LAST week, I said that President Jonathan should avoid caving in to demands for a Sovereign National Conference, SNC, largely because I believe that a massive talking shop at which religious and ethnic grievances are aired will generate more heat than light and possibly lead to the complete collapse of Nigeria.

MORE than 51 years after its nominal independence, Nigeria is still where it has always been. Do you want to ruin your appetite? Then, why not attempt carrying Nigeria’s problems on your head? The wiser ones have long learned to leave Nigeria’s load at the shoulder level, so that if it got too heavy, they could just throw it away.

FOR three days, last week, Vintage Press, the publishers of Bola Tinubu’s THE NATION newspapers, hosted a Legislative Summit on Regional Integration, in Ibadan, regional capital of the old Western Region of Nigeria. It brought legislators from the states that make up the Southwest of today’s Nigeria.

HURRICANE Lagos”. That was the creative alias Vanguard Newspapers entitled its main photograph of the destruction caused by a freak storm that hit the nation’s commercial capital in its Tuesday, February 14, 2012 issue. How apt!

THE head of Nigeria’s Central Bank, the equivalent of the US’s Federal Reserve or the UK’s Bank of England is designated, governor. Despite his immense powers over the country’s financial sector, the Governor of the Central Bank is perhaps the only Nigerian official called governor but whose responsibilities are limited to the financial sector.

A GROUP which gave itself the title of Eminent National Leaders of Thought met a few days under the umbrella of a forum called National Summit Group with suspicious official support at the expensive Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Lagos.

THE call for National Conference has received several reactions, including opposition, from Nigerians. Those opposed to a National Conference fall into three main categories: Those who subscribe to the doctrine of “settled issues”, those who say it would be used to dismantle the Nigerian state and those who believe that it is aimed at further weakening the stranglehold of the North on the nation.

PINI Jason titled his piece on his Tuesday Column “Jaw Jaw or War War”. The conflict resolution as phrased offer diplomatic options to parties in conflict before conflict escalates into war or in the course of war itself. The before option addresses the need to manage present conflicts to prevent their escalation into state of war.

“There is a long running dispute between NNPC and PSC operators as to the calculation of the cost of oil, tax oil, and royalty oil under the PSCs. This meant that the parties cannot agree on the entitlements to amounts being lifted by NNPC and the contractors. Amounts reported for reconciliation revealed different interpretations for the same lifting transactions.”

EXACTLY one week ago, two directors of Newswatch Magazine – Malam Yakubu Mohammed and Mr. Soji Akinrinade, were ushered into the usual Monday meeting of Vanguard Board of Editors. They brandished the newest product of their “inventive genius” (apologies, Bambulu in James Ene Henshaw’s hilarious play This is Our Chance).

Peter Alexander Egom is our Guest Columnist this week. By way of introduction, perhaps it may be more appropriate if I let our Guest Columnist speak for himself! The following paragraph is an excerpt of Egom’s profile from a ‘professionals’ social media network’.

Boko Haram issued an ultimatum to all Christians and Southerners to leave the North or face attack and death. This threat came with a backdrop already dimmed with blood.

IT is generally assumed by Christians that God is all-knowing. We say insistently God is omniscient. Peter said to Jesus: “We understand that you know everything.” (Jn 16:30). However, there are things Jesus did not know. He did not know a fig-tree did not have figs. (Mk 11:13). He did not know the time of his return. (Mk 13:32).

There are two obvious sides to every story; both sides have not more than the same characters in common. The sides are true to all involved based on perception and reception. A story that involves actual people, happening in real time and is similar to rivulets of water coming downstream.

Part of the text message from Idris has been recalled in order to remind our readers that this series is a response to a reasonable challenge from a regular customer of our paper; and like all customers we owe a duty to inform and, if possible, to also entertain.