NOTE: This was not the original article scheduled for this day. But some issues intrude on the best made plans demanding urgent response. This is one of them; especially because i am involved as you will find out. Pardon me for this. Thanks.

When Reagan was contesting against Jimmy Carter, US President, 1976-1980, he asked Americans the same question over and over again, “Are you better off this year than four years ago?” Much as I hardly supported Reagan’s approach to governance because it represented “government of the rich by the rich for the rich” – a bastardisation of democracy, he left us with a metric for judging whether or not we had been well-served by governments, at Federal, States and Local government levels in 2012.

What a coincidence it has turned out to be. Just last week under the new addendum to my columns “CHIP SHOTS”, I made reference to the fact that the President of Nigeria had ten aircraft in his fleet; more than any other President in the world. Bearing in mind that our country is ranked 39th in the world in terms of GDP, and one of the poorest on earth, when we take into account that 70 per cent of our people live below the global poverty line, Nigeria’s Presidential Airlines should enter into the Guinness Book of Records for presidential impunity.

“We salute the men and women who kept our nation together, especially those who paid the supreme price…The only way we can honour their memory is not to re-open old wounds but to resolve that never again will our people’s blood be shed by their own people. We must harness our diversity to make our union perfect”. Governor Babatunde Fashola, at Colloquium Fair, held at Brown University, Rhode Island, USA by Professor Chinua Achebe.

NLNG is one of the big success stories in our country. From what I am told, the company has invested $13 billion since inception, and has become a pace-setter in terms of revenue generation for the government”. Minister of Trade and Investments, Dr Olusegun Aganga