Public Affairs Analyst

  Monday, October 20, 2025 was the fifth anniversary of the #EndSARS protest that claimed scores of lives and humongous public and private assets.   In my column of October 28, 2020, I had observed that “The #EndSARS protests and their unsavoury aftermath are pointers to the trust deficit in government. When the protests began, they started off on the social media and escalated to street protests. Though the federal and state governments acted fast to calm frayed nerves by quickly acceding to the five initial requests of the #EndSARS protesters, the youths who participated in that epochal protests were not mollified because despite previous assurances, government had done little or nothing to assuage their fears and meet their demands. For example, they claimed that the dreaded SARS had been previously disbanded in 2017, 2018 and 2019 yet they continued to operate with impunity. Who then is fooling whom? As the saying goes, “if a man deceives me once, shame on him, if twice, s...

  Last Thursday, October 9, 2025, President Bola Tinubu nominated Prof. Joash Amupitan as the next substantive chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission. He takes over from Prof. Mahmood Yakubu who was the first chairman to have served two consecutive terms of five years each. Amupitan, a professor of law and Senior Advocate of Nigeria was until his appointment Deputy Vice Chancellor (Administration), University of Jos. Aged 58, he came with his own number of firsts. He is the first Yoruba and first SAN and first person from North Central Nigeria to be so appointed. It will seem INEC job is now made strictly for professors as the last four INEC chairmen from Prof. Maurice Iwu to Prof. Attahiru Jega to Prof. Mahmood Yakubu and now Amupitan had all been from the academia. In time past we have had Prof. Humphrey Nwosu who conducted the landmark June 12, 1993 presidential election and introduced the Option A4 method of conducting party primary into our political lexicon. Th...

  Today, October 12, 2025 marks exactly 35 years I started writing for the media. This is a milestone because if I were to be a civil or public servant, I should be retiring from service today. However, am far too gone to quit the stage now, more so as the media have come to define my personality. Not many know that I have my main job rooted in the development sector where I have equally paid my dues since 1998. I have said previously that the seed of media advocacy was sown into me in 1988 when I was attending Extramural class for my ‘A’ Level exams at the University of Ibadan. The planter was Prof. OBC Nwolise of the Department of Political Science (now retired). An activist of sort, Prof, then Dr. Nwolise will always charge us in the Government class not to be docile or complacent with the mismanaged governance system by the Nigerian military at that time.   And that there are several ways of advocating for good governance beyond ‘aluta’ street protests which students are...

  Who are the Gen-Z?   An online source said “Gen Z (Generation Z), also called zoomers, are the demographic cohort born roughly between the mid-1990s and early 2010s, generally from 1997 to 2012. They are known as the first generation of true "digital natives," having grown up with the internet and smartphones from a very young age. This generation is also noted for its diversity, its pragmatic approach to finances, concern for social and environmental issues, and a focus on work-life balance.” They are preceded by the Millennials which another online source says are also known as Generation Y. They are a demographic cohort generally defined as those born between 1981 and 1996. They are the generation that came of age during the new millennium and are characterised by being "digital immigrants" who are comfortable with technology and value immediacy and efficiency. Gen-Z are succeeded by Generation Alpha or Gen-A.   Generation Alpha are people born from roughly 2...

  Happy 65 th Independence Anniversary my compatriots. The presidency has rightly decided to make it a low key celebration. Indeed, beyond remaining a united entity and surviving another agonising year, what’s there to jubilate? Nigeria has remained a perpetual underachiever. Our situation is akin to the popular slang, ‘big-for-nothing’! six decades and a half after independence, all our development indices are in the negative. Poverty, unemployment, cost of living are on a steady rise. Which way Nigeria? On this page in my column of September 3, 2025, I reeled out statistics about Nigeria which needs to be repeated here. BusinessDay of Sunday, August 31, 2025, reported that the 2025 Chandler Good Government Index mirrored Nigeria’s snail movement towards holistic development and good governance. Released recently in South Africa, the CGGI 2025, among other things, indicated how Nigeria lags behind peers across the continent, with Mauritius, Rwanda, Botswana, Morocco, and South ...

  I heartily welcome distinguished senators and honourable members of House of Representatives back from their two months’ annual recess. I do hope they enjoyed their vacation and are refreshed to give their best. First I want to plead with the President of the Nigerian Senate, Godswill Akpabio and the Senate as a whole to forgive Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan and allow her to resume her legislative duties after serving out her six months’ suspension. The alibi of not wanting her to resume because her court case is at the Court of Appeal does not hold water. There are many court cases challenging President Bola Tinubu on his imposition of state of emergency and suspension of Governor, Deputy Governor and legislature in Rivers State for six months, yet last Wednesday, the president issued a statement restoring those who were suspended back to their duty posts. This is despite the plethora of cases which the president put at about 40 in courts. That aside, I expect our federal la...

