By Dr Toju Ogbe,

The resignation of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, less than two years after leading the Labour Party to  a landslide electoral victory, was dramatic, yet reflected a pattern we have become familiar with in recent British politics.

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Starmer now joins a procession of fallen prime ministers stretching back to 2016 – from David Cameron to Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and Rishi Sunak.

None of these prime ministers was ousted through military intervention, popular insurrection, or a court order. Rather, each was ultimately brought down by the same political system that elevated them to electoral glory.

To the casual observer, the rapid turnover of British Prime Ministers in the last decade may appear chaotic, or even a symptom of political instability. Some argue that the British electorate has become ungovernable.

However, beneath the apparent chaos at Westminster lies an uncomfortable truth that African democracies would do well to examine, particularly Nigerians who wonder why our democracy has delivered so little despite almost three decades of uninterrupted civilian rule.

The turbulence of British politics over the last decade, presents an important lesson on democratic accountability beyond successful elections.

Once the prime minister is deemed a liability by their own political party, the mechanics of accountability are activated. The daggers are quietly drawn and the ruthless pressure to resign begins.

Every poll and survey on public opinion is closely monitored, local election results are taken as a referendum on leadership. Cabinet resignations begin to gain momentum and backbenchers get restless.

Once the news media smells an internal uprising, they amplify scrutiny of the prime minister, subjecting every move – speech, public appearance, political misstep etc to relentless examination.

Pressure gradually mounts until the prospect of bitter internal leadership challenge becomes impossible to resist. The Prime Minister falls.

For every British Prime Minister, winning an election is merely the beginning of examination, not the end. Political survival lasts only for as long as the prime minister maintains the confidence of his party and the parliament.

This is the muscle of British democratic accountability; a political culture that prioritises institutional survival over individual ambition. Starmer recognised this reality in his resignation speech:

“The question my party is asking now is whether I am best placed to lead us into the next general election. I have heard the answer of my parliamentary party to that question, and I accept that answer with good grace.”

That closing sentence alone is a masterclass in British institutional democracy. The party spoke. The leader listened. The correction comes from within.

Nigeria presents a strikingly different political logic.

Nigeria on the other hand, presents an interesting contrast with a different political logic and culture.

The notion that a governing party would overtly interrogate the performance of its own leader and engineer a transition to someone better equipped to maintain public confidence, is in most cases politically unthinkable in Nigeria.

Political parties in Nigeria do not coalesce  around ideological principles; rather, they operate more as electoral instruments organised around powerful individuals.

Internal dissent is often dealt with as betrayals rather than as part of healthy democratic engagement. Godfatherism and transactional loyalties shape political succession and leadership retention.

Once elected in Nigeria, there is an inherent assumption that a governor or president has a fixed two-term lease on power.

While 10 Downing Street is preparing to welcome its seventh Prime Minister in a decade, Nigeria, in contrast, has had only two democratically elected presidents during the same period – one of whom is still serving.

Social and economic conditions may deteriorate. Insecurity may worsen. Campaign promises may be ignored.

Public frustrations may become unbearable. Yet, incumbent governors and presidents often remain insulated from meaningful internal scrutiny and are even routinely anointed as ‘consensus’ candidate for second terms provided loyalties to godfathers, rather than the electorates are maintained.

The consequence is that loyalty, instead of performance is often rewarded at the expense of accountability.

This is not an argument for a revolving door at Aso Rock, as frequent leadership changes, by themselves, do not guarantee good governance.

Rather it is a case for making accountability an integral aspect of party politics in Nigeria.

Although the Nigerian presidential system provides for a fixed four-year term regardless of party confidence, political parties should however, be more than instruments for election campaigns, activated to simply retain or take over power every four years.

Electoral victory, should not be the ultimate goal, but the starting point of public service where democratic legitimacy must be continuously earned.

Equally important, political parties must develop the institutional maturity to honestly evaluate their own leaders. They must prioritise public interest and institutional credibility over loyalty to ‘Godfathers’.

The ultimate lesson from Westminster’s revolving door is clear: the true strength of a democratic system, lies not in the ability to produce leaders, but the capacity to effectively replace them, when they no longer command confidence.

Protecting failing leaders from accountability weakens democracy and political parties must ensure that no leader is more powerful than the institution.

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As political parties gear up for the 2027 general elections, the political class must decide what matters more: we can continue to reward blind loyalty and endure predictable decline, or discover the courage to demand accountability from those who seek to lead us.

By Sabella Ogbobode Abidde,

As a scholar, I have always wanted to edit or co-edit a book on the Big Ten of Nigerian nationalists, focusing on their lives, times, and generational impact from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century.

