ON enquiry, one of the women, Madam Tejuraboh, who volunteered information, said they sent their wares through the port to places like Bayelsa State, Port Harcourt, Calabar, Warri, Lagos and even the riverine areas of Egun in Ondo State. She said it was cheaper and safer, adding that it eliminates the hassles from security personnel, who they usually met if they went by road.

President Goodluck Jonathan may have been seeking an escape route from legal and constitutional entanglement when he summoned the emergency meeting of October 3, 2012 over the Bakassi Peninsula saga as he could have breached the constitution by conceding a Nigerian territory without consent from the National Assembly. So a carefully choreographed sequence of events to hoodwink Nigerians was put on place with the summoning of the emergency meeting and setting up a committee of ‘do-nothing’.

[The proposed benchmark is] “based on a well established econometric methodology of estimating oil price moving averages”- President Jonathan, during presentation of the 2013 Budget

Dr. Akintola Omigbodun is an expert in flood management. In this interview, he says the floods ravaging many states in Nigeria are avoidable. Omigbodun, who fielded questions from Vanguard editors during a visit to the media house, last week, also deplores the Ministry of Water Resources’ handling of the crisis and warns that there are grave dangers ahead for Lagos and Ogun states should the water in Oyan Dam not be properly managed.

I am sad and distressed that a literary giant and an elder statesman such as Professor Chinua Achebe should be credited with the statement attributed to him in his latest book on the Nigerian Civil War at this time in Nigeria’s political history, over 40 years after.

For many years, renowned writer, Professor Chinua Achebe was in search of a vehicle to convey the anguish of the Nigerian civil war. Today, the godfather of African literature whose pen boot is lace with controversy, conveys his personal memoir of the Biafran Nigerian civil war in his latest work, “There Was A Country.” Since the publication of the work, litany of criticisms have continued to trail issues raised in the book.

GELEGELE is said to have been founded by its first ruler of the village, Ikpiti and his elder sister, Kunemor, sometime in 1403. Both were said to have been attracted to the area because it was located on a hill, which makes it almost impossible to be flooded by the river around the place.

WHAT is national security? How does the editor define it? How does it affect his job? What are the rules that govern reportage of national security? What stories should be obscured?

Prof Walter Ofonagoro in this concluding segment argues that Yaounde I declaration of August 4, 1970; Yaounde II declaration of April 4, 1971 and the Maroua declaration of June 1, 1975 which created the Ngo/Coker line on which the ICJ based its judgment were, in fact in conflict with the letter and spirit of the Anglo-German agreement of March 11, 1913.

The place is apparently crawling with shrimps and crayfish. On that occasion, the British Foreign Office turned down the request. But a British Foreign Office official, Mr. Trench, was anxious to please: “The few square miles of bog, and one or two Negro villages that would be added to German territory by giving up the present frontier, are quite secondary and /or subordinate….. These protected subjects easily rebuild their homes.”

Classified by Amb. Jackie Sanders 1. (C) Summary: The Secretary-General’s Executive Director for Political Affairs Carlos Lopes and Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for West Africa Ahmedou Ould-Abdullah briefed Acting Polcouns on sensitive efforts underway to resolve the Bakassi border issue. Lopes said SYG Annan remained engaged on the issue and still intended to […]

Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Robert Clarke (SAN), who is the Principal Partner, Paiko & Co, implores the Federal Government to resettle Nigerians living in Bakassi instead of allowing a revolt which, according to him, may have a spiral effect in the country. The septuagenarian, in this interview, insists that Nigeria erred by submitting to the International Court of Justice(ICJ) and has no option than to abide by the decision of the ICJ on the peninsula. Excerpts:

The Etiyen of Bakassi, Dr. Etim Okon Edet, is not only the paramount ruler of Bakassi but also the Chairman of Cross River State Council of Chiefs. A product of the University of Calabar where he studied political science, the traditional ruler was forced out of his palace in Atabong by the intrigues of concession of his land, which is part of Efik Kingdom, to Cameroon by the Federal Government based on the war time policy of appeasement entered into by Gen. Yakubu Gowon and the late Alhaji Ahmoudu Ahiidjo of Cameroon and Sealed by Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo and Mr. Koffi Ananah, who accepted the ICJ verdict and rushed into implementation of the verdict with the endorsement of the controversial Green Tree Agreement.

AS a result of the prediction by meteorologists that the volume of rainfall this year could double that of last year and that Oyo State could be one of the states that are likely to experience flooding, residents in the state always scamper for safety whenever the cloud gathers in preparation for another rain.

When it did not fall at the appropriate time, both Christians and Muslims headed for both their Churches and Mosques seeking the face of God. Hope was almost lost for the rains but it eventually came.