By Tonnie Iredia In 2015, when the then US President, Barrack Obama visited a handful of African countries, Nigeria was excluded, though he got as close as neighbouring Ghana. Later in the year, at an International Conference on Media Development and Sustainability in Africa organized by the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland, one participant engaged me […]

By Tonnie Iredia In the next couple of days, if not weeks,  many Nigerians especially economists, finance experts and planners would devote ample attention to discussing the 2021 proposed budget delivered by President Muhammadu Buhari to a joint session of the National Assembly last Thursday. However, no one can stop lay persons like this writer […]

By Tonnie Iredia Based on the satisfactory performance of election administrators at the recently concluded Edo governorship election, there is a general feeling that the conduct of election to the office of governor of Ondo state scheduled for next Saturday, October 10, 2020 would be similarly successful. On her part, INEC has given assurances of […]

By Tonnie Iredia In underdeveloped societies where primitive accumulation of wealth is attractive, it is not difficult to locate thousands of followers of Machiavelli’s perception of ‘no morality’ in politics. Over the years, other notable leaders such as Vladimir Lenin, a foremost Russian revolutionary politician, have found cause to lend credence to the self-serving slogan. […]

By Tonnie Iredia One interesting venue I have missed since Covid-19 pandemic emerged early this year is the typical Nigerian airport where one learns so much about the country’s politics from fellow travellers who engage in debates and discussions while awaiting their usually delayed flights. But all through last week, I got more than I […]

By Tonnie Iredia The perception that Nigerian elections are usually rigged, has for long been a subject of general consensus. It would therefore be unfair to blame those who are apprehensive that the Edo election scheduled for next Saturday would be rigged. Interestingly, even if the contest turns out to be free and fair, many […]

By Tonnie Iredia Mahamat Gandhi – the legendary Indian leader is forever remembered for his great achievement of attaining independence for his country from Britain without violence.  Today, we recall Gandhi’s great quote: “happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” In other words, people should ensure […]

By Tonnie Iredia One simple mistake great men make is the assumption that almost everyone specifically selected to perform a task with them, is likely to have about the same faith and commitment to the successful execution of the common task. One area where that mistake has become glaring in the last few years in […]

Tonnie Iredia History tells us that in most heterogeneous societies, multiple centrifugal forces make it easy for the fragile fabric that binds society together to give way at the slightest provocation. To avoid the dismemberment of such societies therefore the remedy is to always pursue policies that can unite the different groups that make-up any […]

Nigerians who had feared that the Edo State governorship election slated for September 19, 2020, would be violent may have since concluded that nothing would be done to avert the expected disaster.