I forecast that by May 29 or earlier, the president will replace ministers, especially those who have since outlived their IOU value. As pressure mounts ahead of the pre-election year, no fewer than five of them will be replaced or reassigned by the end of 2025
What You Might Expect in 2025 Read More »
“Whether, apart from its business attraction, Ghanaian jollof would also best Nigeria’s jollof in the unending cuisine war between both countries in the next four years under Mahama remains to be seen”
Why Ghana’s Election Matters Read More »
The result of the party’s “inconclusive” primaries on Saturday showed that the surprise came early. From reports, Oshiomhole, APC’s certified nemesis in Edo, managed to suborn forces in the Presidency to hand over the party’s flag to Dennis Idahosa – a candidate that Oshiomhole’s government had once described as “untrustworthy,” the most flattering of the government’s description at that time.
APC Digging Its Own Grave in Edo Read More »
Jurisprudential jiggery pokery has a very long history in Nigeria, even though it wasn’t always rampant or brazen. It was with a heavy, tormented heart, for example, that Justice Fatai Atanda-Williams said the judgment of the Supreme Court in the famous case of Awolowo v Shagari in 1979 was never to be cited as precedent. Today, the Supreme Court has made so many conflicting and confusing judgments that even if it were to make exemptions it would find itself too entangled in the knot of its own self-inflicted misery to know where or how to start
The Road to Thanksgiving Read More »
Weah was determined to launch an earlier presidential bid that may have disrupted Johnson’s presidency. Regional leaders fearing Liberia’s fragile state prevailed on him to wait. After watching bands of mostly jobless and potentially vulnerable rural youths fall under the spell of Weah’s star power, Nigeria’s president at the time, Olusegun Obasanjo, advised the former World Footballer of the Year to suspend his ambition and return to school
Weah’s New Jersey for A Troubled Continent Read More »
No one wants to hear about glitches, attempted hacking, failing batteries, or poor networks. The bulk of the complaints in the last general elections, which later became the subject of litigation, have been about INEC’s competence, credibility, and the transparency of the process
Small Chance for INEC to Save Itself in A Big Way Read More »
In the last election, Buhari showed himself as the master of strategic ambivalence. He did not want Tinubu as his successor. Yet, in his valley of indecision, he knew that the surging wave would land the shore and was quite pleased, in spite of his misery, to go with the flow. It was not always like that
What Nigeria’s Election Cannot Teach Does Not Exist Read More »
I took particular interest in four anglophone countries with a fairly vibrant and robust tradition of press freedom and randomly browsed coverage, just before, during and after the polls, to see if I would be disappointed. I wasn’t. Not by Ghana, Nigeria’s western neighbour, which has its own district and local elections later this year…The Editor of a major Ghanaian newspaper, The Chronicle , Emmanuel Akli, explained why: ‘The Ghanaian economy is in a very bad shape,’ he said. ‘The press is struggling. Readership is very low. Advertising is even worse. We are all struggling, and that includes Daily Graphic the biggest daily. We can’t even cover internal issues well, never mind sending reporters to cover elections in Nigeria!
A British Example in Our Rascally Times Read More »
One unintended consequence of the prolonged grieving is further loss of faith among voters who braved the odds to vote on February 25. This is the last thing the opposition needs at a moment of promise and significant electoral gains. Voters have sacrificed a lot for this moment and it would be a shame if politicians mismanage it
INEC Server and Other Election Day Stories Read More »
I’m bereft that the irony of Obasanjo’s demand was lost on him. How the man whose government committed one of the worst electoral heists in Nigeria in 2007 has the audacity to demand stoppage of election results, mid-count, on the grounds of a suspicion, defies belief. But Obasanjo is apparently too fortified and absorbed in a public life of hypocrisy to care much about irony, that quality of existence without which tragedy becomes blatant
What Really Matters to Obasanjo Read More »