It’s not often that I extol the virtues of other people’s heroes. I think we do too much of that in contemporary Nigerian discourse already.

AS an adjective satellite, “Olympian” means, among other things, “great” or “majestic” in bearing—which makes it perfectly applicable to the national psychology, our self-deception as the Giant of Africa prior to Nigeria’s dismal performance at the recent London Olympics.

UP to this point, I have focused most of my attention on extremist ideologues and the instigators of violence and social discord. That’s because these happen to be the most urgent challenges we are facing at this time—and the perpetrators are very visible.

DESPITE the fiery death, in recent years, of more than a thousand Nigerians, many of our people still refuse to obey a simple rule of survival: Keep away from unconstrained and unsecured petrol.

MUCH of what it takes is common knowledge, particularly to power sector personnel, political leaders and affected public officials at various levels of government.

A FEW days ago, several persons reportedly lost their lives in the Apata area ofIbadan, when a live power line snapped and fell in a vegetable market, at early morning.

IF I had the “leaders” in one room, I would also try to make them understand and appreciate the importance of symbols—subtle but powerful communication media, to which we pay little attention in this country.

Symbols represent beliefs. They are, therefore, clues to what goes on in the psyche. They are abstract indicators that cue us into what course of action we ought to take in a given situation.

SOMEHOW, in the course of our short but eventful history as a nation, we’ve lost sight of a fundamental reality: Passion is an invaluable and inexhaustible national resource.

THE purchase of old, and possibly defective, Alaskan Airline stock is not the only Dana anomaly to surface in the wake of the crash. “The ownership structure of Dana Airlines Limited and its registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) are fraught with gross irregularities,” The Will reported.

IF it were possible, I’d really like to avoid using the word “tragedy”- not only because it’s trite and over-worked, but also because, in this instance, the term is woefully inadequate.

THE prevailing theory among scientists, reports the Mangrove Action Project, is that the plant originated in the Indonesia-Malaysia (Indo-Malaysia) area. Between 66 and 23 million years ago, it apparently migrated, via ocean currents, westward to India and east to South and Central America

ANYONE who has flown low over Nigeria’s coastline, or plied the creeks and rivers of the Niger Delta in a boat, must surely have been struck by ubiquitous stilted-root trees, with slim trunks and evergreen crests, thickly lining the waterways.

WE often do not fully appreciate the water a stream provides, until the rains have subsided and the streambed is drying.

THE train, more than any other mode of modern transport, is an agent of social change. It not only moves masses of people and tonnes of cargo over great distances, but also ideas, attitudes, habits, traditions and values.

I WOULD have been pleasantly surprised if Finance Minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had emerged as President of the World Bank—but still surprised.

ONE hundred years is a lot longer than most humans can expect to live. But it’s a short time in the life of a city.

AS for South Africa, it not only operates two nuclear power reactors, but the African-American Environmentalist Association’s website says the energy company, Eskom, has also “been working on a 110-megawatt nuclear power plant design since 1993”.

IN her Leadership’s column of Wednesday March 14, Hannatu Musawa took issue with remarks I was supposed to have made during a recent interview–and let loose a barrage of criticisms. Authors of rejoinders often use phrases like: “ordinarily I would not have responded but…”. That, I am afraid, is not true in this instance. So I will spare you the cliché.

WE have plans to generate power from atomic energy and we must pursue it seriously”.

IN my previous article on trawler fishermen, I suggested alternative revenue sources for trawler owners. But, in the final analysis, it is fishing done properly that must sustain the industry.

CAPTURING a criminal in 1987 is one thing. Dealing with what we have now, is quite another. While Lawrence Anini, the infamous armed robber, fell to the rules which Osayande had reformed, learned and mastered, reforming the entire Police and preparing it for 21st century realities will prove trickier and more tasking.

HOLD am!” I’m sure you know what that means. You may also have heard children at play, spoofing police officers at checkpoints: “Park well, my friend. Show me your particulars!”

IF you ever need to conceal anyone from public view, and render them socially inconspicuous, there could hardly be a better hiding place than among the nation’s trawler fishermen. They are the senior, just as hidden brother of their sole trader brothers. My father and even the President were once fishermen.

FOR give my interest in this field. I am the son of a professor of Medical Microbiology so it must be in my genes. So aside from petroleum engineering, project management and information technology where I can mix it with the best, politics and medicine with a tilt towards microbiology also hold a place in my heart.

SO Laura Wine died. So too did Shaw, after an 11-day illness. This was early 1969. But the scenario was just starting to unfurl. These were merely the opening sequences in a medical drama, whose spiralling plot spun a web of desperation – a web that would soon span the Atlantic and ensnare both the Nigerian and U.S. governments. This is what my research revealed:

THERE is no “good” time for a disease epidemic—certainly not a deadly hemorrhagic fever, such as Lassa. But the worst possible period is now, when we are so deeply mired in a social crisis.