UNLIKE most public hearings conducted in the National Assembly, the one conducted by the Finance Committee of the Senate on the new Customs Bill was historic. The conveners were convinced that the bill, initiated from the Lower Chamber, was timely.

I JUST finished reading the Ribadu report, both the one leaked to the press and the version submitted to the President, and in my view, the report is virtually inconclusive. And for now, I agree with the Presidency that the committee’s terms of reference was not duly followed.

SINCE the altercation between the Chairman of the Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, and his deputy, Mr. Steven Oronsaye, over the report of the committee which it submitted to President Goodluck Jonathan on Friday, 2 November, 2012, it has been a rain of criticism and invectives on the latter in the media and other fora for public discourse.

THE ripple in the polity is heightening by the day as a result of the latest parley offer by the dreaded Boko Haram Islamic group.

THE ripple in the polity is heightening by the day as a result of the latest parley offer by the dreaded Boko Haram Islamic group.

ON October 10, 2012, President Goodluck Jonathan presented the 2013 budget proposal to a joint session of the National Assembly. A total sum of N426.53 billion was proposed as allocation to the education sector.

THE carved wooden idol of Amadioha in my late grandfather’s bedroom was an attempt to conjure the image and presence of the almighty God. My grandfather and his generation captured and appreciated the overwhelming power of God from the imaginary power of the wooden totem

It is so unfortunate that there has been so much ignorant carping and malicious tittle-tattling about the report of the Petroleum Revenue Task Force chaired by Malam Nuhu Ribadu, both failings arising from a deliberate attempt to individualize what was actually group work, a mischievous attempt to politicize one report out of three, and to smuggle into an emergent grand web of conspiracy, elements of blackmail, mischief and outright opportunism.

CRSIS, if one must reiterate, remains inescapable and inevitable in any human socio-political activity; it’s somewhat a natural phenomenon with some dickers of functionality attached to it.

IT is saddening and a paradox that a nation that is richly endowed with abundant human as well as natural resources, such as crude oil, could be in dire need of what is supposed to be a blessing.

IT is only a die-hard cynic that will discredit the role our entertainment industry has played and is still playing in the country.

SINCE the return of democracy in the country in 1999, most of the elected governors in the South-South and South East zones succeeded in securing a second term themselves in office, except Dr. Chinwoke Mbadinuju of Anambra State who was denied by his party and Chief Dipreye Alamaesiagha of Bayelsa State who was removed from office before the end of his second term in office over corruption charges.

THE JTF has taken the bull of sectarian violence in the North East of Nigeria by the horns. We pray daily for them, for Gods favour. May their zeal never wane.

HOWEVER, in contemporary times and especially since 2000, when the Forum for China-Africa co-operation, FOCAC, was founded, Sino-Africa relation has reached new heights.

In four out of every five conversations about the American elections, the greatness of America’s democracy is touted. Never mind that this notion is purely derived from observation, the certainty with which the conclusion is reached, especially by people who most likely have never left the shores of Nigeria, speaks a great deal to America’s favour. From the spread of American culture across the world, through her impact on global technology, to the strength and might of her military; America’s position as the most advanced civilisation of the modern world is perhaps not open to contest.