  According to EduTimes Africa of May 16, 2025, former Vice-Chancellor of University of Ilorin, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede served as the Vice-Chancellor of the University from 2007 to 2012. Under his leadership, UNILORIN rose to become one of the most stable and efficient public universities in Nigeria, maintaining an uninterrupted academic calendar. While in office as VC, Oloyede was instrumental in integrating ICT and e-learning into the university’s curriculum. His initiatives led to the modernisation of UNILORIN’s administrative and academic processes. He was appointed JAMB Registrar in August 2016 by ex-President Muhammadu Buhari. Since then, he has been credited with overhauling the operations of the examination body and boosting transparency. Oloyede introduced a technology-driven reform of JAMB, including the full digitisation of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, the use of Computer-Based Testing, and real-time monitoring of exam centres. Under his leadership, JAMB...

  Are you planning to japa? Have you thought it through? Have you checked and rechecked with Nigerians in Diaspora on what they are going through? Are you following what is happening to migrants in United States of America? Have you seen how the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Police are chasing undocumented migrants around and about US? Are you aware some Nigerians with valid US visa are being informed recently about the cacellation of their visas? Many countries are now tightening security and border controls and foreigners are usually the prime targets. This year alone, there have been protests against Nigerians in South Africa and Ghana while UK and UAE to mention a few have come up with stringent visa conditions that are not there before. As the saying goes, the grass is always greener at the other side. I will encourage you to think deeply about your emigration plan before it ends in willful regrets. Nigerian youths, I dare say, if you arm yourself with requisite knowle...

Nigeria is blessed! But what are we doing with the divine blessing? Harnessing it to prosper us or frittering it away? I am a culture enthusiast and have been involved in research and advocacy for decades on how to promote and explore our arts and crafts, music, dance, films, sculpture, dress, monuments, food, festivals, waterfalls, groves, rocks, and artefacts into money spinner both for government and people in the communities. Udiroko festival just held last weekend in Ado Ekiti, Osun Osogbo Festival was also held earlier this month, how are the federal, state and local governments partnering to gain maximally from these events. As a culture ambassador, I make it a point of duty to dress in indigenous, Made in Nigeria attires. I have a collection of caps numbering 55 from different cultures in Nigeria. I have been to several tourist sites across Nigeria. Some of them include, the Shere Hills, Jos, Olumo Rocks, Abeokuta, Zuma Rock, Abuja, Ikogosi Warm and Cold Spring in Ekiti State...

  Are we cursed or are we the cause? I mean did our ancestors or adversaries swear to us that this great country shall never be developed? By this time next month, we will be basking in the euphoria of our 65 th independence anniversary. Same way we rolled out drums to celebrate our unbroken 26 years of uninterrupted civil rule in June this year. Why is Nigeria a crippled giant as described by the current Director General of Nigeria Institute of International Affairs, Professor Eghosa Osaghae? Am pained that in this country, we celebrate mediocre performance as sterling. Sad! Ordinarily democracy should drive development and good governance but that is not the situation in this motherland. All development indices on Nigeria are pointing south. BussinessDay of Sunday, August 31, 2025 reported that the 2025 Chandler Good Government Index has again mirrored Nigeria’s snail movement towards holistic development and good governance. Released recently in South Africa, the CGGI 2025, a...

  Last Saturday, August 16, 2025, the Independent National Electoral Commission conducted the backlog of by-elections across 12 states. According to INEC, by-elections were held in 16 constituencies of the Federation, involving two Senatorial Districts in Anambra and Edo States; five Federal Constituencies in Edo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Ogun and Oyo States; and nine State Constituencies in Adamawa, Anambra, Kaduna (2), Kano, Kogi, Niger, Taraba and Zamfara States. These by-elections were caused by the resignation or death of serving members of national and State Houses of Assembly. Similarly, the court-ordered re-run election in Enugu South 1 State Constituency of Enugu State and the Ghari/Tsanyawa State Constituency of Kano State were held simultaneously with the by-elections. I have had the privilege of reviewing the polls on at least three media platforms since Saturday. They are News Central TV, Radio Now 95.3 FM, Lagos and Silverbird TV. Though I was not an accredited observer at t...