THE controversial issue of security vote came back to the front burner during the recent quarterly policy dialogue on accountability for security votes at the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC, Abuja when the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen Yusuf Buratai accused state governors of hiding behind their immunity to embezzle the vote.

OVER the penultimate weekend, Nigerians woke up to one of the most scandalous and outrageous photographs which made the front page of many newspapers and went viral on the social media.

WE are elated by the new song that the Minister of Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, sang after a recent meeting with South East Governors over the closure of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu.

ALTHOUGH the mob actions against South African businesses in Nigeria were ill-advised and regrettable, they helped shake the President Muhammadu Buhari government for once to take needful actions.

FOR the first time ever since 2006 when the crime of xenophobia, which had simmered in South Africa over the decades became a major issue, the highly elastic patience of Nigerians snapped last week. They had had enough of the killings and destruction of businesses of their compatriots in South Africa.

FOLLOWING the massive influx of indigenous criminals and strange, foreign elements masquerading as armed killer-herdsmen into our forests and using them as cover, the Governors of the South West and South East, in July 2019 decided to set up security outfits in their respective geopolitical zones.

AS preparations for the November 2019 off-cycle Governorship elections in Bayelsa and Kogi states pick up, the vexed matter of prohibitive and non-refundable expression of interest and nomination fees in the major two political parties – the All Progressives Congress, APC, and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP – come back into focus.

THE spate of ethnic profiling and hate speeches rocking the social media should worry all well-meaning Nigerians because it not only diverts attention from the real dangers facing the country, it also shows that the destination to national unity is still very far off.

LAST week, Nigerians woke up to the breaking news of a visa row with the United States. The Donald Trump administration announced that as from Thursday (August 29, 2019) Nigerians whose visa applications were approved would pay extra visa fees ranging from $80 to $303 (depending on the class of visa) in addition to the non-refundable $160 to $260 application fees paid for non-immigrant visas, before they can travel to the US.

The Governor of Borno State, Prof. Babagana Zulum and his immediate predecessor, Kashim Shettima(now a Senator), have rushed to the Presidential Villa in Abuja to plead for more military push to stop the total collapse of the security situation.

FIVE months after Professor Mahmood Yakubu’s Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declared him the winner of the 2019 presidential election, and three months after he was sworn-in for a second term, President Muhammadu Buhari has finally sworn-in his ministers.

NIGERIANS are worried at President Muhammadu Buhari’s instruction to his newly-inaugurated 43 Ministers not to seek direct audience with him as his second term cabinet was inaugurated three months after he was sworn-in.

IT is a well-recognised fact that when the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, really wants to do a good job they are capable of doing more than a good job. It has been proved time and again that any time our police personnel are given assignments outside the shores of this country they always perform as well as the best of their peers from other countries.

WE wish to emphasise that the proposed meeting between Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari and his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, is a welcome development.

THE sad irony about the rampant spate of ethno-religious clashes that occur among Nigerians from different backgrounds, especially in our major urban areas, is that it consumes the poor, struggling masses toiling to make a daily living.