NEWS that more than N1.6 billion that should have gone into combating HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria could be missing or might have been misappropriated, should sadden anyone who has an idea of the challenges of Nigerians who suffer any of these pandemics.

Left to the Osita Chidoka-led Federal Roads Safety Commission (FRSC) the number plates and driver’s licences currently in use would be phased out come 2012. Already, the minds of Nigerians are being prepared by officials of the Commission each time they have the opportunity to speak to the public, especially through the media.

For ages, especially since the once prosperous Nigeria Airways sank into oblivion, Nigerian air travellers to foreign countries have routinely suffered untold hardship in the hands of foreign airlines.

FOR ages, especially since the once prosperous Nigeria Airways sank into oblivion, Nigerian air travellers to foreign countries have routinely suffered untold hardship in the hands of foreign airlines.

ON Monday, November 14, 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan formally decorated the 354 members of the Nigerian elite, who won this year’s National Honours amidst pomp, pageantry and tight security in the nation’s capital, Abuja.

PRESIDENT Goodluck Ebele Jonathan sounded hurt when he said Nigerians misunderstood his intentions on a longer term for the President, and possibly governors. He was clear enough and Nigerians understood him clearly too. It was even when he started a defence of the project that Nigerians knew it was seven years, not six as many of them had thought.

THE Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, renders no apologies for its ways. The biggest party in Africa, as it calls itself, does what it wants, when it wants and prefers to leave its members dumbfounded. PDP is a party apart. It rejoices in the flexibility of its standards, though the flexibility is a poor excuse for the fact that the party may not have standards.

NIGERIA is a forward-looking country. It is making progress that the impatience of Nigerians and their own concentration on the present (and mostly the past) becloud. The politicians are thinking of the future and making great plans about them.

NIGERIANS have more than enough reasons to panic. It should be more so when the issue is security and government is not about to do anything about securing the country. The assurances have gone bare and the attacks are becoming deadlier.

IT is time to wonder again if President Goodluck Jonathan remembers what he promised when he announced his intention to run for office in September last year. He promised to be a different President, one who would care for the poor.

IN a country of more than 42 Ministers, and more similarly ranked government officials, you would be forgiven if you have not heard about Mr. Samuel Ortom. He is the Minister of State for Trade and Investment.

MUSLIMS all over the world mark Eid-el-kabir, also known as Eid-el-Adha or Festival of Sacrifice, to commemorate the willingness of Prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice his only son, Ismail, as an act of obedience to God. According to the story, which is also recorded in the bible, God intervened by providing him with a ram to sacrifice in Ismail’s place.

TOO much is being done to promote the nothingness that stands for legislations. Sometimes we wonder if we need legislators in the first place. Neither the executive nor the judiciary is doing better.

The story is told of one contributor at the US Congress, who forced his colleagues to listen to him, barring interruptions with the curt retort, “I speak for posterity.”

MALLAM Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria so likes the sound of his voice that keeping quiet is never an option. He must be heard, no matter the subject, no matter the forum and he seems to have formed the habit of delivering addresses at various occasions.