The death knell may finally sound for the Federal Government’s anti-corruption crusade if a bill pending before the House of Representatives seeking amnesty for treasury looters is allowed to sail through.

THE nation’s biggest opposition party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was saved from the pangs of self-inflicted extinction when the Supreme Court, on Wednesday, 12th July 2017, returned full authority to the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led main body of the party in a unanimous decision read by Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour.

A public forum held in Abuja recently provided another opportunity for the financial autonomy of the legislature at state levels to be put on the front burner of national discourse. Financial autonomy enables the state assemblies the freedom to access their budgetary allocations directly without the current trend of depending on the good graces of the Executive Branch (the Governors).

We are gratified to note the concerted efforts being made by leaders at various levels of authority to bring succour to the victims of the Ile Ife communal crisis which erupted on 20th March, 2017. It claimed no fewer than 46 lives, sent about 90 injured victims to the hospitals and rendered a lot of people homeless.

THE dreadful activities of the Badoo gang in the Ikorodu axis of Lagos State has, again, brought out the urgent necessity for community policing. The gang had unleashed terror on Ikorodu communities where many families have been brutally wiped out. Vital organs of their victims were allegedly removed for purposes that are yet to be determined.

The report that the country’s electricity grid collapsed fourteen times this year should alarm all of us and serve as a wake-up call to governments at all levels. Furthermore, the fact that the entire nation can be adversely affected by any one such incident is one more reason the calls for restructuring or true federalism should be treated as urgent.

THE recent disclosure that a presidential aircraft has been parked on the tarmac in a London airport since May 10, 2017 and the explanations offered by an aide to the President, Mr Garba Shehu have raised issues which must be resolved now in order not to establish a precedent that will come back to haunt this nation in the future.

The death of front-line nationalist, politician and diplomat, Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Sule, has continued to elicit reactions from Nigerians across the country. The erudite and respected elder statesman died on Sunday, 2nd July 2017 at a hospital in Cairo, Egypt.

It is very worrisome that nineteen years into our renascent democracy, the presence of the Army in the lives of the civilian populace has become even more rampant than ever. Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara, recently told a workshop jointly held by the House of Representatives and Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), that the army is currently deployed in, at least, 28 states of the Federation.

Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, on 30th June 2017, issued a quit notice to herdsmen opposed to the recently-passed Anti-Open Grazing Law in the state saying: “When the deadline expires, it’s either you ranch your livestock peacefully and continue to do business here in Benue State or you quit”.

IT is about a month and half since the six students of Lagos State Model College, Igbonla, Epe, were kidnapped by gunmen from their school hostel.

THE petroleum industry is, perhaps, the biggest source of worry for the Nigerian economy. Its most sensitive part is the downstream segment where the populist product, petrol, is messing up both the economy and the fiscal profile of the Federal Government.

The revelation by the Agriculture and Rural Development Minister, Mr Audu Ogbe, that the Federal Government is targeting eight billion US Dollars worth of foreign exchange annually from the export of yams is an indication of government’s seriousness in diversifying the foreign exchange base of the economy.

The Fedral Government recently announced its intention to seek fresh loans amounting to $774 million from China, the rising economic power horse that is fast becoming Nigeria’s “ATM machine”. Apart from the wisdom involved in raising our debt ceiling by almost another billion dollars, there are several reasons why the Senate and the Nigerian people need to take a critical look at this loan request.

In a country where electricity supply has permanently been abysmally poor and most consumers provide their own power supply, it is puzzling to hear of constant tariff increments by electricity companies.