Opinion

True to the notification, on Thursday, March 28, President Muhammadu Buhari launched the micro pension plan (MPP) which automatically extends retirement benefits to millions of self-employed workers in the informal sector.

In a report titled: “The Misery Index 2018,” authored by Dr. Steve Hanke of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, Nigerians have been labelled the sixth most miserable people in the world. The misery index was introduced in the 1970s by Arthur Okun, an American economist, author of the seminal work, Equality and Efficiency: The Big Trade Off (1975).

In 1999, the Independent National electoral Commission, under Justice Ephraim Akpata, spent over 32billion naira to conduct the 1999 general elections. At that time there was no National Assembly. The approving authority then was the 33 man Provisional Ruling Council headed by General Abdusalam Abubakar, GCFR.

The 2019 general election in Nigeria has been described by international and local observers, stakeholders, direct participants and the electorate themselves as a “disappointment”, “ a bad day for democracy”, “a step back from whatever Nigeria may have achieved since the return to civilian rule,”, “a shameful exercise”, “below par”, “an affront on international standards and best practice”… indeed, there is a near-universal consensus that the 2019 elections have failed the test of integrity.

Rochas Okorocha who contested under the platform of the All Progressives Congress reportedly polled 97, 762 votes to beat his closest rivals; Jones Onyereri of the Peoples Democratic Party who polled 63,117 votes and Senator Osita Izunaso of the All Progressives Grand Alliance who got 30,923 votes.

Selfishness, the pursuit of self-interest and self-aggrandisement are the driving forces of Nigerian politicians. From bottom to top and back again, of those emotions, not one is free, not one is clean, not even President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s widely touted emblem of what is sane and altruistic in the polity.

It is a trite principle law that when judgment is passed on a matter, it must not only be fair to one party but just to the overall interest of the society.

Whoever came up with the wise saying that Nigerian politics is dirty deserves an award for perspicacity. I have just returned from that dirtied, muddled up, confused, uncertain, unpredictable zone of Nigerian life and society with truck loads of stories in my head and enough impressions in my mind to last me another life-time.

As excellent a city as Lagos is, and as profound as its journey has been thus far, Lagos is ready to become its greater self.

The leader of Kwara’s crumbling dynasty has reportedly conceded defeat even as he urged his party to fight to the finish, apparently hoping for a political miracle in the gubernatorial and state assembly elections this Saturday.

As the final results of last week’s presidential poll were released, three broad groups emerged: Those genuinely surprised that the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Atiku Abubakar, lost; those in pretentious denial of his defeat; and those in a quandary because they hoped to profit from a stalemate.

I am grateful to God for sparing our lives to witness another milestone in Nigeria’s democratic development – namely conclusion of the Presidential election in an overwhelmingly peaceful manner.

First and foremost, I give thanks to Almighty God Who has spared our lives to witness another victory for Nigerian democracy and victory for our party APC.

I still treasure your overwhelming support for our candidacy in 2015 and also continue to carry the burden of fulfilling the great undertaking and mission for which I have been thrust forward.

Tomorrow, the polls open. Tomorrow, we affirm that Nigeria stands as a democracy and that no worldly hand can deter us from this wise and fitting path we have chosen for ourselves.

Ordinarily, the postponement by a week of Nigeria’s 2019 general election should not have generated as much outrage as it has done, but the protest that the postponement has attracted is positive proof of the fact that the Nigerian electorate do not trust the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The postponement of the 2019 general election by one week — even if by one day — is yet another spectacular testament to the pathological incompetence ruining our country. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) told us a million times that it was ready for the elections.

On Saturday, February 16, 2019, you will, once again, be called upon to choose the leaders who will pilot the affairs of our great nation for the next four years. This is a constitutional right which should be freely exercised by all eligible voters.