There is the Igbo story of the wood pecker who proclaimed without doubt that he would honour his father in death by pecking down the great Iroko tree. But the day came when his father died, and the woodpecker suddenly grew a boil on its beak. I feel like the woodpecker. Chinua Achebe’s death last week left me tongue tied.

Alhaji Bamanga Tukur is the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. He was General Manager, Nigeria Ports Authority. In 1983, he was elected governor of old Gongola State, now Adamawa and Taraba States; in 1992, he was a presidential aspirant of the National Republican Convention, NRC; and also a former Minister of Industries and President, Africa Business Roundtable. In this interview, Tukur bares his mind on the insecurity in the country, his reconciliation agenda for the PDP, and relationship with the PDP governors. Excerpts:

A 1963 Scotland-trained medical doctor, Prof.(Mrs.)Ibironke Akinsete is one of the few Nigerian women who have engraved their names on the sand of local and international medical practice. Currently the Chairman of PathCare Medical Laboratory, Prof, as she is fondly called, is a Haematologist of great repute. A former Chairperson of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS and Presidential Adviser on HIV/AIDS, she sits on the board of several organisations. Prof Akinsete who will be seventy-five in May stresses the need for preventive healthcare in this interview.

Chinua Achebe, the internationally celebrated Nigerian author, statesman and dissident who gave literary birth to modern Africa with Things Fall Apart, has died. He was 82. I was in my office when I heard of the passing of our elder, Chinua Achebe. The news shook me to the core, then I scrambled to the nearest computer pot. I was stunned there was no mistake, it was true that Chinua Achebe was no more.

Nigeria’s latest boxing pride Davidson Emenogu (aka King Davidson) has promised to lead the fight in ensuring that the boxing regained what he called its lost glory in the country.

Until a few months ago, the topical issue in my State – Edo – usually centred on the beautification of major towns in the State. The story-line appears to have changed as a new topic has since taken over. These days, the matter of the moment is the directive of the State Government to teachers to produce their primary school certificates.

Flying Eagles coach, John Obuh has said the team that has just secured a ticket for the FIFA Junior World Cup, Istanbul 2013 could still witness changes before the tournament.

CHRISTIAN leaders across Nigeria have urged Christians and non-Christians in the country to reflect on social injustice this Easter, especially persons killed or displaced by sectarian violence in parts of the country, those living in poverty on our streets or struggling with one disability or the other.

Therefore, in my opinion, the most important challenge for Jonathan is not ethnic inequality per se in the distribution of key positions, but to justify his choices on the criteria of excellence and performance in spite of ethnicity.

“A sucker [fool] is born every minute”. P.T. Barnum. If it takes God’s Own Country a whole minute to produce a dunce, then Nigerian mothers must be dropping them every second. At Unijankara, we are getting fed-up delivering lectures to Fellow Compatriots who refuse to learn street wisdom – which is our 100 level Course. Like the suckers they are, they fell for two stories, on the same subject, both for the marines.

Once upon a time, not so long ago, family was everything to us. Parents, siblings, family members, all came first in our lives. You couldn’t do without them. They were the first you turned to in adversity and in sharing of good news. The family had so much influence on the individual that you thought twice before you engaged in any act of misdemeanour, as a list of dos and don’ts had been drummed well into you right from childhood, and you were raised, to know that you must not do anything that would bring dishonour/disgrace to the family. You were loyal to your family and you chose your confidants from among the members.

The Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) has streamlined the complex contract system in the commission which “in the past had spawned several ‘toxic projects’ – projects that were awarded without budgetary provisions.”

Junior athlete Ese Brume watched from the standards of the Warri Township stadium as the events of the African Youth Athletics championships unfolded yesterday. She was one of Nigeria’s brightest hopes for a medal, but sadly she was dropped at the last minute for being over the age limit.

Smart card technology, the world over, is precisely 38 years old. It has been deployed by several governments for specific purposes. Have you ever imagined, however, a multi-purpose smart card powered by the social democratic mantra of democratizing access to all the good things of life, through which citizens can access and enjoy dividends of democracy, a card that makes it impossible for the people to be cheated? Welcome to Kaadi Igbe Ayo (KIA), Ondo State’s latest in digitalised service delivery. KIA is deployed to facilitate strategic planning and development, efficient record keeping, human resource monitoring in the public sector, anti-corruption drive and solutions, while enabling a higher level of qualitative/quantitative service delivery in the health, education, transport and agro-allied sectors.