You would think that an EFCC that has just come out of slumber would be helped to stay awake and alert. That its new found vigour would gladden even hearts worried about neutrality and due process lapses. Because some lofty aspirations are only desirable as superstructures on a foundation of firm deterrence. Only an agency inflicting some determined damage on impunity has the chance of being polished beyond vindictiveness and de-wormed of political bias. The EFCC has sloughed off lukewarmness.

Every father owes his children a little marriage talk. Fears and idiosyncrasies, regrets and dreams , magic and blunders will intermingle. Political correctness won’t feature. The father wants for them – a head start. If the father thinks marriage is blissful but sacred , and divorce is a catastrophic last resort , his wisdom would be cautionary. Age sees beyond the shimmer of youth . It has witnessed the death of too many fantasies. Old eyes may dim from wear but the benefit of retrospection makes the old, despite its tears, more reliable. Hindsight ,they say, is perfect vision.

Jamaica. Bahamas. What happened to us? We became rich, and foolish? Before our athletes started running for inconsequential countries like Qatar, our teams at international meets had started having more officials than competitors. We once dominated the sprints and gunned for boxing medals. Now, we are in Brazil with one real sprinter , and only one boxer. Prayers are good.

Magu started well. Ribadu had so much zeal, the public treated his penchant for flagrant transgression of rights with levity. Magu is a great improvement on Ribadu. Ribadu attended to widespread rot with uncommon but unchecked enthusiasm. And the public responded with uncritical goodwill and doting adoration. That honeymoon era is gone. After Ribadu, the EFCC lapsed into willful docility. Farida’s agency fell into the hands of its enemies. And they smothered it . Corruption then was treated with the sort of sympathy normally reserved for addictions.

Dogara has continued like a master whose dignity a disgruntled house boy cannot touch despite his most audacious tantrums. Because the combination of malicious rascality of a wasp and the indignation of a cheated nation cannot ruffle the feathers of an emerging political principality.

Nuhu Ribadu, was a ray of hope. The salt that came to stop the rot. A public desperate for salvation embraces eagerly. He contained the temptations that swept away pretenders. He sparkled where others had dimmed. We squelched our doubts.

Thuggery is the reason our politics is not for everyone. Thuggery furnishes the apprehension that suffocates and debilitates politics in Nigeria. It impoverishes choice. Some families think only the suicidal opts for politics. And it cripples the very act of selecting from a wretched menu. Voters stay home to stay away from trouble .

Zong was in 1781. Blacks were goods. But long after, long after that practice of decanting blacks into the sea for commercial reasons, blacks are still dispensable. Disposables. Perhaps now, nuisance. The police in America are well trained . But training often polishes the brain and not the heart. Many liberal philosophers are racists. Everywhere, blacks are considered poorly endowed mentally, and prone to uncontrolled emotions. Congenitally stupid. White women have borne crushing oppression for ages. But it hasn’t rendered them insensate to racial prejudice. Black males are their peevish brutes. So white policemen can adjudge them criminal minds. And shoot them. The owners of the slave ship Zong drowned their goods.

Ikpeazu, the Ambode of Abia. Sprang from nowhere, chosen by the gods. The deity that decreed him can no longer summon the winds. So he has been left like a tailless cow to suffer the menace of flies. It must be harrowing. These implacable flies dancing harmlessly like butterflies but stinging like charmed bees. Uche Ogah, the quiet and unassuming dove. Now reeling out dance steps dictated by a practiced but invisible drummer. The mastery of the ability to stampede federal bureaucracy. Frightened Ikpeazu has learnt to fly frantically, without perching. Abia, a hive of determination and industry, forced into a week long sleep .

Governor Fayose is truly unrestrained. And once touched the child that bubbles beneath erupts. Our society has degenerated. But defecating in the open has managed to remain repugnant. Statesmanship requires measurable moral continence. But a governor with an inflated id, fixated at the oral stage, will do anything for self gratification. Tantrums should be beneath governors. But not any given to thrill seeking acts of irresponsibility. Impulsivity means consequences are never thought through. Without discretion, a leader of the opposition becomes a mere perpetually howling tout. Such a leader trivializes the role of the opposition, reduces it to noisy rabble rousing.