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.

The ‘new black’ is a term mostly used in fashion circles to describe a new or recurrent trend. When someone used the term to describe rape in our society; I thought to myself how apt, given the incessant number of incidents that have occurred in recent times. Babies, toddlers, teenagers, fully grown women, boys and girls; nobody is speared.

Not preoccupied enough with the innumerable, seemingly insurmountable problems that we face as a nation (his immediate constituency being one of them) Deputy Senate President, Ekweremadu kicked up a storm with his proposal that prostitution be legalised.

“… Dem name na silly! And because of that, Nigeria go beat dem silly on that day! Ah- ah, ‘ol boy how you go talk so? Why I no go talk so?”… We were walking back from the cafeteria at work and this was the heated debate two of my colleagues were engaged in. It obviously had something to do with football considering how animated they were and though I tend to shy away from football debates especially as it concerns our national team, I couldn’t resist, my curiosity was piqued.