Public Affairs Analyst

  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...

  Since creation, man has been an itinerant being. It is against nature to have someone remain on the spot throughout life. Aside from walking around his or her surroundings, human beings like to explore their environment. Travelling, therefore, forms part of human activities. The earliest forms of transportation were animals like horses, camels, and donkeys. We also heard from oral literature that Yoruba hunters and warriors use spiritual means, such as ‘Egbe’ and ‘Kanako’, to travel from one place to another. In one of Lobsang Rampa’s books   (real name Cyril Henry Hoskin, an English author), I learnt about ‘soul travel’.   Apart from animals, other earliest inventions of travelling include the canoe, boat, ships, cart and wagons, before cars, trucks, trains, airplanes, etc. were invented. In summary, there are four universal means of transportation, namely: road, water, rail and air. Nigeria, nay West Africa and indeed the entire continent called Africa needs an inte...

My neighbours might have thought I was mad last Saturday night. The way I was shouting when Nigeria’s Super Falcons came from a two-goal deficit in the first half of the final of the 2024 Women’s African Cup of Nations, better known as WAFCON, to defeat their Moroccan counterpart 3–2 got me shrieking with joy. I was so excited because it was a nail-biting victory that didn’t come on a platter. Nigerian ladies were trailing two-zero at the end of the first half until we got a penalty in the 68th minute, which was calmly slotted in by the Woman of the Match, Esther Okworonko. Esther was on hand again to provide the assist that was scored for us to level up by Folasade Ijamilusi before Jennifer Echegini completed the routing of the Moroccans with an 88-minute winner also via a free kick by Esther Okworonko.  I was scared stiff when we levelled up at 2–2 and a penalty was initially awarded to the Moroccan team before a review of the Video Assistant Referee by the centre referee made he...

  On    July 15, I was among the eminent panellists who discussed the ongoing alteration of the Nigerian 1999 Constitution on Tuesday Live on NTA. The programme, anchored by veteran broadcaster Cyril Stober, had on the panel Chief J.S. Okutepa, SAN, Prof. Dakas J.C. Dakas, SAN, Dr Tunji Abayomi and me. During the discussion, we looked at the desirability or otherwise of continuous alteration of our grundnorm rather than having a process-led, autochthonous, people-driven constitution, the kind of which Kenya did in 2010. We also analysed several areas the Constitution needs to be tinkered with. We finally submitted that amending the constitution is not the magic wand that will bring about good governance and prosperity to our dear country, but the right attitude of the operators. The principle of the rule of law stands on a tripod. Supremacy of the law, equality before the law and fundamental human rights. In Nigeria, our successive leaders are in breach of these three c...