NIGERIA is waking up to the fact that elections are not about constitutional administration of government but are indeed contestation for power. The formation of the All Progressive Congress (APC) is informed by this understanding. This realignment only polarizes the contestation for power and fails to address the need to de-fuse electoral politics to owing to the fateful fusion of the two politics, the electoral and state formation politics. The increasing call for a Conference may perhaps reflect what is now seen as untenable structure of power and authority in Nigeria, and a need to do something about it in the present condition of large-scale endemic insecurities.

IN the heat of the Niger Delta violence, many Nigerians engaged in what former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair accurately identified as “glorification of terrorism” following the 7 July 2007 Underground bombings in London. One of the oft repeated lines then was that the Nigerian government must not be seen as fighting its citizens. I said, good; don’t fight the Niger Delta militants, but go after the oil thieves, those engaged in pipeline vandalism and illegal bunkering. I warned that it would be a tragic mistake if we didn’t separate all the strands of criminality in the region so as to know the real agitators for economic and environmental rights of the people.

It came like a bolt from the blue. After 28 matches without defeat, capped with a 6-1 demolition of arch rivals Ghana, the Golden Eaglets of Nigeria were brought down to mother earth with a thud.

In the second quarter of 2012, the Legislature considered a bill for amending the existing 2007 CBN Act; the bill attracted a lot of media attention in response to the exuberant controversy surrounding it.

THE surprise is that they are still going at it, moving forward. It is a pleasant surprise. Thursday, April 18th 2013 was a day of history for the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).