News, Events, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Fashion, Beauty, Inspiration and yes… Gossip! The Only Place It Happens!
“Traditional democracies will end up on the garbage heap of history” – Alberto Fujimori, 1938-2024, Peruvian President, 1998, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ, p 37. I started the VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS in 1965 and got it published in 2007 – 42 years after. The first quote which caught my attention was by Dr Samuel […]
Continue ReadingToday, democracy has become the practice or an aspiration in many countries across the world. To speak briefly about its origin, it was in the ancient Greek city state of Athens in 508 BC that the statesman, Cleisthenes, reformed the constitution of the city state by transferring power from the hitherto ruling oligarchic aristocracy to […]
Continue ReadingPublisher and CEO of Ovation international magazine, politician and member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dele Momodu, has condemned President Bola Tinubu’s declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State, calling it “anti-democratic.” Speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Monday, Momodu said, suspending Governor Siminalayi Fubara, Deputy Governor Ngozi Odu, and […]
Continue ReadingIn recent weeks, we seem to have been wrestling with the very idea of democracy. After all, our political system has passed through the Westminster parliamentary system and over three decades of the Washington type presidential system. There is a prolonged assumption that we are indeed a thriving democracy and ought by now to have come […]
Continue ReadingMany eminent Nigerians, former governors and past public office holders expressed fears on Monday over the falling standards of democracy in Nigeria, arguing that it left much to be desired. They voiced their fears at a colloquium held at the Abuja Intercontinental Hotel to mark the 60th birthday celebration of former Governor of Imo State, […]
Continue ReadingDemocracies are sustainable only under conditions that allow competitive party systems to operate. There is a crisis in Nigeria’s democratic system and the source is our dysfunctional party system. For ruling parties, the crisis is deep; they stop operating as parties and become machines for ruling executives – the president and state governors – to […]
Continue ReadingGhana has taught both Nigeria and the US a masterclass in electoral integrity and democratic maturity in its just concluded election. For Nigeria, the takeaway is that electoral integrity is the cornerstone upon which trust and order rest. When an election is conducted with the meticulous precision of a weaver at a loom — its […]
Continue ReadingThere is a shrinking feeling about it all. With each off -season election that is conducted and results announced, we feel smaller and more unfree as a polity. Our elections bring about more insecurity; unpopular electoral outcomes require goons and thugs to protect illicit incumbents. And of course a larger number of election related court cases spring […]
Continue ReadingOn the eve of last Saturday’s gubernatorial election in Ondo State, Tokunbo Ajasin, son of Second Republic Governor of the old Ondo State (now Ondo and Ekiti States), predicted what would happen. “I believe the incumbent will win. There is no strong opposition, and the APC (All Progressives Congress) candidate is the incumbent,” the 75-year-old […]
Continue ReadingPresident Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT) claims that, despite the hardship in Nigeria, he is delivering on “good governance.” Which was why he urged Nigerians to sacrifice today for a better tomorrow. Worse still, he believes that his economic reforms will “create a stronger, better foundation for future growth”, “cement democracy as our way of life”, […]
Continue Reading(The 2024 edition of the Pastor Poju Oyemade-inspired ‘Platform Nigeria’ conversation held yesterday in Lagos with the theme, ‘Democracy and the Free Market Economy’. Speakers included Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, a former Lagos State Governor, Bishop Matthew […]
Continue ReadingLet’s come to the issues of recruitment and selection. All over the world, leadership is what changes history. Think of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, led by leftist revolutionary Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, aka, Vladimir Lenin, and come to terms with the fact that followership are just extras in a movie! Or, was it ‘the people’ […]
Continue ReadingThere is a problem about the institutional framework in which the Nigerian state as presently constituted is based. To have democracy, good governance and credible elections, there must be institutional reforms and great accountability in government. The three are interwoven, only that we tend to think that democracy is all about elections. In any case, […]
Continue ReadingIt is a glorious thing to have a tested leader as the president of a country. It is also a blessing when the president means what he says and when what he says is not just believable but also approved by the people. Such a society is bound to swim in an environment of enormous […]
Continue ReadingThe Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), one of Nigeria’s most prominent pro-democracy NGOs, invited me to make a virtual presentation from my base in Atlanta to a national seminar it organized last Thursday on “targeted judicial reforms and enhanced judicial integrity in post-election litigation.” Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it, but here are the thoughts […]
Continue ReadingLet me say I took former President Olusegun Obasanjo lightly when he told me that “liberal democracy is not working in Africa” in an interview a while ago. I did not read much into it. I even thought he was still recovering from what hit him in the presidential election (won by his old enemy) […]
Continue ReadingFormer Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo has advocated a system of government he called ‘Afro Democracy’, for African countries, insisting that Western liberal democracy was forced on the continent and has never worked as a system of government in Africa. Obasanjo stated this while delivering his keynote address at an high-level consultation on ‘Rethinking Western […]
Continue ReadingThere are some bitter truths that those in the temporary house of power may not like to hear. One such truth is the fact that democracy is not a sure fire assurance that a country will prosper. Autocracy, its supposed opposite, is also not guaranteed to lead to misery. If democracy was an infallible system […]
Continue ReadingPresidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the February 25 general election, Mr. Peter Obi, in commemoration of “June 12 Democracy Day” in Nigeria, has claimed that the “nation’s democracy is deeply troubled, while its destiny remains uncertain and precarious.” In a statement via his verified Twitter handle, Obi lamented that “the country lacks […]
Continue ReadingDemocracy, by its design, nature, and practice, is not a light toggle switch that is turned on and off. It is not a wall that crumbles in one fell swoop. Democracy is always a process, both in its growth and demise. History is replete with how democracies collapsed in other climes. Disregarding the rule of […]
Continue Reading