In apparent response to the opposition’s admonition that the nation’s economy was “gradually grinding to a halt” last year, the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, conversely painted a brighter economic picture, and sought to clarify popular misconceptions on the issue of our external reserves balance of about $45bn and the alleged discrepancies between the reported Excess Crude Account balances of the Finance Ministry and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) reserves.

THE National Conference made far-reaching resolutions on Thursday, July 3rd 2014 when it approved the creation of eighteen additional states in the country. If this resolution is put in the constitution, Nigeria will become a federation of 54 states, with about 174 million people and landmass of 923,768 square kilometres.

I was convinced that last week was the best time to go watch the World Cup, so off I went to Brazil, with the intention of taking in the match against France and from there, who knows?

Nigeria lags behind all the countries – South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, to mention a few – which were either at the same level of development or were even behind us in 1960 mostly because we never learn from our mistakes. Every twenty or so years, we are faced with a major shift in economic policies based on new global realities or technology and we end up messing up the transition – at our own peril

As I write this, Hurricane Arthur lashes against the Cape Hateras, in the Outerbanks of North Carolina’s Atlantic Coast, where I’ve been vacationing with my family in the summer cottage of our friends, the Kladakis.
We are in the true eye of the hurricane. It is 2 am; the wind has gained strength, all is dark and silent; calm even; but for the eerie roar of the sea outside.