IN what amounts to no more than a mere typhoon stirring in a tiny tea cup, millions are still up in arms over the botched coronation in Germany.

THOSE who thought it was a one-off thing were soon mistaken. Former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Malam Nasir el Rufai, not only took up the Friday slot of the back page of THISDAY Newspapers to write a regular column but also pointedly undertook the mission of “holding government accountable”. From the tone and content of his two outings so far, he is directly pitched against the policies of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GEJ, whom he had audaciously, in his first article, pronounced as doomed to failure as a leader.

RECENTLY, a national newspaper quoted Raph Uwazurike as threatening that the Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, may join forces with Boko Haram! And I say why not? Better still, why not Biko Haram which in Igbo could be translated to mean “Please Leave Me”? Biko Haram could insist that they do not want English or Christian names! If the Federal Government negotiates with Boko Haram, it could also negotiate with Biko Haram! If amnesty, monetary compensations and overseas trainings eventually come to Boko Haram, Uwazurike’s Biko Haram could also fall in line for same.

THE answer cannot be that the order of electoral governance is now institutionalized because it has not been aborted by military rule. Political parties in Nigeria are the civilian structure for electoral governance and the first act of the military in government is the abolition of the constitution, the political parties and the sack of the legislatures at the three levels of government.

ONE day in 1988, the Production Supervisor of our newspaper, Weekly Newsline, sauntered majestically into the newsroom. Let me keep his name out of this for obvious reasons. This elderly man made a loud announcement while production activities were in full spate.

Nigeria is in the dock. Brought to the court of public opinion on the believed “premature ouster” of the Falcons from the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Hi Readers! The first thing that the gals did on their return to Lagos was to go
pay a visit to the supposedly sick Belinda – Seb’s fiancee. Why? Well, my view when Becky the evangelist/peace-maker mooted the idea was that we should leave her alone. I suggested to the gals that we should each ring her up to ask how Belinda was feeling, and then leave the matter at that.

Nigeria is in the dock. Brought to the court of public opinion on the believed “premature ouster” of the Falcons from the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

“In spite of Organised Labour’s recognition of the real advantages that a deregulated downstream oil sector would bring to the economy, there is yet no sign that Labour’s opposition to this policy has waned! Labour, of course, recognizes that NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation), like all monopolies (especially state run monopolies) create price and market distortions which do not generally favour the masses. Thus, even when it is clear that deregulation will not only release at least N600bn revenue annually for critical infrastructural upliftment, but also reduce the space for corrupt enrichment within the petroleum subsector and induce keen competition with improved consumer services, Labour is not convinced that deregulation would translate into cheaper or stable petrol prices, especially when global crude oil prices usually follow an upward trajectory over time.

To a keen observer of Nigeria’s haphazard evolution as a nation-state, the country is currently facing serious crisis of values. Specifically, since the civil war ended in 1970, there has been a paradigm-shift in the value orientation of Nigerians.