THE head of Nigeria’s Central Bank, the equivalent of the US’s Federal Reserve or the UK’s Bank of England is designated, governor. Despite his immense powers over the country’s financial sector, the Governor of the Central Bank is perhaps the only Nigerian official called governor but whose responsibilities are limited to the financial sector.

SENEGALESE President, Abdoulaye Wade, is an old man by any standard. You only need to look at him to know. While according to official records he was born in 1926, street lore has it that he might be much older given poor record keeping in those days. Which means the president might be entirely blameless in the mix-up in his age.

IN the last two weeks or thereabout I have been compelled to address a matter that I’m sure columnists and others who frequently write have to face: the question of what subject to write on. In the early hours of Wednesday 25th of January, I had woken up to see the live broadcast of President Barack Obama’s third State of the Union address.

THE job of appointing public officers in Nigeria is by no means an easy task. More often than not what comes into consideration are factors other than merit. A situation Goodluck Jonathan might have found himself in the man he finally settled upon to replace Afiz Ringim as the Inspector General of Police.

THESE are desperate times for the Jonathan Administration and the government might do worse than seeking desperate solutions. Although the streets might be free of protesting Nigerians, the smoke from the bonfires made by them to register their opposition to the careless increase in the pump price of petrol is nowhere near being cleared.

DID President Jonathan play Nero last week, fiddled while Rome burned? Was he at anytime in South Africa to celebrate the centenary of the African National Congress when Nigeria was held in the throes of a paralysing strike to restore oil subsidy?

THE reactions to the New Year’s Day increment in fuel price are generally the same across the country and are by no means friendly. If anything they promise to be more hostile and aggravating as the days go by. After making it determinedly through Christmas in spite of violent attacks from desperate groups like Boko Haram, Nigerians must have hoped for some quiet, stress-free New Year’s Day.

LIKE an evil odour, the fever of death caused by Boko haram is still grimly spreading across the country with death toll from its cowardly Christmas attack still rising…

FOR the very first time since his political career assumed national dimension, Goodluck Jonathan is showing he could be a determined person if the need arose. For quite a long while, the President has shown himself as someone ready to capitulate before any determined opposition.

A LOT of heat with little or no light has been generated by the gay rights bill before the National Assembly. The general impression if one is to go by media reports is that most Nigerians are against same sex relations to say nothing of same sex marriage.

I AM not a frequent visitor to Abuja and on the few occasions I’ve been to our capital city since General Ibrahim Babangida hurriedly jumpstarted the transfer of Nigeria’s administrative capital from Lagos following the June 12 troubles of the mid 1990s, memories of my visit have always been dim.

THE last couple of weeks have been period of obituaries in Nigeria. Two prominent Nigerians who had in their different ways transformed the political and professional landscape of the country passed on.

ALTHOUGH much like an overdue prophesy but when it finally came, the ouster of Farida Waziri still happened rather suddenly.

TALKING Point this week features a piece which, I hope, would present a welcome diversion from the often-depressing focus on Boko Haram and other aggravating excesses of our politicians. It is from one of the more devoted followers of the column and it throws light on an important aspect of the financial sector.

AT this stage even the most starry-eyed Nigerian must admit that the Nigerian state represented by the government of President Goodluck Jonathan is at the point of capitulating before the terror tactics of the fringe Boko-Haram group.