The outcome of Madam Patience Jonathan’s (the wife of President Goodluck Jonathan) visit to Rivers State recently is a puzzler. Many Nigerians are still unable to comprehend as to why she had the audacity to scold Governor Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State. What many had thought would be the ‘homecoming’ of the daughter of the state, turned out to be a pilgrimage of exhibition of loquaciousness.

"Good evening. Tonight, I'd like to talk to you about the end of our combat mission in Iraq, the ongoing security challenges we face, and the need to rebuild our nation here at home. I know this historic moment comes at a time of great uncertainty for many Americans. We have now been through nearly a decade of war.  We have endured a long and painful recession. And sometimes in the midst of these storms, the future that we are trying to build for our nation - a future of lasting peace and long-term prosperity may seem beyond our reach.

An ongoing attempt by some Nigerians to raise money to restore the state of Zik's Statue has landed in controversy as an aide to Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State has termed such moves a fraudulent enterprise. It will be recalled that some newspapers in Nigeria reported that "Ghanaians and Nigerians raise funds for Azikiwe’s statue". Below is the statement by the Governor's aide:

STOP USING ZIK’S NAME FOR FRAUD – OBI’S AIDE

For a while there have been loads of buzzes about IBB and co (Atiku etc) return to the political scene, many have gone over the roof saying we don't want him, we don't need him and all that. People have gone as far as creating groups on Facebook, twitting and all that to form a campaign against his return. This is and are all good steps to showing our displeasure with his evil regime while in office. But I have always looked at this from a very different perspective.

The news broke last weekend in Abuja that one of the leading agents of Goodluck Jonathan campaign for president was kidnap and he was later rescued but one special news out of the kidnaped issue is the identity of the person that was kidnaped. There is controversy in Nigeria about the identity of a man linked to the president who was kidnapped and freed in the dramatic rescue. Jhalil Tafawa Balewa, a key political ally of President Goodluck Jonathan, was abducted from his home on Friday.

 
PDP candidate to emerge October 10, Yusuf Alli, Abuja - The Nation
THE presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will emerge on October 10, according to a tentative time table for the party’s primaries due for the approval of the National Executive Committee (NEC).
 
According to the timetable prepared by the National Working Committee (NWC), the PDP will adopt an indirect primary system to pick its presidential candidate. All the aspirants are billed to be screened on September 23.
 

Niger Delta: A man who claimed to be Pere Fiofori and who has been declared wanted by the police  in Rivers State yesterday called THISDAY to claim that he actually killed the leader of the outlaws, Mr. Soboma George, for threatening his life. Pere, who said he was talking to THISDAY to state his own side before the Commissioner of Police, Suleiman Abba, “kills me”.

It is no longer news that another set of far-reaching recommendations on the ethno-religious crisis in Jos has been submitted to the dust bin of government complacency. That is despite Mr. President’s assurance that he will “not dump (it) like any other one before, but will implement it”. Well said, sir. The jury of the Abisoye panel is still, however, out and might be overtaken by events not unrelated to the permutations of an eminent Goodluck Jonathan presidential candidacy that is progressively jettisoning any Yar’adua commitment perceived to have potholes along the road to the 2011 polls.

I am writing this partly as a rejoinder to Prof Okey Ndibe’s piece, Obasanjo As Babangida’s Best Issue (http://www.saharare porters.com/ column/obasanjo- babangida’s-best-issue- okey-ndibe ). I say “partly” because I am also using it as a springboard to propose what I think genuine patriots should be considering now that we have seen, writ large, the handwriting on the wall towards 2011. This is because I believe that Prof Okey Ndibe’s article has inadvertently exposed the helplessness of the Nigerian people in the face of the political farce that is likely to result from whatever they conjure up as election in 2011.

In the last 9 months, the shadowy world of Nigeria's politics has gone from a very dark grey to a shade of black that makes coal look like a dazzling white. From the time a comatose President Yar'Adua (PUYA) signed a supplementary budget in December 2009, it was obvious to any discerning observer that the hell-spawn politicians who are in charge of the country's finances had upped the ante on corruption. With this brazen move, the stakes, where power and looting are concerned in Nigeria, were forever altered.