Introduction To Special Edition, Nigeria in 2019

The year 2018 will come to an end tomorrow and, for Daily Trust’s editors, reporters and contributors who spent all of this year toiling to keep you up to date on breaking stories, features, analyses, photographs and infographs, attention is already turning to the incoming year 2019.

2019 promises to be an interesting year. Right now, public attention is concentrated on the February-March 2019 elections and the possible outcome, so our insightful contributor Prof Jibrin Ibrahim attempts a prediction. Internal security, which has been a major issue in Nigeria in the outgoing year, is most certain to dominate national discourse in 2019 too, especially issues such as Zamfara, Boko Haram, kidnapping, armed robbery, farmers/herders’ conflicts, pipeline vandalism and inter-communal killings.

Our reporters and contributors also attempt a look into other issues that are certain to be important in the year 2019. These include likely innovations in the technological environment, women affairs and the continuous struggle for gender equality, youth matters and sports. The latter is critical because nothing unifies Nigerians like a big win in sports; it is the only area where ethnic and other differences disappear – as long as the teams keep winning. Happy reading. We wish our readers a blissful New Year.