Let me join in welcoming everyone to this august Lecture being given as part of the activities for launching the Endowment Fund for instituting the Oba Sikiru Adetona Professorial Chair in Governance in the Department of Political Science at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State. I confess that when I got a phone call from Kabiyesi some time in August last year, I was very curious to know what I have done to deserve such a call since more often than not it was I who usually call Kabiyesi on one issue or the other. I was even more curious as Kabiyesi spelt out the purpose of the call. This was to put me on notice that I should be prepared to deliver a public lecture on the occasion of the launching of the Endownment Fund for instituting a professorial Chair at Olabisi Onabanjo University in his honour. As a loyal subject of Kabiyesi, I did not think I had any option but to say “Yes, Sir”. Later communication then indicated the topic of the lecture I was meant to deliver. This topic is: Issues and Challenges of Governance in Nigeria

The ongoing protest by the Nigerian Labour Union, National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) and Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) over the disengagement of some of its members in Ikeja Electric, is taking a negative dimension which is capable of plunging the whole network into darkness and crippling socio-economic activities in the areas covered by the electricity distribution company.

Desperation to win elections in Nigeria is not in decline one bit. After the gracefulness of accepting defeat without a whimper by Goodluck Ebele Jonathan last year, one thought that politicians would take a cue and begin to take it easy with trying to win elections by all means, the do or die syndrome.

THE controversy as to whether to devalue the naira or not has taken the centre stage in the national discourse. One can pardon illiterates in economics especially primitive accumulators who are shouting for further devaluation of the naira. But when some professors of Economics and Ex CBN Governor and IMF have joined the chorus to continue to devalue the naira, then, something serious is amiss. The single reason they all gave is because the rate of Naira in the parallel market has worsened.

THESE are integrity times. It is proper therefore to start with a confession. I was one of those who congratulated Professor Jega and the Independent National Electoral Commission at the conclusion of the 2015 polls.