Is football failing to be a unifying factor in Nigeria?
Since I started following football in Nigeria, never had I experienced the mixed reactions that followed the defeat of Eagles by Egypt last Tuesday. There were those who felt extremely sad and those who felt happy. There were those who were simply indifferent. They never cared for they have since lost hope in the national team.

LEON PANETTA, the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director had the painful duty of defending the professional conduct of his agents cut by a suicide bomber in Khost, Afghanistan. Humam Khalil Abu-Mulai al-Balawi was a 36-year old Jordanian doctor who was providing the CIA a stream of useful intelligence information. He was being jointly run by the CIA and the Jordanian intelligence.

LAST week, I wrote that I’d heard that a significant percentage of Northerners are bitterly opposed to the idea of Dr Goodluck Jonathan becoming Head of State if Yar’Adua cannot continue. I described such elements as shameless tribalists.

STEPHEN Okechukwu Keshi requires little introduction. I suppose the authorities of Nigerian football need to know him, if they were serious about the things they should do. If not for few hitches that attended his efforts in Togo, he would have taken Togo to the 2006 World Cup as the coach. He qualified Togo for the World Cup then the troubles followed.

Since the Independence ( on the ‘platter of gold‘) of Nigeria in 1960, the sonorous song of our rulers whether civilian or military had been, and it is still, macro-economic stability with full employment and tolerable inflation.

”Even in totalitarian states, the time comes when past errors are admitted. In Nigeria , we fail to establish a climate of inquiry.When power is placed in the service of vicious reaction a language must be called into being which does its best to appropriate such obscenity of power and fling its excesses back in its face.

I DO not know what school of thought produced Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, Sanusi Lamido Aminu Sanusi. I know that he read Economics at Ahmadu Bello University before reading Sharia and Islamic Studies in Sudan. So I am not talking about literacy, but education. I am aware he has at least two degrees, but my concern is the degree of his thought process. I am not referring to ideology, but common sense.

Do you know there are seven times the number of women in Angola than men? that will be my focus tomorrow. Dont miss your Vanguard copy. MY MAN OSVALDO ALVARO Yesterday, I introduced you to this column.

THE news that lawmakers in the Lagos House of Assembly were contemplating the impeachment of the Governor, Raji Fashola, came to me as a surprise as I believe it did many other Nigerians who must have followed the activities of the Governor since he came into office in 2007.

There is a Yoruba adage that says that you cannot hide your nakedness from the person that will bath your body after your demise. So, whenever you remember that neither of you is complete without the other, then, you’ll know there is no point keeping secrets. It’s like running from your own shadow. Doing that can only mean that you have some hidden agenda. And that is dangerous for any relationship.

The Vice President does not need a Deputy. As long as the President is still alive, only absent, the Vice President does not need a Deputy. But if he takes over substantively, then he can appoint a Deputy; if the President reemerges, then he can take back his position

I made the mistake of suggesting in my weekly column that given the dynamics of football, that my column will not attempt to treat match reports and results as the case may be.

THE news that lawmakers in the Lagos House of Assembly were contemplating the impeachment of the Governor, Raji Fashola, came to me as a surprise as I believe it did many other Nigerians who must have followed the activities of the Governor since he came into office in 2007.

The 27th Orange CAF Nations Cup started yesterday in Angola. By tomorrow, the Super Eagles of Nigeria will take centre stage in the only match that will, perhaps determine their fate in the competition.

It would be mischief on the part of this column if we subscribed to the bandwagon of those elitist Nigerians whose stock in trade is the creation of false hope of a better year ahead at the end of every dismal year in the past two decades or so.