Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, the present governor of Edo state is one person I have tremendous respect and admiration for;a great orator, cerebral analyst, brilliant administrator and very effective grass roots mobilizer. He is one who rides the opportunities as they come; as a local unionist at the Kaduna textile factory to becoming the head of the Nigerian Labour Congress as President.

The tail end of 2015 already gave discerning Nigerians a sign that the coming year would be challenging and many citizens expected the introduction of policy that would help ameliorate the difficulties of these austere times and the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration did not disappoint them. Commendably, the government reduced the price of premium motor spirits by 50 kobo.

ONE way to deal with economic crisis is to isolate the main elements and deal with them or go after those who caused the crisis in the first place. The worldwide economic crisis of 2007-8 (Black Wednesday) which still remains unresolved fully, caused by several factors but mainly by banks who sold products and derivatives to people who clearly would be unable to pay or took advantage of regulations to make maximum profits in unorthodox ways such as leveraging the LIBOR rate etc.

And as a woman, Hajia Aisha Alhasan is capable of uniting the state and putting to rest the age long problem which had hampered development. During her campaign, she was able to penetrate all parts of the state and that is an indication of the level of acceptance and support she enjoys

It is never an easy task traveling with children; I remember the days I used to travel with my three children all under the age of five; what an ordeal it was. I quickly had to master my motherly travelling skills to keep them calm.

In Disgrace (1999), Coetzee, the South African writer, painted a rather frightening retirement picture of Professor David Lurie. I am different from the fictional professor in so many ways. Unlike Professor Lurie, this is not the kind of retirement I see for myself at all. While the announcement calling for the retirement of the seventeen permanent secretaries was shocking to me, it was not at all unexpected. Whoever managed to reach a fulfilling career point in the civil service must have gotten there with a sense of history. If Nigeria could waste the incredible talents retired summarily especially in 1975, why should we be exception to what has literarily become a rule of a sort in our governance trajectory. I have had no doubt whatsoever what my retirement plans would be. I have nurtured it for over ten years, reflecting and adjusting and planning. This preparation originated from the foreknowledge that I would not always be in the service, but that the business of reform cannot dare stop.

FOR the avoidance of doubt, to those who are not familiar with the City named WARRI, I will like to describe Warri as a City in Delta State of Nigeria. It once served as the Colonial Capital of the then Warri Province. However, today Warri is described as an Oil Hub in the Southern Senatorial District of Delta State. Warri used to be a small powerful Commercial Centre with surrounding towns like Effurun, Ekpan, Ubeji, Edjeba, Ogunu, Aladja, Enerhen, Ugbuwangwe to mention but a few. Though all these towns mentioned above and others are now referred to as Warri for ease of reference, but they still maintain their political autonomy.

THE story of Warri city has been told so many times, a city that has given so much, yet got so little in return, with a giant sized reputation and wallowing in penury, a happy people, hospitable and full of live, yet dying slowly. Who will save Warri from its rot? You cannot see a Warri boy – wafarian – anywhere and not take notice; his unique pidgin english language, his braggadocio, his vigour and yes, his jokes.

THE feud between the Igbo and the Yoruba ethnic groups is contrived, just like the feud between the Igbo and the Ikwere. Whenever these feuds take centrestage, the impetus is invariably traceable to the divide-and-rule imperative, which inevitably profits the oligarchy of northern Nigeria. Every other explanation adduced in the explanation of the phenomenon can only be peripheral. It is important to make this point from the outset, before going about the business of explanations – for the benefit of those who may genuinely be ignorant of a crucial factor in the continued inability to resolve some of the more critical of Nigeria’s contradictions.

Taxes are hardly welcome with a smile. Even in jurisdictions where public funds are judiciously husbanded, taxes are often treated with as much dislike as for leprosy! As such, I was not surprised that my call for creative taxation has attracted an admixture of commendation and condemnation. One has learnt to take both with equanimity.

The concept of community development is designed to serve as a vessel of social integration and rapid transformation. It is a process where community members come together to take collective action and generate solutions to common problems. It involves citizens, professionals and government to improve various aspects of communities, typically aiming at building stronger and more resilient local communities. Community wellbeing (economic, social, environmental and cultural) often evolves from this type of collective action being taken at a grassroot level.

On the night of January 15, 1966, a coup d’etat took place in Nigeria which resulted in the murder of a number of leading political figures and senior army officers in Lagos, Kaduna and Ibadan. This was the first coup in the history of our country and 98 per cent of the officers that planned and led it were Igbo. From the political class those that were killed included the following: Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the Prime Minister, who was abducted from his home, murdered and whose body was dumped somewhere along Lagos-Abeokuta Road; Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Premier of the old Northern Region, who was killed in the sanctity of his own home together with his wife and his security assistant; Chief S.L. Akintola, the Premier of the old Western Region, who was gunned down in the presence of his family and Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, the Minister of Finance, who was abducted from his home, brutalised, murdered and dumped in a bush.

We all know that aircraft seats are not the most comfortable – they are just about OK for the period of the journey. At times due to lateness or failure to check in online some people travelling together have been assigned seats away from each other. They are advised at times to politely ask other passengers if they would swap seats. If this is fine by you, just accept politely and swap, if you prefer to stay in your assigned seat, simply apologize for not being able to do so; they will understand.

When Governor Udom Emmanuel was declared winner of the April 11, 2015 governorship election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Akwa Ibom State erupted in rapturous joy, the type that can only be compared with a football loving nation winning the FIFA Senior World Cup. No doubt, that was an incontrovertible proof that the people’s will had prevailed and that the uncommon transformation of the state as started by former governor Godswill Akpabio would not suffer any painful and premature termination as has most times been the case in most states in Nigeria.

For the year 2016, many people have several wishes, hopes and aspirations, and many of them are personal. But I have one desire only and that is to see a Change in my home state, Taraba. Things are so bad in the state that it will indeed take a miracle worker to salvage it. From immense […]