Public Affairs Analyst

  I am a psephologist, an election expert. I have had the privilege of being an accredited election observer both in Nigeria and abroad. In Nigeria, I have had the rare privilege of observing elections since the return to civil rule in 1999. Outside of Nigeria, I have been an accredited observer of the Ghanaian presidential run-off election in 2008, the US midterm election in 2010, the Egyptian election in 2014, and the Ugandan election in 2016. Election is a rule-based endeavour and an emotive exercise, especially for candidates, their political parties, and the electorate. Edo State has had a chequered history of elections, and it happens to be one of the eight states where the judiciary has fostered off-cycle governorship elections in Nigeria. Others are Imo, Ondo, Anambra, Kogi, Bayelsa, Ekiti, and Osun. Edo is a volatile state politically. The electorate in the state is politically savvy. They tend to rebel against godfather politics. Information gleaned from the website of th

  President Bola Tinubu is the 16th president of Nigeria. He said that becoming the president of this great nation has been his lifelong ambition. Many of us saw him as the right man for the job given his pedigree as a former senator, governor of Lagos State, a private sector senior management staff and a business mogul. The president has been in the saddle for 16 months now and I daresay many Nigerians are wondering if we voted right last year. The rising cost of living has brought about excruciating pain to most Nigerians; no thanks to the twin policy of subsidy removal and floating Nigeria’s currency, the naira. The National Bureau of Statistics reported that all measures of inflation rate rose in June 2024, albeit at a slower pace. Headline inflation increased to 34.2 per cent in June 2024 from 22.8 per cent in June 2023 and 34.0 per cent in May 2024. The inflationary pressures remain driven by currency depreciation, with the official exchange rate averaging N1471/US$ in June com

  There is no gainsaying the fact that we are in a season of anomie in Nigeria. The country is being buffeted by insecurity of diverse ilk—kidnapping, armed robbery, ritual murder, arson, etcetera. The cost of living crisis has made my compatriots turn beggars. What has kept many alive is hope for a better tomorrow. Life has thrown lemons to many Nigerians and rather than sulk in self-pity, they decided to make lemonade out of it. Today, on this page, I want to celebrate the indomitable spirit of Nigerians. Their never-say-die attitude to problem-solving. Yes, the situation is terrible, but agonising over it is never going to make the situation better. It’s this understanding that has made many Nigerians embark on a voyage of discovery. Look at the Nigerian multi-billion-dollar entertainment industry. Thespians like Chief Hubert Ogunde, Duro Ladipo, Ola Omonitan, Akin Ogungbe, Tunbosun Odunsi, Adeyemi Afolayan (Ade Love) and Moses Olaiya (Baba Sala) played a pioneering role before it