Public Affairs Analyst

  Politics ordinarily should be a call to serve. So do politicians tell us during campaigns. They claim they want to serve us. However, the opposite is the case. The main attraction to politics in Nigeria is for personal aggrandisement and primitive accumulation of wealth. That is why our elections are very fierce and war-like. It is simply “do or die.” Nigeria runs a winner-takes-all, zero-sum game politics whereby with the slimmest of margin lead, a contestant is declared a winner while the first runner-up, no matter how close to the winner, loses every of his political investments – money, time, material resources including goodwill. Unlike in the United States where there is no unnecessary indulgence of political office holders, Nigeria’s political leaders, both elected and appointed, live large. They have chauffeur-driven luxury cars at their beck and call. They live in official quarters with stewards, gardeners, cleaners and other domestic servants paid for by the Nigerian ...

  Introduction Periodic election is one of the pillars of democracy. Historically, electoral democracy had been introduced in Nigeria in May 1919, when the Townships Ordinance gave the right to vote for three members of Lagos Town Council to some men. The first elections to the council were held on 29 March 1920. The first general election in this country took place in Lagos and Calabar on September 20, 1923, after the coming into force of the 1922 Sir Hugh Clifford Constitution. There are several types of elections. They include: General, Off-cycle, Supplementary, Run-off, Re-run, and By-election. There are 11,082 political offices in Nigeria comprising of: I presidential seat, 36 governorship seats, 109 senatorial seats, 360 House of Representatives seats, 993 Houses of Assembly seats, 768 Local government chairmanship seats, 6 Area Council chairmanship seats (see section 3 sub. 6 of the 1999 Constitution, as altered) and 8,809 councillorship seats. As a result of judicial ac...

  The title of this piece is an adaptation of a popular song by the Fugees titled, “Killing Me Softly with His Song.” Health is wealth is a common cliché. And it is said that a healthy nation is a wealthy nation. Sustainable Development Goal 3 speaks of “good health and well-being” for all. How close is Nigeria in realising the much touted target of “health for all”? Many believed that in Nigeria, life is short, brutish and nasty as postulated by the renowned philosopher, Thomas Hobbes. The budgetary provision for health care delivery is grossly inadequate both at the federal and sub-national level. At the federal level it has perpetually been less than 10 per cent.   The Bible in Psalm 90 verse 10 says, “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty.” However, according to an online source, Statista says life expectancy at birth in Nigeria in 2023, by gender is 59.93 for male and 63.75 for female. Overall, it is 61.79. According to UNICEF, under-...

Last week, I was in the ancient city of Kano for the fourth edition of the Annual Kano Social Influencers Summit, #Kansis23. I had attended the inaugural edition of the summit four years ago and was privileged to be invited again this year to speak on, “Working as Influencers: Challenges, Successes and Reflection.” There were many other speakers. Some of them included the Executive Director of Primera Africa Legal, Maryam Uwais, who spoke on gender corruption and accountability; a scholar in the Department of Mass Communication, Bayero University, Kano, Dr Bala Muhammed, who presented on “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: Narratives On Social Media Uses”; Executive Director of AFRIMIL, Dr Chido Onumah, whose presentation was on how social media can help whistleblowers. The two-day event, held on October 25 and 26, 2023, was organised by the Centre for Information Technology and Development with funding support from the MacArthur Foundation and other partners. Also in attendance at the ...