OKOWA’S running mate: Clark, Manager, Tompolo in a fierce battle,” so screamed the headline (Vanguard, 20 December 2014). I saw at once the chronicle of another humiliation foretold: of the three personalities mentioned, none is Isoko. But one should not deduce the facts of a newspaper story from its headline. So to the story I went but before another word,the context for my conclusion. I had recently come to the view that the Isoko people are poorly served by their leaders and expressed it openly on April 7 when I declared my intention (aborted precisely eight months later on December 7 at the APC primaries) to run for a seat in the House of Representatives.

IT was and still is the single most talked-about issue in Nigeria in the last one year. Although its existence predated the Goodluck Jonathan administration, insurgency has been that single elephant of an issue that has dominated the room of national discourse in the last one year. It brought activists campaigning for the return of the Chibok girls out on the roads of Abuja on Christmas day 2014. It was on the lips of the hundreds of thousands of Nigerians that have been displaced from their homes in different parts of the north-east, and their families. The Pope didn’t forget to mention it in his Christmas message. And it would continue to dominate news about Nigeria until an end is put to it.

being a serial loser of presidential elections in Nigeria continues as follows:

The contradictions in our failed economy are probably best captured by the stark reality of deepening poverty and unbridled rate of unemployment despite the celebrated recent increase in the Gross Domestic Product, with increasing revenue and bountiful reserves to boot for over two decades!

“We promise our people that even with the drop in oil prices, the economy will be stable.” President Jonathan. December 4, 2014.