The money that politicians didn’t spend in Osun during the August 15 governorship election was the money they didn’t have and couldn’t steal. All kinds of figures have been bandied about, in hundreds of millions and billions. It’s difficult to say if these are over- or underestimations. But damn, it was some cash! Credible sources suggest […]

Chief Lesi Maol is the President of KAGOTE, the Ogoni equivalent of Afenifere, Ohanaeze and the Arewa Consultative Forum. Maol, a highly successful businessman and generous philanthropist who has donated billions to worthy causes in Rivers State, also happens to be a member of the Ogoni Dialogue Committee (ODC), which was inaugurated by the Federal […]

THE governorship election of Osun State, which was an off-cycle election, held last week, and the winner is already known. In fact, incumbent governor, Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party won, polling 511,067 votes to beat his closest rival, Bola Oyebamiji of the APC who polled 444, 815 votes. All that is no longer news. […]

It appears the re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of world oil passed before the US–Iran war, was one of the most urgent tasks of humanity. The United States has, for six months, been unable to re-open this vital artery, which handled 100–140 commercial ships daily. Then, like magic, Oman and Iran reached […]

A colleague once sent me a project brief that was, by any measure, impressively detailed. Three pages of specifications, timelines broken down by week, deliverables listed with precision. When I asked a clarifying question about the project’s underlying purpose, she seemed surprised. “It’s all in the document,” she said. And it was. Every word was clear, […]

Nigerians are an excitable lot. It is, therefore, not surprising that the outcome of the August 15 off-cycle Osun governorship election is generating so much buzz. To be sure, the outcome calls for celebration because for the first time in a long while, the will of the people prevailed in an election. And it prevailed not because […]

Over the past several years, especially during presidential election seasons, a war of words usually breaks out between former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Atiku Abubakar, his vice-president. Obasanjo always fires the first salvo, presenting Atiku as the devil incarnate. But Atiku never shies away from responding in kind. The self-indulgent, long-running feud is frustratingly irritating because its […]

Getting a fibre optic ring around the country has enjoyed robust discourse in recent times. The other day, it was the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) calling a gathering to discuss a proposed Dig-Once policy which would ensure that the telcos and infrastructure companies rolling out fibre optic cables would have to take their fibres through one channel […]

The dust may have barely settled on the Osun State governorship election of 15 August, 2026, but its political debris will travel far beyond Osogbo, the state capital. Although state elections are invariably shaped by local personalities and circumstances — incumbency, political alignments, peculiar grievances and idiosyncrasies — their outcomes can sometimes offer valuable insights into broader […]

At dawn on Sunday, the 17th of August, Governor Ademola Nurudeen Jackson Adeleke of the Accord Party had been announced as the winner of the governorship election that started less than twenty-four hours earlier. With just over half a million votes cast in his favour, the ebullient governor was returned to office for another four-year […]

Today, I have a word of criticism for my cherished brother, friend and leader, His Excellency, Dr. Alex C. Otti, Executive Governor of Abia State. We have said one or two things concerning his exploits in the good governance of Abia State, which have been widely acknowledged by appreciative Abians and people of goodwill everywhere. The only […]

There are elections that produce winners, and there are elections that produce messages. The Osun State governorship election of August 15, 2026, belongs to the second category. When the Independent National Electoral Commission finally declared Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party the winner, with 511,067 votes against the All Progressives Congress candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, who polled […]

This week, we continue  the series on why the House of Chiefs should be considered by the National Assembly The rest were Mr. H.J.R. Biriye (Rivers); Mr. J.S. Tarka (United Middle Belt Congress); Dr. E.U. Udoma (United National Independence Party); Sir Muhammadu Sanusi, Emir of Kano; Alhaji Usman Nagogo, Emir of Katsina (Chiefs, Northern Region); Sir Adesoji […]

The ongoing debate about President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s educational certificates is not and should not be the defining issue in a Nigerian presidential election. We cannot always reduce serious questions of governance in a presidential election to fitful hysteria about the academic credentials of candidates. For a sitting president, the certificate controversy is not very useful […]

Perhaps there is some truth in the statement that “when an old man dies, you lose a library”. At 82+ and 39 years writing on this page, I have been a media witness to four major banking upheavals – each occurring shortly after recapitalization was imposed by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN. Almost invariably, each […]