HIS Excellency, Hon. Henry Seriake Dickson, Governor of Bayelsa State, has just completed l00 days in office.
ST Vincent’s Clinic/Maternity in Kubwa, Abuja, is run by Catholic nuns – the Daughters of Charity. The essential work these selfless reverend sisters are doing is under threat because the building they occupy is due to be demolished to make way for a light railway line.
I’M on a bus in the United States at the moment, travelling from Washington to New York; and the ticket cost me next to nothing, but talk about value for money!
THE recent Supreme Court judgment confirmed that His Excellency, the Honourable Henry Seriake Dickson, can continue as Governor of Bayelsa State.
FORMER Delta State Governor, James Ibori, has just been jailed for l3 years in London by a British court…for defrauding the mostly suffering people of Delta State of nearly £50 million (N13 billion).
THE enormous outpouring of goodwill that President Goodluck Jonathan inspired during and last year’s election season has largely and gradually evaporated.
LAST week, while I was discussing the ongoing quarrel between the DG of the Securities & Exchange Commission (Ms Arunma Oteh) and the Chairman of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Capital Markets (Hon. Herman Hembe), I said I was bored by the whole drama and made the following remarks:
I’M sorry if this sounds very irresponsible, shallow and cynical, but I’m totally bored by the so-called drama that is swirling around Ms Arunma Oteh, Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, and Hon. Herman Hembe, Chairman of the House of Representatives’ Capital Markets Committee.
A FOND farewell to James Udensi Akwari Iroha, OON, the iconic veteran comedy actor, scriptwriter and director who died earlier on this week.
LAST week, I said that President Jonathan should avoid caving in to demands for a Sovereign National Conference, SNC, largely because I believe that a massive talking shop at which religious and ethnic grievances are aired will generate more heat than light and possibly lead to the complete collapse of Nigeria.
CALLS for a Sovereign National Conference (SONACO) are widespread; and the will of the majority is supposed to be acted on within a democratic context. But – many of my friends will be very angry with me for saying this! – I think that President Jonathan should dodge the SONACO option, if he can.
IN 2010, on the eve of the 50th anniversary of Nigeria’s liberation from British colonialism, I interviewed Dr. (Ambassador) Matthew Tawo (M.T) Mbu, the grand old national icon who passed away abroad earlier on this week. He had been the Minister of State for Defence on October 1, 1960 and I wanted to hear his opinions about the Independence era and its aftermath.
LAST week, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Governor of the Central Bank, ascribed the emergence of Boko Haram to poverty…and highlighted the fact that the funds that Northern states get from the Federation Account are paltry compared to the funds received by oil-producing states.
