Militants in Niger Delta, Nigeria

Many believe that it was not the letters of the law of the land that were applied to achieve the relative peace we are now witnessing in the Niger Delta. Rather, it was political brinksmanship and diplomacy of amnesty offer. In other words, we see the flight of law or rather the failure of law as an instrument of restorative justice, social order, stability, change, development and deterrence to evil doers in the Niger Delta. This has its social implications in the sense that people can now gang up to brush aside the law in their quest for “social justice”/ “resource control” as witnessed in the Niger Delta. These also have their philosophical implications on the polity viz: the actual purpose of law in society. Is the amnesty grant to the militant insurgents sufficient enough to dissuade them from further taking up  arms against the state sometime in the future? ALEXANDER EKEMENAH writes.

THE purpose of budgeting is to provide a forecast of revenues and expenditures, construct a model of how government or a business might perform financially speaking if certain strategies, events and plans are carried out. It enables the actual financial operation to be measured against the forecast.
Budgeting is a veritable instrument for ensuring the judicious allocation of the nation’s scarce resource for development. Unfortunately, in spite of its overarching role as a tool for economic development, Nigerians have regrettably, yet to feel the positive impact of budget.

Many firms have run into trouble due to risk management failures. However, where risk management failures are accompanied by corporate governance failures, the lethal combination has caused swift demise. A good example was Enron, an AAA rated institution.

A New Document in the Battle against HIV/AIDS

A new book has just been added to the growing corpus of materials focusing on the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Written by Florence Uchendu, HIV, All You Must Know, documents a wide sweep of information that touches on all aspects of the subject in one breath. STEPHEN UBIMAGO engages with the thoughts of the author in this piece.

Okon Edem (real names withheld) is from Akwa Ibom State. Only the previous day, his girl friend of nine months, who, for some time, had been down with a strange ailment, broke the mind searing news of her having tested positive to the dreaded Human Immuno deficiency Virus (HIV) that causes AIDS.

Hardly did he imagine a day would come when he would have to subject himself to Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) were it not that doctors had advised his girl friend to quickly bring forward the man in her life for the test. Swiftly, though in dooms-day garb, he had headed for the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, Yaba, were he underwent the test.