Author: Abiodun KOMOLAFE

The Resident Pastor and the National Superintendent of Kingsway International Christian Center, (KICC), Pastor Femi Faseru has charged Nigerians to ask politicians critical questions before making their choices in the 2023 General Elections. Faseru made the charge on Saturday in Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State while speaking at the 2022 Diocesan Summit of Ijesha North of the Anglican Communion. The cleric, who incidentally is a son of Ijebu-Jesa, urged Nigerians to critically engage politicians who are vying for one post or the other on how they intend to change the fortunes of the nation, if voted into power. He challenged politicians to…

Jokes apart, I am a fan of Nyesom Wike, the current Governor of Rivers State. He is visionary and a revolutionary. He is also bold and sincere! Like Rauf Aregbesola, the amiable former Governor of Osun State, Wike has the capacity and a bias for action. He is also a listener’s delight! The governor is a role model for how to be a good leader, especially when matters involving politics in a terrain like ours come to the fore. A man with a big tent and a sterner stuff, Wike speaks truth to power without fearing any foe or minding…

There is a need for a society to exist, to be conscious of its existence, and to have a vision. The values of the society determine the type of politics it gets. The type of politics it gets determines the profile and approach of governance obtainable within the given society. And the kind of governance determines whether or not a nation will be built. To put it bluntly, while a society’s vision determines its development, the society dictates the type of politics that is doable, and the kind of governance pattern feasible, because politics is not something that serves itself.…

By nature, development ‘belongs to those who know it, not those who have it or can buy it.’ It is like a picture, which one keeps working on. Parochialism, on the other hand, is a cultural entrapment. It is evil! With it at work, extant philosophies are laced with the cultural sentiment that a people cannot develop beyond their social thoughts. Once the ruling paradigm in the public administration is ‘awa-n-tiwa’, the society is doomed, with the social thoughts and concomitant expectations most certainly not extending the frontiers of knowledge or the ideas of development. Embracing parochialism lends itself to…

One of the greatest shortcomings of Nigeria’s existence is that she has never evolved into a nation. The amalgamation of territories, imposition of the colonial masters, the unfortunate intervention of the military and its attendant maladministration of the civil society, and the corruption-infested politicians have not given the country that opportunity to realize its potential. To be honest, it is because Nigeria’s handlers have different motives and an opposed understanding of the concept of development that her journey to nationhood has remained an illusion. As we know, there is no generally acceptable interpretive understanding of the concept of development. For…

When the history of Osun State is written for posterity, one of the critical areas of intervention where Governor Gboyega Oyetola’s name will be written in gold is education. While other areas of his Midas touch are already in the public domain for inquiring minds to behold, the recently-upgraded College of Education, Ilesa to the University of Ilesa necessitated this piece. On Tuesday, September 27, 2022, Governor Oyetola assented to the law seeking to upgrade the College to a full-fledged institution of higher education. According to the governor, the “carefully conceived as a thoroughly entrepreneurial and innovative” University of Ilesa…

Being a former British Colony, Nigeria had the political misfortune of being bequeathed with a public administration system that was based on a ‘Migrated Social Structure’; and it could not have been otherwise. After all, it’s the only systemic public administration structure known to the British. Consequently, and right from the outset, the tools of public engagement at all levels, in particular, struggled with the norms and values of Nigerians. Absent the domestication of the intrinsic norms, ethics and usage of the colonial administrative system over a period of time, the emergent system acquired a life of its own; deformed,…

Let me start this rather short Tribute by stating that the story of my contact with Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah and my eventual employment at the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN) are already well-documented in the manuscripts of my future book. Let me also confess that this event-filled connection was the culmination of the timely interventions of men like the retired Archbishop Olukayode Akinyemi of the Anglican Archdiocese of Kwara; and Oba Oladele Olashore, the late Ajagbusi Ekun of Iloko-Ijesa in Osun State, in the affairs of my life. When, even with the possession of entry requirements, all hopes of…

The Osun Independent Electoral Commission (OSIEC) has announced October 15, 2022 as the date for Local Government and Local Council Development Area elections across Osun State. According to the Commission, “all the inhibiting factors and circumstances against the conduct of the elections have been ameliorated.” However, the Osun State Chapter of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) has vowed to boycott the elections because they would “be wasteful” as well as run afoul of “the provisions of Section 28 of the Electoral Act 2022.” From the look of things, Osun PDP seems to be a lone ranger as other political parties…

When we were growing up, we were treated to the fact that, whether things were convenient or not, elections, globally, were contests; that membership of a political party was a thing of pride; and that, in a contest, ‘you win some, you lose some.’ We were told that, in every contest, a candidate from a pool of aspirants would always emerge; and that, ‘while those who win end up thanking their stars’, losers would always go back home, most likely looking forward to fighting another day. Well, these contextual explanations become necessary, especially when one considers the experiences of the…

