Point One

A group of lawmakers in the House of Representatives recently initiated a bill to revert Nigeria back to parliamentary model of governance from the presidential system presently being operated. The 60 representatives, who tagged themselves the Parliamentary Group, introduced a constitution alteration bill for transition to parliamentary system of government at House plenary penultimate Wednesday. They thereby stoked a national debate on the desirability or otherwise of the proposed model, which was what the country started with in its nationhood experience but discarded upon the collapse of the First Republic in 1966. Led by Minority Leader Kingsley Chinda of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP, Rivers), the group comprises lawmakers cutting across party lines including the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). At a briefing of journalists following presentation of the bill, a spokesman for the group, Abdussamad Dasuki (PDP, Sokoto), voiced frustration of group members with huge costs ...

 Chilly winds are blowing against democracy in Senegal, a country perceived as a bastion of that political culture in Africa. The country’s parliament, last Monday, voted to push back its presidential election till 15th December – marking a ten-month delay in the initial poll schedule, and effectively an unconstitutional extension of the tenure of President Macky Sall. A controversial bill to delay the poll passed in the legislative assembly following a chaotic voting process that saw security forces breaking up an attempt by some opposition lawmakers and concerned citizens to block the vote. Civil protests occasioned by the poll shift persisted till weekend. President Sall had penultimate Saturday announced an indefinite postponement of the presidential poll that was originally slated to hold on 25th February. The delay came just hours before official electioneering by participating candidates was due to commence. Sall premised his decision to pull the vote on a row between the co...

It was a foreseen bend in the road that wasn’t long in dawning. Tensions between the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) and three junta-led member-states boiled over as the countries lately announced their exit from the regional bloc. Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, in a joint act, said they were making a “sovereign decision” to leave Ecowas because the bloc allegedly had “drifted from the ideals of its founding fathers and the spirit of pan-Africanism.” They also accused the body of not having assisted them in their struggle against jihadist violence, saying the regional bloc “under the influence of foreign powers, betraying its founding principles, has become a threat to member-states and peoples.”  The grounds adduced by the trio for their exit were effectively an excuse for respective junta’s resolve to hold onto power in defiance of pressure by Ecowas to restore civil rule. Military power grabs occurred in Mali in 2020 and 2021, in Burkina Faso in 2022 and in Nig...

Sierra Leone’s former President Ernest Bai Koroma is presently in Nigeria, but he apparently is here on borrowed time while his political future is being sorted out. He arrived in the country penultimate Friday, ostensibly to seek medical treatment for a maximum period of three months before returning to Sierra Leone to face trial for alleged role in the insurrection that rocked his country late in November, last year. Koroma had been expected in Nigeria since 4th January on a deal of temporary asylum brokered by the leadership of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). But he did not come into town until 19th January, and at the instance of the Sierra Leonean judiciary and not ECOWAS. Sierra Leone’s high court earlier that week permitted the former president to undergo medical treatment in Nigeria “for at most three months from the date of this order and (on condition) that his sureties should provide regular medical updates, signed and duly authorised.” In an address ...

Nigerians are a resilient people who rise up to challenges as the occasion warrants. And deep in the polity is a communal bond that drives citizens onto sharing one another’s burden – never mind an overarching divisiveness fuelled by primordial inclinations and sworn enemies of unity who perennially embattle the nationhood. The country was in such communalistic mode over the plight of the Al-Kadriyar sisters, arising from a death threat that hung over them in the in the den of bloodthirsty kidnappers who placed a high ransom on their release. Mansoor Al-Kadriyar, a Federal Capital Territory (FCT) resident, was abducted by bandits in his family home in Bwari Area Council on Wednesday, 3rd January, along with his five daughters and their cousin, a daughter to Mansoor’s brother who got killed in the kidnap operation. Two days later, Mansoor was let off by the bandits to go raise N60million for the release of the girls. One of the abducted sisters was Nabeeha, a 400-level Biological Scienc...

It’s been happening for as long as time existed. (Pardon the hyperbole.) Only that now, it is demonstrably shown that pizza certificates are available from supposed institutions of higher learning, and those certificates could pass scrutiny test sufficiently to get accepted for institutional schemes like the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). And we know too well  that once a certificate passes the youth service scheme crucible, it gets absorbed into the labour market. Actually, holders of phony certificates could find themselves more advantaged in the labour market than those with genuine certificates if they have the right ‘connections.’ We have Investigative Reporter Umar Audu of Daily Nigerian newspaper to thank for the expose that has set off a flurry of measures targeted, as it were, at shutting in horses that may already have bolted out of the stable door. In a December 30, 2023 report, the journalist revealed how, in December 2022, he contacted a syndicate that specialise...

Niger State Governor Mohammed Bago comes across as deeply passionate about goals he sets his sight upon, and heavy on optics towards accomplishing them. In other words, he not only rallies followership in pursuit of his goals, he also acts out the leading charge in implementation efforts. Gut drives are typically heated and cannot but affront the coldness of conventions and habits. But to make sense of such drives, you’ll need to assess them in light of the driver’s objectives. The Niger governor was last week reported  to have banned workers in the state civil service from wearing native attires like kaftan, babanriga and flowing gowns to work from Mondays to Thursdays. The ban was said to be with immediate effect and applied to both male and female civil servants. Fridays are exempt, naturally, because it is the day for Jummat prayer and less business intense.  Reports said Bago announced the ban penultimate Saturday during presentation of land development and preparation eq...