A billow of fire and thick fumes of burnt hydrocarbons to Kaduna residents is the signal that the Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company, KRPC, is in operation. This is accompanied by a flurry of activities, especially heavy traffic of petrol tankers, in and around the 1.2 square mile refinery, which is unarguably the biggest government investment north of the Niger and the Benue. But, in the past 10 months, the fire has disappeared and the hustling around the refinery has also whittled down into a sober, low-level activity. Sunday Vanguard then decided to find out what is going on.

Penultimate Friday, Dr. Alex Otti, the governorship candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, in the Abia State election, raised the alarm that an attempt was made on his life. This generated so much heat in the state with the Abia State Government taking him on and pooh-poohing the allegation.

He started as a saleman of a pharmaceutical company after his secondary education in 1955. While with the firm, he rose to the position of Sales manager for the then Lagos and Western region, made up of the present-day Ogun, Oyo, Ekiti, Osun and Ondo states. But in 1963, he left the company to start his own small business. This was influenced by a book he read which encouraged entrepreneurship.

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina was until his appointment the managing director of Sun Newspapers and concurrently, the president of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE.

Several times I wondered if my mother was my real, biological mother, and once discussed it with my elder brother who is a year older than I am, and he admitted to have had similar doubts. I grew up to become restless and got involved in all sorts of vices which my father used to preach against. But in the long run, the discipline I received from my parents helped shape who I am today.