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.