WE remember Alexander Pope (1688-1744), “For forms of government, let fools contest. That which is best administered is best”. This is mainly true of budgeting systems. Nigerian governments have experimented with virtually every form of budgeting ever known to man but like Hamlet’s opinion of drinking, budgets have been honoured more in the breach than in the observance.

EVERYONE is hailing President Buhari’s first budget as an elected head of state. Everyone, it seems, except the bitter malcontents of the Peoples Democratic Party, better known by their rallying cry of “PDP? Share the money!!!” And quite some money-sharing they did for sixteen years, as the sheer cold-bloodedness of former National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki’s free money madness has shown to the world.

JUST days before Christmas, the Federal Government of Nigeria declared it has met its self-imposed December deadline for the overthrow of insurgent forces in Nigeria. At different forums both President Mohammadu Buhari and his Minister for Information, Lai Mohammed, claimed that Nigeria has won the war against Boko Haram.

The USA PATRIOT Act or the “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001” is a set of laws created to deter and punish terrorist acts in the US and to enable better investigation as well as detect and prosecute those guilty of funding terrorism and money laundering.

Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf was the Minister of Information in the dying days of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq. Nicknamed “Comical Ali” by British tabloids, al-Sahaf made a fool of himself during the Iraqi war by constantly fabricating victories of the Iraqi army, even as territory after territory fell to the American-led allied forces.