IN some of the national dailies recently was a statement credited to the former minister of Finance and Economic planning, Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu decrying the state of infrastructure in Abia state after 22 years of its creation.

IN ACCORDANCE with the Nigerian political timetable of its fourth republic, 2015 is a year of democratic renewal except in few states where the arrangement is altered for justifiable reasons by the judiciary.

Most Nigerians who were at the venue of the 2013 GLO/CAF Awards in Lagos on June 9 or those glued to their seats at home, watching the ceremony live on television, had a common mindset:

A country that specializes in exporting what it does not produce and importing that which it produces.
One of the world’s largest producer of crude oil, that does not refine its own petroleum products and has to import petroleum products.
The world’s largest producer of cassava but does not produce starch or ethanol.

THESE are heady days for the imperious traditional ruler of the Nigerian financial system, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who for all intents and purposes can best be described as the Emir, rather than governor, of the Central Bank of Nigeria. The Kano-born prince, who has made it very clear that his only ambition in life is to become the Emir of Kano, has been conducting himself in the most unprincely manner ever seen in a CBN governor. And being the kind of person he is, he will forever brag about how he took on the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, rubbished him in public while supposedly serving as part of his government, and nothing happened!

THE idea of the social contract is one of the foundations of the American political system. This is the belief that the state only exists to serve the will of the people, who are the source of all political power enjoyed by the state. The people can choose to give or withhold this power from the state.

ACHIEVEMENTS may be viewed from diverse prism depending on the parameters employed and the benchmarks set. Success in one clime could therefore pass off as failure in another. But in all of human history and civilization men that evolve ideas and visions that shaped the future of their worlds beyond their generations have never gone down unnoticed and are proudly admitted into halls of fame. Delta beyond Oil programme, which has conferred on the Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan the rare privilege of the architect and pioneer of a Nigeria beyond Oil philosophy and initiative, is one such pragmatic initiative of a leader of modern Nigeria.

LIKE an interminable incubus, the Friday, October 18, 2013 demolition of the Mountain of Fire and Miracles (MFM) South East (1) Headquarters building complex in Enugu by the Enugu State Government, has become a major recurring decimal in the government’s cocktail of avoidable controversies.

ONE of the elements of President Goodluck Jonathan’s New Year message to Nigerians was the expected reeling out of achievements recorded by his administration in the past year. Indeed, in keeping with his pet mantra tagged: “National Transformation Agenda,” the President mentioned the word “transformation” not less than four times in his speech. This raises the question: Is the Transformation Agenda really working?

THERE is more to the exposure of the CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as a false whistle blower on the supposedly untidy accounting books of the nation’s petroleum sector than a section of the Nigerian Press wants us to believe. Ordinarily, the sensational letter from the CBN Governor to the President raising worrying issues indicating the diversion of earnings from the lucrative crude oil sales by the NNPC is a classical scoop that no newspaper will fail to publish under banner headlines. In this case both the message and the messenger combine to lend credence to the typical Nigerian hear-say and the added spice of a leaked letter could only have proved irresistible to even the most conservative of editors.

This is the concluding part of this discourse which was first published in our edition of Tuesday.

IN February 2014, the incumbentRector of the Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa State, Dr. Pius Otaru Salami, will take a bow, for another person to continue the good work at the school. To this end, three persons have been shortlisted for the post of rector, expected to be vacant in the month under review.

1. Nigeria, with a 2013 estimated population of 174,507,539 is the most populous Black nation and the 7th most populated nation in the entire world, trailing after—from least to most—Pakistan, Brazil, Indonesia, USA, India and China (1.3bn).

2. Nigerians are 1/5th the total population of Black Africa.

3. Nigeria, with 521 languages has the fourth most in the world. This includes 510 living languages, two second languages without native speakers and 9 extinct languages.

AS the year 2013 wound up, an argument gained considerable grounds. A supposed ‘Treaty of Amalgamation 1914’ was in focus. According to the proponents, the 1914 amalgamation of Nigeria would expire by 12.00 am on December 31, 2013, when it would have lasted for 100 years. The burgle was apparently sounded by a notable lawyer and amplified by an ethnic nationality coalition.

THE nation’s political landscape is becoming more and more interesting with the dumping by the ‘rebel’ governors of the Peoples Democratic Party for the All Progressives Congress, a move seen as the climax of months of unending political intrigues in the ongoing political realignment ahead of 2015.