To Her Excellency, Dame Ibifaka Patience Jonathan, the First Lady, who will, today, bury the late Mrs Charity Fynface Oba, her aunt and surrogate mother (Mrs Oba took over responsibility for Dame Patience’s welfare – and brought her up – when she tragically lost her real mother at a very young age).

The funeral will take place in Okrika, Rivers State, and is likely to be the most spectacular public event that has ever occurred in this part of the country.

I am in Port Harcourt at the moment and I’m witnessing people flooding in from all over the country, to join Dame Patience, her husband, His Excellency, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, and their extended family, when they lay Mrs Oba to rest.
Many of these visitors are sychophants and patronage-seekers who are here for cynical reasons. But a significant percentage are genuine well-wishers who want to stand by the Head of State and the woman who has steadfastly stood by him.

As for the Rivers People who are participating in the mourning, they just want to display respect and affection towards the first-ever President who is a fellow Niger Deltan and the first-ever Presidential spouse from our state.
Sincere condolences, also, to the family of retired Vice Admiral Mike Akhigbe, the former Vice-President of Nigeria, who died abroad, earlier on this week.
The last time I saw him was in London, where he and his lovely wife kindly hosted me and my cousin to a wonderful dinner in a Chinese restaurant.
Akhigbe was a man of many parts – a devout Catholic, an erudite lawyer, a senior naval officer and a no-shaking stalwart of the South-South Elders’ Forum.
He once told me that he was totally opposed to the death penalty. I was deeply impressed because such compassionate liberalism is rare in Nigeria.
And I definitely share his view that only God has the right to take life.

This country will be poorer without his genial, thoughtful presence. May he rest in perfect peace and can we all please pray for Mrs Akhibe and their children as they struggle to bear their terrible loss.

National Conference
A lot of Nigerians are thrilled that President Goodluck Jonathan is planning a National Conference. But I’m not convinced that we need a National Conference.
My view is that what we REALLY need doesn’t need to be interminably discussed because what we REALLY need is pretty straightforward: Politicians and civil servants who are ready to stop messing around and adopt a more dynamic, more efficient, less arrogant and less disgustingly corrupt approach to governance.
Will all of the talkers who dominate the National Conference and make fine speeches be true representatives of the people they claim to be representing?
Probably not!

Will the profound dysfunctions that are undermining our society and economy be eliminated or significantly mitigated simply because a whole bunch of people get together to air grievances and chit-chat about problems that we have been moaning about for decades?
Nope!
Is it that we don’t ALREADY know how to solve these problems?
Nope!
Nigeria is full of highly intelligent individuals and well-trained professionals who have travelled widely and seen how things are done in civilized foreign countries.
Some of these smart, exposed folks happen to be in leadership positions, so why don’t they do their jobs properly and enable our nation to fulfill its potential?

Because regular citizens do not insist that they do their jobs properly!
The truth is that most Nigerians are either cowards or just too lethargic to fully use their democratic powers. We carry on like supine subjects and grumble ineffectively, instead of fighting back when we are cheated or exploited.
We allow the grandees who run the show to carry on like monarchs and get away with all sorts of misbehaviour. We can’t be bothered to rock the boat in any meaningful way.  We complain bitterly about the multiple inconveniences, deprivations and injustices that the system inflicts on us. But we rarely rebel and even when we DO rebel, we don’t sustain the rebellion for long enough…last year’s very short fuel subsidy strike being a classic example of our limited appetite for protest.

Even journalists like myself – who are supposed to highlight wrongdoing at every opportunity – are not sufficiently aggressive critics of useless public officials.
I am not advocating violent rebellion. I am just saying that we should put our feet down and demand good governance from the establishment more loudly.
President Goodluck Jonathan strikes me as a basically decent man; and I doubt that he will send soldiers to shoot us if we carry placards more often!
I guess we aren’t hungry or tough enough to make big trouble. And, frankly, we won’t truly deserve REAL freedom or MAJOR progress until we have earned REAL freedom and MAJOR progress by getting off our sorry backsides!