LIVESTOCK in Nigeria plays a big role in the livelihood of farmers and nutritional needs of the country. Livestock also contributes to farming in many other ways. Animals are used as draught power to pull plows or help weed farmland, and cow dung is an excellent fertilizer.

INDEED, the August 2012 edition of Globe Asia, Indonesia’s number one business magazine, listed 100 top Indonesia-based companies whose 2011 revenues have helped to insulate Indonesia from the global economic crisis.

NIGERIA and Indonesia share a lot in common. Both are emerging economies bogged down by weak currency, corruption, unemployment, poverty and poor infrastructure.

For centuries the practice of naming one’s child after a saint was almost second nature. Typically, Catholics named their child after the saint on whose day he was born.

IT has recently become the obsession of the Northern Governors Forum to canvass the reinstatement of the Onshore/Offshore Dichotomy.

THE Central Bank of Nigeria is the institution in charge of the nation’s monetary and fiscal policies with enorm ous constitutional power to drive the economy.

President Goodluck Jonathan had, in the wake of the House of Representatives report on subsidy payments, which revealed that some N2.6trilion had been paid out by government to oil importers and marketers, demonstrated his commitment to cleaning up the subsidy payment list by setting up a Presidential Verification Panel (VAP) headed by Aigboje Aig-Imokhuede , banker and Chief executive of Access Bank Plc.

Observing the decadence and crises that have bedevilled the University of Abuja recently, the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, NUC, Prof. Julius Okojie said: “We are going to clean Abuja it is the flag ship of this nation. When people fly into Abuja and they want to go to the University, I am always shy to take them there, it will happen in another two years we will get to that place, that is the issue of Abuja.”

At my inaugural meeting with key stake holders on assumption of office at the Federal Ministry of Works in July, 2011, I pointed out that the Transformation Agenda of the President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s Administration requires us at the Federal Ministry of Works to change those embedded organizational culture that have continued to hinder the efficient delivery of services to our fellow country men and women, by creating a new vision for the ministry.

That was the mantra of the 2012 London Olympic Games. Volumes and many inches of print have criticised and also extolled what in many people’s judgement was a well organised and superbly executed world festival called London 2012. Analysis and comments will continue for the foreseeable future.

Does Nigeria give you hope? The incurable optimists in our midst particularly those of “the unity of this country is not negotiable” tribe, are wont to say an unqualified yes. Many sobered Nigerians would say that all is not well with Nigeria. And that would qualify as an outstanding understatement. One could as well say that AIDS is a harmful disease; that the Mafia is not opposed to violence; or that Hitler did not treat the Jews nicely.

THE idea of a Town Hall Meeting has lived with us, especially in our continent. It is never a matter of choice but a necessity as issues get resolved through communal thinking and action. It is due to its established benefits over time that our parents deemed it necessary to attend calls for such meeting and other demands.

The BRT scheme was borne out of the need to reduce the overwhelming mobility problems that commuters were facing on Mile12 – CMS corridor.

ON May 24, 2012, the Akwa Ibom State Deputy Governor, Obong Nsima Ekere, constituted an Adhoc Peace and Reconciliation Committee to broker peace between Ikot Akpan Udo in Ikot Abasi Local Government Area and Amazaba villages in Eastern Obolo Local Government Area of the state.

OVER the years, human society has transformed both in civilization, information and physical development. To that extent, it has become incumbent on the people to evolve a system of government and administration that could tap the various opportunities offered by the transformation of the society to enhance growth, peace and progress.