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In 2026, Nigerians will live life in a double reality. We will literally be dancing to two dissonant drumbeats. Some will find the gathering 2027 election campaign beats irresistible. On the contrary, the majority of the common folk, civil society groups and the non-political elite will cling to the chaotic receding beats of the Tinubu […]
Continue ReadingIt is Soyinka in his dreadful play, “Madmen and Specialists”, who insisted that “Even poison has its uses… You can use it either to kill or to cure.” In a sense, US President, Donald Trump, has fed Nigerians a big dose of Hemlock. It is now up to us to die or live by his […]
Continue ReadingA self -anointed select pack of northern political hounds has found a favourite seasonal mascot for each election cycle. Former president Goodluck Jonathan has managed to find repetitive mention in each election cycle. Hardly any presidential election cycle passes without a loud speculation of Jonathan as a possible candidate. In each election season since after […]
Continue ReadingMidway into a rather routine and very tepid presidency, President Bola Tinubu is caught in strange identity crisis. Politicians from across the nation are asking the president to define whose leader he really is. The general public is equally embarrassed by what many see as an “anyhow “ government: no focus, no commitment, no clarity […]
Continue ReadingThere is a novelty in today’s political landscape in Nigeria. Real hard power is in the hands of President Bola Tinubu, an elected leader. On the other hand, soft populist power is in the hands of an unelected aspirant to the throne, Mr. Peter Obi. For good or for ill, President Bola Tinubu is ruling […]
Continue ReadingNigeria’s 2027 presidential election will be a nasty duel between two chaotic coalitions of politicians. Both coalitions are curiously fuelled by fear. For the APC ruling coalition, it is the fear of being challenged and possibly thrown out of power. It is that fear and its insecurity that fuelled the drift of the APC towards […]
Continue Reading1. Imperatives and Diversities of Democracy The two subjects- Democracy and Poverty- offer a freedom that I feel free to delve into on this occasion. We live in an assumed democracy in which poverty has become the most common feature of social being and economic existence. Whether you are rich or poor, the consequences of […]
Continue ReadingThe Nigerian political opposition is scoring desired attention from the Tinubu’s disappearing antics. In apparent response to the growing outcry of opposition voices and the enlightened citizenry about the president’s prolonged absence in a bad time, the Presidency has just issued a second statement explaining and justifying Tinubu’s mysterious vacation in Europe. The new statement […]
Continue ReadingIn recent weeks, we seem to have been wrestling with the very idea of democracy. After all, our political system has passed through the Westminster parliamentary system and over three decades of the Washington type presidential system. There is a prolonged assumption that we are indeed a thriving democracy and ought by now to have come […]
Continue ReadingPresident Bola Tinubu has dealt a fatal punch on Nigeria’s democratic prospects. As the head of the executive branch, he has injured the judiciary and subverted the legislature in what promises to be a dangerous drift towards authoritarianism. On the Rivers crisis, the Supreme Court ruled on the side of deploying democratic methods to resolve outstanding […]
Continue ReadingA lmost mid way into the Tinubu presidency, the face of the 2027 opposition to his perpetuation is on display. An untidy opposition is nearly on full display but in a perpetual stampede. Key opposition figures are lashing out at surrogates of the ruling party from different angles in a most uncoordinated matter. In the process, they […]
Continue ReadingBarely one week into his refurbished presidential tenure, America’s Donald Trump seems poised to set new precedents in the model of the Presidency as the pinnacle of America’s democracy. An elected president of a republic is strutting and pronouncing like an emperor. Ordinarily, an American king would be a freak oddity. But here comes Donald […]
Continue ReadingThe “Jaguda” is a sort of rough -hewn familiar type in Nigerian urban street parlance. He is a general communal presence in such urban neighbourhoods, an outlaw that is often tolerated for his use value in times of trouble. He is a thug owned by the community in case rascality is needed. But the ‘Jaguda’ is […]
Continue ReadingThere is a shrinking feeling about it all. With each off -season election that is conducted and results announced, we feel smaller and more unfree as a polity. Our elections bring about more insecurity; unpopular electoral outcomes require goons and thugs to protect illicit incumbents. And of course a larger number of election related court cases spring […]
Continue ReadingPolitics is in many ways like religion. It thrives on a foolish expectation of paradise perennially approaching but forever elusive. Take away the promise and prospect of eventual heaven and paradise and all religion falls flat. You dare not tell a devotee that heaven may not come or that the promised virgins may not be delivered […]
Continue ReadingOrder in every credible democracy is a balance of compassion and hard policy choices. The hard choices, often of a reform nature, which confront new leaders only make sense if they are for the common good. Otherwise, a barrage of crushing reforms with no tinge of compassion can suffocate the afflicted citizenry and cast the reformer in […]
Continue ReadingPerhaps unknown to most Nigerians, the Nigerian government hosted its political opposition in the hallowed chambers of the Federal Executive Council last Wednesday. It was a unique opportunity to hear an opposition perspective on the current state of the nation right in the executive chambers of Aso Villa. This was in a week when Mr. […]
Continue ReadingAll it has taken to expose the porous underbelly of American democracy is one bad debate night by an 81 year old incumbent president. President Joe Biden fared poorly in his first CNN debate for this election season. A combination of cold, jet lag and old age troubles made him a bit nervous and uncollected. He […]
Continue ReadingIn 1989, the call of duty and pull of family necessitated that I travel from my London partial base to New York. I was checked in on a British Airways flight from London to New York. We were set to leave Heathrow shortly after the usual pre-departure rituals. I was seated on an aisle seat on […]
Continue ReadingThe quantum of reservations and growing public disapproval of the Tinubu government has little or nothing to do with ideology. I am pretty sure that if anyone ever accuses Mr. Tinubu of being anything resembling ideological, he could draw a pistol. Yet his unrelenting dismal job approval rating and increasing popularity deficit is the result […]
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