AS our politicians continue to bicker, heating up the polity and dancing to the drum beats of the Boko Haram and other insurgents, it is right for the reasonable ones amongst us to have a critical review of the whole situation. No matter how far we have gone the whole wrong route, it is never too late to make a direct three-sixty degree turn, to the right course.

NIGERIA is in distress. What assail the nation are consequences of the conspiracy of the ruling class against the Nigerian people. That multi layered conspiracy manifests in the socio-economic injustice perpetuated against the Nigerian masses all over the country. The rich and the powerful have been waging a socio-economic war against the Nigerian people since 1960 through exploitation, oppression, poverty and alienation.

A CURSORY look into why the interim National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief Bisi Akande, addressed his world press conference recently gave an impression that he was a truly concerned elder who wanted to speak to the issue of the insurgency that has escalated in the last few weeks. At a point, he said that it was time for all to rally to save the country, as if some have stood idly by while the insurgency raged.

The most daunting challenge confronting Nigeria and threatening it’s very existence is the emergent national insecurity. It is imperative that every well-meaning Nigerian should be genuinely worried about this rather unfortunate development, especially after a successful celebration of Nigeria’s centenary. We hear on daily basis reports killings of innocent Nigerians, school children, nursing mothers in the north-east by insurgents; Fulani herdsmen fighting with farmers and leaving dozens of dead, villages razed, thousands of villagers displaced in Benue, Plateau and Nasarawa States.

It was a matter of time before the cookies crumbled. The political tsunami threatening the fledging assemblage of men and women of disparate and indeterminate character under the umbrella of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Edo State is not strange to watchful political observers and actors.

AS the British are preparing to have a general election anytime soon, Labour Party leader, Ed Miliband, has just published a simple but comprehensive contract with his people.

OLIVER IFEDI, wrote Manchester, England.

THE ship of state of Nigeria is adrift for some key reasons. The Northern elders, elites and political leaders seem to be determined to either intimidate, harass or force GEJ not to run in the 2015 presidential election.

ALMOST six years on, close watchers of the Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole persona, in relation to his politics and two-term governorship of Edo State, point to his radical but result-oriented administrative style that is predicated on his almost fanatical and unwavering commitment to the best ethical practices of accountability, efficiency, due process, good quality and utility value and standards, prudent use of available human, financial and material resources, etc.

Boko Haram! The evil sect purportedly released a video footage of some of the missing school girls, which was broadcast to the whole world on the 12th of May 2014. The leader of the Sect Ababakar Shekau appeared and claimed to have converted the non Muslim school girls to Muslims. The Girls all dressed in full Muslim dresses, were seen reciting some Islamic verses. Abubakar Shekau asked the federal government to release Boko Haram prisoners before they release our girls. Put differently, he was proposing a deal of swapping our girls for dangerous criminals.

Much have been written and said about the abduction of over 200 Secondary School girls in Chibok by Boko Haram. It would have no doubt been traumatic and depressing for the parents of the girls. A common parlance in Yoruba language ‘omo mi ku san ju omo mi sonu lo’ (a situation of my child is dead is better than that of my child is missing) is apt. One cannot but sympathise with these parents who are so unfortunate.

LEARNED helplessness wasfirst demonstrated by Martin Seligman and his colleagues. They identified conditions under which dogs would demonstrate apathetic behaviour when they were punished by means of electric shock. In the experiment, dogs were continually electrocuted to the point where they simply accepted electrocution and did not try to escape it.

I AM one of those who have wondered why President Goodluck Jonathan has been unusually slow in taking a decisive action on the ‘kidnap’ of 234 students of the Government Girls’ Secondary school, Chibok in Borno state.

DEATH is the last crowning glory of every man’s sojourn on earth. The fool will die. The wise will die. The rich will die and the poor will also not escape the deadly and cold grip of death. The deadly thing about death is that it will come when it will come. Some die at birth.

The internet in such a short time has become the most pervasive communication system in the world. Digital statistics show that whilst it took Radio 38 years and TV 13 years to individually reach 50 million users; it took the Internet only 4 years.

THE longsuffering Nigerian moaned in grief: “Although I have borne this burden for many years, I am prepared to forgive and forget.