PRESIDENT Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ, this is his official acronym, not GEAJ or GJ) jumped ahead of General Ibrahim Babangida, his main intra-party rival for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) nomination, when, on Wednesday, September 15, 2010, he officially informed Nigerians he would run for president through his Facebook forum.

Time there was when travelling was fun. Perhaps not anymore.
As a third year student of modern languages in the University of Calabar, we needed to go abroad for a year and I was one of those who benefitted Grenoble, France as destination. So started my romance with passports, visas, tickets, planes, hotels……name it.

EXACTLY a fortnight from today, Nigeria will be marking its 50th independence anniversary from colonial rule. The motives of colonialism are usually wrapped in layers of religion and the alleged sacred duty of the Whites to spread civilization.

I’M in South Africa at the moment, attending a conference called “Planning Africa”; and it’s been such an interesting experience to not only listen to speakers who want our continent to thrive but to observe, at close quarters, how the country is getting along l6 years after Nelson Mandela was released from his lengthy incarceration to spearhead the dismantling of apartheid.

AS many Nigerians believe and hope, 1st of October every year should be a day of joy and this year‘s occasion should be marked in a special way – it is a day of celebration of Nigeria‘s fifty years of freedom from British imperialism. Some would however, observe that the country has exchanged liberal British imperialism for local despotism.