Periods of social anomie open opportunities for delinquents to thrive in society. And so Nigerians discovered on Tuesday, June 6, 2017 when separate groups of self-styled Northern youths at a joint press conference in Kaduna, issued an infamous declaration that ordered Igbo living in the North to leave the region before October 1, 2017.

SECONDARY schools located around waterways are now the easy targets of daredevil kidnappers. Police and other security agents appear helpless as Lagos State and indeed the whole nation woke up to the shock of another audacious kidnap of students from their school hostel by gunmen penultimate week.

MEDIA hype is an awkward cachet of Nigerian public life. Not surprisingly, the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC, in its media hype, indict, try and convict suspects in the media, and then, with its shoddy investigations and sloppy prosecution, loses the case in court. In the characteristic media show-off of Nigerian public officials, the Nigerian Army Chief of Staff, Tukur Buratai, told Nigerians that some army officers, in-concert with their political sponsors, were ponder a coup attempt. Many Nigerians thought that it was a military matter that should have been investigated (with other security agencies) and addressed by the military, and not thrown out into the public domain.

THE announcement that the Federal Government has set up a panel to look into the request for upward adjustment of the minimum wage from the existing N18,000 per month to the requested N56,000 per month is not surprising.

The ennoblement of Nigerian-born Anne-Marie Osawemwenze Ore-Ofe Imafidon as a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, MBE, by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II is another pointer to the proven potential of the Nigerian spirit.

Citizen Kester Edun’s recent ordeal in the hands of some policemen in Benin City, Edo State, came across like a scene from a horror movie. An on-line video showed the 38-year old commercial bus driver chained on the left hand to the back of a police patrol van and dragged along the street on Sunday, May 14, 2017.

On the 12th of May 2017, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) received formal notification from the World Health Organisation (WHO) of an outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with three people reported dead.

AFTER an unusually long delay of the 2017 Budget, the National Assembly, NASS, has finally passed the 2017 Appropriation Bill amounting to N7.441trn – including N143bn added on by the lawmakers.

WITH the latest update on the 2017 budget upheavals taken to a ridiculous level by the two key arms of the Federal Government – the Executive and the Legislature, we draw attention to the wider policy implication of the continued delay in putting the spending plan into operation.

TODAY, May 29, 2017 is the second anniversary of the assumption of power by the Muhammadu Buhari government, elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC). He had campaigned on a three-point agenda: fighting insecurity (especially the Boko Haram insurgency), waging a war on corruption and revamping the economy.

Public decency and morality were flung to the winds by some scoundrels in school uniforms, who descended on female students with the raw intent of raping them publicly. Motorists and passers-by watched in shock as male students from secondary schools in the Ikoyi axis of Lagos sexually assaulted girls from Falomo Senior High School.

THE testy relationship between the Senate and the Presidency was tried once again last week when a newly-appointed Director-General of the National Lottery Commission, Mr Lanre Gbajabiamila, started functioning without first being confirmed by the Senate.

The debate over the configuration of the Nigerian federation and in particular, the level of autonomy local governments should enjoy remains as lively as ever. Lawyers and politicians would in the foreseeable future continue to ponder the question on whether Nigeria is a two-tier or three-tier federation and the mode of relationship between the states and local governments.

Legislatures all over the world are usually the butt of criticisms and jokes, and Nigerian parliaments are no different. Despite the fact that our Senate and House of Representatives (the National Assembly, NASS) tower above their state counterparts in the core constitutional functions of legislation, appropriation, and oversight, it is still mired in a withering image problem due mainly to the lack of transparency in its internal financial affairs.

THE recent maltreatment meted out to some female personnel of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Port Harcourt, by a superior officer speaks volumes of how official power is frequently excessively exercised among our uniformed services.