We are not claiming that all the actions taken by Yew and Rawlings are flawless or that after their transformatory exploits all Singaporeans and Ghanaians respectively have been “living happily ever after.” Both countries are still grappling with the usual problems of nation-building, including the perennial issues of poverty and equitable distribution of wealth among the citizens.

Obasanjo thinks he is the best thing that has happened to this country and he has taken Nigerians up on a number of occasions. He has tried to perpetuate his hold on the people. Vide the third term. He could not win.

Either way will without a doubt undermine the promise of credible elections that President Jonathan has given. Before we join the fray, let us look back to these schemes which we were all sold on only to discover that those who programmed them had other destinations in mind.

Why must we continue to do everything in an untidy manner? It seems we never learn.

Since 1998, the Nigerian Political environment has been evolving into one huge theatre of the absurd. And one of the most hopelessly absurd event then was the choice by the Northern Political elite of who the Yoruba Presidential candidate should be in 1999.

The Sports Committee of House of Representatives yesterday concluded a three day hearing on what led to our failure in the World Cup and recommendations on the way forward for our football.

SUNDAY, August 15, 2010 will be the 65th commemoration of the day the terrible Second World War ended. But no country wants to mark this; in fact, it is difficult to find any member of the human race marking the day.

ELECTIONS rule and ruin us. Things would remain in that frame for some time. The massive hurricane of poverty sweeping across Nigeria expresses itself through several anomalies.

DURING a press conference that took place in Pretoria earlier on this week, Brigadier-General Buba Marwa (retired), the former military administrator of Lagos State and our current High Commissioner to South Africa, told journalists that he could show them the results of a recent opinion poll that proves that most Nigerians are not bothered about zoning issues and are more interested in leaders who can deliver than in where they come from.

THE Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC) finally woke from its deep slumber to sack Professor Ndidi Okereke-Onyuike, the Director General of the Nigeria Stock Exchange(NSE). Also falling under the axe is the NSE Council and its president, Alhaji Aliko Dangote. Onyuike had sailed from the New York Exchange to the NSE in 1983 as a consultant and metamorphosed into the Exchange’s boss.

UP until that moment I entered this gathering where monarchs outnumbered ‘commoners’, I had no idea of how royals behave in the company of other monarchs. My moment of truth was the retreat, conceived as a conference and refresher course towards re-inventing and sustaining traditional rulership, organised by traditional rulers from the Osun Central Division in Osu State.

THE Ministry of Defence will be holding at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre a two-day International Seminar on Peace Operation, August 2-3, 2010. The subject matter is intriguing because as it is phrased the topic of the seminar pertains to a matter in the portfolio of the Ministry of External Affairs.

I have some fears. The fear that by the time you get to read this column, some of the view points canvassed therein may have been overtaken by events. That is how dynamic the issue is so much that situations change by the minute, by the day. I wish I could hand over this column this week to Alhaji Gara Gombe that incurable critic of the Lulu administration and a crusader for a better football culture.

WHEN Governor Theodore Ahamefule Orji finally decided to dump the Progressive People’s Alliance (PPA) he was widely expected to return straight to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He chose instead to embrace the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). He obviously did not reckon with the surprising return of Chief Orji Kalu to the PDP. His calculation was probably that in a three-cornered fight between a factionalised PDP, an emptied-out PPA and incumbent APGA, he would have the upper hand.

They are not about to give up but to see that they win again. If they win, then, their fortunes will turn..
Of course, those who oppose them (no-zoning) are shouting at the top of their voice and the slogan has been “democracy”, whatever that means now. Of course, they conveniently forget “quota”, Federal Character and all other things. They mean to play their game to the hilt.