Public Affairs Analyst

The waiting game is on. This Friday, June 28 will make it exactly 30 days or one month since President Muhammadu Buhari was inaugurated for a second term in office. The president in a media chat had promised to surprise those who call him “Baba Go Slow” with the agility with which he will tackle national issues in his second term. Seeing is believing. We are still waiting with bated breath for the president’s new set of ministers. I do hope we wouldn’t have to wait for six months as we did in 2015. How I wish our dear president will take a cue from South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa who formed his   gender balanced cabinet barely a week after inauguration. The president has been in the saddle for four years. Election into that office was conducted four months ago, precisely on February 23, 2019. Shouldn’t the president hit the ground running? Is he still searching for saints among sinners to be appointed? Already many kites are being flown about the persons who had made t...

“We are guilty of many errors and many faults but our worst crime is abandoning the children, neglecting the fountain of life. Many of the things we need could wait — the child cannot” —Chilean poet-diplomat, educator and humanist, Lucila Godoy Alcayaga, known by her pseudonym, Gabriela Mistral. June 16 every year has been observed as the International Day of the African Child since 1991 as prescribed by the Organisation of African Unity now known as African Union.   The day aims at raising awareness about the condition of African children and how there is an urgent need to provide them with a better standard of living. The day commemorates hundreds of children murdered by the apartheid   regime in South Africa on June 16, 1976, during the Soweto Uprising.   The theme for this year’s International Day of the African Child 2019 was ‘Humanitarian Action in Africa: Children’s Rights First’. The International Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted on Novemb...

There are three arms of government, no doubt. They are the Executive, the legislature and the judiciary. They are very pivotal to sustainability of any democracy. Other institutions of democracy include the Election Management Body such as the Independent National Electoral Commission and State Independent Electoral Commission, Civil Society Organisations, the media and the political parties. Members of political parties are called politicians. They elect among themselves leaders to run their party offices. Some of the organs of political parties to which people are appointed or elected to occupy include the Board of Trustees, National and State Executive Committees, National and State Working Committees among others. Part of the functions of political parties includes leadership recruitment and political socialisation. Leadership recruitment function of political parties includes sponsorship of candidates for elections into both the executive and legislative positions. Cortical to...