NIGERIA will be 100 by January 1, 2014, a date that marks the British amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates, some say for administrative convenience, to form the country called Nigeria.

THE public’s outrage at the two-year sentence for Mr. John Yusuf, a director in the Police Pension Office, who pleaded guilty to stealing N23 billion out of the N40 billion stolen from the Police Pension Fund, is understandable.

FORMER Vice President (Africa) at the World Bank and Minister under President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili’s insistence on transparency deserves more attention than trite defence. Twice in months, she has accused President Goodluck Jonathan of mismanaging huge resources Obasanjo saved. The $67 billion (about N11 trillion) oil money she claimed Obasanjo left is […]

MORE than a week after bodies were found floating on a river in Amansea, Anambra State, the security agencies appear helpless about identifying the bodies or making any headway about the cause of their death. Governor Peter Obi’s promise of N5 million to anyone with information that could help unravel the “mystery” has yielded no results.

THE reaction of the Kano State Government – ban on commercial motorcycle riders – after the attack on the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero punishes the innocent as well as the possible attackers. The wonder is why government would lump the innocent with the guilty.

THE South African court that convicted Henry Okah of master minding the 2010 bombing of the Independence Day celebrations in Abuja would sentence him on 30 January.

IT would be shameful, if it is true that what President Goodluck saw at the Police College, Ikeja, shocked him. Why was he shocked? In what state did he expect to find a 73-year-old institution that has run for decades without maintenance?

CONTRADICTIONS that distinguish the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, from all others sustain it.

SOON all that the National Assembly would be doing is investigating or probing one matter or the other. Even before the committees set out on these missions, the public is always certain about the outcome: nothing.

SENATE President David Bonaventure Alechenu Mark has another message of hope. “We will seek to bring succour to our nation and re-energise our people’s faith in one indivisible nation and in constitutional democracy by a legislative agenda that not only promotes the common good, but also responsive to the national mood and expectations.”

TALKS about Nigeria’s unity not being negotiable is about one of the biggest threats to the country, a bigger threat than insistence by some, that there were enough reasons to negotiate our oneness as a country.

CONDEMNATIONS are inadequate for the unholy alliance between Shell and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC that resulted in the cloudy sale of Oil Mining Lease, OML, 30. Indiscriminate disposal of our oil resources as if there are no implications is condemnable.

THE Petroleum Products Marketing Company Limited should have many suits on its neck for the danger it poses to lives by not securing pipelines it uses in transporting products to different parts of the country.

INMATES having babies in prison is a global phenomenon defying solutions. Authorities of Port Harcourt Prisons are denying warders were responsible for the pregnancies. In the United States, where some prison officials have been convicted for their roles in sexual abuse of prisoners, more than 25 per cent of inmates get pregnant while serving their term.

THE Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, is a towering representation of impunity with which government agencies act. Something needs to be done about NNPC, and quickly too, to make the point that no individual or organisation is above the law.