One day, give or take about seven years ago, I was in my kitchen with a much younger friend when a certain song that took me way back came on. As I screamed in delight and began to sing along, she squeezed up her face in that annoying way younger people do when they come across something they consider ‘old school’ and said…

Another day, another hall… another group of ‘eminent national leaders of thought’ gathered, to find the way forward for Nigeria. And they were there in their numbers, the usual suspects and quite a number of the ‘unusual ones’. And as expected, there were also those who saw it as a great opportunity to re-invent themselves and re-write present day history.

We’ve all been in a variation of this scenario: snarled up in a traffic jam for any length of time only to get to the top of the road and realise that the cause is another one of those illegal, mobile ‘toll gates’ set up by members of the Nigerian Police Force in the guise of ‘stopping and searching’

My poor beloved country… our own dear native land… nothing captures the craziness of these times like the cover page of one of our local dailies during the week.

From the start, I was appre hensive about the outcome of the general strike. I’m not sure what I was expecting but there was a certain weariness of having been there, done that with nothing to show but the proverbial tattered t-shirt.

The loss of a child at birth is heart-breaking; forget that you may not have even named him or her. A healthy, thriving baby should be the reward for nine months of labour.

Err… happy (?) New Year? I’m not trying to be tongue in cheek but how do you say those words with good cheer given the recent backdrop of events. I’ve said it before… sometimes writing this column is a burden. I often tell my kids that it’s okay to be quiet if you don’t have something nice to say…

I always knew that I was set for international acclaim; I just always assumed that it would come via my prowess as an actor. That’s not far from the truth today; I just didn’t realise that it would take this long and that so many other things would happen along the way.

I find contradictions not only in the ‘big things’ but in the small things of life as well. The other day she (my last daughter) was whistling. Some new skill she has acquired. When it registered, the first thing that came out of my mouth was “stop whistling!”

Mommy… I forgot to tell you that someone slapped me in school yesterday…” Who? I queried; she told me. What did you do? “Nothing, I cried.” “Did you tell your teacher? I tried to tell my teacher but she wouldn’t listen to me; she told me to go and sit down…”

Some people are like they’re going to live forever; they are just —for lack of better words to describe it— larger than life…. So it doesn’t matter where you are or what you’re doing, when you hear Ojukwu is dead; you pause and taken a moment.

I think it was about a year ago that I did a piece advocating the necessity for the powers that be to incorporate and make it mandatory for everyone wishing to join any political party to undergo mental and psychological evaluation.

We are truly a great nation. And I believe what the polls say – we’ve got to be the happiest people on the face of the earth in spite of everything we’ve been through. What else can account for our disposition? It doesn’t matter how painful or senseless or stupid or unfair it is (whatever ‘it’ is at the time’ as a nation we just keep sucking it up.