On Saturday, the 19th day of February, 2022, both All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP);  the two most prominent political parties in Nigeria (at the moment) held their rallies and conventions just a stone throw away from each other’s venue  in the city of Calabar, Cross Rivers state. While the APC was hosting the APC Cross Rivers youth summit at the U. J. Esuene stadium, Calabar, the Peoples Democratic Party Just some few kilometers away from the stadium was  hosting their own campaign in the Calabar sport club for the upcoming Ogoja/Yala Federal Constituency and Akpabuyo State constituency bye elections.

The Governor of Cross Rivers state, Prof Ben Ayade  who last year had dumped pdp for Apc did his political maneuvering and with the state political might to make sure the pdp campaign didn’t hold in Calabar on Saturday.

The police and other security agencies in the state  acting at the directive of the governor, barricaded the Calabar sport club, the proposed venue for the pdp campaign in the early hours of Saturday.

This funny and petty political tactics has been the Nigerian’s politicians’ games and gimmicks especially when it is  election period. A political stakeholder in another political party will always try to sabotage the electoral plans and activities of the other opposing parties. 

In some states, the sitting governor who is a member of another party will declare that the other competing political parties do not have the security clearance to host a political rally or campaign in the state and for the matter of national security, the rally must be canceled or rescheduled. These are just made up stories to sabotage the opposition party political activities in the state.

Some governors go as far as declaring curfews and restriction of movement on the day an opposition political party is hosting their campaigns and rallies in the state just to make sure that the political party gets little or no turnout for the campaign.

Nigerian politicians and political stakeholders should learn that the beauty of democracy and multi party system of government is that every political party has the legal status and right  to organize themselves, hold their rallies and campaigns and carry out their political activities, in as much as the rallies and campaigns are not a security threat to the state and they are acting in accordance to the law.

The political leaders of a state should therefore  avoid playing the petty games of always looking for a way of grounding the political activities of other political parties in the state.

It’s noteworthy that mere speculation may lead to more expectation. Also, real jubilation could warrant rare tribulation.

The above clause calls for deep thought amongst wise thinkers. But in case you need my assistance while romancing over it, don’t hesitate to call my attention so we can collectively do the analysis.

A few nights ago, I ran vigorously in my dream more than I’d ever done since my childhood. I couldn’t imagine myself indulging in such tedious activity, just as anyone who knows me too well cannot possibly imagine seeing me in such a mood. But I knew why I ran, and that was my utmost joy. Thus, I saw the euphoria coming as a consequence to that.

I know you may be asking yourself what kind of run I solely indulged in. Never mind, since the fact remains that I achieved success. Therefore, the Lord is good and shall continue to be good. In other words, if you embarked on a certain worthwhile activity and came out successfully, you must not relent to give the Supreme Being an eulogy irrespective of the nature of challenges you may have faced in the process.

Lest I digress, today’s topic is very much concerned about ‘love at first sight’, which has remained a recurring phenomenon in contemporary global society.

Love is a symbol which signifies your appreciation for someone/something’s existence. Thus, love at first sight is the act of appreciating something/someone’s existence at your first meeting or encounter with the person or thing.

Love has been a very strong factor existing between two or more animals or persons, and remains the most outstanding symbol that unites and strengthens any existing relationship. From time immemorial, taking human beings as a case study, the womenfolk has remained a force of attraction to the menfolk. Such attraction can never be formidable or real if love is not involved. Let’s ride on!

Several actions and reactions in respect of love have been emerging unabated, which have hitherto resulted in many pathetic phrases or clauses such as “The first time I set my eyes on you, I fell in love with you”, or “My spirit told me I have found my missing rib, at my first meeting with you”, just to mention a few.

Love, which is one of the branches of emotions, has ruined or misled millions of people worldwide who had mistaken lust for it (love). There is a very strong demarcation or dichotomy between love and lust, which we are bound to understand. In Physics, it’s called “parallax”. Parallax is defined as two parallel lines that have no meeting point.

