IN many ways, the July 14, 2012 governorship election in Edo State reminded me of the June 12, 1993 presidential election. I covered both elections. Just like its 1993 peer, the weather was clement: cool and cloudy with sunny intervals but no rain, at least in Kano and Benin City where I reported from. But the following day the heavens opened up.

THE last time I wrote about the FulBe nomad was on December 16, 2004. The piece was titled “A RESOLVE FOR THE PASTORALIST”; and I had done it for my old column in DAILY TRUST, to coincide with the meeting of the West African body, Pastoralist Resolve (PARE), which held in Kaduna.

ON Thursday last week, our nation lost a little bit more of its humanity, after over one hundred people perished in a fire while scooping spilt petroleum from a crashed tanker. Exactly how many people died in those circumstances, in a State literally sitting on oil resources may never be known.

HISTORY was made Thursday last week when Justice Aloma Mukhtar assumed duty as Nigeria’s Chief Justice of the Federation. She is the first woman to reach that height. An earlier contender to that position and wife of Chief Bola Ige, the slain Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Justice Atinuke Ige, suddenly died in the course of fighting to bring the killers of her husband to justice.

LAST week, while receiving the report of the Alfa Belgore-led Presidential Committee on the Review of Outstanding Issues, President Goodluck Jonathan said: “Our enduring sense of brotherhood, unwavering desire for freedom, unique resilience and abiding faith in Nigeria, have seen us through sundry challenges over the past 52 years of nationhood.