THE May/June 2011 West African Senior Secondary School certificate Examination result released by WAEC shows the grave state of our secondary education. According to Dr. Iyi Uwaedia, head of WAEC National Office, only 30.9% of the 1,540,250 candidates made five credits and above, including English and Mathematics.

AFTER about four months on active duty in the Far- Eastern country of Afghanistan and returning home to the warm embrace of family and friends, the just ended holy month of Ramadan was an opportunity to reflect again on our past and the future of our country.

The world over, labour and industrial sector is central and sine-qua-non of the government’s agenda. Little wonder countries like the United States of America, France, Germany and the rest of the advanced or developed countries do not take for granted the industrial sector of the economy because of the identified and known important roles the labour sector plays in the attainment of the government’s agenda and development of any nation.

ANAMBRA, a state blessed with enormous and unbelievable human potential recently celebrated its 20 years of existence. After tottering, falling and groping for direction, the state has finally steadied its legs and is up and walking at an admirable pace.

Okharedia Ihimekpen, the Edo PDP spokesman is at it again. This time, a failed attempt to re-write history of a political force in Edo State that he knows next to nothing about as encapsulated in his warped treatise published on Page 41 of Monday August 22, 2011 issue of the Nigerian Tribune. Those of us, the founders of the Grace Group that he thoughtlessly referred to are not surprised as the month draws to an end, a time for him to get to Uromi to pick some crumbs.

In 1999, when ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo mounted the mantle of Nigeria’s leadership, he shunted the Urhobo, the fifth largest ethnic group of Nigeria, from his constituted Federal Executive Council, FEC. This was after the Urhobo nation had massively given him their mandate through the electoral process.

Rather then a conjecture, it is now a stern reality that tough times await fishermen in Koko and environs. The cause of the latest and pulsating alarm is not unconnected with the activities of illegal crude oil bunkers that operate fearlessly, and right under the ‘watchful’ eyes of security operatives in the Warri North LGA, Delta State. The condition of the Koko river has deteriorated to the extent that no meaningful fishing can take place there, needless to mention putting the water from it into any domestic use.

Amy Jade Winehouse was a talent and a tragic figure. Her entry into the music bloc was a loud drop with a biggish promise. Pundits predicted that Winehouse would be a winner.

One of the social problems which the Federal Government of Nigeria has been saddled with since the past one decade is the widespread resentment among the people of the Niger-Delta area which harbours the oil and gas that sustain her economy .

The governorship election in Edo State is fast approaching and it is common knowledge that it is going to be a straight battle between the incumbent governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole of Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, led by its former Chairman, Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih.