In the last one month, I have been far more excited about being a citizen of Nigeria than before. Thanks to President Goodluck Jonathan who is set to organize the building of one model city in the country. According to the President, the new city will be better than Abuja and it will not experience power outages. It is this announcement that has lifted my spirit high.

You voted for Jonathan, not PDP. That’s fine. Now you’ve got Jonathan; the worst PDP imaginable and Alamieyseigha as extra dividend. So, why are millions of My Fellow Countrymen complaining? From late 2010, until the last Sunday to the 2011 Presidential election that year, we drummed the message to ears that were blocked and brains that were turned off. The message was as clear as can be. DON’T VOTE FOR JONATHAN; YOU WILL REGRET IT.

If young people are economically empowered and reoriented to think productively, then Nigeria can be sure to overcome corruption and wastefulness. This is the conviction of Rita Omovbude, the Founder/Project Leader of Street Project, a social enterprise in the heart of transforming the lives of young people.

In his thought-provoking riposte on Nigeria entitled The Trouble with Nigeria, Prof. Chinua Achebe explained that the principal reason for the horrible state of affairs in the country has nothing to do with geography or climate or the kind of food Nigerians eat. Rather, he says, the trouble with Nigeria is the recurrent blizzard of mediocre and corrupt leadership.

All eyes were on Rome for the inauguration of Pope Francis. On addressing the devoted and the world leaders immediately at the Mass where over 200,000 gathered, he called on world leaders and people all over to defend the weak. He seemed to address the leaders directly that the young, old and those in need were often neglected and ignored.