lagos, the signing “is   coming one week after a well-coordinated campaign by the Coalition of Disability Organisations ranging from engagement of Mr. President at The Candidates Town Hall Meeting, protest march for the President’s assent on the bill, massive media engagement and an Inter-Faith Prayer Session for the Assent of the President on the National Disability Bill.” Prior to the coming o...

One of the most worrying developments in Nigeria today is the ugly phenomenon of cash-for-votes by political parties and candidates. Desperate politicians are not leaving any stone unturned in order to ensure their victory at the coming 2019 general elections. The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has raised the alarm on this ignominious behaviour twice in the last two weeks. The first was on Monday, January 7, 2019 while meeting with the 91 political party chairmen and the second time was on Monday, July 21, 2019 while receiving a delegation of the European Union Election Observation Team. Here is an excerpt of what the INEC chairman said to the party chairmen on January 7:   “A new method of vote-buying is being devised. We have received credible information that some partisan actors are now going round buying up the PVCs from voters or financially inducing them to collect the Voter Identification Numbers on their PVCs. In some i...

On Monday, January 14, 2019, the Independent National Electoral Commission officially published the Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of Elections, 2019 in pursuant of the powers conferred on the commission by Section 153 of the Electoral Act 2010, as amended. INEC had earlier released a Draft Guidelines for the conduct of the 2019 elections to the 91 registered political parties, civil society groups and organisations, the media, professional groups and organisations, security agencies and other critical stakeholders in the electoral process for their input. I was privileged to be at the quarterly meeting of the commission with the CSOs held on Tuesday, January 8, 2019. At that meeting, INEC updated the audience with its preparations for the forthcoming elections and shared the draft of the guidelines with us for our review and input. The National Commissioner & Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee of INEC, Festus Okoye, gave a breakdown of 10 key hig...

Since last Thursday, January 3, 2019 appointment of Hajia Amina Bala Zakari as the head of a 10-member committee in charge of the logistics for the national result collation centre, opposition political parties have called for her removal on the basis of her purported relationship with President Muhammadu Buhari. There are reports to suggest that her father married a sister of the President which makes her a niece to the No. 1 citizen. But she has denied being a niece of the President. My independent finding of the true situation is that the committee she is heading is made up of about three national commissioners and about seven directors. At inauguration, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said: “The ad hoc committee, which is entirely internal to the commission, shall be responsible for the national collation centre from where results of the presidential election will be announced. As was the case in 2015, the commission will use...

Happy and prosperous New Year 2019 to every Nigerian especially my numerous readers across the world! In fact, it’s a new dawn for Nigeria as it’s an election year for the country; the sixth general elections in this Fourth Republic. It’s about six weeks to the February 16 date when the national elections into presidential, Senate and House of Representatives positions will be held. Governorship, state Houses of Assembly and Area Council elections of the Federal Capital Territory will hold two weeks after the first one on March 2, 2019. Because politics is in the air, political gladiators are junketing around their constituencies to market different ideas on how they intend to govern, if elected. Thus far, the campaigns have been largely peaceful but there is no guarantee that this will remain so in days ahead given the penchant of the political contestants to adopt the Machiavellian principle of the “the end justifies the means”.   As the Election Day draws near, it is impor...