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My political journey has been one of service, learning, and commitment. I entered politics because I believed I could help improve our people’s lives. Over the years, I have served in various capacities and had the privilege of representing my people in the National Assembly.

Politics has taught me that public office is not about personal enrichment or popularity. It is about making difficult decisions, speaking for your people, and ensuring that government works for the ordinary Nigerian.

Unfortunately, that sometimes happens in politics. A politician can spend years working for his people, but one statement can dominate public discussion for days or even years.

I am not saying politicians should not be held accountable for their words. We must be responsible for what we say. But I believe my political record should not be defined by one controversial phrase or statement. People should look at the totality of my service, my interventions, the bills I supported, and my contribution to national development.

Of course. Anyone who has been in public life for many years and claims to have never made a statement they would have expressed differently is probably not being entirely honest.

There are moments when emotions run high, and politicians speak passionately about issues. With hindsight, you may realise that certain words could have been chosen more carefully. But that does not mean the intention behind every statement was malicious.

My major achievement is the opportunity to represent my people and raise issues that directly affect them. I have been particularly concerned about infrastructure, economic development, employment, security, and the welfare of ordinary Nigerians.

I have also participated in legislative processes to strengthen our institutions and improve the economy. For me, legislation is not always about what makes headlines. Sometimes, the most important work happens through committee work, oversight, and interventions that the public may never see.

The criticism is justified to an extent. Politicians must be held accountable for their promises. Public office is a contract with the public.

However, there are also institutional limitations. A legislator, for instance, cannot personally deliver every project or fulfil every promise made during an election. But that does not excuse failure. We must continually engage with the executive, secure appropriate budgetary provisions, and exercise oversight to ensure projects are implemented.

I believe the administration should be assessed objectively. There are areas where progress has been made, and others where Nigerians still face serious difficulties. The economy remains a major concern. Nigerians are struggling with the cost of living, food prices, unemployment, and the erosion of purchasing power. The government must therefore do more to ensure that economic reforms translate into tangible improvements in citizens’ lives.

Reforms are sometimes necessary, but the manner in which they are implemented matters greatly. Removing the subsidy without adequate cushioning for the people creates enormous hardship.

If the government wants Nigerians to support difficult reforms, it must demonstrate transparency and ensure that the benefits eventually reach the people. Nigerians cannot continue to make sacrifices indefinitely without seeing corresponding improvements in their lives.

We need to look beyond simply deploying more security personnel. Security requires intelligence, modern equipment, effective coordination, and a motivated security workforce.

We must also address the underlying causes of insecurity, including poverty, unemployment, weak institutions and the proliferation of illegal arms. Most importantly, criminals must know that there will be consequences for their actions.

The National Assembly has a critical responsibility in a democracy. Its functions go beyond making laws. It must provide effective oversight and ensure that government agencies are accountable.

I believe the legislature can do more in this area. Nigerians expect their representatives to speak boldly when policies are hurting the people. Loyalty to a political party should not mean abandoning one’s responsibility to the Nigerian people.

There must be cooperation between the executive and legislature, but cooperation should never mean surrendering legislative independence.

A strong democracy requires checks and balances. The legislature must be able to support good policies while questioning those that are not in the public interest. That is not confrontation; it is democracy.

Representation means more than carrying a title. When people elect you, they expect you to speak when they cannot speak for themselves.

I have always believed that elected representatives must remain connected to their constituents. If the people are suffering and their representative remains silent, then something is wrong.

Nigerians should look beyond political parties and campaign promises. They should examine the candidates’ character, competence, and record.

We should ask, ‘What has this person done before?’ What are their ideas? Can this person be trusted with public resources? Does the person understand the problems facing ordinary Nigerians?

Elections should not be about who gives the biggest gifts during campaigns. They should be about who can provide responsible leadership.

Money has become too influential in our politics, and that is dangerous. When elections become excessively expensive, competent people without financial muscle may be pushed out.

This is one reason we need stronger institutions and enforcement of electoral laws. Political parties must also develop internal democratic structures that give ordinary Nigerians a genuine opportunity to participate.

They should not give up. Politics affects everything around us – education, employment, security, healthcare, infrastructure, and the economy. If good people withdraw from politics, they leave the space for others to occupy.

Young Nigerians should become politically conscious, ask questions, participate in elections, and hold elected officials accountable. The future of Nigeria cannot be left entirely to politicians.

The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Engr. Muttaqa Darma, has inaugurated a Ministerial Committee on the Implementation Framework.

