Public Affairs Analyst

  The American psychologist, Abraham Harold Maslow, in his 1943 paper, “A theory of Human Motivation”, in the journal, Psychological Review, put basic human needs as food, shelter and clothing. They are the essentials for every decent human being. No one can survive for long without food. It is from it that all required human nutrients for growth and development are got.    Among the nutrients contained in food are vitamins, proteins, and carbohydrates. Foods are sourced from farming which can be through crop cultivation, fisheries or animal husbandry. Elementary agriculture refers to cash crops and food crops, rearing of livestock such as cattle, buffaloes, sheep, goats, and rabbits. Agriculture value chain is very long. Apart from cultivation, there are also transport, processing, packaging, marketing and consumption. Two broad types of farming practiced in Nigeria are subsistence and mechanised farming. Given Nigeria’s huge population which is put at about 206 millio...

  It’s barely 600 days to the next general election. According to the Independent National Electoral Commission, the 2023 general election will hold on Saturday, February 18 and March 4, 2023. Recall that as far back as February 28, 2018, INEC had published the dates for general elections for 36 years. On that day during a meeting the INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, had with chairmen of political parties, he announced the dates for future elections till 2055.   “In 2019, the dates are February 16 and March 2; in 2023, the dates are February 18 and March 4. In 2027, the dates are February 20 and March 6; in 2031, it is February 15 and March 1. In 2035, it is February 17 and March 3; in 2039, it is February 19 and March 5 and in 2043, it will hold on February 21 and March 7. In 2047, it is February 15 and March 2; in 2051, it is February 18 and March 1; in 2055, it is February 20 and March 6”, he announced. According to Yakubu, the idea “is to engender certainty in our el...

  Permit to begin by congratulating all compatriots on the auspicious occasion of celebrating 22 years of uninterrupted civil rule in Nigeria out of which the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has accounted for six years. Though the new Democracy Day which is June 12 fell on a Saturday, the President gave Monday, June 14 as a work-free day. I dare say, this kind of public holiday needs to be discontinued. A lot of productivity is lost due to our observation of too many holidays. I am of the considered view that any festivity apart from Eid-el-Fitr, Eid- el-Kabir, Christmas and New Year should not warrant public holiday especially if it falls on a weekend. Many Nigerians had been vociferous in urging the President to speak out on the state of the nation. Last week, he heeded that clarion call and granted the Arise News TV crew an interview and then did another interview with the Nigerian Television Authority crew last Friday before crowning it all wi...

Truth be told, I see last Friday’s indefinite suspension of Twitter in Nigeria as a needless distraction. It is a deliberate ploy by the Federal Government to take the minds of Nigerians off the raging banditry, kidnapping, insurgency and insecurity that have enveloped the country. Why should the deletion of one out of several thousands of tweets made ‘supposedly’ by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), warrant the suspension of Twitter operations in Nigeria? When the microblogging media platform deleted some posts and suspended President Donald Trump of the United States of America from its platform in January after the unfortunate attack on the Capitol by supporters of the former president, did Trump suspend Twitter operations in the US? Last week in this column, I cited our unenviable position of the country in the Chandler Good Governance Index, was Twitter responsible for it? Here is an excerpt from that article: “Let’s take a look at the Good Governance Index ...

  Last Saturday, May 29, 2021, marked the 22nd anniversary of Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. Recall that the period between 1999 and now is classified as the Fourth Republic. From October 1, 1960 to January 15, 1966 when Nigeria recorded the first military coup d’état is regarded as the First Republic; October 1, 1979 to December 31, 1983 is the Second Republic while the elongated transition period of 1990 to June 23, 1993, when the June 12 presidential election was annulled, is regarded as the aborted Third Republic. It was a republic that was truncated because while all other governance structures had been filled with elected representatives of the people, there was no president inaugurated after the election turned inconclusive. How has governance been in Nigeria in the last 22 years? Topsy-turvy, I must say. Yes, we run a multi-party democracy and have had successful elections as and when due. Six general elections have been held by the Independent National Electoral Commission i...