Both the mainstream and social media have been full of condemnations—and rightly so— for the randy Professor who wanted to ‘knack’—forgive my vulgarity—a girl young enough to be his grand-daughter five times before he could raise her marks from 33 to 40 —a rough translation of one ‘round’ per mark with two bonus marks that would probably be contingent on ‘satisfactory performance.’

Our President has now officially declared his intention to run for a second term. I don’t think it was a decision that took anybody by surprise except perhaps those who tried to hold a politician to his elusive words, or those who deluded themselves in wishing for the Mandela option. Mandela is, well, Mandela; a unique human being in many ways.

Four members of the National Assembly have died within weeks of each other. None of them made it to the biblical age of seventy years. For all their wealth and positions, they could not extend the inevitable; they could not negotiate their timeline on earth. One was said to be preparing for an outing when he breathed his last.

It is so, so easy to hate. Especially when we think somebody has hurt us or denied us what we believe we deserve. It agrees with our primordial instinct. It is also easy to seek revenge. And so when Moses talked about an eye for an eye, he was merely playing up what comes naturally to man. Even in the elevated world of international diplomacy, reciprocity is an accepted way of settling scores.

Speaking of vision, a thick, black smoke enveloped the air in the afternoon of last week Wednesday reducing visibility and making it almost ‘dark at noon.’ I was scared as thicker and darker smoke billowed. It seemed so close to home that I thought one of the factories next to ours had caught fire. I felt I needed to do something in case of eventualities but the sheer magnitude of the smoke made me feel helpless. So there was I, petrified and fidgety, until a worker told me it was not as near as I thought and was sure the authorities would have been aware because of the scale of the fire. It turned out to be true, but it was cold comfort at the time. Olusosun, one of the dumpsites of the Lagos State Government was on fire. On a good day, this site is less than five minute drive from my office in Oregun and just a few hundred meters by air. My worries were therefore not entirely unfounded.