Public Affairs Analyst

“It is the intention of the commission to review remuneration of public office holders this year and the process will determine whether it will be a reduction or an increase…” — Chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Mr Elias Mbam while addressing press on Monday, January 27, 20120 A lot of emotions have been expressed since Monday when the chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission, Elias Mbam, made public the intention of the RMAFC to review the remuneration of the public office holders this year. Not a few Nigerians are of the opinion that the country’s serving political office holders are among the highest paid in the world despite its revenue challenges. The commission is empowered by Section 32(d) of Part 1 of the Third Schedule of the Constitution to determine the emoluments of political office holders. This newspaper on Tuesday reported that at present, the President and Vice President earn N3.5m and N3.03m as...

On Monday, January 13, 2020, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) signed the 2020 Finance Bill into law. The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, confirmed this development in a statement in Abuja. According to the presidential aide, this is sequel to its passage by the National Assembly and subsequent forwarding by the legislature to the President for assent. Recall that Buhari, while presenting the 2020 Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly, had also presented the Finance Bill. Adesina in his press statement was quoted as saying, “This Finance Bill has five strategic objectives, in terms of achieving incremental, but necessary, changes to our fiscal laws. These objectives are; promoting fiscal equity by mitigating instances of regressive taxation; Reforming domestic tax laws to align with global best practice; Introducing tax incentives for investments in infrastructure and capital markets; Supporting Micro, Small and Mediu...

Introduction Being a scion of a political office holders comes with a lot of privileges. Be you a wife, son, daughter, mother, father, relative or associate of a high-ranking political office holder such as a president or a governor, even a local government chairman comes with some perks. You’re adored and revered. People want to identify with you because they see you as an influencer. Great courtesies are therefore extended to anyone who is close to persons in corridor of power. That is why a durbar has to be specially organized for the daughter of the president, Hanan Buhari and the Office of National Security Adviser will approve a presidential jet to convey her on a personal study tour of Bauchi State cultural sites.   Hanan’s sin On Thursday, January 9, 2020, Hanan Buhari stirred controversy when she travelled to Bauchi for a private and personal engagement in a presidential jet. It was learnt that the office of the National Security Adviser who is in charge of the pre...

Today, January 20, 2020 marks the 25 th  Anniversary of the establishment of THISDAY Group of newspapers. Hearty congratulations on this great feat. It is no mean achievement that in an economy that is very inclement to business, where there is a lot of mortality of enterprises, THISDAY has survived the odds and has grown to become Africa’s most authoritative media technology group. My first encounter with the newspaper was on Tuesday, November 18, 2003 when my article entitled, “Accessing Health Through NHIS” was published in the medium. Since then, I have been a regular contributor to the commentary page of the newspaper. In December 2017, I was recruited to become in-house news analyst with THISDAY sister organization, Arise TV News. It’s been a worthwhile adventure. In its 25 years of existence, THISDAY has become positively disruptive of Nigeria’s media landscape. Its publisher, Prince Nduka Obaigbena has brought a lot of innovations into Nigerian journalism. Among them...

On January 3, 2020, The Osasu Show on the African Independent Television aired a documentary featuring me and a couple of others on the activities of the Civil Society Organisations in Nigeria. The documentary examined the contributions of the CSOs, as they are better known, to the growth and development of the Nigerian society. The conversation also touched on the allegations of corruption among Nigeria’s civil society organisations. It is important to avail the readers of the meaning and scope of work of the CSOs. According to Wikipedia, civil society can be understood as the “third sector” of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere. Rachel Cooper of the University of Birmingham, in an article published online on October 15, 2018, said civil society “first became popular in the 1980s and it now signifies a wide range of organised and organic groups including nongovernmental organisations, trade unions, social movements, gras...

“The tariffs shall remain the same as they presently are (i.e. 2015 levels) until April 1, 2020 when there will be a slight increment to cater for tariff shortfalls which shall be gradually passed on to the consumer until this is fully completed by the end of 2021.” –       Sunday Oduntan, spokesperson for Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors The knotty issue of electricity tariff has once again reared its ugly head so early in the new year. The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission on Saturday, January 4, 2020 announced the immediate review of electricity tariffs in the country from January 1. The order was issued to the 11 electricity distribution companies on December 31, 2019, but published on the commission’s website last Saturday. Signed jointly by the Chairman of the Commission, Joseph Momoh, and the Commissioner for Legal, Licence & Compliance, Dafe Akpeneye, the order was titled, “December 2019 MYTO Minor Review Order”, for th...

“Vision 20:2020 is an articulation of the long-term intent to launch Nigeria onto a path of sustained social and economic progress and accelerate the emergence of a truly prosperous and united Nigeria. Recognising the enormous human and natural endowments of the nation, the blueprint is an expression of Nigeria’s intent to improve the living standards of her citizens and place the country among the Top 20 economies in the world with a minimum GDP of $900 billion and a per capital income of no less than $4000 per annum. ”      – Nigeria’s Vision 20:2020 document From today, January 1, 2020, we have set on a journey of another year as well as another decade. As is customary with many of us, we set ourselves resolutions of what we intend to desist from and what to embrace in the New Year. These resolutions are sometimes partly or fully kept. Oftentimes, they are not kept at all. Yet, we continue to make the resolutions year in, year out. About a decade ago, Nigeria e...