Increasing prices of food items: A medium-sized basket of fresh pepper now sells for N10, 000.00, from N5,000.00, while a basket of chili pepper goes for N13, 000.00, as against the N5,500.00 it sold. A jute bag of onions goes for N12, 500.00 from N11, 000.00, while a 20-litre keg of vegetable oil goes for N6,100 as against N6,000 previously. A four-litre paint measurement of garri still sells for N500 or N600. At the Daleko Market, Isolo, the price of the various brands of a 50-kilogramme bag of rice ranges from N7, 000 to N12,000. A 120 kilogramme bag of beans costs N24, 500.00, against N22.000.00 that it sold earlier.

No one would have imagined that the creeks and waterways of Bayelsa State, given their serenity and alluring vegetation, on both sides, could be turned into killing fields by sea pirates.

By 2050, Nigeria, currently the seventh most populous country in the world, will rise to the fourth spot with an estimated 397 million people, the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), a Washington-based organisation that informs people around the world about population, health, and the environment has said.

President Muhammadu Buhari was inaugurated May 29, but, three months after, he was yet to send names of his Ministers to the Senate for confirmation.

Until recently, I did not take keen interest in who becomes the next governor of Bayelsa State, but recent defection of some bigwigs of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) since the emergence of the latter, as the ruling party, has attracted my attention to the issue.