IN ‘Beyond Muhamadu Buhari’s anti-corruption rhetoric: return of the fifth columnists?”, I had begun by seeking answer to the simple question of whether President Buhari was still in charge of his administration. That question was directed at the president and/or his minders.

What type of corruption is Buhari fighting when he shut his eyes to allegations of budget padding, gets cosy with the ‘budget rats’ and ‘padders’, gets reprieve for those he wanted prosecuted for forging house rules but keeps Sambo Dasuki in jail?

OCTOBER 1, 2016, Nigeria’s 56th Independence Day, came without much fanfare even if many had looked forward to the one-day holiday it afforded. The question on the lips of many was; what was there to celebrate about this day. Many would often wonder if Nigeria’s Independence Day is worth rolling out the drums for.

THAT the country is in recession and the economic crisis in which we’ve found ourselves is biting hard is now old news. Yes, we are in recession and Nigerians are presently preoccupied with finding solutions to our economic troubles.

THE best period to know an individual’s true character is in times of crisis. Anybody can lay claim to being anything when all is well but when the tide turns only then is true character reflected. It is for this reason I wonder what it would be like to conduct a patriotism test on Nigerians in this time of economic crisis, the worst in about three decades.

SOMETHING doesn’t look right about the decision to postpone the Edo State governorship election slated for last week. This is regardless of whatever reason or reasons informed the decision for the postponement by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. But even on this there is nothing to fix the decision on. Conflicting reasons have been adduced for the postponement and the fact that no consensus can be reached on this apparently simple matter only raises suspicion about INEC’s motive for tinkering with the electoral calendar.

PALPABLE frenzy gripped the nation’s media last week. Among the country’s newspapers it all looked like a competition, a race to be the first to report that the country had slipped into recession. The front pages of these newspapers reported the news with muted glee it seemed. We had finally made a remarkable achievement, maybe a dubious one.

Nigeria’s journey from fraternal hostility to national integration was on course (at least with no major or visible bumps) for nearly a quarter of a century after the civil war ended. But from the mid- 1990s onward the country entered a new and sustained phase of ethnic tension following a long period of military rule led by Nigerians from the North of the country.

Now the Rio Olympics is over it may be time to take stock of Nigeria’s participation at the games. After what were clearly shoddy preparations or in fact non-preparation for the games, the result of our participation is now out for all to see. A bronze medal in football couldn’t possibly be all we spent the last four years preceding the games preparing for. It was clear that nothing good could or would come out of Rio for Nigeria in the light of how we programmed ourselves to fail.

There are actually very concrete ways to measure the increasing cost of living in Nigeria which in turn explains why Nigerians are increasingly disenchanted with the Muhammadu Buhari administration. A simple way to go about this is to measure how the cost of common household goods and foodstuffs have either tripled or quadrupled in the last six months or thereabout.