Reading vs listening

The average northern Nigerian’s heavy reliance on radio as the main source of information was quite understandable when English literacy in that part of the country was miserably low. Yet, despite the huge progress achieved in this regard, reading habit among average northern Nigerians does not reflect the progress achieved.

The limited airtime allocated to radio and even television programs necessitates limiting the contents, which by implication leaves the audience in the dark as to the larger pictures, the broader contexts, the dynamics and the deeper analyses of issues usually found in newspapers, magazines, journals and books. 

The politics of Kayan aiki

Also published in Daily Trust

As the rescheduled February 2015 elections finally commence tomorrow, Nigeria’s political terrain has been flooded with kayan aiki, also known as tsari, which has been flowing in unprecedented amounts particularly over the past few months of intensified election campaign thanks to the seasonal “generosity” of politicians vying for various political offices at all levels of government.

By the way, as a trendy Hausa compound word, which probably developed following the country’s return to democracy in 1999 and has ever since then been commonly used, though largely informally, in political context. Kayan aiki, which also literally means tools, stands metaphorically for the financial inducements doled out to the electorate by candidates with a view to winning their votes during elections.

The dynamics of lobbying

Also published in Daily Trust 

As the rescheduled election season approaches and despite the irreversibly deepening unpopularity of President Goodluck Jonathon, he does not seem to relent on his covert yet exposed frantic political manoeuvres to tamper with the transparency of the election hence undermine its credibility.

He and his campaign handlers continue to lobby for political endorsement from various influential individuals in the country, which, by the way, is not uncommon in Nigerian politics, besides, the main opposition candidate, Muhammad Buhari and indeed all candidates for various political positions do it also. 

Obviously the elites being lobbied who are mostly traditional rulers, religious clerics, statesmen and other respected personalities who are also not supposed to be involved in partisan politics by virtue of their positions are rightly or wrongly perceived to be influential enough to inspire particular segments of the electorate to vote for particular candidates.

PVC reader and bomb detector

Also published in Daily Trust

Modern technology has, among other things, greatly enhanced transparency in democratic voting processes in many countries that have used election transparency enhancement technology to conduct free and fair elections, which consequently enabled them to achieve various degrees of political stability, depending on each country’s degree of commitment and amount of relevant technology it has been able to afford and adopt.

Though not absolutely immune from human tampering, being man-made after all, the technology has largely proved its effectiveness in neutralizing the incumbency edge, for instance, which many unpopular regimes and incumbents have always used to manipulate electoral processes and perpetrate massive vote rigging in order to cling to power.