A DAY after he was chosen as a consensus presidential aspirant by the Northern Political Leaders Forum, NPLF, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, yesterday, drew the battle line with President Goodluck Jonathan on what he described as the President’s failures in managing the economy and upholding the zoning principle of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

Governor Timipre Sylva of Bayelsa State, yesterday, blamed the near absence of investors in the state on security threats, even as he dismissed rumour that he would reshuffle his cabinet.

The Transition Monitoring Group, TMG, made up of 390 Non-Governmental Organisations, NGOs, and Civil Society groups, yesterday, lampooned the controversial bill before the National Assembly which seeks to include members of the National Assembly as automatic members of the National Executive Committees, NECs, of all political parties.

NIGERIANS are not a complex people, but we have a few who would want to ride the rest of us like donkeys. Whenever we seem to be making a headway, these manipulators throw spanner into the works. They usually do this from dark alleys so that their identity will be concealed.

Adamawa State witnessed wild jubilations yesterday as the Northern Political Elders Forum, NPLF, announced the endorsement of former Vice-President, Atiku Abubakar, as its consensus candidate on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for the 2011 presidential election.

HISTORY was made at the sitting of the Delta State House of Assembly, yesterday, as the man who almost stopped Prince Sam Obi, from climbing to the pinnacle as an Acting Governor, Mr. Dumbiri Uweh, was cleared for appointment as a Commissioner in the state.

THE Federal Government thinks that any solution would clear the backlog of millions of candidates, who cannot get places in universities. Only 23 per cent of 1.3 million candidates, who apply for places are admitted annually. The waiting list stretches with the years.

JUST as one was coming to terms with the sad news of the death of Fidel Aloysius-Mary Odum, an ebullient writer, engaging intellectual and friend of some 30 years, the news came that Oliver Mobisson, a foremost African communications research engineer from the 1970s to the 1990s, was long gone in far-away United States. None made it to the proverbial three score and ten years.

AHEAD of the forthcoming gubernatorial re-run in Delta State, the people of Isoko ethnic nationality in the state, have resolved to re-affirm their mandate for Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan to return to Government House, Asaba by voting en-masse for him.

A Commissioner nominee in Delta State, yesterday, threw the state House of Assembly members, into laughter, when he said, in response to a question put to him, that ‘empowerment’ means putting money into the pockets of the people.