AN interesting debate is going on over South Africa’s 2013 public school matriculation results, where candidates achieved a 78.2 per cent pass rate, the highest since the examinations were administered country-wide from 1994. The University of the Cape of Good Hope conducted the first examination in 1858. The 2013 mark was also 4.3 per cent points higher than last year’s 73.9 per cent.

IT is condemnable that some groups and individuals try to profit from the security challenges Nigeria faces. Their comments, while reacting to government’s efforts to end the attacks that have been a major challenge since 2009, tender to ignore the complexities involved.

POLITICS is steadily being reduced to the contest for power at all costs. The biggest casualty to date is the people. Politics should be about service to the people through enhancement of opportunities that should sustain society.

LIKE many spheres of society, a lot is wrong with the judiciary. Ordinarily, society’s general failings could be excuses for the poor performance of the judiciary, but if we accept that the courts are the last hope of all seeking justice, no excuses would suffice for their glaring laxities.

NIGERIANS step into a new century tomorrow – the country, however is not new. It is a different New Year; it is a new beginning, not just the way most years begin. The celebrations would be different, the expectations higher.

WHEN 13-year-old Daniel Oikhena squeezed himself into the tyre compartment of an aircraft, with the belief that he would end up in America, his action sent a strong message of desperation migration, driven by frustration.

CHIEF Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mariam Mukhtar has been praised for the changes she is making in the judiciary. She has less than a year more in office, yet the matters she had set as her agenda when she took office in 2012, are still there. She has more work to do before she leaves in ensuring that justice is speedily dispensed.

MERRIMENT and excessiveness have drowned the essence of Christmas. The way of celebrating Jesus Christ, who came to save mankind, according to the bible, turns the reason for the season upside down.

IN a country of more than 160 million people, it is impossible to agree totally on anything, even if it is posted as being beneficial to all. Countries with smaller populations – and families of smaller numbers – also disagree raucously to decisions that oppose their individual interests.

IT would be a relief to many to know the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Governor Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is not desirous of renewing his tenure. His penchant for making unguided statements could have torpedoed any economy but Nigeria’s. His numerous admirers consider him “brave”.