The declaration of a state of emergency by the President in the three states of Yobe, Borno and Adamawa is a welcome development. Although, in actual fact, it is overdue, but it is never too late. Considering the number of people who have died in the hands of the Boko Haram insurgents, nothing is too much to bring peace to these affected states, and for that matter, the whole country.

Grace is the kindness that only God bestows. It is a divine blessing or an unmerited favour from the Almighty. It is the extraordinary phenomenon that enshrouds a person, making it possible to surmount various life challenges. Further research indicates that almost all the virtues of life issue from grace

It was reported recently that there has been tension in Anambra State over the attendance of a prominent Anambra personality, Dr. Ifeanyi Uba’s sister’s wedding at the Catholic Church of the Assumption, Falomo, Ikoyi, Lagos, on Saturday, April 20.Traditional rulers, Federal and State legislators and Presidents-General of various communities in Anambra State which the State governor is not happy about.

As a reader of Nigerian dailies,I came across the name,Sufuyan Ojeifo, though I fell in love with him, because of his critical views on national issues and societal ills. Also, one Chief Dan Orbih’s voice has been against his state Governor, Adams Oshiomhole.

There have been requests for the creation Okura out of Kogi; Aba from Abia; Njaba and Orashi out of Imo; Adada from Enugu State; Toru-Ebe from Delta, Edo and Ondo states; Hadejia out of Jigawa and Katagum from Bauchi State.

IN the past, broadcasting was an exclusive central government preserves which means private individuals do not have the right under law to invest in the sector.

I WAS distressed by the reports in some newspapers on May 1, this year, that a group of youth in Benue State attacked, in protest, the Director General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, Dr Paul Botwev Orhii and some officials of the agency at the destruction site for counterfeit medicines along the University of Agriculture, Makurdi, UAM, Gbajima Road, on the outskirts of Makurdi, the state capital.

INASMUCH as I’ve told President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to be a true statesman of honour and integrity and avoid the (devilish, dangerous and unpatriotic) lure of going for another term as Nigeria’s President and emulate General Abdulsalami Abubakar who had all the powers and resources available to stay in power for long but honourably and responsibly chose to avoid such lure and its negative consequences and stayed in power as Head of State of the same country Nigeria for only 12 months (June 1998-May 1999),

The lingering violent clashes involving the people of Ibaji in Kogi State and Aguleri-Otu in Anambra State over the ownership of a disputed oil well, which has left several people dead and properties destroyed assumed another dimension penultimate week.

THIS is a season of local government elections, boycott of them, election petitions and court cases.

THE Nigerian Punch at page 12, Thursday May 9, carried a report that the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, NSCIA, has asked Nigerians not to blame the violence in the North on Muslims.

TAKING into consideration the ephemeralness of power as a phenomenom, the vintage Shakespearian Question then arises: “To be or not to be- that is the question.” Whether to remove the tiresome toga of “Senator” and leave the name simply as “President David Mark.” Wow!

A HEALTH system is defined in the National Health Policy as comprising all organizations, structures, institutions and resources needed to provide all Nigerians with qualitative, effective, efficient, available, accessible and affordable health services in a manner that is equitable and meets their needs

MY reaction to the recent write-up in one of the Social Media “9ja Community” written by one Femi Falana, not my respected learned friend, hardworking, courageous and humanitarian SAN, was to ignore the write-up by reasons of the many inexactitudes in its constitutional citation and wrong inferences therefrom.

ON September 20, 1940, the 32nd President of the United States of America, Franklin D. Roosevelt in an address at University of Pennsylvania said: “We cannot always build the future for our youths, but we can build our youths for the future”.

“GOING by the title of a press release posted on April 21, 2013 by the Newsdiaryonline, I do agree with the National Publicity Secretary of the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, Rotimi Fashakin, that there is an obvious politicisation of the present security challenges facing the nation at large.

I JUST read Mr. Remi Adekoya’s piece in the Guardian of the U.K. entitled ‘Goodluck Jonathan’s report card for Nigeria? Must try harder’ in which he praised President Jonathan for a booming economy but came down hard on him for failing to help Nigeria’s poor.

After being in limbo for nearly two years, Senator Christopher Iyiola Omisore was recently resurrected. In an interview he granted, the politician mounted his serial denial that he knew nothing about the assassination of Uncle Bola Ige. Chief Bola Ige a Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice under President Olusegun Obasanjo was gruesomely murdered at his Ibadan residence on December 23, 2001. We shall come back to that later.

AS things stand, one is free to quote the great Shakespeare: “Doubtful it stood like two spent swimmers…”. That is what the nation state has come to.

SUCCESS according to Ralph Walter Emerson means “to laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people, and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better than you met it, and to know that even one person’s life has breathed easier because you have lived”.

EVERYONE, including the least perceptive being, knows the complexion of tragedy: it is cleanly and colourlessly tragic. It does not change like the chameleon.

THOMAS HARDY, the English novelist, titled his fourth novel Far From the Madding Crowd. It is this same expression that runs through my mind as I pen this piece. Aviation is a global business, with a set of collective standards geared towards the safety of lives and as such it is a sector that should always like, Thomas Hardy’s novel, be far from the madding crowd.

OUR convoluted and highly charged political environment gathered more steam recently in the aftermath of the presidential pardon granted eight Nigerians. The Council of States had granted pardon to the former Chief of General Staff,General Oladipo Diya and former Governor Of Bayelsa State,Diepreye Alamieyeseigha.Others include former Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquaters, the late Major General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua,Major Bello Magaji,Mohammed Lima Biu,Shettima Bulama, the late Major General Abdul Kareem Adisa and Major GeneralSegun Fadipe.

WHEN recently, the publisher and chairman of the Leadership newspapers, Mr. Sam Nda-Isaiah, announced that he was stepping down as Editor-in-Chief of the organisation, I did not need anybody to explain to me the reason he did that.

ON behalf of the working people of Africa, the Organisation of African Trade Union Unity, OATUU, welcomes you to Addis Ababa the historic city it was born exactly 40 years today! Mother Africa gave birth to OATUU in this remarkable country which rejected colonialism and fought off the invading colonialists.

MEMBERS of a terrorist gang that has targeted and bombed civilian centers; murdering and maiming the innocent in droves deserve severe punishment. Therefore, the prospect of an amnesty for Boko Haram rankles and boggles the mind.