A phrase that has been swept in by the current developments in our political life is “internal democracy”. No pause was needed to decipher its meaning. It was so explanatory. It blew to shreds the assumption that accepted democratic practice, which normally includes the decisions of any group as a function of the will of the majority, was mandatory in all circumstances. It may be so made to appear outside a political party, especially when several parties are in contention, but it does not have to hold when decisions were made within each party.

I GUESS it must be true – Richard Animam is gone, yes, dead. When the news first broke last week in the office, I did not pay any attention. I did not know it was about someone I knew or should know. I continued contributing at the office meeting, oblivious that Richard was the subject.

I HAVE always said that the only real difference between the PDP and other political parties is that the PDP happens to be more successful than its rivals.

THE peoples’ hurricane which swept ferociously through Tunisia making the 25-year presidency of General Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali history, made a strong landing in Egypt on Tuesday, January 25.Its ferocious nature and intensity shocked not just the repressive Egyptian presidency but also the demonstrators themselves.

NOT for the first time in our recent political history, the country appears to be heading towards an unknown land or uncertain future. The reasons are quite simple but very clear. None of the issues that could make Nigeria great are being adequately addressed or raised either by presidential aspirants or gubernatorial and other contestants for political posts.

YES, what we have we hold. This is also in consonance with the time-tested Biblical injunction that we should always confess positive because the power of the tongue is so strong that therein resides the prospect to swim or sink in life. But there is also the need to remain truthful at all times. If in March 2011, we are still voting at the 2007 elections, then, there is cause for worry.

THE Nigerian government led by President Goodluck Jonathan appears to be leading the push for the forceful ousting of the government of President Laurent Gbagbo of Cote d’Ivoire.

SENATOR Saminu Turaki was a promising politician in 1999 when he became governor of Jigawa State. He later claimed to have transformed the state into a digital revolution.

Reference to the colonial by Continental Africans as a constraining development condition is now dismissed as an excuse just as reference to legacies of slavery by New World Africans is judged to be escapist. The refrain is “The colonial is long gone, 50 years gone- what have you done since October 1st 1960? What have you done since Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation?”

DECEMBER 2010 was Dakar, the capital city of Senegal’s, week of festival. From 10th of December to 31st the country hosted the 3rd World Black Festival of Arts and Culture otherwise known as FESTAC.