Point One

 Last week, we began running a paper delivered by former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, at the public presentation of A Collection of Essays: Readings on the Legislature by Hamalai, Ladi in Abuja. In the paper titled ‘Some Reflections on the 2026 Electoral Act and Nigeria’s Electoral Democracy,’ the ex-umpire, a leading political scientist, reviewed Nigeria’s journey in electoral democracy and dissected the 2026 Electoral Act. The portion excerpted last week reviewed legislative frameworks for elections since 1999 and major provisions of the Electoral Act 2026 as they will impact future polls. The concluding part of the paper runs following: 3.0 Grey/bad provisions in the 2026 Electoral Act Regardless of the lofty intentions of the 2026 Electoral Act, of adding value to the integrity of Nigerian elections, there are issues of serious concern, and some areas for further contemplation; so as to offer clarifications, remove...

 Former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, recently delivered a paper at the public presentation of A Collection of Essays: Readings on the Legislature by Hamalai, Ladi in Abuja. In the paper titled ‘ Some Reflections on the 2026 Electoral Act and Nigeria’s Electoral Democracy ,’ the ex-umpire, a leading political scientist, reviewed Nigeria’s journey in electoral democracy and dissected the 2026 Electoral Act, highlighting the key provisions as they impact on the political system. The paper will be run in two instalments in this column as input to the national conversation on the electoral process. Body text of the presentation goes thus: 1.0 Background to the 2026 Electoral Act •Good constitutional provisions and primary parliamentary legislation are necessary and required as the legal framework for elections in representative/electoral democracies such as Nigeria. In Nigeria, and in a few other electoral jurisdictions, suc...

Since the United Kingdom exited the European Union bloc in 2016, i.e. Brexit, No. 10 Downing Street has become a veritable bed-and-board for short stays. Prime Minsters come and go in rapid succession, with the seat of British government now awaiting its seventh occupant within a decade.  Vacancy opened up again with Keir Starmer announcing his resignation last Monday after just two years in the saddle. Sir Keir was elected leader of the Labour Party in April 2020 and became prime minister on 5th July, 2024 following Labour’s landslide general election win. He will leave Downing Street as the shortest-serving Labour prime minister in history. His time in office is taking longer than those of his immediate predecessors from the Conservative Party, namely Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, but will be behind all six previous Labour prime ministers. Speaking in Downing Street early last week, Starmer acknowledged he was not best placed to lead Labour into the next general election and had inf...

United States President Donald Trump prides himself as an ace dealmaker. He boasts that with his art of dealing, he could overawe any other world leader into terms that advantage his own country, including juggernauts like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, even enfant teribles  like North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. Not that he has demonstrated this as a proven fact, though.  He just signed off on a pact to end the war his administration has waged with Iran, and it isn’t so certain he got the best for America and allied interests. Actually, many perceive the pact as tilted in Iran’s favour and not justifying the exertion on a four-month-long war that came out stalemated. Trump signed the 14-point pact dubbed  memorandum of understanding at a post-Group of Seven Industrialised Nations (G7) dinner in France on Wednesday. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed from Tehran, even as a ceremony was fixed for Geneva to formalise the signing at the w...

Kenyan nationals are fighting a defining battle for their dignity, sovereignty and public health concern. They’re up in arms against a decision by President William Ruto to host a quarantine bay in the East African country where the United States could send Americans exposed to Ebola virus for isolation, rather than admit them on American home soil. U.S. President Donald Trump struck a deal with Kenya’s Ruto to open the facility at Laikipia Air Base, a few miles outside Nanyuki in central Kenya and some 150 miles north of the capital city of Nairobi.  The Kenyan citizens’ struggle is instructive because it highlights the question as to what African countries should be willing to give in payback for conditional benefits from Washington. Besides, there is the question of national honour: whether another sovereign country should accept being a dump site for Washington’s rejects. Kenyan President Ruto signed off on such deal, but the citizens are saying no. Hundreds of Kenyans took to ...

It was former New York Governor, Mario Cuomo, who coined the phrase, “You campaign in poetry, but govern in prose.” He used the metaphoric expression to describe how electioneering requires idealistic and elevated rhetoric (poetry), whereas the actual business of governance involves grappling with tough choices grounded in grueling day-to-day realities (prose). Political leadership in Senegal has come full circle from the poetry of electioneering to the prose of governance. That country’s experience signposts the curse on godfatherism in African politics. Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and former Prime Minister, now Speaker of the national parliament, Ousmane Sonko, used to be longtime allies with a strong bromance that carried the day in the country’s 2024 presidential election. They were both held in prison on charges widely perceived to be political, and were released by ex-President Macky Sall on equally political amnesty just 10 days before the court-ordered poll. They...