Public Affairs Analyst

  Hearty congratulations to Jagaban Borgu, the 16th president of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and the 28 governors who were inaugurated this day last year. So soon, it’s a year in government for them and the scorecard is there for all to see. The truth is that the approval rating of Tinubu right now is abysmally low. Rather than improve the standard of living of Nigerians, he has rather been able to increase our cost of living beyond bearable limits. Under former President Muhammadu Buhari, all our development indices were pointing south and Jagaban has further taken us south-south. Lest readers accuse me of speaking in parables, what was the exchange rate of naira to the dollar under Buhari? It was about N460 to $1. On Monday, $1 was exchanged for about N1,339.   In May 2023, the interest rate was 18.5 per cent according to the Central Bank of Nigeria. Just last week, the same CBN increased the interest rate to 26.25 per cent. According to the National Bureau of Statistics...

  According to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, governance is “the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented (or not implemented). Governance can be used in several contexts such as corporate governance, international governance, national governance and local governance.” In the opinion of UNESCAP, “Good governance has eight major characteristics. It is participatory, consensus-oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, equitable and inclusive and follows the rule of law. It assures that corruption is minimised, the views of minorities are taken into account and that the voices of the most vulnerable in society are heard in decision-making. It is also responsive to the present and future needs of society.” In Nigeria, the governance structure is such that there are 11,082 elective political offices comprised of the seat of the president, 36 state governors, 109 senators, 3...

  Periodic election is one of the cardinal principles of democracy. Nigeria started having elections over a century ago. The quality of our elections has been debatable. Winners score the election management body high while losers castigate the Independent National Electoral Commission. As an independent observer of the process since 1999, I would say that it is a work in progress. There is a popular saying that you can always better your best. In time past, particularly before the 2007 general elections, INEC often held elections in two batches. National elections viz presidential, Senate and House of Representatives were held on a particular day, while state elections, namely governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections were held on another day. Arising from the electoral fraud of the 2003 governorship election in Anambra State and subsequent judicial pronouncement on it as well as those of Ekiti, Ondo, Edo, Osun, Bayelsa, Imo, and Kogi; the off-cycle governorship electi...

  Introduction President Bola Tinubu is a year old in office. On several occasions he has promised Nigerian workers not only a minimum wage but a living wage. What Tinubu has in mind as a living wage is probably known to him alone. On October 2, 2023 after a marathon meeting with the labour unions to forestall their threat of embarking on indefinite strike, he agreed to paying federal workers N35,000 wage award from September 2023 until a new minimum wage comes into effect and also said a new minimum wage committee will be inaugurated by November 2023. This did not happen until Tuesday, January 30, 2024. It must be stated that labour law expected a new national minimum wage every five years and negotiation committee to be inaugurated at least six months to the expiration of the extant one. Under Tinubu it was inaugurated barely three months to the end of the current one. 37-member tripartite national minimum wage committee The new minimum wage should have kicked in by April 2...

  May 3 has been set aside by UNESCO as World Press Freedom Day. The theme for the 2024 edition which took place last Friday was the importance of journalism and freedom of expression in the context of the current global environmental crisis. Information gleaned from the website of the United Nations says, “World Press Freedom Day was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in December 1993, following the recommendation of UNESCO’s General Conference. Since then, May 3, the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek, is celebrated worldwide as World Press Freedom Day.” In Nigeria, media practice has undergone a lot of transformation. An internet source has it that on November 23, 1859, the first newspaper in Nigeria was published in Abeokuta, titled Ìwé Ìròhìn Fún Àwọn Ará Ẹ̀gbá àti Yorùbá. It was printed by the printing press of Henry Townsend, established five years earlier as an arm of the missionary endeavour he was involved in, and as a way to keep the few literate...