ONE of the most disturbing problems of the health sector in Nigeria is the high rate of maternal, neo-natal and infant deaths associated with pregnancy and child birth. Current statistics reveal that over 500 women die in every 100,000 live births; 40 neo-natal deaths in 1,000 births and 75 infant deaths in 1,000 births.

IN November 2004, during the may-hem at which parts of Anambra State were burnt down, it was difficult for me to believe that people from Anambra could inflict such violence on their State. But have we not seen brothers committing fratricide and sons committing patricide.

THIS is a post-mortem. The 2011 election have come and gone, but it will go down in our lore as one election in which the fabled ‘masquerades” of the Nigerian politics were thoroughly demystified.

The 2011 general elections have come and gone, and judging from the comments of local and international observers including Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka the processes, especially the National Assembly and the presidential polls, were in many respects free, fair and credible.

Now that the elections have come and gone, we turn our searchlight and focus on Ondo State, where the Labour Party (LP) has continued to ‘rule the roost’ and has now taken over from the PDP as the dominant party in the state by flooring both the PDP and the Action Congress (ACN) in the National and State House of Assembly elections, thereby consolidating its firm foothold on political power in the Sunshine State which was triggered off in 2009, when the courts declared Governor Segun Mimiko winner of the gubernatorial polls of 2007.