“I’ve often joked that even if you beheaded El-Rufai and minced his skull, his tongue would still be wagging. Those who have been in his crosshairs might agree. He once said even if President Muhammadu Buhari were hit on the head with a Blackberry phone, the former president might still not know the difference between the phone and a blackberry fruit”
El-Rufai: What A Good Turn Didn’t Deserve Read More »
Two days of protests are good, but they will not be enough to hold the politicians and INEC to account this time next year. Voters, civil society, and the press must continue to exert pressure and maintain vigilance for free and fair elections. The ingenuity of the amended Bill is that it gives protesters a sense of victory while still retaining its pernicious essence: allowing INEC to determine what to do with election results and how
To Catch an Election Thief Read More »
Major-General Aguiyi Ironsi, who had been alerted by the wife of one of the murdered officers, ran to the police headquarters in his car to plot a counter-offensive. According to the book, Ironsi spent most of the morning of January 15 in the Lagos police headquarters trying to consolidate his position. Sixty years later, no one can say where a general confronted with a similar situation might turn for refuge and reinforcement. However, most would likely agree that it certainly would not be the police headquarters in Lagos or Abuja
A British War Journalist’s Account of How January 15 Changed Nigeria Read More »
“From twice forecasting that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar would lose (2019 and 2023, he’ll lose again in 2027), months before the election, to predicting that at least five ministers would be fired in 2025 (seven were fired), nothing has given me greater pleasure than the Nostradamus-like thrill of watching a situation foretold unfolding”
What You Might Expect in 2026: A Valedictory Edition Read More »
If the convention went ahead, it would be a grudge convention, over the party’s dead body. What, by many accounts, would have been the party’s first convention in 17 years is now fatally derailed by court orders
Why Is the Promise of 60 Years Unravelling? Read More »
Not that he cannot throw his hat in the ring, damning any legal consequences. Or because 10 years after he left office, life seems better retrospectively than it was. Whatever anyone might say, when Jonathan looks in the mirror, his incompetent five-year record looks back and responds with the question, Can this be true? The former president cannot believe his good luck
Why Jonathan Won’t Contest, Whatever the Courts Say Read More »
For reasons best known to him, instead of focusing on repairing the LP, broadening his base and appeal, Obi has fallen for the seduction that his salvation lies with joining Atiku, Amaechi, and former Governor Nasir El-Rufai in a coalition to nowhere. I’m shocked. Obi has forgotten what brought him this far
Peter Obi’s Dangerous Game Read More »
I died and rose many times during the two-hour fifteen-minute trip, consumed by fear and sustained by a lingering sense of adventure that dying at 60 is not dying too young. Unknown to me, my wife had sneaked a rosary into my bag, with a small bottle of anointing oil
Danger of the Single Story (DSS) Read More »
In two years, Nigerians will ask themselves if their lives have improved in the last four years of the Tinubu government. It’s a question that strips economics of its jargon, whether GDP or HDI, and goes straight to bread-and-butter issues.
If President Joe Biden’s claim of a better life for Americans, even though essentially statistically correct, was insufficient to save him, then the Tinubu administration must roll up its sleeves
Adesina, Onanuga and the Matter of Being Better Off Read More »
If the worst fear of Atiku and the opposition comes through, as is likely, and President Tinubu returns to office in 2027, as is probable, it would not be because of the defections; it would be because Atiku paved the way for the destruction of the PDP. He has proved to be the party’s undertaker-in-chief, something not often said, because it is convenient to blame Tinubu
Atiku, Not Tinubu, Is the Wrecking Ball Read More »