I just read the Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s piece titled, “History beckons and I will not be silent (1).” With such a dramatic title, I was keen to see what he was talking about only to see that it was a reaction to the negative responses he claims he’s been getting over a comment he made in an interview on Channels Television about some of Peter Obi’s investments on behalf of Anambra State while he was governor. Soludo had described those investments as “worth next to nothing,” which is why it’s expectedly generating some not-so-nice reactions from Obi’s supporters. Honestly, I’m…

When we thought the dust had settled on the eight-month-long strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), President Muhammadu Buhari’s fumbling and wobbling administration came up with its pro-rata as opposed to half-pay nonsensical dichotomy. In this instance, what is the difference between half-salary and the pro-rata payment the ASUU members received last October? For lecturers who had gone without pay for eight months, especially those of them with no other visible or viable means of livelihood other than their monthly salary, the semantics of half-pay and pro-rata is not only frustrating, it is also the last thing…

Two unrelated pieces of information prompted the writing of this piece. First was the statement from the chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Mohammed Bello Shehu, when he paid a courtesy visit to the chairman of Nigerian Governors’ Forum, Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State in his office in Abuja. He said the commission had concluded arrangements to review, upwards, of course, the remuneration of public officers in Nigeria. The last time such was carried out for these categories of Nigerians “was in 2008, which makes it even overdue for review,” he stated. The second was…

Through many years of work to support effective political leadership and sound governance in Africa, I have seen the continent confront immense challenges, not least during the Covid-19 pandemic. But there is one major issue that continues to be largely ignored: Africa’s unique position in the climate crisis. For many communities across the continent, the climate threat is already existential. Vast swaths of Africa are becoming uninhabitable, and immense reserves of natural wealth – tropical forests, arable lands, freshwater ecosystems, and coastlines – are being degraded. This is a grave injustice. Africa is suffering the most from a problem that…