By Olu Fasan THERE is a confluence of events next week that bears strongly on President Muhammadu Buhari. First, on Sunday, May 29, he marks his seventh year in office, and his penultimate as president. Second, the same day and the next, May 30, his party, All Progressives Congress, APC, elects his successor as presidential […]

By Olu Fasan SO what? That’s the key question for thinking through the future consequences of any action. As a critical-thinking tool, it forces you to identify the possible implications of your action. Well, let’s apply this test to the 2023 presidency. Of course, there are many “so-what?” questions about 2023, but my focus here […]

By Olu Fasan CHIEF Afe Babalola, SAN, a distinguished legal icon and elder statesman, was recently in the eye of the storm for advocating the postponement of next year’s general elections and the establishment of an interim government to restructure Nigeria and create a new Constitution. Few comments by prominent Nigerians have provoked such an […]

By Olu Fasan DAMNED if you do, damned if you don’t! That saying captures the dilemma Vice President Yemi Osinbajo faced on whether or not to run for president next year. If he decided to run, as he now has, he would be viciously attacked, as he now is. If he decided not to run, […]

By Olu Fasan A FEW years ago, I met some local government chairmen and councillors from Lagos State. They came to London for a week’s training, and the organisers invited me to teach them the principles and practices of public policy and local governance. I spent two days with them. In those two days, I […]

By Olu Fasan CENTRAL Bank governors are special breeds. They are critical to the success or failure of national economies. Their words and actions, direct or indirect, can move markets and affect economic performance. Consequently, Central Bank governors are traditionally conservative, usually circumspect and circumscribed in what they say or do. It is, therefore, absolutely […]

By Olu Fasan ROTIMI Amaechi, Minister of Transport, was once asked whether enough people would use the passenger trains being built by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. Replying, Amaechi said that heightened insecurity on the roads, characterised by incessant kidnappings and killings, would force Nigerians to turn to the trains.  The statement was an indictment of his […]

By Olu Fasan PROFESSOR Charles Chukwuma Soludo, former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, was recently sworn in as Governor of Anambra State. Watching the low-key inauguration on television, I was gripped by Soludo’s inaugural speech, delivered in his deep rich voice. But beyond the enthralling voice, the speech’s content and substance were […]

By Olu Fasan THE sensitive issue of presidential zoning is an albatross around the neck of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. The party is split down the middle, with its anti-zoning Northern and pro-zoning Southern blocs pitched bitterly against each other. Yet, unless the PDP unites on this delicate issue, it will pay a heavy price […]

By Olu Fasan SHORTLY after Bola Tinubu, former Lagos State governor, told President Muhammadu Buhari about his presidential ambition on January 10, he embarked on barnstorming visits to the palaces of Yoruba Obas. His aim? To secure their blessings and endorsements for his ambition to become Nigeria’s president in 2023. The royal fathers unreservedly blessed […]

By Olu Fasan THE two superpowers with which Nigeria, especially under President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, has the strongest economic and military ties, as well as political and ideological sympathies, are China and Russia. Yet, both countries pose the greatest threats to the post-war international order, premised on the rule of law, principles of self-determination and […]

By Olu Fasan THE year 2021 ended with a controversy involving heated altercation between three of Nigeria’s prominent elder statesmen. The intense disagreement was over the long-running issue of resource control. For context, let’s briefly rehash the arguments. At a summit on December 13, former President Olusegun Obasanjo said that oil found in the Niger […]

By Olu Fasan FEW things provoke righteous indignation in President Muhammadu Buhari like the state of local governments in Nigeria.  Ask him about restructuring, he would always narrow down the issue to the treatment of local governments. “The local government system has been killed,” he said in his Arise TV/ThisDay interview in June last year. […]

THOSE opposed to restructuring Nigeria often taunt proponents of the idea with the cynical question: “What do they mean by restructuring?” President Muhammadu Buhari, who once described advocates of restructuring as “ignorant and naïve”, is the chief scoffer.

SINCE 2018, Nigeria has earned the moniker: “poverty capital of the world”. The United Nations also named Nigeria among the six countries in the world where hunger is most rife. Which makes it strange that a Nigerian government could indulge in the utter charade of exhibiting “the world’s largest rice pyramids”?