SINCE the dramatic and traumatic postponement of last Saturday’s National Assembly elections, I have heard a thousand and one Nigerians and foreigners say, verbally or in writing, that Jonathan and/or Jega cooked the whole sorry mess up on purpose because one or both of them had dubious hidden agenda.

MTN’S service has never been ideal and has been even worse than normal recently, so I finally lost my temper and called Funmi Omogbenigun, MTN’s General Manager, Corporate Communications, to rant about the problems I was having, to bitterly accuse MTN of ripping Nigerians off by charging high prices without performing well in return and to ask her why MTN can’t do better.

YOU might recall that the Northern Political Leaders Forum (NPLF), the PDP faction that is led by Mallam Adamu Ciroma, presented Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as the “Northern Consensus Candidate” at the party’s primary in January. You might also be aware that when Atiku failed to secure the PDP nomination, President Jonathan did not behave like an arrogant victor.

ADOKE BELLO, SAN, has really impressed me. He was appointed to the lofty post of Attorney-General by a PDP President and is a leading light of this PDP administration. But instead of allowing his membership of an elite ruling group, and the privileges that go with it, to blind him (as so many others in his position would have), he has courageously insisted on challenging five of his senior “colleagues” – PDP Governors (of Adamawa, Kogi, Cross River, Bayelsa and Sokoto), who are trying to achieve tenure elongation through the back door.

Sorry for my 4-week absence from the pages of this newspaper. I had to take a break because of var ious pressures, i n c l u d i n g a v e r y unpleasant bout of typhoid. You will no doubt notice that this Sweet And Sour space has been r e d e s i g n e d a n d effectively re-launched. Please let us know whether you like the new look.