Opinion

The Rivers State governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, is neither the presidential candidate nor presidential running mate of any party as far as the 2023 general elections are concerned, but the amiable governor has since the presidential primaries of the various political parties become a one man consultative assembly to all parties eyeing the presidential seat. His Port Harcourt home has in the last couple of days played host to major presidential candidates and or their cronies. Though not much of their discussions are in the public domain, it is believed that they are not unconnected to the 2023 elections. Recall…

Like many Nigerians, I’ve come to recognize a fascinating development in Nigeria’s political landscape. It is this: next year’s presidential election is shaping up to be a contest between Peter Obi, on the one hand, and the rest, on the other hand. To be clear, I’m not asserting that Obi, the former governor of Anambra, is the frontrunner. I’m not stating that he’s going to win the presidency. My point is that Obi has set himself apart in a way that no other prominent Nigerian politician has done in recent memory, if ever. I must confess that this fact dawned…

Given the nationwide unprecedented surge in support of Peter Obi's presidential ambition, it is now getting clearer to the establishment, especially the economic locusts that have held Nigeria down since the 60s, that real danger is lurking around. Food is about to be taken away from the mouths of so many politicians and crumb-pickers who largely depend on Nigeria's incongruous patronage system for survival. Politicians now fall over one another in the investment of efforts to puncture Peter Obi's claims to prudence, and other sundry claims to his competence, in order to generate currency for their own campaigns. While doing…

Former Anambra State governor Peter Obi is inspiring a powerful, social media-enabled, youth-led political tidal wave that will radically change the contours of the 2023 election. But APC and PDP operatives, still inebriated with the overconfidence of the size and deep pockets of their parties, are sniggering at the suggestion that Peter Obi’s Labour Party will change the game next year. They comfort themselves with the mantra that there are no polling booths on social media where Peter Obi’s devotees form noisy cyber silos. Well, there is no opponent more dangerous than an underestimated one. People who are habituated to…

Atiku Abubakar decided to play safe in his choice of a running mate. Okowa is a meek, lackluster, barely politically visible governor who may neither help nor hurt Atiku's chances in 2023. As a "Delta Igbo" person, he has never been known to deny his Igbo ethnic identity, as many people from his part of Nigeria do--or used to do. So, the worst emotion he will stir among "mainstream" Igbo people is indifference. Nonetheless, he is unlikely to achieve political and emotional identification with Southeastern Igbo people on the basis of his ethnicity because Southeastern Igbo people have, for the…

Expectedly, there has been an upbeat or more of a frenzy in political activities in Abia State in the last ten (10) months. The crescendo will continue to increase as we advance towards the 2023 general elections. The elements of these flurry of political activities can be seen in the reactivation of old political blocs and setting up of new ones. The social media has been denied the relative peace and decorum it enjoyed in the past via the setting up of allied WhatsApp groups, Twitter and Facebook accounts along Party, religious, ethnic and even professional divides. Conmen and fraudsters…

I was fed up with the unendingly immature political melodrama and indiscipline of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential primary and national convention on June 7, which spilled over to June 8, but here are five key takeaways from it. 1. It exposed the inner circle of the Muhammadu Buhari regime as a weak, nerveless, internally incoherent, and disorganised junto. For years, Buhari’s inner circle, also known as the Aso Rock cabal, was united in its common resentment of Bola Ahmed Tinubu and its determination to scupper his bid for the APC presidential nomination, but it had neither the strategy…