South Africa-Nigeria bi-lateral relations are very good and encouraging. There are a number of Nigerians coming to South Africa for various activities and so do South Africans come to Nigeria to engage in various businesses and both citizens are assisting in growing the two countries’ economies, because both countries are two major economies in Africa. As you may be aware there are over 120 South African companies in Nigeria and all of these brands are doing well and it is an indication of the significance and importance of our bond.

Meanwhile, in spite of moves by the Federal Government to set up a single regulatory authority for the petroleum industry with the planned scrapping of the existing regulators in the industry, the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, and the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, received the highest combined allocation for the Ministry of Petroleum Resources in the 2017 budget.

The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, yesterday denied the online report which quoted him, as saying that “Indians are buying over MTN Nigeria”.
The statement was reportedly made at an event organized by Centre Proprietors Association of Nigeria (CPAN) wherein the representative of the Honourable Minister allegedly made the statement.

Nigerians in their forties and above would easily recall December, 1983. Two phenomenal developments took place: On the night of December, 1983, a lanky Major Gen. Mohammadu Buhari, General Officer Commander, GOC, 3 Armoured Division, Nigeria Army and band of military officers, chased out the democratically elected government of President Shehu Shagari and Buhari became Nigeria’s Head of State. The next most unforgettable experience after that change of government, which was visited with exultation and high forecast of a better Nigeria, was the weather condition under which the coup took place.

It doesn’t even look like there is a celebration coming up in a few days. Before now, you see people selling and buying on every street corner, you see good decorations everywhere. Even the government couldn’t put up nice decorations in the nooks and crannies of the state. Things are really bad and the government seems handicapped.

It was a day after the General Overseer of The Redeemed Church of God; Pastor Enoch Adeboye ministered at the government-sponsored annual carol service in Port Harcourt. The anointing was perhaps still flowing on Governor Nyesom Wike when this correspondent posed the question as to the source of funds for the many projects the administration has embarked on.

OBJ parades himself as a saint and therefore should be ignored. You will recall that at the beginning of Buhari’s tenure in 2015, when I read that OBJ was sending a Blue Print on governance to Buhari, I raised an alarm and advised Buhari to avoid OBJ like leper and I said then and still maintain that, a Bini parable says, “How can a eunuch prepare sexual medicine for a brother of his that can attain a sexual erection occasionally?”. I advise Buhari to dine with OBJ with a long spoon if there is need to dine with him at all.

Senator Magnus Abe has said that his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, would challenge the Commission of Inquiry setup by the Governor of Rivers State, Chief Nyesom Wike, to investigate the violence and killings that marred the December 10 re-run elections in the state.

Three Northern governors yesterday met with President Muhammadu Buhari just as another also met with the President’s Chief of Staff, CoS, Abba Kyari the same day.

It was obviously another day that held no promise of freedom for me. And once again I sought solace in sleep, believing by so doing to block the invasive thoughts spawned by the shocking reality of my predicament and which have been threatening to suffocate me. But sleep, O traitorous sleep, had betrayed me once more. My dreamy flight from the present had nothing for me but a panorama of nightmarish spectres and sinister predators assailing me with chilling howls, reminiscent of tortured souls in fiendship captivity.