Public Affairs Analyst

The June 21, 2014, governorship election in Ekiti State offers some useful lessons for students of politics. A lot has been said about why the incumbent governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, lost signally in the contest in spite of his sterling performance in office. His ‘sins’ are legion. According to reports, he lacks good human relations by not socialising with the populace; he allegedly surrounded himself with eggheads or technocrats who have little or no electoral value and who are equally not in touch with their constituents. They call them Ekiti in the ‘Diaspora’. He is accused of not empowering local contractors as most of the contracts were said to have been awarded to vendors from outside of the state. Also, the insistence of his administration to make teachers write competency test which is wrongly perceived as a ploy to downsize or right-size the work force; the increase of the tuition of Ekiti State University and the enforcement of no payment, no examination as well as the palp...

The All Progressives Congress concluded the ‘election’ of its national executive officers at a national convention held at the Eagle Square, Abuja, on Friday, June 13. At the end of the exercise, a former Governor of Edo State, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, emerged the new party chairman. It will be recalled that after the merger of the Big Three (The Congress for Progressive Change, Action Congress of Nigeria, and All Nigeria Peoples Party) last year, interim executive officers had been running the affairs of the party. At the 9th Interim Executive Committee meeting held in Abuja in March, the party announced that its congress would start on April 5 and end with a national convention on May 24. Specifically, the party announced as follows: “The Ward Congress will hold on April 5, Local Government Congress on April 12. State Congress on April 23 and the National Convention on May 24.” A change in date however led to the national convention being postponed before it eventually held last we...

“A free press is the conscience of a nation and a practical means of achieving good government” –A former UN Secretary General, Dr. Boutrous Boutrous Ghali. Last weekend’s attack on the Nigerian media by the military High Command is unwarranted, condemnable and shameful. The Nigerian media fought for the democracy we currently enjoy and no amount of “scapegoatism”, threats and molestation will be successful against it. The media survived Decree 2 and 4 of 1984 and all other draconian legislations promulgated by the military junta. They endured proscription, molestation, incarceration and assassinations of journalists. If they did survive under the autocratic regimes of the military, they readily will outlive the current siege on their businesses and practice. What really happened on Friday, June 6 and Saturday, June 7? In a Gestapo-like fashion, newspaper distribution vans were ambushed by soldiers across the country. The vehicles, their drivers and other staff accompanying the ...

It was neither my first time out of Nigeria nor my inaugural international election observation mission. I had twice been privileged to be on such missions to Ghana in December 2008 and the United States of America in November 2010. My third time out on election observation duty was in Egypt in May 2014. Each of these missions holds their peculiarities. My recent trip to the land of the Pharaohs was an eye-opener; a momentous and epochal event. As rightly observed by Zahi Hawass, an Egyptian archaeologist, in his foreword in the book, “Wonders of Egypt”, “Egypt’s greatest wonder is the magic of its archaeological sites…Egypt is a land of many, many wonders – the great historic (and beautiful) city of Cairo, with more medieval monuments than any other city in the world; the spectacular desert landscapes of the Gilf Kebir, the White Desert, or the high mountains of Sinai; the majestic, life bringing Nile and the rich green fields that are its gift”. I was ecstatic experiencing some of...

Boko haram which literally translates in Hausa language as ‘western education is a sin’ is arguably the most widely used expression in Nigeria today. The insurgent group headquartered in Borno State introduced that vocabulary into Nigeria and indeed world lexicon when it started its campaign against western education by attacking schools - abducting and killing the students - and burning down the institutions. As I write this, international appeal is still on to this terrorist group to release about 276 female students of Chibok secondary school they abducted on the night of April 14. The focus of this commentary is however not on the terrorist group but on Nigerian government who has over the decades been showing disdain for western education. Undoubtedly, Nigerian government is boko haram. Be it at federal, state or local government levels. Our government may not be burning schools, abducting pupils as well as killing and maiming students and teachers as the terrorist group is...

If there are things that make the contemporary times better than the olden days, it is the Information Communication Technology. As I type this piece on my personal computer, I cannot but wonder at how we managed to survive those antediluvian days when Olympic typewriter held sway and tippex had to be used to correct errors. Then came the IBM electronic typewriter, an advanced technology. Today, computers have made dinosaur of typists. Secretarial studies has given way to computer studies and many organisations have since stopped hiring confidential secretaries because, in truth, if you have to trust someone to do your typing for you, be rest assured that the content may not be confidential as you think. Today, with computers, it is better to type those secret documents yourself. Experts say that the ICT is an umbrella term that includes any communication device or application, encompassing radio, television, cellular phones, computer and network hardware and software, satellite sys...

It is stale news that Nigeria is under the siege of terrorism. Armed robbery, kidnapping, cultism, murder are now routine occurrences so much so that many people have lost count of the number of victims. Even though incidence of crime is nationwide, that of the Northern Nigeria, particularly North-Eastern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa is particularly more troubling. The insurgent group popularly called Boko Haram has been wreaking a lot of havoc on the residents of the aforementioned states since 2009. As I write this, the abduction of over 200 girls from Government Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State since April 14, 2014 has dominated the media, be it traditional or social. The #BringBackOurGirls advocates are dominating the social media. The Nigerian government has been trying to restore peace and order in the insurgents’ hot spots but if the truth must be said, our military seem overwhelmed due largely to a number of factors such as inadequate funding, corruption, sabotage ...