THESE days the people of the Niger Delta are more frustrated at the little they get in return for their peace efforts. There is impatience at the pace of the authorities in Abuja in addressing the challenges of living in environments which oil and gas production has despoiled for more than 50 years.

TODAY’s gathering in Warri marks another of the many efforts to search for sustainable peace in the Niger Delta, a region that suffers from rampaging poverty ironically fuelled by the oil and gas exploration that oils the nation’s economy.

NIGERIANS are getting to the reality that every part of the country wants to free space and whatever resources it can for itself. The arguments are not about who settlers are and who are the indigenes, they are about the fact that Nigerians are now grappling with issues of citizenship. It is an issue that deserves handling with uttermost sensibility and sensitivity.

THE Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC, last week launched the final phases of a transformation that would make it more transparent, more accountable, and ultimately a provider of better services to the public. On paper the transformation plans are sound, what remains is their implementation.

DR. Ibrahim Yakubu Lame, Minister of  Police Affairs, became more famous last week when he spent a lot of time blaming the police for the country’s poor security. He provided no statistics, other than talking about rising crime rate. It is difficult to know what angered the minister that he condemned the police in a […]

PRESSURES are mounting on acting President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to act decisively. The latest is from Gen Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma, Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Council.

THERE is enough to worry about over the non-resolution of the issues around the health of President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and the scratches its complications have left on the country. We wake up daily to new angles that consistently tilt towards the fact that the solutions are still a long way off.

NIGERIA is already over-armed. Some of the arms are in wrong hands or being put into wrong uses. Militants, criminals, kidnappers have enough arms to challenge the authority of governments all over the country.

IF you are a fervent follower of events in Edo State House of Assembly, you would think the legislators were being paid to exhibit their stale boxing skills. Last week, the hospitals in Benin City were busy receiving victims of the most recent flurry of punches unleashed in a gathering that is supposed to make laws for the good governance of the State.

AS Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, Brigadier- General Maharazu Ismaila Tsiga is bound to protect interests in the NYSC, which at the moment are waning.