THE nation’s biggest opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was saved from the pangs of self-inflicted extinction when the Supreme Court, on Wednesday, 12th July 2017, returned full authority to the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led main body of the party in a unanimous decision read by Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour.

A public forum held in Abuja recently provided another opportunity for the financial autonomy of the legislature at state levels to be put on the front burner of national discourse. Financial autonomy enables the state assemblies the freedom to access their budgetary allocations directly without the current trend of depending on the good graces of the Executive Branch (the Governors).

We are gratified to note the concerted efforts being made by leaders at various levels of authority to bring succour to the victims of the Ile Ife communal crisis which erupted on 20th March, 2017. It claimed no fewer than 46 lives, sent about 90 injured victims to the hospitals and rendered a lot of people homeless.

THE dreadful activities of the Badoo gang in the Ikorodu axis of Lagos State has, again, brought out the urgent necessity for community policing. The gang had unleashed terror on Ikorodu communities where many families have been brutally wiped out. Vital organs of their victims were allegedly removed for purposes that are yet to be determined.

The report that the country’s electricity grid collapsed fourteen times this year should alarm all of us and serve as a wake-up call to governments at all levels. Furthermore, the fact that the entire nation can be adversely affected by any one such incident is one more reason the calls for restructuring or true federalism should be treated as urgent.