DEMOCRACY, with all its abiding principles is a concept of inclusion, will of the majority, liberality, freedom, equal access to collective commonwealth and the sharing of God-given resources in an equal, fair and justifiable manner whereby the interest of all is respected and protected.

FOR sometime now the media, both print and electronic, have been inundated with advertorials, commentaries and articles, all criticising the position of the Senate leadership that until the case between Senator Joy Emodi and Hon Alphonsus Igbeke is finally determined at the court, it cannot swear in Hon Alphonsus Igbeke as the Senator representing Anambra North Senatorial District in that hallowed chamber.

TIME was when Igboland was seen and perceived, especially by outsiders, as a warped clime where people were perpetually engrossed in licentious and epicurean pursuit of merry-making and filthy lucre to the detriment of human capacity development.

If his economic policies failed the nation in his first coming, if his profligacy deprived the people of Nigeria the much needed development and if indeed he knows he is just one out of 150 million Nigerians, then he should appreciate the fact that he had his own chance to make the difference. We cannot continue to recycle people, who when they attain power, hold the rest of us hostage.

I AM joining legions of party faithfuls and all men of goodwill to urge President Goodluck Jonathan to run for the 2011 presidential election. Happily, the international community is also making overtures to him to run on account of the great success of his recent trip to the United States where he attended the nuclear summit.

IN what can be regarded as a summit-level sales pitch with a touch of class, a Kano State delegation, ably led by the Governor, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, returned to the country after a highly successful road show through the chiselled hallways of California’s Silicon Valley, raising the profile of the state’s Information Communication Technology (ICT Park).

IBB registers himself to me as someone who loves power and the appurtenances of power and so cannot afford to distance himself from power – and cannot have enough doing as a “kingmaker”. He must always be politically relevant His real intention about power was manifested when against the decision of the Supreme Military Council, he adopted the title of President and eased out his critic, General Domkat Bali.

Whatever it is that is in human or spirit form that has been confusing our leaders, please I pray you with all that you hold sacred, I pray you with bent knees, I pray you with drooped head, I bow and tremble in total supplication to spare our President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. This is the first time in the history of our great nation that a gentleman from the oil-producing little town of Otueke in Bayelsa State by divine providence is in Aso Rock.

ON Thursday April 21, 2010, the Edo State Government under the leadership of the Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole organised a rally in collaboration with Labour and the civil society in support of electoral reform in Nigeria around the philosophy of ‘One Man, One Vote’.

STANLEY MACEBUH was, in the finest sense of the expression, an engaging intellectual. His effortless command of the English language, derived in part, I suspect, from his sound grounding in the classics. That background imbued him with a brevity of style that was outstandingly refreshing.

I FIRST met Stanley Macebuh in 1966. He had just graduated from Ibadan, and had come back to King’s College, his alma mater, to teach. He taught sixth form English and I had the privilege and in retrospect, the exceeding luck of being one of his students. My memory of that period is, understandably, hazy now.

OF late, the newspapers and electronic media have been awash with incessant damaging remarks on Cross River State Governor, Senator Liyel Imoke.

A healthy society operates in a healthy environment. Our primary objective for this story is the successful and safe management of municipal solid waste in Imo State that will encourage job creation and safe environment. The citizens of Imo State deserve and demand a clean environment. When it comes to municipal solid waste, landfill is the only permanent solution to the problem.

The Governor clearly said that the project would be carried out in phases, with 1000 per year in the next four years. Were Pat sincere, he should at least wait for a year to elapse to tell us whether the classrooms were completed or not. Why is he in a hurry? If he were sincere he should have started with projects that were abandoned in the State many years ago some of which Obi just completed.

THE recent enthronement of Most Rev Nicholas Dikenriehi Okoh as Primate of Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) and Bishop of Abuja Diocese is a notable landmark in the history of the church. The new Primate took over from Most Rev Peter Jasper Akinola who was in the saddle for about a decade before he retired earlier this year.