By Felix Umande

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Donald Duke, has declared his readiness to step down for a formidable opposition candidate in the 2027 election if a consensus one emerges within the opposition coalition to challenge President Bola Tinubu.

Duke said he would respect a democratic decision by opposition parties to settle for another presidential candidate, including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar or former Labour Party candidate Peter Obi, provided such an agreement was reached through a collective process.

The former Cross River State governor spoke on Tuesday in Abuja at the unveiling of his vice presidential candidate, Malam Sule Mohammed, and the PRP manifesto.

Asked whether he would step down for a stronger candidate if the PRP and the opposition coalition agreed to support one person against Tinubu, Duke said the purpose of a coalition should go beyond sharing political positions and selecting a presidential candidate.

He said opposition parties must first agree on a common vision for Nigeria before deciding who should lead the alliance.

“A coalition is not just about picking a presidential candidate. That’s the mistake we are all making. It’s about us coming together to agree on where we would like to take our nation to,” Duke said.

“You’ve called names of two eminent politicians, but that may not be enough. So, I don’t want to presuppose anything. But at the end of the day, I’ll be sportsmanlike about it.”

He added: “If the group, and so far there are quite a number of us, comes up with an agreement that this is the best person to lead the coalition, you can’t say you’re a Democrat and not be subject to the rules of democracy. Of course, if it’s me, I hope they would do the same. And if it’s any other person, I would do the same. I would respect it.”

Duke stressed that the more important thing was not even the picking of a candidate, but the commonality and the direction the coalition wants to take Nigeria.

“We don’t want to replace the APC or the present administration with someone who would take us back again. So, if the candidates and the party agree that this is a person we should back, of course, that’s what is expected of me,” he said.

Duke also accused the ruling All Progressives Congress of enjoying an overwhelming advantage in campaign visibility, alleging that opposition parties were facing difficulties securing venues and advertising spaces ahead of the 2027 elections.

He said the situation was making it increasingly difficult for opposition candidates to reach voters across the country.

“You can see what is happening to other opposition parties who have been on the campaign train. If you go throughout the country, you hardly find their billboards and posters on the streets of the various cities across Nigeria,” he said.

“You only find one party, the APC. In some states, I’m told that you need to spend as much as N1bn for you to even begin to advertise.”

By Lazarus Oko

Less than 36 per cent of Nigerians have access to improved toilet facilities, raising concerns over persistent sanitation challenges and the associated public health risks, according to the Federal government.

This was disclosed on Tuesday during a press briefing in Abuja to commemorate the 2026 World Toilet Day, by the Minister of Environment, Balarabe Abbas Lawal.

The Director of Pollution Control and Environmental Health, Mrs Omotunde Adeola, who represented Lawal at the event regretted that public places, such as markets, motor parks, schools and communities, still have inadequate and functional toilet facilities.

He warned that the situation led to open defecation, contamination of food and water sources, and the spread of sanitation-related diseases such as cholera and typhoid.

Apart from threats to public health, it is a threat to environmental safety and human dignity, he stressed.

The minister pointed out that women, girls, children, older persons and persons living with disabilities were worse affected by the shortage of appropriate sanitation facilities.

He stressed that no child should miss school because of inadequate toilet facilities, while no woman or girl should be forced to compromise her safety and dignity because of the absence of suitable toilets.

From a global perspective, Lawal said about 4.5 billion people worldwide still lacked safely managed sanitation, while 892 million continued to practise open defecation.

He said the figures underscored the need to accelerate efforts towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly those relating to clean water and sanitation, gender equality, good health and sustainable communities by 2030.

Government interventions

On efforts to address the challenge, the minister said the Federal Ministry of Environment, in collaboration with relevant ministries, state governments and development partners, was implementing programmes to improve sanitation and promote safe excreta disposal nationwide.

He listed the initiatives to include capacity building for Environmental Health Officers on faecal sludge management and toilet design, the Clean and Green Programme, and the Community-Based Waste Management and Open Defecation Control Programme.

Other interventions, he said, included integrating sanitation into climate adaptation and circular economy initiatives, as well as partnering with private sector operators to provide environmentally friendly sanitation facilities.

Lawal announced that the ministry would convene a National Dialogue on Faecal Sludge Management on November 23, 2026, involving seven selected states across the six geopolitical zones and the Federal Capital Territory.

He said the dialogue would enable participating states to assess their experiences, share challenges and develop practical recommendations for improving faecal sludge management.

As part of activities marking the World Toilet Day, the ministry will also organise a community sensitisation campaign at Kpadna Community, Utako, Abuja, on November 19.

The campaign is expected to engage residents, traders and food vendors on proper sanitation, hand hygiene and safe waste disposal through health talks, interactive discussions and practical demonstrations by Environmental Health Officers.

He added that the commemoration would take place simultaneously across the 36 states and the FCT through community sensitisation, advocacy campaigns and sanitary inspections of public places.

The minister called on state and local governments to strengthen faecal sludge and wastewater management systems, while urging households to embrace proper toilet use, handwashing and environmental cleanliness.

He also urged the private sector to invest in affordable sanitation technologies and climate-resilient infrastructure, while calling on development partners and civil society organisations to sustain their support for sanitation advocacy and infrastructure development.

Lawal further stressed the need for women and girls to participate actively in designing, implementing and monitoring sanitation interventions, rather than being treated merely as beneficiaries.

The 2026 World Toilet Day is under the theme, “Sanitation and Gender Equality,” with the campaign tagline, “Safe Toilets. Equal Futures.”

By Son Tertsea, Abuja

With the view to ascertaining Nigeria’s efforts to protect Christians and tackle insecurity in the Middle Belt, Republican lawmaker Chris Smith, is leading the session in the United States House of Representatives’ congressional hearing on Thursday, November 12, 2026.

Smith’s office said on Monday, in a statement that the session’s title: ‘One Year Later: Assessing Nigeria’s Efforts to Protect Christians and Secure the Middle Belt’, was scheduled for hearing at 11am at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC. Part of the statement read:

“Congressional hearing that assesses the current state of religious violence perpetrated by radical Islamists, such as Boko Haram and Fulani terrorists, against Christians in Nigeria; the Nigerian government’s efforts to curb the persecution and punish those responsible for committing atrocities against Christian and non-radical Muslim communities; and the steps the United States can take to ensure that Nigerian officials are addressing and preventing the systemic violence against Christians and non-radical Muslims by Islamist extremists.”

Frank Garcia, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, and Riley Barnes, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour will feature in the first panel.

The second panel has Nina Shea, senior fellow and director of the Centre for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute; Ryan Brown, chief executive officer of Open Doors US; and Oge Onubogu, director and senior fellow of the Africa Programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

The hearing will be streamed live on YouTube.

Reportedly, this will be Smith’s 14th congressional hearing exclusively on Nigeria. In November 2025, he chaired a hearing after President Donald Trump’s redesignation of Nigeria as a ‘country of particular concern’.

In May 2016, he also chaired a hearing on “The U.S. role in helping Nigeria confront Boko Haram and other threats in northern Nigeria.”