THE history of crude oil production in Nigeria informs us that the Shell Oil Company was the first to discover oil in commercial quantity in Nigeria. The location was Oloibriri (now in Bayelsa State), and the year was 1956. Two years later, Nigeria’s first consignment of crude oil was exported from the Oloibiri oil fields. But what is not well advertised is the fact that gas flaring has been taking place in Nigeria since 1958. The ecological disaster and associated consequences of gas flaring in Nigeria have been well-documented, and do not constitute the main objective in this dispatch from America.

Central Bank’s Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), in practice, is the strategic benchmark for modulating best practice standards in the critical economic indices of inflation, cost of funds and exchange rate.

With World Sports on CNN, I have just rounded up one hell of a football crazy Saturday that started with Manchester United thumping Aston Villa 4-1, after the fans had decided that the team will be better off without David Moyes on the bench. ( I agree )

The National Conference is turning out, as usual, to be a theatre of the absurd, with the thespians being the overused, same old players noisily grandstanding and beating their ethnic and religious empty barrels over mere trifles. There was this picture on the front page of Vanguard on Wednesday, March 27, 2014, in which one elderly man of nearly 80 years old was spoiling for a physical combat with an unseen opponent, while an equally elderly female delegate representing the market women, Madam Felicia Sani, was restraining him. I wondered: if the fisticuff was allowed to proceed who could that pugnacious Baba possibly beat up? If he lands a blow his hand will surely break!

“For example, Nigeria has signed an MoU with the Democratic Republic of Congo for the importation of electricity from the Inga Dam Power Plant.” Professor Nebo, Minister of Power, PUNCH, March 25, 2014.