Columnists

IT was not so much an electoral defeat of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its government than a wholesome repudiation of a social vision and world view that has persisted in the nearly two decades of the return of civil rule in1999.

IN his seminal work, Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition (1971), Robert Dahl proposed a new understanding of democracy typically encapsulating the maxim that democracy requires not only popular participation, but also popular competition (or, contestation as he would have it)

THE absence of primary kobo coins in our currency profile has become accepted as the norm by both the public and our monetary authorities who, curiously, don’t seem to also care.

AFTER every paragraph, the chorus to this piece is: “By Any Means Possible.” “By Enemies Possible.” In Africa, both the past and the present are pestilences on the future. South Africa is one country that exemplifies this evil tripartite alliance on the lives of the people.

IN a highly-advertised public relations gimmick on July 14, 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan announced what he called a “comprehensive” four-year audit of the federal government’s finances since 2007.

IF you have not gone to see our President-elect since Nigerians put a smile on his face and our faces on March 28, it could be said that you are not being patriotic.

THE crowd currently building around President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, is not unusual.

IT is common knowledge that some economic agents in the country would prefer to denominate their goods and services in foreign currency, particularly the dollar. For instance, some providers of high-cost flats in highbrow parts of the country engage in this practice. It is even it is rumoured that at some schools, fees are indicated in dollars.

ONE cannot help but recall Jawaharlal Nehru’s historic speech to his country’s Constituent Assembly in New Delhi on that sweltering mid-August midnight in 1947 as India, the first of British Empire’s non-white dominions to attain full self-government, ushered in her independence: “Long years ago, we made a tryst with destiny; and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.”

OF what use was the peace accord signed by the major contenders for the office of the governor of Rivers State if such pact could not stop the fear of violence? It is a big shame that this state finds it hard to remove the clouds of evil hovering over the heads of some people with a devil-may-care attitude and, around its borders. It is also a shame that the perpetrators always vanish into thin air after these acts.

OF all the senior Nigerian Army officers who served as ECOMOG Commanders in Liberia during the civil war, perhaps the one commander who had the most difficult assignment was General Ishaya Bakut, 67, who passed away weeks ago in Abuja during a brief illness.

AS the 2015 elections approached, Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) spin doctors had good reasons to place Benue State firmly under the grip of the biggest party in Africa.