US, Russia and the Syrian dilemma
Syria’s troubles were inspired by the fallout of the Arab Spring that began in Tunisia in December 2010. From the time Syria got embroiled in the Arab Spring in January 2011 till today, more than...
View ArticleLeadership by vote of confidence
By a larger plurality, and for the second time in months, the Senate has passed a vote of confidence in Senate President Bukola Saraki over his apparent face-off with his party, the All Progressives...
View ArticleEdwin Clark jumps ship extravagantly
For the more than five years or so that Goodluck Jonathan was president, Edwin Clark, a former Information minister and Ijaw man from Delta State, stood vexatiously and provocatively behind him. His...
View ArticlePolitics and Buhari’s ministers
On the surface, President Muhammadu Buhari’s 21 ministerial nominees are a study in technocracy and brilliance. Some of them were governors who achieved renown; and others are either famous for the...
View ArticleFederal appointments: Buhari versus ‘selfish’ elite
For those who thought President Muhammadu Buhari was not bothered by the severity of the criticisms levelled against his appointments, especially presidency positions, the good news is that he is...
View ArticleAt last, the cabinet
Finally, a tentative commentary on President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet appears possible. The public can’t be wrong: the cabinet is lawyerly, star-studded, eloquent, not quite gender sensitive and not...
View ArticleGadfly el-Rufai needs moderation and restraint
Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State told his agitated and grumbling audience in Kaduna State last week that President Muhammadu Buhari was advised not to let governors nominate his ministers. Even...
View ArticleLagos, Ambode and broken infrastructure
Governor Akinwumi Ambode’s five-month old government has in recent weeks come under tremendous pressure. Critics and columnists hold him responsible for what they describe as the grounding of Lagos....
View ArticlePDP, Buhari and Rivers, Akwa Ibom polls
In his response to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) name-calling and blame game over the judicial reversals in Akwa Ibom and Rivers, Lai Mohammed, the All Progressives Congress (APC) spokesman and...
View ArticleSaraki’s long, winding and unflattering trial
Senate President Bukola Saraki faces three cruel choices, none of which is capable of redeeming him. One, he could be absolved of the 13-count charge slammed against him by the Code of Conduct Bureau,...
View ArticleBroken economy and Buhari’s logic
Some of President Muhammadu Buhari’s weightiest public policy statements since he assumed the presidency have been made during his foreign visits. The most recent is his controversial statement on the...
View ArticleClark: from extravagant somersault to extraordinary recantation
Nigeria’s depressing and often humiliating politics is occasionally enlivened by letter wars of an exceedingly high quality, if not in style, then at least in vitriol. The recent war between Edwin...
View ArticleSurplus ministers and Saraki’s senatorial vanguard
As proof that President Buhari has not quite made up his mind how his cabinet would look, he has indicated that some of them would not be given portfolios, but would in a manner of speaking sit down...
View ArticleKogi will seal its fate on Saturday one way or the other
In six days, Kogi State will banish its vacillations and vote for one of the two leading candidates in the governorship election. The choice is between Governor Idris Wada, who is rounding up his first...
View ArticleBuhari’s round pegs
Nearly six months after assuming office, President Muhammadu Buhari has finally assigned portfolios to his ministers. The universal impression is that the cabinet is star-studded and capable of...
View ArticleBiafra’s rising stridency
From its beginnings in 1999 when the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) embodied its goals, and now when the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has given it added...
View ArticleFemi Falana on the stalemate
…Notwithstanding that there is no provision in the law for the death of a candidate in the middle of an election; the INEC is not totally helpless in the circumstance. Having declared the election...
View ArticleWole Olanipekun writes INEC on the conundrum
…(I) The election to the office of Governor is regulated by sections 178 and 179 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), while nomination to the office is regulated...
View ArticleKogi poll: INEC, APC flounder
After delivering a devastating message on politics and politicians two Saturdays ago, Kogi State voters were expected to follow through with a tutorial to the country on how best to manage an electoral...
View ArticleDasukigate and other affairs
For a little while longer, Nigerians will be entertained by stories of President Buhari’s anti-corruption war. There is little else, regrettably. Whatever news will come from the economic front will in...
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