AT the beginning of the year, General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, Pastor Enoch Adeboye stunned the Christian world when he announced a 100-days fasting period for members of the church beginning from January 2 to kick-start the new year.

Barely 67 days to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil and seeming frosty relationship between Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi and the Nigeria Football Federatio, NFF, some ex intenationals and coaches have poured out their minds on the issue, calling on the Alhaji Aminu Maigari-led Board to concentrate on things that will give Nigeria good result at the World Cup, rather than dissipate their energy on issues that will not yield any result for the national team at the Mundial.

In the morning of last Monday, troops from One Division, Nigerian Army, Kaduna, landed at Ladduga village, the only settlement of Fulani in southern Kaduna. They cordoned off the place and carried out a house-to–house search. According to the Army, it recovered a haul of weaponry and arrested 18 suspects.

Two-time presidential candidate in Ghana, member of parliament, attorney general, minister of foreign affairs and opposition leader, Mr. Nana Akufo-Addo, was recently in Nigeria. He has won a reputation as a fighter for social justice and was one of the leading pro-democracy figures in the days of military rule in Ghana. In an interview during his visit to Nigeria, he spoke of being flattered when he was described as Ghana’s equivalent of Nigeria’s late social and human rights activist, Chief Gani Fawehinmi.

DETERMINED to fulfill a self-imposed four-point agenda of growing Methodist Church Nigeria spiritually, numerica-lly, financially and infrastruct-urally, new prelate of the church, His Eminence Samuel Emeka Uche Wednesday ann-ounced plans to hold a city wide crusade in Lagos.

Fast-rising Nollywood actress, Chika Agatha, isn’t one of those out-of-luck Nollywood wannabes, that would be fast to tell you they are either resting or having a time off. The beautiful, business management graduate of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, has her hands full, with too many yet-to-be released jobs even though she has scores of others in her kitty.

At the British African Diaspora Conference, the theme of which was, “NIGERIAN ENVIRONMENT, BEYOND POLITICS AND AMALGAMATION, organized by the AFRICAN PARTNERSHIP DEVELOPMENT, Delta State governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, grabbed his audience and took them through the developmental strides of his administration.

Looking into what is called state of emergency, I could have advised the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, the Senate and the House of Representatives to put heads together with the service chiefs to redesign the concept in the troubled states. It is not supposed to be a haphazard state of the emergency. I call for a full military declaration in the states.

Skepticism continues to trail the on-going conference called by the President in Abuja to determine Nigeria’s future path. There questions of the legitimacy of the conference. Such a question has been raised because there is no obvious constitutional backing for the conference.

Few weeks after the interception of over 30,000 rounds of live ammunition, the Oyo/Osun Command of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has recorded massive rice seizures estimated at about 26 metric tones. When Sunday Vanguard visited the Command, its warehouse was filled to the brim with seizures of rice packed in various compartments, even as some seizures were displayed inside trucks.

World Watch Monitor reports Fulani herdsmen have destroy-ed more than 20 church-es during attacks on communities in Benue State. The death toll has now surpassed 150 following last weeks’ vicious attacks on Christian villages in Nigeria. During 2014 violent assaults on Christians in Nigeria’s northern and central states has dramatically increased.

It hasn’t been easy for beautiful Yoruba actress, Dayo Amusa, popularly known as Dewunmi Iberu since she took part in a special role during the wedding of King Wasiu Ayinde Mashal’s daughters, couple of weeks ago. The producer of ‘Unforgivable’ has been having a hard time to explain if she is or not having a secret affair with the Fuji maestro.

MIXED reactions, yesterday, trailed the bye election in the 395 units in Ilaje/Ese Odo Federal Constituency area of Ondo State.

ERSTWHILE Federal Commissioner for Information and South-south leader, Chief Edwin Clark, has described the death of former President- General of Ohaneze Ndigbo, Ambassador Ralph Uwechue, as painful and came at a time the nation was in dire need of his services with his wealth of experience and wise counsel.

Last week, I received a text message from an anonymous critic (Mr. X for convenience) who responded to my riposte on the national conference going on in Abuja. In the text, Mr. X called me a hypocrite for criticising the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) anytime it embarks on indefinite strike to press home its demands from the federal government while at the same time complaining that lecturers are not well paid.