THERE seems to be a muddle about the way we are handling this issue of Boko Haram. It is my view that we are already jumping the gun and pushing the cart before the horse.

ECONOMY over the past two years: Economic growth trend, measured by the performance of the Gross Domestic Product, GDP, has been generally positive over the last two years, averaging about 6.5 per cent. This is good compared to growth conditions in most economies around the world.

THE month of May marks the anniversary of the declaration of independence by Eastern Nigerians from Nigeria, and called their new born nation, Biafra.

ZIMBABWE’s Solomon Madzore must be cooling off in a Zimbabwean detention camp right now. His crime – he called President Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s President for life “a limping donkey who should be put out to pasture.” And even a court ruling to set him free was brushed aside by President Robert Mugabe who has ruled Zimbabwe since 1980.

Addis Ababa, about 48hours ago: At about the time Asishana Okauru, Director General, DG, of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, NGF, was announcing Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi as the elected Chairman of the body, one of the aides to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan whispered to the President that Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State had been elected as Chairman of the same body. Minutes later, Jonathan, who also held a secret meeting with former President Olusegun Obasanjo in Addis Ababa (ostensibly over the multifarious political challenges besetting the former), was made to understand that the earlier information he got was not true in every material particular.

One can only wonder what was going through the mind of President Goodluck Jonathan since about three years on the saddle as the killing mainly by Islamic insurgents went from bad to worse.

Since President Johnathan’s administration emerged in 2011, his decision to declare a state of emergency in the three Northern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe following series of attacks on these states by the Boko Haram sect could be said to have received a massive applause from Nigerians.

The current full scale military campaign to restore normalcy in the three states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa overwhelmed by Boko Haram insurgency and to protect the country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, which began 24 hours after President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday May 14, 2013 declared state of emergency in the most troubled areas of the north, seemed yielding results in various aspects.

Barrister Mike Ejiofor, FSI, PNM, is the Chairman/CEO of Apex Safety & Security Consultants Ltd. He is a retired Director of State Security Service with over 37 years of experience in Security, Intelligence and Consulting within the Security Industry.

The Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Dele J. Ezeoba may have set for him set a target to accomplish the presidential directives to contain the acts of piracy, armed robbery in the high seas, stealing and shipping away of crude oil and illegal shipment of arms within the country’s territorial waters, but the big questions remains unanswered.

THE house is like any other along the street, without any special adornment. We are in the largely middle-class suburb of Surulere in Lagos. But to my pleasant surprise, the street, which I have not visited for several years, has now been turned into a double carriageway.

ALL will be quiet on the Federal front and the desperate do or die battle to have the Presidency will abate.

I WAS amused at the almost physical pain exhibited by Is’haq Modibo Kawu in his column in the Vanguard Newspaper on Thursday, May 2, 2013, whilst reacting to a recent speech in the U.S.A. by Mr. Kingsley Kuku, the President’s Adviser on the Niger Delta.

He has become angry, very angry, lately. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, President and Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria, has not been sleeping pretty because of that. Also, he has become constantly agitated. Looking mostly forlorn, Jonathan is aging fast. Therefore, at a meeting with the top apparatchik of the security services, it was an enraged Jonathan who asked his security chiefs to explain how the country descended to the abyss that it has found itself.

PROLOGUE
What is evil? Where is evil? Who is evil? When does evil strike? How does evil strike? We may ask these questions, not necessarily as rhetoric. But more as a function of a sense of hopelessness and helplessness! And not because we do not have an idea of what it is; but much more because the mere thought of it evokes a feeling that would make you shriek in fear.