It is a measure of the shamelessness of our elite and the institutions that fuel their values that Chief George could be awarded a national honour in our country and he could later sue some newspapers on account of the indictment report I prepared against him —Malam Nuhu Ribadu

First, I was alarmed when Bode went into politics and joined the PDP and quickly became part of Obasanjo’s inner caucus. I was alarmed because as Leo Tolstoy, 1828-1910, had warned us, “If you work with glue, sooner or later you are going to get stuck.” (Vanguard Book of Quotations, p.76). I knew that a PDP under the leadership of Obasanjo was going to be a cesspool of corruption – the sort to be avoided by decent people.

NOW with the gauntlet thrown down by the accused, one would have expected the reporters and the editors of the newspapers which publish the “news” to respond and bring proof. Instead what we have had is silence. Failing to provide proof, one would also have expected them as professionals to tender apologies for what has now been exposed as a rumour carried as news. Again, none has demonstrated such decency.

Journalists say a thing they know isn’t true in the hope that if they keep on saying it long enough, it will be true —Julien Benda, 1857-1952

And I must say very strongly as a senior Nigerian here in the UN Secretariat that there was a greatly missed opportunity that our head of state was not advised properly to come to this assembly…Nigeria missed an opportunity to really register its own views on the world, register its credentials as an African leader.