IT was National Mirror newspaper of Tuesday, July 12, 2011, which first reported that the presidency had “concluded plans to send a bill to the National Assembly for a single term of seven years for governors and presidents.

IN my column of Thursday, June 24, 2011, entitled “Boko Haram: Even with the bombings, there is no alternative to dialogue”, I had criticised Ochereome Nnanna’s call for an “iron fist” to deal with the problem of Boko Haram. He was “petrified” that government opted for a ‘carrot and stick’ approach to the problem.

A MAJOR item on the discussion menu in Ilorin last weekend was the political road show which recently landed with so much razzmatazz in Kwara. It had all the contrived elements associated with a burlesque: there was a “special prayer session that featured many Imams”, according to THISDAY newspaper of Monday, June 27, 2011.

LAST week, Mr. Sam Amuka came to Abuja. I met him in the company of Alhaji Samaila Isa Funtua, and as has become norm, when two or three people meet today, we discussed the state of our country. Uncle Sam re-iterated fears about the deep chasm in perspective, between North and South.

AS most Nigerian newspapers reported last Friday, Nigeria crossed the Rubicon on Thursday, with the first ‘suicide bombing’ [I have doubts it really was!] in our national history!

IT is not often that I agree with Nasir El-Rufai. During his tenure as Nigeria’s privatization Tsar; as minister of the FCT and member of the Economic Team of the Obasanjo administration, I wrote critical pieces about his over-zealous commitment to the sale of Nigeria’s patrimony; his often inhumane implementation of policies as minister plus his gung-ho attitude to the fight against perceived enemies of Olusegun Obasanjo, especially then Vice President, Atiku Abubakar.

SURELY we cannot continue to allow individuals and groups to do what they liked and undermine our unity, cohesion and effectiveness. Henceforth, we shall not condone acts of indiscipline in our party”. – Acting PDP National Chairman, Dr. Haliru Bello

FOR those who might not see through his questionable political and personal motives, Ishaq Modibbo Kawu unwittingly gave up the game in his recent tirade against Dr. BukolaSaraki, the former governor of Kwara State, in an article he published in the Thursday edition of Vanguard newspaper.

UMARU Tanko AlMakura was the only CPC candidate elected as governor in the last election. His campaign electrified Nasarawa state, where the gerontocratic incumbent, Akwe Doma, became a byword for incompetence. AlMakura connects with the people and despite state-sponsored attacks, won the election.

IT is the height of insanity to do the same thing over and over and expect a different result; right? That’s true only if you’re not in Nigeria. VANGUARD newspaper of Friday, May 27th, 2011, carried a report that the FGN through, the Attorney General, has asked the IG Police, to arrest the Anosike brothers, Fidelis and Noel, “over their alleged roles in the illegal purchase of The Daily Times of Nigeria assets, estimated at N3billion”.

IN the twilight of his eight-year tenure, as Kwara state governor, this week, Bukola Saraki has literally been in overdrive. He hosted Goodluck Jonathan to commission projects: the university at Malete; an aviation college; water plant in Ilorin, even flag-off of a train service.

IF a word captures the central content of the responses I got to my first piece last week, it would be “vitriol”. Not that I was surprised; but the depth of anger against me, for daring to deconstruct the prevalent perspective about Northern Nigeria, within media, intellectual and even popular levels, in Southern Nigeria, was simply amazing!

THE past three weeks have been some of the most difficult for the frames of perception and analysis of Northern Nigeria, in the Southern Nigerian press. Not since the crisis generated by the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election, has Northern Nigeria received the negative, in some cases, crudely racist profiling, as has been visited upon it, in the wake of Nigeria’s last presidential election.