Watching television news on Wednesday August 20, 2014, it was reported that 23 Coach-less Super Eagles players have been invited to camp in preparation for the qualifying series of next year’s Africa Nations Cup.

BUT Nigeria seemed to have abdicated her responsibility to the youths. And as a former united Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan puts it, “A society that cuts off from its youth, severs its life line”.

CALL him a man of destiny and circumstance or a man of honour, commitment and courage, you wil not be accused of exaggeration because at 62 he has succeeded in keeping a date with history.

AS perception principles go, being admired in public service for the right reasons is good politics. A reputation manager’s biggest luck is to find a principal with unassailable character; a man of integrity who can be trusted to take the moral high ground even if it is by his choice, his personal material space is diminished. These submissions formed the knob of a paper titled “Public Relations and the Challenges of Reputation management”, which I presented to the selection committee for the award of Fellowship of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, NIPR, in Kano, in December, 2011. My paper drew substantially from my experience as Director of Press and Public Relations to the twice elected Executive Governor of Kano State, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, Sardaunan Kano. My task was simple: to draw open the curtain and let the public scrutinise the Governor without interference. I concluded my paper with a conviction that a spin put on a bad product must carry an expiry date.

NIGERIANS are amused to no end once again as a section of the northern elite who despise President Goodluck Jonathan passionately, have once more embarked on their usual campaign for Jonathan albeit unwittingly, as usual.

The vituperations of both the Northern elders forum and the Northern delegates to the confab to wit that Jonathan should not run in the February 2015 elections. This is déjà vu is of the 2010/2011 Northern faux pas.

AN African proverb says that when a woman is exceptionally beautiful, she attracts the eyes of several suitors, and it is that suitor who possesses the most panache and material disposition that might win her heart. There comes a time in the life of a man when his ability and pedigree present scintillating attributes too good to resist by all and sundry.

THE other day, Governor Babatunde Fashola retraced his position on the school fees saga that has paralysed the Lagos State University these past months. It is not a victory for the students, neither is it a victory for ASUU and SSANU. It is also not a victory for the parents of the students.

IT was a bright, sunny morning that day. Date was December 11, 1998. The rustic setting was the ancient town of Kaiama in Bayelsa State.

DR. Michael Iheonukara Okpara (1920-1984) took over as Premier of Eastern Nigeria in January 1960 from Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe (1904-1996). The old Eastern Nigeria now consists of nine states, namely Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross Rivers, Abia, Imo, Ebonyi, Enugu and Anambra states.

THE Niger Delta is home to many JTF formations created to guarantee the security of life and property. Many JTF commanders have come and gone in the appointive engagement of the task of extirpation of any act of criminality in the Niger Delta.

AFTER all the noise and the heightening of the blood pressure of Nigerians by the irascible All Progressives Congress, APC, it was a delightful surprise that the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Foces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, was magnanimous enough to let the noisy and lying party to win.

NIGERIA’S political terrain is so polarised that no opinion is justified as honest. On the one hand,if you praise the government, you are likely to be accused of receiving inducement. On the other, if you criticise government, you will be tagged an opponent.

AS a country, we seem to wallow from one crisis to another. Not long ago, the hype was (and still is) the fate of kidnapped Chibok girls; next the wave of impeachment by some state legislatures.

NOW that Ebola is in Nigeria and may spread if nothing is urgently done to contain it, we may find ourselves in a situation where government may have to issue a federal isolation or quarantine order, on the whole nation, in order to stop or limit the spread of disease.

STRATEGIC communication remains a critical success factor or element of any human endeavour, issue or institution. Strategic communication is a well-planned and well-coordinated means of passing well-designed messages from an individual or institution to its identified stakeholders or general public at the right time, in the right quantity to achieve well-defined objectives.