THE Nigerian judiciary is often described as the last hope of the common man, blind and impartial to the cause of justice. But recent events in the land would seem to suggest that this description has, for many members of the Bar and the Bench, long outlived its usefulness.

THIS space was slated for an issue entirely different from what you have before you now. I had been mulling over what to write about for two days and had yet to finally resolve on a particular topic by Friday last week. But by Saturday morning, I’d come to the conclusion that the topic I had chosen to write on was the right one for the week.

THE Naira, Nigeria’s national currency, has been very much in the news in the last couple of weeks. The naira is seriously ill and the prognosis from the ‘experts’, many of them full of bile and ill-will, is indeed dire. They have written the naira’s obituary and are already summoning the burial party of undertakers that would complete the final task of their death wish- ensure the untimely death of the currency.

WHEN President Muhammadu Buhari presented the 2016 Appropriation Bill to a joint session of the National Assembly on 22 December 2015, he couldn’t have envisaged the type of controversy that has since trailed it. No, Buhari couldn’t have anticipated that what was initially praised as a budget of great promise would turn out to be the non starter that it is fast turning out to be- except somebody takes the bold step necessary to salvage it from imminent asphyxiation.

THERE was always something odd about the victory of Ayodele Fayose over Kayode Fayemi in the June 2014 governorship election in Ekiti State. This, not simply because Fayemi was an incumbent whose incumbency status should stand him in good stead, but because of the comprehensiveness of the defeat by a man whose departure as governor from the government house, eight years earlier, took place in a cloud of shame and ignominy.

NIGERIANS are becoming ever more creative in the way they employ social media as tools of mass communication. In terms of their engagement of everyday reality and narration of contemporary events, the virtual world is fast becoming not just a familiar but indeed comfortable terrain for many Nigerians. A lot of what goes on social media platforms should, in terms of their mobilisation of popular consciousness, truly be of concern to many of those who abuse positions of leadership in this country. Social media are becoming a veritable means of mass mobilisation and tool of political education in a way never before seen in these parts and that should necessarily get those with soiled political image to worry.

THE Minister of the Interior, Abdulrahman Danbazau is not new to public office. A three star general at the point of retirement, he was for some years the Chief of Army Staff in the Goodluck Jonathan administration. Even though his tenure as the CoAS was not particularly distinguished nor was he noted for any major achievement while in the military, he nevertheless carried himself in a rather dignifying way.

NIGERIA is a country of the incredible. The high level of criminality that defines much of what makes ours an incredible polity is traceable to the leadership of the country. I say this in the light of the confusion that surrounded the whereabouts of both the electronic and printed copies of the 2016 Appropriation Bill. It was reported last week that copies of this Bill, as delivered to the National Assembly, could no longer be found in the Senate chamber. How this document developed the capacity for mobility is the riddle that our ever resourceful senators were at pain to resolve all through last week.

WHEN at first Sambo Dasuki, a former National Security Adviser in the Goodluck Jonathan Administration was slammed with a cocktail of charges including money laundering, illegal possession of arms and misappropriation of funds meant for the procurement of arms for the Nigerian military, not many could have imagined the matter would extend beyond him.

DOWN the ages, philosophers have speculated on time as both an arbitrary and an artificial construct. Time for this class of people is a continuum which humanity has for its own convenience divided into time past, time present and future time. Otherwise, time has no boundaries. But dividing time into parts is one way through which people make sense of their existence, have some notion of how far they’ve come and what progress or lack of it has been made. So when at the end of a year people take stock of their life, it is time that makes it possible. Otherwise, human life could be one long night of darkness or slumber without a beginning, middle or end.