BASTARD! That is perhaps the most insulting word you can use for a Nigerian. It is therefore not surprising that retired General Olufemi Olutoye is at war with some of his kinsmen just as former Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayoshe is with ex- President Olusegun Obasanjo.

I CANNOT recall when and how I first met Edidem Bassey Ekpo Bassey II. He came across like an elder brother I have always known. Over the last quarter of a century, we met mostly in Lagos where he frequented, and in the last few years, in Abuja where I moved base.

THE Americans are still wondering what hit them. In one of the most devastating blows ever dealt their diplomacy, Wikileaks began this Sunday, offloading some quarter of a million cables between the State Department and 270 American embassies and consulates around the world.

WHEN Rauf Aregbesola the new governor of Osun State decided to contest the 2007 gubernatorial elections, it was like a man embarking on political suicide. The political situation seemed so bleak, and the possibility of him defeating the incumbent, Olagunsoye Oyinlola appeared so remote that some powerful groups in the state were not even ready to hear what he had to say.

NOBOBY in the United States (US) can ask, Sarah who? Sarah Palin of course! With the former sports caster and half term governor of Alaska, the American presidential elections in 2012 promises to be a ball.

NIGERIANS are not a complex people, but we have a few who would want to ride the rest of us like donkeys. Whenever we seem to be making a headway, these manipulators throw spanner into the works. They usually do this from dark alleys so that their identity will be concealed.

WHEN a daughter of humanity, Aung San Suu Kyi on November 14, walked out of house arrest after seven and half years imprisonment, not a few began a count down on the day the Myanmar junta may throw her back in detention.

A WEEK ago, the country was in the throes of an avoidable warning strike. It centered around a six-month agreement to pay N18,000 as the new minimum wage in the country.

It was reminiscent of the anti-apartheid days when meetings were held on how best Nigerians can contribute to the liberation of that country. This time, it was a meeting of like minds under the Civil Society Forum for the Liberation of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic.

ANAMBRA is a traumatised state. It has been so from the times of the military locusts which constantly devoured its resources. The departure of the military in the country restored some measure of stability and sanity in many states, but not Anambra.

WHEN I was growing up in Obalende on the Lagos Island, an enlarged, glassed photograph hung majestically from the wall. It was that of a beautiful young woman who sat like Queen Elizabeth II in her official portrait.

FRANCE has been aflame for seven weeks as the President Nicolas Sarkozy government took on the people of France which elected it. The primary reason why the French are up in arms, the proposal to increase retirement age from 60 to 62 years, will shock the average Nigerian. That is putting it mildly; to many of them, the reason will appear insane.

I DO not belong to any political party or campaign organisation. But I am not apolitical. I do not know who will be president after the 2011 elections, but I do know that Nigerians will be committing political suicide if retired General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida were allowed to return to power.

LOCKING up seven young ladies and an equal number of men in a house for three months, plying them with inexhaustible amount of food, cigarettes, beer and hot drinks is like experimenting with human beings in a zoo. It is bound to bring out the worst in them. Endless quarrels, fights, drinking binges, drunkenness and open flirtation are bound to occur. This precisely is what the Big Brother Africa programme is about.