Just as millions wallow in penury, we hear of billions been stolen, we hear of scandals – Siemens, Halliburton, failed banks etc. For the common man it is “when I turn here, the rain falls on me, I turn there, the sun shines on me … I can only go beyond and forget,” as the poet mourned a grave situation, so hopeless that only death could end his own sorrow too.

IT is a long way away from the days when we bought and sold with cowries; in the days when a lady with uncommon whiteness of denture would be referred to as eyin fun j’owo, in tribute to the glossy whiteness of the cowrie.

Part of the current Law (as it was until 30 June 2009 ) states among other issues that ‘a defending player who deliberately steps over the goal line into his team’s goal, (which is technically outside the field of play) in an attempt to place an attacking player technically in the offside position is to be regarded as having behaved in an unsporting manner

We must first recognize the fundamental truth that you have given life to in Ghana. Development depends on good governance. That is the ingredient which has been missing in far too many places…..’’
— President Barack Obama Speech before The Ghana Parliament, July 11, 2009.

The three books are entitled: The Courage to Challenge; Challenging New Frontiers and Pushing the Limits. While the first is a free-flowing narrative of his uncommon and miraculous journey to the seat of Governor of Imo State, the others reflect his words and actions on the said seat. The Ohakim story, especially as encapsulated in The Courage to Challenge is one worth telling or recalling because without the courage to challenge there will be no “miracles”.

MY friends and I used to have a good laugh about the Olusegun Obasanjo administration. We read about so many Special Advisers, Senior Advisers, Political Assistants and other such offices that we concluded that the man must have over a hundred such officers.

I have always believed that parents were the instigators of this sexism, but then found myself being completely wrong, which is something that I hate to be, so you can imagine how difficult it is for me to admit.

They grew organically and are waxing stronger. We all know that the poorly conceived and hastily created contraption called Transcorp PLC has not grown much since its birth. The question now is : What do we do then? How do we replicate the Korean paradigm? Here is how. The government must create a level playing field for Nigerian companies.

This is the historical conjectural approach. The result of adopting this method of analysis would be an explanation of development failures blamed on the military. There are, however, problems with this approach. The first is that military rule depended on the civil service, the judiciary, the private sector and civilian ministers who enabled the military to govern.

EVERY other day on this column we lament the scourge of poor quality leaders who straddle the commanding heights of our public affairs. “Poor quality” does not necessarily mean low educational background or that the person involved does not have impressive academic certificates. After all, many of our poor quality leaders, like the man in the news today, are holders of post-graduate degrees.

The weapons funded with the 2008 budget votes had largely been consolidated by the first quarter of 2009 and about mid May this year, the Military Joint Task Force (JTF) was sufficiently emboldened to embark on a major resurgence of its operations in the area; villages and erstwhile sleepy communities were ravaged, innocent men, women and children were slaughtered, community leaders and chiefs were arrested while others fled into the bush; the mansions of local beneficiaries of the proceeds of oil bunkerings were razed and these erstwhile government political collaborators were declared wanted and remained at large! Government reported the recovery of diaries, accounting records and other documents which listed the affiliates of the hunted ‘militants’.

THE human eyes have been done a disservice by their hosts. We actually don’t use them just for the sake of vision, the human eyes are trained from birth to judge, to disparage, to select, appreciate or condemn.

But let me say that what I read from all the speeches was his regret that we do not seem to have discovered the joy in affecting positively the human condition. You see, we belong at a level of development where the human condition can be sacrificed to meet the greed of vested interests.

LET me start this series with the facts on which there can be no serious dispute ore delving into areas where the GSM text punches will fly. Even disagreements are healthy for us.

This is why in theology and political ideology persecution is usually employed to force unbelievers to accept opinions which otherwise they would not accept.