I took my eldest son for a haircut, on the insistence of his housemaster, near his school last Sunday. As we approached the barber’s shop, I saw youths clustered around the two shops on either side of the barber’s shop. Initially, I thought they were watching a soccer match, but then I remembered the European football seasons were over. As I moved closer, I said to myself, “I hope it is not what I think.” Yes, it was; both shops are betting shops, the young men came to wager.

The words above are not mine. They belong to Jorge Bergoglio, known world-wide as Pope Francis; also referred to within the Vatican as the ‘Pope for the poor’ or derisively by some powerful personalities in the curia as ‘the poor Pope’. This impassioned plea was made at a speech he gave on July 7, 2013 to about six thousand seminarians from 66 countries. In calling for the future religious to live lives that are consistent with their teaching and preaching, he said: ‘It grieves me to see priests and nuns with the latest model of cars… .You must not do this! It is better to cycle, or use a smaller car.’ That was when he used these words that have resonated with me: ‘Think about the children who are dying of hunger’.

Chief John Odigie-Oyegun is today being honoured as the Alumnus of the Year by the University of Ibadan Alumni Association. The honour which is reportedly the highest honour given by the association is undoubtedly reflective of the grit and grandeur with which the 76-year-old politician has bestrode the political space. A gentleman to the core, Odigie-Oyegun shows a refinement that captures the grace and polish that is reflective of the finest of human nobility. But as with every mortal, there is a dark side that the chief would always rue, maybe on account of his relationship with Muhammadu Buhari.

One year ago today, the 8th Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was inaugurated. That inauguration marks a further consolidation of our democracy and opens a new chapter in the practice of government by representation in our country. Let me congratulate all my colleagues not only for the time we have spent in the legislature, but also for all that we have achieved together and all that we have planned to achieve for our peoples and our country as the highest legislative body in the land. Every generation of Senators will face its peculiar challenges. The task we set for ourselves and our understanding of our roles as Senators must therefore, reflect a robust understanding of the challenges that we face as a law making body at this time in our history.

The Banks are kicking. The National Employers Consultative Assembly is furious. Apostles of free market are seething. The federal government has directed the banks and telecoms companies to suspend planned massive staff retrenchments. The political opposition has been stirred. To hell with ‘command and control’ economic polices, and tyranny! Foreign investors are cringing. Many critics are excited, there is a mockery feast going on. Buhari and his men are incorrigible. He is perhaps a closet communist. His iron fists will ruin the economy and break the country.

President Abraham Lincoln was bidding for another term of office in the final days of the American civil war in 1864. He shocked the war-torn nation by dropping his Vice President and fellow Republican, Hannibal Hamlin, and chose Andrew Johnson, a ‘War Democrat’ from Tennessee, as his running mate. American Historians adduce two major reasons for this. The very bloody American civil war divided the country between the Union (the US national government and the 23 free states and five states at the border that supported it) and the Confederate States of America (11 states in the South that opposed the Union). With victory over the Confederacy/South now almost a fait accompli, Lincoln wanted to demonstrate leniency and that all he was after was America’s unity, not conquest and retribution.

WHEN the Delta State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa declared after the five-hour meeting with Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, governors of Niger Delta states, service chiefs and others, Tuesday, in Abuja that panacea to the renewed militancy in the region, was on the way, those who heard the outcome were in high spirits. “We have taken a lot of decisions which will help us mitigate what is going on currently in the states, particularly Bayelsa and Delta. We believe we are going to find a solution to it,” the governor stated.

A community leader at Gbaramatu Kingdom, Warri South-West Local Government Area, Delta State, Apostle (Dr) Clement Tonfawei, popularly known as the Nabodi 1 of the Universe, has said that if given the chance, the locals could rally round government to trail the Niger Delta Avengers, NDA. Apostle Tonfawei, who was among the Niger Delta stakeholders who met with a Federal Government team led by the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachikwu and National Security Adviser, NSA, May 25, in Abuja, said the militants were human beings living in the various communities in the region and the basic thing required to track them was intelligence.

WARRI- ON the record, two persons died and 11 injured in a fresh outbreak of hostilities between Ogbe-Ijoh and Aladja communities in Warri South-West and Udu Local Government Areas of Delta State, but numerous corpses, suspected to be those of cultists hired by one of the parties in the bloody fight, were reportedly littering the wooded area unaccounted for. Farmers, who went to the bush, squealed to leaders of one of two communities, but those that recruited them have not informed the families of the deceased persons of the whereabouts of their wards until date.

The mounting cases of corruption in the country is an indication that our religious leaders have failed in their responsibility to both God and the nation, Reverend Father Godswill Agbagwa has said. Agbagwa who is a Priest of the Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri, Imo state, said the country would have been much better if religious leaders had not placed greater premium on acquisition of wealth, at the detriment of their spiritual mandate.

‎The police yesterday arraigned a 42-year-old businessman, Olatunbosun Ololade, who allegedly obtained the sum of N69.1 million from Stanbic IBTC Bank under false pretence of supplying diesel to 7up bottling company Plc, before an Igbosere Magistrate’s Court. The defendant who has no fixed address, is facing a four-count charge of conspiracy, stealing, fraud and forgery, preferred against him by the police.

President Barack Obama made the short but sentimental drive across Washington on Friday to attend his oldest daughter’s high school graduation.

THE West African Milk Company, WAMCO, at the weekend disclosed that it will invest N3 billion in its small holder dairy farmer programme in Nigeria. This was made known by the Managing Director, FrieslandCampina WAMCO, Raul Colaco, at their renewed signing of Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on dairy development in the country.

Dimitri Payet’s stunning 25 metre strike a minute from time got hosts France off to a winning start at Euro 2016 on Friday as they beat Romania 2-1.

In March of 2016, during a National Economic Council retreat, the following was reported, “Mr. Buhari advised state governments to increase their financial support through community groups.” This report implied that President Buhari was keen on seeing that states and State Governors worked towards achieving financial self-sufficiency through internally generated revenue. However, recent actions of the Buhari administration appear to negate this implied goal of encouraging states to be financially self-sufficient. In short, a series of actions so far by the Buhari administration appears to be fueling a concept and problem known as “Moral Hazard” among states and state governors, which negates the possibility that financial self-sufficiency will be achieved by states under the Buhari administration.