The Special Mini Convention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to fill some positions in the party’s National Executive has come and gone. Whether or not the party deserves commendation can be viewed from two standpoints. The first and perhaps the more obvious is that which believes that to congratulate the party on the event does not in essence arise. This is because there was nothing special about the convention as its title tended to impute. The correct title should have been “PDP Repeat Convention”.

She started out humbly as a classroom teacher in the 80s and today she’s one of the influential women in the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria where she represents Kaltungo/Shongom constituency of Gombe State. Hon.(Mrs.)Binta Maigari Bello currently Chairs the House Committee on Women in Parliament-WIP. A rare politician who has successfully combined politics with gentility in a notoriously violent political sphere such as Nigeria’s, Binta’s passion for community service dates back to her days as a child when she dreamed of alleviating the sufferings of her people each time she visited the village with her parents.

Every monumental task I have assigned myself on this page, since the first article appeared in August 1994, always calls for too quotations. It invariably marks my departure from the tedium of present economic, social and political crises on which everybody is focused – especially my co-columnists writing for every paper.

This new father was shocked when he rushed to the hospital to view his first child and he found his wife in tears. When he asked her what the matter was, she pointed silently at the cot beside her bed and continued sobbing. The man looked into the cot, saw the baby and sprang back in horror. He didn’t sob, but looked downcast as he went to lean against the wall. A nurse who came in saw the abject misery on the faces of the couple and she tried to assure them that the severe case of harelip that their son had, can be corrected by surgery, and that the child was healthy in all other respects.

A couple of days ago, I was watching Al jazeera, where the presenter, had mentioned a special feature exchanging information about the current situation that Nigerian university students who are facing prolong the Nigerian’s Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike.