In its pursuit of sustainable development, the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, has always insisted that "jobless growth" is more or less "harmful growth"! Very many in the crusading community can identify with that sentiment, and would probably stretch to say it is "worthless growth"!! No matter.

But to fully appreciate the implications, you can look around the world and calculate how many jobs are created by the huge investments in the oil fields despite the billions in cash. Very few. Why? Because "technology does the job"! Yet, those nations can quote high GDP figures!! Come to Nigeria, go to Indonesia, check with Saudi Arabia or ask the Russians!!!

My thoughts this day are with the UNDP. I think it should resume its wise offensive against the monster of poverty by enlisting the International Labour Organisation, ILO, as well as the sane private sector in the rich nations. We need the shareholders of multinationals to join forces with the anti-poverty crusaders today. They must all know that their investments are open to huge unpredictable threats and consequences as we now see in Nigeria's Niger Delta region and Latin American countries. We can avoid the future but impending conflagration. Yes.

The key to this understanding is that more of the rising power of both crusaders and a new civil society is from the citizens of rich/developed countries! People Power is on the ascendancy.

Doubt it not. Dare it not!

African leaders should please show some respect. How do others take them seriously when, as The Economist just reported, the African Parliament cannot function because its budget of a miserable sum of $24m is unfunded!

Leading the non-performing states is my own oil-rich Nigeria. South Africa has paid up. Egypt, Libya and Algeria are not paying up. We must be disturbed. I am alarmed.

Now, what can Nigeria say to its admirers or dismissers if it owes the AU, Ecowas, NEPAD or Commonwealth/UN? No matter what we spend elsewhere, including billions on West African crises-plus (Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, etc), we diminish ourselves by not funding the African Parliament. Period. And we want to represent the continent on the UN Security Council? Strange. Shouldn't our Pan-African, globe-trotting president know better???

I suggest that Nigeria now leads the way to resolving this shameful saga promptly. Let us endow the Pan-African Parliament with $250m, representing its Basic Budget for 10 years, as an insurance against the future. This will guarantee its integrity, and protect its independence. We have enough oil windfall to do so now. This is a block one-off grant. We must continue paying the annual dues - whatever they be.

Once done, Nigeria should pressure others to pay up.

PS: If the present administration fails, not to worry. Things are changing here. The new guys in 2007 will make African Integration more people-oriented, more integration-friendly, more renaissance-possible and less talkshop-bedeviled. Just a few months, folks, this utter smear will be cleansed. Apologies.

The Palestinians need to do themselves, and the world, a favour: Get united. This is another chance to do something concrete about peace with Israel. Don't blow it, please.

Listening to the Israeli prime minister's address to the US Congress yesterday, I sensed a leader ready to seize the moment. He seemed quite genuine. And a touch frustrated. No matter. He has made an impassioned plea for peace. The Palestinians must take up the challenge in good faith.

We must all help find the way, the will, and the zeal for both parties NOW.

To achieve this, the Palestinians must stop the crisis going on in their ranks, in their land. It is as unhelpful as it is patently harmful. To find and keep friends in the peace process, they must be united behind their elected president. Fatah and Hamas bear equal responsibility for peace. Yes. They must uphold this sacred duty. Today.

Kofi Annan is completing his momentous tenure as UN secretary general soon. The race for his successor is on, and hot. Rightly so.

But we must worry. The signals emanating from world capitals are not exciting. Not that it is all that surprising, nor is it ever going to be a piece of cake. Just that we are heading for a deadlock, willy nilly. Reason? Because we seem to be using the wrong criteria.

We must reinvent the job, the post and the pay if we must have a better world. We must use what we are agreed on (like poverty, terrorism, digital divide, space, environment, diplomacy and world peace) rather than cold war and undue advantages to pick the right candidate. We must get experts into the secretariat instead of politicians. Permanent Missions should be so-staffed.

If the UN is wrongly peopled, our world will be wrongly run! Don't doubt. Why are the world powers, including the US and UK, seeking UN legitimacy after the Iraqi invasion...despite their pre-war arrogance and unilateralism? Why are the world's citizens, including theirs, always insisting on multilateralism...thru the UNITED NATIONS? Because it is right.

This is why we must get it absolutely right this time. No distractive politics, please. And, yes, the UN General Assembly must play a definitve role.

Considering the sheer numbers and length of stay of the 12 million undocumented (read illegal) immigrants in the United States of America, not to mention their huge and acknowledged contributions to the nation's economy, congress should act with caution and compassion. Any solution must incorporate "a path to citizenship". The crisis can and should be solved speedily.

In this case, President Bush is right.

The Time 100 list of the world's most influential persons for 2006 thrills me. All my favourites made it. But my most thumbs-up is placing Nigeria's Archbishop Peter Akinola in his deserved station. The Primate of All Nigeria Anglican Communion is leading the crusade of his life: Trying to help protect the cannons and traditions of the church from undue modernisation. He has a lot of support in Africa and around the world, especially within the ranks of conservative adherents.

Time Magazine hit the bull's eye. Spot on.

Something is happening in the oil industry. The oil companies are under fire everywhere! Whether it is for environmental degradation in Nigeria's Niger Delta, or price gouging in the United States, or incurring re-nationalisation wrath in Latin America, the "culprit" is the same: OIL COMPANIES!

For decades, activists have complained and no-one listened. Now that oil prices are pinching their pockets, everyone is threatening! About time.

Question: Can't the oil companies see that the game is up?

Question: Don't they know the meaning of remission, or do they adamantly seek retribution?

Question: Why are they so "manipulative", using politicians and bureaucrats around the world??

Question: Why imperil the Planet and its Peoples for the benefit of mere shareholders?

Question: Will these hitherto indifferent shareholders now rise up for Global Equity? Or....

I have never really understood the sheer arrogance and insensitivity of the oil companies and their backers. Many parliaments and presidents in their home countries never listened to crusaders before now. Some, especially in the US, are only posturing - largely because of their mid-term elections! How can it be more important to worry about gasoline prices than the cost to human lives of the trecherous exploration-exploitation-corruption by these transnationls in the oil fields, especially in the Third World???

This is the time for the most comprehensive review, and intervention, by all concerned. If not, the stage has been set for nationalisation/re-nationalisation of these businesses in a strident band-wagon self-determination reaction, following the emerging trend in Latin American. These Western companies are doing their home countries grave disservice with their current bad practices. In due course, the oil-locales will most certainly find the right models in Chinese and Indian companies - eroding one more frontier of Western domination. It is a fair forecast, isn't it?

My Advice: Shell and Cheveron should be called to order in Nigeria's Niger Delta. No-one is benefiting from their gross insensitivity to the plights of the oil-bearing zones. No excuses are acceptable. None.

Greetings. Congratulations. Commiserations. Hope Rising! Tomorrow Assured. These are the All-in-One sentiments to which our compatriots - the masses - earn all rights on this MAY DAY. This momentous day. 2007.

Look around the world, our world, and ask if you can truly deny us this little bit. Can you? And if by any means you feel or believe that you can, should you??

Dear Workers - the real Wealth CREATORS - and Winners, beware, and be HAPPY. Yes. Oh, how I see you as the season, seasoning, and seasoned of the world....our world. Believe.

Am I speaking in tongues? You bet. Is anyone decoding? Ask again.

When? Today. And every night. Again.