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)-monitored party presidential primary elections have come and gone and, as the saying goes, the rest is history! With various candidates pushing private agenda, diverse groups’ interests being articulated, and differing institutional preferences already being canvassed, all eyes are now on the 2023 General Elections. In all, interesting times await Nigerians! That said, it is no longer news that, no matter how difficult it is to measure the impact of religion or religious beliefs in politics in Nigeria, it remains contestable in the public domain. However, the interesting thing is that the candidates of the…

In 2018, I wrote a piece on the then governorship candidates of the leading political parties in Osun State. In the article, entitled ‘Osun: Picturing into the future’ (ref: The Nation, September 18, 2018), I tried to showcase each candidate’s quality as well as what his candidature meant for the peace and progress of the ‘State of the Virtuous.’ The election took place on September 22, 2018. Evidently, a lot has happened within the last four years: one of the candidates eventually became the state governor and he is almost completing his first term in office while another has gone…

In a matter of weeks, voters in Osun State will again cast their ballots to elect a governor who will run the affairs of the state for the next four years. With governorship candidates drawn from different political parties fighting hard to occupy ‘Bola Ige House’, July 16, 2022, promises to be a battle of wits between diverse contenders: the incumbent with experience on the one hand, and the political greenhorns, on the other hand, all jostling for the highest office in the state. Without a shred of doubt, it will most certainly be a clash of supremacy between unpretentious…

The political formation, which eventually secured Nigeria’s independence, was powered by the ideals of independence, and Nigerians expected that the country’s domestic affairs would be wholesome. However, immediately after the independence issue got sorted, her internal socio-political contradictions and grey public administration dynamics became manifest. To put it mildly, things that were hitherto not so observable, even by the political gladiators, were evident to the public, especially the educated Nigerians. The transfer of power was just a ceremony; the government’s policy contents and implications on the nitty-gritty of the day-to-day administration became dawned on the people onto whom the power…

The Osun State APC Governorship Primary, won by the incumbent Governor Gboyega Oyetola, has come and gone; a winner has emerged and losers have also started licking their wounds. So, the rest, as it is often said, is history. But, just like any other contest, there are lessons to be learnt. First is the issue of crisis management in political parties. In fairness to posterity, the structure and the leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun State deserves commendation for its ability to prevent the feud from escalating. That Osun APC showed firmness and leadership skills in…

The strategic engagement tour, recently embarked upon by Governor Gboyega Oyetola, to all the Local Governments Areas (LGAs) in Osun State, was a veritable look-back mechanism, which afforded him a rare empirical assessment of the public administration journey so far. It was a good opportunity to have a peep at the status of his performance profile. Also, it was an assessment of reality, very robust and truthful interaction with the people, and a sociological opportunity to evaluate, first-hand, and undeniably, the impact of his administration on the governed. It is sociological in that the electorate would remember that the governor…

Of a truth, Nigeria’s major predicament is that those who occupy the driver’s seat in her public administration have masked their interest to appear as if it is the public interest. Of course, the pursuit of this interest is to the advantage of those leaders and their cronies while the led bears the brunt. Regrettably, this informs the types of policies being churned out by the leaders which, in turn, inform the outcome of our peculiar public administration and … our brand of politics. As the saying goes, the wrong we see are oftentimes symptoms of a deeper ailment! Well,…

In the last three years, the alleged hostilities between Governor Gboyega Oyetola of Osun State and Rauf Aregbesola, his predecessor in office, stayed only in the realm of speculations. But, a week or two ago, the cat was eventually let out of the bag when the Minister of the Federal Republic openly confessed that there ‘are now two factions in the State Chapter’ of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Thenceforth, the battle line seemed to have been drawn. But, while the shadow boxing lasted, it is on record that Oyetola has remained focused, unmoved by the display of inanities by…

On September 29, 2021, the Governor of Osun State, Adegboyega Oyetola clocked 67 years on Planet Earth. It is therefore fitting to congratulate him on this significant milestone. As we have seen over the years, one defining attribute of Governor Oyetola is that he is quiet. Of course, this rare-but-much-coveted attribute of leadership, which has become somehow emblematic of his persona, has gone a long way in affecting public administration in Osun. The shrewd administrator is also patient, attentive and meticulous. Beyond the shadow of about, his penchant for details makes holistic planning feasible for him. He is a compassionate…

Politics, ultimately, is about the people. Policymakers always allude to the interest of the masses as the raison dètre of their policy contents. It, therefore, goes without saying that all policies appear to be people-friendly until their implementation when the real and intended beneficiaries are exposed. At the outset, every administrator tells the people that the policy he or she is making is tailored towards the betterment of the lives of the citizens. So, we are familiar with the expression, ‘on behalf of the masses.’ Due to the peculiar nature of politics and public administration, especially, in Nigeria, policies are…