Certainly the last has not been heard of the defeat of the Flying Eagles in the hands of France at the just concluded FIFA Under 20 World Cup in Colombia. I was a reporter sent by Champions Newspapers to cover the competition in Saudi Arabia in 1989 and we played up to the final.

There is an increasing universal recognition that the prime essence of government is the actualisation of a thriving and beneficent economy; last week, President Goodluck Jonathan formally inaugurated the engine room that would serve as the arrowhead for the determination of his place in history as Nigeria’s number one citizen.

I NEVER really wanted to comment about General Ibrahim Babangida turning 70. Babangida is no longer news. He is history, and what comment I am making here today is based on IBB and history.

The book under review ends in chapter 10 entitled “A much needed gap?” In it, the author examines the purported psychological benefits of religion. Sometimes it is argued that there is a God-shaped lacuna in the human brain which has to be filled, that we have a psychological need for an imaginary friend, father, big brother, confessor, and confidant – God.

Last week, I showed you some things that qualify you for a sickness-free life. This week, I will show you a key to instant miracle healing—faith. Recognize that everyone’s healing is according to his faith. Healing is delivered according to the faith of the recipients. For instance, in the encounter between two blind men and Jesus, the Bible says: “Then touched he their eyes, saying,

The presido of Area boys is going home – victim of arthritis which has rendered the right arm almost useless. After serious consideration regarding what needs to be done before I can no longer write anything, it suddenly occurred to me that I have been neglecting my duty to my closest politician brother, mentor, adviser and friend – Obong Victor Attah. Let me discharge it now because another chance might not present itself unless the doctors can find a breakthrough. As it is, this column, which ordinarily should be finished in three hours or less will now consume eight hours of declining time. But it will be eight hours well-spent as my late father taught me in 1957.

A friend of mine who’s very pro-Nigeria has been recommended a bed-rest of one week by a health specialist, after a four-day visit to Benin City last week.

She’s from Edo State, but lives and works in Europe. She was in the country on a three-week vacation , and after a few days in Lagos, she badly wanted to visit her home state capital.

Magnus Kpakol, as Chief Economic Adviser to President Obasanjo, once explained ‘economic growth’ in the sense I discerned to mean a most ludicrous paradox. Like: ‘progressing on the path of retrogression’, or maybe ‘gaining in the direction of losses’; or yet ‘improving on the path of depletion’; or better still ‘growing from the rump of decay’.

When the present cabinet was being put together by President Goodluck Jonathan, many of us looked forward to stars who would gain public acceptance at the mere mention of their names.

The Governor of Bauchi State, Issa Yuguda, has offered his services as the manager for the electioneering campaign of Babatunde Fashola, should the Lagos State Governor decide to present himself for the high office of the president in future.

Many Nigerians, me included, have complained about the fact that President Jonathan did not hit the ground running as soon as the polling season ended.

FOR more than 30 minutes last week Wednesday, President Goodluck Jonathan had the time to ask players and officials of the Nigerian U-20 football team, “How are you?” The session that saw him repeating the same question after each person was identified was meant to be a pep talk ahead of the encounter against England in a FIFA competition in Columbia.

The pleasant news of the week is that the country‘s respected elders and some past political leaders would meet in Port Harcourt and also in Abuja, the nation‘s capital to deliberate on suitable amendments to some sections of the 1999 Constitution.

Evidently, former President Olusegun Obasanjo has a lot going for him at the political arena. One may be tempted at times to reckon that he may have wasted his years in the military, when he should have enrolled in politics from the very beginning.

In this second part, I will endeavour to discuss how we can make the “indigenisation” legislation work. But let us start by observing that six months is too short for a total stranger to stand for election in his new community, even though he can vote if his voter registration detail permits.