Mr. Bisi Lawrence of the Passing Scene column in the Vanguard newspaper is an elder statesman in the pen profession and over the years, he had endeared himself to many of his fans who read him regularly. I want to count myself lucky to be one of his great fans who had benefitted from his well of experience for his sober offerings on Saturday Vanguard.

It was a week to my promotional exams to form five, and I had been following a carefully laid out revision plan.

When the government led by the late President Yaradua first floated the idea of amnesty for the ‘restless youth’ of the Niger Delta, I did a piece questioning the rationale because my interpretation of the the Amnesty International charter did not include welfare packages and luxury trips (thinly disguised as training programs) for people who in plain speak have done nothing but take innocent lives and wreak wanton destruction albeit in the name of ‘fight for rights’; yeah! But that’s just me sitting here tapping away.

A FEW weeks ago, I sent a text to General SarkinYaki Bello, the Coordinator of Counter-Terrorism in the office of the National Security Adviser. I received a response that he was away on an official assignment. I have been unable to speak with him.

IT has been a long way from the 1950s when politics was forced on the best of any community (when the best educated were begged to represent the people) to the present time when any candidate (with minimum of a school certificate) would force himself on the people as their representative.

Doctors treating Nelson Mandela said he was in a “permanent vegetative state” and advised his family to turn off his life support machine a week ago, according to court documents obtained by AFP Thursday.

THIS writer has been caught severally on the soft side of providing the good life for past leaders. During the debate at the Constituent Assembly on the pension scheme for past Presidents and Governors, I made this demand: “Hands up, all those who will be happy to see their former President driving a taxi or moonlighting as a charge-hand in a factory, trying to make ends meet”.

I AM beginning to lose enthusiasm about seeing United States President, Barack Obama, in Nigerian on state visit.

ONE wouldn’t know if the Jonathan administration has made any official pronouncement on the matter but the issue seems serious enough to warrant a response from senior members of the Obama administration.

LAOLU AKANDE writing from New York in The Guardian Tuesday June 18, 2013, reports that “President Barack Obama is stepping up America’s military strategy against global terrorism and that Africa is on the list of his targets.