I was regarded as a disappointment to many of my media colleagues when I was Minister of Information because of what they thought was a betrayal on my part. I had championed the promulgation of the Nigerian Media Council Decree of 1989 which was one of the bodies, along with the National Broadcasting Commission, recommended in the Mass Communication Policy that I midwifed.

In the year 1987, after an exhaustive study, personally funded, I sent a detailed report to Babangida’s Minister of Transport (name withheld for personal reasons) pointing out that in a few years, motorcycles (okada or achaba) would become the major means of urban transport on account of SAP.

A light bulb moment is an experience that can be life challenging. It simply means you get a new perspective or an understanding that puts some fundamental pieces of the puzzle that is life together.

Unlike the commercialists or the traders or the manufacturers they plied their intangible commodities as best as they possibly could.
Among the commercialists Femi Otedola, Felix Ibru, tower above many. And among those who gave Nigeria the good name in technology was Prof. Bart O. Nnaji Professor Tam David-West (did he receive his award?) And there was Professor Mosobalaje Olaloye Oyawoye. Of course, (Baba Kekere) Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande was among the beacons. He shone in Journalism and in politics.

As Nigeria moves closer and closer to the 2011 elections, politicians and other stakeholders in the political process have started strategising for the event. Attahiru Jega, a well-known academic who made a name for himself by leading the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) through a successful nationwide strike during the regime of Ibrahim Babangida, is now chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

We grew up in the East as the inheritors of fine examples of robust and dynamic leadership that saw Nnamdi Azikiwe straddling the African imagination like a force of nature, or men like Michael Iheonukara Okpara, whose leadership of the East remains without compare. While the Igbo was riding the crest of development and progress from 1957 to 1967, it felt like the rest of Nigeria could not touch its political helms, what with such colorful and eponymous names among its leaders: Akanu Ibiam, educator and missionary doctor, who approached public service with the instincts of a missionary.

The political “game” of the 2011 presidency is becoming fascinating. As people voice their support for or opposition to the candidates on offer, the plot to win thickens, making it even more difficult for observers to attempt a prediction.

There was hardly any newspaper that you could open recently, without reading about yet another group of politicians, civil society, ethnic group or plain opportunists endorsing the candidacy of President Goodluck Jonathan. The gentleman is yet to announce it, but no matter; several people have done that for him already.

Today, I will go a little deeper on certain issues. Life itself is very deep, and you really cannot fully understand it. Just when you begin to think you are getting a grasp of what life is all about, things happen, and you begin to realize that it really is a little bit complicated.

I was not moved when we crashed out of the World Cup. I never expected wonders from the team. I had prepared my mind for the worst. I saw disaster coming but I never knew it was going to be that bad – that a team would lose two matches and still had a chance to qualify if they won one against a country like South Korea and still failed!

BASIL RISBRIDGE Davidson is not the saint- like hero that Ernesto Che Guevera conjures. He was not a Tarzan swinging through the African jungles, neither was he a missionary of some foreign religion who evangelised the continent at the cost of its land, culture, blood and wealth.

If we are to be guided by media reports, everyone is set for the eventful year, 2011 – the year of all important elections. Even President Goodluck Jonathan appears more enthusiastic than others when he cautioned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) against any form of failure when he emphatically said that, ‘gone are the days when those in charge of electoral or other responsibilities will use such phrases as ‘our hands are tied‘ for justification or failure‘.

NIGERIANS are in celebration after the scintillating performance of the Falconets in the FIFA U-20 World Cup. The 4-2 (penalty shoot outs) defeat of the USA in the quarter-finals of the competition is epochal, not because for the first time Nigeria would be playing in the semi-final, but the expectation that women’s football would get respect for the first time.

Whenever Nigerians talk about zoning in particular or politics in general, they talk as if they are totally wedded to the idea that a Southern President must have a Northern Vice-President; and vice versa. There is also a tendency to regard each geopolitical zone as a united interest group…AND a widespread assumption that it’s OK for every Head of State to have two four-year terms.

THE new Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, got me worried when he gave the “salvaging” of the Maurice Iwu voters register as an option. In his maiden press conference on Thursday, July 22, 2010, he had hinted that his Commission would have no choice but to attempt a salvage of the old register if the N72 billion required to acquire the machines and logistics for the creation of a credible and computerised electoral register and database was not granted.