FOR a country that wastes its resources on avoidable confusion, the strides some members of the National Youth Service Corps make in their assignments spread rays of hope about a future where younger people can assume responsibilities to ensure a better Nigeria.

THOSE taking Nigerians for granted should rate their anger and reaction to recent incidents. Nigerians are becoming impatient with lawlessness. When they cannot take it any longer, they take the laws into their own hands.

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan’s choice of the African Union summit in Addis Ababa to announce he intended to spend only one term, if elected, hopefully sent a message to Africa’s lengthening list of sit-tight rulers, who put their countries under perpetual tension.

THE bedlam at the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, should be a concern to all who expect INEC to conduct the April elections with a measure of seriousness.

The security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government – Section 14 (2b) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

IT used to be the Niger Delta with militants venting their anger on oil production facilities. Now the violence has shifted with three States assuming a perennial status as flash points. The incessant crises in Bauchi, Borno and Plateau have gone on for too long yet government makes excuses about them.

WHILE the furore on the health of 91-year-old icon of the anti-apartheid struggle Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was on last week, our focus was on his well being, as well as lessons from how South Africa managed a matter of high concern to a global audience.

MINISTER of State for Education Mr. Kenneth Gbagi’s advice to heads of higher institutions to grant their students leave at weekends to register at their homes for the April elections is introducing further dislocation to the dissonance that government has introduced in education since the beginning of the year.

THE peaceful conclusion of the referendum in Southern Sudan is soothing news to those who expected violence would mar the exercise. It is cheery news in a continent that has consistently proved its inability to reach consensus through the ballot box.

IS it possible that Nigeria is tired of news of killings in Jos? Have these killings become too many that they are significant only when the figures are higher than 100? Is criminality now determined by intensity rather than the fact that crimes are committed in the first?

STREET protests evicted the 23-year-old government of Ben Ali in Tunisia and are continuing as the people demand fundamental changes in the way their government treats them. It is left for scholars to situate this manner of change, but the fact remains that people’s power still works much to the fright of oppressive governments.

WHEN high cost of governments was an issue last year, it was principally located in the jumbo pays the National Assembly instituted for its privileged 468 members. It is therefore refreshing to extend the debate to other areas of government.

NO chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had a more turbulent time than Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo. None went through the humiliations that resulted in his forced resignation on Wednesday. He was to be sacked.

FOR a political party that prides itself as the largest in Africa, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has not provided the exemplary track record of internal democracy and strict adherence to its own rules and regulations, which is at the root of its intractable crisis.

ONCE again, our dear nation is on the threshold of a momentous event, this year’s general elections. Preceding that election is the all-important issue of compiling a voters’ register, an activity that has always been crucial to whether or not we get a credible election