The sudden emergence of the Muslim militant sect with its earliest base in Borno State within the past two years had gradually assumed the ferocious dimensions of an Aqaeda group whose pattern of killings and bombings is beginning to be a thorn in the flesh of security agencies in Nigeria.

Very few subjects can boast of generating the kind of interest the issue of political leadership in the South-East Nigeria has done over the years. The unflagging commentary it spawns every so often bespeaks of the people’s unwavering concern over the issue.

I believe that, as Nigerians, we should welcome everyopportunity to broaden the base of popular participation in economic activities. Poverty has persisted in the country for so long because the economic space has excluded many disadvantaged groups like the Niger Delta.

Having become the president of Nigeria he must be seen as having outgrown the period of political apprenticeship. There is nothing wrong if a person is found to be good and those employing him or her want the person”as long as she is good in all political respects.

It will be a celebrated effort if religious leadership in Nigeria would take full advantage of the present war-cry by Muslims to declare total war on the “Destroyer” (fraud and corruption). This will be a blessing accruing from the unfortunate statement by the Sharia Council.

My attention was drawn to an article titled: Still on a Certain Peter Obih, published on page 49 of Vanguard Newspaper of Monday, July 18, 2011 written by one Valentine Obienyem, who claimed to be SA to Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State.

Truly, politicians are selfish. Perhaps because they have erroneously entertained the none-existing fear that once the down-trodden masses which make up a vast majority of any country’s population is rescued out of the cesspool of ignorance which their poor social status has uncharitably plunged them into, the positions of the former, and those of their upcoming children will be in grave danger.

For those of us, I mean the intellectuals from Bayelsa State, who know the antecedents of President Goodluck Jonathan from A-Z, we are simply stupefied by the seemingly plotless, shapeless and undignifying drama staged around the N18,000 minimum wage.

I read with disgust the current motion for a single term of six years for both the President and the governors. Mr. President, there are more immediate issues than tenure elongation. The country is groaning under severe maladministration for which we voted you in to effect correction.

I read Ishaq Modibbo Kawu’s column of July14, 2011 entitled “The Commentator’s Burden” in which he descended heavily on Ochereome Nnanna for challenging his viewpoint in an earlier write-up. Kawu accused Nnanna of being a Biafranist in the said article because of his perceived anti-North/ Islamic sentiments.

The July 10, 2011 heavy rain has come and gone leaving behind loss of billions worth of property, death and soil erosion. The heavy rain affected Lagos, Ogun and Oyo states.

President Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in as the Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on May 29, this year. By now, one expects that he should have settled down to the serious business of governance. But, rather, the man is still grappling with only just one problem- the challenges of security. Especially that arising from the Boko Haram crisis.

YET cliché purists would agree that Oshiomhole’s “let the people lead” is one formula that is capable of firing in the citizenry the patriotic commitment to government and governance.

I was in Abuja on the last Saturday of June 2011 and found that I could not leave my home or attend to any business activities until after 10.00am. It was environmental sanitation day. I remembered with angst, the military brutality that attended the introduction of environmental sanitation in Nigeria.

President Goodluck Jonathan appointed two new Special Advisers last week. They are Professor Sylvester Monye, the Special Adviser on Monitoring and Evaluation and Dr. Nwanze Okidegbe, the Chief Economic Adviser. During their swearing-in ceremony at the Presidential Villa, the President made a telling statement.