Peter Obi may have lost the Nigerian presidential election, but he and the movement he leads may yet win the political war. This time last year, no one saw Peter Obi coming. Mentally, Nigerians were preparing for yet another general election in a series dominated since the country’s return to democracy in 1999 by the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC) and its rival People’s Democratic Party (PDP). An uninspiring two-horse race seemed all but guaranteed,...

The Igbo political elite faces the challenge of transforming an unimpeachable moral argument into a winning political coalition. As campaigning for the just concluded presidential election gathered pace, Peter Obi, standard bearer of the Labour Party (LP) found himself athwart two apparently contrary impulses. The first, let’s call it the liberal impulse, centered on the irrepressible energy and creativity of the “Obi-dient,” the mass of mostly young enthusiasts who had come to see the former Anambra State...

In about one week or so, Nigerians will elect a new President and National Assembly. And, from all socio-political indications, the only thing that is surely certain is that the Nigerian Political Landscape will be structurally and behaviourally altered for good. Make no mistakes, some political merchants, with open approval of APC-PDP, will try to rig the Election. But that will not work this time around because the era of blatant and mindless rigging and...

All eyes are on Nigeria as it prepares for its general election in early 2023. Has the government convinced Nigerians that their votes, and lives, will be secure? Nigeria’s 2023 general election is just weeks away. With incumbent President Mohammadu Buhari term-limited, the country will be choosing a new leader. That new president will immediately confront an exhausting array of challenges, from multiple, complex security crises to a disastrously mismanaged economy. In a recent Afrobarometer survey, nearly 89...