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SaharaReporters, New York - US Marshals today shot and killed Barion A. Blake  at 989 Monument Road in Jacksonville, Florida after a gunfight. with United States Marshalls and other law enforcement.

According to police sources, US Marshals were acting on a tip that Blake was hiding out at the apartment complex in Jacksonville, Florida. When he saw the marshals and other security agents approaching a gunfight ensued. Blake was shot dead.

The victim in this case, Akeem Ajimotokan, a Nigerian national, remains hospitalized and is still in a coma, according to his family, but his condition has improved and family said he is able to breathe on his own without the aid of a ventilator.

Medical sources told SaharaReporters that Akeem has been moved from Harlem hospital in New York to another hospital in Long Island.

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Olusegun Adeniyi - In 2003 and 2007, I covered for THISDAY the general elections in Kano, one of a few states in Nigeria where the wish of the electorate always count because the people are ever ready to defend their votes, even with their lives.

And by gauging public mood, I could predict at every point who would win the governorship election. In 2003, for instance, after witnessing the National Assembly elections where then House of Representatives Speaker, Ghali Umar Na'Abba, was defeated by ANPP's Mohammed el Yakub (son of former Lagos State Deputy Governor, Senator Kofoworola Akerele Bucknor), I made projection for the governorship race. I called it for Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, the little-known retired school principal with a rickety Peugeot 504 to his name and about N280,000 in his bank account who was running against then incumbent Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governor Rabiu Musa Kwanwanso. My summation was based on the simple fact that with the mood in Kano, Shekarau of the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) would ride on the back of General Muhammadu Buhari's cult following in the state to the government house.
When I went back to Kano during the April 2007 elections, I saw that not much had changed and again predicted that Shekarau would emerge the first Governor in the history of the state to secure a second term, also because of his association with Buhari even though their relationship was then a bit strained.

Source: Before Mohammed Abacha Becomes Kano Governor

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At $585million, Nigeria's voter registration exercise is being considered the world's most expensive.  For a register of about 60 million voters, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is spending about $10.00 to register each voter.

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Clement Chigbo - Egypt, a prominent North African Arab country and a key Middle East country witnessed an unprecedented and monumental change today being the 9th of February 2011 after nearly 32 years of autocratic dictatorship under ex -President Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt is a country of over 80 million people. The country is an epicentre of Arab world religio-politics. Egypt was previously governed by successive monarchs until about 160 years ago when Muhammad Ali dynasty came to power and ruled until 1951-52 when the last monarch, His Majesty King Farouk 1, King of Egypt, Sudan and Sovereign of Nubia, Kordafan and Dafur – as he was then referred to – was overthrown by in the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. Such was the greatness of the then Egypt that at some point in time, what was the Kingdom of Egypt encompassed modern day Egypt even stretching to modern day Sudan.

Source: The Egyptian Revolution And Its Lessons

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Joe Igbokwe - The Lagos State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has alerted Lagosians and indeed other Nigerians of the plan by the PDP to foment trouble in Lagos under the guise of holding a presidential rally. The party says that the top echelon of the PDP has perfected plans to import thugs from Oyo and some other states to cause trouble in Lagos during its presidential campaign rallies on March 1st and that President Jonathan wants to stay three days in Lagos during which imported thugs will be used to cause mayhem and violence in Lagos.

In a release in Lagos, signed by the Lagos State Publicity Secretary of the ACN, Joe Igbokwe, the party warns PDP that it risks sparking up the kind of social upheaval that is presently taking place in North Africa should it think it would be allowed to run roughshod over others on its way to an undeserved mandate in April. It therefore warns Lagosians to be on alert and prevent plunging the state unto social anarchy just to satisfy the bestial interests of the PDP.

Source: Lagos ACN Alerts On PDP's Plan To Cause Mayhem In Lagos

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Few weeks ago when I visited Kaduna, a friend asked me whether it is worth for the opposition in Nigeria to continue challenging the PDP status quo given the power of incumbency in blocking any attempt to dislodge it from its dominant position on the Nigerian political landscape. This is the third time my friend noticed my involvement in opposition politics whenever national elections are around.

I told him that though it will continue to be difficult for the opposition to overthrow PDP through the ballot box, it is, nonetheless, important that it continue trying. And I did not hesitate to give him the theoretical foundations of my thought.

Source: A Message From Egypt For Nigeria

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Olisa Agbakoba, SAN - Background of the Crisis: Recent happenings in the judiciary concerning the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the President of the Court of Appeal have obviously brought the judiciary and the institutions of the legal profession 
into serious disrepute.

The media has not helped because it has taken sides without
understanding the issues and they have tended to overdramatize the
crisis. I am taking this unusual step, even though I may  break some ethical boundaries, to comment on this rather sensitive issue. There is a need to put the records straight. I will be guided by the truth and nothing else. I don't owe anybody anything.

Source: Need to Reengineer Our Judicial Institutions By Olisa Agbakoba

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Presidential candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Mr. Nuhu Ribadu, has chosen former Anambra governor, Chris Ngige, as his running mate.

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Okey Ndibe - Ask many a Nigerian what it would take to turn her country around, and you're likely to get this answer: "Only God can solve the problems of this country." The evidence so far is that God isn't impressed. A people with the extraordinary natural resources and variety of human talent that Nigeria boasts has no reason to bother God for anything else.

This is apart from the fact that Nigeria's crises are man-made, manufactured by the greed and criminal acts of those who pass themselves off as leaders – and often with the tacit connivance or permission of the rest of us. As I stated elsewhere, God is not going to build our roads, sweep Nigerian streets strewn with "pure water" plastic, provide funds for our schools, produce a sound healthcare system, prosecute the "stakeholders" whose specialty is to pocket public funds, restrain electoral officials who aide and abet the stealing of votes by politicians, rewrite the judgments of corrupt judges, edit the reports and opinions of suborned journalists, or stop the police from shooting motorists slow to produce that N20 collection at checkpoints.

Source: Nigerians Dream Of Egypt

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Hours after announcing that the former governor of the Anambra state, Chris Ngige, has been selected to be Nuhu Ribadu's running mate in next April's presidential elections, the candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria has reversed that decision, according to Mr. Ribadu's campaign office.

Ngige became more interested in running for the Senate against former Minister of Information, Dora Akunyili,  and therefore opted out of the vice-presidential slot this evening.

Source: Ribadu  Says Running Mate Yet To Be Chosen; Former Governor Ngige Running for Senate