ONE of the elements of President Goodluck Jonathan’s New Year message to Nigerians was the expected reeling out of achievements recorded by his administration in the past year. Indeed, in keeping with his pet mantra tagged: “National Transformation Agenda,” the President mentioned the word “transformation” not less than four times in his speech. This raises the question: Is the Transformation Agenda really working?

THERE is more to the exposure of the CBN Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as a false whistle blower on the supposedly untidy accounting books of the nation’s petroleum sector than a section of the Nigerian Press wants us to believe. Ordinarily, the sensational letter from the CBN Governor to the President raising worrying issues indicating the diversion of earnings from the lucrative crude oil sales by the NNPC is a classical scoop that no newspaper will fail to publish under banner headlines. In this case both the message and the messenger combine to lend credence to the typical Nigerian hear-say and the added spice of a leaked letter could only have proved irresistible to even the most conservative of editors.

This is the concluding part of this discourse which was first published in our edition of Tuesday.

IN February 2014, the incumbentRector of the Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa State, Dr. Pius Otaru Salami, will take a bow, for another person to continue the good work at the school. To this end, three persons have been shortlisted for the post of rector, expected to be vacant in the month under review.

1. Nigeria, with a 2013 estimated population of 174,507,539 is the most populous Black nation and the 7th most populated nation in the entire world, trailing after—from least to most—Pakistan, Brazil, Indonesia, USA, India and China (1.3bn).

2. Nigerians are 1/5th the total population of Black Africa.

3. Nigeria, with 521 languages has the fourth most in the world. This includes 510 living languages, two second languages without native speakers and 9 extinct languages.

AS the year 2013 wound up, an argument gained considerable grounds. A supposed ‘Treaty of Amalgamation 1914’ was in focus. According to the proponents, the 1914 amalgamation of Nigeria would expire by 12.00 am on December 31, 2013, when it would have lasted for 100 years. The burgle was apparently sounded by a notable lawyer and amplified by an ethnic nationality coalition.

THE nation’s political landscape is becoming more and more interesting with the dumping by the ‘rebel’ governors of the Peoples Democratic Party for the All Progressives Congress, a move seen as the climax of months of unending political intrigues in the ongoing political realignment ahead of 2015.

By Adeyemi Johnson THE emotions and sentiments which build near the Nigerian elections compels one to further contemplate the awesome creativity of William Shakespeare in capturing the universality of the human mass psyche. Reflecting on the sentiments being built in hyperbolic terms on the candidacy of Buhari by some sections of the public, one cannot […]

I FIND it extremely sad to run a Commentary on two presidential pals: one, a former ‘godfather’, Olusegun Obasanjo, OBJ and the other, President Goodluck Jonathan, the beneficiary of OBJ’s political support in the past.

THE announcement last week by Governor Rauf Aregbesola of the State of Osun that plans are afoot to create 27 more local councils in the state adds some more momentum to the revolutionary strides we are already witnessing under this administration. The state will then have 57 local governments across its 3,572 square miles with its 4,137, 627 (2005 estimates) citizens enjoying what 21st political economists call real-time (or first-hand) development and governance.