THE United States of America has the highest crime rate in the world. Its brand name is ‘‘God’s own State or In God We Trust.’’ Ah, US should have branded itself as Home of Crime and Criminality! Yes corruption is one of the obstacles to our development as a nation.

SINCE the Honourable Minister of Information and Communications, Professor Dora Akunyili launched the National Re-branding Campaign at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja on February 9, 2009, so much has been written on the image initiative.

THE vacuum created on the right flank of the isle seating majority (PDP) senators by the absence of the quintessential Joy of the Senate, Senator Emodi has continued to be felt in many ways since the upper Chamber returned to work from a deserved two-week rest following the historic amendment of the 1999 Constitution.

Having spent a number of years abroad and like many Nigerians in the Diaspora want to do, I decided it was time to return home and be an employer of labour.

Discussion at the meeting soon turned to the grave insecurity and criminality in Igbo states, especially Abia State. The meeting ended on the consensus that the insecurity in Igbo land marked by incessant kidnapping is a product of the criminalization of governance in the region.

With Oyinlola completing his constitutionally allowed two terms in 2011, the stage is definitely set for a battle royal between the PDP and the AC. For the ruling party to hold on to power, it needs a formidable figure that cut across the political divide in the state.

BY hindsight, he was confronted by the caucus of the party and he vehemently denied. But we all know that this denial never stood the test of time as he joined the PDP government led by Dr. Olusegun Agagu.

IT is appalling and sickening, considering the amount of deceit, propaganda and sloganeering that have taken the front burner in place of actual and good governance in Ondo State. It is unfortunate that it has come to this regrettable and ugly level while the future of the state is at stake. Honestly and without sentiments, since Governor Olusegun Mimiko assumed office, I can’t see indices of development at play. It is not that I’m blind, I can’t just see them.

As far as I am concerned, she has earned a reputation that equals that of the slain Pakistani heroine and political matriarch, Benazir Bhutto who risked her life to return her country from exile! Just like Bhutto whose mission was perceived at the time as ‘‘impossible’’, many Nigerians never believed Dora would succeed in her relentless war against drug barons who had for over two decades held the public health system hostage.

PENSIONERS,by definition, are old people, over sixty (60) years old, of dubious health and vitality and their stipends should be, and used to be among the first disbursements made from Government Funds. The present reality is different.

A report in a popular daily newspaper over thirty five (35) years ago told the story of a police man, living in Maiduguri, and chasing the payment of his entitlements in Lagos. His salary had of course been stopped on his retirement and his travel and accommodation costs were borne largely with loans from friends and relations. In his petition, addressed to the Inspector General of Police, he asked for his gratuity to be paid, not necessarily so that he could enjoy it, but so that he could repay the loans he had incurred in his years of to-ing and fro-ing between Maiduguri and Lagos.