The announcement of results of elections had for long been a persistent sore in the country. Election management bodies preoccupied with keeping their turfs had sought to constrain journalists and in some cases prescribed sanctions for journalists who cross the border in announcing election results.

Total foreign capital imported into Nigeria in 2014 summed to USD20.8 billion, lower by USD576.6 million or 2.7 per cent from the USD21.3 billion imported in 2013. The capital import figure represents value of foreign investments in Nigeria’s economy in the period under review. The year’s decline was primarily due to the reduction in the value of capital imported in the fourth quarter of 2014, which was USD4.5 billion, a sharp decline of USD2.04 million or 31.2 per cent from the value of USD6.5 billion recorded in the preceding quarter (Q3. 2014).

You cannot trust elections. At least not entirely. My first awareness about elections was when as a kid, I was told the story of how Jews were asked to vote between setting free Jesus Christ or Barabbas, a robber and murderer.

Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, former governor of Abia State and well heeled international businessman is making his second attempt for a Senate seat. The first attempt turned into a no contest when according to him he was stopped from stepping out to vote on Election Day by four armoured tanks positioned outside his gate. Kalu who is vying on the ticket of the Progressives Peoples Alliance, PPA in this interview reviews that state of affairs in the country, his native Abia State among other issues.

FORMER Governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa penultimate Saturday mobilised about 10,000 northerners who represented about 10 million northerners living in the 17 states of Southern Nigeria on the banner of the Arewa Initiative for Peaceful Co-existence in Southern Nigeria (AIPCN) to Asaba, the Delta State Capital to endorse President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election. In this interview, he spoke on why he initiated the move, why non-indigenes must be accommodated and why northerners will back Jonathan’s re-election.

Many Nigerians would not vote in the forthcoming general elections simply because they have relocated from where they were originally registered. That, however, needs not be the case as the Electoral Act and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC have instituted regulations to guide the transfer of voters from one constituency to the other.

Despite the supposed good intentions of Professor Attahiru Jega, National Chairman of Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the much touted magic of the Smart Card Reader, SCRs, may have suddenly become a victim of the Nigerian syndrome. Whereas there had been clamour for Jega to use the Card Readers at previous elections (like Ekiti and Osun States) with a view to perfecting the use of the machines before this year’s more sensitive and strategic general elections, the INEC Chairman behaved as though every other opinion did not matter

Mr. Peter Obi, the Deputy Director of the Jonathan/Sambo Campaign Organisation (South) is a former governor of Anambra State. He was in Lagos on Friday and fielded questions from journalists on issues relating to the forthcoming elections.

In what was supposed to be a rubbishing of the attempt to successfully screen Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, senators of the All Progressives Congress, APC, raised objections bothering o points of order but were ignored by Senate President David Mark. Worse, whereas they made their point that Obanikoro had pending litigation against him, the Senate spokesperson, Eyinnaya Abaribe was quick to pour cold water on them, saying the privilege of being presumed innocent until proven guilty that some opposition senators enjoy cannot be denied a fellow senator.

“Your leaders have no respect for their people. They believe that their personal interests are the people’s interests. They take people’s resources and turn them into personal wealth. There is a level of poverty in Nigeria that should be unacceptable. I cannot understand why Nigerians are not angered than they are.” This statement by Nelson Mandela, the late South Africa President, is likely to guide us as a nation from May 29, 2015, when the new President of Nigeria is expected to be sworn-in. It was a serious observation for Mandela, who had spent 27 years in prison, to declare that our leaders are corrupt and have no respect for the people. Has it always been so from the beginning? Where did we miss it? And if the story has been so from independence, what can we do to bring about a new nation with leaders that Nigerians need?