This, he said, is for the Validated Stakeholder Resolutions on Housing Sector Reforms, tasking members with turning stakeholder recommendations into concrete action for Nigeria’s built environment sector.

The 14-member committee comprises of members drawn from the Ministry’s technical departments and its relevant agencies, and chaired by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.

Part of the committee’s terms of reference is to drive and coordinate the implementation of the reform measures contained in the Implementation Framework.

Others are to develop a detailed work plan specifying priority actions, timelines and deliverables, and to monitor progress to ensure assigned actions are delivered within approved timelines, among others.

Speaking at the inauguration, Darma recalled that stakeholders across the housing industry had earlier converged for a validation conference to review the housing deficit data compiled by the Ministry and to set out a policy direction for transforming the sector.

He said the workshop produced recommendations now grouped into three categories which are: those the Ministry can implement immediately, those requiring the go-ahead of the Presidential Council, and those that will require legislative action.

The Minister said the Ministry’s core mandate remains housing Nigerians directly or creating the enabling environment for citizens to house themselves, describing this as a responsibility that the Ministry takes seriously.

He also stressed the need to strengthen regulation of the built environment so it can contribute more meaningfully to the national economy.

Citing 2025 data from the National Bureau of Statistics, Darma noted that the sector currently contributes about 17 percent to Nigeria’s economy, compared to between 22 and 27 percent in similar economies such as South Africa and Kenya.

He expressed confidence that with the right reforms, Nigeria’s housing sector could close that gap and become a leading driver of national economic growth.

Darma charged committee members to work diligently, noting they had been carefully selected to lead the sector’s transformation. He urged the team to deliver a robust implementation strategy within the six weeks given for the assignment.

Accordingly, he also charged members of the committee to develop a workable implementation strategy that will transform the entire built environment industry and position it as a major driver of Nigeria’s economy.

The Minister further described the committee as central to building a housing sector that accommodates every stakeholder while becoming a major contributor to the national economy.

Responding on behalf of the committee, the Permanent Secretary Dr. Shuaib Belgore who is also the chairman of the committee, described the assignment as a privilege aimed at improving housing outcomes for Nigerians, standardising practice across the housing sector, and unlocking its potential contribution to the nation’s GDP.

He commended the Minister’s transformative leadership, noting that the housing sector had continued to attract national attention due to the pace of activities under his watch, including groundbreaking ceremonies, estate handovers, and stakeholder consultations, assuring him that the committee shared his urgency to deliver results.

The Permanent Secretary said the committee had already been handed a working document that would be reviewed thoroughly to identify gaps and refine it into an effective framework, pledging the committee’s full cooperation and loyalty to deliver its mandate within the six-week timeframe given.

Belgore noted that further stakeholder consultations would be held as the implementation framework takes shape, to ensure wide support, and thanked the Minister on behalf of the committee for the opportunity to serve in the effort to ensure Nigerian families are properly housed.

On their part, the Managing Director of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), Shehu Usman Osidi commended the Minister for the reform initiative, noting that some proposals already align with steps the bank has taken.

Drawing on FMBN’s past experience, where attempts to push through the National Housing Fund (NHF) and FMBN Acts, and later a N500 billion recapitalisation bid, stalled due to stakeholder pushback, he stressed that effective stakeholder consultation would be critical to the reforms’ success this time.

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has dismissed the proposal by the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, to set up an independent parallel result transmission system alongside the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the 2027 general elections.

Describing the plan as the product of ‘unhinged desperation,’ the APC National Publicity Secretary, Barrister Felix Morka, declared that the former Anambra State governor lacks both the legal locus and the logistical capacity to assume the duties of the statutory electoral umpire.

Morka’s scathing assessment comes in reaction to a recent appearance by Obi on a national television, where the NDC candidate unveiled plans for a ‘dual transmission’ system.

Obi had argued that his campaign team and other independent organizations would establish situation rooms to transmit results directly from polling units to verify the official counts uploaded to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.

Speaking on the development in an interview, Morka ridiculed Obi’s assertions, questioning his legal standing to usurp functions constitutionally guaranteed to INEC.

‘Peter Obi of the NDC must be a political jester,’ Morka stated. ‘He is a presidential candidate that also wants to be the electoral umpire, a role statutorily reserved to the Independent National Electoral Commission. Has he any locus to do that?’

The APC spokesman pushed back on the feasibility of the plan, noting that Obi lacks both the technical infrastructure and the grassroots party structure required to execute a nationwide parallel collation exercise.

