THE title of Kingsley Moghalu’s new book, “Emerging Africa,” is puzzling. Rather than being an affirmation of its title, Moghalu’s book begs the question: “Is Africa really emerging?”

AS Nigerians, we are all acutely aware of what is wrong with Nigeria, especially since we are all part and parcel of the Nigerian affliction.

INAUGURATING the organizing committee for the proposed Sovereign National Conference, President Goodluck Jonathan said: “I will, therefore, like to allay the fears of those who think the Conference will call the integrity of Nigeria into question.

IN the nineteenth century, Napoleon Bonaparte of France described Britain as “a nation of shopkeepers.” Such characterisation might also be applicable to Nigeria today. In every street-corner of our major cities are people selling all kinds of goods. Some display these in the middle of the streets.

Several years ago, at a conference on Coastal Piracy in Nigeria’s Territorial Waters, I admonished a senior member of the Nigeria Customs and Immigrations Department that the Customs was the most corrupt sector of the Nigerian public service.

There is a lot of irritating noise coming especially from the North-West concerning the need for the presidency to return to the North in 2015. This should be discarded as sound and fury signifying nothing.

HIP, hip, hip; Hooray!
Lagos is now going to be a megacity. Under the able leadership of Governor Babatunde Fashola, the apostle of good governance, Lagos is undergoing a major makeover. The Atlantic Ocean will be banished, to be replaced by Eko Atlantic; a shimmering new 3.5- mile island built literally on the water behind a “great wall of Lagos.” Greenery has suddenly appeared in Lagos, displacing the concrete jungle. There are now parks with manicured lawns. There are now tree-lined roads. Pot-holes are now being tarred. Sidewalks are now provided for pedestrians.

THE United States still has not got the memo: we are no longer in the “American century.” The United States is no longer what it was, if indeed it ever was what it was supposed to be: the colossus of the international system. There are now small-state actors that exercise significant regional power without reference to American hegemonic pretensions. There is also a new pretender to the American throne in the form of the Peoples Republic of China, a country with 3.4 trillion American dollars in its reserves.

WITH only some 50 years of independent national existence, Nigeria is a country reeking with “new money.” The overwhelming proportion of the millionaires and billionaires in the country are “nouveau-riche;” they became rich literally “overnight.” We are talking of people whose wealth does not go beyond a generation.

In January 1987, as a member of “Vice-President” Augustus Aikhomu’s delegation to the meeting of the Africa Fund Committee of the Non-aligned Countries, held in New Delhi, India, I engaged the “Vice-President” in a discussion on Nigerian politics.