A FEW months ago, the Federal Government had expressed its intention to begin the implementation of a national policy on cassava bread. Under the arrangement, bread manufacturers are expected to substitute 20 per cent of the wheat flour content of bread with cassava flour, a decision that is expected to drastically reduce the country’s total annual wheat import bill by N127 billion from the over N600 billion worth of wheat imports annually. This move by the Federal Government to give full backing to such an initiative of substituting wheat with cassava in the local production of bread in Nigeria is laudable in the sense that it is a good opportunity to make better use of the nation’s abundant cassava, which research has shown to be healthier and a better suitable flour for bread making.

The recent arrest of 486 suspected Boko Haram members, including eight girls, by the 144 Battalion of the Nigerian Army in Asa, near Aba, Abia State on June 14 has once again raised the question of how secure the entire country is presently?

BOKO Haram came to lime light in 2007, just as ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo was planning to hand over power. What he did not know was that his colleagues from the North had a different agenda to take power permanently, and Boko Haram was part of their bargain.

WHEN schizoid hysteria and lunatic martyrdom becomes the driving force in any sect, religious collectivity, society or individual, it precipitates weird characteristics manifested in sectarian violence, hate, intolerance and fundamentalism.

ADMITTEDLY, now may not be the appropriate time to ask for an apology from a president still struggling under the challenges of insecurity and sundry distractions.