IT took the WALL STREET JOURNAL, WSJ, last week, to lift the lid on the murky world of payments which the Nigerian government makes to Niger Delta warlords.

FOR residents of Abuja, the past week has been particularly difficult. Before you could pronounce FCT, we returned to a regime of queues for petroleum products in the city. At a point, the black market price for the 4 litre jerry can reached over four thousand naira.

WHEN the Niger Delta toughie, Asari Dokubo, threatened a bloody war against Northern Nigeria, at a press conference in Abuja last week, he hinged that, amongst others, on the threat to impeach President Goodluck Jonathan, by the House of Representatives.

WHEN Blessing Okagbare lined up for the ladies’ 100 meters final, inside the Olympic Stadium in East London, last weekend, she carried the hopes of millions of Nigerians.

The people of this country must not allow whatever sense of frustration, fear and despair we are experiencing now, to supercede our hopes for a collective destiny which lies in our continued existence as a nation.

IT must be, arguably, the most anticipated Bill,as far as legislation goes in Nigeria. That is the much-vaunted Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB); and talking about the typically Nigerian hype, the PIB was hyped! It is described as panacea for every problem associated with Nigeria’s petroleum industry.

THE last time I wrote about the FulBe nomad was on December 16, 2004. The piece was titled “A RESOLVE FOR THE PASTORALIST”; and I had done it for my old column in DAILY TRUST, to coincide with the meeting of the West African body, Pastoralist Resolve (PARE), which held in Kaduna.

THIS weekend the Edo governorship election holds. It pits Adam Oshiomhole, the sitting governor, against the PDP’s Gen. Charles Airhiavbere, in what should be one of the most important political contests in Nigeria, in recent times.

EARLY last week, one of the greatest beneficiaries of all that is good in Nigeria, David Mark, the Senate President, addressed a Senate retreat at Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. Given the state of things in our country, it was appropriate enough, that the theme of the retreat was “National Assembly and National Security: Securing the Future for Development”.

IT didn’t take a long time for me to accept to participate in the Third Presidential Media Chat, when Reuben Abati, Special Adviser on Media to President Goodluck Jonathan, called on Friday evening.

I HAVE been holed up in Kaduna since Saturday afternoon; my family is based here, so I travel between Abuja and Kaduna almost every week, when I am not visiting Ilorin or other destinations within and outside Nigeria. I was servicing my vehicle on Sunday morning, when news broke of the bombings in the churches in Zaria and Kaduna.

PARDON me please, but in a manner of speaking, the s..t has hit the ceiling fan ofNigeria’s political and business elite; and the dangers are real, that a lot of well-starched apparels are likely to be soiled. Big time!

I WRITE these lines with mixed emotions: sadness at the loss of lives early this week in the tragic killings in a Bauchi church when a suicide bomber rammed into a church filled with worshippers. We were still digesting the story from Bauchi, when story of the air crash involving a DANA airline plane broke, with the loss of all passengers and crew onboard and several other people on the ground, in a densely populated area of Lagos.

ADDRESSING a conference of the (rather innocuous, pardon my ignorance) Academy for Entrepreneurial Studies in Lagos, last week, former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, for the umpteenth time, let loose a cat amongst the pigeons of Nigerian political society.

WHEN General Muhammadu Buhari received a group of CPC loyalists from Niger State, in Kaduna last week, he probably never thought that his admonition for free and fair polls in 2015, would become the hottest political potato of recent weeks in Nigeria.