He must have acted on a tip-off- and he acted swifty on the information provided. The information led to an unscheduled visit of Niger state governor Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu to some state owned primary Schools few months ago.

Over a year after the announcement by the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, that Value Added Tax and stamp duty would be removed from transactions in the secondary segment of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, nothing has been done.

Sitting on a mattress, under a mango tree on the land that used to accommodate their house, Sunday Solomon, a teenager, watched over what the family could salvage. Clutching the remote control to their television set, he gazed at the rubbles of their demolished house with the hope that the hand of the clock could be turned back.

As discerning Nigerians who found the so-called “before it is too late” letter from Chief Olusegun Obasanjoto President Goodluck E. Jonathan, GCFR, ill-conceived, we decided to deconstruct the content to see if it meets the minimum demands of altruistic advice, given the writer’s pedigree as a former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, an elder statesman. In doing this we were not unaware of the several public commentaries and reactions from a cross section of Nigerians, some of which posit that Nigerians should ignore the messenger and take the lessons from the message giving the critical weight of the issues raised. Much as this position may appear germane, it needs to be understood that whereas it is possible to separate the messenger from the message, it is nevertheless impossible to comprehend the meaning of a message without reference to the motive or intention of the messenger.

FOR Three years, the roofs of two-storey blocks meant to take twelve classrooms each at the Pin Margaret Secondary School in Calabar South have been abandoned by the contractor.