The chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, Abdulaziz Yari, recently denounced the state of the Nigerian economy, saying both state and federal governments have been borrowing money to pay workers’ salaries. He mentioned the recent bailout given to the states as a temporary measure.

MANY monuments have been built in honour of the man Bola Tinubu. He is acclaimed as the political genius of our times who not only engineered the taming of the PDP juggernaut, he caged it and confined it to the backwaters of Otuoke. Since the APC defeat of the PDP in the presidential election, Tinubu the tactician has been feted, celebrated and praised to high heavens. But all these encomiums have proved to be highly exaggerated.

AREWA political artistes have been singing songs of captivity lately and not a few ears would have been tingling especially among the greedy lot whose misplaced expectations have led to this quandary. But thank goodness for Col. Dangiwa Umar of that region who sings redemption songs.

PRIOR to last week’s presidential primaries debate, the first of six for Democrats in this presidential election cycle, the American political scene was dominated by this single question: Will vice president Joe Bide run for office?

Incidentally, if you ask any of its supporters what it is designed to achieve, the answer will be, “to curb corruption”. But will it? If historical experience in Nigeria is to be our guide, the correct answer will have to be “very doubtful”. Let me quickly explain the reasons. While conducting the research which resulted in the book PDP: CORRUPTION INCORPORATED, what was most striking to me was how much corruption was accounted for by transactions and activities which are not reflected in the balances in the bank accounts of Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs.