Public Affairs Analyst

  The campaign season for the 2027 polls in Nigeria officially began last Wednesday, August 19, 2026. This is for presidential, senatorial and House of Representatives candidates and their political parties. Those of governorship and State Houses of Assembly candidates will kick off on September 9, 2026.   All campaigns are to cease 24 hours to election day according to the Timetable and Schedule of Activities published by the Independent National Electoral Commission. Campaigns are to hold for 150 days according to section 98. (1) of Electoral Act 2026 which states that “For the purpose of this Act, the period of campaigning in public by every political party shall commence 150 days before polling day and end 24 hours prior to that day.” It is noteworthy that perhaps for the first time since the National Peace Committee was established in 2014, the NPC has decided to have two Peace Accord signing ceremonies ahead of 2027 General Elections. The first one was held last week T...

  It’s stale news that Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State defeated 14 other candidates to win the just held August 15, 2026 off-cycle governorship election in my state – the State of the Living Spring! This brings to an end the roller coaster of eight off-cycle governorship polls which started in 2023 with   Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo, followed by Edo and Ondo in 2024 then came Anambra in 2025 and lastly Ekiti and Osun in 2026. In the lead up to last Saturday’s poll, I have had countless number of media interviews across the print and broadcast stations. Not only that, as a psephologist, I had the good fortune of conducting pre-election assessment for The Kukah Centre in Osun in February this year and returning in April for the validation of our report. Am happy that the Independent National Electoral Commission was able to conduct a conclusive and successful Osun governorship poll but was the election free, fair and credible? Yes, peoples vote counted in the reelection of th...

  Last Saturday, August 8, 2026, I was a guest on the breakfast show of the Silverbird Television to discuss the menace of vandalism in Nigeria. What prompted this discussion was the recent news report that vandals have descended on the link flyover between Alakija and FESTAC Town   Area of Lagos State. The state’s Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab stated that investigations showed that the suspects allegedly removed iron rods, steel reinforcements, cables and other materials critical to the bridge’s structural integrity. According to the commissioner, 27 hoodlums suspected to have committed the crime have been arrested during a joint overnight operation involving operatives of the Rapid Response Squad and the Kick Against Indiscipline task force. It is noteworthy that this is not an isolated event. All over the country, acts of vandalism are being perpetrated by scoundrels and undesirable elements. Manholes are underground access points use...

  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...