UNREPENTANT Niger Delta militant, Asari Dokubo, said there will be no peace in Nigeria if President Goodluck Jonathan is not re-elected in 2015. I want to put my mouth in this matter before it dies down.

AS we prepare for the final rites of my deceased senior friend, colleague and associate, Chief Pini Jason Onyegbadue, the Onu Na-ekwuru Oha, (the people’s spokesman), I offer my humble tribute in form of insights into the way he lived his professional life, some of which we shared together.

AT about 10.00am on Saturday, May 4th 2013, I left my room at the Westin Harbour Castle, Toronto, Canada, to see Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Canada, Ambassador Ojo Maduekwe in his hotel, the historic Fairmont Royal York Hotel, venue of the just-concluded Canada-Nigeria Investment Conference.

THE moment the Sultan called for amnesty for Boko Haram, I knew Nigeria was headed for bigger trouble. It was a major shifting of grounds by His Eminence, Mohammed Abubakar Sa’ad III, the Sultan of Sokoto and the head of the Nigerian Muslim community. His earlier stance in public forums both in Nigeria and abroad was that the sect was evil, and their mission un-Islamic, with strong support for the security forces to decision them accordingly.

NIgeria sowed the wind and is reaping the whirlwind. It is a country that has no plans for the people who will control its future. Every former military ruler alive wants to be elected to rule again.

WHAT happened in Baga, the border town of Borno State, on Friday, April 19th 2013 was very regrettable. A confrontation between the Nigeria-led multinational Joint Task Force (JTF) and the Islamist sect, Boko Haram, led to the near-total destruction of the fish market town, reportedly leaving over 200 people, mainly vulnerable civilians, dead and about 2,000 houses burnt. It was a typical military expedition.

EVERYONE knows what I think of dialogue with, and amnesty for, the Islamist terrorist group, Boko Haram. Let me summarise it once again.

THE surprise is that they are still going at it, moving forward. It is a pleasant surprise. Thursday, April 18th 2013 was a day of history for the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

Nigeria is a country haunted by ghosts. By our President’s insinuated definition, a ghost in this sense is a faceless terrorist outfit targeting our security forces and institutions. It sneaks around selectively murdering Nigerians and kidnapping foreigners over some real or asinine grievances.

THE moment the Sultan called for amnesty for Boko Haram, I knew Nigeria was headed for bigger trouble. It was a major shifting of grounds by His Eminence, Mohammed Abubakar Sa’ad III, the Sultan of Sokoto and the head of the Nigerian Muslim community.

Mr Shem Obafaiye’s my oga at the top outing on Channels Television is of interest to people for various reasons. Some view it as a welcome comic relief. Others see it as a grievous blunder for which Obafaiye should be sacked for crass incompetence.

IF you are a follower of the ever busy and vibrant Nigerian social media scene, you would not have missed this My oga at the top saga. It is as hilarious as it is a pathetic commentary on the general sorry situation of our homegrown human resources these days.

GOVERNOR Henry Seriake Dickson of BayelsaState is worried about the activities of rumour mongers in his state.

BAYELSA is a place of great puzzle and intrigue for me. I find this state and its people rather exotic. Any time I have an opportunity to be in Bayelsa State I never pass it up.

AN old adage says when the mother goat chews the cud her kids always watch. They know that one day soon they will no longer be fed on mother’s milk.

GODSWILL Obot Akpabio is something else. When you are around him there are no dull moments.

PREROGATIVE of mercy and state pardons are not new in politics and public administration. Since Nigeria gained independence in 1960, state pardon has been a powerful instrument used by the successive regimes and ruling cliques to manage relationships with their former friends who have become foes or their former foes who have either become friends or are no longer threats.

MANY commentators are not pleased with President Goodluck Jonathan over his Borno/Yobe outing last week.

“I want to use this opportunity to say that we have heard in the news that Mr. President will be visiting Maiduguri in a couple of days. We want to use this opportunity to call on the government, especially Mr. President, to see how he can declare total amnesty to all combatants without thinking twice.

It has become an annual routine for the Lagos State Government, LASG, to close the Ladipo Auto Spare-parts Market, Mushin, citing poor sanitation.

BEING from AbiaState, I come from the Niger Delta. At least, that is what the legislation that established the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) says, though those from the “True Niger Delta” (Rivers, Delta, Bayelsa and, to a lesser extent, Akwa Ibom) would laugh at those of us from Abia, Imo, Edo and OndoStates with the question: “How many oil wells do you have?”

SO much hot air is being wasted on the speculated “agreement” allegedly signed by President Goodluck Jonathan promising the North he would do a single term. The Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Dr Babangida Aliyu, recently resumed commotion over the issue, without showing evidence of the pact.

WHAT do you make of former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s post-power shenanigans? Do you still believe he is roaming from one end of the polity to the other because he is a “nationalist” and “loves Nigeria” more than others? Are you puzzled and asking the question: What does Obasanjo still want after ruling Nigeria twice and emerging as the longest serving president (eleven years seven months), having surpassed General Yakubu Gowon (nine years)?

FIRST, they lied to us. Then, they owned up. We waited for their apologies but got none

SOMETIMES it is difficult not to be ashamed to be a Nigerian. The stories that come out of our country these days portray how hard it is to imagine the workings of evil minds. Penultimate weekend, this year’s vaccination against the polio virus was launched across the nation. It went well in most parts of the country except in two states of Northern Nigeria – Kano and Yobe.

Let me start by offering my heartiest congratulations to all Nigerians. On Sunday, February 10, 2013, home-based soccer journeyman, Sunday Mba, on the sandy turf of Soccer City, Johannesburg in South Africa, fired a single shot after shaking aside a handful of struggling Burkinabe players.

THOSE of us who doubted the seriousness of the merger bid by some opposition political parties may now have a rethink: they have announced a merger. In fact, they have pronounced a name for their new unified platform: All Progressives Congress (APC).

The Borno State Government, BOSG, recently added a new dimension to the controversy of the so-called Good Governance Media Tour led by Information Minister, Mr Labaran Maku, when it told the team to stay away from the state.

NIGERIA is a country of one week, one outrage. That of last week had to do with John Yakubu Yusuf, the Assistant Director in the Police Pension Office, Abuja, who was fined N750,000 and allowed to go home after confessing his role in the stealing of 32.8 billion naira belonging to his office, along with six other accused persons who are still standing trial.