Housing is very vital to the human life; for without it, we are no better than the animals whose roof is the sky. Sadly, the sky has become a roof for many city-dwellers in our country, so to say, as homeless people of all ages sleep under the bridges, in market places, in uncompleted buildings, on pavements, and slabs on the roadside. How did Nigerians, particularly those from areas noted for their pride of their ethnic group, family and roots, get to this deplorable situation? Population explosion, mass migration to the urban areas, loss of jobs and consequently of rented premises, all contribute to this.

I have been long troubled at the level of violence and casualties in the senseless waste of human lives in the last couple of years. There is a big elephant in the room and it seems the elephant in the room is getting so large and yet no one seems to want to talk about it! This big elephant that no one dare speaks its name is Boko Haram.

At a time when many young people are frustrated over their inability to find jobs, 25 year old Mrs. Omotola Aderonke Teriba Abdul, a graduate of Mass Communication, created her dream job for herself. She’s the CEO of Hardey’s Make-Over and Bridal Aso-Oke in Lagos. In a recent encounter with Vista Woman, she shared her passion for creativity and love for business, while also revealing meeting her heartthrob, another embodiment of creativity, with whom she finally tied the knot late last year. Excerpts:

Language is the best tool of communication and it comes in many diverse tongues. In the world we now live in, English is the language most widely spoken and if all the manuals and language set ups of most gadgets are to be believed, there are quite a few versions; some a lot more different than that spoken by the Queen of England who is the confirmed custodian of the english language. I love the inflections and accents of the other latin languages in English.

The room tensed up; breathing momentarily seized and not a few hands flew to cover gaping mouths.

The forthcoming Police Games recalls the role of the police force in our sports development.

MY 17-year-old son, Oliver, warned me to never, ever write about him again nearly two years ago.

One of the questions I was asked when I came back to Nigeria was, “who was your favourite Eagle?”

If we accept the simplistic description of democracy as a government of the people by the people for the people, then, there should be room for a multi-party arrangement. We should accept Thomas Hodgkin’s definition of political parties as, “all organizations which regard themselves as parties and which are so generally regarded.”

EVERY beginning, no matter how small, is difficult. That explains why our generation has aptly been described as the era of cruel and unusual punishment; and the age of torture. Everything we had came the hard way.

FIRST, they lied to us. Then, they owned up. We waited for their apologies but got none

LAST Sunday evening, Nigeria’s nomenclatura gathered inside the Banquet Hall of the Aso Villa, to celebrate one of the wonders of modern Nigeria; the return from death of First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan. It was a solemn spiritual event; a power show; a fashion statement extraordinaire and a political gathering, all rolled into one.

As CAF General Coordinator of Group A that had host South Africa, Cape Verde, Angola and Morocco , I was to move to Durban immediately after the opening ceremony and kick off in Johannesburg.

I OWE the title of this column to Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s classic song of outrage, and call to action, against the live evil of corruption threatening to throttle Nigeria to death.

THERE is yet no news of any arrests of members of the group that attacked health workers in different parts of Kano many days ago. The most we’ve heard is that the Police have ordered additional security for health personnel working for the eradication of polio in the affected areas.