I FELT deep sadness over the weekend when news broke, that the Emir of Borgu, Alhaji Haliru Dantoro died in Germany, at the age of 77.

The fortunes of the Nigerian Army have of late been going down precipitously. A military force that was for a long time the pride of the country, and was deservedly celebrated for its peace keeping skills across the continent and beyond, has suddenly descended into disgrace. To be sure, the responsibility for the illfortune of the Nigerian military as a whole and the Army in particularly lies with the military.

One of the qualities that recommended, even endeared, President Muhammadu Buhari to a majority of the electorate over and above former president Goodluck Jonathan in the last election was that of resoluteness. His first coming as military head of state had left no one in doubt that his mind, once made up, can be as unbending as his steely spine.

THIS is one of the reasons why reformers fail: perception is indeed everything. I’ve mentioned before that those who speak for President Buhari do him no favours: from his spokesmen to the impromptu zealots and sycophants who make such strange and absurd claims as the President’s “shyness” around women.

In the days when Boko haram was still halal in our our country,the Communique No.103 of the Monetary Policy Committee, MPC, meeting held on September 21 and 22,2015, would by now have been decoded,dissected and deconstructed by our ivory tower thinkers and public intellectuals. It was an official obituary of our economy!

The signs are now crystal clear: the APC is out on a full-blown witch-hunt of the PDP. The objective is not only to decimate the opposition, but to ensure it does not recover. All the road-maps point to one destination: the creation of a one-party state in Nigeria in everything but the name. Should this succeed, it would mean the end of effective democracy in Nigeria,

IT is a tradition for Republicans toattribute their troubles to the machinations of the so-called “liberal” or “mainstream” US press. This practice of misplaced aggression manifests itself all the time, especially in the cycle of electioneering campaigns. This year is not different.

IMF Africa Director, Mrs. Atoinette Sayeh recently noted at a press conference at a World Bank event in Lima, Peru, that “…those measures introduced by CBN to restrict demand and limit access to official foreign exchange for certain imports are quite detrimental to economic activities and invariably led to a lot of unhappiness in the private sector”.

The report in the NATION, October 13, 2015, page 7, titled “Fed Govt suspends quota issuance to rice millers”, brought tears to my eyes. It would be the third time in my life that the Federal Government of Nigeria would drive me to tears of frustration over the national policy on rice importation. Althogu, I no longer have any investment or involvement with the sector, it is the only sector in which personal monetary investments as well as sacrifice of well-paid job was made because of government policy announcement.

UNLESS the unexpected happens, the Federal Government appears set to convene a national conference for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the North East region of Nigeria, if, hopefully we meet the deadline of killing Boko Haram in December.