Public Affairs Analyst

  “Beyond the abysmally low turnout of voters, the elections revealed a persisting capacity deficit with respect to human and financial resources and technical expertise required for successful election administration at the local level. It also revealed the absence of a robust legal framework for LGA elections that can sufficiently guarantee electoral integrity, enable political inclusion and regulate political party conduct in the elections. The election also raises major concerns on; the quality of leadership at the local level, the independence and autonomy of local government structure and key institutions like the State Independent Electoral Commission.” – YIAGA Africa preliminary report on Lagos State Local Government election of July 24, 2021 Local government is regarded as the third tier of government in Nigeria. The argument of political pundits is that it is not a federating unit. They say that in the classical definition of federalism, according to Sir Kenneth Clint...

  Wealth Without Work   Pleasure Without Conscience   Knowledge Without Character   Commerce (Business) Without Morality (Ethics)   Science Without Humanity   Religion Without Sacrifice   Politics Without Principle – Seven Deadly Sins by former Prime Minster of India, Mahatma Ghandi   Renowned Professor of Political Economy, Claude Ake, of the blessed memory, said Nigeria is running democracy without democrats. That has been the bane of the country’s democratic sojourn. From the First to this Fourth Republic, Nigerian politicians have shown undiluted egocentrism. That is the reason what happened last week at the National Assembly concerning electoral reform was not too surprising. Nigerians are too naïve to think that the country’s political elite will work only for public good. Section 4 (2) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, says, “The National Assembly shall have power to mak...

Introduction Periodic election is one of the cardinal principles of democracy. Nigeria’s electoral journey started in 1923 after the coming into force of Clifford Constitution of 1922. In the 98 years of Nigeria’s electoral history, many negative adjectives such as fraudulent, violent, and expensive have been used to describe the country’s polls. Yet, it is only through elections that political leaders are expected to emerge in a democracy. Recall that it was a rigged 1964 / ’65 General Election that led to the first military coup of January 15, 1966. After the return to civil rule 13 years after i.e. 1979, the Second Republic was short-lived as the military shot itself back to power on December 31, 1983 citing rigged elections in Ondo, Oyo and some other parts of the country and also due to corruption by the political class. In order to organise, undertake and supervise all elections in Nigeria, the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria established two electoral man...

  “Liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” –American statesman, Thomas Jefferson, January 28, 1786 Since Monday, July 12, 2021, the Nigerian Press Organisation, comprising the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Nigeria Guilds of Editors and Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria, commenced awareness creation on the “information blackout” attempt by the National Assembly on the front pages of all the major national newspapers. The front pages of the newspapers adorned an illustration of a person with a sealed lip with the caption, “Information Blackout: This is what the National Assembly wants to achieve with the NPC and NBC (Media) Amendment Bills. It’s not just against the media… it’s about the society right to know, your right to be heard”. The advertorial was sponsored by the NUJ, NGE and NPAN. On the evening of the same day, I watched Politics Today, the news and current affairs programme of the Channels Television anc...

    “…with an average of 200,000 barrels per day lost to the wanton damage to pipelines and a huge amount of N60bn yearly to repair and maintain the vandalised points, one can only imagine the impact on the economy. According to statistics, between January 2019 and September 2020, 1,161 pipeline points across the country were vandalised”   – Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, at a town hall meeting in Abuja on Monday, July 5, 2021. According to Merriam Webster online dictionary, vandalism is the wilful or malicious destruction or defacement of public or private property. This much was witnessed during the #EndSARS protests of October 2020 when many lives and property, both private and public, were lost to the protests aimed at forcing reform of the dreaded Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigerian Police. At a news conference addressed by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Thursday, November 19, 2020, he reeled out the fo...