WITH 62.15 per cent of the popular vote, the African National Congress, ANC, extended its 20-year hold on power, amid allegations of scandals and economic malaise afflicting South Africa. It was the first election after the death of iconic Nelson Mandela last December.

THE World Economic Forum for Africa, WEFA, in Abuja, the 24th in the series, was a success, even in the gloom of the abducted Chibok schoolgirls, and the further security anxieties that surrounded the event.

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

THE longer the inconclusive journey of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, began in 2000 lasts, the more the concerns about more transparent management of the oil and gas sector result in the bill. The controversies are enough reasons to pass the bill.

IN October 2012, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Minister of Finance and Cordinating Minister of Economy organised a presidential sports retreat at the State House, Abuja – Team Nigeria to the Olympic Games had returned without a medal. She hired one of the world’s top consultants to probe the performance.