Femi Gbajabiamila and the Defining Job of the Chief of Staff

In 2014, Nigeria became Africa’s largest economy under Goodluck Jonathan, but the expansion of its national output did not bring a corresponding improvement in the state’s ability to account for oil revenue or protect its citizens. 

If elections are increasingly characterized by declining voter turnout, vote buying, patronage and distrust in electoral administration, should everyone have the right to vote? It is an uncomfortable question, but one worth asking as Nigeria’s Fourth Republic approaches three decades. 

Since Nigeria returned to civilian rule in 1999, civil society organizations have become central to its health system, delivering services while advocating for policy change. The 2027 elections will test whether two decades of institution-building have translated into real political influence for health CSOs. 

As Nigerian governors become increasingly powerful political actors, the question is whether their growing influence will strengthen Nigerian federalism or simply replace federal centralization with gubernatorial dominance. 

Nigerian politics does not lack ideology. Instead, the problem is that one ideology has become so dominant that we have stopped seeing it.