Singing of the Faithfulness of the Lord I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations ~ Psalms 89:1. Introduction In every individual life, family, business and nation are shadowed days when it seems like the sun has finally withdrawn its shining and the clouds have taken over. These may come in diverse forms: a regime of spiritual hostilities, days of great financial anxiety, times of personal health challenges or periods of national political turmoil. Even sometimes, all that one has lived for may seem washed…

Whatever happens in today’s presidential election, the candidacy of Peter Obi already represents a significant, if not seismic, shift in the Nigerian democratic process. Until now, Nigeria’s election cycles have been characterised by a collective resignation of the electorate to limited, and often poor choices, offered by two dominant parties. As a result, the selection process in the dominant parties is always a high stake, desperate affair, in which politicians go to incredible lengths to win the party’s nomination. Unable or unwilling to mobilise and organise, Nigerian voters agonise perennially in vain. In a sisyphean routine, the moaning process is…

With all the predictions of Armageddon and doubt about whether Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly polls would hold it does sound a bit silly to contemplate life after. Even those who grudgingly concede a life after fear it might be worse. Optimism is like playing the Ostrich. Nigeria’s history of electoral violence in the sixties and even in the mid-nineties might justify these concerns. But the last six election cycles in 24 years have proved that in spite of the hysteria about its viability, Africa’s largest democracy defies the odds. Saturday’s election would, yet again, prove the skeptics wrong. Despite…

The news that the Central Bank of Nigeria has made cash available to the Independent National Electoral Commission for its election logistics is gratifying. INEC Chairman, Mahmud Yakubu, was reported to have said during a visit to the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, that they needed cash rather than bank transfers to sort out many of their activities during the elections. It is commendable that the CBN Governor appreciated the need for INEC to have access to cash for the purpose of the election. It is a demonstration of a sense of political reality. However, this is how far the commendation…