“If you believe that, you will believe anything.” That was my comment on five different occasions when Nigerian Heads of State, three military and two civilians have made categorical statements about their intention to depart. And each time, events have proved me right. I remain firmly convinced that “Skepticism is the first attribute of a good critic”, thanks to James Russell, Lowell, 1819-1891. It is always sad, when Presidents and Heads of State, in Nigeria make the same promises, at very critical stages in their tenure of office, just to buy more time, while planning to disappoint the people later.

The report published in the PUNCH concerning imminent clampdown against some media houses, namely, PUNCH, NATION and Channels TV, could only have surprised and alarmed people in the media who have not accepted that when a nation is on the brink of disaster, the media, if it does its work as the watchdog of society, is always the first target of those in government.

Only a fool would have expected the presidential elections to hold yesterday. That it took INEC until a week ago to realize their error merely proves, once again, that people can be very intelligent, but not wise. Professor Jega is the author of what will follow from now on.

Next Saturday is presidential election day, and, this being the last Sunday before that “make-or-break” election, readers would have expected today’s column to be about the election. But, once in a life time, a person faces a personal dilemma; he has to choose between two vital duties. Such was my problem when Chief Olufemi Daramola, KJW, Alage II of Omuo-Ekiti called me to announce he would be 80 today. I had choice to make and this is it. Let me quickly explain.

That piece of advice for people all the way down in the value chain of the poultry industry was prelude to the modern management principle of always having Plan B. It was a lesson I learnt in 1970, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, immediately after securing a loan to purchase a house for my family. My former wife, like all the others, had depended on one plumber, admittedly the best in the County, to fix our pipes. The problem was that, this “genius of a plumber” was also everybody’s favourite fixer.

Nothing is more pathetic that when a contestant, out of hubris, and refusal to listen to all sides, loses a contest he should have won easily. President Goodluck Jonathan had just handed over Akwa Ibom State to the All Progressive Congress – on a silver platter.

Blessed are politicians when out of power. They reveal all the things which those in power labor to hide from us. Since December 2013, I had warned My Fellow Nigerians, about the inevitable collapse of crude oil prices and its consequences. Obviously, nobody listened. In May 2014, out of sheer frustration, associated with talking to the deaf, I wrote a column titled SO YOU WANT TO BE GOVERNOR IN 2015.

In that now forgotten long poem, which we memorized in our secondary school days, Kipling listed several instances of forbearance which would, in the end, qualify anyone to be called “a Man, my son”. But Rudyard lived in a different age than our own – which is increasingly becoming the Age of Uncertainties.

“An excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent philosopher [PHD holder]. A society which scorns excellence in plumbing, because it is humble activity, and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy, because it is an exalted activity, will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.

Back in 2010, a few days after late President Umaru Yar’Adua passed on, former President Obasanjo thundered: “Jonathan, you must run; don’t tell me you won’t run.” One would have thought that the man was patriotic enough to recommend someone competent to run the ship of the Nigerian State to us and the world. Two weeks ago, the same Obasanjo launched a book he titled My Watch.