IT is a common phenomenon that when an administration becomes bereft of ideas, it begins to dabble into everything. The loss of one genuine purpose would lead to the pursuit of a dozen pseudo purposes.

TODAY’s essay is dedicated to Mrs. Ifueko Omoigui-Okauru, the immediate past Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS. She bowed out of service honourably, the penultimate week, leaving her bold footprints in the sands of time.

PURELY as a matter of self interest, I have deliberately decided to adopt an approach that is slightly different from that of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi. The penultimate weekend, Sanusi tried to examine the issue of how to remove crushing poverty from Northern Nigeria.

FOR some time now, thieves have invaded the privacy of the police by going to cart away, a large part of the money meant for taking care of the old men and women who had helped to catch thieves in years past. We are also informed that the thieving of the police money could be the handiwork of people closely related to them.

MADAM erred by making a no-case submission. At best, she would have entered a plea bargain arrangement, which, in this land, is a euphemism for the normal “you wash my back, I wash your own” and all concerned would have gone away unscratched.

TODAY’S piece is dedicated to Job Obanor and others like him who are physically challenged in one way or the other but who have refused to be tied down by their challenges. Obanor was a member of the defunct Bendel State House of Assembly in the Second Republic. He is now visually impaired and must be taken everywhere by a grandson.

TWO good citizens have asked us to worry less about the fact that when two elephants fight, the grass suffers. They say it is not every time that the elephants must fight. Elephants also play and when they do, the people rejoice.

POLICING the police is like engineering the engineer, which appears different from engineering his engine. Some have argued, though, that biomedical engineering may not differ qualitatively from toilet training, education and moral teachings – all of which are forms of the so-called “social engineering”, which in the main, has man as its principal object and used by one generation to mold the next.

AVAILABLE evidence readily supports the absurd fact that Nigeria is increasingly becoming the safest haven for high profile crimes and big time criminals. Thus, Nigeria provides the best investment climate for crooks.

WE may really not have opted for the type of liberal knowledge that we all now possess. It is quite healthy that virtually every Nigerian is now an economist, an electrical engineer, a borehole expert, and so on – all in default, because those who are paid to provide services are not doing so.

MORE than 51 years after its nominal independence, Nigeria is still where it has always been. Do you want to ruin your appetite? Then, why not attempt carrying Nigeria’s problems on your head? The wiser ones have long learned to leave Nigeria’s load at the shoulder level, so that if it got too heavy, they could just throw it away.

OF all the fine definitions of terrorism, the one offered by the ninth edition of Black’s Law Dictionary at page 1611 is the most appealing: The use or threat of violence to intimidate or cause panic, especially as a means of affecting political conduct. This definition accepts the fact that terrorism takes place at every level, every time, and every where.

WHEN Chief Olusegun Obasanjo says Nigeria is wobbling, he probably means that this is not the type of Nigeria he would have liked to bequeath to a godson.

NO matter how much we paint the situation, when a government becomes so weak and so incompetent that it can no longer protect its citizens; and when a nation becomes so corrupt and overtaken by criminality, then, the major indicators or symptoms of a failed state are registered.

SINCE the publication of Hon. Josef Omorotionmwan’s article on “Stealing by Sign Posts” on 29 December 2011, there have been raging debates and comments on the issue. The latest is the rejoinder titled, “Who is Stealing by Sign Posts?” by one Aliyu Jattu from Agbede (Vanguard, 18 January 2011, p. 19). Also, see paid advertisement titled, Oshiomhole: “This Madness must stop” (Vanguard, 5 January 2012, p. 25).