Beloved, it sounds extremely crazy for one to say that he/she fell in love with a thing or person at his/her first meeting with the thing/person. There are certain ingredients/qualities that lead to appreciating something or someone as the case may be.

You can never discover such qualities in a person or thing at your first encounter with them. Take for instance, if you’re a man, for you to appreciate a woman who just walked into your life, you must discover the general or entire beauty of the woman, which can never be done even in a few weeks.

The general beauty of any woman does not end on what or those things you can see by merely looking at her. It’s the interior and exterior qualities of a person that constitute his/her general beauty.

The exterior ones are those you can see while looking at him/her, which could be discovered within a day, while the interior ones are those that seem to be hidden and can only be discovered having spent some reasonable time with the person in question, which could take months, or even years.

The interior qualities/beauty of a man or woman are his/her mentality, manners, morality, level of simplicity, and so on. These are the qualities that can enable you to fully appreciate his/her nature or personality.

Same process is applicable to a thing. For example, you can never love a car at your first sight. For one to love a certain car, he/she must have discovered the entire qualities of the car.

In a nutshell, apparently, there’s no ‘love at first sight’. It’s appalling that virtually everyone has derailed due to this anomaly. So it’s high time we woke up.

We must, therefore, desist from this lingering naughty jubilation that could lead to disastrous tribulation. 

Even if I lack the locus standi to prosecute some persons or officials in our midst, I still strongly believe I’ve some amount of immunity to justify any scenario taking place within my territory.

In other words, most of us are naturally gifted with the initiative and prowess of putting up a judgment over any occurring drama or observation irrespective of our professions.

It could be recalled that in August 18, 2011, Justice Isa Ayo Salami of Nigeria was suspended as the President of the country’s Court of Appeal by the National Judicial Council (NJC) when the said body found him guilty of gross misconduct following his refusal to apologize to former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Aloysius Katsina-Alu whom he accused of victimizing him for refusing to compromise the then gubernatorial election dispute in Sokoto State.

Subsequently, the Judicial body (NJC) abruptly turned round to recall the principal judicial officer and recommended him to the presidency for reinstatement without stating any reason for the urgent recall.

In its remark, the NJC said that it’s within its constitutional powers to recall and reinstate any justice of the Court of Appeal, or any court of competent jurisdiction, and does not require the President’s consent.

Come to think of it, if truly the presidential immunity was not required or that they don’t owe the presidency any reason whatsoever for the recall, why did they find it difficult to understand that the public opinion or view was of high importance in any action meant to be taken by the body?

More so, a few weeks earlier, the then Nigeria’s President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan granted a presidential pardon to the convicted former Governor of Bayelsa State, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha and the ex-Managing Director of the Bank of the North, Mr. Shettima Bulama, among others based on the decision taken by the Council of State.

The bitter and controversial side of the story was that such a decision was taken without minding or considering the anticipatory reactions of the citizenry or the general public. This means that the action was taken out of personal interest.

The funniest part was that, Chief Alamieyeseigha was extricated while the United Kingdom (UK) was still seeking for his extradition to the (UK) to be tried for a crime he allegedly committed.

On the other hand, sometime ago, one of the banner headlines of The Punch Newspaper read, “Akpabio admits rigging primary election”. The inside of the Page 8 of the paper stated that the then Akwa-Ibom State Governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, who is now the Minister of Niger-Delta Affairs, allegedly confessed that he manipulated the result of the 2007 People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Senatorial Primary election in the State by single-handedly replacing the winner with the name of his preferred candidate.

Based on what the said paper wrote, the then sitting governor said the manipulation was necessary in order to give the people of Ikono and Ini LGAs a sense of belonging. According to him, the people of the aforementioned LGAs were yet to produce a senator since 1960 till 2007. Consequently, his political equation yielded the emergence of Sen. Aloysius Etok who hails from the affected area.

