IRAN and North Korea are always in the news. If one is not being accused of building atomic bombs the other is being lambasted for developing intercontinental ballistic missiles.

FORMER Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku, who chaired the ceremony of the Champion Newspapers 2011 Man of the Year Award, held recently in Lagos, is a man of gravitas and impact. He is an orator par excellence.

IN two years time, the office of the Governor of Anambra State will be vacant. By then Governor Peter Obi, now in his second term in office, would have spent eight years. A rare opportunity others before him never had.

To the average Edo man and woman, the July 14 gubernatorial election is neither that of the Peoples Democratic Party nor Action Congress of Nigeria, but that of Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole versus Chief Tony Anenih. To the average person also, this is the last political outing of the Uromi Chief who had enjoyed three decades of uninterrupted political sojourn.

THE article published on page 20 of Thisday newspaper of Thursday May 3, 2012, whose title alluded to alleged racketeering in the FCTA Health Department makes interesting reading.

THERE is desperation in the political space of Edo State. Blackmail and intimidation have been freely deployed against public policy and legal obligation in order to gain what vested interests might have taken as electoral advantage.

IT is not common practice to roll our the drums for an administration that has spent just one year in the saddle, yet where so many phenomenal achievements have been recorded, there is always an exception to every rule – written and unwritten.

BEFORE the creation of the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs over three years ago by the administration of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua on September 10, 2009, violence bordering on rebellion and militancy enveloped the region.

I WAS shocked beyond words when I read the statement by former Head of State, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari that “if what happened in 2011 (allegation of election rigging) should happen again in 2015, by the grace of God, the dog and the baboon would all be soaked in blood”.

IN the last 12-years, the NTDC has not added any value to Nigeria’s tourism development, marketing and promotion efforts, rather, the leadership has been a burden on the sector.