THE immediate past administration oiled so many Irrevocable Standing Payment Order, ISPOs, running into N50billion and still counting. Ironically, all the projects which the former governor claimed to have tied to the ISPOs are in a sorry state. Prominent among them is the Kokidiete Koki Specialist Hospital at Opolo and Melford Okilo Memorial Hospital, both in Yenagoa which were abandoned by Sylva.

THE fourth Chief Executive of Bayelsa State, Governor Henry Seriake Dickson, a seasoned lawyer, administrator and lawmaker par excellence is in a class of his own. It is amazing that even after becoming governor, Dickson still lives the spartan life that I know him for. He still wears his old cloths, uses his old MTN SIM card, picks his calls and keeps tab on his friends.

IT is no longer news that governance in the world’s most popular Black nation and self-proclaimed Giant of Africa, Nigeria (subject to data and statistics) is one of mock charade.

Last year, I visited a mother’s group in the Korogocho slum in Nairobi to learn more about family planning in Africa. At the end of our conversation, a woman named Mary Ann told me something I’ll never forget. She said she plans her family because she wants to “bring every good thing” to one child before she has another.

THE story surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ as contained in Matthew 2:1-11 keeps fascinating me. A part of which speaks of three wise men from the East who came to pay their obeisance and worship the birth of the King of kings and the Lord of lords.