The title of this intervention is hedged with the word “theoretical”. That’s because the proposition that former President Goodluck Jonathan could return to power in 2027 is patently far-fetched and improbable: therefore, although there’s logic to the proposition, it’s purely theoretical. Indeed, Jonathan’s wife, Patience, put it unequivocally when she said recently that her husband would […]

The world is full of parallels. But some parallels are stranger than others. Where, for instance, are the similarities between Nasir el-Rufai, former governor of Kaduna State, and Elon Musk, the world’s richest man? On the surface, there’s clear blue water between them: one is a modestly successful technocrat, administrator and politician in Nigeria; the other is […]

Recently, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, the outgoing president of the African Development Bank, AfDB, stirred the hornet’s nest when he said Nigeria’s GDP per capita was $1,847 in 1960 but $824 in 2025, implying that Nigeria is poorer today than at independence. In an ill-tempered response, Bayo Onanuga, President Tinubu’s special adviser on information and strategy, accused […]

Exactly 32 years ago today, the presidential election of June 12, 1993 was annulled by the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida that conducted the poll. Over three decades after that seismic decision, the truth, the whole truth, about why the election was annulled and who actually annulled it remains unknown. General Babangida’s long-awaited memoir, A […]

Any foreigner who visited Nigeria last week and saw the front pages of the national newspapers on May 29 would think President Tinubu had turned Nigeria into a Nirvana or a modern-day El Dorado. The presidency took front and inside-front pages to blandish Tinubu “achievements” in his two years in office. But while the advertorial was […]

There are two views about Professor Pat Utomi’s decision to float what he called “Big Tent Coalition Shadow Government, BTCSG”. One is that he should not have stirred up a hornet’s nest with something as “provocative” as a “shadow government”. Another is that any democracy that cannot tolerate a non-violent pressure group, by whatever name […]

In principle, there is nothing wrong with a “Nigeria First” policy. After all, every government claims to put its country first. But the devil is in the detail. If a government pursues economic nationalism, thereby inflicting economic damage on its country, it is utter folly to wrap a nationalistic façade around such a bad policy. There […]

Ostensibly, Nigeria is a multi-party democracy. But in reality, it is a one-party state. Those ululating over the recent gale of defections wrongly assume that there are material differences between Nigerian political parties. Yet, in truth, the prevalence of defections, decamping, cross-carpeting, or name it, only proves that nothing distinguishes political parties in Nigeria. Lord […]

Going by media reports, the relationship between Bola Tinubu and the Northern part of Nigeria (“the North”), which gave him the presidency in 2023, is frayed and may snap in 2027. The North, we are told, is regretful that despite pulling all the stops to put Tinubu in power, he’s neglectful of, even indifferent to, the […]

Two pejorative terms are used to describe the phenomenon of Nigerians emigrating to other countries. One is “japa”, a word that became so popular it has entered the Oxford English Dictionary. According to the OED, to “japa” means “to leave Nigeria for another country (esp. one in Europe or North America) in search of further education, […]

Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s junketing president, chose the week Donald Trump, America’s ultra-protectionist president, unleashed a global trade war to go on a “working visit” abroad. As the world reeled from Trump’s tariff blitz, the deepest and most sweeping in a century, leaders of most other countries were hands on deck at home. President Emmanuel Macron […]

The strength and viability of any country’s democracy depend, to a very large extent, on the strength and quality of the legislative branch of its government. This is because it falls solely to the legislature to make the laws upon which a country is governed, to shape government policies, and to oversee the executive branch. Thus, […]

The President of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, is a civilian. The “governor” of Rivers State, Vice-Admiral (rtd) Ibok-Ete Ibas, is a military officer who rules the state as its Sole Administrator. Last week, the Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF, Lateef Fagbemi, said that Tinubu would “not hesitate” to declare a state of emergency in more states, remove […]

Since the rift between Nyesom Wike, the former Rivers State governor, and Siminalayi Fubara, his successor, burst into the open in October 2023, I have written four articles on the saga. The last before this piece was titled “Blame Tinubu for the impending political inferno in Rivers” (Vanguard, May 23, 2024). That intervention was prescient, as, […]

Recently, fate dealt Nigeria a cruel hand when death took two of its greatest patriots and elder statemen in the space of one week. Pa Ayo Adebanjo, 96, who died on February 14, 2025, and Pa Edwin Clark, 97, who died three days later on February 17, 2025, were Nigeria’s conscience and moral compass. Until they […]