Public Affairs Analyst

  For so long, Nigeria has been in   the world news with ‘not-so-pleasant’ stories. Fake agency, wasteful budget, corruption allegation, insurgency, banditry, kidnapping, Yahoo-yahoo or internet scams, irregular migration, drug trafficking, herder / farmers clashes, poverty and unemployment are some of the news broadcasts by international media organisations about my country. It is however heartwarming to learn that something good has come out of Nigeria’s Nazareth in sports, I mean athletics. The Commonwealth Games is a global multi-sport event held every four years for members of the Commonwealth of Nations. First staged in 1930 as the British Empire Games in Hamilton, Canada with 11 countries and 6 sports, the event has grown from 400 athletes into a massive international gathering representing dozens of nations and territories. It was proposed in 1891 by Astley Cooper to build unity in the British Empire. Canceled in 1942 and 1946 due to World War II. Renamed over time t...

  Last Thursday, July 23, 2026, I granted an interview to Arise News television on its Newsday programme. It was on the reported huge budgetary allocation of N8 billion earmarked for renovation of mosques and churches in the 2026 Federal Government’s budget. The previous day, I had granted an interview to Daily Trust correspondent on the same issue. By the time the newspaper published the report in its July 23 edition, it had expanded the scope to include over N22bn budgeted for renovation of 106 palaces in the same budget. The total sum came to N30.15bn. During the Arise News interview, I expanded the scope of discussion to include the palace renovation. I roundly condemned the misplaced priorities. The interview went viral as excerpt from it was published by The Cable and BusinessDay newspapers. True Vision Television likewise interviewed me on it. The question is, why do Nigerian government keep embarrassing us by doing ludicrous things? The case of the purported fake agency n...

  Last week on this page, I wrote about the nexus between political finance and corruption in governance in Nigeria. I x-rayed how a politician vying for elective office in Nigeria must be ready to shell out a lot of financial resources before, during and after elections if he or she intends to be in a pole position to be victorious in an electoral contest. I argued that this huge spending is a political investment meant to be recouped after inauguration, if such a candidate wins the election.   This is what partly fuels corruption in governance. Since the publication of that article, I have had the privilege of discussing the issues raised in the piece on two national televisions, namely Channels Television and Silverbird Television. Interestingly, it is noteworthy that even though money is a strong variable in politics, money qua money is insufficient to guarantee electoral victory. An election is not always won by the highest bidder. One may spend billions to vie for elec...

  In case you don’t know, election is a multi-billion dollars industry in Nigeria. If you tabulate what Federal Government spend to conduct general, bye, supplementary and off-cycle elections, what political parties, aspirants and candidates spend on their electioneering activities, what the security agencies spend to secure the election ecosystem in the lead up to, during and after elections, what the donor partners spend to support the Civil Society Organisations on voter education, election observation and observation of election tribunals, what the National Assembly spend to amend or enact the Electoral Act and constitutional alterations relating to elections and what the various media organisations spend on logistics to cover election campaigns and election day activities;   it is gargantuan and mind-blowing! I am one of the experts in the field of political finance in Nigeria. I have been involved in policy design and capacity building for politicians, electoral manage...

  On June 11 and 24, 2026, the Nigeria House of Representatives and Senate respectively singled out the state police constitution amendment bill for passage into law. This brings to an end decade of agitations and advocacy for the decentralisation of Nigeria policing system. I have argued on this page severally that this is the best way to go. Key highlights include empowering state governors to appoint Commissioners of Police (confirmed by State Assemblies) and establishing institutional safeguards to prevent the political abuse of state police. Dual Police Framework replaces the singular national police structure with a Federal Police Service (handling border security, cybercrime, and terrorism). The bill explicitly prohibits governors and politicians from directing police to target political opponents, ethnic groups, or associations. State Police Service Commissions will independently oversee recruitment, promotion, and discipline. The federal police retain the authority to in...

  On June 15, 2026, Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission to deregister five political parties namely African Democratic Congress, Action Alliance, Action Peoples Party, Accord Party and Zenith Labour Party over their alleged failure to meet constitutional requirements for continued registration. The suit was filed by a group known as the National Forum of Former Legislators. According to the plaintiffs, the affected parties failed to meet constitutional benchmarks as stated in Section 225A, including securing at least 25 per cent of votes in a state during a presidential election or winning at least one elective seat at the federal, state or local government level. The former legislators argued that the parties performed poorly in the 2023 general elections and subsequent by-elections, failing to secure representation across key levels of government. They maintained that the continued recognition of the partie...