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.