OUR beloved First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan just flew into Nigeria hale and hearty, to the Glory of God, and shame to the devil! Nigeria has had her own fair share of bad reports, and the ill health of our First Lady or that of any member of the President’s family is one that we rejected as the furore tore through the press and social media over this and that concerning her health.

OF all the atrocities associated with our current security challenges in the country, none touched me and nearly drove me to tears like the killing of 50 students in Mubi, Adamawa State and the October killing of four innocent teenage students of the University of Port Harcourt.

THE news photographs of union members and some staff of NEPA, otherwise known as Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, announcing the “obituary” of Professor Barth Nnaji, an Enugu State man, but a great citizen of the world would have been funny if not a pathetic reflection on our collective sense of responsibility for the public good.

THE much anticipated reprieve finally came via the Tuesday morning (October 9) presidential broadcast that was nationally televised. President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan announced the release of N17.6 billion to assist states and communities that have been devastated by the unprecedented flood.

A visitor to the corporate headquarters of Vanguard Newspapers, off the Oshodi/Apapa Expressway in Lagos, will not but notice the ambiance of communal life-style that pervades the environment. From your first encounter with the Security Guards to the General Manager, it is always a feeling of friendliness and comradeship.

“I strongly feel and I have shared with the governors, with Mr. President and Vice-President, who fully support that the Excess Crude Account must be built up to $I0 billion. We should strive to do that in the next few months and we keep that as a buffer” – Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, while briefing newsmen at the Annual Meeting of the World Bank and IMF.

It was a dream come true; the end of an era and yet the beginning of another. It was the expected end to the marginalization of a people, the deserved climax to the drama of relegation to the background in which the good people of Akwa Ibom had played prominent roles.

THE current government is making very concerted efforts to transform the Nigerian agricultural sector in a bid to make the nation self-sufficient in food production, as well as to earn foreign exchange from the exportation of agricultural products.

IT is perhaps in the vain and futile imagination of the government that such visit would reverse what is a clearly a well thought-out and carefully executed policy of the Saudi regime.

FEW days after the reports, that authorities of Saudi Arabia detained Nigerian female pilgrims, its embassy in Nigeria held a reception in Abuja to mark the founding of the reclusive and arch-conservative kingdom.