ACCORDING to elder statesman, Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule, who was once our Permanent Representative at the United Nations, the current Northern leadership has failed woefully because it has neglected the legacy of Sir Ahmadu Bello, the late Sardauna and Premier of Northern Nigeria.

Journalists are supposed to be formidably well-informed and are expected to know more than most about what is going around them, so let me hang my head in abject shame as I admit that I only recently became aware of the fact that state governments sometimes deport disabled, homeless or impoverished “non-indigenes” to their states of origin.

LAST week and the week before, I condemned men like Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima who think it is OK to lure underage females into premature marriage.

A few days ago, four Northern Governors visited their embattled Rivers State counterpart, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, to discuss the problems he has been having with various opponents. The visitors were met at Port Harcourt Airport by a baying anti-Amaechi mob, which slung rocks at their convoy

LAST week, I angrily accused the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, of treachery, inconsistency, religious insensitivity and political parochialism.

The Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, has always tried to position itself as a highly credible opposition party that is capable of appealing to voters in every geopolitical zone and can take on the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

I KEEP asking myself how a once-civilized city like Port Harcourt gradually morphed into the kind of place in which legislators-who
are supposed to uphold the law and be shining role models and pillars of polite society – physically attack each other so savagely that some of them wind up being hospitalised.

NELSON Rolihlahla Mandela is, in my opinion, the greatest man our continent has ever produced. Now, this charismatic and courageous global icon, who sacrificed 27 whole years of his life to the struggle for racial equality in South Africa, lies critically ill in hospital.

IN last Friday’s column, I made the following comments about Dame Patience Jonathan, the First Lady:

President Goodluck Jonathan is probably the most vilified Head of State in the history of Nigeria. And, frankly, he deserves a lot of the criticisms that have been flung at him because he has not tried hard enough to fulfill his potential…and does not sufficiently control his cronies and subordinates.

MY life has never been as uncomplicated as I’d like it to be. A lot of my friends and relatives are politicians; and because politicians are innately aggressive, they have no qualms about viciously waging war on each other at intervals.

WHAT is the big deal about a bunch of governors getting together from time to time to chat about issues that concern them…and then disagreeing with the President whenever they think that he is being unfair or unwise?

Last week, I expressed reservations about President Jonathan’s overall performance to date…but praised him wholeheartedly for courageously declaring a state of emergency in Yobe, Adamawa and Borno states.

For the past couple of weeks, this column has contained criticisms of Mr President’s handling of various leadership challenges.

Last week, I wrote about conflicts (legal and otherwise) between my Governor, Chibuike Amaechi, and his opponents in Rivers State and the Presidency (the former insist that they are operating independently and are not being backed by the latter. But many onlookers are finding it hard to take this denial seriously).