Vote Trading is not the Problem with Nigeria’s Elections
[By Ayisha Osori] When veteran politician Ayo Fayose contested — and won — the June 2014 gubernatorial elections in the southwestern state of Ekiti, he mocked Kayode Fayemi, the incumbent who had lost. “People don’t want road infrastructure; they want stomach infrastructure,” Fayose said. Overnight, he introduced a new lexicon for a decades-old […]
EiE-SBM 2023 Election Forecast
EiE-SBM 2023 Election Forecast The first 2023 election survey conducted by SBM Intelligence was published in July 2022 and showed that only 41% of registered voters had collected their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs). This assumption of low turnout fed into our December 2022 projections, based on a 7,000-respondent survey. The assumption of low […]
The Cultural Revolution Against Incremental Progress
[By Seun Onigbinde] When the former head of the Burkina Faso junta, Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, stated that loud gunshots around the Presidential Palace were because of mood swings of soldiers, I felt the comic relief could benefit the creative artistry of the viral jester, Investor Sabinus. In the next few hours, Paul-Henri would […]
Footprints: Past. Present. Future
[By ‘Yemi Adamolekun] “As I speak to you, the president’s people have finally given in to the constitution. But has anything really changed? Did those playing with our destinies understand the gravity of their actions? You and I know the answer to that. Just like you, guys, I have had enough. Enough, this time, […]
Where is the Outrage?
[By ‘Yemi Adamolekun] When citizens are beaten and detained by the First Lady of a democratic government, there has to be outrage. It was outrage against the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) that started the #EndSARS protest in 2020. Outrage against injustice and silence birthed Enough is Enough Nigeria in 2010. Here is […]
Population Magic: Labour Force & Registered Voters
[By Zeal Akaraiwe] Although statistics can appear to be just numbers, they are much more than that. The more you examine those figures, the more significance you see in them, but on the other hand, Ronald H. Coase, a renowned British economist, asserts that, “If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to […]
October 20, 2022: A Time to Rethink the Discourse of Possibilities of the #EndSARS Movement
[By Nanre Nafziger] Uncertainties can be a time of great anxiety but they can be a time of great possibility. A time to rethink the language of politics, to rethink the language of struggle, rethink the language of solidarity. Power is not always about domination. It is not exclusively about domination. It is also […]
Digital Rights and Closing Civic Spaces in Nigeria
[By Seun Akinyemi] The path to digital rights in Nigeria is rough and rocky. This can be credited to different attempts by the federal government of Nigeria to regulate social media. The journey to regulate social media started with the Cybercrime Act which was assented to by former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015. President Buhari has […]
It is Time for an #IntegrityMovement
[By Soji Apampa] The Maritime Anti-Corruption Network (www.macn.dk) and their partner, the Convention on Business Integrity (www.cbinigeria.com), have worked in partnership with the Nigerian Government to reduce corruption in the vessel clearing process of the maritime sector. In 2019 there were 266 cases of demands for large unreceipted cash payments by government officials from […]
Causation vs Correlation
[By Zeal Akaraiwe] I’ll give a quick example to illustrate the distinction between correlation and causation and, more importantly, the error in judgement that results from applying it incorrectly. When living in most parts of Lagos, it’s very easy to assume or conclude that “leaving the doors and windows open causes malaria,” and […]