THE federal government has responded with near adequate conviction, the pressure by Western countries to impose the perverted culture of legalising homosexual lifestyles in Nigeria.

FORTY-SIX years ago, the counter coup to the first coup of that January claimed the lives of Gen Thomas Johnson Umunnakwe Aguiyi-Ironsi and his host Lt-Col Francis Adekunle Fajuyi. Ironsi was in Ibadan as part of his reconciliation tour, after the first coup that killed mostly prominent Northern politicians and army officers.

IT is obvious the Nigerian economy is in a precarious situation. It is really nothing new. The only thing that could be new is the momentum of oil theft, which combining with corruption, is drying up resources available to governments.

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.