Mr Uchenna Emelonye,is International Development Law Organisation, IDLO, Manager, Governance, Institutional and Justice Reform Programmes.IDLO is an international inter-governmental organisation with the mandate to pursue the establishment of rule of law as an essential pre-condition for economic and social development and the achievement of human security.

It is possible to get away with anything in Nigerian if you can pay the bill. Police and even some Military officers are now rented for all manners of ridiculous or condescending activities including using them as temporary aide de camp to smart guys to impress their girlfriends, as recently exposed by some soft-sell magazines.

On October 8, 2010, the former Chief Executive Officer of Oceanic Bank International Nigeria PLC, Mrs. Cecilia Ibru was sentienced to eighteen months imprison by the Federal High Court Lagos, Nigeria for committing various economic and financial crimes.

To X-ray Nigeria at 50 years while searching for an alternative paradigm, what then is it about Nigeria at 50 years that warrants a search for an alternative paradigm? You certainly do not change a winning formula if you are doing well. It is only when you are doing otherwise that you run from the hospital to the herbalist, the church, the mosque, the magician and elsewhere for a winning formula or a cure. So, the questions are: Is Nigeria doing well? Has Nigeria done well? Does Nigeria have a plan to do well?

A five member panel of the Supreme Court is scheduled to take legal arguments and give instant judgment, on October 21, in a four-year old pre-election dispute between Mr Bassey Etim and Hon Emmanuel Obot. The duo had locked horns since late 2006 over who between them was the valid candidate of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the April 2007 election into the Uyo Federal constituency seat at the National Assembly.