Nigeria’s democracy remains far from an ideal system of popular choice, the author argues, because political power is often detached from voters and elections encourage costly, divisive winner-takes-all competition. The country’s diversity and unresolved nation-building challenges make it difficult to import another country’s democratic model. The author calls for alternatives or reforms grounded in Nigeria’s own context, with consensus-building, meaningful opposition representation, and leadership selected for integrity and competence. Such changes, the column argues, could reduce political tension and corruption and better support peace and development.

Nigeria’s history of fragile governments, military interventions, contested elections, and competition along ethnic and political lines illustrates the difficulty of building a cohesive nation. The country should learn from more successful approaches to managing diversity and pursue cooperation, fairness, inclusion, and leadership chosen for merit and national service rather than narrow interests. With strong public participation in voter registration ahead of the 2019 elections, the author urges Nigerians to sustain that momentum, support credible and peaceful elections, and reject both winner-takes-all politics and calls for national dissolution.

Abdulwarees Solanke portrays the quintessential artist as an imaginative, unconventional and often misunderstood person whose creativity may coexist with emotional struggles, unstable relationships and difficulty completing projects. He argues that families and society can worsen artists’ isolation and squander their potential by failing to understand or recognize them. The essay urges those close to artists to offer patience, practical and financial support, encouragement, and respect for their work, citing Vincent van Gogh and Ayodele Awojobi as examples of creative talent that should not be neglected.

Abdulwarees Solanke argues that African and Asian media should move beyond Western portrayals focused on crisis and instead tell constructive, locally grounded stories that support sustainable development. He positions media as a participant in the policy cycle: informing public choices, fostering consultation and trust, monitoring implementation, and highlighting outcomes. Governments, he says, should pursue long-term planning, inclusive governance, social infrastructure, environmental protection, economic diversification, local innovation and investment in human capacity, while partnering with credible private investors and civil society. Coverage should examine policy choices, impacts and trade-offs, promote accountability and participation, and communicate reforms in ways that build public understanding and support.