ACCORDING to official figures, the leading oil producing state, Rivers, received N1,053 billion between 1999 and 2008 in federal allocations. By contrast the North-eastern states of Yobe and Borno, where the Boko Haram sect was created, received N175bn and N213bn respectively. Broken down on a per capita basis, the contrast is even starker. In 2008 the 18.97m people who lived in the six states in the north-east received on average N1,156 per person.

It was like any other Sunday in the Plateau State capital in the recent past. Unknown to many, however, what appeared to be a serene day with bright morning sun emerging from the clouds was to be blighted by a blast which opened another chapter in the chronicle of crises and the search for peace in Jos.

Dr. Jummai Umar-Ajijola worked with the United Nations (UN), Actionaid and Microsoft. But today, she says she has found fulfillment, above all else, as a multi level marketer of Forever Living Products. As a guest speaker at the Forever Living Products Success Showcase, held recently in Abuja, Dr. Umar-Ajijola said that as an FLP network marketer, she has been freed from financial bondage.

The excitement that greeted the second coming of Ibrahim Lamorde at the helms of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, about seven months ago– his first coming was after the infamous withdrawal of the revered Nuhu Ribadu – has all but fizzled out.

By the 1950s, the legendary Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu had established himself as arguably West Africa’s pre-eminent businessman. Sir Odumegwu Ojukwu owned a successful transportation company and served severally on the boards of diverse corporations such as UAC (West Africa), the Nigerian Stock Exchange, and Shell-BP. He also had extensive investments in real estate, the agricultural and banking sectors, and played a sentinel role in the development of Nigeria’s pre-independence economy.