I have found it necessary to address this letter to you in view of certain developments at your Lagos Consulate with regard to visa requirements which have very adverse implications for academic practice in Nigeria. I am scheduled to attend a conference at the Cologne African Studies Centre, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Cologne at the end of the month, precisely from May 30 to June 2, 2012.

POLARISING as the same sex marriage issue has become in America, and around the world (no thanks to the manner Americans tend to universalise matters that concern them), it simply won’t go away.

IT was a year last week since, on till then, the most wanted man in the world, Osama Bin Ladin was killed by American Special Forces, specifically the Seals.

WHILE it is possible for me to describe Governor Aregbesola’s attitude to religion as one best summed up in the philosophy of ‘Live and let live’, for which reason he gives free expression to his religious beliefs, even in public and with the implicit understanding that other citizens could and, very often, do the same thing, one must also admit that the Governor’s attitude, for the very fact that he is governor, might lead other people to different conclusions as are now being made by opposition elements in and outside the state.

IS this a case of politics carried too far, genuine fear requiring explanation or could there be any merit to the claim that Rauf Aregbesola, governor of the State of Osun is bent on Islamising the State? Please note that I have referred to the governor of the state of Osun and not Osun State.

EVEN while commenting here last week on the new Police uniform, I knew that wasn’t the only thing to be said about the Nigeria Police at the moment.

THE Nigeria Police have in the last few weeks been ‘test running’ the proposed uniform for their personnel. The camouflage uniform which was unveiled by the IG, M.D. Abubakar in the second week of March will, when and if it is finally approved, become one of a couple of uniforms to be used by members of the Police Force in their operations.

UNTIL Olusegun Obasanjo, three times Nigerian Head of State, retired General of the Nigerian Army, traditional Egba chief, leader of the PDP and, perhaps, Nigeria’s most powerful politician, became president in 1999, virtually nothing was known of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who has twice taken the saddle as Nigeria’s Finance Minister.

ALTHOUGH right on the front page of The Punch of March 14, 2012, the image was not that visible. It was of a man perched dangerously on the mast of a telecoms company in the premises of the Federal High Court, Shehu Shagari Way, in Abuja.

NIGERIA’S foremost airport, the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, in Lagos has been in the news of late for a reason that leaves you wondering when we would start getting things right in this country. By the way, the airport is often in the news- usually for not very edifying reasons.

NIGERIA was again in the news last week for the wrong reasons following the murder of two hostages, Chris McManus and Franco Lamolinara who had been held by Boko Haram for nearly a year.

THERE might have been other reasons but one important if not the VERY reason for the British amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates of Nigeria, was the need to make the South support the North which the colonialists thought was not economically viable.

IN the last two years or thereabout during which the Action Congress of Nigeria succeeded in chasing the Peoples Democratic Party out of most parts of the South-West, talks of integrating the economy and politics of the region have assumed an upward swing.

THE head of Nigeria’s Central Bank, the equivalent of the US’s Federal Reserve or the UK’s Bank of England is designated, governor. Despite his immense powers over the country’s financial sector, the Governor of the Central Bank is perhaps the only Nigerian official called governor but whose responsibilities are limited to the financial sector.