FIRST it was the World Bank Country Director, Marie-Francoise Marie-Nelly who claimed that 100 Million Nigerians were living in destitution. Then the Bank President, Dr. Jim Yong Kim while speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in Washington early this month, rated Nigeria among the world’s extremely poor countries. Dr. Kim’s grouping of Nigeria in the same poverty bracket with the likes of India, China, Bangladesh, DR Congo, Indonesia, Pakistan, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Kenya, was hotly disputed by Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. This is in spite of the fact that the country stands to benefit from the Bank’s policy aimed at ameliorating the economic hardship in those middle-income countries — including a $100 billion increase in lending.

HOW does this affect the price of fish?” was the cynical rider to a newspaper report early in the week that Nigeria has overtaken South Africa as Africa’s leading economy. This followed the cheery news coming from the National Bureau of Statistics, which confirmed, of course, what many had long believed- that the Nigerian economy has been understated.

DELTA State is one of those geo-political entities in Nigeria where social and inter-ethnic re-engineering have proved abortive as its history since the cloning of the state in 1991 has been that of virulent acrimonious relationship among the different nationalities that make up the state.

The vertical and horizontal lines that define our system of government are the key battlegrounds at which issues of democratisation will be joined. If we remain firm in our resolve, we will be well on the way to building the kind of institutions that are the surest bulwarks against the ever-present threat of the rule of man.

It is interesting to observe the holier-than-thou attitude of the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. NgoziOkonjo-Iweala, whenever issues of integrity are raised against President Goodluck Jonathan administration,which has entrusted her with so much powers and responsibilities.

What an endorsement of quality leadership! If a progressive African leader like Koroma attests to the excellence of Asiwaju Tinubu’s leadership, may be Nigerians have found the president they truly can trust. It is time to ask men of true competence to take the plunge. The best of us should lead the rest of us.
Run, Asiwaju, run!

KEEPING up in these fast-paced modern times is no small feat for any organisation, but trying to maintain global standards while depending on the infrastructure and business realities of the developing world can sometimes feel like a real uphill battle.

IN Nigeria, we cannot say that we are a bad people or corrupt people because we all greeted the government of Generals Muhammadu Buhari and Tunde Idiagbon in the late 1980s. Nigerians started queuing up for things and waiting for their turn.

SANUSI Lamido Sanusi realised how gullible Nigerians can be and that we love to bay blood. After alerting bank customers that banks are about to collapse and they would lose their monies if nothing is urgently done, he carried out a stress test on banks to determine those that will collapse if nothing is urgently done, and pronounce some bank CEOs guilty of stealing depositors funds.

In the early hours of Sunday, March 30, 2014, while going through twitter for usual updates, the news of gunshots at the Department of State Services, DSS, headquarters close to the state house went viral. Even though the news of gunshots and bombing are now usual in the country, attacking the headquarters of the state security service is awkwardly audacious. The news immediately gained ground, leading to unease in and around the city of Abuja, as people scampered for safety.