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An august list would include greats such as Aminu Kano, Herbert Macaulay, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Alvan Ikoku, Anthony Enahoro, Ahmadu Bello, Egbert Udo Udoma, Tafawa Balewa, Obafemi Awolowo, Eyo Ita, and Nnamdi Azikiwe. Two or more scholarly volumes would be ready before I bid farewell to my academic career.

But for now, this column briefly sheds light on a philosopher and mystic, who was also a political and economic giant: Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

His impact is multigenerational and wondrously woven into the fabric of Nigeria’s history, culture, and society.

Publicly available records indicate that the Nigerian nationalist movement began in the 1920s (Awolowo was born in 1909), so he had forebearers in the movement.

He later became one of the movement’s central figures, and by independence in October 1960, he had perhaps become the dominant personality shaping Nigeria’s political development and economic growth.

Awolowo was also a federalist. The first Premier of the Western region of Nigeria. The founder of the Yoruba nationalist group Egbe Omo Oduduwa.

He was the leader of the Action Group (AG), a political party and an opposition leader in the federal parliament, from 1959 to 1963.

A noted lawyer, author, journalist, and the founder and publisher of the Nigerian Tribune newspaper.

And in later years, under the first military regime, he served as the federal commissioner for finance and as vice chairman of the Federal Executive Council during the Nigerian-Biafran Civil War, 1967-1970.

Much later, Awolowo founded the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) and became the party’s presidential candidate in 1979 and 1983.

The consensus was that, on both occasions – especially in 1979 – the electoral body, acting at the behest of the then military regime, put its foot and thumb on the ballot-counting machines to the detriment of Awolowo.

In other words, those who voted didn’t count; the military counted and secured the votes for their preferred candidate.

Those officially sanctioned electoral irregularities, many Nigerians have asserted, partially account for why Nigeria has remained politically and economically miserable and socially chaotic in the years since.

And in the years since his passing, many of the so-called Awoists — men and women who claimed to be adherents and practitioners of his precepts — have fallen by the wayside.

They failed! By 1997, one rarely finds a school of politicians parading themselves as students of or members of the Awolowo Cathedral.

In the second decade of the twenty-first century, many politicians lack the impudence to call themselves Awoists.

The irony is that in the northern part of Nigeria, one can rarely find a pool of politicians who, today, adhere to the teachings and practices of Mallam Aminu Kano. And in the east, there are no more followers of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe.

Many politicians, from the east to the west, from the north to the south, and from the middle belt to the south-south, have done away with ethics, morality, ideology, or remaining faithful to their political parties.

Most no longer care about party manifestos or going to the State House, National Assembly, or the Presidency with the people’s burden on their hearts or shoulders.

In public or in private, participants in the Nigerian political and economic space think nothing about integrity, posterity, nation-building, or national interest. It is mostly about self-interest now.

That is what Nigeria has become! Many of the good, effective, efficient, visionary, and purposeful Nigerians are in hiding, while the audaciously corrupt are masters of the game, leaders at various levels of governance.

And we expect to change for the better? Heck no! It is a painful three-ring circus at all three levels.

I do not for once contend that the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a lost cause, a lost experiment, a lost entity, or a forsaken project. No! It can be saved; it can be brought back from the edge of the cliff.

And I also do not for once think that Nigeria should be partitioned into three or four separate countries.

Oh, no! I believe that sustained, first-rate, courageous, and visionary leadership can turn the Nigerian ship around. It is doable. This is not a hopeless country. It is not!

Many of the institutions Awolowo built are still going strong. Many of his policies have been proven right and correct. Many of his teachings have been found to be the appropriate panaceas for Nigeria.

And many of the physical infrastructure projects he built lasted for more than four decades.

And so, imagine where Nigeria would be today on the development scale – on the same level as Taiwan, South Korea, New Zealand, China, and Australia? Or the oil-rich Middle East countries.

Not having Chief Obafemi Awolowo as the president of this federation set her back three to four decades.

Examined dispassionately, his economic and political achievements have yet to be rivaled for several decades after his premiership of the western region, and neither has his commissionership (now minister) of the finance portfolio.

He was good, he was great, and he was miles above his contemporaries in the development of their various regions and in their generational legacies.

Without Awolowo’s policies, much of southern Nigeria – especially the western region — would perhaps be one of the least developed in today’s Nigeria.

Directly and indirectly, Awolowo was the man who made it possible for millions of Nigerians and their offspring to dream of and have a better life.

He promised, he delivered; he built and encouraged others, such as Michael Adekunle Ajasin (Ondo State), Lateef Kayode Jakande (Lagos State), Bola Ige (Oyo State), and Olabisi Onabanjo (Ogun State), to be builders.

