A UNITED Nations estimate in June 2013 put the total population of Nigeria at 174 million. Of this, the number of those in the youthful age bracket is put at 68 million with a staggering 41.5 million unemployed and 4.5 million entering the job market annually.

CONTRARY to established wisdom of competitive dynamics of Adam Smith’s belief in the creation of wealth, in our country, wealth generation has become inconsequential. Rather, it is wealth grabbing!

MALEDICTIONS always fall upon those who hate and hunt down town-criers because they are revered everywhere , particularly in societies that still proudly retain all the accoutrement of traditional life. Town-criers are the modern-day equivalent of journalists: they gather people either through bell-ringing or drumming and create the atmosphere for people to debate and take firm positions on contending issues.

IN the days before the Osun gubernatorial elections, the indigenes of the State and other Nigerians were daily greeted by propaganda of the bizarre nature, some bordering on the desire to create fear in voters and prevent them either from turning out or, even if they did, to vote in a particular direction. And if the truth be told, the All Progressives Congress, APC, is roundly guilty of this.

BAMIDELE Francis Aturu, who died, July 9, 2014, abandoned a career in the military to train as scientist. Precluded from public service by an audacious act of objection to military dictatorship, he discovered a vocation as arguably the foremost public interest advocate of his generation in Nigeria. A lawyer and a pastor, he was also former student leader and prisoner of conscience. He was 49.

WHAT we know today as the Nigeria Customs and Excise Commission was founded over a century ago, precisely in 1891, as the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, by the colonial masters basically for the collection of inland revenue in the Niger Coast Protectorate, the South of Nigeria. It later became the Department of Customs and Excise in 1922.

HUNGER for forbidden fruits date as far back as creation: Adam and Eve are shining examples of man’s desire for anything that is prohibited.

BAMIDELE Francis Aturu was not just a lawyer but a patriot extraordinaire. He was my mentor, leader, brother, friend and colleague.

JUST as the war against Biafra was not General Yakubu Gowon’s war, the fight against terrorism is not President Goodluck Jonathan’s war. The Nigerian civil war was of those who vowed to keep the country one and the others who swore to make it two.

THE recent publication of a cartoon advert entitled “”Delta 2015, Governorship Race” (Vanguard newspaperJuly 22,2014, page 61), to all intent and purpose is the onset of a series of smear campaign directed at assassination of the character of key political actors from Delta North who are considered to be strong contenders in the 2015 governorship race.

THE Osun state gubernatorial election is here. There is excitement and tension in the air; will it end up like Ekiti? Or, the status quo will be maintained? The significance of the election to the two major contesting parties cannot be over emphasised; if the APC wins, it assures them of a hold in the West, which has been their strong base. If they lose, it will be a continuation of the band wagon effect that started from Ekiti.

AS the fraternal and identical twins are cantankerously different, so also idiosyncratic incompatibilities transverse the totality of most societies. But the mechanics and dynamics of consultative initiative, sound education, good laws and socio-political engineering processes help to build multidimensional bridges aimed at making society a better place and man a more civilized and conscientious homo-sapien.

FRIDAY, May 24, 2013, 35 governors gathered to vote for the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, NGF. With the initial postponement and intrigues that surrounded it, it was going to be a night of long knives.

THE Osun election is about to commence in the next few days. The preparation has long been undertaken by various political parties and various interest groups. Attention is now shifted to Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, a body assigned to conduct elections in the country.

A COLLEAGUE asked me recently while discussing the subject if I believed in the existence and powers of witches and wizards.