Public Affairs Analyst

  As you are all aware, the recent party primaries have raised important questions that pertain to legislative consolidation and institution building. The high turnover rate that has afflicted the legislature since 1999 is likely to worsen in 2023, with over 70 per cent of legislators at the national level expected not to return. The figures are likely to be the same or higher at the state assembly level, where governors wield unfettered control and dictate the outcomes of elections. —Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman, Director-General, National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies at the closing ceremony of the Capacity Building Workshop for Lagos State House of Assembly on Friday, June 24, 2022 at Ogere Resort, Ogun State. Last week, German international development agency, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, and the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies jointly organised capacity building for lawmakers and some key bureaucratic staff of Ogun, Oyo, Ondo and Lagos S...

  The Independent National Electoral Commission announced the timetable and schedule of activities for the just concluded Ekiti governorship election on June 16, 2021. By that schedule, the off-cycle, off-season poll was to hold on Saturday, June 18, 2022. It held as planned. Unlike in 2018 when there were 35 candidates, last Saturday, there were 16 candidates that contested the election with the All Progressives Congress’ Abiodun Oyebanji coming top. According to the Returning Officer for the election, Prof Kayode Adebowale, who is the Vice-Chancellor, University of Ibadan, the APC candidate scored 187,057 votes to defeat its closest rival, Segun Oni of the Social Democratic Party, who garnered 82,211 votes, and Bisi Kolawole of the Peoples Democratic Party (67,457 votes) and 13 others. Factsheet on the 2022 Ekiti governorship election shows that there are three senatorial districts, six federal constituencies and 26 state constituencies across the states. There are 16 local gov...

  We’re counting down to the end of the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.). Last Sunday, June 12, he made his last Democracy Day speech as president. By this time next year, he would have acquired the toga of an ex-president. How time flies! This time in 2023, the seventh general elections would have been held, winners would have been inaugurated and on the next June 12, we would be listening to the first Democracy Day speech by Buhari’s successor. Such is life. Life is in phases; men are in sizes. 10 kings, 10 seasons! I have had the privilege of reviewing the president’s last Democracy Day speech on several media platforms namely Voice of America, Silverbird Television, Citizens 93.7FM Abuja, TV 360 and WAZOBIA Max TV, where I have to address the viewers in pidgin English. To my own mind, the president was economical with words in his speech. In the 24-paragraph speech, he only gave a brief history of the June 12 struggle, his appraisal of the just ...

  Introduction Politics everywhere is a money guzzler. It is a very capital intensive project for those who dare to venture into it. Actually, unless you dare to contest election, you can be in politics as mere hanger-on and bench-warmer, only attending meetings and volunteering as vote canvassers to contestants during elections. But once you declare your aspiration to contest for any political office both within the party structure or in a general election, the dynamics change. Constituents, acquaintances, friends and family will turn your house and office to a “Mecca” where they can get freebies. The moment you become aspirant, everybody believes you have tonnes of cash to give out and they will be readily available to cash out on you. The preparation for the seventh general election in this Fourth Republic which started on May 29, 1999 has commenced in earnest with the Independent National Electoral Commission announcing February 25 and March 11, 2023 as the new dates for th...

  “Nigeria as a national entity is on the verge of collapse. All the indices of state failure are in place. There is an unprecedented level of impunity, and a never-before witnessed orgy of violence across the land. Criminal gangs are holding swathes of the Nigerian territory, bombing state infrastructures, collecting taxes, kidnapping travellers for ransom, sacking whole villages, burning down police stations, dislodging soldiers from their military outposts, abducting school children – transforming some into child soldiers and others into sex slaves, carrying out mass executions, and sending periodic threats to the Federal Government” — Executive Director, Lux Terra Leadership Foundation, Rev. Fr. George EHUSANI, at a national dialogue on Monday, June 6, 2022 There is no gainsaying the fact that Nigeria is at a crossroads. All the indices of good governance are pointing south. Security and welfare of citizens are near absent. Basic social infrastructures are lacking or inadeq...

  Last Sunday, May 29, 2022, marks 23 years of Nigeria’s return to civil rule. 1999 to date is generally referred to as the country’s Fourth Republic. The first (1960 – 1966), the second (1979 – 1983) and the third (1990 – 1993) were all interjected and punctuated by military coups. First on January 15, 1966 and December 31, 1983. The Third Republic was truncated by the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election on June 24, 1993 before chains of events led to the inauguration of Chief Ernest Shonekan-led Interim National Government which itself was toppled in a palace coup led by General Sani Abacha (now deceased) on November 17, 1993. General Abdulsalami Abubakar midwived the birth of this Fourth Republic when he handed power to former Head of State, Olusegun Obasanjo, on May 29, 1999 after the successful general election of that year. Altogether, the military had been at the helms of affairs of Nigeria for a cumulative 29 years. Since the 1999 transitional elections, ...