We join millions of well-meaning Nigerians in welcoming President Muhammadu Buhari from his  medical vacation in the United Kingdom. It is gratifying that he is back to resume his duties.

The year 2000 was once the magic year when Nigeria was projected to reach most of her developmental goals, but as we have seen, this did not happen. The President Olusegun Obasanjo regime signed the Millennium Development Goals, MDG, but Nigeria failed to meet the targets by its 2015 deadline.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has embarked upon another “indefinite and total” strike, which has shut down no less than 40 Federal and 44 state universities.

Nigeria was once the first destination in Africa for Foreign Direct Investment, FDI. But now, according to a study, the country ranks nineteenth. Recently, the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, reported that FDI flow plummeted from $9.64 bn in 2015 to $5.12 bn in 2016, a whopping 46 per cent drop. That  drop only tells part of the story and does not reveal the challenges facing the nation which badly need a lot of FDI.

Lagos, Nigeria’s high density commercial and industrial capital, is back to wearing a garb of filth as heaps of refuse have taken over the metropolis. Not quite long after medical experts had, in reaction to the development warned of a possible outbreak of epidemic as a consequence, there have been reports of deaths arising from Lassa fever infection in the state, with a lot of people under surveillance due to exposure to the disease.

Nigerians were already acclaiming the decimation of Boko Haram Islamist insurgency as a major accomplishment of the President Muhammadu Buhari government after two years in power when, suddenly, it made a disheartening resurgence.

The atmosphere of disunity which appears about to overwhelm the Nigerian polity has become a matter of urgent national importance which must be arrested. The Federal Government must roll out all law enforcement instruments to guarantee the protection of lives and property of Nigerians.

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, had last week in a public event, indicated that the Federal Government is set to compel International Oil Companies (IOCs) to cut the cost of producing oil in Nigeria. He said the move was to cope with the current low price of crude oil in the international market.

After 64 gruelling days in kidnappers’ captivity, the six students of the Lagos State Model College, Igbonla, Epe, were rescued by the combined efforts of the Police and other security agents. The rescue operation reportedly left 20 of the gangsters dead while a civilian volunteer who assisted the security agents lost his life. Also, eight policemen and four other civilian volunteers were injured.

The recent invasion of the Kogi State House of Assembly by hoodlums has gone down in the history of the State as a day of infamy.