FIRST generation Awoist and elder statesmen, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, yesterday picked holes in Professor Chinua Achebe’s accusation that Chief Obafemi Awolowo was part of General Yakubu Gowon’s cabinet that initiated pogrom and genocide as a policy against the Igbo during the civil war.

Comrade Joseph Evah is the coordinator, Ijaw Monitoring Group and the former Publicity Secretary of Ijaw National Congress (INC). In this enounter with AZUH AKANWA, he speaks about flooding across states in Nigeria and why he rejected Gov Dickson’s appointment offer in his home state, Bayelsa.

Senator Suleiman Asonya Adokwe, who represents Nasarawa South Senatorial District of Nasarawa State in the Senate, heads the powerful Senate Services Committee and is also a member of the Constitution Review Committee as well as other vital committees of the upper legislative chamber of the National Assembly. A lawyer and sociologist, Adokwe comes across as one who deeply understands the many complex issues that Nigeria is grappling with and speaks with passion about how to promote unity and progress in the country.

Prince Nnagozie Ochi is the fifth child of HRH, Late Igwe Godwin Uchenna Ochi and Lolo Angelina Ochi in Ogugwu, Enugu State. His approach to life is influenced greatly by his down to earth disciplinarian parents who taught him how to bring about a change in the life of others.

…Says ‘Give me the most beautiful woman and I’ll throw her back at you’
BORN in 1898, Chief Daniel Ukeredi, aka Ogbolomo, a retired staff of the Nigeria Railway Corporation, NRC, who clocks 114 years on September 16, is the oldest living person in Okpe Kingdom, Urhobo ethnic nationality of Delta State. However, by Guiness World Records, he is only two years away from the oldest living person in the world, Mrs. Besse Cooper, who celebrated her 116th years on the earth, on August 26. Cooper was born in 1896 in Tennessee, United States of America.

Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, former Presidential Adviser in the Second Republic, has remained an ardent commentator on socio-political issues in Nigeria and does not shy away when the occasion demands his voice. With the recent resurgence of agitation by Northern governors for a review of the resource control law, the elder statesman bared his mind on what is responsible for the development and takes on those who are already on the prowl for the 2015 election, describing them as diversionary elements out to distract the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan from focusing o the delivery of democracy dividends to Nigerians. Excerpts:

Nseobong Akpabio, M.O.N, the Lagos State sector commander, Federal Road Safety Commission bares his mind on the new Lagos state traffic laws by Governor. Babatunde Fashola. He said that the law is imperative in the state to save lives that are lost as a result of road accident.

…Says Bini tradition does not stop the Oba from seeing the crown prince
Prince Edun Akenzua, the Enogie of Obazuwa and younger brother to the Benin monarch, Oba Erediauwa, is one of the few journalists that covered the civil war. He relishes his experience of the war in this interview and warns against any attempt to plunge the nation into a fresh war.

Since after the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State suffered defeat in the hands of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in the July 14, governorship election, the party has been embroiled into serious crisis. Some leaders of the group led by the former state representative, in the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mr Matthew Iduoriyekenwen, called for the sack of the present state executive of the Party led by Chief Dan Orbih due to what they described as failure of the executive to lead the party to victory in all the elections that held in the past two years in the state.

When he assumed office about three months ago, the Ag Director-General of the Nigeria Television Authority, NTA, Alhaji Musa Mayaki, was confronted with a plethora of challenges. In this interview with journalists in Abuja, he said that in just about three months, 10 stations have returned to air.

When you meet a good man, you know. Like his Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Dikko Abubakar, the man at the helm of affairs at the Lagos State Police Command, Umar A. Manko, radiates goodness.

Federal Government College, Idoani, Akure had just received two sets of computers and Gbenga Sesan, who was in his third year, was too excited to try his hands on the devices. “Sorry, you can’t understand how to use them because they not for people like you”, a teacher rebuked him.

Alhaji Shettima Yerima, an activist and president of the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, wonders why the Federal Government is yet to arrest politicians believed to be involved in the Boko Haram insurgency. The youth leader, who describes the president’s new initiative, the Almajiri School as crazy, canvasses the establishment of Arewa Ministry in order to tackle the myriad of problems confronting the North. Excerpts:

Former Military President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida clocked 71yrs last Friday. The celebration was low keyed as he chose to celebrate it with members of his immediate family with prayers in his hill top mansion, Minna, Niger State. However, on the eve of the birthday, the General who is still radiating as ever before, spoke with Journalists on some personal and national issues.

MANY, including his erstwhile military colleagues, have not come to terms yet with the fact that the pioneer Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP, for Niger-Delta ex-militants, Air Vice Marshal, AVM, Lucky Ochuko Ararile, is now a traditional ruler.