AS to be expected, the current economic melt-down has created a lot of people who grapple with the menace of the credit crunch— not only have they lost their jobs, the prospect of finding any other, not to talk of one commensurate in remunerations is zilch! When Eunice, a personnel director of an insurance company was asked to reduce the work force by a third, she felt like a real hatchet man. “It was a most heart-wrenching experience doling out retrenchment letters and watching the bleak expressions on the faces of staff who have lost their jobs,” she said sadly. A few weeks later, it was her turn to get the dreaded ‘golden handshake.’ In her wildest dreams, she never even believed she would get the chop.

I took my eldest son for a haircut, on the insistence of his housemaster, near his school last Sunday. As we approached the barber’s shop, I saw youths clustered around the two shops on either side of the barber’s shop. Initially, I thought they were watching a soccer match, but then I remembered the European football seasons were over. As I moved closer, I said to myself, “I hope it is not what I think.” Yes, it was; both shops are betting shops, the young men came to wager.

The words above are not mine. They belong to Jorge Bergoglio, known world-wide as Pope Francis; also referred to within the Vatican as the ‘Pope for the poor’ or derisively by some powerful personalities in the curia as ‘the poor Pope’. This impassioned plea was made at a speech he gave on July 7, 2013 to about six thousand seminarians from 66 countries. In calling for the future religious to live lives that are consistent with their teaching and preaching, he said: ‘It grieves me to see priests and nuns with the latest model of cars… .You must not do this! It is better to cycle, or use a smaller car.’ That was when he used these words that have resonated with me: ‘Think about the children who are dying of hunger’.

Chief John Odigie-Oyegun is today being honoured as the Alumnus of the Year by the University of Ibadan Alumni Association. The honour which is reportedly the highest honour given by the association is undoubtedly reflective of the grit and grandeur with which the 76-year-old politician has bestrode the political space. A gentleman to the core, Odigie-Oyegun shows a refinement that captures the grace and polish that is reflective of the finest of human nobility. But as with every mortal, there is a dark side that the chief would always rue, maybe on account of his relationship with Muhammadu Buhari.

One year ago today, the 8th Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was inaugurated. That inauguration marks a further consolidation of our democracy and opens a new chapter in the practice of government by representation in our country. Let me congratulate all my colleagues not only for the time we have spent in the legislature, but also for all that we have achieved together and all that we have planned to achieve for our peoples and our country as the highest legislative body in the land. Every generation of Senators will face its peculiar challenges. The task we set for ourselves and our understanding of our roles as Senators must therefore, reflect a robust understanding of the challenges that we face as a law making body at this time in our history.