THE week that the Bureau of Statistics announced the healthy state of the Nigerian economy (with impressive growth rate of 6.3 per cent also carried the pleasing news of the recapture of Bama (in North-East of Nigeria) by the gallant security forces from the ravaging Boko Haram insurgents

THIS column is today taking time off from the murky waters of politics to bring you the profile of a purist; a true democrat of our time; and one man in whom there is hope that Nigeria is still possible – Chief (Dr.) John Odigie-Oyegun.

DR. STEPHEN DAVIS is an original case of loose cannon. He is both a muckraker and fisher in troubled waters; a man whose real mission to Nigeria can only be understood through proper investigation. He came dressed in the borrowed robes of “federal government negotiator” with Boko Haram.

IT was late afternoon on Saturday last week that I heard of the tragic killing of THE SUN newspaper columnist, Dimgba Igwe. I put through a call to THE SUN MD and President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, Femi Adesina.

IF the disastrous collapse of the defences around the civilian populations in much of the north-east is not the tragedy it is, developments in and about Adamawa state will provide a fascinating subject for political discourse.

AT what point is it safe to declare a place and a people safe from the menace of a dangerous disease? When can a potential plague of devastating proportions be viewed as under effective control?

We need to admit the truth; Nigeria no longer has an army worth its salt. The Nigerian army of today is a pathetic shadow of its glorious past. This explains why it is proving grossly inadequate at checkmating a Boko Haram army of some 10,000 men. As a matter of fact, ranged against the insurgency in the North-East, the army is now staring abject defeat in the face.

THIS is how U.S. vice president Joe Biden last week articulated his country’s resolve to deal with the increasingly vicious fundamentalist, jihadist group of militants known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, ISIS: “We came back after 9/11. We dusted ourselves off and we made sure that Osama bin Laden would never, ever again threaten the American people.

WE have a very poor quality democracy. Our constitutional order is in shambles, which is why within fifteen years we have already held two constitutional conferences to try and correct the makeshift 1999 constitution hurried assembled by the departing regime of General Abdulsalami Abubakar.

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, former Governor Of Central Bank, CBN, was not only a professional banker, but a professional manager as well. As the Managing Director of the First Bank Plc, it would have been unthinkable of him to announce that a large amount of money was missing from the bank, given the dire consequences for the bank of that revelation, without being totally certain that it was true.