WHEN construction giant Julius Berger was awarded the contract to reconstruct sections of the Apapa – Oshodi Expressway, those of us who have endured decades of suffering on this axis felt our troubles would soon be over. The area around the Berger Yard flyover has been finished, yet the hold-up on the flyover persists.

A LITTLE over two years ago, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua died, providing a natural solution to a messy political and legal logjam that was to haunt the rest of his planned four – year term. It is a sign of the present times and the conditions we live under that the Anniversary was barely noticed.

POLARISING as the same sex marriage issue has become in America, and around the world (no thanks to the manner Americans tend to universalise matters that concern them), it simply won’t go away.

LAST year or so, the Federal Government did the wise thing to send many so-called security agencies packing from the nation’s ports.

I say the South-South initiative was reminiscent of the constitutional autonomy of the regional governments of the First Republic in the foreign policy arena, and not that they had identical autonomy.

This week, I have a double header. I want to talk about a veteran called Calabar and a fresh air that is the programme entitled Women on The Ball.

In the light of the ongoing constitutional amendment by the National Assembly to whittle down the perceived excessive powers of the apex bank in the CBN’s 2007 Act, we concluded last week in this column that the issue of good governance will not depend on whether the Chairman and Directors of the apex bank were external directors.

BOLAJI Sanusi, formerly of Vanguard and now with The Nation Newspapers called me and promised to send a copy of a new book on Chief Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the National Leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

Julius, my brother, says he is justifiably upset with me for staying back in Abuja instead of returning to our home town-Benin City- after retiring from the Public Service. He imagines that if every Benin citizen in Diaspora declines to return home, our city may shortly become a ghost town.

I was a loving husband until I became a “born again” Christian. Then I discovered certain things written by Paul in the bible appointing me the head of my wife. I eagerly accepted the appointment. Jesus reveals that the worst kind of evil is the one which is presumed to have a religious sanction. I might be a murderer but in my heart-of-hearts I know it is wrong to kill.

She is an indefatigable woman! At age 65, Mrs.Christiana Fadekemi Brodie-Mends (nee Bailey) is still seriously engaging girls in Girls Brigade at the Cathedral Church of Christ in Lagos where she is the Captain. She’s of the opinion that in the early days when children were actively engaged in uniform societies, they were well-mannered than in this generation where they are left idle.

Last week I ended this series by stating that President Jonathan does not know those behind the Boko Haram threat; neither does the National Security Adviser, NSA. They don’t know, not because they are incompetent or lack the will, as some have asserted but because we are engaged in a guerilla war in which the opponents of government forces know the JTF and Police but the forces cannot readily identify the terrorists.

Nothing yet speaks more volubly and very pointedly about the crisis of late capitalism than the images out of London this past week, of off-duty English policemen joining in the street protests against the proposed austerity measures by the government of the United Kingdom.

If anyone had asked me what I was like as a child I would have answered that I was an almost model child. I would have told of how I was reserved and respectful and how I was so afraid of getting punished that I hardly ever got into trouble. I barely have any scars on my body and its a testament that I wasn’t rough or prone to fights.

We all have the means to bestow on others the most lavish gifts; love, joy, peace, hope, kindness, acceptance, encouragement, laughter, forgiveness, time. There is not enough money to buy them and not too little money to give them. The more you spend, the wealthier you become; yet nothing will cost you more than what you freely possess to give. -Eden Elliot