BARRING last-minute developments to the contrary, the Dr. Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, AIIAE, with be “indefinitely” shut down effective from August 24, 2019. There is great confusion as to the real purpose of the shutdown.

WE join millions of well-meaning and peace-loving Nigerians to condemn in very strong terms the assault by a mob reportedly made up of members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, on former Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, in Nuremberg, Germany over the weekend.

ALLEGATIONS of collusions between some criminal elements in our security and armed forces with terrorists have become too rampant to be ignored.

IN February 2019 just before the general elections, President Muhammadu Buhari, candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, responded to caustic criticisms of his first term by former President Olusegun Obasanjo by vowing to probe how Obasanjo’s government allegedly spent $16bn on the power sector

THE killing of three Nigerian policemen by some soldiers in Taraba State on Tuesday, August 6, 2019, is a mirror image of the security quandary now facing Nigeria. Nobody quite knows exactly what some of our armed security agents are up to.

THE trees which make up our forests are “trees of life” because they manufacture and release the oxygen we breathe in, and then mop up the carbon dioxide we and other entities and activities release to the atmosphere.  Hence, trees are called “carbon sink” in environmental parlance.

FURTHER indicators that the 2019 general elections were considerably far behind the standards set in 2015 have emerged with the release of the report of the Nigerian Civil Society Situation Room. It revealed that 626 Nigerians lost their lives in election-related violence between the beginning of the campaigns in October 2018 and the end of the supplementary elections in March 2019.

WE are horrified at the haste with which the authorities appear to have put the tragic events of Monday, July 22, 2019 behind them. On that day, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, DCP, in charge of operations at the Federal Capital Territory Command, Usman Umar, was shot in the head and he died instantly.

The occasion of the sacrifice also marks the end of Hajj or Pilgrimage rites, the fifth pillar of Islam, in the Holy land of Saudi Arabia which also links Ibrahim and the same Ismail to some of the activities in the Holy Kaaba.

THE Governor of Borno State, Professor Babagana Umara Zulum, was recently at the headquarters of the Nigerian Customs Service, Abuja, to solicit assistance for the millions of internally-displaced persons, IDPs, and other embattled citizens in the State and the North East needing urgent food support.

THE first and overriding article of public interest in governance is the security of the citizens. Section 14(2b) of the 1999 Constitution states: “It is hereby accordingly declared that: the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government”.

PENDING when leaders of this country will summon the political will to empower the lower tiers of government with the constitutional right to operate their police and security outfits, there is a need for state governors to rise up with greater resolve against insecurity in their various jurisdictions.

THE recently-concluded screening and confirmation of President Muhammadu Buhari’s ministerial nominees by the Senate left many well-meaning and discerning Nigerians wondering: what exactly are the national and public interest objectives of this legislative exercise?

However, a series of fairly minor incidents which have been creeping up here and there should serve as early warning signals for us to do an urgent overview of the entire aviation industry in order to head off possibly impending disasters.

THE respect and popularity which the first elected Governor of Lagos State, Alhaji Lateef Jakande (fondly called LKJ) still enjoys in the state and beyond was evident on Tuesday, July 23, 2019, when eminent Nigerians gathered to honour him during his 90th birthday celebration.