The great masquerade begins his final journey homeward towards the now open door of the rising sun. This is what it looks like from this past week, as Nigerians – particularly the Igbo commence the final funeral ceremonies across the globe, wherever they are to be found, in honour of their great war leader, General Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu.

The trial of the former Head of State, General Sani Abacha’s Chief Security Officer, Hamza AlMustapha, who was accused of the murder of Kudirat Abiola, eventually came to a decision a few days ago, with the judgment that he be hanged by the neck until dead. Kudirat Abiola was an energetic personality, who rose to support the claim of her husband, Chief MKO Abiola, as having won the presidential elections acclaimed as the fairest and best that Nigeria had ever known.

We’ve all been in a variation of this scenario: snarled up in a traffic jam for any length of time only to get to the top of the road and realise that the cause is another one of those illegal, mobile ‘toll gates’ set up by members of the Nigerian Police Force in the guise of ‘stopping and searching’

For obvious reasons, Muhammad Babangida, the first son of the most talked about Nigerian in the history of Nigeria, the indomitable General IBB marked his glorious forty years on earth on Thursday, 2nd February, 2012 in what typifies the humility of a family that has since become role model to many.

The reverberation and the effects of the week long nationwide strike that took place a few weeks ago is still being felt all across the nation.

THERE is no “good” time for a disease epidemic—certainly not a deadly hemorrhagic fever, such as Lassa. But the worst possible period is now, when we are so deeply mired in a social crisis.

ANY day and anytime,the question of the ‘Nigerian Condition‘ comes to mind. This is based on finding how Nigeria is where it is today among other nations of the world. Questions are often asked, and justifiably so, on why Nigeria is still a poor country in the midst of abundant human and material resources. Perhaps the answer lies within the complexity of the problems of the politics and economics of the country and the perception of the people (Philosophy).

NO matter how much we paint the situation, when a government becomes so weak and so incompetent that it can no longer protect its citizens; and when a nation becomes so corrupt and overtaken by criminality, then, the major indicators or symptoms of a failed state are registered.

LAST week, President Goodluck Jonathan told Reuters, in an interview, that the Nigerian government would dialogue with the Islamist organization, Boko Haram, “if they clearly identify themselves now and say this is the reason we are resisting, this is the reason we are confronting government or this is the reason we destroy some innocent people and their properties…then there will be a basis for dialogue”.

A VIOLENT storm appears to be brewing. We seem perched on a déjà vu: with 1966/1967 about to be re-enacted (somewhat). If the dark prognosis comes to pass, it will not be because northerners are killing southerners in the north as in 1966/67.

LAST week, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the Governor of the Central Bank, ascribed the emergence of Boko Haram to poverty…and highlighted the fact that the funds that Northern states get from the Federation Account are paltry compared to the funds received by oil-producing states.

THE job of appointing public officers in Nigeria is by no means an easy task. More often than not what comes into consideration are factors other than merit. A situation Goodluck Jonathan might have found himself in the man he finally settled upon to replace Afiz Ringim as the Inspector General of Police.

AT the heat of the national resistance against President Jonathan’s decision to abruptly implement the decision to remove the subsidy on petroleum, a number of events took place which had the combined effect of raising the oldest question about the Nigerian state; as well as further damaging President Jonathan’s already limited capacity to offer an all-inclusive and purposeful leadership.

WHEN the above is the case, the problematique of constitutional government in Nigeria is civilian electoral government, not unconstitutional military rule. The puzzle for the rank and file of the Military as well as the generality of the Nigerian populace is why Military governments voluntarily withdraw from office only to return at will to office.

I CAN imagine that the question on everybody’s lips now is: is this the beginning of the end prophesied for Nigeria? Can Nigeria make it to 2015? If Boko Haram has infiltrated the government and the nation’s security agencies, as President Jonathan admitted, can the nation hold together?