LAST week’s notice by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, that it would embark on a three-day nationwide warning strike from April 16, to protest perceived unfair labour practices, anti-union activities and general insecurity of members at work places and at home is a warning too many for an industry and a nation that have been riddled by industrial actions in the last 12 years.

That General Olusegun Obasanjo has played critical roles in Nigeria’s political evolvement for the better part of the country’s post-colonial history is certainly not in doubt. Though historians claim his non involvement in the crises that led up to the civil war, his leading role in the military resolution of the crisis is a vintage script in Nigeria’s civil war literature.

THE Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, Mrs. Ifueko Omoigui-Okaru, has formerly stepped down as the Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of the organisation, at the expiration of her second four-year-term.

THE row between Nigeria and Britain over disparity in airfares for flights from Nigeria and other West African countries to London is capable of boiling over into a deep diplomatic face-off unless the authorities do the needful.

A strange twist was infused into the current rage of kidnap crimes sweeping the country when on Friday, March 30th the Deputy Director, Public Relations of our hardworking State Security Services (SSS), Mrs Marilyn Ogar, in Abuja paraded seven young men dressed in a colourful Ankara prints uniforms popularly known as aso ebi. It is worn by people going out for parties or celebration.

Mali is a country cornered by two devils. In one corner are the Tuareg rebels who were armed by the late Libyan dictator, Muammar Gaddafi because Mali’s large territory, sparse population and economic poverty made it a fertile spot for the germination of Tuareg insurrection.

ON Friday, the Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank drew the curtain on nominations for the position of World Bank President, as Robert Zoellick plans to step down in June. Three candidates: Jim Yong Kim, Jose Antinio Ocampo and Dr. (Mrs) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala have been short-listed

SENEGAL has, once again, asserted itself as one of the bastions of democracy in Africa with the defeat of Mr Abdoulaye Wade in the runoff poll, which saw his former protege, Macky Sall, emerging President. It was a woeful end for Wade’s megalomaniacal schemes to impose himself on his country for a third term in contravention of a law he himself championed in 2001.

Since the inception of this republic in 1999, the National Assembly has been enmeshed in various allegations of corruption both moral and financial.

FROM far away United States of America comes once again a cheering news: Nigerians are the most highly educated immigrants in most parts of the world’s number one superpower. Our countrymen and women have pulled ahead of Asians and even whites.

ON assumption of office some weeks ago, the Acting Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar took a number of steps in trying to readdress some of the very critical issues that confront the Nigeria Police. First, he ordered the dismantling of all police checkpoints nationwide.

THE National Assembly should be more reticent when making laws. Its tendency has been to make laws for their sake or to please the Executive. In the process it ignores the Constitution. The Central Bank Act 2007, which may soon be a subject of legal dispute, is a good example.

THE public hearing of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Capital Markets, important as it is, has unfortunately been ruined by allegations against the committee.

THE National Assembly chooses its moments to titillate the public with details of misuses of public funds. The latest ridiculous revelations of alleged theft and mismanagement of pension funds are only bits of the mess the country is in without deep concerns from the authorities.