A LITTLE over one year after the amnesty programme of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua went into effect, with hundreds of ex-militants of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, surrendering their weapons to the federal authorities, the nation seems to be sliding to square one.

NIGERIA, on the verge of major — some say decisive — transitional elections in 2011, is suddenly faced with growing security challenges that could spell doom unless there are appropriate measures to tackle them. These threats are both internal and foreign, considering situations within and the constant interception of imported arms.

NOBODY will bear you a grudge if you do not know Nuhu Somo Wya. He is the Minister of State for Power (electricity). Last Thursday, Wya, an architect, reminded Nigerians that they needed to be grateful to this administration for making electricity supply better in the last one year than an entire generation of Nigerian leaders did.

CHALLENGES Nigeria faces are numerous.
Any effort that can provide solutions to them should receive enthusiastic support from the authorities, and all who have a concern for the 150 million pieces of humanity that resides in these parts.

THE Federal Government thinks that any solution would clear the backlog of millions of candidates, who cannot get places in universities. Only 23 per cent of 1.3 million candidates, who apply for places are admitted annually. The waiting list stretches with the years.

SCANDALS are a notable part of our national life. We have seen enough of them that Nigerians live beyond shocks from scandals. What remains fertile is the imagination that we bring to scandals, as we wait for all the scurrilous details or add some of our own if we fail to get what we want.

A LITTLE over one year after the amnesty programme of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua went into effect, with hundreds of ex-militants of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, surrendering their weapons to the federal authorities, the nation seems to be sliding to square one.

THE death of five children at the Jos University Teaching Hospital, JUTH, is a partial verdict on the state of our teaching hospitals, just refurbished at great cost and their supposed attainment of international standards celebrated with an embarrassment to the array of equipment that were brought into the hospitals without much attention to the relevance of the equipment and supporting facilities for them to work.

ASSURANCES from the National Assembly that 29 May reminds the handing over date resound in their emptiness.

EID-al-Adha, the Arabic for Festival of Sacrifice or Greater Eid is an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Abraham (Ibrahim) to sacrifice his son Ishmael (Isma’il) as an act of obedience to Allah, before the Almighty intervened by providing Ibrahim with a ram to sacrifice in place of Ishmael.