PDP will continue to exist as one major party in Nigeria. The Makarfi-led faction is the authentic party that emerged from the Port Harcourt convention the last time. The party met in Port Harcourt and decided to have a Care-Taker Committee and that was headed by Makarfi. Modu Sheriff – Sheriff joined PDP barely two years ago and now wants to be chairman. That is not possible.

PROFESSOR Ladipo Adamolekun, 74, an Awoist, erudite scholar and administrator, is not happy with the state of affairs in Nigeria and has urged urgent solutions. According to him, the clamour for restructuring of the country is fast becoming a slogan in the face of a failing state. For the giant of Africa to return to the era when Nigeria worked with features such as educational excellence, meritocracy and strong institutions, the former University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) lecturer said we must practice fiscal federalism with the centre losing most of its powers to the federating units.

This is the concluding part of Rev. Samson Olasupo Adeniyi Ayokunle, the new National President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN’s, interview, in which the cleric outlines the challenges ahead of him and calls on the Federal Government to hasten to restructure the nation and revamp the economy because the people are hungry.

The Archbishop Emeritus of Lagos, Anthony Cardinal Okogie, in this piece, says those who wrote the Constitution appeared to have in mind only a Nigeria awash with petro-dollars. Nigerians are witnessing two scenes of a drama. Scene one is the drama of clamour and resistance – clamour for restructuring and resistance to restructuring of the federation, that is, if Nigeria can be called a federation in the proper sense of the word.

It’s a combination of what some people have described as financial wizardry and foresight. I will take the foresight part first. During his first term of office, the governor, realising the great potentials of Ogun State, being the gateway to the rest of the country and even the West African sub region, decided to ensure that the state is able to attract the brightest and the best from all over the world. In order to achieve this, he embarked on massive infrastructural development projects, building roads, bridges and opening up the state for massive foreign and local investments.

Technical Director of the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) Dr Daniel Igali who is also the President of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation (NWF) has never ceased to exude confidence that Team Nigeria will do the nation proud in the forthcoming Olympics in Rio, Brazil next month. The Sydney 2000 Olympics wrestling gold medallist spoke extensively on his expectations from the quadrennial Games.

If you are not conversant with the family issues you can’t become the Ojora, you can’t just come from London and contest for the Ojora stool; you have to be an apprentice. I worked in the family office for 30 years; so I’ve been dealing with the family cases by going with the elders to meet the lawyers; so I have knowledge and experience. If you sue me now and I look at the suit and what you are claiming, I will just laugh. I will even advise my lawyer on what to do because it’s what I’ve been doing for the past 45 years; so I know everything. You can’t talk about anything regarding my family land now that I don’t know.

THE Benenibowei of Gbaramatu Kingdom Warri South-West Local Government Area, Delta State, Chief Godspower Gbenekama, weekend, challenged the Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr Solomon Dalung, who claimed to have held talks with Niger Delta Avengers, NDA, in Oporoza, last week, to publish the name and identity of one of the members he met with.

We in the capital market have always had cordial relationship with the Federal Government. We owe the Federal Government constant engagement in order to articulate policy issues that would move the market forward. The regulators and we the operators are the technical people . But we need the endorsement of the government and its patronage at every stage for the market to move forward. Several meetings, including public hearings had been held to x-ray the capital market and re-position it for global competitiveness. Many committees had been constituted as ad hoc or standing one. These committees usually have government representatives. Engagement with the government is a continuous exercise.

Well, what I can say as the National Coordinator of the CNDE, is that we are both surprised and not too surprised over the recent spike in oil facility attacks. We are not surprised because there are certain things that the government needed to provide in the Niger Delta but it has not done so up till this moment. These are the issues that gave birth to the Presidential Amnesty Programme. We are surprised that instead of addressing those germane issues the government merely tried to appease some people and allow the issues to fester.