Alhaji Sabo Mohammed later emerged President of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations. He is currently a public relations consultant. The 71-year-old told BASHIR ADEFAKA the story of his life in Kano.

Where do I begin my Indian story?

If, while discussing with a few people in an evening atmosphere, you repeatedly did a dash like an athlete taking off in a 100m race but ended up doing only a metre or two especially to different directions, you could probably be taken for a mad man in Nigeria.

Over the last 12 weeks, strike- the six-letter word that sends cold shivers down the spine of the hapless Nigerian has had cause to rear its head in the health sector. A last-ditch attempt to avert the latest strike had hit the rocks, Regrettably, the issue of strike has almost become a permanent feature in the nation’s health industry but even as government health institutions in Lagos are reeling under the onslaught of a paralysing doctors’ strike, worse may yet come if feelers from the aggrieved doctors are anything to go by. For the umpteenth time, doctors in Lagos public hospitals would down tools for seemingly irreconcilable issues particularly, those connected to wages and conditions of service.

After several weeks of consultations, the committee set up by the Northern Political Leaders Forum, NPLF, to choose a consensus candidate from amongst former military President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, serial National Security Adviser, General Aliyu Mohammed Gusau (rtd) and Kwara State Governor, Bukola Abubakar Saraki, is expected to finally announce its choice this week – barring any last minute disequilibrium. Therefore, this report takes you through the bumpy road to picking that candidate and why the assignment was not a tea party.

FOR members of the Cocoa Association of Nigeria in Ogun State, it is time for a showdown with the Ogun State Government over the latter’s unilateral and arbitrary increase in the fees and levies to be paid by the produce merchants.

This report takes a critical look at the high stakes, intra party power play between presidential contenders across the political divide and concludes that what delegates may be presented with may just be a fiat accompli. It also reveals the real reasons why senators shot down the amendment proposal for Electoral Act, 2010. The question: How would a choreographed political party convention further the cause of democracy, or the one man, one vote mantra?

This is an insight into the diabolic movement of arms and ammunition from Asia to Nigeria and for possible onward shipment to a final destination, the attempt by the importer’s agent to evade detection and why implications for a country that has just been de-listed as a country of interest by the United States of America over last December’s attempted bombing of an airliner by a Nigerian, Farouk Abdulmutallab.

THE Minister of Finance, Mr. Olusegun Aganga stirred the hornet’s nest through a circular addressed to the Comptroller General, Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), Managing Director of Global Scan Systems Limited, Chief Liaison Officer, SGS Nigeria Limited and Managing Director Cotecna Inspection Limited.

Just a few days before the National Assembly went on recess President Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan wrote a letter to the legislative arm, a copy each for the Senate and the House of Representatives, specifically the Senate President, David Mark, and Mr. Speaker, Dimeji Bankole.

There is a new “silent killer” in town. It joins the ranks of malnutrition, malaria, hypertension, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, etc. It is obesity. “We are eating our way to the grave’’ and “obesity is rising in rural areas.’’ Adults are overweight or obese, while children are malnourished – a paradox. In the men still look at a potbelly as a badge of pride and success.”

The continuing treatment of the Nigerian Constitution as a love letter by the quartet of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, Professor Attahiru Jega, legislators and the political parties in the country sends disturbing signals across the land – they believe amendments to the document should swing with their shifting moods.
It was Adams Oshiomohole, the Edo State governor who made the remark at one of the public hearings pursuant to amending the 1999 Constitution.

I am also happy that Jega’s INEC recognises that the foundation for free and fair election is the voters’ register and therefore its decision to carry out a complete new voters’ register should be commended.

AFTER playing key roles in laying the foundation for Nigeria’s post-independence education sector, former Education Minister, Prof. Aliu Babatunde Fafunwa, yesterday, bade the living goodbye.

It followed the infamous Iraqi pattern. Two blasts. That was all that was needed to turn Nigeria’s 50th independence celebrations into ashes in the mouth of millions of Nigerians.
That was also all that was also needed to send the wrong and condemnable signal to the outside world that things have gotten so bad in Nigeria.
Still, the number of heads of state, diplomats, important dignitaries and political leaders just a few hundred metres from the site of the bomb blasts, could have as well been mortal victims of the twin blasts.
In fact, the African Union, AU, through its chairperson, Peace and Security Council, Dr. Monica Juma, pilloried the act, saying that for it to have happened on the day of the independence celebrations “showed how bad” the situation had become. She continued: “While we condemn the act in its totality, the AU Peace and Security Council wants the Nigerian government to thoroughly investigate the act, arrest and prosecute those behind the bombings so that such unfortunate incident will not occur again in Nigeria and other parts of Africa”.

Professor Chinwe Nora Obaji, in a stirring speech, lamented that in spite of the contributions of the Igbo people and the fact that Igbo ingenuity and professionals are in high demand across the globe, Nigeria continues to sidestep the aspirations of one of the nation’s largest ethnic groups to serve at the highest level, forty years after the civil war ended