RECENTLY, we had an interesting discussion on drunk driving in our tennis club. A member had finished a whole bottle of Hennessey and on a reckless drive home had a somersault.

YOU HAVE probably heard that former Rivers State Governor, Dr. Peter Odili has written an autobiography. I’ve not only heard; in fact, I have read through the 511 interesting pages of Conscience and History – My Story.

IT is that time of the year when I like to remember the darkest days of Nigeria’s history, January 15th 1966 to January 15th 1970. For years it has been a ritual for me, for the simple reason that my life was defined, altered and in fact, retarded by it.

By Ochereome Nnanna

I AM back after a hectic vacation. Officially, I am still on leave but the conversation on this forum must restart. So, welcome to 2013, the year that President Goodluck Jonathan promised us heaven on earth. May we live to see his promises come true.

Let us start the new year by [...]

WHEN I learnt that Imo State’s Governor, Anayo Rochas Okorocha intended to set up what was described as “the Fourth Tier” I was excited. My excitement was based on my long held belief that the current local government system has failed to take either governance or development to the grassroots. For a very long time, I have campaigned for the scrapping of the local government system and the establishment of governments based on kindred-defined communities covered by the various town unions.

THE high and mighty are under siege in Nigeria. Under siege too are those who are not so high and mighty. The mere fact that you own a decent-looking air-conditioned car could put you in danger of being attacked by highway Area Boys in Lagos.

WHEN I lived in the North (NigerState to be precise) I got to know the importance of Jama’atu Nasril Islam, (JNI).

A NOVEL controversy has joined the queue in the public arena: the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) intends to invite the private sector to manage Nigerian prisons.

IF President Goodluck Jonathan will lose his bid for re-election he will have only himself to blame. It will not be because of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s laughable political busybody antics, whereby he pretends to still have the clout to determine whom to give power to or take from.

SHOULD we sack Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for calling for a drastic cut-down of public sector workforce to make more money available for capital development?

OUTSPOKEN Northern opinion leader, Dr Junaid Mohammed, surprised me last week when he called on President Goodluck Jonathan to declare if he would run again in 2015.

ALL may truly not be well between former President, Olusegun Obasanjo and the incumbent, Goodluck Jonathan. No one says the things he said about GEJ at a recent public forum in Warri unless there is a war (cold or hot) between them.

The sad story of Justice Ifeoma Jombo-Ofo brings back to the fore the tragic situation of Nigeria’s negative socio-political development, better known as the “indigene-settler” syndrome.

AN Igbo adage says: “Ndi na-asu n’olu n’olu, mana ochi (na akwa) but otu”. Languages differ but laughter (and crying) sound the same. No two human beings are exactly the same. No two cultures are exactly the same.

I came to the United States to cover the presidential election, but I have ended up, like most Americans, paying more attention to a more powerful natural interloper; what some now call the Great October Intrusion: Hurricane Sandy.

HURRICANE Sandy still held the centre-stage attention by Tuesday morning, pushing the campaigns towards the presidential election to a second place, at least for President Barack Obama.

SENATE President, David Bonaventure Mark, seems to be rapidly shedding his military political establishment’s ideological feathers. A former influential “IBB Boy” between 1985 and 1993, Mark, in latter years, seems to be repenting of some of the odious legacies of the internal colonialist policies the establishment forced down the throat of the nation in the 1999 Constitution before they vacated power.

SINCE we were involved in the failed campaign to retrieve Bakassi Peninsula from Cameroon, we might as well give it an appropriate post-mortem analysis now that it is gone for good.

MOHAMMED Gambo Jimeta, former Inspector General of Police, fired a surprising broadside at the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, last week.

It has become the norm now for people to grumble after listening to President Goodluck Jonathan. Whether he is talking to Nigerians through his few and far between Presidential Media Chats or reading a prepared text in nationwide broadcasts on important days, many who flock to their radio and television sets often come out feeling they’ve wasted their precious time listening to the President precisely because he gives them few things to go home with.

THE recent announcement by President Goodluck Jonathan that Lagos, the former capital of the country, will be given a special status is a welcome development, though belated. Better late than never, they say and I always concur.

Fresh facts that will guarantee the restoration of Bakassi Peninsula to Nigeria have been abundantly established.

Fresh facts that will guarantee the restoration of Bakassi Peninsula to Nigeria have been abundantly established. Vanguard Newspapers has shouted itself hoarse over the past two weeks with these facts backed up with informed opinions from a variety of well-meaning Nigerians, calling upon the Federal Government of Nigeria to take action and reopen this case at the International Court of Justice, ICJ, before the 10-year window closes forever on October 10, 2012.

Urban renewal is an activity that signposts a city is ready to leave behind the past and move into a newer phase of development.

Urban renewal is an activity that signposts a city is ready to leave behind the past and move into a newer phase of development. Former Singaporean leader, Lee Kwan Yew, in his famous book: From The Third World to the First, detailed the iron determination with which he fought long encrusted traditional values to build an exemplary city-state out of formerly stigmatised shanty water front settlements.

My interest today on the new N5,000 currency note about to be issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has nothing to do with the controversies of whether it should be issued or not. From all indications it is already a done deal.

I READ a very interesting interview that Leadership Newspaper’s Midat Joseph had with retired Air Vice Marshall Muhammadu Yahaya published in the paper’s online edition on September 2, 2012, and I decided to discuss it with you today.

When Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State held a media parley with journalists in Lagos recently, one of the questions I asked him was the true status of Anambra oil and gas resources long rumoured to exist.