On June 6, 2013 the Nigerian Aviation Management Agency, NAMA, recalled and grounded a chartered OAS helicopter number 5N-BPx AS 335, carrying Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State to Awka in Anambra State, over landing and aerodrome fees, steeped into politics last week.

As I look into the mirror and behold the reflection, what I see image is not what I ever dreamt I would be or even wish for my enemy. I can’t help but feel like ending it all.  I wish I could turn back the hands of time but too late to cry over split milk, with my face disfigured and one eye blind, and half of my body paralysed I am a total waste to myself, to my generation and to the my country. 

On June 3, 2013, the Transport Secretariat of the Federal Capital Territory FCT, Abuja reintroduced the new transport policy which earlier took off on January 14, 2013 which was initially stalled as a result of protest on the part of commercial transport operators. The FCT minister, Senator Bala Mohammed, suspended the new transport policy and set up committees which also had stakeholders in the transport sector in attendance where issues that were raised were agreed upon but unfortunately, none of those agreements has been put in place.

The story of Biafra remains interwoven with the political and socioeconomic development of Nigeria and would be told to generations to come. The present generation through the internet can equally learn about the history of Biafra, a nation that attempted secession from Nigeria. 

For Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State and some of its residents, they will not forget last Wednesday, June 12 in a hurry. It is a day two robbers were caught in the act in broad day light. Unlike few pocket snatchers and perpetrators of dastardly acts who often escape being caught, it was the end of the road for the suspects, Dare Ishola and Isiaka Ajadi, who were apprehended after they had successfully executed several robberies including snatching valuables from passengers in the cabs as well as passersby on the major streets of Ilorin.

The euphoria that greeted the flag off the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Arochukwu/Ohafia and Abiriba / Nkporo/ Osso Edda federal roads on March 29 this year by the Federal Ministry of Works is gradually waning among the people of Nkporo and Arochukwu in Abia State.  The reason is that some months after the flag-off of the projects, works on the project are being executed at snail speed.

The journey of Master Assurance Eberechukwu Nwankpa to freedom from a debilitating heart problem that kept him in anguish for almost 10 years, shares similarities with those of the characters in TS Eliot’s “The Journey of Magi” except in one instance. While the Magi were glad for a repeat of their tortuous and pain-ridden journey, Assurance would not wish his ailment even on his worst enemy. 

If any of the victims of the ill-fated Dana flight 9J-922 with registration number 5N- RAM, was told that he/she would not see beyond June 3, 2012 the passenger probably wouldn’t have believed the prophecy. But the 153 people on board the ill-fated Dana airline, which departed Abuja for Lagos never returned from the journey. The Dana plane they boarded crashed into a building in the densely populated Iju-Ishaga area of Lagos State, following dual engine failure on approach to landing, killing all 146 passengers including an air flight engineer, two pilots and four cabin crew.

There is fire on the mountain, run, run, run” was a popular rhyme among kindergarten pupils in those days. In recent times, the rhyme expresses the situation in Aba, the commercial nerve centre of Abia State, where fire incidents have become a common occurrence. The story is not different on Yoruba line, the street housing traders dealing in herbs and spiritual materials, in the popular Eziukwu Market, where fire gutted property worth millions of naira late last year. The traders have since then appealed to government and well-meaning Nigerians for assistance. 

The Asaba Development Union, ASDU, last week joined the long line of critics of the Nigerian centenary celebration programme of the federal government by protesting what they called the exclusion of Asaba, the capital of Delta State, from the celebrated towns and cities, which are captured in the project.