Author: Dakuku Peterside

VOTER turnout is democracy’s vital sign, and ours has been fading. Since 2007, participation has fallen from 57% to 26.7% in 2023, our lowest since the return to civilian rule. Out of 93.47 million registered voters, only 24.9 million cast their votes. These are not just statistics; they are signals from the body politic that something is profoundly wrong. The urgency of the situation cannot be overstated. People are tired of politics as theatre and outcomes that feel predetermined. They doubt that the ballot still shapes the course of their lives. The election of 2027 will therefore be more than…

I TRAVELLED to Kano for joy. On Saturday, 20 September 2025, I joined the families I cherish to celebrate the marriage of my dear friend Alhaji Sayyu Dantata’s daughter to the son of another close friend, Bello Adoke, SAN. In keeping with a personal tradition, I informed His Excellency Abba KabirYusuf, the Governor of Kano State, that I would be in town. What followed was not a perfunctory acknowledgement but a quiet masterclass in leadership. Without fanfare, the Governor’s gestures thoughtful, generous, assured spoke the language of a city that has, for centuries, made hospitality its civic creed. Kano’s welcome…

THERE are moments when a country loses more than a person; it loses a compass. The passing of Dr Solomon E. Arase on August 31, 2025, felt like that an abrupt dimming of a steady light that had, for years, shown what policing in Nigeria could be if guided by principle, civility, and courage. He did not simply occupy offices; he dignified them. From the Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigations Department to his years as Principal Staff Officer to IGP Sunday Ehindero, to his own tenure as Inspector-General of Police and later as Chairman of the Police Service Commission, the…

TRUST is the everyday currency of democratic life. When it drains away, institutions may keep their names and seals, but they lose their weight. The recent Chatham House/NBS findings do not merely offer another set of gloomy numbers; they describe a social contract under strain. Almost half of Nigerians say they “greatly distrust” the police. Roughly a third of the population deeply distrusts the presidency and the federal government. Courts meaning judiciary, local councils, and state politicians also score poorly. Beneath these data points lies a telling paradox: while a majority believe that in their communities, power matters more than…

EVERY year on 21 August, the world pauses to honour victims of terrorism. In Nigeria, that pause is never a simple act of remembrance. It is a reckoning one that asks us to say the names we know, acknowledge the stories we have not heard, and refuse the comfort of forgetting. The dead and the living widows and widowers, children who suddenly became heads of households, farmers too afraid to enter their fields, young women returning from abduction to a chorus of suspicion are not statistics in a ledger. They are our neighbours. Any observance that does not place them…

THE 2027 general elections are fast approaching, and Nigeria’s political landscape is undergoing a rapid transformation. New acronyms, and freshly minted party logos are emerging, promising a new era of renewal and liberation. To the casual observer, this may seem like democracy in full bloom, citizens exercising their right to association, political diversity flourishing, and the marketplace of ideas expanding. However, beneath this surface, a more urgent reality is unfolding. The current rush to establish new parties is less about ideological conviction or grassroots movements and more about strategic positioning, bargaining leverage, and transactional gain. It is the paradox of…

ON a humid Monday morning in Abuja, the air buzzed with anticipation as Vice-President Kashim Shettima hailed “a deliberate and commendable effort to align global expertise with national priorities.” The launch of Diaspora BRIDGE—Bridging Research, Innovation, Development & Global Engagement was more than a ceremonial gesture. It marked a historic shift in Nigeria’s attempt to reconnect with its global citizens, not through sentiment or speeches, but through structure, strategy, and measurable impact. The BRIDGE initiative, championed by the Federal Ministry of Education under Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, aims to achieve what countless conferences, diaspora town halls, and memoranda have failed…

AS political season begins in Nigeria ahead of the 2027 elections, we are beginning to see another round of promises, slogans, and declarations of vision. Billboards will soon rise, rallies will be held, and political actors jostle for public attention. But beneath this loud, choreographed performance, a quieter tragedy unfolds in the country’s northern belt children are wasting away, not in war, not in displacement, but in silence. The contrast is jarring while politicians vie for airtime, a grave, slow-motion emergency is eroding the potential of an entire generation. Across northeast and northwest geopolitical zones, severe acute malnutrition has reached…

WALK into almost any public school in Nigeria, and you feel the weight of history pressing down on the desks. Much of the system still operates to the rhythm of colonial-era regulations and syllabuses, which were conceived for a world that no longer exists. The design, the assumptions, the teaching style—all of it points backwards. Students memorise facts to pass exams, teachers rush to “complete the syllabus,” and education officials track school success by the number of children registered, not by what or how they learn. The result is a production line that manufactures certificates but struggles to produce thinkers,…

FOR years, Nigerians have walked through the world with a quiet pride, knowing that their talent, resilience, and creativity were respected far beyond the country’s borders. Our people have built lives in faraway places, contributing as doctors, engineers, professors, artists, and entrepreneurs. From Silicon Valley to the lecture halls of Oxford, UK, and Philadelphia, US, from the oil rigs of Alberta to the studios of Nollywood, the Nigerian spirit has pushed boundaries and opened doors that seemed locked to others. Our diaspora’s remittances, now estimated at over $20 billion annually, have been a vital source of foreign exchange and a…

