Guest Columnists

A common feature of our political space, especially as elections draw near, is the avalanche of policy promises aimed at securing the votes of what I will call the “sacred voter”—a temporary title, handed out for election purposes only. After the votes are counted, the voter becomes ordinary again. Don’t get me wrong, this is […]

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The high- level meetings and debates of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) open today at the UN Headquarters in New York, United States, with about 300 heads of states and governments, Vice Presidents, Ministers, and at least a Crown Prince in attendance. This is the 81st UNGA, the UN having been established in June 1945. […]

By now, Nigerians deserve more than explanations. They deserve clarity. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is in Paris. Vice President Kashim Shettima is in New York. And Nigeria is in Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt, Maiduguri and everywhere else Nigerians are dealing with the daily business of surviving, working and waiting for government to deliver. So, […]

Some terminological clarification is in order: who are the terrorists? In the discourse on Nigerian security today the term terrorists hitherto referred to those elements of Boko Haram and their Islamic State in West Africa Province counterparts that have,through sustained campaigns of terror, turned most parts of the North-East into ungovernable frontier states, places where […]

As a preliminary remark, nothing is wrong with Mrs Margaret Obi, wife of the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), owning and flaunting a luxury Hermès handbag that was alleged to cost between N230 million and N250 million. It is her choice, and if she can afford it, why should she be worried […]

On this page, I have praised former Minister Nasir el-Rufai for his work in the Federal Capital Territory. As governor, I praised some of his work, including when he fired state teachers. I also criticised him when he became arrogant and presumptuous. Powerful people tend to misjudge distance, in terms of how long they will […]

Last week, this column began with a simple proposition: Nigeria’s public policy conversation is often conducted at the wrong altitude. We examined why citizens encounter the state most directly through schools, primary health centres, rural roads, markets, transport systems, environmental services and local government offices. We also argued that a policy problem must first be […]

Nigeria has spent decades committing one of the great economic absurdities of the modern oil age.We pumped crude from our soil, shipped it abroad, then spent scarce foreign exchange buying back the petrol, diesel and aviation fuel made from that same crude. We had the oil.We had the market.We had the people.What we did not […]

“I beg, where is the Minister of Works?” That’s the cry of anguish from a frustrated commuter held for a multiple of hours on the dilapidated Benin to Sapele highway in the penultimate week. During the same period, there must have been similar outcries from those stranded on the Abuja-Kaduna highway or the Ifake-Oye-Ilupeju axis […]

On Monday in Abuja, the EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, told Nigerians a story about himself and asked them to applaud. The event began with a terse invitation in which EFCC described itself to journalists as a “security and an intelligence agency.” But that is a gross overreach. EFCC is no such animal. It is an […]

Uber did not merely leave Nigeria. It exposed Nigeria.And what it exposed is uncomfortable. A country desperate for investment is becoming increasingly hostile to the very businesses it needs to create jobs, move people, generate taxes and stimulate economic activity. A country struggling with the cost of living is making transportation more expensive. A government […]