Public Affairs Analyst

  Last Thursday, August 27, 2026, Osun, the state of the Living Spring clocked 35 years having been created by military fiat in 1991. I was one of the advocates for the creation of Osun from the old Oyo State. My advocacy piece was published in the defunct Daily Sketch newspaper of Friday, August 16, 1991. Though Oyo State is the land of my birth as sang by renowned reggae artiste, Eric Donaldson, my ancestry is however in Osun. My dad is from IleOgbo, headquarters of Ayedire Local Government, same town where the current Director General of National Youth Service Corps, Brig. Gen. Olakunle Nafiu hails from while my mum is from Ikire, headquarters of Irewole Local Government. Osun is very unique in many ways. Spiritually, Ile-Ife is believed to be the source and cradle   of Yoruba race. Several world-famous religious leaders such as Apostle Joseph Babalola the founder of Christ Apostolic Church, Pastor Enoch Adeboye the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God...

  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...

  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...

  Pursuant to section 178 (1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as altered, the Independent National Electoral Commission has held the fourth in the series of off-cycle governorship election in Ekiti State on Saturday, June 20, 2026. Recall that as a result of the 2007 governorship election in Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi of the then Action Congress of Nigeria decided to seek redress at the election tribunal following the INEC’s declaration of Engineer Segun Oni of Peoples Democratic Party as the winner of that poll. After three years of legal fireworks both at the tribunal and the appellate court, the Court of Appeal in Ilorin declared Fayemi as the winner of that disputed election thereby sacking Oni. The first off cycle governorship election in Ekiti State was held in 2014. Others were held in 2018, 2022 and 2026. Off cycle governorship election actually started in Anambra State in a dispute over the 2003 governorship poll between Dr. Chris Ngige o...