The appointment of the new Inspector General of Police did not come as a surprise after all, following public outcry that the immediate past IGP had reached his professional nadir and cannot offer anything new or creative to checkmate the menacing force of unreason of members of Boko Haram.

For decades, advertisements have always been a way for individuals, corporate organisations to sell their ideas and products to the general public. The way an advert is packaged goes a long way and has an effect on the consumer. It will determine whether the product will be purchased or not.

My poor beloved country… our own dear native land… nothing captures the craziness of these times like the cover page of one of our local dailies during the week.

Perhaps the Federal Government has been very lucky to have taken many Nigerians, especially the commentators on current affairs on a jolly ride either by share deceit or clever maneuvers.

A Muslim friend who lives in Sokoto sadly tells me that fear of Boko Haram is the beginning of wisdom nowadays…and that the organisation has gradually acquired a legendary status in the North and is widely regarded as a highly efficient terror machine that operates with deadly precision and may even possess supernatural powers and is bringing the Nigerian State to its knees.

MY original intention was to digress from political issues, in this week’s column, and focus on the current outbreak of Lassa fever–which has already claimed two lives in Rivers State and is currently on the loose in six others.

I SPOKE with Lai Mohammed, spokesperson of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), on Monday. My call was sequel to the alarm he raised about the decision of the Goodluck Jonathan regime to handover the nation’s maritime security to Global West Vessel Specialist Agency (GWVSL), a company allegedly owned by Government Tompolo, one of the so-called ex-militants of the Niger Delta, that spent the past few years subverting our country.

SINCE the publication of Hon. Josef Omorotionmwan’s article on “Stealing by Sign Posts” on 29 December 2011, there have been raging debates and comments on the issue. The latest is the rejoinder titled, “Who is Stealing by Sign Posts?” by one Aliyu Jattu from Agbede (Vanguard, 18 January 2011, p. 19). Also, see paid advertisement titled, Oshiomhole: “This Madness must stop” (Vanguard, 5 January 2012, p. 25).

I WONDER how the average Muslim Northern Nigerian felt when the Emir of Kano, His Royal Highness Ado Bayero, burst into tears when President Goodluck Jonathan paid him a condolence and solidarity visit last Sunday.

THESE are desperate times for the Jonathan Administration and the government might do worse than seeking desperate solutions. Although the streets might be free of protesting Nigerians, the smoke from the bonfires made by them to register their opposition to the careless increase in the pump price of petrol is nowhere near being cleared.