Public Affairs Analyst

  According to an online source, The Spruce, the term “RSVP” comes from the French expression répondezs’ilvousplaît, meaning “please respond.” If RSVP is written on an invitation, it means the host has requested that the guest should respond to say if they plan to attend the party.” Comically, RSVP has been twisted to mean, Rice and Stew Very Plenty. However, I’m using the acronym in the context of election. It means Register, Select, Vote and Protect your vote. The ‘R’ has been going on for sometime now. The Independent National Electoral Commission flagged off the current Continuous Voters Registration exercise since June 28, 2021. The commission for the first time introduced an innovation called online pre-registration where prospective registrants will fill in their details online and choose a date for the capturing of their biometrics and facials at any INEC office of their choice. This was done by the commission to avoid overcrowding at the registration centres.   More...

  The last off-cycle governorship election before the 2023 general elections was held last Saturday, July 16, 2022 in Osun State. The outcome was an upset for the ruling All Progressives Congress which had hoped to consolidate its hold on the agrarian state. However, the day after the poll, the Independent National Electoral Commission declared the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Senator Ademola Adeleke, winner of the election. The Returning Officer for the poll and Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Prof Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, announced that Adeleke got a total of 403,371 votes, beating the incumbent, Adegboyega Oyetola of the APC who got 375,027 votes in a keenly contested race. Osun State joined the league of states with off-season governorship election on November 26, 2010 when former Governor Rauf Aregbesola of the then Action Congress of Nigeria was able to prove electoral violence and malpractices in 10 out of the 30 local government areas of the state du...

  It’s the season of politics and a lot of intrigues are afloat. The most trending news now is the choice of the running mate to the All Progressives Congress standard bearer, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. Since the unveiling of former governor of Borno State, Senator Kashim Shettima, as his running mate, many Christians have been expressing shock and disdain at the choice of another Muslim to complement and balance the nomination. To some of the critics of this decision, it goes to confirm that there is an ‘Islamisation’ agenda in the country where all Christians will be forced to accept Islam. Since this news broke last Sunday, I have been on several media platforms to discuss it. These include Spectrum Television, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State and Trust TV, Abuja. To my own mind, as insensitive as this nomination seems, bursting veins over a same faith ticket is needless. While I agree that given our plurality and diversity, the choice of a Christian would have been better in order to guarant...

  There is a nexus between Nigeria’s petroleum and electricity sectors. Though the two are under different ministries viz. Ministry of Petroleum Resources and Ministry of Power, the former provides the ingredient for the latter. By this I mean the country’s petroleum sector provides the industrial gas for all the thermal power plants operating in the country. Some of the thermal plants are Afam Power Plc, Ughelli Power Plc, Sapele Power Plc and Egbin Power Plc. It is baffling that despite the abundance of natural gas in Nigeria, so much so that international oil companies have been flaring this essential product for domestic and industrial use, the country hasn’t been able to sufficiently trap and tap this resource to power our electricity-generating companies. Aside from this, the price of cooking gas has hit the rooftop despite the country having this in abundance. Quite unfortunately, the creation of separate ministries, as well as privatisation and commercialisation of petr...