DICTATORSHIP often rears its ugly head in highly disguised manners. When we are under the illusion that we are in a democracy, it is easy to ignore the traces of authoritarian rule that creep into our affairs.

WE are days away from the 50th anniversary of Nigeria. It is time to talk about our heroes. In these parts, heroes are politicians, no matter their ideologies or lack of them, no matter their selfishness that has held the country back.

Those who argued about the injustice of people improperly elected assuming offices, benefitting from the spoils of the office until a court annuls the election, had expected that elections held four months to the handover date would provide enough time to dispose of cases at the tribunals.

WHY has the manner of Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa’s death become a hot issue 44 years after his demise? Can something be achieved by having a correct version of the account of his death? Would it be important to know how Nigeria ’s first Prime Minister died?

WITH all the noise about the Federal Government’s posture on corruption, there is no doubt that some forms of corruptions are tolerable while others have to be dealt with decisively. Those who claim that the fight against corruption is selective would have a point if we take football as an example.

SEVERAL indicators had foretold the inability of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to compile a fresh voters’register of about 70 million people in two weeks, but the Commission had insisted that it was equal to the task.

POLITICIANS are suddenly awake. The ‘smartest beings’ in existence think it is time to say a few words to the Nigerian people. Power belongs to the people and it is time to wrest it from them democratically. The rituals of declarations, politicking and winning elections centre on politicians and their interests.

DEATH of two top security officials in two cities within two days may be a cause of concerns to the authorities but the approach to investigating them seems to suggest the killers may never be found, and their motive would remain a riddle.

ONE thing is guaranteed about the 2011 elections – like ones before them, they will be controversial. As if that guarantee should not be challenging enough for the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, it has dabbled into the tenure of some governors which did not begin with others on 29 May 2007.

LAST year, former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Dr. Aliyu Modibbo drew attention to the enormous powers Governors held because State Houses of Assembly were not strong enough to control them. He said governors had become emperors.

JUST think for a second what the world would be without teachers. As the images rush through your mind, think again about the treatment teachers get from us individually, and from their employers, especially governments.

THE Supreme Court five years ago annulled some sections of the Monitoring of Revenue Allocation To Local Governments Act 2005 that awarded the Auditor-General of the Federation powers to monitor the use of funds allocated to the local government areas.

MUSLIMS all over the world are celebrating the end of their fasting. The annual spiritual ritual which lasts 30 days is essentially a period of spiritual re-birth for the faithful who observe its tenets and learn the lessons.

On Monday September 6, 2010, the striking lecturers of state-owned universities in the South East geopolitical zone donned full academic regalia and staged a protest march in Enugu, the political capital of the defunct Eastern Region, over the failure of governments in the zone to implement the Federal Government/Academic Staff Union of Universities (FG/ASUU) pact reached last year after a prolonged national strike.

TWO minor factors that emphasise governments insensitive to Nigerians – our overwhelmingly unacceptable sanitary conditions and the abysmally low levels of access to medical services – have helped in the ricocheting cholera outbreaks.