THE Elections were not primarily for selection of persons for office in the Colonial Government but for the transfer of ownership of the British Colonial Estate from the British Government to Nigerian Colonial Parties organised to contest the elections.

By Paul Bassey I am not joking. I want to share with my readers today, tips on how to win the World Cup. In doing so, I know that Lars Lagerback is likely to peep and steal some ideas. Well and good.

A DEAR friend, Professor Ogwo E. Ogwo, last week forwarded an interesting article he saw on the pages of The Guardian of London to my mailbox. It was written by Nigerian-born literary legend, Professor Chinua Achebe and entitled: “What Nigeria means to me”. I had not even completed reading it when I decided I was going to write a rejoinder discussing what Nigeria means to me against the general flow of Achebe’s reflections.

The tenacity of the pro Yar’Adua cabal to hold onto Aso Rock through whatever means must be a testimony to the sweetness of power! Under normal circumstances where political and public offices are geared towards the service of the people, there will be little or no personal gain in capturing power or its retention.

Back in 1999, on February 21, 1999, in this column entitled “TO MY BROTHER, DR EKWUEME”. I told the former Vice President, that “the PDP which you call my baby would be snatched from you” as a result of this strategic mistake and lack of political courage.

The most common definition is that of a condition or state of being that surpasses physical existence and in one form is also independent of it. In almost all the major religions the Divine is the one transcendental force that is both within and beyond the universe; its very foundation is a core of emotion/faith that continuously perpetuates its existence and longevity.

In The Guardian of March 25, 2010, two essays critical of the theory of evolution were published. The first one, written by “a teacher in Lagos,” Imelda Wallace, has the innocuous looking title “Science education and belief in evolution.”

The remarkable ways by which that contact has shaped the Igbo continues to be the basis of reflections by scholars – and increasingly by Igbo scholars who feel the powerful “urgency of now” to call attention to the intricate as well as intriguing situation of the contemporary Igbo of modern Nigeria, in its current relationship with nation and with the emergent world.

What Iwu was quoted as saying and which I challenged him in my piece in this column on March 25, 2007, to deny, made me write him off as a man who could be trusted to do justice to all manner of people. The phone on Uba’s table had been ringing, but he would not pick it because of the interview. Iwu, said the reporters there, burst into the room and discovered a team of journalists were there. He was quoted as saying, “Sorry sir, I didn’t know you were granting an interview.

Abubakar Rimi, former Governor of Kano State and a minister of the Nigerian realm, died recently and has been buried in Kano. There was “commosion” in the country concerning the death. It is said he died of fright occasioned by shock from robbers. It is easy to accept that, but in the circumstance of Rimi, I feel hard to believe. Rimi looked like forged steel.

Government projects are executed with public funds, so, all Nigerians have the right to inspect projects in a nonviolent and objective manner, and report their findings to the relevant authority if there’s anything amiss. Those in charge should investigate these findings and take appropriate action. Accountability should be the order of the day.

Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida is still the cause. That was the exact word he used in his congratulatory message to the man many of us now delight to honour with title of the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. One Prime Ministerial and two Presidential elections had come and gone, in all of which Chief Awolowo contested and lost.

I have said in this column before that Acting President Goodluck Jonathan will be assessed strictly by what he does. So, I am not disappointed that he recognises it and is moving in step with public expectations.

ABEL TENDEKAYI Muzorewa, retired Methodist Bishop walked away from history 32 years ago when he signed the Salisbury Accord. This ill-advised step consigned him to the dustbin of history. So when he passed away last Thursday, April 8, at 85, not a few might have asked, Muze who?

LAST week, I dedicated a large chunk of this column to telling Vanguard readers that my generator and the PHCN transformer on my street in Abuja had collapsed simultaneously, that my household had been TOTALLY deprived of electricity for several days and that I had temporarily taken refuge in a hotel…