INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director, Madam Christine Lagarde was on a four-day visit to Nigeria from January 4. She claimed it was a friendly visit: “I’m not in Nigeria to negotiate for IMF loans but to promote fiscal discipline and favourable monetary policies”

IN the days of innocence, the preachment was ‘Blessed are the peace makers’. In these days of globalisation, rather than make peace, nations tend to stoke the fires of conflict. So is it with the Saudi Arabia-Iran spat which began with the January 2, 2016 mass execution of forty seven persons after trials which even the usually complacent United Nations described as raising “serious concerns over the nature of the charges and the fairness of the process”

The new year will be quite challenging for Nigerians. They need no prophet nor soothsayer to predict this. The country’s situation evolves from its reliance on a mono- culture; oil. Politics is the largest and most productive industry in the country with being in government, the most profitable investment. With falling crude oil prices, the economy is bound to wobble, and unpalatable policy dishes served. Wisely, the Government benchmarked the 2016 Budget on a very low figure of $38 per barrel down from the $53 last year, and $76 for the 2014 Budget. Based on a 2.2 million barrels quota, it is hoping to make a daily income of $83.6 million or $30.514 billion in 2016.

IN my November piece, The enemy within, I paid homage to Comrade Ibrahim Yusuf, the humble labour leader who introduced me to trade unionism. I was fresh from the university and held strongly to certain ideas. For instance, the State Security Services, then known as the Nigeria Security Organisation (NSO)were supposed to be kept at arms length and not allowed to know students, workers or union plans. For me, they were the enemy of the working people.

THE world woke up on Friday December 18 to the calamity that is the proxy war in Syria. The war began four years ago. Over 250,000 killed. Cities destroyed, 7.6 million, internally displaced. Over four million are refugees with an increasing number pushing into Europe. Most of the refugees are children; too young to have started the bloody conflict, but not too young to be victims of the senseless war.THE world woke up on Friday December 18 to the calamity that is the proxy war in Syria. The war began four years ago. Over 250,000 killed. Cities destroyed, 7.6 million, internally displaced. Over four million are refugees with an increasing number pushing into Europe. Most of the refugees are children; too young to have started the bloody conflict, but not too young to be victims of the senseless war.