The Monetary Policy Committee, MPC, of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, last week met amidst worsening macroeconomic environment which had forced Nigeria’s economic growth rate into negative for the first quarter of 2016, while threatening to slide into recession by the end of current quarter.

For nearly one hour on May 29 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari addressed the nation on the challenges facing his one-year administration and how he is tackling them or intends to do so. He brought the citizenry up to date on the war against Boko Haram and also touched upon the new threats to our economic wellbeing by the renewed militancy in the Niger Delta.

The election of a former head of state as president in 2015 made Nigerians very optimistic that effective governance would start immediately after President Muhammadu Buhari was sworn-in. This expectation was heightened by the fact Buhari had also contested for the presidency three previous times.

To underscore the importance the United Nations attaches to children, one of the steps taken was to set aside November 20 of every year as the Universal Children’s Day. It was first marked worldwide in 1954 under the auspices of the UN.

With the worst over between the Federal Government and organised Labour over the recent steep hike in petrol prices, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, has served notice that the FG would soon revoke the refinery licenses that are not ready to set up shop.

The strike called by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Wednesday, May 18, 2016 to protest the steep hike of the pump price of premium motor spirits (PMS) by the Federal Government has gone down as one of the least successful in recent years. Labour leaders protested for three days and had to call off the strike when it was obvious that the maority of Nigerians were not part of it.

A recent study had it that 90 per cent of commercial drivers in Lagos were hypertensive. There is no doubt that this trend cannot be the lot of drivers in the Lagos area alone. It is likely to be a national trend if the survey is extended to cover the whole country.

On Wednesday May 11, 2016, the Federal Government, through the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)/Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, announced “price adjustment” for premium motor spirit from N86.50 to a “band” between N135 and N145 per litre.

A slogan of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) says: “Police is Your Friend”. Police, indeed, are friends of the citizenry, because they are the ones everybody looks for when confronted with threats to life and property.

THE media are replete with the exploits of Nigerian troops in hunting down and destroying the camps of cattle rustlers who attack herdsmen and dispossess them of their cattle.