By Tonnie Iredia A cursory look at the history of Nigeria’s foremost anti-graft agency – the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC would place credence on the view that it was only in the first few years of its existence that a few people probably remembered to applaud the agency. Thereafter till now, it has been […]

By Tonnie Iredia One week after the relaxation of our lockdown policy, the consensus was that the conditions designed to make the relaxation a win-win situation were followed more in the breach. Everyone blamed the average Nigerian known for his or her anti-establishment posture which encourages cynicism and disbelief in what government says or does. […]

By Tonnie Iredia Festus Keyamo: In politics and government, there is what is known as the spoils system – a practice in which a political party, after winning an election, gives a chunk of government jobs to its main supporters, friends, and relations. The purpose is to reward them for their role in ensuring the […]

By Tonnie Iredia The ideals of governance such as free education and other developmental projects which citizens can look up to from their government are contained in Chapter 2 of the Nigerian constitution titled ‘Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy.’ Unfortunately, the objectives are classified as ‘not justiciable’ rendering it impracticable for anyone […]

By Tonnie Iredia The general opposition to proposed laws by some senators to deal with the subject of fake news was informed by many reasons. To start with, the proposed laws essentially replicated existing legal provisions on the same subject thereby creating a feeling that there was an attempt to over-regulate on the fundamental subject […]

By Tonnie Iredia Every Nigerian public authority or agency usually attributes its failure to achieve its goals and objectives to challenges such as inadequate funding, shortage of expertise, personnel inertia, lack of political will, policy inconsistency etc. It would be strange to hear anyone adding the role of communication to the challenges; yet, the country’s […]

By Tonnie Iredia In developing societies, people in government are always unduly defensive in their public utterances; each press statement is always a rejoinder while every broadcast interview is to correct certain so-called public misconceptions. This has in fact been the thrust of our information management approach in Nigeria since the colonial times. The ongoing […]

By Tonnie Iredia For the first time in many years, Nigeria has in the last few days operated like most countries of the world where day to day happenings are premised mainly on what government is doing.  Earlier, the only thing that was happening in Nigeria was politics, politics, and politics, without governance. As at […]

By Tonnie Iredia In 2016, many Edo citizens had misgivings about the conduct of the governorship elections which led to the declaration of Godwin Obaseki as Governor of the state. But having gone through all the processes including the segment on the settlement of election disputes, it became expedient for us as good followers of […]

By Tonnie Iredia In this era of global insecurity, not a few have developed the tendency to perceive a security dimension to any event be it local or foreign. In Nigeria, two recent events in two states, Kano and Cross River have underscored the ubiquitous nature of security and its capacity to serve as good […]

By Tonnie Iredia The controversy as to whether our people prefer military rule to democracy raised last week by Senator Smart Adeyemi (Kogi West) was unnecessary because those who controverted him were living in denial. Adeyemi was not talking about ‘democracy’ and ‘dictatorship’ as abstract terms, he was talking about the results of governance which […]

Quite often people who are seen as having the quality of being easily understood, get praised for living simple lives. 

By Tonnie Iredia The removal of Emeka Ihedioha as governor of Imo State is certainly the most controversial judicial decision in recent times going by the enormity of negative reactions to it. This column was probably the first to argue that it is only a review of the decision that can remove the absurdities it […]

By Tonnie Iredia With the nullification three days ago of a previously announced victory of Nigeria’s ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the last governorship election in Bayelsa state, it is time for the party to take another look at her political misfortunes. Earlier, the party had squandered all its successes in the […]

Many Nigerians who feel our current service chiefs should quit have loudly said so from all over the country – it is a call that is virtually unanimous – and for once, bipartisan.