WERE Nigeria to be a sprinter, she would be introduced on the starting block with all the accolades listing the possibilities her presence holds for the race. When the starting gun is fired, she would remain on the block while others engage into action.

SENTIMENTS will overtake reasons on decisions about which federal agencies will be spared in government’s bid to cut rising cost of its operations. People are more interested in which agencies remain, rather than the rationale for the exercise.

WHEN people say politics is the only serious business in Nigeria, they are stating the obvious. Oil and gas may be providing the resources that fuel the economy, but nobody talks about the sector with the futuristic focus Nigerian leaders bring to politics.

Everybody knew it was an uphill task, but it was worth a good try. By the time the clouds cleared on the heatedly contested position of President of the World Bank last Monday, April 16th 2012, America’s nominee, Jim Yong Kim, secured the nod of the 25-member Executive Board of Directors of the Bank to clinch the post.

President Goodluck Jonathan has signed the 2012 budget of Nigeria into law, promising that the Federal Government would pursue the implementation of the budget diligently.

IT seems that no year would pass without the healthcare professionals in the employ of the Lagos State Government going on strike for one reason or the other.

RECENTLY, two major public examinations bodies released results of the candidates that sat for their tests. They are the Joint Admissions & Matriculations Board (JAMB) and the National Examinations Council (NECO). JAMB released results for the Unified Tertiary Matriculations Examinations while NECO released results for the 2011 November/December Senior School Certificate Examinations (SSCE).

LAST week’s notice by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, that it would embark on a three-day nationwide warning strike from April 16, to protest perceived unfair labour practices, anti-union activities and general insecurity of members at work places and at home is a warning too many for an industry and a nation that have been riddled by industrial actions in the last 12 years.

THE Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, Mrs. Ifueko Omoigui-Okaru, has formerly stepped down as the Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of the organisation, at the expiration of her second four-year-term.

THE row between Nigeria and Britain over disparity in airfares for flights from Nigeria and other West African countries to London is capable of boiling over into a deep diplomatic face-off unless the authorities do the needful.

A strange twist was infused into the current rage of kidnap crimes sweeping the country when on Friday, March 30th the Deputy Director, Public Relations of our hardworking State Security Services (SSS), Mrs Marilyn Ogar, in Abuja paraded seven young men dressed in a colourful Ankara prints uniforms popularly known as aso ebi. It is worn by people going out for parties or celebration.

Mali is a country cornered by two devils. In one corner are the Tuareg rebels who were armed by the late Libyan dictator, Muammar Gaddafi because Mali’s large territory, sparse population and economic poverty made it a fertile spot for the germination of Tuareg insurrection.

ON Friday, the Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank drew the curtain on nominations for the position of World Bank President, as Robert Zoellick plans to step down in June. Three candidates: Jim Yong Kim, Jose Antinio Ocampo and Dr. (Mrs) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala have been short-listed

SENEGAL has, once again, asserted itself as one of the bastions of democracy in Africa with the defeat of Mr Abdoulaye Wade in the runoff poll, which saw his former protege, Macky Sall, emerging President. It was a woeful end for Wade’s megalomaniacal schemes to impose himself on his country for a third term in contravention of a law he himself championed in 2001.

Since the inception of this republic in 1999, the National Assembly has been enmeshed in various allegations of corruption both moral and financial.