If General Yakubu Dan-Yumma Gowon was the most consequential military leader Nigeria has ever had, Chief Obafemi Jeremiah Oyeniyi Awolowo, was the single most consequential leader and public figure beginning with his premiership in 1954.

Above all else, he was a family man, a good man, a good Nigerian, and a Pan-Africanist. He was better than most and far better than we thought. That’s Awo for you, a man who’s woven into our consciousness.

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Chief Obafemi Awolowo would have been 117 this year, but he died at 78 in 1987 at his home in Ikenne, Ogun State. Chief Hannah Idowu Dideolu Awolowo, affectionally called HID, was Awolowo’s “jewel of inestimable value.” He had said of her: “I do not hesitate to confess that I owe my success in life to three factors: the Grace of God, a Spartan self-discipline, and a good wife. Our home is to all of us, a true haven; a place of happiness, and of imperturbable seclusion from the buffetings of life.” HID was born in Ikenne, in1915 and passed in 2015 in the same locality. She was 99. It was a union and a marriage that lasted for five glorious decades.

By Bola BOLAWOLE,

What do you do when someone takes the wind off your sail? Two options readily come to mind: Either you try to force your way and swim against the tide – which is suicidal – or you ride the storm, like the eagle does. Isaiah 40:31 says: “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” The eagle does not struggle or fight the storm; it simply rides it – leisurely, effortless ride.

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That way, the eagle soars and conquers, and the eagle has its way; achieving its goal without struggle. When someone else helps you to get the job practically done, learn a lesson from the eagle!

On Monday morning while meditating on topics to comment about, I stumbled on Lasisi Olagunju’s “Tunji Bello at 65.” Lasisi is a must-read for me every week or whenever he writes and whatever he writes on.

We both write for the TRIBUNE titles and we get on very well as professional colleagues and brothers, including other TRIBUNE writers like Festus, Suyi, Adewole, among others. But last weekend was hectic for me and I had not read any of my favourite columnists, including Lasisi. The topic, Tunji Bello, also fascinated me.

Olatunji Bello has a good heart – and I mean, a good heart. If you ask our professional colleagues to rate Tunji, he will score 100 percent – or close to it! I was at the University of Ibadan (for my NYSC, followed by my M. Sc. degree programme in the Political Science department of the same university (1982-1984) when Tunji campaigned for the post of vice-president of the Students Union – and he won.

As a member of the Socialist Collectives at U.I at the time, we took active interest in the students gunning for elective officers. We were Dr. Gboyega (where is he now?), Femi Falana (now SAN), Prof. Niyi Osundare, myself, among others.

As Tunji campaigned for votes, he also had his eyes on other things. It was here that he sighted Ibiyemi in one of the female halls, and the pretty lady later became his wife.

Handsome man won the hand of a beautiful lady! I was there in 1989 when they both tied the nuptial knot. Ibiyemi, the current vice-chancellor of the Lagos State University (LASU), has part of her roots in Owo, where I also hail from.

Lasisi is one of this generation’s most cerebral and delectable writers. So I am so happy to soar on his wings today! Einstein says, “If I have seen farther than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.” It is my pleasure, then, to stand on the shoulders of this literary giant today! Blunt and severe on many occasions, let’s see what Lasisi has to say about Tunji:

“I call myself a dove. That is why I choose my friends carefully. Yet, for reasons I have never understood, many of those I deliberately choose turn out to be delightful rascals. One of them is an Edo man named Louis Odion. We met in Kano in 2002 and have remained family ever since.
“One day, I asked Louis, “Tell me about OPEC.”

“That is KGB-classified information,” he replied with a laugh. Then, like every good conspirator, he broke the code of silence.

“OPEC,” he said, “was the Organisation of Petroleum (Lifting) Correspondents. The crude we traded was Stout beer. It was our opium against the tyranny of Sani Abacha.”
He explained that in those Concord years, confronting a murderous military dictatorship without regular salaries required more than courage; it required fellowship.

Tunji Bello, whom everyone simply called TB, was OPEC President. Kayode Komolafe was Vice-President. Louis served as Secretary-General. Their “summits”, he said, were dictated by “operational necessity.”

Whenever the Abacha regime committed an outrage, an “extraordinary summit” was promptly convened. Membership cut across the CONCORD stable, with visiting comrades from The GUARDIAN, VANGUARD and PUNCH. Consumption was measured in barrels—bottles of Stout. Fines for late stories or sloppy copy were also paid in barrels, while Secretary-General Louis enforced compliance by collecting the “dead-cold crude” from CONCORD’s famous “bush canteen.”
“TB gave a good account of himself as OPEC President,” Louis concluded. “He still does.”
Louis is a gifted storyteller. One day he told me he was trained as a secretary. I immediately corrected him: “You mean a typist.” He laughed.

That secretary-turned-journalist trajectory, incidentally, he shares with another mutual friend, Festus Adedayo.

But Louis’s story is more than a career change; it is the story of a destiny transformed by a destiny helper.

He tells it best:

“In late 1992, my internship at CONCORD was ending. I was only 18 and uncertain about my future. Part of me wanted to JAPA. Another part wanted to return to Federal Polytechnic for Higher National Diploma in Secretarial Administration. Tunji Bello, already an editor, had taken interest in my writing. He urged me to go to university instead and study for a degree. But where would I get the funds for a degree? Tunji Bello then persuaded CONCORD management to bend its rules and employ me as Political Correspondent because, as he argued, I had exceptional writing talent. At the time, a university degree was the minimum qualification for the editorial cadre.

“Tunji Bello made it possible for a 19-year-old to become Political Correspondent. Even after CONCORD ran into hard times following Chief MKO Abiola’s incarceration in June 1994, he continued to support my education at UNILAG, morally and financially.” The rest is history.
Whenever I think of Louis Odion, I think of Tunji Bello. Louis is one of his many creations.

Across the newsroom and every public institution where Bello has served, there are countless stories of men and women who carry similar testimonies.

Destiny helpers are among God’s quietest angels; they leave their fingerprints on lives rather than on monuments.

That young intern, Louis, eventually became Deputy editor of Saturday, Sunday and Daily THISDAY, editor of the Sunday SUN, Managing Director of NATIONAL LIFE, Commissioner in Edo State and today serves as Executive Commissioner (Operations) of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.

And when Louis says simply, “Oga,” everyone knows who he means.

When Tunji Bello turned 60, President Bola Tinubu described him as “an exceptional human being.” It was an accurate description. Tinubu also called him “friend, comrade and partner” and “the most accomplished and durable public servant in Lagos State of his generation.” Time has not diminished that verdict. Bello has been an editor, commissioner, Secretary to the State Government and now Executive Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission.

Through each role, one quality has remained constant: he builds institutions by first building people.

I knew him only in journalism. We never worked in the same newsroom. Yet, like countless others, I call him ‘Oga Bello.’ Not just because in rank he is the boss, but because he embodies what every good oga should be: generous with opportunities, respectful of colleagues and quietly investing in the success of others.

Shakespeare once lamented that “Men’s evil manners live in brass; their virtues we write in water.” Tunji Bello’s life offers a happy subversion of that verse. His virtues were not written in water. They were written in people. And people remember.

This week Wednesday, July 1st, he climbs the sixty-fifth rung of life with the measured grace of an ọmọlúàbí. On behalf of all who have benefited from his friendship and friendliness, his discipline and leadership, I wish him many happy returns.

Five years from now, when he reaches the seventieth rung, we shall summon the Eyo masquerade in celebration of a man whose greatest achievements are not merely the offices held, but the lives lifted.

Congratulations, Oga Bello.”

I endorse all that Lasisi said about Tunji: Team-player, destiny-helper, easy-going humanist, compassionate friend, among others. Lasisi calls him “Oga”; I call Tunji “Ore” – and a true, reliable, and dependable friend he is!

Tunji and I, along with many of our colleagues, were in the trenches during the June 12 struggle. He was one of the Generals that commanded the CONCORD sector while myself and others held forte at the PUNCH sector.

Interestingly, both of us (with Louis Odion, the story-teller mentioned here by Lasisi), together with many of our other colleagues, were knighted as Heroes of Democracy in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Democracy Day 2026 broadcast.

Ore, congratulations on your birthday which falls due today!

JUSTICE (PROF.) ALABA OMOLAYE-AJILEYE PRESENTS BOOKS, LAUNCHES FOUNDATION

Tomorrow, Thursday, 2nd July, 2026, all roads will lead to the Conference Centre of the National Open University (NOUN), Jabi, FCT, Abuja, as retired judge of the Kogi State High Court and Visiting Professor of Law at NOUN, Hon. Justice (Prof.) Alaba Omolaye-Ajileye, presents two books as well as launches a Foundation for indigent students.

An authority and leading light in the new field of electronic evidence, Omolaye-Ajileye’s new books are “Electronic Evidence, Second Edition” and “A Compendium of Cases on Electronic Evidence, Volume 11, 2020 – 2025.”

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Justice Omolaye-Ajileye is also the Chief Executive Officer of Forensic Electronic and Digital Law Consultancy (FEDLAC).