Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi enjoyed a commanding debut as Argentina skipper as his country opened their 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign with a 4-1 win over Chile on Friday.

Nigerians would continue to witness low key independence anniversary till 2014 when there would be an extravagant carnival, President Goodluck Jonathan has said.

Armed bandits yesterday, stormed the Allen-Ikeja, Lagos branch of a second generation bank, , leaving in their trail, several persons with gun shot wounds.

THE wife of slain Lagos business man, Mr. Kazeem Ademoye who was allegedly killed in his house at Magodo Phase 2 has finally opened up from her cell at the State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID, Panti, Yaba, Lagos where she is being detained.

Contrary to his scathing criticisms, former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Mallam Nasir El-Rufai gave President Goodluck Jonathan a clean bill of health on financial accountability and transparency on the international front,a fresh report by Wikileaks has revealed.

A strong indication has emerged that the embattled ex-governor of Ogun state, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, who is in the custody of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for alleged financial misappropriation, has so many troubles to contend with as Ogun state House of Assembly has vowed to ensure he is brought to book, over alleged illegalities he perpetrated in land matters.

Just as I was about putting pen on paper to put down my thoughts for this weekend, I saw screaming headlines about the plan by Federal Government to remove the much-talked about fuel subsidy which has dragged on for so long. Reactions to the subsidy removal proposal have been expectedly interesting; each one threatening hails and brim tones, the usual Nigerian way.

Recently governmentrevealed its intention regarding the removal of fuel subsidy, a programme that has occupied national discourse in the last 19 years.

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday, approached the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, which is sitting as the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, to adduce reasons why President Goodluck Jonathan should remain in office till 2015.

If one takes away the recurring crisis which hasgiven Plateau State a negative identity in the last few years, another recurring problem here is frequent strikes always embarked upon by various labour groups. From administration to administration, it has been a tale of strikes by workers mostly over salaries.

Pastor Tunde Bakare, for whom I still cherish a lot of fondness despite his recent foolhardy foray into party politics, found some comfort last year when Nigeria was fifty, in the fact that the nation had remained together in the face of all odds. I have often wondered how much profit was in the mere fact that we could indeed be said to have stayed together as one country.

They are strong indications that many former governors are on the run following intelligence reports that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, will pick more of them in the coming days.

Peeved by the spate of disunity which haseaten deep into efforts of moving the Yoruba race forward, leaders of the race converged in Ikenne, Thursday, to chart a way out. The leaders were however not happy that the governors of the six Yoruba states of the Southwest were neither in attendance nor represented at the first-of-its kind Pan-Yoruba Conference meant to discuss issues affecting the entire Yoruba people. Only Ondo State governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, was duely represented by his deputy, Alhaji Alli Olaganju Olanusi, who said the governor was unavoidably absent at the conference because he went for an assignment in Abuja.

Although he is one of the biggest and most influential musicians in Africa, King Sunny has one regret, his l ack of University education.

Anywhere in the world, building roads, con structing culverts and bridges are perfunctory chores, but in Nigeria, the projects are a hard road to travel. In Kaduna, a dry, plain and savannah land, spreading laterite and asphalt is proving as difficult as rocket science.