Currently, the CBN is annually responsible for about 70% of all dollar revenue that enters into the domestic forex market. The balance 30% or less is supplied by oil companies and a few exporters outside the oil sector! While these private dollar suppliers are legally permitted to approach the banks directly for the exchange of their dollars to naira, the owners of public sector dollar revenue in our reserves are not so lucky!

The various constitutional conferences that shaped Nigeria from 1950-1958 were simply icing on the cake. At the convention of the nations in San Francisco in 1945 at the end of World War II leading towards the convention of the United Nations, Winston Churchill, the prime minister of Great Britain tried to steer the discussion towards agreeing that the Atlantic charter did not cover the colonies who were standing upon the argument that the charter guarantees freedom for all peoples.

Another thing about time, to me, is that behind, or below that blank canvass are dynamic laws, giant mirrors not just reflecting, for all to behold, everything we think and say and do, but huge transmitters of the reward and punishment for everything we put into its bowels. There is, therefore, this constant teasing awareness that it is what you put into time that grows you, your family, your nationality group, your race, even mankind. So, by everything you do as an individual or in groups, you invest in what can grow you or retard your growth. How true it is, therefore, that man is the architect of his fortune and misfortune.

A VERY long time ago, there used to be a television series called the invisible man. In a science experiment a man had experienced some sort of chemical reaction that made him invisible. With the help of a government agency and his scientist friends and wife, a mask of synthetic resin was made to form a face, neck and hands and any other part of his appearance so he could live as normal a life as possible till a cure was found.

AT the national secretariat of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), one can access documents detailing the history of the union’s activities, particularly with regard to its attempts through strike actions to compel unwilling governments to enhance the welfare packages of lecturers and improve the funding for university education.

The Senate is not satisfied with the budget performance, and neither is the minister himself satisfied with the budget performance because in some places the performance is as low as 15 per cent, in some places 27, and in some places 30 something —Senator Ayogu Eze, chairman of the Senate Committee on Information and Media, November 4, 2009.

Is it still possible to look a Nigerian in the face and not think of corruption? Apart from the criminal suspicion with which Nigerians are perceived in most parts of the world, we appear to have added another ugly face of corruption to our putrid image abroad.

I am so glad that you all agree with me that this season calls for serious celebration. As you begin to light and
decorate your house, you must also not fail to light up someone’s life. Spread some love. Be in a sharing and giving mood.

There were speculations that the verdict of the Court of Appeal on the matter of the Anambra State Governorship case involving Dr. Andy Uba, could create a state of anarchy in the State, if it was not properly handled. Legal tussles of that kind are usually attended by conjectures, and rumours of one kind or the other.

LAST week, I quoted a friend who thinks that seduction is a “coping” or survival strategy within certain contexts and is absolutely convinced that predatory women who set out to seduce influential men deserve sympathy rather than condemnation.