The glitter is off. Fireworks that used to light the skies in different colours while sending beautiful shimmers down to earth have petered off.

Nobody can determine what the future holds. But it hasn’t stopped anyone from dreaming. It’s a rare child who would not dream of what they would want to be as an adult. The most common professions on the list of the desirable include Engineering, Medicine and Law.

We probably met just two or three times in the past twenty years – this friend whom I used to see virtually every week in those golden, olden days. Even at that, those two or three meetings were fleeting and were in the company of friends.

It’s Christmas. The anticipation is over. The gifts have been bought and wrapped. Travelers for the most part, have reached their destinations.

Every year, a major bank lights up a street in Victoria Island around the Christmas season. It is a walkable distance from my home so I try to go there at least once every year to see the lovely sights.

The title of this article is not original to me. It was the title of a lovely article that has remained dormant in my subconscious for more than four decades. (Good articles do that to me).

The social media has its uses and abuses. Its strengths and weaknesses. For starters, you don’t need to be a professional journalist to become a practitioner as was the case in my time.

One of life’s most endearing sights is seeing two children of diverse backgrounds and even skin colour who have never seen or met before, reach out in affection and expectation to each other. I have seen this so many times in different circumstances – parties, hospitals, offices etc.

We were in traffic along Kingsway Road Ikoyi when my driver who normally keeps to himself while driving, asked a most unusual question.

Lagos (from the toll gate) to Benin was a three hour trip or thereabout in the late 70s and early 80s. The road was that good. Many people my generation often boasted about making it under three hours. But it entailed taking those unnecessary risks which, pumped up by youthful adrenalin, we largely discounted.