News

Obi Means Well, I Will Give Him That Much. Can Nigeria Be Fixed In Four Years

Published

3 months ago

May 16, 2026

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Obi Means Well, I Will Give Him That Much. Can Nigeria Be Fixed In Four Years

Peter Obi means well. I will give him that much. The former Labour Party presidential candidate and Nigerian Democratic Congress ( NDC) likely flagbearer has been consistent on at least one thing since he entered the 2027 race: he wants to be a one-term president. “I would not stay a day longer than four years, even with a gun to my head,” he told News Central TV.

Those are strong words. The kind of conviction you rarely hear from politicians in this country, where staying in power is treated like a hereditary right and term limits are just suggestions for other people. But here is my problem. And it is a serious one.

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As I have said on this page before, Nigeria cannot be fixed in four years. Not even close. The country has been damaged so thoroughly, from the power sector to education, from healthcare to security, that it would take at least two full terms of focused, disciplined governance to begin to see meaningful structural change.

You need eight years to plant a tree and watch it take root. Four years? You will barely have finished identifying the problem, let alone solving it.

Think about it. Our power crisis has been with us since before many of our young voters were born. NEPA became PHCN, PHCN became the successor DisCos, and Nigerians are still buying diesel at N1,500 per litre to run generators at home and at work. Our healthcare system has become a travel agency; every president, every governor, every senator boards a flight to London or India at the first sign of a headache, while the hospitals they are supposed to fix remain glorified consulting rooms without drugs or equipment.

Our security situation in the North East, the North West and the Middle Belt is not a four-year problem. It is a generational wound with roots going back decades. And education? Nigeria has more than 20 million out-of-school children, according to UNICEF. You don’t fix that in 48 months.

So when Obi says one term is enough to make a mark, I want to believe him. But wanting to believe someone and actually believing them are two very different things.

Now, to be fair to Obi, he has grounded his one-term pledge in something that at least sounds principled, the zoning arrangement. His argument is that if a southerner wins in 2027, that president must be ready to step down in 2031 to keep the unwritten power-rotation compact alive.

On paper, that is statesmanlike. In practice, it is a political landmine he is walking toward with his eyes wide open. Here is why. The south-east has never produced a civilian president in the history of this republic. Not once. From 1999 till today, we have had Olusegun Obasanjo from the south-west, Umaru Yar’Adua and Muhammadu Buhari from the north-west, Goodluck Jonathan from the south-south.

The south-east has been the one region sitting outside the door, knocking, watching, waiting. So if Peter Obi becomes the first Igbo civilian president in Nigeria’s post-military democratic history, the question nobody in his camp wants to answer is this: Why should the south-east settle for just four years?

The constitution gives any president the right to run for two terms of four years each. Eight years. Every other region that has held the presidency has used that full constitutional window. Obasanjo served eight years. Buhari served for eight years. Even Jonathan, who completed Yar’Adua’s term and then won his own election, was on course for a combined stretch that no South East candidate has ever come close to. So what Obi is essentially proposing is that the first Igbo civilian president should agree, before he even wins, to half of what every other region enjoyed.

That is not just zoning. That is something else entirely, and the South East deserves a more honest conversation about what it means. There is a clear difference between respecting democratic norms and pre-emptively surrendering your constitutional rights before you have won a single vote.

And this is where the pledge, however well-intentioned, begins to unravel. Because it is not just about Peter Obi the individual. The moment he wins, the south-east as a region enters Aso Rock for the first time in civilian democratic history. From that day, you are not managing one man’s ambition. You are managing the collective expectation of an entire region that has waited since 1999. Those are two fundamentally different political problems, and conflating them is naive.

Two years into his tenure, mark my words, the groups will come. Youth associations, Ohanaeze factions, town union federations, political entrepreneurs in agbada, all of them printing T-shirts and issuing press releases with one message: the south-east must complete its eight years.

That is not speculation. That is how Nigerian politics has always worked. The hangers-on arrive without invitation. They wrap regional sentiment around the presidency so tightly that a principled one-term pledge starts to look, from the inside, like a betrayal of an entire people.

Obi cannot control that narrative from the State House. No president has ever managed to. Obasanjo, in 2006, swore the third-term agenda was not his idea. Whether you believe him or not is beside the point. The pressure around a presidency has its own gravitational pull. It warps everything around it, including the best intentions.

History has also not been kind to pre-election one-term pledges. Goodluck Jonathan once positioned himself as a reluctant president who would govern briefly and go home quietly. His supporters had other plans entirely. The pledge is always sincere at the microphone.

It is the office that changes the mathematics. The combination of power, party pressure, regional expectation and the sheer institutional weight of the presidency has a way of making a man reconsider positions he held with total certainty before he sat in the chair.

Now, many people have genuine respect for what Peter Obi represents in our political conversation. According to his supporters, he has brought fiscal discipline, attention to numbers and a genuine questioning of the waste that has defined our governance for decades.

After years of politicians who could not differentiate between a national budget and a personal shopping list, that matters. But sincerity and strategic thinking are not the same commodity, and you cannot run a country on sincerity alone.

