THE race towards who succeeds Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as governor of Edo State on November 12, this year has already begun; while the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission is yet to come out with its guidelines for the election, people in the state and, indeed, political watchers already know those who are in the race for the tickets of the two leading parties: the All Progressives Congress (APC), the ruling party in the state and at the federal level and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the opposition party.

WHEN the Comrade Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, recently applied the big stick once against the Edo State Traffic Management Authority, EDSTMA, knocking them off their usual nefarious and very much hated business, the question that came to my mind was simply:‘ who is fooling who?

THERE is no gain saying that that the birth of the Niger Delta Ministry was a quintessential necessity aimed at redressing deficits of infrastructure and resolving vexing issues of economic justice in Nigeria’s oil producing region. As late President Musa Yar’Adua probably intended at inception in September 2008: the ministry will coordinate efforts to tackle the challenges of development, environmental protection and youth empowerment in the Niger Delta, it was equally expected that the establishment would serve as the primary vehicle for delivery of the administration’s agenda for the rapid development of the restive region.

IN a very crude and distasteful publication in the Vanguard, Tabia Princewill, a columnist, displayed a total contempt for the truth and an apparent disrespect for the ethics and the tenets of the noble profession.

THE crisis in the Nigerian Economy seem to be worsening progressively since the crash in Oil prices from a high of about $115.09(Brent crude spot price) on June 19, 2014 to today’s opening spot price of $34.83 (Brent crude).

Our nation is currently submerged in a currency crisis. The value of our national currency is tumbling against the dollar on a daily basis, and our foreign exchange reserves continue to dwindle as a result of the continuous fall in the price of crude oil. In recent months, there has been a rigorous debate as to whether the devaluation of our currency is the answer to these problems, and what specific measures need to be put in place to stabilize our currency and prevent further damage to our fragile economy. As the debate rages on, the damage to the naira, the economy, and the psyche of our people has intensified. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) appears to have lost significant control of the situation, and speculators, currency traffickers and perpetrators of arbitrage have seized the initiative in the parallel market.

In recent times, the Ondo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has been in the news for what I consider as unhealthy reason. It emanated from an unfortunate incident that took place at Iwaro Oka-Akoko in Akoko South West local government area of Ondo State on Tuesday, 9th February 2015.

A PARTY that rode to power through the popular sentiments of the people now crying sabotage, what an irony. Maybe Femi Aribisala was too hasty in his comment of Tuesday February 2016 when he said; “When the incredible issue of a missing/counterfeited 2016 budget arose some weeks ago, I was expecting to hear from APC that Goodluck Jonathan was to blame.

I WOULD have been too incapacitated to spot the Python in her cruel articles but for the strength garnered from His Royal Majesty Haile Selassie I, the Emperor of Ethiopia, who contends that: ‘Throughout history it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better and the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most that has made it possible for evil to triumph.’

When someone or an entity begins to offer commendations it is proper to first review antecedents, motives, affiliations and any other variable that will give indications as to the true intent of the commendation. These same sets of considerations should apply when condemnations are also coming instead of commendations. One must know what interest an organisation serves before making much out of its utterances.

For more than 10 months after it lost a historic election, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was transfigured from the renowned ‘lion of Africa’ into a sleeping lion.

IT was such a horrendous scene that I couldn’t get over for some time. I left home for work that fateful day, looking forward to an eventful day.

A POPULAR Nigerian local parlance says if there are too many fragment in gari (cassava flour), the blind would get to know. This has become the lot of Nigerians with the 2016 Federal government budget brouhaha. First, Nigerians were alarmed shortly after the formal presentation of the N6.3 trillion budget by President Muhammad Buhari, then the budget was missing!

DEMOGRAPHICALLY, the Itsekiri people constitute a minute minority – a kind of microcosm in a macrocosm in the geo-political and heterogeneous nation called Nigeria. The history and origin of the Itsekiri people like other tribal groupings in the Old Western region of Nigeria, remains unambiguously lucid.

It would be recalled that in December 2015, NERC introduced the Multi-Year Tariff Order to come into effect on February 1, 2016. The tariffs are intended to be cost-reflective over a 10-year period. The new regime also removed fixed charges for all classes of electricity consumers in the country. Since the news broke on Monday, the fundamental question that industry watchers have been asking is whether the parliament has the constitutional or statutory power to direct the suspension of implementation of an order made by a statutory agency.