TUESDAY, February 1, our panel gathered to discuss the elections that are due in April. The focus was on the challenges that awaited the elections. They were easy to mention, but the task was to untangle them and project how the 2011 elections can be better handled than previous ones. We faced our own challenges too which resulted in the size and composure of the panel.

TUESDAY, February 1, our panel gathered to discuss the elections that are due in April. The focus was on the challenges that awaited the elections. They were easy to mention, but the task was to untangle them and project how the 2011 elections can be better handled than previous ones. We faced our own challenges too which resulted in the size and composure of the panel.

TUESDAY, February 1, our panel gathered to discuss the elections that are due in April. The focus was on the challenges that awaited the elections. They were easy to mention, but the task was to untangle them and project how the 2011 elections can be better handled than previous ones. We faced our own challenges too which resulted in the size and composure of the panel. The National Independent Electoral Commission, INEC, had set the previous day as the last day for the submission of names of candidates for the elections. The bedlam in Abuja kept some of our panellists there. Back in Lagos , the burial rites of Pa Anthony Enahoro was going on at the same our panellists were meeting. Again, some of our panellists were involved in the event. From the challenges that the voters’ registration exercise introduce to security, internal democracy in the parties, the capabilities of INEC, to the role of voters, our panellists took a holistic views of the issues that must be confronted now if the 2011 elections are to fulfill the promises they hold.
Preparations for the elections are unique with the unprecedented financial and legislative support INEC has enjoyed. Yet anxieties, fears, doubts, and hints of hope ran through the discussions, but the conclusions are that there is time to tackle them and it is in everyone’s interest to do so…

FOR all the wrong reasons the South East is in the news again. The kidnap of four journalists seems to be the worse crime that taken place in years. Our panellists agree that kidnap – and other crimes – is simple manifestations of the festering wounds of a nation that localises situations, instead of seeing their implications for the country. Are crimes in the South East? Yes. Are there crimes in other parts of Nigeria? Yes! Nigerians may have to be grateful to the kidnappers for calling attention to a national problem that is located in the South East…

FOR all the wrong reasons the South East is in the news again. The kidnap of four journalists seems to be the worse crime that taken place in years. Our panellists agree that kidnap – and other crimes – is simple manifestations of the festering wounds of a nation that localises situations, instead of seeing their implications for the country. Are crimes in the South East? Yes. Are there crimes in other parts of Nigeria? Yes! Nigerians may have to be grateful to the kidnappers for calling attention to a national problem that is located in the South East…

WHAT could lead otherwise honourable members of the House of representatives to unabashedly exchange blows on the floor of the House? Our panellists examine this and arrive at damning conclusions about the quality of service that they have provided over the years. The conclusion is that fro things to improve, there is need to do without “vuvuzela politicians” from 2011…

I have seen poverty and I have seen wealth and I am in it. The only thing I have not seen is death. I only pray to my God to allow me stay for some time before I die.

NIGERIA is jocularly referred to as a country of 150 million people,     with everyone deeming himself qualified to coach the national football team, the Eagles, who have fallen on hard times, in the same manner that other layers of the game that many Nigerians follow with passion are suffering.

The suffuse of ideas, the [...]

NIGERIA is jocularly referred to as a country of 150 million people, with everyone deeming himself qualified to coach the national football team, the Eagles, who have fallen on hard times, in the same manner that other layers of the game that many Nigerians follow with passion are suffering.

The suffuse of ideas, [...]

NIGERIA is jocularly referred to as a     country of 150 million people, with everyone deeming himself qualified to coach the national football team, the Eagles, who have fallen on hard times, in the same manner that other layers of the game that many Nigerians follow with passion are suffering.

The suffuse of [...]