Amidst harsh economic environment confronting the present administration, the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, a key agency of the Federal Government in charge of economic research and development, has given a glimpse of what the economy will look like up till the conclusion of President Muhammadu Buhari’s first term in 2019.

The routine transfer of over 500 priests in the Catholic Diocese of Enugu, which saw fiery Fr. Ejike Mbaka leave Christ the King Parish,CKP,GRA, Enugu, for Our Lady of Rosary,OLR,Emene,Enugu,penultimate Saturday,elicited reactions from Mbaka,his flock,the All Progressives Congress,APC, and the national leadership of the Catholic Secretariat.

A 22 year old nursing mother and student of the Benue State Polytechnic, Nwuese Ayom, was few days ago nabbed by the Benue state Police Command for allegedly stabbing 22year old Tererse Ayua to death in Gboko town.

Super Eagles striker Victor Moses has revealed that it was injury that forced him out of the national team. Moses on loan at West Ham from Chelsea, was key to the Super Eagles winning the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa with Coach Srephen Keshi in charge. But under coach Sunday Oliseh, Moses have yet to lace his boots for Nigeria.

The District Head of Dalori, Alhaji Usman Lawan Dalorima and residents have informed President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State that no amount of pressure from Boko Haram attacks will compel them to desert their community and become refugees in Maiduguri.

The phrase,‘ineffectual buffoon’, may have been inappropriately used by the London-based The Economist, to describe former President Goodluck Jonathan. However, with last week’s judgments by the Supreme Court of Nigeria, which dealt the final blow on the card reader and awarded governorship victories to some politicians, the phrase would have, perhaps, been better applied to the individuals who went before election tribunals to say something to the effect that the card reader and INEC approved guidelines and regulation for the conduct of 2015 general elections and manual for election official are mere instruction/directives…. they do not have the force of the Electoral Act 2010(as amended) and so non-compliance will not invalidate elections………).

THIS is the season of fevers. The menace of fevers is rocking the world. True, yellow fever is no longer a global threat, but malaria fever is still with us while typhoid fever remains on the prowl . Sierra Leone is still at alert for Ebola fever and Saudi Arabia is wary of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome a.k.a MERS – a viral respiratory illness that is relatively new to humans.

Not many people know my uncle, Sir Ajayi Edobor that I often refer to in this column because of his impact on me as a young man. It was from him I learnt the technique of the communication of the deaf which I later found to be popular in government which behaves as if it does not hear what the people say. He has in earnest always served as my ever-ready barometer for measuring how the ordinary man sees every government policy.

President Muhammadu Buhari has never hidden his passion to fight corruption, believed to be the bane of the nation. In doing this, all loopholes must be blocked while pursuing legal processes to bring looters of public treasury into justice.

Doctors at Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, yesterday, protested unpaid salaries and what they described as “discriminatory tax policy”.

Bernard Jenfa Adedayo was one of the priests ordained by the Bishop of Nnewi, Rev. Hillary Okeke, at the Saint Georges’ Catholic Church, Orifite, Anambra State, after a rigorous training that lasted almost 17 years. That day climaxed his childhood ambition of becoming a servant in God’s vineyard. He was posted to the Catholic Church Assumption, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State shortly after the ordination.

As the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron has his works cut out. By the responsibility of the office, one can repeat the worn out saying of “uneasy lies the head that wears the crown” for this young man.

AHEAD of tomorrow’s planned protest, electricity workers have kicked against the plan to picket the Distribution Companies, DISCOs, and Generation Companies, GENCOs, by leaders of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, alongside civil society allies over the hike in electricity tariff, arguing that the action is misdirected.

Prince Kazeem Afegbua, the new Commissioner for Information and Orientation in Edo State, on Friday, reacted to the seeming tension in the All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2016 governorship election in the state. He also debunked the insinuation of a rift between his principal,Governor Adams Oshiomhole, and his deputy, Dr Pius Odubu, over the latter’s ambition to succeed his boss. He carpeted the state PDP over its tantrums against Oshiomhole, declaring that the PDP, after allegedly pauperising the people of Edo for ten years, will never smell the Osadebey Avenue Government House in the nearest future. He spoke on other national issues. Excerpts:

Some military officers are grumbling over alleged alteration of the Harmonised Terms and Conditions of Service (HTACOS) contained in the Armed Forces Act.