When I heard the news that Polytechnic graduates would soon be flushed out of the Nigerian Civil Service, my mind was in doubt if this country is sincerely committed to its developmental goals. Why should a country map out goals for development and afterwards erect strictures to stall their attainment? To discount products of technical education and still hope to achieve the vision 20:2020 is nothing but tomfoolery.

To say that Nigeria is a lucky country is an incontestable understatement. And I know that those invisible hands that have held Nigeria together since its creation will not slumber despite the vexatious strain Nigeria’s lack of patriotism has put on the union

The renowned journalist and master of prose, the late Dele Giwa, who first used the title above, must have the like of Dimeji Bankole, speaker of the House of Representatives, in mind when he did so in a sinister context.

As I read reports of the event I keep thinking why is it that only foreign leaders care enough about Africa and its troubles to engage the people. How many of our leaders have held such parley with the youths except it is for self-serving political projects like the numerous foolish endorsements from delinquent youth organization for irresponsible political leaders in Nigeria?

AS I write this piece, I am greatly humbled by the opportunity to write about the life and times of this breathing phenomenon fondly called Juli by his peers and admirers.

IN 1998, former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida,along with other retired military hawks facilitated the release of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo from prison after the demise of then Head of State, the late General Sani Abacha.

I am surprised that a number of these leaders did not seem to know what they were letting themselves into when, by their devious political manipulations, Prof. Osunbor was eased out of office as Governor of Edo State. Many would still recall that soon after Comrade Oshiomhole was declared winner of the disputed 2007 gubernatorial election by the Court of Appeal, one former frontline national leader of the PDP said, his happiness only thinly disguised, that the PDP loss of the political and administrative leadership of Edo State was the prize the party had to pay for its disunity.

IN other saner climes, looters or thieves like we have them here, will see shame because the system will trump him up as a deviant crook and reject him. Neighbours would watch him and hesitate to acknowledge him, they will follow him closely until he slips and they will provide the evidence to put him away in jail for a while.

THE scriptures tell us that King David, the man after God’s heart, committed murder, and took the wife of the victim of his murder. God sent his prophet to rebuke the King and he effectively delivered God’s message to the King, which led to the full repentance of the King and deliverance of Israel from the problems and challenges of laboring under a cursed King.

SINCE the late Musa YarAdua passed away, the voices against zoning have been swarming the political conclave with fierce and indeed frightening venom, bubbling to the surface of our ugly sectarian tendencies, dragging the polity along their dangerous tracts.

IF, as widely expected across political circles, Governor Liyel imoke, seeks for and wins a second term in 2012, he would have been in the full swing of a charmed political career at age 50.

IN a democracy, the will of the people is the fundamental source of all power. The government is only an instrument created to serve the people. And as such, the governing power is primarily answerable to the citizens.

IF Patrick understood the foregoing, he would not have wasted time on quoting my earlier positive comments about him, even when in my subsequent pieces, I made it clear that at that time, I mistook him for an objective writer, not knowing he was actually an overzealous Ngige man.

President Goodluck Jonathan that the present federal legislators should be given a wild card to come back in 2011. Did he actually say so? I doubt! It would mean he is not paying sufficient attention to the work of the legislature. Members of the National Assembly have dramatically failed such that just a few should come close to the chambers after June 6 2011. A few deserve another opportunity: the Chukwumerijes, Momoras, Ozamgbachis, etc. But most should bid farewell to the ‘hallowed’ chambers and reengage their old lives as contractors and hustlers.

At that time, Patrick would not be allowed to make adverse comments, truthful or not, about a Governor. Such was the state of affairs on the 17th of January, 1800, when Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the suppression of 60 of the 63 newspapers published in France. By the end of the year, only two survived, none of them radically critical. “Three hostile newspapers,” he said, “are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.”