IN this column a fortnight ago, I asked whether the ‘Amalgamation of 1914’ was a mistake. The feedback was that judging by the present state of events in Nigeria, the step taken by Lord Lugard, though helpful to Britian, was not in the best interest of the country.

IF it were possible, I’d really like to avoid using the word “tragedy”- not only because it’s trite and over-worked, but also because, in this instance, the term is woefully inadequate.

Callistus Ibare, with his camera man, put me on the ‘dock’ ten minutes before Nigeria engaged Namibia in Calabar.

ELIZABETH II, the 86 year-old Queen of the British Isles and Beyond, has just completed six unblemished decades on the throne. And I was happily watching her spectacular, uplifting Diamond Jubilee celebration on TV in London last Sunday when there was a newsflash announcing the Dana Air plane crash in Nigeria.

THE Christian religion encourages us to confess positive because the power of the tongue is so strong that whatever you confess easily becomes your portion. But if all you see around you is an aura of pessimism, it also behoves you to tell the bitter truth and continue to pray for change.

I WRITE these lines with mixed emotions: sadness at the loss of lives early this week in the tragic killings in a Bauchi church when a suicide bomber rammed into a church filled with worshippers. We were still digesting the story from Bauchi, when story of the air crash involving a DANA airline plane broke, with the loss of all passengers and crew onboard and several other people on the ground, in a densely populated area of Lagos.

DANA Air was my preferred airline. Their ticketing system was easy – you could buy your ticket in advance and collect your boarding pass immediately for convenient boarding on travel date, unlike some others where you had to come two hours to boarding and stand in long queues.

IF you dropped into the country from outer space in the last one week; and read newspapers or listened to private radio and television or browsed the social media, you would wonder what can possibly be done to save President Goodluck Jonathan from the Nigerian people.

NINETEEN years after the pan-Nigerian mandate he won at the polls was voided by the military and 14 years after he died in incarceration fighting for the restoration of that mandate, recognition finally came the way of Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola – or so it seems.

REPRESENTATIVE electoral democracies are opposite of direct rule democracies. In the latter, every member of the rulership participates directly and with equal voice in the government of their society.

THE Democracy Day observed last week offered many Nigerians another opportunity for a promiscuous criticism of the system. Well, what a better way to celebrate democracy than to exercise our freedom of speech? I am reminded of what an actor once said: “opinion is like an a….h; everybody has got one!”

IT is the hottest debate in town. Boko Haram and terrorism have been pushed to the back seat, for now. Temporarily forgotten is the proposed electric power tariff increase the Federal Government vowed must go into effect this month. Sidelined for now are the petrol subsidy report and its mind-numbing revelations on which many interest groups have served notice they would soon go on “occupy” street protests.

The issue of fuel subsidy removal has become recurrent in our economy. The following
are answers to salient questions on the beneficent resolution of this dilemma:

Last Saturday, foot-ball faithful all over the world were joined by their African colleagues to celebrate the feast of football as the 2014 FIFA World Cup Preliminary competition kicked off.

James Michener was for years an editor before he became a writer of historical novels; he wrote over 20 books and he is one of my mentors – even in death. When in 1994, I first started writing general commentary, the first thing was to find out the cardinal principle of journalism and to apply it at all times to all situations and issues. It still boils down to finding the facts and not being swayed by popular opinions.