If your gen-set is off, it must have been turned off on account of overwork or because you can no longer afford the N170+ price of diesel – when you can find it. And if your wife is missing, have no fear. She has not abandoned the home. She is probably out there in search of elusive kerosene. Welcome to fresh air. We asked for it –including the NLC.

So far, so good. We’re saying the right things. From the highest in the land to the lowest, and with one voice, we’re all clamouring for a change in all areas of governance, and thus, in our lives.

The 1999 Constitution, on page 15, contains the blatant falsehood that “we, the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria…do hereby make and give ourselves the following constitution.” It has many provisions that make Nigeria a distorted federation. For instance, it gives too much executive and legislative power and financial resources to the Federal Government. Again, the Presidential system it stipulates is very expensive to operate.

By the last count, Mr. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal had garnered more than enough votes to emerge the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Tambuwal had polled 252 of the 360 votes to beat the party’s favourite, Mulikat Akande-Adeola. Ms. Akande-Adeola had gone into the chambers of the House that morning with the firm backing of the PDP leadership which had zoned the Speaker’s job to the South-West in line with the party’s zoning policy.

When I first heard the news of the arrest of Dimeji Bankole, immediate past speaker of the House of Representatives, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), I had the feeling that it was only for a chat that would last some minutes. My mind went back to 1993 when as Director of Public Affairs at the defunct National Electoral Commission; I was invited for a chat by the State Security Service (SSS) in the heat of the controversial June 12 Presidential election.

By the way, the directive was not even to bring Osama ‘dead, not alive’! It was to cast him ‘dead, at sea’! What civilized way to actuate a ‘suspect’! Ironically by the ‘most democratic’, most ‘law-governed’ nation, America, that prides herself as the ‘conscience of humanity’. Clarence Darrow, America’s pre-eminent trial lawyer of his time said of the psychology behind state killers: “before you can get a trial to hang somebody… you must first hate him and then get a satisfaction over his death.”

Just a week ago, I sat down in the company of a few people to a robust argument about the nature of the new generation that we are parents to. In the past couple of weeks my mind has been fully focussed on the parenting skills of my generation and I would not be fair if I didn’t present another valid argument which I will admit makes me a lot more comfortable.

The Speakership of the Federal House of Representatives has finally been settled; Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State has clinched it. One had expected the contest to go the usual way. That is, to go to South-West. And, one has expected Mulikat Akande-Adeola to have won it.

Communication is the most distinctive difference between the nature of man and that of animals. It truly separates human beings from other creatures. It is ideally based on a two-way system in which more than one party express their opinion or authority.

I CANNOT lie, I am happy about the cauldron Nigerian football has driven itself into without a possibility of escape from sanctions from FIFA, the Nigerian public and government.

AT the Beijing Olympics, I asked top officials of Jamaica what was the magic? They had just taken the world by storm and everybody in China was singing their name.

The ongoing drama surrounding the speakership of the House of Representatives has kept me entertained since Monday.

First, we were told, shortly after the April polls, that the PDP leadership, including President Jonathan, had decreed that the new Speaker must be from the South-West while the Deputy Speaker must be from the North-East.

It is observed that since the May general election in Nigeria, events seem to have been moving fast as being expected by many patriotic citizens. The new rulers, both at the state and federal levels, have been ushered into their elevated chairs with costly dinners, sweet wines and pleasant launches to marked the beginning of a new era.

SURELY we cannot continue to allow individuals and groups to do what they liked and undermine our unity, cohesion and effectiveness. Henceforth, we shall not condone acts of indiscipline in our party”. – Acting PDP National Chairman, Dr. Haliru Bello

WE started our series on the lame ducks last week. Today, we are back with some points of order in the same region. We are, however, reminded that under normal parliamentary procedure, the appropriate time to raise a point of order is when the member who has the floor is still speaking, not after he is done with his presentation.