In the first part of this series, the price of Brent Crude, which is closer to the Nigerian light crude, was quoted at $95.56 per barrel on June 20, 2012. On June 28, 2012, it came down to $93 and that was on account of the strike in Norway, the world’s eighth largest producer.

The Senate has been in the forefront in the debate on how to resolve issues emanating from the state of insecurity that has partially closed-down a number of cities in the North. The appointment of a new National Security Adviser in the person of Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd.) is one of the pro-active measures that have been taken by President Goodluck Jonathan towards frontally confronting the problem.

From the deep cave in Anambra where the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) operates to the creek in the Niger Delta which parades dozens of militant groups battling for resource control, down to the West where the Odua Peoples Congress holds sway up to the savannah in the north that has recently witnessed the insurgence of the Boko Haram group all at one time or the other holds the Nigerian government in arms-lock.

Dr Nnamdi. Oziri, a scholar, School of Sciences, Federal University of Technology (FUTO), Owerri, bares his mind on some vital issues in the presidential media chat including the president’s refusal to declare his assets publicly

For Ebun-olu Adegboruwa, the presidential media chat lacks credibility and therefore, it couldn’t address some stringent issues in the country. “It is indeed good that the President should endeavour to bare his mind on burning national issues concerning the people of Nigeria, but that must be done in a liberal atmosphere, not that of intimidation and exclusivity.”

The third media chat of President Goodluck Jonathan last Sunday after his return from Brazil where he participated in this year’s United Nations’ Earth Summit at a time violence was raging in Kaduna and Yobe states killing several people, has come and gone, but the ripples caused by the chat are still spreading across the polity.

All through the presidential media chat, Comrade Sam Akindele, Dean, School of Arts and Social Sceicnes, Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education (AOCOED). Otto-Ijanikin, Lagos, former national president, Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union, COEAASU and Social Rights Activist, watched on television and listened carefully as President Goodluck Jonathan responded to national issues raised during the discussion

FOLLOWING the agelong infrastructural decay in Nigeria, occasioned by leadership failure, efforts were made towards revamping the various national infrastructure across the country.

Two volcanic explosions in two Churches in Zaria, and another equally thunderous bang at another Church in Kaduna, erected the new foundation for the latest rounds of mass human slaughtering and heart wrenching destruction of property in Kaduna State last week.

Before the legion of excuses are laid on the table to tolerate the complicity of Nigerian leaders in the orgy of violence occasioned by terrorist activities, it should be made clear that many of the leaders, past and present have blood on their hands.

In the global economy, a country’s neighbor is not the nation sharing its border; it is the biggest trading partner – which might be half the planet away. Nigeria’s neighbours, in that sense, are not Benin Republic, Cameroun, or Niger. They are India, United States, Netherlands, Spain, and Brazil. Together, they account for 70 per cent of our external trade.

Since the enthronement of the Fourth Republic, the National Assembly and the legislative arm of government have been enmeshed in one crisis or another.

Corruption has steadily grown over the years, into a hydra-headed monster on a fiery rampage, now holding our nation hostage.

It all started with the New Year day announcement of subsidy withdrawal by the Federal Government and the resultant crises that shook the oil and gas industry and the entire country.

In my own view, corruption scandals in Nigeria have reached an alarming proportion.A national daily recently reported how Nigeria has become a butt of practical jokes among diplomats from US and G-7 countries at a conference in New Orleans.