TWo weeks ago, well- known Nigerians were buried in Abeokuta amidst tears and encomiums. They were natives of Abeokuta who had many things in common- very highly educated; urban and they served town and country.

Yes, October 1, 2012. Independence Day came and went in my household, without a muster or fanfare. I vowed two years ago, that future Nigeria’s Independence Day at least, in my household, is not a time for whimsicalities but one of quiet contemplation.

“Each person matters; no human life is redundant. Every individual must be given the opportunity to live a life in which his or her basic needs are provided for and in which, so far as it is reasonably possible, their full potential is realised”- Cardinal Basil Hume

In the last couple of weeks, you could not have failed to notice the media frenzy on the health of Patience Goodluck Jonathan; especially with the spin doctors and all the presidents’ men diagnosing Patience ‘s health status with all sorts of prognosis.

“Life doesn’t count for much unless you’re willing to do your small part to leave our children—all of our children—a better world.” —President Obama.

Last week was a hard time for my colleagues in the Vanguard office. Although I was not physically present, I felt their loss nonetheless. Our entertainment editor, Ogbonna Amadi succumbed to asthma related complications. His death was so sudden that colleagues can barely take in his absence.

If you go out into the real world, you cannot miss seeing that the poor are poor not because they are untrained or illiterate but because they cannot retain the returns of their labour. They have no control over capital, and it is the ability to control capital that gives people the power to rise out of poverty- Muhammad Yunus

“I am pessimistic about the human race because it is too ingenious for its own good. Our approach to nature is to beat it into submission. We would stand a better chance of survival if we accommodated ourselves to this planet and viewed it appreciatively instead of sceptically and dictatorially.” — E.B. White

”In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers . . . we are ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.”— Alexander Solzhenitsyn

“Integrity is not a conditional word. It doesn’t blow in the wind or change with the weather. It is your inner image of yourself, and if you look in there and see a man who won’t cheat, then you know he never will. Integrity is not a search for the rewards of integrity. Maybe all you ever get for it is the largest kick in the ass the world can provide. It is not supposed to be a productive asset.” — John D. MacDonald

On the 27th of July, all eyes were on London. How could they top the Bejing opening four years earlier? The pride of England was at stake and boy, did we know it. Billions watched around the world when the Red Arrows jet formation flew across the stadium spewing the red, white and blue of the Union Jack. The Brits usually are known for their stiff upper lip and are not known to blow their own trumpet.

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it—always.”- Mahatma Gandhi

There are superstitions in some countries, where people avoid Friday the 13th. For the superstitious this day is a harbinger of doom. People avoid going out on this day and call in sick.

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life, you will have been all of these. -George Washington Carver