DECEMBER 2010 was Dakar, the capital city of Senegal’s, week of festival. From 10th of December to 31st the country hosted the 3rd World Black Festival of Arts and Culture otherwise known as FESTAC.

ALL through last week the Peoples Democratic Party was in the news. This had been the case for two weeks running when the Party began its primaries into various offices in its fold from the local, through state to the federal levels. While the gubernatorial primaries were held about two weeks ago, it was the turn of the presidential aspirants to flex muscles against one another last week.

THERE is no doubt that the political career of former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, has been one of the longest and most successful in Nigeria. Right from when he first entered national consciousness as the soldier who received the instrument of surrender from the defeated Biafran forces at the end of Nigeria’s Civil War, his rise within the polity has never waned.

ALMOST on a daily basis one year ago when Nigeria’s Umar Farouk, the so-called crotch-bomber, put Nigeria’s name on the international terror list by his failed attempt to bomb an airline on Christmas day in faraway America, Jos, the once-peaceful city in the centre of the country, erupted in violence.

WHEN former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, made the statement that has been turned into an albatross around his neck, could he have envisaged the meaning that would be read into it or the twist that would be put on it?