President Yaradua’s illness exposed the weakness of our democracy. Its management unnecessarily stressed the polity and exposed Nigeria to ridicule. The hide-and-seek about presidential illness encouraged international media to create the impression that Nigeria was North Korea or Nepal, kingdoms where the leader is the state.

We need to engage political parties and the government because generally there came the national gender policy declaring 35% affirmative action for women. But since then, nothing has happened. We also need to engage them (political parties and govt.) from the middle point of view; we need to sue them and do a whole lot of multifaceted things to bring out our voice.

PROFESSOR A.B.C NWOSU served as political adviser to former President Olusegun Obasanjo and later as minister of health under the same administration.

For long, it was often identified with different a number of derogatory names, the most common being ‘Guguru Defence’. In spite of the fact that the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, prides itself as having recorded remarkable achievements over the years, the organisation is still being regarded in many quarters as a mere idle band of volunteer ex-service men and expired members of the once revered Boy Scouts bent on seeking relevance.

“Nurse, I’ve tried several times, but there’s no milk flowing, my nipple has become very sore, and my baby is very hungry,” protested Maisie. “Can’t he have the formula?”