Even the most powerful or wealthy woman will still fall at the altar of love. Most of us, will do the most foolish things when it comes to matters of the heart. Many of us would take the most ridiculous of risks, just to prove our love. And many will also make the grievous sacrifices, including family and friends, just to remain in love.

THE two questions appear identical if the readers set their minds on expectation of immediate revival of a failing state. Some have accused me of being a coward for not declaring outright Nigeria as a failed state. I am not an unduly optimistic analyst by nature since I believe that pessimism could be self_defeating in examining the various problems of the country.

By Ikeddy Isiguzo Families – People with close affinity, usually through birth or marriage, but also loosely used to define relationships we have cultivated to the point that we see people involved in them as very close to us.

WE had to destroy the town in order to save it.” That was the United States Air Force officer’s response to the American destruction of the Vietnamese town of Ben Tre, in the Mekong Delta city with 35,000 inhabitants. Save it from who?

Former sports minister, Musa Mohammed, once got in touch to clear the air on an issue I had raised concerning the bad blood between the Nigeria Football Association and his ministry.

DID former President Olusegun Obasanjo commit blasphemy when he spoke at the Leon H. Sullivan Dialogue on Nigeria in Washington DC last week? Let us quote him and reflect appropriately: “With all due respect, if Jesus Christ could come to the world and be the Chairman of the INEC, any election he conducted would be disputed”.

The media war waged by radical journalists from the early 1980s provided the impetus and support for civil society organisations to come into being and join in this fight. The haste with which Generals Obasanjo (1979), Babangida (1993), and Abdulsalam Abubakar (1999) either stepped aside or handed over power to civilians is partly credited to the dogged efforts of the radical media, aided by the civil society groups that they encouraged and empowered.

I agree the Professor was a disaster and a major problem, but I did not want our case to be like a man fleeing from a snake only to confront a lion. I did not want a repeat of our national tragedy when we chased away General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida and his regime that periodically shed blood under different guises like executing alleged coup plotters, only to end up with a much more vicious General Sani Abacha who elevated murder to state policy.

THIS past week couldn’t have been a particularly pleasant one for Ahmed Yerima, former governor of Zamfara State and now PDP senator representing Zamfara at the National Assembly. The Senate Minority Whip was definitely in the minority when four female colleagues of his decided to take him to task on allegations that he recently married a 13 year old Egyptian girl.

FOLLOWING the coup d’ etat of July 23, 1952 which replaced King Farouk with General Neguib, Amer was appointed director of the New Head of State’s office. He became a Major-General the following year and from then on until 1958 was Commander-in-Chief of Egypt’s armed forces. Promoted Field Marshal in 1957, he served from 1958 to 1962 as Commander-in-Chief of the United Arab Republic Forces.

I do not know for how long Hon Ibrahim Bio was minister of Transport. What I do know is that for the few days that he has been Chairman of the National Sports Commission and Minister of Sports, he has known no peace.

NOBODY can sack me,” he boasted, when about a year ago, when pressure mounted on the National Assembly and the Presidency to remove Professor Maurice Iwu as the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Hi readers! It’s at a time like this that I wish I were endowed with some flesh on my frame so that my body wouldn’t reflect the stress I’m going through.

SIX years after scrapping toll gates on major high ways, the Federal Government is to reintroduce them to raise funds for road maintenance in the country”. The preceding is the opening paragraph of a report titled “FG to Reintroduce Toll Gates, Fuel Tax” on page 15 in the Punch edition of 30/3/2010.

It is not enough for a book to claim that its contents were divinely inspired: there must be independent evidence confirming that such inspiration actually took place and that what was written down is a faithful reproduction of the inspired message. Apart from the claims contained in scriptures, how can Olatunji and other believers differentiate between divine inspiration and other psychological processes that can be justifiably labelled ‘inspiration’?TO BE