LET us start by acknowledging, the fact that; good and credible elections can only take place, under an atmosphere of peace. The way the opposition, APC is going about wresting power from Jonathan’s PDP, will only alienate them from the people and win sympathisers to the side of Jonathan. Because they want power, they are intent on desecrating the institution of the presidency, the symbol of the country’s unity and sovereignty.

THE failure of our rulers cannot be measured only by the visible decay of infrastructure and the dwindling quality of our lives but also by the way they prefer to die. While ordinary citizens live their miserable lives which literarily expire unsung in the country, our leaders, or rather, rulers on whose shoulders rest the responsibility of taking us beyond the 47 years pegged as our life span live theirs in foreign lands and/or die there. Yet, they daily savour the splendour and all that the high public offices they occupied or occupy but fail to provide the rest of us facilities in the quality measure they enjoy them in the foreign lands they govern us from.

THE gale of defections from the Peoples Democratic Party,PDP, to the All Progressive Congress, APC has been received by many commentators with mixed feelings. While some brazenly wave the defectors aside with uncouth commentaries, others have seen it as the desired light at the end of the tunnel for Nigeria’s chequered history. The PDP has suffered very serious depletion lately and the gale has not ended. Many more are warming up to dump the party that has prided itself for too long as the largest political party in Africa. Some of its members had boasted to citizens that the party will rule Nigeria for sixty unbroken years.

WHEN in 1999 an apparently diabolical team swarmed into government in Delta State, little did we expected that their vicious and dreadful siege on our treasury would last for 16 years. Two to three years into their messing up the hard-earned democracy, creating and confronting us with instant Augean stable and completely rubbishing our sensibilities, some of us counted it obligatory then to stand out and fight. We knew we were out to confront a monstrous system, but that was not to matter to us.

AS we draw one year to a close and begin a fresh new one, there is much excitement in the air. People plan or even write down resolutions for the new year. For some, the resolutions must be strictly pursued and achieved, while, for others, it is just a normal ritual, that is discarded, early in the first month. We have personal expectations, that fall within our purview. We also have expectations from those that, we have given responsibility to govern our common interest. Our leaders also, begin with promises; some of them, they keep and some, they discard as soon as the first month of the year begins. What is our expectation from Jonathan? Is he going to fulfil them, or disregard them, as the normal practice of the Nigerian politician. Let us take them, one by one.

ASUU has resumed duties, after six good months of lost mann hours, in productivity and other collateral damages, in the form of accidents and deaths. The losses cannot be quantified, for example; counterparts of final year students, in the private universities, are months into their National Youth Service programme.

PRIOR to his predicted ouster last Thursday, erstwhile national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, was seen–rightly or wrongly – as the clog in the wheel of the party’s progress. The all-powerful governors within the party never hid their distaste for his style of leadership and they never refrained from saying that it was anything but democratic. The plot for his ouster could have been as old as his tenure as national chairman, a position he assumed in March 2012. With time, the subtle sabotage turned into open threats to his leadership; with five of them eventually making good that threat by quitting to join the opposition All Progressives Congress.

AN international airport is always the first point of contact between and international visitors and the country. Being an international gateway, the airport is where the traveller forms his or her first impressions about the country. This fact is more so if the airport is such a strategic one as the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos that controls almost more than 60 per cent of international flights in and out of the country.

ON January 1, 2014 one of Nigeria’s leading newspapers, Vanguard announced winner of its 2013 “Most INNOVATIVE ENTERPRENEUR OF THE YEAR” as Dr. Innocent Chukwuma, Chairman of Innoson Vehicles Manufacturing Ltd.,Nigeria’s first indigenous vehicles manufacturer. Among those that made the Honours list include Alhaji Aliko Dangote, as “AFRICAN OF THE YEAR” and Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta state as “MAN OF THE YEAR”.

MARTIN Luther King, Jr., the American civil rights leader, is reported to have said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” The truth in this quote cannot be overemphasised. As such, I am moved to show solidarity with former governors Attahiru Bafarawa of Sokoto State and Ibrahim Shekarau of Kano State over the injustice being meted out to them by the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

THE relevance for a paradigm shift in Nigerian polity cannot be over emphasised. Like three-time Presidential candidate, Rev. Chris Okotie stated in his article in The Guardian of January 7, 2014, political alliances have never augured well for the country. That is why he has been canvassing for a paradigm shift since he joined the political process in 2002.

IN this era of Jonathan bashing, the easiest path of heroism is to rain invectives and abuses on the man we elected to be our President. This could come in the form of an open letter, facebook postings, editorial write ups, articles or commentaries on news reports, in print and electronic media.

To some of these opponents, the new law is repressive because, according to them, nobody is supposed to suffer any discrimination on the grounds of his/her sexual orientation and they have even expressed fear that the Act will cause untold violence, persecution, and prejudice in Nigeria.  Others among them have even described millions of Nigerians who support the criminalization of homosexuality and same-sex marriage in Nigeria as barbaric and slaves to tradition, religion, and morality.

IT is an old story in Nigeria-the story of ‘political farmers’ who routinely hijacked every incentive or initiative introduced by the government for Nigerians in the agriculture sector. From fertilisers to soft loans; from the east to the west and the north to the south, the real farmers were always schemed out of projects or programmes meant to encourage agriculture activities. That was the order of the day for well over four decades until the Jonathan administration came on board; or so, the Federal Government says.

The chatter is fast-paced and the laughter infectious in the studios of Lagos radio station Wazobia FM.