Columnists

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.

IN January 1969, during the early days of the Government of Lagos State, I took up my first job in life as a Third Class Clerk in the Office of the Military Governor Mobolaji Johnson.

TO ‘make or become different’ is ‘change’, according to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary (Indian Edition).

THE 2015 elections, more than any other before it, attracted the attention of the international community as well as Nigerians themselves with unequal passion. 

THE opinion expressed by Akin Ajose-Adeogun in The Guardian of Wednesday, March 18, 2015 on the topic, “Religion’s Space in National Thought Process”, made for a very interesting reading as much as it was also thought-provoking.

THE immediate task before the incoming Buhari government is to restore unity in this extremely divided country. General Buhari has truly persevered and secured victory at the rougher ends of political struggle in the country; he now needs to win the peace by playing the role of a unifier in this battered country

Interestingly, the press statement bears no date and no reference number. In it, the CBN would appear to decry the increasing use of “foreign currencies in the domestic economy as a medium of payment for goods and services”, and called the “attention of the general public” to the provisions of the CBN Act that “the currency notes issued by the Bank shall be legal tender in Nigeria … for the payment of any amount”.

WHEN the Jewish lawyer cum missionary, Paul, said in the last days, perilous times will come: Men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, brutal, headstrong, he probably foresaw the evil times we are in today.

I am not among persons jubilating because the APC’s candidate, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, won the April 11 governorship election in Lagos. While I would have loved the Lagos State Development Plan to terminate at 16 years, instead of yet another eight-year extension to 24 years, my disapproval has nothing to do with my political sentiments regarding the last general elections. I just lost an opportunity to turn around my fortunes with the outcome of the election.

CONSIDERING the milestone effect of the 2015 general elections, it is important that we take on aspects of the electoral experience so that it does not just pass without leaving behind some important lessons. It is good that we remind ourselves why some things happened and why others did not. 2011, for instance, has become a reference point in terms of political violence and the bad character of the average politician when it comes to accepting defeat. When you talk of 2011, we are reminded of the innocent youth corpers who were brutally killed in Bauchi.