WE live in volatile times. With economies all around the world caving in on them, causing ripple effects that spread throughout our increasingly global planet, investors and governments alike are frantically searching for signs of hope. And many are finding that hope in a region with its own share of rocky histories and failed economies.

THESE are times for concern in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. The emergence of All Progressives Congress, APC has enriched political space. The PDP that emerged from Abacha’s draconian rule project unity and cuts across ethnic and political divides.

ANYONE with an ear to the ground probably would have heard quite a bit about the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke. If the minister has not heard, there has been quite a groundswell of murmuring around town about how she sits atop the wealth of the nation and not allowing others a piece of the action, whatever that means. If you think that the complaints against the minister are coming from the opposition camps alone, then you are mistaken. Even from her native Bayelsa, there is a creeping opposition against their daughter. It really baffles.

All the clever rationalizations and justifications in the world for presenting a Muslim/Muslim ticket will not enable us to escape this ugly tag. As a matter of fact they will simply confirm it. We have a lot of work to do in this respect and permit me to share just one of the things that we ought to do very quickly if we wish to avoid the consequences of our own folly. We must go out of our way to redress the religious imbalance in our Interim National Executive where you have virtually ALL the KEY positions in the hands of Muslims and where it is only the lesser positions that the Christians enjoy.

SINCE the uprisings and violent protests that have rocked some Arab nations 2011, some people had feared that such would be replicated in Nigeria, with the level of corruption across the country and the impunity with which our politicians loot the treasury.