The tragic circumstances in which no less than nineteen young Nigerians recently lost their lives in vain search for jobs in the immigration office is heart-rending enough without the sloppy manner in which the authorities have reacted to it. The details are odious in the extreme.

President Ebele Jonathan is easily recognizable, by virtue of his surname, as a Christian. He is also apparently the church-going variety with an appreciably increasing frequency in his public appearance in churches over the past two years, or so.

An elected member of the National Assembly stood in the hallowed halls of the legislature and asked,”Have we got a government in this country?” One of his colleagues tried to shut him up.

The media outlets have been full of the news…on the television, in the radio and newspaper. The CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, has been suspended.

Are we then at war? Can we admit it at last? The proclamation that slapped a state of emergency on three States—Yobe, Adamawa and Borno —would seem to suggest that much especially from the launching of all-out hostilities on certain areas of the region.

The President (Female) of the Muslim Student Union of Nigeria, Lagos Area Unit, Hajia Hafsa Badru almost stunned me as she addressed a crowd of supporters at the Gania Fawehinmi Freedom Park, Ojota, recently. The occasion was the World Hijab Day, said to be observed all over the world ostensibly to proclaim the precept of chastity and propriety among Muslim . women as symbolised by the wearing of the Hijab. This is the fascinating headgear won by women in the Middle East, from where it spread to various Muslim communities across the world.

This is something that President Jonathan did not do; he did not make any law against same-sex marriage.

So here we are in the year 2014, a much expected year like others but much more because of the brand of expectations it has engendered. It is the year of big preparations for tremendous happenings with the trail of events they will have in their wake. It is the year, you see, that will follow the year we have been waiting for —the year that must decide many issues for us as a nation, more than several epoch-making years have ever done.

President Goodluck Jonathan’s reply to Chief Obasanjo’s celebrated letter left me nonplussed. I wondered if I was reading an abridged form. I expected a response enlivened by some pungent statement of repudiation and counter-accusation, laced with some vitriolic flavour. Perhaps it was far removed from the influence of one or two of his well-known aides who shall be nameless here. Their input, which would’” naturally be of an acerbic nature as usual, could have generated some heat but also added a bit of feeling to the reply.

It is so easy for anyone to criticize Olusegun Obasanjo — General, war hero, military head of state, civilian president, et cetera, et cetera, — because he finds it so easy to criticise anyone himself.He does it in season and out of season, and so, hardly anyone winces when he too is made to have it good and hard.

Not all the story of the exploits and achievements of Nelson Mandela would have been told decades from now. His towering sense of patriotism, his indomitable spirit of resistance to evil, his soaring charity of forgiveness and several other facets of an unforgettable character which he has bequeathed to the world as a model for sterling human interaction, will survive him for a long time.

The visit of a minister to a state should not ordinarily excite comment, except that in some special cases it could invite attention, especially when it involves a personality who had been making headlines of an unsavoury nature, like Princess Stella Oduah, the Minister of Aviation.

I strongly feel I should bring you all that Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State said in Benin City at the meeting of the Presidential Advisory Committee on National Conference/Dialogue, despite the attempts to gag him by a mob of hired hooligans. You might have been aware of it anyway, though I believe some parts of it can bear repeating for a number of reasons..

It is very clear that President Goodluck Jonathan is determined and almost desperate to seek another term of office. His refusal to put it in so many words can be described as his stock in trade. He did precisely that, the last time around, before ferociously pursuing his ambition. Not many people were fooled then. Hardly anyone is fooled now.

The futility of a National Conference of any kind was very clearly described by none other than Senator David Mark, President of the Senate, recently. It was consistent with his normal views readily expressed on previous occasions. It made good sense.