Public Affairs Analyst

  Appreciation to almighty God for the grace to see another birthday. Living in the world, nay Nigeria for 54 years is not to be taken for granted. Lots of insecurity, diseases and afflictions that the mercy of God has made me to overcome. Yes, I may not be where I want to be but am far from where I used to be. I won’t be tired of recounting my humble background when poor people were calling my family poor due to our own extreme poverty. Imagine a family of seven living in two rooms and even at times one room in a ‘civilian barrack’. Today, my story has changed. I don’t have money but I am wealthy considering my social status and capital. I have been able to achieve everything a man needs to have to be called successful. I was able to attend schools and today I have earned a post-graduate degree over 20 years ago. This was despite the initial challenges at gaining admission to tertiary institution after my secondary school education which I finished in 1985 at the age of 16. I st...

  In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons. – Herodotus. It’s been over a year since Russia invaded Ukraine. That war is still raging with hundreds of thousands of people dead and property worth billions of dollars destroyed. Similarly, there is ongoing conflict between Tigray and Ethiopia which even predates that between Russian and Ukraine. That remains unresolved.   Just last week, Sudan started another round of civil war. Hundreds of lives are already lost, property worth millions of dollars destroyed and foreign countries including Nigeria have commenced evacuation of their nationals from that conflict zone. The question is, can the world not do without war? There have been two world wars. According to Wikipedia, “World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. It was fought between two coalitions, the Allies (primarily France, the United K...

  After the conduct of national and state elections on February 25 and March 18, 2023 respectively, the Independent National Electoral Commission was only able to conclude elections on the first ballot in 26 states governorship, 104 senatorial, 329 federal and 935 state constituency elections including the presidential poll. Narrow margin of lead between two leading candidates occasioned by violence, over-voting, glitches from Bi-modal Voter Accreditation System and community resistance to conduct of elections necessitated some of the polls being declared inconclusive hence the need for supplementary elections. On March 27, INEC announced Saturday, April 15, 2023 as the date for supplementary governorship elections in Adamawa and Kebbi states, five senatorial districts, 31 federal and 58 state assembly constituencies. Inconclusive polls became part of our political lexicon since 2009 when INEC declared the Ekiti governorship election between Chief Segun Oni of the Peoples Democra...

  The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) has several flaws like every human being but it is clear that he is a believer in Nigeria’s democratic project. Unlike ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan under whom constitutional review exercises were truncated either by the National Assembly or the president, Buhari holds the ace as being one under whom most constitutional alterations have taken place. A total of 21 alterations have so far been carried out under the outgoing government in three tranches. First was in 2018 when five constitutional alterations took place while the second was on Friday, March 17, 2023 when a total of 16 new alterations were carried out on the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended. The extant Nigerian constitution has thus far been altered five times. Twice in 2010 under former President Umaru Yar’Adua administration and thrice under the incumbent president. Incidentally both of them are northerners...

  As the dust gradually settles on the seventh general elections in this Fourth Republic, it is time to engage in some post-election audit. I have decided to start with three out of the 10 critical stakeholders in the electoral process. It is noteworthy that credibility or otherwise of any election is a multi-stakeholder responsibility. Actors and stakeholders in the electoral process are as follows: political parties, contestants, the electoral management bodies (i.e. the Independent National Electoral Commission and the State Independent Electoral Commissions), the legislature (National and state assemblies), the judiciary, security agencies, accredited observers from the civil society groups, the media (accredited journalists), the donor partners and the electorate otherwise call the voters. Political parties act as intermediaries between the people and the government. They perform aggregative and informative functions by harmonising the various demands made from the political...