Notwithstanding, even if the group in question was yet to produce a senator, did it call for rigging? Also, if truly that rigging was imposed as published, must it be confessed to the public hearing, thereby portraying impunity? That could best be described as impunity begotten by extreme immunity, which has hitherto been the case on the African continent.

Apart from the above anomalies, many similar phenomena have been lingering on the socio-political rostrum of most countries in Africa. Such a phenomenon has become a recurring decimal that one cannot just fathom the number of times it takes place in our polity on a daily basis. In recent times, it seems Nigeria has suddenly become the engine room of such anti-social act.

The public office holders or the political leaders in Africa, particularly Nigeria, should endeavour to live up to the expectations of their subjects. They ought to learn how to carry the entire public along in their respective scheme of works or obligations.

For sanity, or effective and efficient democratic system, to be actualized in the Nigerian State and that of other African nations, the rule of law or due process must be properly adhered to, by the concerned authorities. Hence, the congress/public opinion must not be left out before carrying out any action.

Nigeria as a country is obviously and indisputably of age, thus old enough to know her right from her left. Therefore, she must endeavour to tell herself nothing but the truth if we are sincerely determined to embrace the anticipated change.

Sixty one years as an independent nation, and over a century as an entity, is enough numbers that can guarantee a concrete existence as a people.

Meta’s private data problems keep coming around even when everyone thinks the social behemoth has got a break. Besides current cases emanating from tighter scrutiny by antitrust watchdogs, cases from the past keep resurfacing.

Earlier this week, Facebook agreed to a multimillion dollar settlement for a decade-old lawsuit. The 2012 suit said Facebook used plug-ins and cookies to track visits to third-party websites containing “like” buttons.

Meta agreed to pay $90 million to settle the lawsuit that would be one of the 10 biggest data privacy class action settlements ever if approved. The proposed settlement was filed late Monday and still requires court approval, according to court documents.

Meta has so many fresh antitrust concerns and has been fighting to keep its head up amid the drowning impact. Lately, GDPR, Europe’s data privacy watchdog, has been tightening its rules, making it more difficult for Facebook to harvest data for targeted ads.

The 10-year old lawsuit has dragged along many other cases that came along, prompting Facebook’s decision to move for settlement. Insider reports below that the events leading to the lawsuit involved improperly-collected data that took place about 12 years.

The 2012 lawsuit alleges that, between April 2010 and September 2011, Facebook violated privacy and wiretapping laws by using plug-ins to store cookies tracking users’ visits to third-party websites that contained “like” buttons. The social media site had users’ permission to track them while they were logged in but promised to stop when they logged out.

Besides the $90 million sum, which would be distributed among affected users, the settlement would require that Facebook delete data improperly collected on users through the use of this practice.

Meta did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment, but a spokesperson told Variety, “Reaching a settlement in this case, which is more than a decade old, is in the best interest of our community and our shareholders and we’re glad to move past this issue.” As part of the settlement, Meta denies any wrongdoing.

The lawsuit was dismissed in 2017 when a federal judge said the plaintiffs failed to show they had a reasonable expectation of privacy or that they suffered economic harm. In 2020, a federal appeals court revived the case, saying there is economic harm in such a situation. Facebook tried to have the Supreme Court take up the case, but it declined, allowing the federal appeals court’s decision to stand.

Last year, Facebook agreed to pay $650 million to settle a separate privacy lawsuit, this one alleging the company’s tagging feature violated an Illinois law prohibiting the collection of biometric data without prior notification and written consent. On Monday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the state is suing Meta over Facebook’s now-defunct facial recognition program.

Two weeks ago, Meta threatened to pull out of Europe over the decision of regulators to halt the social media giant from transferring data from European users to the United States. These unending cases are stifling Meta’s chances at growth. The company started the year at nearly $1trillion valuation, but has lost about $250 billion, taking its valuation to around $600 billion.