Corruption can kill Nigeria. Fake news can decimate it. But fuel poured on it from high by acclaimed fathers can ruin it quickly and leave it desolate for ages. That is why Bishop Kukah must rush back to Ota.

Atiku will sell the NNPC. We know he will.  They sold quite a lot the last time. So he didn’t need to swear he would do it. 

I had a chat with some youths in Orodo, my home town,  recently. Orodo is in Imo state.  The bulk of them were unemployed and under employed. We talked about  the coming elections.

The police have been at Senator Dino Melaye’s gate. They have been there for days. The weight of that absurdity has fallen not on Dino Melaye who has been literally clowning;  not on his friends and family  who haven’t been consumed by shame; not on the police who seem lost; not on the  Atiku campaign who thinks its not a moral burden; not on the society who seem apathetic.

Lt Col Sakaba  died for his country.  He was killed by Boko Haram insurgents last month. He left a wife  and a baby boy. He was the commander of the battalion that was overrun by Boko Haram in Metele. That massacre at Metele sparked more national anger than sorrow. The military admitted, hesitantly, the horror  but claimed that the casualty figures thrown around were the work of mischief makers. Late Sakaba and his soldiers were buried in the midst of doubts, anguish  and recriminations.

The first time was two years ago. She went on rampage on the  BBC. Mouths were left agape.  She said her husband had performed abysmally. She said she would neither campaign for nor vote for him if he failed to wake up. 

Father Mbaka is an ordained priest of the Catholic Church. He is revered in Enugu. He   is a household name in Igbo land.   Many cardinals aren’t that lucky.   His adoration ministry meets the spiritual and physical needs of his   poor   and desperate flock. Father Mbaka’s sermons talk about heaven but they are known   for their blistering political contents. Mbaka perhaps understands that bad governance is worse than all the Mosaic plagues that befell Pharaoh’s country men.    His poor congregation therefore sees him   more as a freedom fighter than a distributor of holy communion. If Father Mbaka has acquired many antagonists it is because of his rampant foray into politics from the shield of the Catholic Pulpit. His style is pugnacious.   His   bishops as a big head priest with a loose tongue.  

Tramadol and Codeine used to be the main demons. They walked the streets and ravaged the youths  and the elders looked away.  Long haul drivers went on their journeys with  cartons of  cough syrups with codeine in their trucks.

The big parties are back with big plans. Nigerian politicians make promises they cannot keep. The new plans  contain many empty promises. But it is encouraging that the plans  have received some attention. In the past,  no one read the manifestoes of the parties.

Tales were only once told only  by moonlight. The sun gave way to the moon and people gathered to wind down. They  shared  tales , fables , lullabies and all.

Sometimes you can’t hold back laughter.  A governor is caught on tape stuffing his agbada with dollars. The dollars are bribe money  supplied by contractors. So the talebearer said.  The  governor gives only a tepid denial. Then a more damning  tape surfaces. 

Politics must  need a basic minimum of decency. Not necessarily altruism, but some minimal  sense of shame. So that children  are spared disgrace when they read about their fathers and  their  days of greatness. These politicians are fathers and mothers too.

Shehu Sani, the social crusader, ate his cake on the floor of the Senate.  But he  wanted to have it at the APC primaries. Others defected after burning their bridges.

Obasanjo  once knew too much about Atiku Abubakar. Whatever it was he knew was so abominable he feared the wrath of the gods if he dared support Atiku’s quest to be president of Nigeria.   Atiku  had dismissed  egotistical Obasanjo and his accusations. He said Obasanjo’s vendetta was the price he had to pay for stopping Obasanjo from becoming another Paul Biya

Atiku Abubakar  has the PDP ticket  He stole the show. The margin of victory shut some mouths and left others agape. It  left no room for  further contests. In the parlance of the NPN politicians of the old, it was a ‘moon slide’ victory. Those who had called the shots in PDP in the last few months were left to lick their wounds. Some of them ran away before the convention ended. Others sat, visibly punch-drunk  and swallowed everything. Atiku abubakar has work to do.