THE house is like any other along the street, without any special adornment. We are in the largely middle-class suburb of Surulere in Lagos. But to my pleasant surprise, the street, which I have not visited for several years, has now been turned into a double carriageway.

I WAS amused at the almost physical pain exhibited by Is’haq Modibo Kawu in his column in the Vanguard Newspaper on Thursday, May 2, 2013, whilst reacting to a recent speech in the U.S.A. by Mr. Kingsley Kuku, the President’s Adviser on the Niger Delta.

He has become angry, very angry, lately. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, President and Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria, has not been sleeping pretty because of that. Also, he has become constantly agitated. Looking mostly forlorn, Jonathan is aging fast. Therefore, at a meeting with the top apparatchik of the security services, it was an enraged Jonathan who asked his security chiefs to explain how the country descended to the abyss that it has found itself.

PROLOGUE
What is evil? Where is evil? Who is evil? When does evil strike? How does evil strike? We may ask these questions, not necessarily as rhetoric. But more as a function of a sense of hopelessness and helplessness! And not because we do not have an idea of what it is; but much more because the mere thought of it evokes a feeling that would make you shriek in fear.

From East to South, North to West, Nigerians in their numbers have continued to commend President Jonathan for taking the audacious move. A good number of Nigerians spoke exclusive to Saturday Vanguard on the issue.

The declaration of Emergency Rule in three northern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa by President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday to contain the rising tide of insurgency and terrorism in the country is perhaps one bold move the President has made since he assumed office in May, 2011.

BY OPEOLUWANI OGUNJIMI

Nigeria today has been described as a war zone, no thanks to the  many killings in the country.

In fact, the killings have gone from bad to worse, thrown the entire country into a state of anarchy, making the only viable solution  the declaration of State of Emergency, a move vehemently kicked [...]

THE three international oil companies were: Mobil Oil for Port Harcourt, ELF (now Total) for Kaduna, and Fineste for Warri. All that was left was to execute the Agreements and kick off the process by September 1993. However, I refused to serve on the Interim Government.

IT is very interesting that the Nigerian Association For Energy Economics is holding this International Conference at this time when the Federal Government and the National Assembly are still far from concluding the discussions and negotiations on the Petroleum Industries Bill which was submitted to the National Assembly in 2008.

SUCH high level meetings have attracted considerable investment portfolios to the country. Dr. Adebajo, in his article, failed to highlight the gains of our economic diplomacy which the Jonathan Administration has given renewed vigour in the last two years.

THE Minister of Works, Arc. Mike Onolememen, has declared that the country is in the process of developing a National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan (2014-2043).

I READ the article titled ‘Decline of Nigeria’s Foreign Policy’, published in The Guardian of May 6, 2013 by Dr. Adekeye Adebajo, Executive Director for Conflict Resolution, Cape Town, South Africa.

IT has been one form of alarm or the other raised by either faction in the struggle to take political control of Rivers State.

The former Chief of Staff, Government House, Rivers State, now Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, has been locked in a battle with Governor Chibuike Amaechi, ostensibly encouraged by President Goodluck Jonathan, over who controls the politics of the state.

UNTIL lately, the Minister of Niger-Delta, Elder Godsday Orubebe, was a member of the political family of the South-South leader, Chief Edwin Clark, in their native Delta State. Both are from the Ijaw ethnic nationality in the South Senatorial District. While Clark hails from Kiagbodo, Orubebe is from Ogbobagbene, both in Burutu Local Government Area of the state.

The most inconvenient truth about oil theft is that we cannot stop it. But this is not to say the nation is being skeptical. Our people are finding some measure of solace and hope for effective stoppage of this mindless plunder of our common wealth, with the ongoing efforts by military forces to stem the ominous tide.

As Nigeria is slipping deeper into the valley of insecurity, much of the momentum for economic breakthrough has been lost, in large part because of the increasing rate of oil theft, illegal bunkering and reckless vandalisation of pipelines across the country.

Following reports of incessant vandalisation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NNPC Pipelines which cost the country huge loss of lives and properties, Saturday Vanguard took a journey to a creek in 7thAvenue, FESTAC Town, Lagos where five of the culprits were apprehended by security agents.

…How billions are spent without being accounted for
Last week would not be the first time that the Public Accounts Committee, PAC, of the Senate would unearth massive reckless spending on the part of the executive arm of government. Since 2001, that committee of the Senate had always investigated and reported that huge sums of money were being frittered away.

Obviously shaken and scared, the presidency, with an incumbent who already seemed to have burnt his fingers too early in the governing of Africa’ most populous, diverse nation, midway to the end of first tenure in 2015, he is at daggers drawn with perceived political opponents in the same party.

OUR attention has been drawn to the Vanguard story of Thursday, April 25, 2012 entitled ‘Vision 20: 2020 target, not realisable – Minister’, which we view as a deliberate misrepresentation of the statement made earlier that day by the Minister of National Planning, Dr Shamsuddeen Usman, CON, while briefing the leadership of the Peoples’ Democratic Party on the 2012 achievements of his ministry.

Borno State is Nigeria’s self- acclaimed ‘Home of Peace’. That is the appellation. But you may not be wrong if you now describe it as ‘The Home of Ruins and Pieces’. The truth about the state is that it has become a theatre of a war unleashed by the Islamist group called Boko Haram. Insurgency has been the order of the day in the state, leaving in its trail bombings, shootings and deaths. When the residents are lucky, the death toll is low, but sometimes it can be high. Some analysts blame the problem on the international borders with Chad, Niger and Cameroun which they believe is porous as to allow Islamic extremists from the countries to enter the state at will.

What could have made the British government send a war ship,HMS Argyle, to the Gulf of Guinea and its Ministry of Defence backed the mission by sponsoring a conference on West African Maritime Security and Development?

Sequel to the kidnap of the Ejigbo Local Government boss, Mr. Kehinde Bamigbetan, Nigerians from different walks of life have reacted to the saga.

Hitherto confined to the Niger Delta areas with immense petroleum resources accounting for over 90 per cent of the country’s wealth, later spreading to South-East zone known for having many wealthy business and industrial entrepreneurs, kidnap, the crime of abducting or taking someone away illegally by force and thereafter to demand money in exchange for releasing the victim, is gradually making inroad to the South-West and Lagos.