Nigeria needs N24 tn to meet MDG target in 2015. Nigeria needs to spend N24trn in the next six years to realize the Millennium Development Goals target by 2015. —Senior Special Adviser Assistant to the Presdient on MDGs, Mrs Fatima Ibrahim, disclosed this to journalists after presenting the second and third quarter reports to President Umaru Yar’Adua in Abuja on Thursday… An average annual requirement of N4trn till 2015 is needed in order to reach the MDGs.

One thing I learnt from my detour into semantics was the fact that the person who writes a lot or delivers many speeches runs the risk of being misunderstood, even by those who are well educated and also articulate.

The second group “discovered” that I am a tribalist for not endorsing the re-appointment of Soludo and for welcoming Sanusi. Today, as we all start understanding how the banking sector had been thrown into a turmoil in the last four years, and feeling the lash, it will not matter if you are Igbo, Efik, Birom, Yoruba, or Nupe, you will be involved in this calamity.

FORGIVE me for quoting myself but it is merely designed to remind our readers of the fears that were expressed immediately after the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN announced the new strategic alliance for the naira on Tuesday, August 14, 2007.

What experience and history teach people is that people and governments never have learnt anything from history or acted on principles deduced from it —George Hegel, 1770-1831, Vanguard Book of Quotations p. 92

From information reaching us, she is at daggers drawn with her Minister of State. She joined the “Honourable” Minister of Education to dance the night away while all Nigerian universities closed down and now she is proposing to spend N8.2 billion to retool where less than N6 billion will do to purchase “tear rubber” equipment. Madam has suddenly become the spokeswoman for people of questionable characters.

IN the first part of this series, I have pointed out that the disagreement between Attah and Akpabio is mostly technical and quite a great deal of it can be verified. Let me start with the 2009 Democracy Day broadcast by Governor Akpabio, in which, among others, he made the claim above.

Thank God, it has not taken the government long to realize the futility of the military solution. The consequences of military intervention are now staring us in the face because the action preceded thinking. Now Yar’Adua is waving the flag of surrender in the form of amnesty and only minor war lords are responding.

LET me start this series with the facts on which there can be no serious dispute ore delving into areas where the GSM text punches will fly. Even disagreements are healthy for us.

They were still shaking their heads after we returned at about 7.00 p.m that evening. From what I saw and heard, it is clear that the JTF might win the present and other battles, but it might not win the war. As David Neustadt, had pointed out in his engaging book, Power and Presidents, “the only battle that counts is the last one.” The JTF, like the Americans in Vietnam, might win a lot of battles but the last one is not yet in sight and it is doubtful that victory will be theirs.