AFTER all the efforts to get the Freedom of Information Act, FoIA, it is frustrating to most parties that the media are not using the Act to improve public access to information. It is easy to blame the media journalists for not being enterprising. Many have taken that curious position, without recognising defects in the FoIA.

NIGERIAN football made the headlines worldwide for all the wrong reasons in the few weeks – a 146-goal score from two matches shattered all known records.

ON Sunday 14 August 2013, President Omar Al Bashir of Sudan braved all odds and arrived in Abuja for the African Union Summit on HIV/AIDS, an important event to assess the ten-year initiative of the AU to tackle the epidemic. Nigeria, as a signatory to the International Court of Justice, ICC, was expected to arrest Al Bashir.

OUR Senate is in the caves. We have a duty to save it, from itself, and for Nigerians. How can the Senate in the 21st century be proposing that Nigerian girls can be married at an indeterminate age? The Senate is shamelessly broadcasting its determination to insert the profane provision into the Constitution.

THE Bureau of Public Procurement has announced the debarment of 10 contractors. It may be the first in moves to sanitise the procurement process which is bedevilled by complications that negate transparency. The main objective of the cleansing is to curb alleged corrupt practices.

THE United Nations declaration of 18 July – birthday of the global icon Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela – as Mandela Day will be marked with sobriety as the 95-year-old former South African president spends his sixth straight week in hospital.

JUSTICE Aloma Mukhtar’s inauguration as the first female Chief Justice of Nigeria a year ago, passed without much fanfare because of her character, a quality she has brought to judicial reforms, particularly the sanctioning of judges.

HOWEVER the strikes of university, and polytechnic teachers are resolved, they would fail to address the damages from imbalance in the attention the authorities give different sides of higher education.

The nation and the world at large got a shocker on Tuesday, 9th July 2013 when the simmering crisis in the state’s chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Rivers State House of Assembly resulted in a free-for-all in the House chamber.

PEOPLE in Taraba State are making the point about speaking out for their rights. They are getting succour even if that would not completely change their circumstances.

SPEAKER of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, has been preaching this message for a while – service to the people should be above partisan leanings. He has won few converts in his class.

WE cannot remember the Senate breaking into a fight over anything, not even when there were threats to their juicy allowances. The House of Representatives is more famous for fights, including the 2007 one that claimed the life of Dr. Aminu Safana from Katsina State who died as opponents and proponents of Mrs Patricia Etteh, former Speaker of the House of Representatives battled over her tenuous tenure.

HOW many prison breaks would it take to secure our prisons? What will happen after the rash of media reactions to the break in Akure, in which 175 criminals were let loose?

WHOEVER worked out the 2013/14 cut off marks for admission to federal government colleges is cutting off the North from developing its capacities. It is a practical indication of ordained backwardness for a part of Nigeria – it should not be allowed, for the dangers it portends for the whole country.

ANYONE who says he understands how elections in Nigeria work is only making a claim. Whether at the local government, state or federal levels, elections are mysteries various authorities sustain for their own purposes.