THE moment of revelation came unexpectedly on a high-speed train leaving Beijing, where a screen showed that 36% of the train’s traction power came from wind energy. Outside, rows of wind turbines turned gracefully under the sun. For someone familiar with Nigeria’s unreliable grid—where diesel generators hum through the night and candles are often the only light—this was astonishing. By nightfall, Shenzhen’s LED-lit skyline shone brighter than Nigeria’s entire grid on its brightest day. After ten days engaging with institutions and professionals in Singapore, Qatar, and China, I am convinced Nigeria’s energy independence is achievable. The raw materials and technology…

WHEN dawn cracks open the Nigerian sky these days, the first breath many people take is heavy with questions that shouldn’t linger in a country as rich in potential as Nigeria. It used to be enough to worry about food on the table or the children’s school fees, but now an even more primal fear sits beside those old burdens: “Am I safe enough to see tomorrow?” Once upon a time, these worries were spoken in hushed tones only in the northeast, in places where Boko Haram and ISWAP turned towns into ghost settlements and farms into mass graves. But…

WHEN Israel launched Operation Rising Lion in the early hours of June 13, 2025, most Nigerians were asleep. The footage came in fragments—precision airstrikes, sirens over Tel Aviv, defiant chants in Tehran. Within hours, Iran responded with Operation True Promise III, unleashing waves of drones and missiles toward Israeli positions. It was dramatic, brutal, and all too familiar: another chapter in the long, looping narrative of Middle Eastern conflict. But the shockwaves didn’t stop at the borders of Iran or Israel. They travelled through global oil markets, diplomatic corridors, and geopolitical nerves—and in their wake, Nigeria began to feel the…

WHEN the clouds gathered above Mokwa at the start of the 2025 rainy season, no one reached for a weather almanac; the townspeople needed only memory. They had seen the river climb its banks before, had watched water swirl down gullies that doubled as rubbish dumps, and had heard radio callers warn—almost cheerfully—that nature’s annual rehearsal was underway. What they had not felt was the sensation of genuine safety. So, when the torrents finally broke their modest records, they landed on a place that had already surrendered its defences. Mokwa was never merely a location on a map; it was…

I STILL remember the evening I first heard the term “Japa.” It came in the form of a meme—“If you’re seeing this, pack your bags”—plastered over an image of a dusty road disappearing into a golden horizon. The joke wasn’t just funny—it was painfully accurate. “Japa,” a Yoruba word meaning “to flee,” has evolved into a cultural and economic phenomenon, serving as a shorthand for the restless exodus of Nigerians, particularly the young and educated, in search of a better life. What was once a quiet movement of the desperate and the privileged has now morphed into a defining feature…

TWO years can feel both fleeting and painfully long in Nigeria. Seven hundred and thirty dawns have rolled across the savannah, the creeks, and the sprawling megacities since the last electoral hoopla promised a national rebirth. We now stand midway between ballots, yet conversation in Abuja’s corridors is drifting toward 2027 slogans when democracy must earn its keep in the seasons between elections. The urgency of the next campaign should be postponed until we have addressed the daily audits posed by breadwinners, commuters, farmers, and students who have lived through every one of those 730 days. This daily audit includes…

LAST week’s column took state governors to task, and the response was electric: inboxes flooded, phone lines buzzed, and hashtags trended. Nigerians are starved for public office scorecards that rely on more than rumour and partisan noise. In that spirit, and with the second anniversary of the 10th National Assembly staring us in the face, the spotlight now swings toward the legislature. In Washington, where we borrowed our presidential model, lawmakers live under the unforgiving glare of the Legislative Effectiveness Score: fifteen indicators that weigh everything from the originality of bills to the art of steering them through committees. Add…

THE halfway mark of any journey invites a reckoning, and politics is no exception. In mature liberal democracies, the reckoning is built into the calendar: mid-term elections test the strength of the governing party by subjecting its record to the electorate’s cold appraisal. One of the defining features of American-style liberal democracy is the midterm performance review, typically carried out through congressional elections. These elections serve as a referendum on the executive arm of government, allowing citizens to reward or punish the party in power based on its performance. In this model, electoral outcomes are influenced more by lived experiences…

WHEN the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, better known as NELFUND, was unveiled, it landed like a spark in a dry forest of despair. It brought a glimmer of hope, like a bold attempt to democratise access to higher education in a country where tuition fees are a barricade and scholarships are too few, too politicised, or too elitist. The idea was simple: interest-free student loans, disbursed through an automated and digitally tracked platform with zero human interference. For students who have long watched their dreams deferred by poverty, this was more than a policy; it was a lifeline.  For many…

THE world came together on a warm April morning in Rome. Under Bernini’s wide colonnade, a simple wooden coffin lay, almost shy against the grand marble of St. Peter’s. It held the body of Jorge Mario Bergoglio, better known as Pope Francis; it also carried a final message, passed without words. As I watched the funeral, I wondered if the message would be clear to leaders in places where leadership is often about show instead of service. Nigeria, my country, came to mind, because its people long for leaders who serve with humility rather than rule with power. At first…