A LITTLE over six years ago, Jigawa State was rated by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, as the poorest state in Nigeria. At a public lecture in Kaduna, former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Prof Charles Soludo, after reviewing the figures from across the North, reached the sad conclusion thus: “Poverty is still a Northern phenomenon”.

IT took Egypt only two years after its first taste of democracy to give the latest demonstration of Africa’s abiding paradox: every flower of hope is turned sooner, rather than later, into the weed of despair.

THE Eastern Cape Province is the birth place of Nelson Mandela, the 94 years old ailing father of South Africa’s multi-racial society. It is the natal home of the Xhosa and arrival point of the 1820 settlers.

ONE person’s atrocity does not excuse another’s and revenge is not the motive. It is good governance.

The announcement by the US President to provide an intervention fund worth $7 billion to seven countries in Africa, including Nigeria, should be regarded as a major embarrassment to this country and a vote of no confidence in our ability to solve the power problem by ourselves.