The Niche Lecture: And Alex Otti Spoke Loud And Clear

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

No one left the auditorium of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs on Thursday, April 23, 2026, unsure of what Abia State Governor Dr Alex Otti said at the 2026 TheNiche Annual Lecture with the theme, “Governing the Economy: Choices, Trade-offs, and National Priorities.”

*Gov Otti receiving the certificate of induction into the TheNiche Hall of Fame from Ihechukwu Amaechi, the MD of TheNiche 

He spoke loud and clear. In a country where political leaders have mastered the mischievous art of speaking tongue-in-cheek; where judgements of even the Supreme Court are couched in obfuscating clichés and woolly phrases that muddy the waters rather than elucidate, that is a breath of fresh air.

His thesis was profound, the clarity of his hypothesis was refreshing, just as his candour was edifying. The message in his 4,875-word lecture was unambiguous, yet loud: Elections have consequences.

His opening salvo indicated his intention to be forthright: “There is no silver bullet for solving Nigeria’s myriads of economic challenges because economics is about cold, hard facts, not vanities. With high level of unemployment, especially amongst the youth population, rising incidence of poverty and growing sense of helplessness amongst our compatriots, it would be uncharitable to wish these unsettling realities away,” he said.

That was pragmatic. For a man who pulled himself up by his bootstraps to be at the top in the banking industry, and who is now a governor, he definitely knows the way to the city of growth and development.

*From Right: Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Achebe, Emir Sanusi of Kano, Gov Otti and NLC President, Joe Ajaero

So, he is optimistic about the future of the country, preferring to see the cup as half full rather than half empty. “I refuse to submit to the position of cynics who insist that our situation is entirely hopeless because it is not… Our country has a great destiny and its future will certainly remain bright,” he submitted.

But as someone who has made a career of dealing with life in a practical manner rather than through wishful thinking, despite his sanguinity, he sounded a note of warning when he said: “Even then, the world cannot afford to wait in perpetuity for Nigeria to begin to play to its full strength. Quietly, it has moved on, hoping that someday, our country may catch up but whether that day would be in this decade or in the coming century, or perhaps never, will depend largely on what we do in the days and years that follow.”

Insisting that the frustrations of the last six decades has proved that there is a direct correlation between political choices and the daily experiences of the population, he asserted: “It is beyond argument that a good leadership system across board, one that understands the dynamic laws of economics and the intersection of political behaviour and public welfare, would certainly go a long way in taking us closer to our dream Nigeria.”

* Gen Ike Nwachukwu speaking at the event

Unassailable points for which he was rewarded with generous applause. Harping on the critical connection between politics and the economy – how politics drives critical economic outcomes – Governor Otti, without equivocation, declared: “It is impossible to separate incompetent political leadership from the manifestations of economic decline such as drastic tanking of the size of the gross domestic product, GDP, widespread unemployment, reduced investment appetite and all such developments that ultimately lead to high poverty levels and endemic anxiety within the community.”

It was obvious that everyone related to that. Many nodded their heads in agreement when he said: “Perhaps we need to say it one more time that the foundation of economic governance is built on the decisions made by those who pull the levers of power; ultimately, the outcome of their choices impact our daily experiences. In a political system driven by mercantilism, desperation for power and corruption across multiple nodes in the value chain, things are bound to go from bad to worse because no system has endless supply of resources to feed the bottomless greed of political actors, including voters who see votes as wares for sale to the highest bidder.”

There is no doubt that bad and unconscionable leadership is the reason Nigeria, a country of immense potentials, continues to plumb the depths of destitution. So, his assertion that “strong and resilient institutions cannot be built on the back of a corrupt political culture, one that favours just about anyone with a deep wallet to buy voters, electoral officials, media practitioners and the instruments of violence,” resonated as well as his reminder that “evidence abound that it is nigh-impossible to build a robust economy on the foundation of political corruption.”

*Cross section of the audience: From Right: Dame Comfort Obi, publisher of The Source, and Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye, public affairs analyst and author of Nigeria: Why Looting May Not Stop.

But who is to be blamed for bad leadership? Governor Otti’s position seems to align with Joseph de Maistre, the French philosopher’s retort that “every nation gets the government it deserves,” which places the responsibility on the people.

The political adage of a people getting the government they deserve suggests that, in a democracy, the government reflects the choices of its citizens. That is what it ought to be because in a democracy, power resides with the people. Where that is the case, the quality of leadership, therefore, reflects the people’s choices.

Granted, some Nigerians see votes as wares for sale to the highest bidder. While such people must be called out, it is important to point out that they are in the minority. Many Nigerians don’t partake in the bazaar. Again, it may be convenient to blame those who have decided not to vote again knowing from experience that their votes won’t count. But what choice do they really have other than to abstain when the exercise of their franchise only helps in legitimising fraud?

Governor Otti knows this for a fact. He won the 2015 governorship election fair and square. Abians voted for him, not the man who was declared winner and subsequently ruined the state in eight years of imbecilic leadership. The people made their choice but the rigged system decided otherwise. The same thing would have happened in 2023 if not for the forthrightness of a ‘Daniel who came to judgement’ in the person of the irrepressible Professor Nnenna Oti, a woman of integrity, whose exemplary role in upholding the truth, made the difference.

In other states where there were no Nnenna Otis, the crooked system denied the people their choices. So, how correct will it be to say that the longsuffering people of Abia State deserved the government they got in 2015 when it was obvious that they didn’t vote for the man who was declared winner by INEC?

So, while it is true that “as stakeholders in the Nigerian project, we ought to be worried that majority of our compatriots are increasingly shying away from participation at the ballots,” as Otti noted, it is important to ensure that the votes are not only counted but also count in determining who wields the levers of power. Voting for the sake of it when, at the end of the day the votes don’t count, will be an exercise in futility.  

Development is impossible without a proper sense of stewardship amongst those in leadership positions. That is true. But that is only possible if those in power owe their positions to the electoral wishes of the people. Unfortunately, that seems not to be the case.

Governor Otti said poverty and prosperity, employment and joblessness, security and anxiety, prudence and rascality will all be on the ballot in 2027. They ought to be. But with the obvious attempt at coronation rather than election by the present regime, I doubt if they will.

Unlike former President Goodluck Jonathan who famously said his political ambition is not worth the blood of any Nigerian, a declaration for which he has been ridiculed to no end as evidence of his naïvity, those on the saddle today have left no one in doubt that their political ambitions, if need be, may well be worth the blood of a million Nigerians. That is what the ‘Tinubu is not Jonathan,’ mantra is all about – an ominous signalling.

So, the fact that leadership misfits are straddling the corridors of power in Nigeria is not necessarily because the people made wrong choices. If anything, Nigerian voters made the right choice in 2023. It was criminally aborted. How to ensure that the political marauders are stopped in their tracks in 2027, no matter what it takes, will be the real test of this pseudo-democracy.

*Amaechi is the MD/Editor-in-Chief of TheNiche (ikechukwuamaechi@yahoo.com) 

2027: Atiku Only Cares About Running, Not Winning!

 By Olu Fasan

To several Nigerians, Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president, should not run for president next year. Some cite age, others zoning. On the first, the general view is that, at 80 years old by the time of the next presidential election in January 2027, Atiku would be too old to run for president. On the second, many posit that the South, which currently holds the presidency, should be allowed to complete the conventional second term.

*Atiku

Thus, Atiku, being a Northerner, should respect the unwritten zoning rule, and desist from seeking the presidency next year. But while there are some merits in the age and zoning arguments, they are not the real obstacles to Atiku becoming Nigeria’s president next year if he decides to defy the zeitgeist and run for the presidency.

Peter Obi And The Cross Of A Nation

 By Valentine Obienyem

Peter Obi’s political journey in Nigeria has, in many ways, come to resemble a quiet but persistent carrying of a cross - marked by endurance, conviction, and a deep commitment to principle in the face of resistance. From his emergence on the national stage to his current role as a leading voice in public discourse, he stands as the personification of a stoic political faith, proving that the cost of integrity is high, but the price of its absence is the slow decay of the soul of a nation. 

