IT is dark. No one denies that it is dark, neither does anyone pretend that the Heavenly bodies decree the darkness. Yet, it must be dark and darkened so the labourers would be known and crowned deservedly. There would be no coronation without darkness; darkness reinforces hopes of coronation. Therefore it must be dark, very dark, for all buzzing showy creatures to get the crown and find their roost.

Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, the present governor of Edo state is one person I have tremendous respect and admiration for;a great orator, cerebral analyst, brilliant administrator and very effective grass roots mobilizer. He is one who rides the opportunities as they come; as a local unionist at the Kaduna textile factory to becoming the head of the Nigerian Labour Congress as President.

The tail end of 2015 already gave discerning Nigerians a sign that the coming year would be challenging and many citizens expected the introduction of policy that would help ameliorate the difficulties of these austere times and the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration did not disappoint them. Commendably, the government reduced the price of premium motor spirits by 50 kobo.

ONE way to deal with economic crisis is to isolate the main elements and deal with them or go after those who caused the crisis in the first place. The worldwide economic crisis of 2007-8 (Black Wednesday) which still remains unresolved fully, caused by several factors but mainly by banks who sold products and derivatives to people who clearly would be unable to pay or took advantage of regulations to make maximum profits in unorthodox ways such as leveraging the LIBOR rate etc.

And as a woman, Hajia Aisha Alhasan is capable of uniting the state and putting to rest the age long problem which had hampered development. During her campaign, she was able to penetrate all parts of the state and that is an indication of the level of acceptance and support she enjoys

It is never an easy task traveling with children; I remember the days I used to travel with my three children all under the age of five; what an ordeal it was. I quickly had to master my motherly travelling skills to keep them calm.

In Disgrace (1999), Coetzee, the South African writer, painted a rather frightening retirement picture of Professor David Lurie. I am different from the fictional professor in so many ways. Unlike Professor Lurie, this is not the kind of retirement I see for myself at all. While the announcement calling for the retirement of the seventeen permanent secretaries was shocking to me, it was not at all unexpected. Whoever managed to reach a fulfilling career point in the civil service must have gotten there with a sense of history. If Nigeria could waste the incredible talents retired summarily especially in 1975, why should we be exception to what has literarily become a rule of a sort in our governance trajectory. I have had no doubt whatsoever what my retirement plans would be. I have nurtured it for over ten years, reflecting and adjusting and planning. This preparation originated from the foreknowledge that I would not always be in the service, but that the business of reform cannot dare stop.

FOR the avoidance of doubt, to those who are not familiar with the City named WARRI, I will like to describe Warri as a City in Delta State of Nigeria. It once served as the Colonial Capital of the then Warri Province. However, today Warri is described as an Oil Hub in the Southern Senatorial District of Delta State. Warri used to be a small powerful Commercial Centre with surrounding towns like Effurun, Ekpan, Ubeji, Edjeba, Ogunu, Aladja, Enerhen, Ugbuwangwe to mention but a few. Though all these towns mentioned above and others are now referred to as Warri for ease of reference, but they still maintain their political autonomy.

THE story of Warri city has been told so many times, a city that has given so much, yet got so little in return, with a giant sized reputation and wallowing in penury, a happy people, hospitable and full of live, yet dying slowly. Who will save Warri from its rot? You cannot see a Warri boy – wafarian – anywhere and not take notice; his unique pidgin english language, his braggadocio, his vigour and yes, his jokes.

THE feud between the Igbo and the Yoruba ethnic groups is contrived, just like the feud between the Igbo and the Ikwere. Whenever these feuds take centrestage, the impetus is invariably traceable to the divide-and-rule imperative, which inevitably profits the oligarchy of northern Nigeria. Every other explanation adduced in the explanation of the phenomenon can only be peripheral. It is important to make this point from the outset, before going about the business of explanations – for the benefit of those who may genuinely be ignorant of a crucial factor in the continued inability to resolve some of the more critical of Nigeria’s contradictions.