Bomb scares have become a new phenomenon on our already dangerous political space. That is the obvious conclusion to make from events of the last couple of weeks as people were made to scamper around in Abuja shortly after the Eagle Square blasts on the 50th Anniversary celebration.

Even at 50 years when we austensibly celebrated “maturity”as a country, it is now clearer than crystal that we are into the vicious circle of instability all over again. And it is instructive that this instability surfaced right on the day that we were celebrating 50 years of independence!!

The big question however is whether the National Assembly will be able and willing to do this within the shortest possible time in the next couple of weeks. If it can, good enough; but if it cannot because of the process involved in constitutional amendment, then we have to accept the inevitable; that May 29th handover date would be impossible.

The conversation between Kola and I had been on for about half an hour when his son, Afolabi, entered to announce that he was ready to travel to Lagos, enroute a West African country to resume his summer school.

Since 1998, the Nigerian Political environment has been evolving into one huge theatre of the absurd. And one of the most hopelessly absurd event then was the choice by the Northern Political elite of who the Yoruba Presidential candidate should be in 1999.

The world is in a very terrible state. Tune in your radio, all you hear is disaster, crisis and conflict everywhere. Mankind is gasping, and the fear is palpable that this world may no longer be saved. We are well into the grips of the end-times prophetic collapse.

The political “game” of the 2011 presidency is becoming fascinating. As people voice their support for or opposition to the candidates on offer, the plot to win thickens, making it even more difficult for observers to attempt a prediction.

IN 1979, Nigeria had a wonderful bouquet of presidential candidates to choose from. Not a single one of them, however, was as rich as, or have access to unlimited finances as the two current front runners in the 2011 presidential race — IBB and Goodluck Jonathan.

Criminality and insecurity are turning Nigeria into a nightmare. From all indications, we are now moving one step over the edge into the abyss. This is not a statement of despair, it is a conscious acknowledgement of the cold fact. We are past midnight before dawn into the status of a failed state. And it is unclear if any person is actually in charge any more!!

Governor Ikedi Ohakim of Imo State was the first to shock us about the goings-on in the PPA, sponsored by Orji Uzor Kalu at the height of his problems with Obasanjo in the heady days of the face-off between Atiku and his boss at Aso Rock. He (Ohakim) had not long before dumped the PDP for the PPA to win in Imo State, and within two years had bolted back to the PDP on grounds that the PPA was not a party but a family business.

There has been several interpretations given to June 12 election that was annulled by Gen. Ibrahim Babangida; but one that should interest those who are thinking about change for the better in Nigeria, has just been brought to lime-light by Professor Omo Omoruyi, who practically mid-wifed the June 12, 1993 election from the Centre for Democratic studies, CDS.

There appears to be little sense of urgency driving the political advance to 2011. I am beginning to be afraid that we will miss the mark unless we accelerate our pace of work towards conducting a credible, free and fair election that will meet international standards, and ensure local satisfaction. We have only eight months to go before the election in February at the latest, and the only positive thing we have on ground is the appointment of INEC’s chairman with his commissioners.

He was reported to have called for fundamental changes in the structure of the polity, if this country is to develop at all. In effect, he called for scrapping the hyper-expensive presidential system, a reduction in the number and size of the nation’s parliaments, a return to the regional structure, which invariably will result in the scrapping of the 36 states and the 774 local governments that have become a horrific burden to the nation’s economy.

The volume of funds made available or is being budgeted for allowances and entertainment of public office holders is scandalous and unpatriotic. Those who thought about it did not think critically. Those who are bent on having more of it are not thinking at all. But those who sit back and endorse the rape are the sick ones who need the greatest help.