For how long will this hardship continue? This is certainly not what we bargained for when we defied that April deluge and came out en masse to cast our vote for President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in the last presidential election with the belief that he has the magic wand to transform our ailing economy.

THE people of Ezza-Ezillo communities in Ishielu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State woke on Saturday, December 31, 2011 without the slightest premonition that death was lurking at different locations in the area.

ALmost every community in the traditional African society is identified by a unique feature which makes it different from others. Such unique features include the type of music, dance, cultural festival, sports and sacred rituals.

AN ongoing short-term skill acquisition programmes organised by the Lagos State government through the Ministry of Women and Poverty Alleviation, WAPA empowerment programme, has become the toast of not only the youths but septuagenarians and widows who are yearning to engage in innovative ventures such as manufacturing new and existing products in the country.

THE joy of the people of Lagos Central Senatorial district knew no bounds when their representative in the Senate, Senator Oluremi Tinubu empowered rural women and awarded scholarship to many of her constituents.

As the new law prohibiting motorcyclists popularly called Okada from plying major roads in Lagos State took off yesterday, both the operators and those who patronise them are already counting their losses. The government had given Saturday, December 31, 2011 as the deadline for Okada operators to take their bikes off the highways.

IT’S ten years since the late civilian governor of Ondo State, Chief Adebayo Adefarati, inaugurated the intervention agency – Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, OSOPADEC – to alleviate poverty in the oil-rich communities of the state. From all indications, the agency has brought succour to the hitherto neglected communities.

Ogale is an oil-rich community in Eleme, the Local Government Area of Rivers State where oil was first discovered in the country. Ogale people are mainly farmers but oil spillage due to pipeline vandalism, especially the one that occurred in 2009, and the attendant water pollution, has robbed them of their source of livelihood.

Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has said his government will partner the Federal Government to fight against trafficking in persons and child labour.

Agbor in Delta State came alive recently when the human rights community stormed the town to educate the people on their fundamental and inalienable rights. Led by Nollywood star, Ramsounoa and Executive Director, Social and Economic Rights Action Center, SERAC, Mr. Felix Muoka, the rally was part of activities to commemorate the International Human Rights Day which is celebrated every December , 10.

Madam Akpan Sarah is a 62 year-old widow who hails from Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area in Akwa-Ibom State. She worked as a nanny with a Lebanese couple until 2008 when she retired. She had planned to use her savings of N400,000 to set up a small-scale business in the city. Arrangements to start the business were in top gear when Madam Sarah suddenly took ill and has since then, been in and out of the hospital.

Mrs Risikat Faronbi is a petty trader who uses the festive period to sell all sorts, especially to make ends meet. With the help of her five children, she tends to make more money as the children are seen in their different locations selling one item or the other for the season.

At a time when parents whose wards in private schools across the country are paying through their noses to keep the pupils in school, a private school – Ancore Life Primary School, located at Iyagbe a remote village in an island about 25 minutes boat ride from Ojo market in Lagos, is not only educating its students without collecting school fees from them but is also giving them free lunch daily.

If it was completed on schedule in 2009, the abandoned Federal Capital Territory (FCT)- Agatu-Bagana road project- which runs through Kogi and Nassarawa states -could have reduced the heavy traffic on the ever-busy Abuja-Lokoja highway. Many of the lives that have been lost on this narrow and pot-hole filled road would also have been saved.

For the fourth time within a space of three weeks, motorcycle operators popularly called Okada riders took to the streets to protest the decision of Lagos State government to ban their operation on the high ways in Lagos State with effect from December 31.