ANNUAL budgets are important policy instruments which do more than just inform citizens of the priorities and plans of an administration, and the resources which it plans to mobilise towards achieving them. They reveal an administration’s basic philosophy, challenges and opportunities.

FOR the very first time since his political career assumed national dimension, Goodluck Jonathan is showing he could be a determined person if the need arose. For quite a long while, the President has shown himself as someone ready to capitulate before any determined opposition.

THIS is why the Democratic Project in Nigeria must begin with the political formation of the project. And the primary institution whose raison d’etre is service on behalf of the mass operating on enough and less than enough household budgets is supposed to be the Organised Labour.

Christmas is many things to many people. It’s the season to be jolly and I guess it would be if the true meaning of it was the reason behind all of the frantic activities that grip the world around the period. The season was not so jolly the past few years and I had to make a conscious effort to pray and ask God to break the cycle of drama that seemed to be all the present I got annually.

Christmas used to mean so much to me, as a child – so much of nothingness. It was a feeling which accompanied me to adulthood. It meant a time to splurge on good food for a day or two, after numerous activities that meant very little but dragged the time away.

By all standards u qualify as a Senior Citizen of Lagos State..I dnt believe u had a deep thought of what u might be igniting before u write on d Christian Governorship thing in Lagos. Please it takes a slip from people with followership like u to start what they cannot finish as there are millions out there to highjack noble talks and put the state on fire. I am a Christian.. Lagos needs peace for development than who is the Gov. Muslim of Christian…”.

This year’s Christmas celebration is among the unique ones in that it falls on a Sunday, so we’re celebrating the gift of a Saviour and also observing a day ordained by God for rest and reflection.

You’re not to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it. Malcolm X

I am a Christmas child. No, I was not born on Christmas day – but an exact week to Christmas – on the 18th of December – that last week of active shopping and frenzied last minutes preparation for Christmas celebrants. So imagine Nigeria on the 18th of December, 1966. Two coups had taken place earlier that year – one in January and the other on July.

When this column recently supported the introduction of Islamic Banking to Nigeria, some non-muslims were visibly angry with our standpoint. One critic dismissed our article as ‘sponsored’, and ‘a magnitude of lies’.

Truly, we are in difficult times in Nigeria. Anywhere you turn, the responses one gets as a direct output of interaction, are hisses and sighs. Such dismissive conclusion isn’t the best way to show satisfaction.

The inevitable happened on December 18, seven days before Christmas, amidst the mad rushing around that is synonymous with this time of the year. Parents going to pick their wards returning from school, shoppers jostling about for last minute bargains, travellers heading to the airport and other sundry movements on the road.

I find contradictions not only in the ‘big things’ but in the small things of life as well. The other day she (my last daughter) was whistling. Some new skill she has acquired. When it registered, the first thing that came out of my mouth was “stop whistling!”

THE passing year started on a sad note with the controversial death of Uche Okafor, in the USA. The former Eagles defender was found dead in his apartment. The initial impression was that he committed suicide. Investigations later vindicated those who believed that was not Uche – he was murdered.

A STRIKING feature of the Nigerian political landscape is the low visibility of ideas and principles in the conduct of party activity—particularly in the selection of candidates for public office.