BY the time you read this column, all of the 33 men who were trapped in the San Jose copper and gold mine (near Copiapo in Chile’s Atacama Desert) should have been freed from a terrible and terrifying ordeal that has dragged on for over two months and attracted global attention (no less than 1500 journalists – from several different countries – showed up to personally witness their liberation).

THE Commonwealth Games have been the Games for us. There were some surprises about the performance of Team Nigeria . With the minimal preparations, Nigeria was on the way to her best Commonwealth Games since her first appearance in 1950.

It is a man of this giant national profile that is now the field marshal of Arewa warriors campaigning for the return of power to the North in 2011. More than 30 years of exposure to sensitive high national public offices has failed to moderate the regional impetus that threw him upon the national centre-stage.

THERE is this hue and cry about the huge failure rates in this year’s Senior School Certificate Examinations conducted by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and the National Examinations Council (NECO).

A concerned fan of professional boxing in Nigeria confronted me last week on phone, demanding to know just what the sin of the Nigerian Boxing Board of Control is, for which Yours Truly has persistently chosen to deny it peace all these many years past.

These were relentlessly persecuted by the colonial masters, dismissed from work, their businesses wrecked and in many instances sent to jail. Amongst the latter was Osita C Agwuna who made the famous call to revolution and went to jail. He had publicly argued that “the redemption of Africa lies in the hands of Africans themselves and must be achieved by either violent revolution or by non-violent revolution”.

Yes, millions of Nigerians have for months questioned the huge amount of money set aside for the celebration of what amounted to them as a non-event against the backdrop of mounting external debt, infrastructural decay and sundry failures in the system- Nigerians had expressed their reservations about the entire celebration.

Nigeria at Independence from this perspective is seen as a fully formed polity that in time has become corrupt resulting in the failure of state and political institutions, resulting in the disorder now witnessed. Failed state analysis result in two contrasting remedies.

WHERE is President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s Presidential Advisory Committee (PAC)? I am forced to ask this question because of the noticeable drop in the quality of presidential carriage and actions, especially since GEJ declared his intention to contest for president next year.

A regular reader of this column, Mr. Emmanuel Ekeh, recently sent this rejoinder to our article “WHERE ARE THE COINS?” Please read on: “My dear Les Leba, Your article “where are the coins” made interesting reading. In fact, it is like you read my mind and saw the grudge in it whenever I enter the market to make some purchases with our naira currencies which have no value.

The mother did not know what to do or what went on after. David Milliband has resigned from the front bench and has reverted to his constituency duties.
And that reminds me of the Ogbulafors. Obioma Eze Ogbulafor,

Another woman, had her first son shot before the whole family, after being commanded by evil men to have sex with hs mother and he refused. The woman had to beg her second son to do it to avoid losing him.Now the second son has ran away telling the family not to try to fnd him, there is no security, government just turned away. Please don’t publish my name or no”.

Even at 50 years when we austensibly celebrated “maturity”as a country, it is now clearer than crystal that we are into the vicious circle of instability all over again. And it is instructive that this instability surfaced right on the day that we were celebrating 50 years of independence!!

“THE place: Lagos Racecourse. The dramatis personae: [The Governor-General] Sir James Robertson, representing Queen Elizabeth II of Britain and [the incoming Prime Minister] Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafewa Balewa, representing the 40 million people of Nigeria…And as the clock struck 12 midnight, [they] took their positions on the dais and watched the lowering of the Union Jack and the hoisting of the Nigerian flag…And so the people sang the National Anthem…And so the Independence of Nigeria was proclaimed…

THERE was a sense in which it seemed that some members of the Commonwealth did not want to see Indian host the Commonwealth Games that began with a magnificent opening ceremony last Sunday.