I wish to felicitate with the youth across the globe on the 21st Anniversary of the International Youth Day celebration.

I salute the Nigerian youth in particular for their commitment and perseverance towards the attainment of a greater Nigeria.

The theme of this year’s celebration “Youth Engagement for Global Action” gives a critical picture of what the world perceives about the stake of young people globally.

This global picture, which has been on my mind, informed my decision of 40% youth inclusion in my 2019 presidential campaign; a promise I am committed to keeping for the futuristic benefit of our…

Nigeria has been on edge due to the brinkmanship of those charged with democratic leadership. We must, as a nation, not escalate the already tense atmosphere in our polity.

What is happening in Edo State is a threat to constitutional order nationwide, and I strongly urge belligerent forces to reign in their proxies and abide by the rule of law. As I have previously said, without the rule of law, there will be no rule at all.

The current goings-on portends grave danger, not only to law and order in that state but to the coming Edo elections.

The people…

Since February when the incident case of the novel corona virus emerged in Nigeria, life has not been the same for us all. Our economic and social lives have been seriously disrupted.

For the first time in living memory, Muslims in our country fasted this year without spiritual acts of worship that accompany the Holy Month of Ramadan, and had Eid celebration devoid of the mandatory congressional prayers. Historically too, this would be the fourth time in all time that the holy pilgrimage of Hajj would suffer restrictions.

To the glory of the Almighty, the restrictions are being eased. But…

It is to my consternation that despite the crash in the price of oil, and the inability of Nigeria to expand our revenue base through the non-oil sector, the Federal Government of Nigeria has only seen fit to slash our budget by a mere 0.6%, from ₦10.594 trillion to ₦ 10.523 trillion. This represents a reduction of only ₦71 billion.

Putting politics aside, this is grossly insufficient and betrays the fact we have lost touch with the current realities in the global political economy.

For the avoidance of doubt, when this budget was presented to the National Assembly on Tuesday…

On Monday, April 27, 2020, British oil and gas giant, BP, became the latest in a growing number of energy firms to declare a massive quarterly loss. Their loss was in the region of $4.4 billion dollars. Bear in mind that this was a conglomerate that posted a $2.6 billion profit in the corresponding quarter of 2019.

The challenges that are already engulfing the oil and gas sector will continue to plague that industry for at least the rest of the year, and may reach apocalyptic levels sooner than we expect.

As I write this, there are hundreds of crude…

Before the novel coronavirus pandemic hit the globe, Nigeria spent 42% of her earnings on debt servicing. We have arrived at a new reality today: even if we devote 100% of our income to rebuilding our economy, it still will not be enough.

COVID19 has wreaked such damage to the world’s economy, and this is now very evident in the West. But we should not take solace in any false sense of security that nations like Nigeria are either immune to the vagaries of this plague or that we would not be as hard hit. …

As the coronavirus pandemic ravages the world, I applaud the various Nigerian state governments who have proactively taken measures, such as issuing stay at home orders, and shutting down non-essential markets and other places of mass gatherings, while also giving guidelines for social distancing.

However, we must accept the fact that much of the Nigerian public have a subsistence existence. A large percentage of our people do not have the financial capacity to withstand long periods of self-isolation and even lockdown. …

My attention has been drawn to a letter written to Premium Times in response to an essay on restructuring authored by me.

Faced with an avalanche of public condemnation for his 360-degree turn on the concept of restructuring, it is understandable that the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has written to Premium Times to douse the tension his comments created. However, in doing so, the Vice President should not attempt to revise history by saying that he spoke against ‘geographic restructuring’.

I have been in the forefront of the discourse on restructuring since the 1995 Abacha Constitutional Conference and to…