*Peter Obi

That burden did not begin on the national stage, the Champion’s League; it can be traced to the local league, his tenure as governor of Anambra State, where Peter Obi first defined the principles that now shape his political identity. In a system often marked by political brigandage, he distinguished himself through fiscal discipline, transparency, adherence to due process, and a refusal to personalise public resources.

From Lagos To London: Flying Homegrown With Air Peace

 By Fred Chukwuelobe 

I am approaching this review from the perspective of a seasoned traveller. Having assessed over two decades of travel on more than ten major foreign carriers, this account is a candid reflection of my recent experience, measured against those global standards.

Between 2003 and 2026, I crossed the Atlantic and travelled extensively through the US, Europe, and the Middle East. Yet, for over twenty years, I never once flew a Nigerian flag carrier on a long-haul route. 

That changed when Air Peace launched its direct Lagos–London service. Naturally, the question became: could another homegrown airline truly compete on one of the world’s most demanding aviation corridors considering that previous efforts could not be sustained. On April 18, 2026, I put this to the test and only time will tell. 

I boarded Air Peace Flight P4-7578, a Boeing 777-300 service from Lagos to London Gatwick (LGW). While I initially considered flying via Abuja to Heathrow, I opted for Gatwick, confident in its ease of onward ground connections.

Terrorism: Hold Some Northern Govs Responsible

 By Dele Sobowale

“In every community, there is a class of people profoundly dangerous to the rest. I don’t mean the criminals. For them we have punitive sanctions. I mean the leaders. Invariably, the most dangerous people seek power” – Saul Bellow, 1915-2005, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ, p 124.

Newspapers headlines were grim a day before the Eid-el-Fitr 2026. The end of Ramadan, to which all faithful people looked forward, joyfully, in the past, has now become threatening and mournful all over Nigeria. Apparently, no place is spared the fear of violence on the days of celebrations declared by government. It was never like this. Hope for relief is fading faster with each new assault by terrorists. Increasingly, there is despair about governments’ ability to provide security to citizens who, in many communities, have surrendered sovereignty to the bandits by paying the levies imposed.

Safety First: Air Peace Clarifies Ibadan Flight Delay Amid Weather Disruption

 

We wish to clarify the situation regarding the Ibadan–Abuja flight, following claims by a passenger that it was unduly delayed.

The aircraft scheduled for this service made two landing attempts in Ibadan but had to return to Abuja due to adverse weather conditions at the time. 

Is The Nation’s Democratic Whistle Still Trusted?

 By Stephanie Shaakaa

Is INEC actually independent? In Nigeria today, this is not a question of law, it is a question of life or death for democracy. Because when citizens begin to doubt the hands that blow the nation’s democratic whistle, every vote, every promise, every election is already suspect before it begins. Trust is the true ballot. Without it, even the cleanest election is hollow.

*Amupitan 

In every democracy, the whistle is more than an instrument of order. It is the sound of fairness itself. The moment citizens begin to suspect that it no longer blows by the rulebook, the game changes long before the final score is announced. Every controversial call, every silence, is filtered through suspicion rather than principle. Trust does not collapse in one instant. It leaks away, decision by decision.

Emperor Tinubu And The Jos Massacre

By Ugoji Egbujo

Emperors owe no duties to their subjects. When they deign to show pity, it must be applauded as great charity. 

*Tinubu

President Tinubu cannot feel the people’s pain. He didn’t tell the truth to that woman who clutched to her dead son, Ayiba,  and stirred the soul of the nation. He owes Jos—and the many other communities ravaged by insecurity—the constitutional duty to protect lives and property.

Terrorists Are My Enemies, Not “Brothers”!

 By Ochereome Nnanna

For me, the legacy of the late President Muhammadu Buhari remains the most profound failure of Nigerian leadership. It was a tenure defined by a litany of institutional abuses. Chief among these was Operation Safe Corridor (OPSC).

Initiated almost as soon as he touched the levers of power in May 2015 and fully activated by September 2016, it was a betrayal of his primary campaign promise. Instead of the total military defeat of Boko Haram he had pledged, he gave us an abomination: a programme designed to “rehabilitate and reintegrate” so-called repentant jihadists back into the very society they had spent almost a decade trying to incinerate.