‘One, he doesn’t have the software, unless he means he is going to create his own software to do that. And if he does that, that will be creating utter confusion. And he doesn’t have the capacity to do that,’ Morka said. ‘I bet you, Peter Obi will not have agents in all the polling units in this country. He doesn’t. So I don’t know how he’s going to go about it.’

Morka further suggested that Obi’s proposal borders on self-delusion, quipping that the opposition candidate might as well declare himself the winner ahead of the poll.

‘Mr. Obi shouldn’t just stop at creating a parallel IReV; he might as well go ahead, today, and declare himself winner ahead of the 2027 presidential election. That’s the stuff unhinged desperation is made of,’ he declared.

Beyond the electoral portal controversy, the ruling party scribe criticized Obi’s broader policy proposals, including his comments on petrol subsidy removal, arguing that the opposition candidate has consistently failed to offer coherent alternatives to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s economic reforms.

According to Morka, opposition leaders like Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi are struggling to present viable policy offerings that can compete with the current administration’s pragmatism.

‘You see Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, the problem they have right now is that they are struggling to differentiate their policy offering from that of Asiwaju,’ Morka asserted. ‘And they can’t do it easily, because Asiwaju’s plan and his program is almost ironclad in both pragmatism and value. But these guys are merely speculative.’

He added: ‘You know, when he was asked what he meant by that, he couldn’t explain. A lot of things he said in that interview, like his fuel subsidy plan-it’s not understandable. I don’t know anybody who understood what he said. He just said, ‘I’m going to bring the price of petrol down.”

Morka concluded by noting that he often hesitates to respond to statements from the opposition, as doing so confers unearned credibility on unsubstantiated claims.

‘If I respond to Peter Obi now, I would be injecting sense into his nonsense, because it’s very incoherent in what he says,’ Morka noted. ‘Sometimes, I refrain from responding to these snippets from Peter Obi, because when I do, I will be the one making it look like he is saying something that is worth responding to. Sometimes I just ignore them, because, you know, they don’t make any sense.’

Heartland FC continued their preparations for the new season with a 2-0 victory over Akwa United in a friendly match at the Dan Anyiam Stadium, Owerri, yesterday.

The encounter was initially scheduled to kick off at 12 noon but heavy rain forced a lengthy delay.

The game eventually got underway under floodlights at 6pm and ended about two hours later, with the Naze Millionaires securing a comfortable victory.

The result also provided Heartland with some measure of revenge after they lost 2-0 to Akwa United in the first friendly between the two sides in Uyo.

The friendly is part of Heartland’s build-up towards the new Nigeria National League season.

The Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has described the Dangote Refinery as more than merely an industrial project, asserting that its construction showcased Africa’s ability to execute ambitious projects on a market-changing scale.

Governor Sanwo-Olu spoke yesterday at the official launch of the Africa-Diaspora Leadership Programme 2026 Young Global Leaders Convening, tagged ‘Building Africa at Scale,’ held at the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Complex in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos.

The Governor disclosed that the refinery was built on land reclaimed from swamp, lagoon, and open water, while additional infrastructure, including a jetty and power plant, had to be developed to support the project.

He cautioned, however, that Africa’s development should not rely on individual ‘heroism,’ emphasising that the true measure of the refinery’s success is whether the next major industrial project becomes easier to build.

Governor Sanwo-Olu highlighted the Lekki Deep Sea Port, Lekki Free Zone, and Lagos Blue Line rail as part of his administration’s efforts to create infrastructure that would lessen the barriers for future investors and developers.

He also called for increased participation of African pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and the diaspora in owning strategic assets across the continent. He stated that Africa’s next growth phase requires collective ownership and collaboration.

‘Aliko Dangote did not build a refinery. He built a country around a refinery, and then he built the refinery. There was no port capable of receiving the equipment, so he built a jetty.’

There was not enough power, so he built a power plant. The plant was late; it cost far more than anyone had planned. It endured a pandemic, a currency that lost much of its value, and more than one season in which serious people whispered – quietly, and sometimes not so quietly – that it would never run.

‘It runs. That is the first thing to note: Africa can build on a market-changing scale. Not in theory. The thing dismissed as unrealistic is the very thing you are standing inside.

‘Scale that depends on one man building his own port and his own power plant is not real scale. It is heroism. And heroism does not repeat. You cannot ask a pension fund to underwrite it. If Africa must wait for a builder of Aliko Dangote’s stubbornness every time it needs a refinery or a railway, then we will build one of everything, and we will build it once,’ Sanwo-Olu said.

