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The Concept of Executive Privilege

The Concept of Executive Privilege by Dr Gbenga Adefulu Executive Privilege (EP) simply means special advantage, benefit, right or honour enjoyed by one person over another. The operative words are “special” and “over”, both of which are central to the definition and practice of the EP concept. The special advantage enjoyed by one party can either be inherited, assumed, naturally conferred or legally obtained. EP manifests in relationships, discussions and engagements between two parties. It is usually unwritten but is experienced and observed in practice. It manifests in various ways and has many use cases. Persons who understand the concept of EP and use it wisely are highly likely to succeed and/or record greater achievements compared to those who fail to understand and apply the concept. EP manifests in the office, in families, in marriages, in politics and so many other places. EP will be illustrated with four use cases in different spheres of life below. At work: In an offi...

Saving Nigeria from Nigerians

Saving Nigeria from Nigerians by Dr Gbenga Adefulu The current artificially-contrived currency crisis badly exposes the weaknesses in our Constitution and other establishment laws. CBN under the guise of “currency swap” has rather implemented a currency confiscation agenda all in a bid to curb vote-buying which is not its mandate. Thus, Nigeria is currently held to ransom by two people: President Buhari and his appointee, Governor Emefiele of the CBN. Buhari is the chief culprit here while Emefiele is a mere errand-boy enforcer. In essence, these two public officers are holding over 200 million people to ransom given the economic hardship, emasculation and strangulation individuals, households and businesses have been subjected to in the last few weeks. Clearly, something is fundamentally wrong if a President will use a CBN Governor to practically shut down economic activities and burn down the country to achieve a political goal. This is a signature misuse of office and abuse of ...

Time to curb INEC's financial profligacy

Time to curb INEC's financial profligacy Yesterday, November 19, the headline news on ThisDay newspaper was the decision of INEC to print additional 93.5mn ballot papers for the presidential election because according to it (INEC), there is likely to be a re-run. This raises 2 issues, namely: expected voter turn-out and re-run ballot papers. On voter turn-out, why is INEC printing 93.5mn ballot papers? It says it is because there are 93.5mn registered voters in its database. However, according to INEC’s election records, voter turn-out in the 2011, 2015 and 2019 presidential elections was 53.68%, 43.65% and 34.75% respectively which shows consistent decline cycle-over-cycle. Why then does INEC want to print 93.5mn ballot papers for 93.5mn people which is premised on 100% turnout? Based on past trends as seen in the last 3 presidential elections, why not assume a generous 70% probable voter turn-out for the 2023 presidential poll and print 65.45mn ballot papers instead of 93.5mn...