Three matters deserve our urgent attention this week. I will address them in an omnibus way, and hopefully amplify the cautionary tale and circumstance for readers of the orbit who may have read of the appointments made by Imo State governor Rochas Okorocha of his coterie of advisers and special assistants.

Goodnews Eche (aka John Africa), a former journalist, was a confidant of the former governor of the defunct Bendel State, the late Prof.Ambrose Alli. He was features editor and later political editor of the state owned Nigerian Observer. John Africa was one of those who initiated the formation of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) being one of the key figures in the defunct Oil Mineral Producing Areas Development Commission, OMPADEC, where he met the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan. As a journalist in Observer, he achieved popularity due to his ability to forecast pool results then. Today, that power is still with him. In this chat, he recalls his coverage of the late Alli administration and describes the incarceration of the former governor by the Gen. Muhammadu Buhari military junta as wicked, adding that the action led to his untimely death. He discloses how he was pressured by the military to implicate the late governo

Terrorism is defined as “the use of violence or threatened use of violence against vulnerable and defenceless people in non-combat situation, to strike fear in the large populace and make political statement”. Although there is no universally accepted definition of the term, the United Nations (UN) came close to adopting a common position in 2005, but a last minute objection by the United States (US) forced a stalemate. This lack of universal acceptance of the use of the term “terrorism” and what constitutes “acts of terrorism” remains a problem in the eye of international law and jurisprudence.

On July 22, 2011, the world watched in horror as a heinous crime was committed by one person to many others in Norway. While the horror was unfolding with the immediacy of the media, there were many voices who lent their views to a culprit or culprits who could be the Asian youths in Norway or the usual suspect being the Al Qaeda. After all, it was a bomb in the centre of town and there were fatalities. This person or persons then travelled to carry out more massacres on Utøya Island. Utøya Island is situated in a lake about 26 miles north-west of Oslo where the Labour Party was hosting its youth camp

THERE is anger among the Ndokwa, Isoko, Ijaw, Urhobo and Itsekiri peoples in Delta State against Shell Petroleum Development Company, SDPC, over recent sales of onshore blocs – Oil Mining Leases, (OML) 30, 34, 40, 42 with reserves of two billion barrels, by the Anglo-Dutch oil conglomerate.

The new minimum wage issue has not only become contentious but has already provided a pointer that something grave could happen because of it from tomorrow, August 1.

A lot has been written about the schemes to undermine the efforts of the current Heartland Management. These acts of sabotage are at the head of the team’s poor showing earlier this season.

Bob Nosa Uwagboe penultimate week, at the African Artists Foundation(AAF), Ikoyi, threw the curtains open for an engaging solo exhibition titled ,Homme Libre. The artist, whose creative experiment in the past 7 years has resulted in thought provoking themes , also gave his audience an insight into moments of sparks of anger, pain, passion and vision that define the tenor of his art.

Youths they say are leaders of tomorrow and if the saying is real, there is every need for the youths to be adequately prepared so that they will be able to fit into that role.

Next, Dawkins considered Stephen Unwin’s Bayesian probabilistic argument for the existence of God. In his book with the pompous title The Probability of God: A Simple Calculation that Proves the Ultimate Truth, Unwin listed six items which reflect his own personal judgments: he arbitrarily assigns numbers to them and, with a facetious emergency injection of faith, arrives at the ridiculous conclusion that the probability of God’s existence is 95%.