Call it a month of unusual events, one definitely would not be mistaken. Liken it to an interesting football match that is characterized with boot-kicking and back stabbing; one would not be out of place. Until a few days ago, the month of January 2012 passes for a month that parades an array of activities which again, shot the country onto local and foreign scenes.

Major Hamza Al-Mustapha like any ordinary man that has access to power would definitely have a time he will taste both the good and the sour aspect of what is attached to his political office.

BESIDES the fact that global economies are now private sector driven, the inefficiency in Nigeria’s power sector, occasioned by actions and inactions of the Federal Government and civil servants, necessitated for the ongoing reforms in the sector. But whether the reforms would bring about the needed efficiency in the generation and distribution of electricity depends on how well some contentious issues regarding the liquidation of Power Holding Company,PHCN, are resolved. CHARLES KUMOLU reports.

Last week would probably go down as the busiest for officials of Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, going by the heightened level of international meetings it undertook, in the wake of the most deadly attack by the Islamist sect, Boko Haram, on the ancient city of Kano.

Few minutes after a bomb exploded at the offices of the AIG, Zone 1, in Kano, the Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris, braved the odds and traveled almost five kilometres to the scene of the incident on a fact-finding mission.

Major Hamza al-Mustapha, former chief security officer to the late General Sani Abacha, and a co-accused to know fate over the killing of the late Kudirat Abiola. Twelve years ago when they were arraigned before a Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja over alleged complicity in the murder of Alhaja Kuditrat Abiola, the wife of the billionaire businessman cum politician, Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola, it appeared that judgment in the case will not come.

The federal government may have set the path to tackling the menance of Boko Haram after the sect has carried out series of terrorist attacks in the country, killing scores of Nigerians with several millions of property destroyed. The group’s deadliest attacks occurred recently in Kano and Bauchi States where over 200 people were killed.

One of the reasons that security is not usually discussed on the newspapers pages is to ensure that security is not something you expose to everybody.

ASUU strike is like a cycle in the country. There is hardly any year since 1996 that lecturers had not gone on strike. Sometimes, they tag it warning , indefinite, etc strike.

Nigeria has its share of billionaires; men who amassed their wealth through hardwork, resilience and uncommon vision. Many of them came off the street and took to the sea, weathering every bad storm life has willed their ways to reach the shores of Eldorado.

Contrary to insinuation and heavy criticism that President Jonathan has no grip on the incessant violence carried out by the Boko Haram sect, the sacking of Mr Hafiz Abubakar Ringim as the Inspector General of Police alongside other DIGs has sent some jitters up the spines of people just as the new helmsman on the job, IG Muhammed Dikko Abubakar has vowed to fight all kinds of crime to a stand still.

Peace has taken flight from Gombe, forcing people, especially Christians from the southern part of the country, to leave the town. Those who have the guts to stay behind are in perpetual fear. Some who travelled for Xmas and New Year holidays are refusing to come back. Shops owned by most of the southerners have remained under lock and keys.

THE nationwide strike and street protests called off by Organised Labour and its civil society allies, under the banner of Labour and Civil Society Coalition, LASCO, have come and gone, but echoes of the industrial action may remain with Nigeria for a long time to come.

Pastor Tunde Bakare, the Convener, Save Nigeria Group, SNG, organisers of the protest against the removal of petrol subsidy at the Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park, Ojota, Lagos which lasted five days in this interview with Saturday Vangurad, bares his mind on some issues that hindered the continuation of the protest, his views about Nigeria Labour Congress/TUC negotiation, and his plans to sustain the struggle despite the deployment of soldiers that aborted the protest last Monday.

A day to the commencement of the recent nationwide strike, the House of Representatives met in an extraordinary session on Sunday, January 8, 2012 during which it among others adopted a resolution calling on the executive to rescind the hike in the price of petrol and go back to the N65 per litre pump price that obtained prior to the New Year.