Soon after some over ambitious Nigerian military personnel sacked second republic politicians from office, they were all hounded into various prisons across the nation. It did no matter to the khaki boys if all the politicians were guilty or not. They were all forced to taste the bitter pill of incarceration. But after regaining his freedom, the late first civilian governor of Imo State, Chief Samuel Onunaka Mbakwe, in his usual hilarious but sincere disposition, did not waste time to talk about his prison experience to anybody who cared to listen.

* Conference to be managed by 13-member secretariat under Executive secretary with two members from each geo-political zone

* Majority of delegates to be elected directly on the principles of universal adult suffrage

THE Divisional Police Officer[DPO],Asokoro Police Station, Mr Nnanna Amah, is in the news again. This time, he is being alleged to be involved in the harassment of the leader of the Nigerian Merchant Navy, Comrade Allen B. Edema, who has petitioned the Inspector General of Police, alleging attempts on his life, by the DPO.

Col. Gabriel Ajayi (rtd) was Colonel Administration and Quartermaster General, Lagos Garrison Command and author of End of the Road: The Travails of an Infantry Officer. By his appointment at the Garrison Command, he was second-in-command to the then General Officer Commanding, GOC, Major Gen. Ishaya Bamaiyi, whose hands the Ijesha-born infantry officer alleged were apparent in his travails over the alleged 1995 coup. Ajayi was accused of planning to overthrow General Sani Abacha, arrested, tried and sentenced to death along side former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the late Major Gen. Shehu Musa Yar’Adua and Colonel Gwadabe, among others. In this interview, Ajayi says the only thing government could do to make him happy with the system was for his ‘compulsory retirement’ to be reversed and his normal rank at discharge (major-general) be effected.

It is an honour that you deemed it fit and proper to intimate me with an issue important to your mind and our party in the South-west zone. It is my wish and prayer that such cordial and positive relationship will continue between your good self; former President and former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of our great party on one hand, and my humble self, the National Chairman of our party on the other hand.

My attention has been drawn to yet another letter written by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to the National Chairman of our great party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, frowning at my allegedly being made the leader of the party in the South West. He called me “a wanted habitual criminal…for whom extradition has been requested by the US Government…”

In a session in Lagos, Aviation Minister, Princess Stella Oduah, took us through her two-year old administration of the aviation sector. She spoke on the rot she met on her assumption of office, the reforms she introduced to make our skies safer, and the airports’ remodelling she initiated as part of the efforts to key into the Transformation Agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan.

I’m happy you’ve raised the question because every Nigerian is entitled to fair hearing. Nigerians must learn to ensure that we do not convict people before they get to court. The whole scenario was such that people wanted the ICPC to step in and stamp a shield of authority to the conviction without trial, thereby jeopardizing investigations. We don’t work that way. Even when you arrest a journalist, the first thing he says is ‘fair hearing’. When you run persons or agencies down, the corrective measures are never commensurate to the initial damage done.

“While I believe that a good and truly national political party must be a microcosm of the nation in its membership, made up of all sorts of characters from near-saints to near-satan, I also believe that on no account should a known habitual criminal that is wanted abroad to face criminal charges levelled against him be extolled as a political leader in a respectable and wholesome nation-building political party.

The first thing I did upon my appointment as Minister of Aviation on July 2, 2011, was to take a comprehensive assessment tour of all airports, all agencies and parastatals as well as their facilities and installations across the country. I found that safety and security-critical equipment and installations were obsolete, unserviceable or unavailable. Infrastructure all round-airport terminals were dilapidated and derelict.