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.