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.