Recurring Bloodbaths: Nigeria Is Too Fragile, Too Fractured To Be Safe

 By Olu Fasan

Recently, after the mass killing in Jos, Plateau State, President Bola Tinubu said he was not elected “to comfort and create widows and widowers”. Yet since he became president barely three years ago, his administration has overseen the creation of thousands of widows, widowers and orphans whose husbands, wives and parents were killed in terrorist attacks.

After each attack, President Tinubu would mourn the dead, console their widows and widowers and then authoritatively declare, as if issuing the irreversible law of the Medes and Persians: “This experience won’t repeat itself”! 

INEC And Its Professors Of Iniquity

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Electoral umpires in Nigeria have a long history of dalliance with academics so much so that it has almost become a rule for a professor, the discipline notwithstanding, to be appointed chairman. Granted, some non-academics sometimes find themselves in the saddle, but that is more of an exception.

*Prof Amupitan 

So, the 1959 federal election, which preceded independence, and was strictly the business of the departing colonial overlord – Britain – was conducted by the Electoral Commission of Nigeria, ECN, which was inaugurated in 1958 and headed by a British, Ronald Edward Wraith.

After independence in October 1960, the Tafawa Balewa-led government set up the Federal Electoral Commission, FEDECO, which replaced the ECN and in 1964 appointed Mr Eya Esua as the chairman. Though not a professor, Esua, nevertheless, was a reputed teacher.

Playing The 1998 Abacha Power Game In 2026

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

It was Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, the French critic, journalist, and novelist, who, in 1849, coined what has become an enduring proverb: plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose – the more things change, the more they stay the same. In matters of governance and power in Nigeria – military or civilian – nothing can be truer.

*Tinubu, Abacha

As editor of the Sunday Diet newspaper, I was in Maiduguri in April 1998, yes the selfsame Borno State capital that has become a killing field, to cover the national convention of the Grassroots Democratic Movement, GDM. Borno was the home state of Alhaji Gambo Lawan, the national chairman of the GDM, one of the five political associations that included the United Nigeria Congress Party, UNCP; Congress for National Consensus, CNC; Democratic Party of Nigeria, DPN; and the National Centre Party of Nigeria, NCPN, formally approved by the electoral umpire – National Election Commission of Nigeria, NECON – in September 1996 for the politics of that era.

Nigeria: Amidst The Stark Reality Of A Rudderless Country

 By Sulaiman Salawudeen

There comes a time in the life of a people when they must confront unsavoury truths about their own existence and ask themselves whether what they call a country actually really exists beyond and is anything more than just a hollow shell! Nigeria, continuously touted as Giant of Africa, has become a phantom, mere geographical expression without substance, a tragic experiment that has failed its citizens so egregiously that many are compelled to declare: Nigeria is nowhere anymore!

To such, what is seen is just vast expanse of land where millions of people are trapped in survivalist struggles, condemned to navigate daily horrors of insecurity, corruption, and economic strangulation. The very essence of a functioning country has evaporated, amidst the din and flurry of errors that collude to reduce modest hopes to tall dreams, and basic pursuits to unreachable imaginings! 

When Prices Rise In Nigeria, They Rarely Fall

 By Osilama E. Osilama

Nigeria today faces a troubling economic paradox. Prices rise quickly when economic conditions worsen, yet they rarely decline when those conditions improve. This phenomenon—experienced daily by millions of Nigerians has quietly evolved into one of the most dangerous distortions in the country’s economic structure.

Though I am not an economist, it increasingly appears that Nigeria operates what could be described as a “one-way economy,” where prices move easily upward but almost never downward. The implications of this pattern are profound, particularly for the housing sector and the survival of the Nigerian middle class.

If Nigeria must build a fair and functional economy, government must confront the economics of pricing through deliberate policy reforms and, if necessary, a strong executive bill supported by legislation.

Daniel Bwala’s Offence Against Decency

 By Alade Rotimi-John 

Irish born playwright and critic-at-large, Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was an intolerable thorn in the flesh of the British establishment for more than half a century. He is popularly quoted as saying that when a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty. 

