POLICING the police is like engineering the engineer, which appears different from engineering his engine. Some have argued, though, that biomedical engineering may not differ qualitatively from toilet training, education and moral teachings – all of which are forms of the so-called “social engineering”, which in the main, has man as its principal object and used by one generation to mold the next.

SUDDENLY, the political atmosphere in the North has become active. It is no longer just the Boko Haram bombings and killings. Those who pride themselves as “Northern leaders” (General Ibrahim Babangida, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and their respective disciples) convened a meeting right on the heels of a series of meetings held by the 19 governors with the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar in attendance. At the end 10 standing committees of politicians, academics, professionals and businessmen were set up in apparent efforts to pursue “Northern unity”.

NIGERIA was again in the news last week for the wrong reasons following the murder of two hostages, Chris McManus and Franco Lamolinara who had been held by Boko Haram for nearly a year.

ONE can rightly say that anybody who, in his or her lifetime, witnessed a blackman, Barack Obama, become the President of the United States of America and who also witnessed the glorious burial accorded Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu has had a fulfilled life.

BEN Agande in the News Section of Vanguard Thursday, March 8, 2012 provided the following summary of the review of the Committee’s findings by another committee headed by the Minister of Interior, Abba Moro. The method adopted in the work of the Galtimari Committee and Abba Moro Review Committee is worthy of notice.

Nigerians have largely been agitated by CBN’s advance notice of daily cash withdrawal/deposits limits of N150,000 and N1 million for individuals and corporate bodies respectively, as from June 2012, in place of current limits of N1 million and N10 million respectively.

Allocations for SURE in the 2012 budget has again been slashed to less than N450 billion. Increasingly, it looks as if the clarifications made by Dr Reuben Abati, last week, might be unnecessary after all. With only N450 billion in the kitty to be distributed among the three tiers of government, it would appear that the Christopher Kolade Committee, a high-powered group, will have only about N240 billion to work with.

Emmanuel Okonjo had had enough. His email to me from Abuja said as much. “That is the last parish of that church I will join. I am now convinced the church is a cult.” What was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back for Emmanuel. The pastor came to church that Sunday morning and laid down a decree “ex cathedra.” “Anyone who speaks against our church or against our G.O. (General Overseer) is going to die.”

WE were waiting to be served at this filling station when a gentleman drove furiously into the station and screeched to a halt, attracting much attention. “My friend, please come here,” he told the attendant at the pump. “Er, oga, I’m busy now.” “Alright, I’ll wait for you to finish attending to that vehicle.” When the attendant finished, he turned to the man. “Yes, oga?

It’s been long in the making, but it does seem finally that the future has arrived for oil. Crude oil as the world’s most important source of energy is on the decline. Last Wednesday, the US president, Barack Obama, declared oil so last century that it’s future as a source of energy is now a matter of time ticking: tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock.