The preparation you referred to is actually for the last 50 days of the year-long celebration. Don’t forget that the celebration started on May 27, 2016, three months after the 10-man Planning Committee to drive it was inaugurated by the Governor. Since that time, we have had a measured, consistent and effective anniversary programme. Several colloquiums have been held under the direction of the Planning Committee Chairman, Prof. Wole Soyinka, as an intellectual voyage into different areas of life, culture, history, governance and business that make Lagos an exceptional state.

A 47-year-old adventurer, Adjarho David Obaro, popularly known as World Wrapperman, hoisting a Nigerian flag with a 23-yard wrapper tied round his waist, sprinted from Lagos to Delta State in 11 days with a 24-year-old marathon professional, Afeez Akande, in their stunning bid to raise funds for an innovative Back-to-School project in three states, Delta, Edo and Enugu.

The recent visit of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to Edo State, where he met with stakeholders in the oil producing communities in the state, has doused tension in the communities. The stakeholders meeting is one of the major national events to be hosted by Governor Godwin Obaseki. Stakeholders from the three oil producing local government areas of the state, Ikpoba Okhai, Ovia North East and Orhionmwon, were on hand to lament the plight of their people despite the oil in their domain. Youth organisations and civil society groups were equally not left out, as the Director of the African Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), Rev.David Ugolor, and the Chairman of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth International, Nimo Bassey, said the people of the Niger Delta are still suffering pollution and neglect from the activities of oil companies operating in the region. Besides Obaseki and his deputy, Philip Shaibu, other dignitaries at the occasion include King Alfred Diette-Spiff representing the Pan Niger Delta Area Petroleum Producing Forum (PANDEF), the Minister of State Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachukwu, and Minister of State Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Pastor Usani Uguru Usani.

IT is no longer news that the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere is in the vanguard of championing the cause of the South West. Majority of Yoruba people of the South-West see the Afenifere as a legitimate force to serve the region’s best interests and also maintain the waning influence of Yorubaland in Federalism.

The Kaduna Mafia’s choice of Ogbemudia, according to observers, is best seen in how the Hausa Fulani had, at that time, used the minorities to balance and forge alliances at the expense of the Yoruba and Igbo in the South