That message was at the tail end of the text sent to me by my friend, Tolu, on March 13, 2011. As it turned out, some other folks anxious for me to visit Akwa Ibom State, had not only sent me a leaflet entitled, bondages of Akpabioism, which they claim is now being widely distributed in the state. Going under the name of Free Akwa Ibom Committee, FAIC, the group, in the leaflet under reference, drew everybody’s attention to the fact that Governor Akpabio had in the first three years in office collected from the Federation account and other sources N700 billion.

The transmission of partisan information through the electronic media which is generally referred to as political broadcast involves several materials. These range from political party manifestos, slogans, jingles, emblems and election promises. The significance of political broadcasts is that they offer opportunities to all political parties to publicise their manifestos and other party activities.

The term ‘democracy’ was originally ‘demos’ and ‘krasi’; Greek for ‘people’ and ‘rule’ -or ‘rule of the people’. But over time, it has etymologically evolved to mean different things to different people. In our own part of the world, the transformation is breathtaking.

The sight of houses being swept away into the sea kept playing over and over on the television over the weekend. The biggest earthquake in recent memory had just occurred in Japan and the disaster I was watching on television was the Tsunami that followed shortly after. The year 2011 is barely three months old and this is the second, if not third major earthquake but unlike the one in New Zealand; this one packed a knockout punch of a raging Tsunami.

The mailbox of this page has been almost set ablaze by the passion conveyed in some of the messages that came to hand As usual, we can only deal with one or two because of space constraints.

On coming out of prison, Bode George declared that the next job was to capture Lagos State for the Peoples Democratic Party.

ETSUKO KOYAM lived on the third floor of an apartment building in Japan. That was until last Friday when she saw water tearing through her apartment floor. She ran for dear life holding her dear daughter’s hand.

ADOKE BELLO, SAN, has really impressed me. He was appointed to the lofty post of Attorney-General by a PDP President and is a leading light of this PDP administration. But instead of allowing his membership of an elite ruling group, and the privileges that go with it, to blind him (as so many others in his position would have), he has courageously insisted on challenging five of his senior “colleagues” – PDP Governors (of Adamawa, Kogi, Cross River, Bayelsa and Sokoto), who are trying to achieve tenure elongation through the back door.

TODAY’S memory verse is taken from the case of that old man who was asked if he did not go to farm, and he responded, “Honestly, I did not see any rabbit”.

Among the four major presidential tickets, who do you think has run the cleanest and most effective campaign so far? I will like you to write in and disclose your opinion. In my own view President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) is clearly ahead of the pack.

IT was yet another instance of ‘peculiar mess’ when former PDP chieftain, Olabode George, returned home from two years incarceration for financial crimes.

THIS is an attempt to make a contribution to a discourse whose terms remain largely subjective because it is used stipulatively. In Nigeria’s post-colonial politics, it will appear that the term is used much in the same sense that “Awoist” is used; that is, mainly in claiming a good pedigree while doing the same politics as the “non-progressive” politicians.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Thursday that the naira was overvalued and that more exchange rate flexibility would be needed to prevent the Central Bank of Nigeria from running down the foreign currency reserves to fix the rate.

NOT being a lawyer, I am leaving the legalisms of this matter to lawyers and judges. But as a private citizen with a strong viewpoint, I am saying NO to the verdict of Justice Adamu Bello of the Federal High Court of Abuja, which on February 23, 2011, ruled that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should not conduct governorship elections in five states because the tenures of their incumbent governors had not expired.

I didn’t know whether to be pleased or annoyed that Seyi turned up at the airport to see off Milwan. We had sat around waiting for him and the others to check-in, when I noticed that there was a young lady, moving around from point to point with him. At first, I had thought that she was another passenger, but on closer observation, I discovered that it was Seyi. I was about to draw Tayo’s attention to it, when she nudged me and nodded in her direction.