When he announced it, his opponents were already waiting, and their counter: they placed a pawn before him to stump or check the move of his knight. I am talking about Ibrahim Babangida, whom Chidi Amuta has hyperbolically celebrated as “Prince of the Niger” – a sort of Machiavellian archetype from Minna.

“Why not “step aside”, to borrow the words of another failure, and let Nigeria march to her destiny? Perhaps, his departure might even help to undo the harm done by a cynical former president”.

Presumably life is a game where we all play for a prize. Not everyone is going to agree and I am not 100% sold on the idea also but it makes sense to compare life to a game we play to win.

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.