NIGERIA, which has been described as a mere “geographical expression”, is also to many people, a funny place where “anything goes”.

THE villagers have a better way of expressing the same feelings. They will quickly tell you that there is no royal road to geometry and that life has no short-cut. Some will keep drumming it into your ears that you shall only reap whatever you sow

REUBEN ABATI was at his most combative last Sunday, with his withering attack on “The Hypocrisy of Yesterday’s Men”.

The Borno State Government, BOSG, recently added a new dimension to the controversy of the so-called Good Governance Media Tour led by Information Minister, Mr Labaran Maku, when it told the team to stay away from the state.

AS the world moves away from capital punishment, Nigeria, always to be found in the rear-guard of progress, has embraced it with renewed vigour.

PEOPLE who have taken ringside seats in the on-going bruising fight between President Goodluck Jonathan and President Olusegun Obasanjo must have been jolted when news filtered out that the two had attended a church service at the Presidential Villa, last Sunday and had a private lunch afterwards.

DOUBLE whammy is what the English will call it. But for Fela, its ‘c-o-n-f-u-s-i-o-n breaki boni’ because ‘deadi bodi geti aksident’ as he put it in his album, ‘Confusion Break Bone’.

OCHEREOME Nnanna’s Vanguard, Monday, January 28th, 2013, is devoted to President Jonathan’s explanation of the Boko Haram insurgency in his recent interview by CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. Ochereome quotes the President:

LAST week, Nigerians were outraged. Mr. John YakubuYusufu, one of the eight civil servants accused of stealing N40 billion, note; not N40 million, from the Nigeria Police Pension Fund, got a limp tap on the wrist.

NIGERIA is a country of one week, one outrage. That of last week had to do with John Yakubu Yusuf, the Assistant Director in the Police Pension Office, Abuja, who was fined N750,000 and allowed to go home after confessing his role in the stealing of 32.8 billion naira belonging to his office, along with six other accused persons who are still standing trial.

The easiest racket to run in Nigeria today concerns job vacancies. Either by posters, or through adverts in newspapers or by word of mouth, scammers smile all the way to the bank offering jobs that oftentimes don’t even exist. Governments and their agencies account now for the lion’s share of this growing and lucrative crime.

Public discourse recently focused on the charge by Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili (Oby), a former Senior Assistant and Minister in Obasanjo’s administration, that the Yar’Adua/Jonathan Presidency had frittered away accumulated reserves of about $67bn since the change of baton in 2007.

There is a misunderstanding prevalent among Christians, especially those weaned on the “prosperity gospel.” It is assumed that when the Lord gives a report, he always gives a good report, and that the report of the devil is always bad.

One vital aspect of Nigeria’s public affairs that is not transparently part of the transformation agenda of government is health care delivery. No one in authority appears to be genuinely interested in it. Indeed, not much happens even in the basic area of primary health care because the local government councils to which the subject is assigned merely pocket the little that their state governors allow them to have of their monthly allocations.

The floods of 2013 will soon visit their fury upon us; large scale destruction of properties will follow and the usual hand-wringing and official excuses will follow. Yet it is an axiom of management science that a disaster which occurred twice should not be allowed to occur a third time because, if it does, it means that those in charge are not alive to their responsibilities. Floods will be back again in 2013; more devastating than ever before. Are we better prepared this year than last year?