Notice was given earlier in the week that President Goodluck Jonathan would soon announce his interest in contesting the presidential ticket in 2015.

And so Major Hamza Al-Mustapha went home last week to a tumultuous welcome after 14 years of incarceration. His daughter who was five years old when he was locked up is now 19. That special father/daughter relationship that is usually forged in teenage years might be lost for ever.

A time will come when this too will become an entertaining anecdote round the dinner table and we’ll be like tee hee hee hee…. Remember when then mace was the political weapon of choice…hee hee…’.but for now, our very own theatre of the absurd moves on and is playing out to a packed house in the Garden City.

In order to present a simple analysis, the past will reflect only the period after Independence which was won on a ‘platter of gold‘ in 1960, covering the Civil War (1967 – 1970) and the end of the military rule in 1999 when democracy returned from captivity.

Uche Ejimofor will never forget that day in Gboko.

It could take good space if he were to chronicle his memoirs as team manager of Iwuanyanwu Nationale, once a top side in the continent.

SOME have asked: “Who wants the President to appear on national television annually to deliver one more boring speech?” Such people see the State of the Nation Address as an avenue for the President to blow hot air on us for a whole hour. We think otherwise.

“The PDP appears to have added public brawling to its list of accomplishments. The self-proclaimed largest party in Africa has turned into a fight club that employs the police as ushers for its matches…When the interest of the nation is subjugated so that the narrow, parochial interest of a clique in power is served events like we see unfold in Rivers will soon become common place.

The Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, has always tried to position itself as a highly credible opposition party that is capable of appealing to voters in every geopolitical zone and can take on the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

IN an earlier article (“Amaechi’s rebel war”, June 3, 2013) on the ongoing political crisis in Rivers State, I made this observation on the Governor of Rivers State: “Chibuike Amaechi is an intelligent man. But he is not a wise man. He is action-packed, but he lacks self control.”

EVIDENTLY President Goodluck Jonathan, as the Yoruba proverb goes, has eating his fill of his food and is now actively looking for what will deflate his round belly.