Senate: Thank you, but…, by Tonnie Iredia
In recent times, new narratives are emerging daily in Nigeria’s fight against insecurity. On a daily basis, we now hear of bandits and kidnappers that are captured by our gallant security forces. New developments, more impetus, greater hopes. Also, recently, the Nigerian senate approved a donation of fifty million naira (N50m) to the families of […]
Another look at Nigeria’s 2023 election process
By Tonnie Iredia Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would shortly undertake a review of election activities and actors in the recently conducted general elections in the country. The review which must necessarily include issues in the institutional environment should begin with party primaries that usually serve as the foundation of the complications in Nigerian […]
Nigeria doesn’t need government of national unity
By Tonnie Iredia Between Saturday, February 25, 2023 when the presidential and national assembly elections were held in Nigeria and today, the mass media have been replete with calls for the next president to compose a government of national unity (GNU). The argument is that such a strategy could calm frayed nerves and create some […]
Hopefully, INEC will account for voter cards
By Tonnie Iredia Voter turn-out in Nigerian elections, that is, the number of voters who actually vote in comparison with the total number of those who registered to vote is usually incredibly low. The general belief is that the trend is attributable to poor public enlightenment suggesting rather wrongly that many Nigerians are unaware of […]
Nigeria’s Supreme Court must remain standing
By Tonnie Iredia The 2023 general elections and the naira redesign policy were the two most dominant issues of the last few weeks in Nigeria. Luckily, the nation’s Supreme Court,two days ago, resolved one of them by its rulingthat the old naira notes should continue to be in use till the end of this year. […]
Too many political clowns in Nigeria’s elections
By Tonnie Iredia Nigerians went to the polls yesterday to elect a new president for their country. 18 political parties got the green light to sponsor candidates for the elections. Prior to 2002, Nigeria had only 3 officially recognized parties, namely: Peoples Democratic party (PDP), Alliance for Democracy AD and All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). […]
APC’s dilemma on election eve
By Tonnie Iredia Too many things have since shown that in truth, there is not much difference between our ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its biggest rival, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). Both parties have a few decent members but majority are political traders. When in power, the two parties behave exactly […]
It’s time to review powers of our Judiciary
By Tonnie Iredia These days, my table tennis club has become more exciting with daily discussions on politics and elections in Nigeria. Last week was particularly interesting going by the divergent but well-articulated viewpoints on election petitions especially the judgment delivered by the Supreme Court concerning the candidature of the APC for the Yobe North […]
Too many inexplicable public statements in Nigeria
By Tonnie Iredia Last week’s revelation by Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna State that some elements within the Presidential Villa were working assiduously for the defeat of the ruling party and its presidential candidate in the coming general elections was a major story of the week. But for the general hardship caused by the […]
Nigerian legislators: Drop your incessant threats
By Tonnie Iredia The several interventions of the Nigerian military in the governance of the country affected one arm-the legislature more than the other two-the executive and the judiciary. This is because at each intervention, it was only the legislature that was always suspended. Thus, the overzealousness of members of that arm since 1999 when […]
Nigeria: Electoral offences without end
By Tonnie Iredia It is not difficult to know that the reason Nigeria has had unending electoral offences, is because the nation’s political leaders gain from the trend. Electoral offences are not happening only because we are a large underdeveloped nation that does not prioritize how an electoral body manages a credible contest; they always […]
