Political Notes

Osun: Three Candidates, One Verdict and a State at the Crossroads, by Emmanuel Aziken

Osun: Three Candidates, One Verdict and a State at the Crossroads, by Emmanuel Aziken

With campaign activities concluded and the electorate voting today for a governor, the contest has moved beyond the noise of rallies, endorsements and political promises. What remains is the hard arithmetic of voter mobilisation and the capacity of the leading parties to translate their structures into ballots. Fifteen candidates are on the ballot, but the […]
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Okpebholo and Obahiagbon: The politics of grammar in Edo State

Okpebholo and Obahiagbon: The politics of grammar in Edo State

From the celebrated verbal excursions of the irrepressible Patrick Obahiagbon to the controversial grammatical gaffes of Governor Monday Okpebholo, Edo State has seemingly gone full circle. But should we care? The latest gaffe by Governor Okpebholo which saw him stutter over figures while delivering his 2025 budget address to the State House of Assembly on […]

Ibori’s defection and the storm ahead in Delta, by Emmanuel Aziken

Ibori’s defection and the storm ahead in Delta, by Emmanuel Aziken

The defection of five members of the House of Representatives from the opposition to the All Progressives Congress, APC has inevitably consolidated the position of the ruling party in the polity. The APC which started as a minority in the House of Representatives has by the serial defections of seemingly politically spineless Labour and Peoples […]

The Untold Political Influence of Igbo Wives Across Nigeria, by Emmanuel Aziken

The Untold Political Influence of Igbo Wives Across Nigeria, by Emmanuel Aziken

The president of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio in the last week subtly gave a hint to Ndigbo on how they can ease the yoke of political marginalization that has been the lot of their people since the 1966 crisis. The new trail for Igbo emancipation surfaced at the night of tributes for the late […]

Awaiting The PDP ‘Obituary’ Statement, by Emmanuel Aziken

Awaiting The PDP ‘Obituary’ Statement, by Emmanuel Aziken

After its calamitous trouncing in the Edo State governorship election two months ago, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP could be headed towards death if it fails to revive itself in today’s governorship election in Ondo State. However, having repeated the same mistakes it did in Edo State, the prospects of the PDP cashing in on […]

What Happened To Doyin Okupe? By Emmanuel Aziken

What Happened To Doyin Okupe? By Emmanuel Aziken

John Wayne’s words that “a man is only as good as his word” shine through in the political appraisal of the person and politics of Dr Doyin Okupe. Okupe burst into the political limelight as one of the leading lights of the defunct National Republican Convention, NRC in the late nineties. His seemingly conservative inclination […]

What Umahi’s dilemma means for our democracy, by Emmanuel Aziken

What Umahi’s dilemma means for our democracy, by Emmanuel Aziken

Two major developments this week suggest that Nigeria’s democracy may not have been totally forsaken as some critics had lately implied. The first on Wednesday was the war of words between the minister of works, Senator David Umahi, and the chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on FERMA, Engr.  Remi Oseni. The second ‘cheerful’ […]

Pastors, Prophets and Professors of Election Disease, by Emmanuel Aziken

Pastors, Prophets and Professors of Election Disease, by Emmanuel Aziken

Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, arguably the most stoic political canvasser in Edo State since the advent of the Fourth Republic was there sitting with Senator Monday Okpebholo, the victorious candidate of the APC, the day after the contentious governorship election last September. Ize-Iyamu’s role in the emergence and victory of Okpebhelo had been partly clouded by […]

Nigerian Reps, Bobrisky, and quest for honour, by Emmanuel Aziken

Nigerian Reps, Bobrisky, and quest for honour, by Emmanuel Aziken

It was not the first time that Nigeria’s House of Representatives would resort to buffoonery when the members last Wednesday adopted a motion to reject the national honour of Commander of the Federal Republic, CFR bequeathed on Speaker Tajudeen Abbas. Their beef was that the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio was conferred with […]

When Nigeria’s democracy will die, by Emmanuel Aziken

When Nigeria’s democracy will die, by Emmanuel Aziken

What may remain etched in the memory of many people following last weekend’s governorship election in Edo State may be the picture of Governor Godwin Obaseki sitting down in the wee hours of Sunday on the corridor of the collation centre of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC in Benin City all alone. Video images […]

Troubling Issues Ahead of Edo Poll, by Emmanuel Aziken

Troubling Issues Ahead of Edo Poll, by Emmanuel Aziken

In what many may consider as the most provoking development leading to next weekend’s governorship election in Edo State, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP last Thursday walked away from a peace accord among the parties and candidates. The accord was brokered by the General Abdulsalami Abubakar-led National Peace Committee, NPC. Peace accords have since 2015 […]

No To INEC’s Peace Accords! By Emmanuel Aziken

No To INEC’s Peace Accords! By Emmanuel Aziken

The 2015 General Election, despite what many saw as some deficiencies, is, however, generally regarded as the best election of the Fourth Republic since the 1999 elections that gave birth to the present dispensation

Understanding Wike’s rebellion in the eyes of Bode George, by Emmanuel Aziken

Understanding Wike’s rebellion in the eyes of Bode George, by Emmanuel Aziken

For a man who once vowed not to abide in Nigeria should Asiwaju Bola Tinubu emerge as president of Nigeria it could have been tempting to discard the pledge by Chief Bode George not to serve in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP Disciplinary Committee that was constituted by the national leadership earlier this week. Just […]

The truth the elders told Tinubu, by Emmanuel Aziken

The truth the elders told Tinubu, by Emmanuel Aziken

Last Tuesday, President Bola Tinubu hosted the first National Council of State meeting of his administration. The body comprising of former and current heads of the various organs of government, to wit, executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the Federal Government is meant to provide the president with advice to guide him in the administration […]

Protest: Trading blame between Tinubu and governors, by Emmanuel Aziken

Protest: Trading blame between Tinubu and governors, by Emmanuel Aziken

As Nigerians ponder over the lessons of the recent protest against bad governance and hunger in the land, it is becoming clear that those who ordinarily should reset the course of governance in the country have not drawn any lesson from the uprising against the status quo. That much was espoused in President Bola Tinubu’s […]