Mind, Body and Country by Njideka Maduka

By Njideka Maduka   P art of our radio conversation today was centred on what should be the focus of the campaign for the 2027 general election, particularly for the presidential candidates. As we know, the 2027 election campaign season started last Wednesday, August 19. My position was that, outside security, the economy should be our biggest focus as far as the 2027 election is concerned. Thankfully, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Atiku Abubakar, has already started that conversation. Now, what's Atiku bringing? Atiku has proposed a return to fuel subsidy. His proposal is to replace the old import-subsidy model with a targeted, capped and independently audited production subsidy for domestic refiners, with the stated aim of lowering petrol prices while encouraging local refining. He has said this would be on a temporary basis. It's not every day that a politician backtracks on an earlier position, especially on an important issue like this...

B y Njideka Maduka Broadcast Journalist I didn’t plan to write a memorandum on Nigeria’s National Policing Bill today. Honestly, I didn’t. A few weeks ago, during one of our paper review sessions on radio, my team and I discussed the proposed National Policing Bill and mentioned that the Presidential Working Group on the Bill, chaired by the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, had invited Nigerians to make submissions. We talked about it, as we have done with several issues surrounding the proposed reform of policing in Nigeria. But I did not immediately think, “I should write a memorandum.” Then this morning, August 13, 2026, I saw the story again in the newspapers. And there it was: 5 p.m. was the deadline for public submissions. While discussing the story on air, I suddenly said to myself: “I think I should contribute.” And that was how it started. After the programme, I began putting my thoughts together. Initially, I thought it would be straightforward. I would sim...