SINCE the emergence of the Boko Haram, a group of sectarian insurgents operating in parts of the north such as Borno and Bauchi States, since about two years ago, hundreds of lives have been lost and property worth millions of naira destroyed by  its sustained attacks on persons and institutions.

SINCE the recent stock market crash and the implosion at the top echelon of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), there has been a matrix of misinformation, misperception and misplaced aggression against the erstwhile director general of the NSE, Professor Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, arising from an orchestrated political shenanigan by a cabal in a typical demonstration of the ‘PHD’ (Pull Her Down) syndrome.

AMIDST all these thunderous chaos occasioned by terrorist attacks across the country within the space of one week of madness from December 24, 2010 to December 29, 2010; amidst the violence, mayhem and pogrom perpetrated by the terrorists; sectarian extremists and other sundry criminals stands the Nigerian security and intelligence community – confused, looking dazed and dazzled, helpless and impotent, looking stupid and forlorn of hope, overwhelmed and brow-beaten, shame-faced and completely unable to stand up to and unravel the identities of the enemies of the State.

In the last two decades or so there have been regular shake-ups in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its subsidiaries. This has hitherto involved the removal of the group managing directors and other executive directors in response to their shortcomings and failings. The overall aim in these exercise, according to the reasoning of the federal government, is to achieve maximum efficiency, transparency and accountability in the operations of the corporation and its subsidiaries; and also to weed out suspected corrupt elements within the various departments and units of the corporation.

DOES the Central Bank have the authority to take the action it has now taken? I thought the answer to that question should be obvious to all. But for the avoidance of any doubt the Central Bank’s functions could be seen from the perspective of three broad thrusts; the traditional functions, the regulatory functions and the developmental. Under the regulatory functions of the Central Bank it is expected to formulate policies to control the amount of money in circulation, control other banks and major players in the financial market and generally promote the soundness and stability of the financial system and it is this aspect of the functions of the Central Bank that empowers it to take the action it has just taken.

“THERE has been very conflicting reports from different media and different sources and to have a clear picture we have to send the team. So, any statement I am going to make now will be presumptuous. Let them come back and we will have a fair assessment of the situation that will form the basis of the statement we are going to make. At the moment, the military had moved in concert with the police to normalize the situation” - General Sarki Mukhtar, National Security Adviser, part of the statement made shortly after the emergency security meeting with the Vice President at the wake of the latest Jos crisis.

KHAYYÁM wrote a book entitled Explanations of the difficulties in the postulates in Euclid’s Elements. The book consists of several sections on the parallel postulate (Book I), on the Euclidean definition of ratios and the Anthyphairetic ratio (modern continued fractions) (Book II), and on the multiplication of ratios (Book III).

FOR me, it remains a trip to remember. There was no single dull moment. It was either that Azu Ishiekwene (then Editor of the Punch, and now executive director of the same newspaper), had literally got lost in Borders Bookshop while combing the large bookshop for books that were possibly out of print or Ibim Semenitari (then Editor of Board Street Journal and now commissioner for Information in River State), had gone out to fetch herself a cup of Starbucks coffee. Lost in thought, Azu and I wondered if her keeping long meant she was negotiating to buy the Starbucks company instead. It was fun all the way as we had the best of the two worlds of work and leisure.