NIGERIA last week observed this year’s remembrance for the country’s fallen heroes who died in active service as members of the Nigerian Armed Forces. This came at a time the family of a distressed former military personnel, Kingsley Iberi, who claims to have been wrongfully dismissed from the Nigerian Army, was lamenting and telling their tale of woe to every sympathetic ear.

AGAIN, Lagosians will have to be very careful in the consumption of poultry products such as chicken and eggs, following the sudden resurgence of Avian influenza, AI, commonly called bird flu, into the state.

Indeed, it has been three years of pains and anguish for some residents in Lagos State, Nigeria’s commercial hub centre, as properties valued at over N54 billion had been lost to fire accidents.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and legacy extends far beyond America’s shores. I remember in October 1960 when Nigeria newly got her independence from Britain. Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe, our first ever President invited Dr. King to attend his inauguration. Dr. Azikiwe happily wrote as follows: “I wish to inform you that I have included your name in the list of invitees to attend my inauguration…., because it will be the first time in our national history when a person of African descent will be assuming the high office of the Head of State of Nigeria.”

Clashes between pastoralists and farmers are worsening in many parts of the country due to disputes over grazing reserves and water sources but the Jigawa State administration under Sule Lamido is far ahead of all others in tackling this social problem. The state government has established 400 grazing reserves, 50 of which have already been gazetted. Grazing reserves tend to be merely unattended bush in other places, but, in Jigawa State, Lamido has seen to it that they are equipped with facilities such as windmills, power pumps and boreholes as well as improved grass and resting facilities.