ON Sunday July 11 we were reminded once more of how precarious life has become in Nigeria when four journalists, including Wahab Oba, the Lagos chair of the Nigerian Union of Journalists and their driver, fell into the hands of kidnappers in Abia State.

OUR new understanding of the scope of African involvement in the slave trade is not historical guesswork. Thanks to the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, directed by the historian David Eltis of Emory University, we know the ports from which more than 450,000 of our African ancestors were shipped out to what is now the United States (the database has records of 12.5 million people shipped to all parts of the New World from 1514 to 1866). About 16 percent of United States slaves came from Eastern Nigeria, while 24 percent came from the Congo and Angola.

WITH effect from this month, federal civil servants are to earn an enhanced pay based on the harmonization of salaries following negotiation of the Federal Government and the trade union side of the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council.

Ahead of 2011 presidential race which he has vowed to contest despite zoning controversy, former military president, Gen Ibrahim Babangida has taken over the political machinery of late political godfather, Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu to actualise his ambition.

Plateau State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, has expressed delight over the release of the kidnapped members of the union describing it as a welcome relief

A group of northern youths has threatened to begin a campaign of disobedience against northern leaders and the governors of the region if they conceded the 2011 presidency to President Goodluck Jonathan

A peaceful rally billed for Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, weekend, to urge President Goodluck Jonathan not to contest the 2011 presidential election in respect of the zoning arrangement of the Peoples’ Democratic Party was aborted by the security agencies

The Nigeria Police have commenced the transfer of some of its officers in the South-East in an effort to combat the increasing spate of violent crimes in the zone

Honourable Solomon Ahwinahwi Grassroot Support Movement, HSAGSM, and the Ewu Riverine People of Ughelli South Local Government Area, Delta State, have described the suspension of Ahwinahwi and 10 others by the House of Representatives as morally wrong.

THE Federal Government, yesterday, unveiled a one-year strategic plan aimed at reinvigorating and repositioning the nation’s education sector for effective services delivery.