WHEN President Goodluck Jonathan was campaigning for the highest office in the land in 2011, he easily came across to the electorate as a humble individual, a sincere and trustworthy person.

In the times of victory, prophets are unnecessary distractions – Trevor Roper
In 2010, the Northern Political Leaders Forum (NPLF) met and constituted a committee chaired by a former finance Minister, Adamu Ciroma. The committee had, in its terms of reference, the responsibility of selecting a single candidate out of the contestants then, as a way of charting a formidable political direction for the North.

EACH time Governor Adams Oshiomhole of EdoState blows up and expresses what is now known as the Oshiomhole syndrome, he reminds Nigerians of a state chief executive who is yet to adjust to what it takes to occupy that exalted position.

BEFORE the Domestic Debt Data Exercise and Solvency Test conducted in the 36 states across the country by the Debt Management Office, DMO, in December 2012 which its findings were recently published in The Guardian newspaper, many Nigerians were quite aware that some states were in serious financial quagmire to the extent that they were surviving on borrowing.

A NUMBER of changes have taken place in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, since the election of Bamanga Tukur as National Chairman of the party. The most recent events involved the court-ordered removal of two principal officers of the party.

WE are in the season of political anomie in Nigeria and the vultures are already searching for carrion. The alarm bells are ringing where normality is undisturbed and the names and reputations of innocent people are the subject of sadistic imaginations of the character assassins.

IN other words, Nigerians will like to know on what basis the amnesty would be granted? Will it be on the basis of the Federal Government acceptance of the demand of the Boko Haram for the establishment of an Islamic State bound by sharia laws in the same manner the demands of the Niger Delta militants were accepted; or will it be on the basis of an outright denunciation of the global jihad project which is sanctioned by the Holy Quran and enlivened by the February 23, 1998 Fatwah of Osama bin Ladin, which called for an unstoppable jihad against Jews and crusaders?

AFTER routing the Fulani, al-Kanemi returned Mai Dunoma to his domain. The siege continued until after the death of Uthman Dan Fodio in 1817.

AFTER routing the Fulani, al-Kanemi returned Mai Dunoma to his domain. The siege continued until after the death of Uthman Dan Fodio in 1817.

RECENTLY, tear-soaked Mrs. Deborah Shetima from Borno State gave a gory account of how her husband was killed, her two children seized and her only remaining child shot dead barely one year after the anniversary of the murder of the leader of Boko Haram, Yusuf Mohammed.