WHEN Senator Iyabo Obasanjo, daughter of the former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, wrote a vitriolic letter to her father some time ago reminding him that he does not own Nigeria, many of us thought she was a bit too harsh on the old man. Iyabo had, in very strong words, dismissed the former president as a megalomaniac and a hypocrite. It is not that Iyabo said anything new that the public does not know about her father. Even then, some of us thought that coming from a daughter – estranged or beloved – that was way too harsh. But in recent times, Obasanjo himself is beginning to justify his daughter’s public expression of her opinion of her father.

AWASH in the great tide of politics, we must not forget why politics can be a noble endeavor. It leads to governance. When done correctly, governance can reform a nation and improve the lot of the people. In the hands of the ignorant and the mean, governance cast abundant misfortune upon a nation and upon the welfare of its citizens.

RECENTLY Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos state decried the sudden non-appearance of the names of over one million voters in Lagos State from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC’s voters register. But responding to the discrepancy noticeable in the new voters register vis-a-vis that of 2011, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, for Lagos State ascribed it to changes between the 2011 Post-AFIS voter register and the extant voters register after the Post-Business rule voter register criterion is applied.

ON November 12, 2008, Adams Eric Aliyu Oshiomhole, was sworn in as Governor of Edo State. It was a special moment for the state and its people for several reasons. Remarkably, it was the culmination of the resilience of the people, who voted and stood by him when anti-democratic forces tried to rob him of the mandate they gave willingly to him, and the judiciary that resisted machinations of the powers-that-be to give a verdict in favour of a popular choice.

WITH the primaries of the major political parties around the corner, there continues to be serious trading and speculations about who will get automatic tickets and who may not.

BY JUDE IDUGBOE I spent some time following the recent debate in the House of Representatives on the bill to halt what is viewed as a stranglehold on the pay-TV sector of the broadcast industry. The bill, which passed second reading at the House two weeks ago, was sponsored by  Mrs. Aisha Dahiru-Modibbo. It seeks an […]

The notion that the average politician must be dyed in the hue of opposition and be constantly set in a combative mode against the government at the center as a means of demonstrating one’s love for his kith and kin, especially in the way it is promoted in the South west, is an idea that is repugnant to Hon. Adedayo Adeyeye, the Minister of State for Works.

ALL the military rulers since the civil war were from the North, and did not give Igbos the second Niger Bridge. The civilian government that followed ignored that need of the Igbos. President GEJ is the one who seems to appreciate this key need of the Igbo people and is working on it. Yet you find the Imo State Governor antagonising the President. The Governor claims that he fetes Chief Sam Mbakwe, but Mbakwe’s political strategies are completely lost on him.

THE leadership of the All Progressives Congress, APC, must have celebrated when a suicide bomber blew himself up and killed 47 students at the assembly ground of the Government Senior Science Secondary School in Potiskum, Yobe State, on Monday, November 10, 2014.

MANY are of the opinion that Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola, the Governor of Lagos State, has performed wonderfully well. In fact, he is often used as a reference point for good governance and how democracy dividends should be delivered.