Faced with the enormous challenge of overcoming Ebola earlier this year, Nigeria now has cause to celebrate. In October, the World Health Organization officially announced Nigeria as free from Ebola. Our nation applied the lessons and resources from our extremely effective polio program to respond to Ebola. And our successful approach to stopping Ebola is now a model for other countries. Nigeria has the chance to lead again to save lives. For every mother-to-be and her newborn child in Africa, this could be a turning point

THOSE of us who were already adults when, in 1986, Professor Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka won his Nobel Prize in Literature, knew very well that he won the laurel, not so much because of his literary prowess but for what he did as a political activist. So extreme was Soyinka’s radicalism that as far back as the 1960s he seized a radio station at gunpoint in Ibadan during the political crisis in Western region. To be honest, although Wole Soyinka is a scholar by profession, he is more known for his extreme political views. And, sadly, he has always been partisan and biased.

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.