Obi Means Well

What Obi should be telling Nigerians right now is not how long he plans to stay. What we need to hear is what exactly he will do with the time. What is his specific plan for electricity? What is his blueprint for the 20 million out-of-school children? What is his counter-insurgency strategy for Borno, Zamfara and Plateau? What will he do about an economy where more than 133 million Nigerians live in multidimensional poverty, according to the National Bureau of Statistics? These are the questions that matter. Not dramatic declarations about guns to heads.

Because here is the hard truth: no one in our political space wants to say plainly that a bad president for four years can inflict more lasting damage than a decent president serving eight. We do not need shorter tenures. We need better leaders with the right competence, the right team and the institutional will to govern without stealing.

The one-term pledge is a campaign device, not a governance strategy. And Nigerian voters deserve better than campaign devices dressed up as constitutional philosophy.

So can Nigeria be fixed in four years? No. Not by Obi, not by any political Houdini that this system eventually produces. The problems are too structural, too layered, too generational. What four years of the right leadership can do is begin to change direction, not arrive at the destination.

Let us demand direction. Let us demand competence. Let us demand a plan. These are the issues.

Economy

Umahi, Sanwo-Olu, Abiodun, Others Grace Shekina and Shope’s Wedding in Lagos

Published

3 days ago

August 23, 2026

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Umahi, Sanwo-Olu, Abiodun, Others Grace Shekina and Shope’s Wedding in Lagos

It was a celebration of love, family, friendship and distinguished personalities in Lagos on Saturday, August 22, 2026, as Shekina Chidinma Umahi and Shope Alexandra Ayinde were joined in holy matrimony at the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) Powerlink Chapel, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos.
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Shekina, a niece of the Honourable Minister of Works, Senator Engr. David Umahi, CON, is the daughter of Maj. Gen. (Rtd.) Pastor Obi Abel Umahi, DSc, OFR, while Shope is the son of Commodore NN (Rtd.) Deacon Adebayo Abidemi Ayinde.

The wedding brought together governors, senior government officials, lawmakers, business leaders, traditional rulers, captains of industry, family members and friends from across the country to celebrate the young couple.

The Honourable Minister of Works, who also serves as the Deputy Director-General of Infrastructure, Mobilization and Sensitization of the 2027 APC Presidential Campaign Council, Senator Engr. David Umahi, CON, was present at the ceremony to celebrate with his niece and the families of the newlyweds and was joined by the Governor of Lagos State, His Excellency Babajide Sanwo-Olu; Governor of Ogun State, His Excellency Dapo Abiodun, CON; and Governor of Abia State, His Excellency Dr. Alex Otti, who chaired the occasion.

In his opening remarks as Chairman of the occasion, Governor Alex Otti described marriage as a lifelong commitment and urged the newlyweds to embrace patience, understanding and tolerance as they begin their journey together.

With humour, the Abia State Governor stressed the permanence of marriage, telling the couple that they should approach their union with a strong commitment to making it work.

“I want to tell you in advance that I won’t be present and as such, I declare that this marriage is indissoluble,” he said.

In separate remarks, the parents of the bride and groom expressed gratitude and joy at witnessing the marriage of their children.

They praised Shekina and Shope for distinguishing themselves through their formative years and into adulthood, describing them as outstanding young people who had continued to make their families proud.

They prayed for God’s guidance, peace, happiness and prosperity in their marriage and wished them a fulfilling life together.

The Umahi family also formally welcomed the couple with the presentation of family gifts.

On behalf of the Umahi family, the Chairman of the Uburu Traditional Rulers Council, HRH Eze Laz Umahi, PhD, presented the gifts to the newlyweds.

The ceremony attracted a gathering of political leaders, statesmen and captains of industry.

Other governors present at the event included the Governor of Ebonyi State, Rt. Hon. Francis Nwifuru, represented by his deputy, Her Excellency Patricia Obila; Governor of Enugu State, His Excellency Peter Mbah, represented by his deputy, Barr. Ifeanyi Ossai; Governor of Kogi State, His Excellency Usman Ododo, represented by his deputy, Comrade Joel Oyibo; Governor of Edo State, Senator Monday Okpebholo, represented by the Commissioner for Public Safety and Security, Rt. Hon. Festus Ebea; and Governor of Anambra State, His Excellency Chukwuma Soludo, represented by the Commissioner for Information, Dr. Law Mefor.

Among the captains of industry, statesmen and
other distinguished personalities at the occasion were Mr. Tony Elumelu, Chairman of Heirs Holdings; Dr. Adebowale Adedokun, Director-General/Chief Executive Officer of the Bureau of Public Procurement; Admiral Alison Madueke, GCON, former Chief of Naval Staff; Mr. Oliver Alawuba, Group Managing Director of UBA, represented by Chidi Okpara; Prof. Patrick Utomi; Mr. Adebiyi Olalekan, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Lorelei Construction Limited; Engr. Solomon Dacree; Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii, Chairman of Orient Global Limited; Chief Ifeanyi Clement Okorie, Chairman of Rock Results Group; and Barr. Chioma Nweze, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Community Engagement (South East), among others.

The Ministry of Works was also represented at the ceremony, with the Minister of State for Works, Rt. Hon. Bello Goronyo; Senator Allwell Onyesoh, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Works; Hon. Akin Alabi, Chairman of the House Committee on Works; and Engr. Musa Saidu, Director of Highways, Bridges and Designs, among others, joining in the celebration.

Umahi, Sanwo-Olu

Other members of the Umahi family at the ceremony included HRH Eze Laz Umahi, PhD, Chairman of the Uburu Traditional Rulers Council; Barr. Roy Umahi, SAN, FCArb, of Roy and Associates; and Chief Austine Umahi (Anyanwu Igbo), Chairman of the Amino Kano University Board.

The wedding provided a memorable gathering of the two families, their friends and well-wishers, with guests celebrating the union and offering prayers and goodwill for a happy, peaceful and enduring marriage.

Francis Nwaze, FIPMD
Senior Special Assistant to the Honourable Minister of Works (Media)
Sunday 23, 2026
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Economy

Nigeria’s Diversity is Our Strengthen, Unity Must Remain Our Greates Asset, Says Minister Mohammed Idris

Published

2 weeks ago

August 15, 2026

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Nigeria’s Diversity is Our Strengthen, Unity Must Remain Our Greates Asset, Says Minister Mohammed Idris

The Honourable Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, has described Nigeria’s diversity as a source of strength, urging citizens to promote unity and mutual understanding, noting that what binds Nigerians together is far greater than what divides them.
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Idris stated this on Friday, August 14, 2026, when he attended the wake-keep of the late Ukandi Placidus Ugar Ogar in Obudu, Cross River State, alongside family members, friends, and dignitaries, including the Deputy Governor of Cross River State, Rt. Hon. Peter Odey; former Governor of Cross River State, Senator Prof. Ben Ayade; Chief of Staff to the Governor of Cross River State, Dr. Emmanuel Ironbar; and the Cross River State Commissioner for Lands, Dr. Erasmus Ekpang.

The late Ukandi Placidus Ugar Ogar, who died at the age of 76, was an elder brother to Senator Ayade and Dr. Frank Ayade.

The Minister said the gathering reflected the richness of Nigeria’s diversity and the ability of citizens from different backgrounds to unite in solidarity.

“What I have seen today is the diversity of Nigeria and how it can be further harnessed to promote unity in this country. Nigerians from all walks of life are Nigerians first. Therefore, we must celebrate them wherever they are,” he said.

While expressing condolences to the bereaved family, Idris noted that the occasion also provided an opportunity to honour a life that fostered unity among people.

“It is a moment of sorrow that he has passed on, but also a moment of gratitude that he lived a worthy life, one that helped bring people together,” the Minister said.

He called on Nigerians to continue to promote unity and shared values, while leveraging the country’s diverse cultures and traditions as assets for national development.

“We must strengthen our unity, uphold our shared values, and also see our diversity as a resource that can contribute meaningfully to the growth of our economy,” he said.

Mohammed Idris

Idris reaffirmed that Nigeria’s strength lies in its people and their collective ability to rise above differences in pursuit of the common good.

Rabiu Ibrahim, mnipr
Special Assistant (Media) to the Honourable Minister of Information and National Orientation

Saturday, August 15, 2026
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Entertainment

EFCC FC Kano Wins Inter-Service Unity Cup, Defeats NAF FC 5-4

Published

2 weeks ago

August 14, 2026

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EFCC FC Kano Wins Inter-Service Unity Cup, Defeats NAF FC 5-4

EFCC Football Club, Kano, has emerged champion of the Inter-Service Unity Cup after defeating NAF FC 5-4 on penalties in a thrilling final held at the Sani Abacha Stadium, Kano.
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The match initially ended 1-1 after regulation time.

The tournament was organised by the Coalition of Military and Paramilitary Agencies in Kano.

Speaking during his opening remarks at the final, the EFCC Kano Zonal Director, who represented the Executive Chairman of the Commission, Mr. Ola Olukoyede, commended the organisers for bringing together various security agencies through sports.

“Unity is one of the fundamentals of law enforcement. Bringing ourselves together to have football and soccer events is one of the ways of building this unity,” he said.

The Zonal Director thanked the participating teams, service commanders and all attendees for finding time to share in the spirit of friendship and brotherhood. He also acknowledged the humility and character displayed by all players who reached the final stage, stressing that such values are integral to the ethos of the nation’s security services.

He reaffirmed the EFCC’s commitment to initiatives that promote unity, performance and cohesion among colleagues, friends, and brothers in service, and conveyed the Chairman’s appreciation for the invitation.

EFCC FC Kano

In addition to their football victory, the EFCC team also emerged champions in the tug of war challenge organised by the same coalition, which featured participation from agencies under the coalition.

The competition was held at the Sani Abacha Stadium on July 24, 2026, where the EFCC team won three battles on the same day, defeating the Nigerian Army, the Nigeria Police Force, and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
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