Public Affairs Analyst

  I like to read for pleasure in my spare time. In the last few weeks, I read two books, back to back, from my library. Incidentally, both books have the same theme which is the irregular migration of our youths to greener pastures. The phenomenon, which is now known by the street parlance ‘japa’, has assumed a frightening dimension. The first book I read on this phenomenon is titled “Daughter in Exile” by a Ghanaian author, Bisi Adjapon.   The second is titled “Tent 59”, authored by Ifeanyi Ajaegbo, a Nigerian. In the first book, Lola, a 21-year-old daughter of a Ghanaian High Court Judge had a stint working in Senegal where she met a Black American Marine named Armand who impregnated her and made plans for her to go and give birth to their child in the United States. Things went awry as Armand abandoned Lola to her fate in America and she had to go through a decade of harrowing experience as a single mother before she was able to have her stay in the US regularised. The ma...

  Nigeria celebrated her 63rd independence anniversary last Sunday, October 1, 2023 in a sombre manner. The celebration was low-key, devoid of the usual merriment, gala night and fanfare at the Eagles Square where such national events are often held. There were symposium, thanksgiving services at the mosque and church and national broadcast by President Bola Tinubu. The president in his speech lauded the vision of our founding fathers and mothers as well as our modest achievements as a nation. A sound bite from his speech says “Nigeria is remarkable in its formation and essential character. We are a broad and dynamic blend of ethnic groups, religions, traditions and cultures. Yet, our bonds are intangible yet strong, invisible yet universal. We are joined by a common thirst for peace and progress, by the common dream of prosperity and harmony and by the unifying ideals of tolerance and justice.” Tinubu in his speech more or less gave an update on his July 31, 2023 national broadc...

  “An election shall not be liable to be invalidated by reason of non-compliance with the provisions of this Act if it appears to the Election Tribunal or Court that the election was conducted substantially in accordance with the principles of this Act and that the non-compliance did not affect substantially the result of the election.”   – Section 135 (1) of Electoral Act 2022 There were over a thousand election petition cases filed at different tribunals and courts challenging the outcome of the 2023 general elections held between February 25 and April 15, 2023. However, none of these generated as much furore as the three petitions filed by Allied Peoples Movement, Peter Obi and Labour Party, and Atiku Abubakar and Peoples Democratic Party. Under our electoral jurisprudence, the candidates and the political parties that sponsored them have the locus standi to challenge the outcome of any election in which they participated in.   After six months of legal fireworks b...

  The Nasir El Rufai-led True Federalism Committee set up by the All Progressives Congress to look into the issue of restructuring submitted its reports to the National Working Committee on Thursday, January 25, 2018. The committee in its reports called for more devolution of powers to the states and urged that the police and prisons be moved from the Exclusive to the Concurrent List. According to the report, the state government would be allowed to establish state police to handle certain crimes as well as state prisons. The committee equally recommended independent candidacy but with a clause that individuals who intend to stand for elections must not have been a member of any political party at least six months prior to the elections in which they intend to contest. On local government autonomy, the committee said since “one size does not fit all,” the states should be allowed to legislate for local governments, including creating more councils. Former President Muhammadu Buha...

  I watched the colourful swearing-in of the 45 out of the proposed 48 ministers of President Bola Tinubu last Monday, August 21. It came 84 days after the president’s inauguration on May 29, 2023.   It’s the seventh of such in this Fourth Republic which started in 1999. Hearty congratulations to the lucky few who made the president’s cabinet. It’s indeed a rare privilege to be selected for such enviable appointments among over 40 million estimated members of the All Progressives Congress and over 200 million Nigerians. I have granted several media interviews across some of the print and broadcast media since the inauguration of the ministers. Prominent among them are the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria better known as Radio Nigeria, Spectrum TV, TV 360, News Central Television and Blueprint newspaper. I do not hide my disapproval of the size of the cabinet which I strongly feel is bloated. What’s the president doing with a cabinet of over 50 persons (President, Vice Pr...

The public service, comprising civil servants and non-civil servants, constitutes the bureaucracy of every country. They (civil servants and non-civil servants) are the people who implement government programmes, policies and projects. They work in government ministries, departments and agencies better known as MDAs. Not every public servant is a civil servant, but every civil servant is a public servant. The public service is established by section 169 of the 1999 Constitution. The civil service consists of several ministries, being a subsidiary of the public service. The public service contains the civil service, Armed Forces, judiciary, statutory corporations, etc. which are owned and financed by the government both at the state and federal levels. Most public service organisations are service-oriented, rather than profit-oriented (See Part 1 of the Fifth Schedule to the 1999 Constitution, paragraph 19). The bureaucracy known as public service has been subjected to reforms over th...

  Barely 15 minutes after last Monday, July 31, President Bola Tinubu’s national broadcast on relief packages to ameliorate the removal of fuel subsidy, I was privileged to analyse the speech on Nigerian Television Authority programme called “Nigeria Today.” The programme ran from 7:30pm to 8pm. On set with me was Dr Mainasara Umar while the anchor was Lydia Ochi.   Truth be told, these relief packages are long-awaited and it would seem the president had to make the speech in order to pull the rug off the feet of the Nigeria Labour Congress and its affiliates who are adamant to go on nationwide protests. As of the time of writing this piece yesterday, it is unclear if the NLC will still be embarking on the protests more so as there have been Federal Government team marathon meetings with the unions in the last 72 hours. Before examining the intervention programmes rolled out by the president in his broadcast, I dare say that it would have been tidier if the interventions aim...