In a few hours, residents of Lagos will join the rest of the world to usher in year 2014. This is with hope that the New Year will be better than the outgoing year, 2013, which was full of mixed grills for the Governor Babatunde Fashola-led administration and the over 21 million residents of the state.

In the interest of peace, stability and national security, it would, perhaps, be interesting to have a throwback to the United States of America’s July 11, 1804, when a former Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, and a sitting Vice President, Aaron Burr, engaged in a gun duel to settle their political differences. Just as former President Matthew Okikiolakan Aremu Olusegun Obasanjo wrote an open letter to President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan accusing him of sundry charges, so did Hamilton launch assault on Burr through a letter, defaming the latter; manipulated the House of Representatives to vote Thomas Jefferson as president over Burr.

There are many accounts of this event of July 11, 1804, some 209 years ago. But some basic facts remain incontrovertible: That Aaron Burr, a sitting American vice president, challenged Alexander Hamilton, a former Secretary of the Treasury, to a gun duel which claimed the life of the latter.

Education has remained the pillar of social, economic, technological, scientific and industrial advancement of nations that accord it priority and adequate funding in the scheme of things. But in Nigeria, the education sector is usually treated with disdain, lack of proper financial appropriation which in turn translated into dilapidated infrastructure, ill-motivated personnel, poor incentives, unconducive environment both for teaching and learning.

Yobe state is one of the states recorded as being backward in education and the administration of Alh. Ibrahim Gaidam is doing its best to uplift the standard of education in the state.