My contribution to this Colloquium is summed in the following proposition: Nigeria’s overcentralised federal system is a major explanatory factor for its poor development performance. The three assumptions in the proposition will be discussed in turn: evidence of overcentralisation; evidence of poor development performance; and demonstration of linkage between the two.  Then, I will proffer some desirable remedial measures.

LAWYERS know everything about the scale of justice. When Judges weigh the evidence against the claims and tilt the scale either in favour of justice or in support of the evidence.

We direly need a president of sound egalitarian principles, who is committed to internal party democracy, so that the nominees of the parties can emerge through competition, instead of selection by a corrupt cabal

My esteemed friend and mentor,  Dr Tunji Olaopa, one of Nigeria’s most brilliant public intellectuals, has just been appointed to the distinguished rank of professor of public administration at Lead City University (LCU), Ibadan. This elevation, which comes three years after the end of his illustrious career in the Nigerian civil service, spanning nearly three decades, will see Dr Olaopa returning to the classroom, not as a student, but in a professorial capacity in which he is expected to stimulate critical thinking while also imparting his innovative ideas in public governance scholarship to his students.

Rather than being thanked by the Elders of Lagos Central Mosque for the modest role I played in handing over this property (14A Bashorun Street, South West Ikoyi, Lagos) to the mosque in accordance with the will of my late aunt, Alhaja Munirat Muhammed, I should be the one to thank our moslem brethren for giving me the opportunity to once again celebrate the life, steadfastness, humility, faithfulness and generosity of spirit of the Testator.