23rd of September 2008. 9 am. I was in theatre assisting the caesarean section delivery of a patient at the National Hospital in Abuja when I heard the news. I always thought it paradoxical that I was helping to bring forth a life just at about the same time the life of the one who brought me forth was slipping away. The consultant informed me that I had a visitor and instructed me to scrub out. As I walked out of theatre into the hallway, still wearing my surgical mask I saw my Aunt. She didn’t have to say a word; I saw it in her eyes. My father had passed on.

WE need no eschatological clairvoyance to know that political-socio-economic vicissitudinary turgescency are inextricably intertwined with developmental strides in the life and times of any individual, state or nation.

The passage of Pius Akpo Ewherido into the great beyond, has created opportunity for the making of another Senator to represent the Delta State Central Senatorial seat in the Senate Chamber at Abuja.

Somalia’s Shebab Islamists insisted Monday that no woman joined them in an attack on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping mall, dismissing speculation that British ‘White Widow’ Samantha Lewthwaite took part in the massacre.

The German government on Monday admitted it had approved as recently as 2011 the export to Syria of chemicals that could be weaponised, and in larger quantities than previously known.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, on Monday advised security agencies to adopt new tactics in tackling insurgency and acts of terrorism.

A former employee Mr Abubakar Abudulahi, on Monday dragged the bank before the National Industrial Court over termination of appointment.

The Enugu State Police Command has found a four-year-old boy, who was allegedly stolen at his school three months ago.

Some disengaged workers of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) in Lagos and Edo on Monday staged protests over non-payment of their terminal benefits before handing over to the new investors.

The Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, has again asked the Boko Haram insurgents to lay down their arms and embrace peace, saying that although the country was experiencing hard times, the situation was not bad enough for some people to lose the will to live in the mistaken belief that it is better to die but not alone.