Part one of this series ended last week with the declaration that Jonathan, instead of hunting around for his enemies, real or imagined, determined to ruin him, should instead engage in a critical analysis of who those antagonists are. Since he had declared the media as his number one enemy, I have served as proxy for the media.

This column could just as well have been titled HOW TO MANAGE YOUR ENEMIES – A COURSE FOR PRESIDENT JONATHAN; and, it would be just as apt. Back in my days as a Senior Lecturer/Consultant with the Nigerian Institute of Management, NIM, one of my functions was writing course notes. Among more than three dozen, my two favourite course notes were TIME AND SELF-MANAGEMENT and HOW TO MANAGE YOUR BOSS.

God knows, we honour everybody else; even those who don’t deserve the respect. We have Children’s Day; as if there can be kids without parents. SWEET MOTHER by Mbaga remains a favourite song guaranteed to get even old people on the dance floor everywhere. We have Lover’s Day; Veterans Day etc, etc. What we have never had is a day set aside to say “thank you” to the Elderly, meaning our parents, who, for better or worse are responsible for our presence here on earth.

“Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord, your God, has given you, (Bible, Exodus 20:12)

“The climax of every tragedy lies in the deafness of its heroes”. Albert Camus, I903-I960. (VANGUARD BOOK OF UOTATIONS p 90).

“THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH”. Fundamental law of Economics.
This series ended last week with the observation that whereas in Awolowo’s days as Premier of Western Region, virtually all kids enjoyed government sponsored primary education, today only a tiny minority of kids attend state schools. It was the same, even at the secondary school level.

The Spanish author of that hilarious piece, whose name escapes my memory at the moment, was commenting on the Falklands/Malvilands war involving Britain and Argentina in I982. The remote and virtually useless cluster of islands, captured by Britain from Spain, in an earlier era of colonial expansion, became the reason for carnage in that year.

“Revolutions end up in the hands of madmen. Besides, if the power is great enough, it will make its own mad men by its own pressure” – Saul Bellow. (VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS ….

In a press release by his Special Adviser on Monitoring, Mr. Bernard Mikko, the former General Manager of the Nigeria Ports Authority, NPA, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, sought to distance himself from his son’s present predicaments. Unfortunately for Tukur and Mikko, they missed the point entirely.

“If your children are not better than you; then you must have fathered them in vain”. Leo Tolstoy, 1828-1910.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has finally opened the cases on the fuel subsidy fraud. Let me hasten to state that none of the accused persons is presumed guilty on this page.