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.

ELECTIONS have been confirmed for January 2011. We expected that politicians would have deemed it important to start engaging the people in discussions about their future, about the competence they are providing as leaders and their expectations from those they lead.