You don’t need anybody to tell you that Professor B.I.C. Ijomah is a man of letters. On Tuesday, May 10 when Sunday Vanguard kept a date with him at his Agidigbo Avenue residence at Asaba, the capital of Delta State, the evidence was palpable. The renowned sociologist, who turns 75 in November, had lined up in the four corners of his expansive study mountain of books, ranging from sociology to history, politics and religion. Spotting a white upon white indigenous attire with a patch of grey hair on his head, the retired professor of Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State, who is neck-deep in the politics of Delta State, was a delight to chat with. He spoke on the Northern agenda to perpetuate the region in power and the recent killings in the North; the vision of the defunct South-South Peoples Conference, SSOPEC, which metamorphosed into the South-South Peoples Assembly;

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, may be stockpiling wood for another round of bonfire in the House of Representative with its zoning arrangement. The allocation of offices to the six geo-political zones have created a renewed bad-blood between the South-West and the South-East on account of the very dismal showing of the S/West zone in the National Assembly elections when compared to the S-East.

*As the nation is united in grief By Jide Ajani That afternoon, grief was served for lunch. But Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan, the man who appears to be doing well with his charm, soothed and consoled the parents of the deceased. Not that he bought their grief with N5million (which was to be given to […]

For the Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, and its presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, the results of the National Assembly elections simply poured cold water on the supposedly larger than life image that had been created for both the party and its principal. Worse, the presidential election did not produce the type of spark that the party promised – it has won one governorship seat. This is the inside story of how the CPC suffered its first initial set back which haunted it throughout the April elections.

The elections may be over but the politics of 2015 presidential election would shape the new zoning formula in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP – to an extent. In fact, the results from the elections last month have re-created the same politics of old in a new form. However, what would create for possible high combustion is the contestation that would ensue between the North and the South East zone over who succeeds President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015. This would create its own problem for the PDP. And in the wake of this, there would be a possible road show by the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, and Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, with a view to becoming more national political parties.

This report explores why South-West geo-political zone may not feature prominently in the emerging zoning arrangement of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. With the least number of legislators at the National Assembly, the zone is not solidly positioned to pitch for either the Speaker’s position or those of either the Senate President or Deputy Senate President. This is the emerging reality that leaders of the party in the South-West have to contend with. On a bigger scale, how would the PDP re-arrange its zoning formula to contain the plethora of disparate interests, while not hurting sensibilities in the run up to the 2015 elections.

PRACTICAL governance has started in earnest in the South West hours after Tuesday’s clean sweep of the region by the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN.

This is the story of President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan as he prepares to run Nigeria for the next four years with his new mandate. This report attempts to present the man who would rule Nigeria to Nigerians. Beyond the man in public glare, this is an insider’s account of the man, Goodluck Jonathan.

Very early on Saturday, April 16, 2011, I was roused from sleep in my hotel room in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital, and informed that my fellow group of journalists from Lagos and Abuja, who were going to observe the President vote, were already downstairs and ready to leave for Otueke, the president’s hometown. I took a record 10 minutes to brush up, bath and dress to go.

Even as the National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, commenced the process of announcing the results last Sunday, some youths in some states of the North were already mobilised to wreak havoc under the guise of protesting the results of the presidential election of April 16, 2011. This report captures how political leaders attempted to profit from the riots which, unfortunately, turned out to be dysfunctional and unhelpful.

When the returning Officer for Ika Federal constituency Dr. Godwin Awvioro, who lectures Anatomy at Delta State University Abraka ,refused to announce a false election result at gun point and went ahead to cancel the result of the April 9,2011, election into the National Assembly in Delta North, the political atmosphere became an instant target of politicians, security agencies, and the mass media which wanted to know how fake National Youth Service Corp members were used to provoke violence and massive rigging in the various polling units

Necessity, says an adage, is the mother of invention. And in Nigeria, the reluctance of relatives of kidney disease patients to donate kidneys to their diseased ones has opened a new business for voluntary donors who make millions by donating one of their kidneys to patients.

THE power play between former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Governor Olugbenga Daniel is reportedly getting more intense.

Governor Gbenga Daniel of Ogun State, weekend, reviewed activities of the government he has led for about eight years. Speaking frankly to a group of stakeholders in his Asoludero Court country home in Sagamu, he assessed the way things are going in the Gateway state especially the crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

RIVERS State government has expressed satisfaction with the verdict of the Supreme Court on its oil wells that were ceded to Akwa Ibom State about two years ago. Chief Press Secretary to the governor of the state, Mr Blessing Wikina, in a telephone chat, said though the state was yet to study the judgement in details, it was happy with what it had heard so far on the issue.