Public Affairs Analyst

Merry Christmas everyone! What a year 2019 has been. It opened with preparations for the sixth general election in this Fourth Republic being at fever pitch. From November 18, 2018, aftermath of the candidate nomination process campaign commenced in earnest. From January to March 2019, politicians continued to mount the soap boxes to woo voters. Of course, severe cases of violence were recorded across the country. Political opponents, party secretariats, campaign vehicles were primary targets. Not even the election umpire, Independent National Electoral Commission, was spared, as some local government offices of INEC in Plateau, Osun, Anambra and Imo states were torched by unknown arsonists. Logistical challenges made INEC to postpone the February 16 elections by one week. Eventually, the elections –presidential, Senate and House of Representatives– were held on February 23, while the governorship, state Houses of Assembly and Abuja Area Council polls were held on March 9. Though t...

The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) on Tuesday, December 17, 2019, while marking his 77th birthday, signed the 2020 Appropriation Bill into law. Buhari had on October 8, 2019 presented a budget proposal of N10.33tn tagged, “Budget of Sustaining Growth and Job Creation” for the Federal Government at the Joint Session of the National Assembly in Abuja. The Senate and the House of Representatives had on December 5, 2019, concurrently passed the budget, raising the total estimates from the proposed N10.33tn to about N10.6tn. The National Assembly had put a clause in the bill that the budget should run from January 1, 2020, bringing Nigeria back to a long desired   January-December budget cycle. Of the new total sum of N10,594,362,364,830, the parliament raised statutory transfers from the proposed N556.7bn to N560,470,827,235; raised debt service from N2.45tn to N2,725,498,930,000; reduced recurrent (non-debt) expenditure from N4.88tn to N4,842,974,600,640; and in...

Nigeria is a very religious society no doubt. Churches, mosques and shrines dot the country’s landscape. The atheist population in Nigeria is very insignificant as many of the citizens are adherents of Christianity, Islam or African Indigenous Religions.   Our religiosity reflects not only in our modes of worship but also in our names and ways of dressing. Religious festivals are commonplace here. The Osun Osogbo Festival holds every August in Osogbo. There is the Olojo Festival in Ile-Ife. The Ojude Oba Festival is celebrated in Ijebu-Ode on the second day of the Eid el Kabir festival. Easter and Christmas celebrations are observed annually by Christians. These are apart from the annual church congresses and conventions. Last Saturday, December 7, I was one of the guest speakers at the Abuja Christian Youth Parley on anti-corruption organised by the Arojah Theatre Group. There, I presented a paper on “Diminishing Corruption in Nigeria”. In the course of the programme, the Dire...

Last week, a letter written by ex-Governor of Zamfara State, Abdul-Aziz Yari, to the incumbent, Bello Matawalle, demanding the payment of his N10m monthly upkeep allowance sparked public outrage and caused the state governor to sponsor a bill for the abrogation of the law making it mandatory for the payment of such mindless sums of money amidst the misery of the people of the state. Matawalle has deservedly been receiving accolades for this bold step. Imagine a state like Zamfara with high cases of poverty, unemployment, insecurity and infrastructure deficit paying N10m each as upkeep allowance to its ex-governors, deputies N5m each, ex-speakers N3m while their deputies laugh home with N1.5m each every month. There were also other privileges embedded in the obnoxious pension law, including two vehicles to be replaced every four years, free medical treatment for a former governor and his immediate family, vacation within Nigeria and outside and a five-bedroom house in any location o...