Vice president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Issa Aremu, has been writing a column in the Daily Trust, Nigeria for several years and has been an occasional contributor to a number of other Nigerian publications. Covered in this volume: politics in Liberia, salutary effects of elections in Ghana, constitutional manipulations in Niger, canons of Kwame Nkrumah to sobering reflections on Nigeria, what he calls the rise and fall of Nigeria's diplomacy, and the import of Hilary Clinton's assessment of state of governance. In East Africa violent elections in Kenya, the complexities of the Zimbabwe situation, and the person of Robert Mugabe himself. South Africa, from the shocking wave of explosive manifestations of xenophobia to bilateral relations with Nigeria. For the African continent attention is given to a variety of events: developments in the European Union, American foreign policy and the dominance of CNN. Present throughout is a concern for proper governance and development that should encourage critical thinking and thus eliminate the poverty of ideas among the African political and bureaucratic policy makers.