Public Affairs Analyst

  The Edo State governorship election held last Saturday, September 19, 2020 has been won and lost. Governor Godwin Obaseki of the Peoples Democratic Party won his reelection bid by polling 307,955 votes to defeat his arch-rival, Osagie Ize-Iyamu of the All Progressives Congress, who had 223,619 votes; a difference of 84,336 votes. Obaseki also won outright in 13 of the 18 local government areas and thus scored more than 25 per cent of votes cast in two-thirds of the local governments in the state. Fourteen candidates contested in the election but predictably it turned out to be a two-horse race between the incumbent governor and his main challenger, Ize-Iyamu. Obaseki will be sworn in for a second term on November 12, 2020. I have been doing media analysis of the poll before, during and after the election. On one of the radio stations, I was asked to do a comparative analysis of the governorship election in 2016 and that of 2020. My take on that are as follows: In 2016, 19 candi...

In July 2019, we announced the imposition of visa restrictions on Nigerians, who undermined the February and March 2019 elections. Today, the Secretary of State is imposing additional visa restrictions on individuals for their actions surrounding the November 2019 Kogi and Bayelsa State elections and in the run-up to the September and October 2020 Edo and Ondo states’ elections. These individuals have so far operated with impunity at the expense of the Nigerian people and have undermined democratic principles.” –   Spokesperson for the US Department of State, Morgan Ortagus, on Monday, September 14, 2020 It’s countdown to the September 19, 2020 governorship election in Edo State. The journey on the tortuous road to Osadebey House, which is the seat of power in Edo State, began on February 6, 2020 when the Independent National Electoral Commission announced the date for the election and subsequently released the timetable and schedule of activities. Some of the activities that...

  “Because of the problems of the privatisation exercise, the government has had to keep supporting the largely privatised electricity industry. So far, to keep the industry going, we have spent close to N1.7tn especially by way of supplementing tariff shortfalls. We simply do not have the resources at this time to continue in this way. And it will be grossly irresponsible to borrow to subsidise generation and distribution which are both privatised.” – President Muhammadu Buhari at his second-term First Year Ministerial Performance Review Retreat in Abuja on Monday, September 7, 2020 Since the increments in the price of Premium Motor Spirit and electricity were announced in quick succession last week by relevant authorities, many Nigerians have kicked against the move as being very insensitive, ill-timed and punitive from a government which promised ‘change’ and ‘Next Level’. In fact, a group in Osogbo, Osun State, mobilised and held a peaceful protest asking the Federal Govern...

  The last four months of the year – September, October, November and December – are usually called the ‘ember months. Not a few people have the superstitious belief that the aforementioned months are dangerous, evil and notorious. It is believed that a lot of bad things happen during this period. There are those who are of the view that it is the harvest season for the “forces of darkness”. Thus, a lot of prayer sessions are organised by religious groups to ward off the potential evil. Ironically, there is no scientific proof of this. In actual fact, atrocities associated with these months are man-made and avoidable. . Quite a lot of things may have led to the belief that ‘ember months are to be dreaded. It is a season that marks the end of the rainy season and the beginning of the dry season. During this period, there is a lot of fog or mist which dims visibility. Thus, there are a lot of vehicular accidents during this season not because of any spiritual reason though, but lar...

Last Friday, August 21, 2020, marked exactly one year since the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), inaugurated his 43-member cabinet. In celebration of the day, the presidency listed 35 projects it claimed to have achieved in the last 12 months. Sincerely, these so-called accomplishments should have been compressed into not more than 20 as many of the things listed cannot by any stretch of imagination qualify for achievements. Moreover, the checklist to be used in coming up with these nebulous realisations should have been the “Next Level” Agenda of the President and his party, the All Progressives Congress. I will rather not bore the readers with repeating the so-called achievements on this page. Rather, I will limit myself to those ones I disagree with. On the restoration of the budget implementation cycle to the January-to-December Calendar, with the signing of the 2020 Appropriation Bill in December 2019, while this is commendable, the President failed to sign a...

  “ Without prejudice to the general powers of the University Governing Council to appoint and remove a Vice Chancellor under the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Act 2003 (No. 1 2007), and without apportioning any blame to either the Governing Council or the Vice Chancellor, the University of Lagos Alumni is of the view that before the Council can exercise such powers, it must follow due process, particularly as mandatorily provided under Section 3(8), (9) and (10) of the Act in the removal of the Vice Chancellor and Section 3(13) in the appointment of an acting Vice Chancellor” – University of Lagos Alumni Association in an August 14, 2020 statement. I have more than a passing interest in the affairs and well-being of the University of Lagos. The 58-year-old institution is my alma mater where I bagged my first degree before I proceeded to the University of Ibadan for my postgraduate degree after my National Youth Service Corps. It therefore rends my heart t...

  “The COVID-19 pandemic provides sufficient motivation for all of us to be engaged in the governance process because if we are not vigilant and the funds meant for COVID-19 response are stolen, misappropriated, misapplied or in any other way diverted to other purposes, then the objectives of the response will obviously not be achieved. In such a situation, the consequences are better imagined than experienced” – Edetaen Ojo, Executive Director, Media Rights Agenda   On August 5 and 6, 2020, two media centred-civil society organisations pooled resources together to build the capacity of some Nigerian journalists from both print and electronic media on how to use the Freedom of Information Act to demand transparency and accountability in the management of COVID-19 funds as well as campaign finance. The two organisations, International Press Centre and Media Rights Agenda were able to conduct the workshop with funding support from the European Union. Among the participants w...