THE Nigerian centenary celebration was to honour hundred persons, some, post-hummus. The number of the award recipients was deliberately pegged at one hundred so that it will conform exactly to the number of years of Nigeria’s existence. A number of questions ran through my mind.

IN a famous major musical hit by the Black American female singer Roberta Flack, she described a man as “killing her softly, with his song”.

THE ramming of two planes into the New York Twin Towers and co-ordinated attacks on other selected targets in the United States by suicidal Al-Qaeda agents on September 9, 2011, changed the face of terrorism in the world.

BEFORE the discovery of oil, Nigeria had made great advancements in textile, agricultural, solid minerals and manufacturing sectors.

ONLY the politically naive can fail to see that President Goodluck Jonathan will contest the 2015 presidential election. Even if his now famous body language is the only signal we can read, the signs are evident that the man will stand for re-election. Naturally, his supporters see nothing wrong in that. And, expectedly, his detractors do. But what do the rest of us who are neither his supporters nor detractors think about the issue?

I KNOW these are no easy times for the President so I will skip the details and present the facts unedited. About 1508 Nigerian citizens are dying needlessly in China detention camps and prison facilities for travel offences.

YouTube is the world’s largest video platform in the world with more than one billion unique monthly users accessing and interacting with the platform. More often than not, these users are viewing a video which was shared on their social networks on Google+, Twitter or Facebook or via an e-mail received from a family member or a friend. Few users realize the endless potential which the platform has to become an entertainment/information/education hub if the user taps into its full potential.

IN the last few weeks, the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke has come under intense and sustained attacks ostensibly from members of the opposition party.

GENERALLY, I rarely venture into Nigerian politics and its goings-on but three news stories in recent months that appeared in Thisday, National Mirror, and The Sun, titled “Ike Ekweremadu I Know,” caught my interest. The focus of the two stories was on the leadership and associated accomplishments of the Deputy President of Nigerian Senate Ike Ekweremadu. One of the news stories described the Deputy Senate President as “leadership personified”. I was excited and encouraged by this description knowing that political leaders are more exposed to temptation and error than most professions.

WE choose selective amnesia whenever it is our desire to score cheap political points. When the intention is to corner political power, our unflattering past is covered with the ageless toga of “progressives”. When the idea is to deflect investigation from our direction, we turn emergency whistle blowers.