WHAT do we want to do with our prisons? Better still, what do we intend to do with our prisoners? Prisons are not a favourite subject of many. Prisoners are outcasts, considered worse than the scum of society.

WEDNESDAY, 23 July, marked 100 days since the abduction of 279 female students of Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State. The circumstances of the 14 April abduction were graphic portrayals of the failure of government and leadership at different levels.

THE Ramadan has ended. Its demands of abstinence from food and water are some of the easily remembered aspects of the month-long observation, which is one of the five pillars of Islam.

NEXT month, the National Automotive Council, NAC, would be 21 years old. Its mandate in Act 84 of 25 August 1993 is to ensure the survival, growth and development of Nigeria’s automotive industry using local human and material resources.

OUR governments are immensely proud of their attitude towards Nigeria’s future. This attitude is not entirely surprising since governments are completely interested only in the present as it affects them and their cronies. Governments never see the future beyond the next elections.

ANY things are instructive about the way our country runs. The most recent concerns about the Federal Government’s intention to borrow $1 billion for its war against insurgents, is the pedestal for calls to probe the expenditure on security. Some want the probes to range as far as 1999.

WHY would anyone celebrate the impeachment of Murtala Hamman-Yero Nyako as governor of Adamawa State?

AN erroneous belief that relevance of oil approximates to the life span of Nigeria’s oil reserves partially fuels the laxity with which the authorities treat diversification of the economy. Concerns over dependence of the economy on oil raged more than three decades ago. Now, Nigeria’s dependence on oil is total, yet the matter is discussed as one of several issues beleaguering Nigeria.

THE successful extradition of suspected Nyanya motor park bomb mastermind, Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche restates the importance of international cooperation in the fight against terrorism. The dispatch with which the extradition processes was concluded was remarkable.

ELECTIONS present the best opportunities for candidates to say the worst things about their opponents. Threats and counter threats appear to be the only selling points of most candidates. We heard threats as contestants jostled for space in the governorship election in Ekiti last month.