IN Nigerian politics, it is a waste of campaign efforts to try to canvass for the votes of some categories of the electorate. The first category comprises voters who have firmly made up their minds concerning whom to vote for. Given the nature of their support, nothing can possibly change their choice.

IF you ask me, all the points Chief Olusegun Obasanjo raised on the Boko Haram insurgency, as published in the Vanguard newspaper of Thursday November 27, were all valid. But the paradox is; he spent a good eight years in the saddle of the Nigerian government, why did he fail to put any of these measures he highlighted into place? After all, the seeds for Boko Haram were sown during his regime, with many state governors illegally foistering the sharia laws on hapless citizens.

I AM writing this open letter to the 8000 delegates expected to participate in the APC convention scheduled to hold at Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere, Lagos to select their presidential flag bearer among four aspirants on December 8, 2014.

THESE are particularly trying times for Nigeria, make no mistakes about that. The nation is under constant attacks by a terrorist group, Boko Haram, which has sworn to impose its warped understanding of Islamic law on everybody. The other day, it was in Borno; and now, it is Kano and Damaturu.

EVERY society and nation that wants to make palpably tangible growth and progress must ensure that it is super structed on the pedestal of unity, self-abnegation, people-driven ideas and patriotism. But when a nation is encapsulated in the throes and keels of negative ethnicism, regional affiliation, neanderthal sentiments, corruption, leadership inertia, nepotistic proclivities and godfatherism, etc. it is singing its own nunc demitis.