He urged the Young Global Leaders to move beyond discussions and turn connections made during the gathering into practical projects that address real problems, insisting that Africa does not need the world’s permission to build.

‘In eleven days, you will gather at 1280 Fifth Avenue, on the edge of Harlem, overlooking Central Park. When you get there, notice something. You will be standing in an island city built on water by people who arrived from somewhere else with nothing but ambition – and you will have just left another one.

‘Lagos and New York are not strangers. They are the same argument in two accents: that a city can be made from the sheer determination of people who refused to wait for conditions to be perfect. Carry that with you. Carry the numbers, yes, but carry the harder lesson too: that Africa does not need the world’s permission to build, and that the world, if it comes as a partner and not a prospector, will find that Africa has already started,’ the governor submitted.

The Executive Chairman of United Nigeria Airlines, Prof. Obiora Okonkwo has dismissed claims that domestic operators failed to remit the five per cent Ticket Sales Charge (TSC) to the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).

He insisted that domestic carriers had maintained full compliance with the regulatory agency before recent labour disputes.

Speaking at the 30th annual conference of the League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) in Lagos, with theme: ‘Towards a Sustainable Aviation Industry: Balancing government revenue demands with sector growth ‘, Prof. Okonkwo said prior to February this year, all airlines were meeting their financial obligations to the government without issue.

According to him, payment difficulties emerged only when airlines began to have issues with the cost of aviation fuel which had increased to N3,300 as a result of the US-Iran crisis.

He said the Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) was the first to raise concerns about the financial burden of regulatory charges during the downturn.

‘Before February this year, there were no payment problems. All airlines were paying. The AON issue only became a problem because of the Gulf crisis. AON was the first to cry out. We wrote to the President, explaining that we could no longer pay these charges. We requested either a complete suspension of charges or temporary relief during the aviation crisis, and the request was granted. The President agreed and waived 30per cent,’ Prof Okonkwo said.

Following the presidential waiver, he said airlines had a meeting with the NCAA and the Ministry of Aviation to establish a structured repayment framework. ‘We met with NCAA and the Minister. We held several meetings. In one decisive meeting, NCAA requested that airline operators pay 10per cent of the legacy debts within a specified period, and then pay the rest in installments over a period of time and each airline was to meet with NCAA’s director of finance.

‘The airlines complied with this directive. The airlines did this. The director met with operators in Lagos and Abuja, and we developed a payment plan. This plan was in place. When you have a payment plan in place, it does not mean you will default. We were making regular payments according to the agreement we had with the NCAA until we heard about the labour union, problem,’ he said.

To demonstrate commitment, he said United Nigeria Airlines established a proactive payment mechanism with NCAA. ‘At United Nigeria, to ensure no issues, we opened joint accounts with NCAA at Nigerian banks. The account was structured so NCAA could withdraw funds directly without asking us,’ he explained.

Prof. Okonkwo who is the spokesperson of the AON disputed characterisations that operators were non-compliant. He said: ‘When people discuss money not remitted or paid by operators, they fail to mention how much operators do pay. When they talk about unpaid money, I ask: what have you done with all that we have already paid? That is the proof, and that is my concern.

‘Beyond what we pay, we do not receive adequate value. When different stakeholders and agencies are asked to explain this, they simply say the government takes a large chunk of this money. The question is: for what?

‘Most of you here know that money charged is supposed to provide recovery. When we request NCAA to inspect our aircraft in London or America, they come, and we pay them. We do all these 100per cent in advance. But when you speak of a five per cent charge, it remains unclear.

‘When you take five per cent of any business, a business I borrowed money to run, a business that costs me sleepless nights, that is too much for anyone to extract from it. And this is on top of taxes we already pay. The call for removal of this five per cent must not stop. It must continue until we remove it. We would not be able to have smooth operations until this is resolved.’

Prof Okonkwo stated further that the unions desire to advocate for airline worker welfare is understandable. He however said that airlines are among Nigeria’s best-paying sectors.

He said: ‘That shameful display at the airport by unions would have brought us to our lowest point if not for the reactions and condemnation from so many gathered here.

‘I especially commend the Aviation Roundtable President whose loud voice was heard worldwide. I also commend aviation reporters who reported fairly but we expected condemnation from quarters that should have known better but that did not come and we remain concerned.’