EVEN if nothing else comes out of the defeat of the Peoples Democratic Party in the presidential election of 2015, Nigerians should count themselves lucky once the defeat can lead to the consolidation of our politics by way of giving room for the formation of viable political parties. But this is if our politicians would allow it. From the look of things, however, Nigerian politicians are not prepared to see our so-called nascent democracy grow into something more enduring.

IT’S been a week since Muhammadu Buhari was declared winner of the 2015 presidential election. After what seemed like an impossible mission having tried a number of times to be president without success, Buhari now becomes one of two individuals (the other being Olusegun Obasanjo) to occupy the office of an elected president after holding office as a military dictator.

AS I write this about 2pm on the 28th day of March 2015, millions of Nigerians across the country have been out for several hours participating in the process of electing political office holders in an election that has been described by many as perhaps the most keenly contested in the years since Nigeria attained independence.

IN just a matter of three days the long anticipated 2015 elections would have been under way. What took several years of arduous planning and billions of tax payers’ money that both the government and the election planners may never be able to account for would have come. Six weeks ago Nigerians felt ready for the elections before top members of the Jonathan administration engineered a shift in the electoral date.

By Rotimi FASAN THESE are times when every statements made of political figures are read through partisan lenses. This is surely not the first time I will be making this point since the contest for the Nigerian presidency in the elections due next week became a two horse race between Muhammadu Buhari and Goodluck Jonathan. […]

IT is important to ask at this time if the ruling Peoples Democratic Party is really interested in contesting the rescheduled 2015 elections. This question has become pertinent in view of what looks like a deliberate attempt by the party to continue to stonewall any attempt to have the election until such time as it feels ready for it. The ‘filibustering’ tactics of the PDP are too obvious to be ignored.

IT’S just been a few weeks since the Nigerian government decided that the pump price of fuel should go down following dwindling oil prices in the international market.

By Rotimi Fasan JOSEPH MBU is supposedly a trained police officer and goes around with the rank of an Assistant Inspector General, but he behaves like his high office demands. How this man has managed to make it through the police force all these many years without evidence of ever being made to account for […]

AFTER nearly a year from their homes and families, there were intimations a few days ago that the school girls of Chibok might after all be well and alive. This heart warming news which I initially took with cautious optimism first came to me via online media. While I was full of hope that these girls might somehow return home at some point, I was equally cautious of the authenticity of the report.

IN just a matter of days, the much anticipated February 14 election would be history. Or so Nigerians thought. After much planning, scheming, deliberation and physical and verbal violence, even slander and libel of the most venomous variety, Nigerians thought they would have the chance to choose who would be their president for the next four years, and either of the two leading candidates of the ACP and PDP would win or lose the election. But it was a long journey to this point.

These are political times and like in a war the first casualty is truth. There have, in the last few days and the many weeks leading to the February 14 presidential election, been a whole lot of untruths being peddled out there as the Gospel, and that too in the name of God. Not even so-called men and women of God who have become more partisan than the politicians they are ranged behind are exempt.

ONE of the cherished traditions of developed democracies is the creation of fora for contestants to public office to sell their programmes to the electorate before live audiences. Contestants present their party’s manifestoes and planned activities on attaining power in form of debates that are often transmitted live to audiences via the broadcast media. These events are organized and moderated by select members of the mass media and others, not party partisans. This is especially the case for contestants to high offices like that of president. Since the 1960s, no presidential election takes place in America without a presidential debate. It is just a convention of American democracy that is now widely accepted and practiced the world over. It may not be a constitutional requirement but no candidate into elective office who wishes to be taken seriously spurns it.

ONE can say that the general feeling among Nigerians, even without the benefit of a survey or an opinion poll, is that the February elections will be violent. Those who say this or think this way are not without their reasons. History tells us so. Our recent political experience confirms it. Even now, the fault lines are already manifesting. There have been violent skirmishes among supporters of the leading political parties in different parts of the country. Campaign posters have been torn. Party offices have been invaded, houses have been burnt and lives have been lost.

REPORTS of Rev. Father Ejike Mbaka’s New Year’s Eve sermon had for a short while been generating excited responses in the media before I looked to know what it was all about. I didn’t think it worth my while to pay attention to yet another religious leader making one of their increasingly forgettable remarks on Nigerian politics and the February elections. I could see that the Rev. Father was supposed to have made what appeared to be this explosive remark at one Adoration Ground.

IN just over a month, Nigerians will be going to the polls to elect a new president. Even though the stakes are quite high it does not look like a presidential election is around the corner. The campaign period seems all too short. More so for President Goodluck Jonathan whose presidency seems to be running on oxygen for the few weeks left, with little room to manoeuvre to say nothing of convincing the alienated voter.