Longstanding readers of this column will know that I was absolutely thrilled when Dr Goodluck Jonathan became our President.

A foreign girlfriend told me last week that she never ceases to marvel at the docility of the average Nigerian. To illustrate her point, she talked about a recent experience at one of our airports.

Shortly after she arrived to catch a flight that was supposed to take off at around 11am, it was announced that the flight had been postponed until 1pm.

EHUD OLMERT, who was Israel’s Prime Minister between 2006 and 2009, was convicted on Monday of collecting bribes totalling 560,000 shekels ($160,000) to fast-track government permits to build a housing estate in Jerusalem.

Odein Ajumogobia, SAN, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, has pointed out that since 75 per cent of Nigeria’s population is aged between 18 and 35, young people are under-represented within the context of the National Conference.

My personal view, which is that the National Conference is likely to be an expensive waste of time for various reasons,

I was very pleased when I heard that Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, had been appointed Vice-Chair of the upcoming National Conference. I know Akinyemi personally and respect him enormously and have long regarded him as one of Nigeria’s best human resources.

WHEN Mallam Lamido Sanusi Lamido, the suspended Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Governor, decided to publicly query the financial dealings and modus operandi of the state oil company (NNPC), my knee-jerk reaction was that he was behaving inappropriately for a government official and must have a murky hidden agenda.

MR. President is clearly in fighting form at the moment because he has recently sacked, transferred or politely edged out a number of senior officials who were previously regarded as sacred cows.

Last week, I praised President Goodluck Jonathan for appointing Major-General Kenneth Minimah as Chief of Army Staff (I said he had a good reputation and felt that those who were criticising Jonathan – simply because Minimah is a fellow Ijaw – were being unfair).

Major-General Kenneth Minimah, was recently appointed Chief of Army Staff; and I’d like to seize this opportunity to express gratitude to President Jonathan for bestowing such a huge honour on a gentleman soldier from my state.

LAST week, I commented on a political rally that resulted in a major clash between the police and supporters of Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi.

MY home state, Rivers, is currently in turmoil and has, for the past few months, been both a theatre of war and a theatre of the absurd.

MANY Nigerians and foreigners are convinced that Nigeria cannot move forward significantly until Mr President totally or partially reshuffles his Cabinet.

The “festive season” is not festive for everyone; and I’ve been thinking about Vanguard readers who didn’t have merry Christmases.

On Wednesday, this newspaper announced that it had exclusively obtained an “open letter” in which Iyabo Obasanjo, the ex-President’s eldest daughter and a former senator, bitterly accused her father of being a liar who treated his family shabbily, described his recent criticisms of President Jonathan as hypocritical and told the world that she wanted no further contact with him.