 *Daniel Bwala and Mehdi Hasan

Before a stupefied global audience, Daniel Bwala who doubles as President Tinubu’s Adviser on Policy Communications was  deplorably dull and awful as he outrageously defended his bewildering actions in office as being in the role of performing his duty or in the tour of duty. 

Chants Of Treason: No Water, No Electricity, No Food!

 By Owei Lakemfa

A diplomat from the Group of Seven, G7, countries in March 2026, invited me to dinner in Abuja. The first thing he asked was how I was coping with water supply. The diplomatic mission, like some others, is suffering disruption of water supply. I explained that since I relocated to Abuja from Lagos a quarter of a century ago, I had dug a borehole for my water supply. 

Diplomats from industrialised countries complaining of constant water supply disruption is understandable for they do not experience this in their countries. But for the Nigerian people who may need to sit, squat or stand on the mandate of politicians, such complaint might border on treason.

On March 25, 2026, a certain 38-year-old Hamisu Abdullahi, a father of four and a ‘common’ carpenter, had the audacity to make such a complaint. 

Peter Obi And 2027

  By Chuks Iloegbunam

Whoever believed that politics operated only on certainties? Or that imponderables were never factored into any of it? The Nigerian experience is blatant. It placed a spreadsheet before all-comers and delivered new truths. 

*Peter Obi

A loudspeaker who previously believed that he was the custodian of all the answers, jetted at public expense from Abuja to London, where, inside a studio, he nestled in accustomed comfort for a long-scheduled media interview. However, he soon discovered to his chagrin that his buttocks had gone into a disagreeable embrace with a spikes-matted platform. 

“Suddenly becoming talkative like weaverbird/Summoned at offside of dream remembered,” to quote from the first movement of Christopher Okigbo’s ‘Siren Limits,’ acrimonious voices of political certitude rose in unison. Peter Obi obviously had a hand in the fiasco. Mr. Obi lived in London for decades, and, during that period, probably struck a friendship with Al Jazeera’s Head-to-Head anchor Mehdi Hassan. 

Top 10 Happiest Countries In Africa In 2026

 Nigeria Is Not Among Them...

“Money doesn’t buy happiness,” Elon Musk once said. Yet how people live, earn, and cope with daily realities still affects their overall well-being.

That is part of what the World Happiness Report 2026 tries to measure. The report ranks countries using indicators such as income, life expectancy, social support, freedom to make life choices, generosity, and perceived corruption.

Across Africa, the latest ranking shows how these factors continue to shape people’s experience of life.

Here are the 10 happiest countries in Africa in 2026.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE WHOLE REPORT

Highland For Kumuyi In Thailand

 By Banji Ojewale

Among Thailand’s over 71 million citizens are some one million+ Christians boxed into Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, along with other independent groups like the Church of Christ in Thailand, CCT,  which is considered the oldest and largest Protestant umbrella organization in this southeast Asian kingdom.

*Pastor Kumuyi and his wife arrive Thailand 

Muslims post a figure of 7.5 million. But there’s an overwhelming majority of tens of millions of followers of Buddhism, one of the globe’s largest faiths which teaches an oriental version of Stoicism. Founded about 3000 years ago by Gautama Buddha, it is the national non-theistic religion and philosophy of Thailand.

Our Electricity Conundrum And The Power Minister’s Apologies

 By Adekunle Adekoya

It was actually very pathetic reading reports of apologies made by Power Minister, Adebayo Adelabu, earlier in the week. Reading his apology nearly made me puke; they were the words of a politician used to, and schooled in, dressing up inefficiencies in mandate actualisation with rhetoric.

For years, since I was a boy (that’s as far back I can remember), this country has struggled with electricity. My late father (Chief Adewale Adekoya, 1933-2017), like millions of others living or dead, hoped many times in his lifetime that the problem would be solved; it didn’t till he passed on. Adelabu’s words: “I want to apologise to Nigerians, officially now, coming from me as the Minister of Power, for this temporary issue that is leading to hardship being experienced, especially during this dry season, where there is so much heat everywhere,” he said. He then went on to remind us about what we all know, and are already suffering.