One unsettled issue in Nigeria is the nation’s population figures. The nation’s census results including those of the most recent one which gave a population of 140,003,542 in December 2006 have been disputed. The exact numerical strength of the Nigerian nation has therefore remained a subject of controversy.

“Political language … is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”-George Orwell

One of the plights of children that have continued to cause concern is the issue of child trafficking. Recently, Esther Onyegbula spoke with Mrs.Bisi Olateru-Olagbegi, a human rights activist and the Executive Director/President Women’s Consortium of Nigeria (WOCON), and she shed light on the fight against child trafficking, what constitute child trafficking, how it affects the society and other sundry issues.

It’s a morbid but acceptable truth that most of us will end up dead at one time or the other. From the time one is born; one expects to one day die. Most of us will choose to live a joyfully long existence but even given the best of circumstances; there are no guarantees and at some time we will be pushing up daisies.

Deputy Superintendent of Police, Ngozi Conchita Braide is the first female Lagos Police Command Public Relations Officer, PPRO. She was appointed on 11th of June 2012 and in this encounter with Saturday Vanguard, she talks about her beginning, her career, her experience and her future expectations. Excerpts.

Two dates always cause me to be melancholy, Nigeria’s Independence and Democracy day. I reflect on how many years we have been in existence as a nation, and how many leaders we have had who have promised to lead us out of Egypt, and into a land flowing with milk and honey… .It is over 50 years; at the very least half of a human being’s lifetime on earth. If at this age, one is yet to chew strong meat with well formed teeth but continues to feed from a bottle then more is the pity.

I really wanted to have fun with the on-goingOtedola/Lawan saga this week. Pretty intriguing stuff this ‘mysterious case’ of the six hundred thousand dollar bribe. Everybody is sounding a little ‘off’.If this truly was a sting operation by security agencies and the money was marked as alleged by Mr Otedola, why wasn’t Honourable Farouk Lawan not arrested at the point of collection and the money retrieved by said agencies?

A FRIEND sent me this woeful, whimsical little piece in which it is imagined what the plane that recently crashed might have said if it could speak for itself:

In the past week marked by grievous losses arising out of the DANA plane crash and the gruesome slaughter of christian worshippers in Bauchi and a former Deputy Inspector General of Police in Kano, the time calls for a moment of sober reflection while expressing condolences to the families of the departed innocent souls.

THE purchase of old, and possibly defective, Alaskan Airline stock is not the only Dana anomaly to surface in the wake of the crash. “The ownership structure of Dana Airlines Limited and its registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) are fraught with gross irregularities,” The Will reported.