I have mourned and mourned. How has Professor Isaac Adewole carried on with a straight face and a closed mouth?

I have  mourned and mourned. How has  Professor Isaac Adewole carried on with a straight face and a closed mouth?

Olisa Metuh is, ordinarily,  a man of swagger.  May affliction not befall us.  He came into the court a few days ago strapped to  stretcher,  draped in  hospital white. And tongues started wagging. I wish him a speedy recovery. Some tongues threw  curses into the air for  anyone who would compel such a sick man to come to court in an ambulance.  Others  read it differently. They saw deception and mischief. And they took to laceration and ridicule. They  told of  remarkable acting ability and a potential Oscar award. The pictures, from every angle,were sensational, scandalous. The multiplicity of what they evoked revealed a society riven by ethnic, religious and partisan allegiances and stuck in  pervasive corruption  and emotionality.

The  army of salvation has been launched. The names are familiar. It would have been naive to have expected something different. The battle against  fire-spitting demons of corruption and ineptitude  perhaps cannot be left to holy novices. The names may not inspire  confidence. But we must be patient. The  Obasanjo letter may have left an impression of urgency and new ideas.  The Coalition looks like sour old wine in  a new bottle. But we must be patient.  A bunch of  Sauls of Tarsus could  become Pauls. But they must not disown their past.  Or whitewash their iniquities. They must show  visible contrition and  tangible atonements. So that their new claim to righteousness would have some meaning.

You are a great statesman. You are a man of letters. Congratulations on your PhD at 80. At 80, you still write lucidly, acerbically and long. President Buhari’s got 20 pages. Jonathan’s was 18. Your observations have always been clear, concise and essentially valid.

Dear PDP,I congratulate you on your apparent recovery from that malignant political cancer. It is hoped that you will come to full health speedily. And as they say, may affliction not arise a second time.

The president says it’s not tribalism. His impotence against the herdsmen is baffling. He has figures to prove it. The herdsmen killed 756 people in 2 years during Jonathan’s era. That is astonishing. The herdsmen have been invading communities and killing since the ages. Buhari denies tribalism has shackled the arms of the law and tempered his customary allergy for social disorder. I believe him.

In November  2014, he hosted Mrs Patience Jonathan.  Politicians like prayers and charms.  So they hang around clerics and sorcerers. At that event, Father Mbaka poured prayers on Mrs Joanthan and  showered praises on  President Jonathan. He said President Jonathan was not inept.

She sat. Then I sat. She looked around. I could guess her thoughts. We were in church. My church. She was once of the Roman Catholic. Then marriage took her to the Anglican church. The Pentecostal churches dwell on money a little too much she says.

But you must think of what to do with the APAPA traffic. And of course the fuel scarcity. Please suggest to 2018 the need to remove petrol subsidy and deregulate the market

Nigeria has a way of making  special occasions ordinary.  Graduates of the  Nigerian Law School were called to the bar a few days ago. The venue was the International Conference Center Abuja.  Invited guests  lined up under a bitter sun. At some point  the queue  was two kilometer long.  The  motor traffic around the center  was utter chaos. The elderly and the young, parents and friends, languished in  hopeless queue and questioned the point of attending. Disappointment was visible on all faces. There was no one to minister happiness.

In 2015, Governor Fayose told us about his 74 year old mother and her diapers.  He was desperate to paint the picture that a 73-year old would be too frail, too demented, to be president.  He bought front pages of  some national newspapers. He made  Buhari  the butt of deathly geriatric  jokes. In a few months, he would  return to the soap box.  Fayose would ( tell people to vote  for  a 73-year-old Atiku. Atiku would be 73 in 2019.  I  believe Atiku is fit. But  the Fayoses of the PDP would have to repackage  their tales.

Alex Ekwueme : A great man that lived in a mad country

Mugabe, Museveni , Biya and the stench of White hypocrisy – Dr. Ugoji Egbujo

Amina Mohammed came in 2015. The  trade was already flourishing. Ware houses in Lagos, Shagamu, Ijebu Ode were filled with logs of  rosewood (Kosso). Trucks plying interstate  roads sagged with heavy logs. Everywhere was all littered with wood.