WE live in a world of oddities where one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. The best time to decide whether to climb up or not is when one is yet on the ground, not after one has climbed half way. In essence, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, should by now be deciding if it is honestly prepared to conduct the 2015 general elections. We think INEC is unprepared.

WHEN members of the Nigerian Collective issued an open letter at the beginning of this week, I didn’t hesitate to add my name to the long list of signatories. The petition demanded the sack of Nigeria’s Interior Minister, Abba Moro, for his insensitive comments in the wake of the tragic killing of young Nigerian applicants at the weekend.

THREE days ago Nigerians began yet another attempt at looking at the terms of their coming together as a people within a boundaried space.

NIGERIANS are so overwhelmed by the inadequacies of Nigeria; we easily ignore its strengths. I am not talking here about Nigeria’s potentials; I am talking about Nigeria’s current actual status in the world economy. I am talking about Nigeria as a country with the biggest consumer market in Africa. Just think about it: the entire economy of Kenya is only equal in size to that of Lagos State in Nigeria.

AT the outset of his presidency, President Barack Obama must have calculated that it was not in his strategic interest to single out minorities in the U.S. for special attention. His mantra was that he was elected the president of the United States, not of a faction or fraction of its population. It was a way of being politically correct. He needed to serve two terms of office and sending any signal that he would pay more attention to the two most important constituencies that elected him to office – African Americans and Hispanics – may have been politically naïve.