🚨 Announcement
On 25 June, we graduate the second cohort of the Policy Writing Fellowship and unveil the LGA Portal and the Policy Registry, all designed to deepen the quality of policy engagement in Nigeria, and all undertaken with the support of the MacArthur Foundation. 👇🏾
Public announcement: I'm still one of the top 10 voice-over artistes in Nigeria, and I'm always ready for work.
Just send a DM and your broadcast ready voice-over will be ready as quickly as you need it.
34 days ago, children and teachers were abducted from Oriire communities. While the news cycle moves on, families are still living with fear, pain, and uncertainty.
We must not go silent. Keep the pressure on. Demand action. Bring them home. #RescueOriire#BringThemHome
For much of my life as a football fan, supporting my team meant suffering at the hands of Lionel Messi. Argentina v Nigeria (OLY Final 2008), Barcelona vs Man United (UCL Final 2009 & 2011), Nigeria vs Argentina (World Cup 2010, 2014, 2018). That was good suffering if you ask me
It is concerning that none of the major Presidential candidates can speak in an informed way about the key issues.
Bad enough that the president can't.
Worse that those intending to take his place also can't.
Q: Why is it so easy to criticise and have a plan till you get into government? 🤔
A: Because outside govt, you see the problem in straight lines. Inside government, you meet the maze.
From outside, failure often looks like a lack of will, competence, courage, or integrity. Sometimes it is. But inside government, plans meet weak institutions, inherited liabilities, vested interests, procurement rules, courts, legislators, budget limits, security realities, civil service inertia, and the politics of timing.
Culture happens, stories begin and self-preservation agendas find life.
The easiest sentence in public life is: “They should just fix it.” The harder truth is that the state is not one person with one button. It is a network of laws, interests, fears, incentives, sabotage, capacity gaps, and consequences.
Still, complexity is not an excuse for failure. Government exists to organise complexity into results. The real test of leadership is whether a plan survives contact with reality, adapts without losing its moral centre, and delivers relief citizens can feel.
So, I have learnt to appreciate progress, momentum and incremental gains..... not the eldorado version.
Yet, criticism keeps power honest, but getting results for desired governance requires more than criticism. It requires getting involved, sequencing, coalition-building, courage, competence, communication, and the humility to accept that the problem was deeper than the slogan.
The code is to win by knowing when to lose, win or compromise.
On a scale we can all relate wirh, we should for example know that the wedding, of which we priotise expenses with, is just an event, while the marriage remains the institution of priority. Even within this family arrangement, optimising value reflects similar challenges.😔 You can read this in a way you get the message.
Be ye circumspect.....
"I will open BRT lane to private operators" is a clearer stance than "I will improve transportation in Lagos"
That's the level of specificity we should get from those vying for office and even public commentary. Less than 12 months to elections and nobody is specific on anything
It’s evident that a lot of the growth in Nigerian markets in the last 2 years has largely been driven by foreign capital flowing into the country. This is a good thing and a bad thing.
Good thing because it helps to stabilize the currency, helps drive asset price recovery, and improves companies access to capital.
Bad thing because that hot money can switch allegiance at any time and be out of the door quickly. This has happened before and has made many people reject investing in our stock market.
The main reason Nigeria exports raw cocoa beans instead of capturing more value from chocolate production is not simply the absence of local factories.
The real issue is competitiveness. Turning cocoa into globally competitive chocolate at scale requires more than processing plants—it requires integration into global value chains.
Chocolate markets are dominated by established multinationals with strong brands, distribution networks, and marketing power. These downstream activities capture most of the value.
New entrants in Africa face high barriers, including high fixed capital cost, strict quality and food safety standards, unreliable infrastructure, and often limited access to affordable finance.
Even if production is successful, reaching global consumers is difficult without scale and access to established retail and branding channels.
In a market economy, success isn’t just about producing goods—it’s about being able to sell them competitively at scale within global systems.
So the challenge isn’t simply “build more local processing,” but building firms that can survive and compete within complex global value chains.
5/ Moreover, many nations import goods that they can produce locally. For example, the USA is a major producer of crude oil and petroleum products, yet it still imports large amounts of both. The existence of domestic production does not eliminate the potential benefits of trade.
1/ The notion that a developing country should avoid importing commodities it can produce domestically is flawed. The mere ability to produce something is not, by itself, a reason to restrict consumption to domestically produced goods.