I SPENT  five hours making the one hour flight from Abuja to Ibadan. It is part of a popular culture in Nigeria in which nobody is made to pay for time wastage, at least not the airlines that can delay flights for four or more hours. It was another experience clawing my way from the airport to the hotel. The roads were clogged, full of potholes and quite dirty. In the chaotic traffic, two children about four years, were playing hide and seek oblivious of the danger. In other climes, they should be preparing for bed; but these appear to be child labourers in the alms industry.

AS we struggle to survive raging floods, the White House was this week busy, not with helping humans  fight  them, but employing intercontinental ballistic missiles to shoot down the United Nations Report that humans are a major contributory factor.

THE knives are out in the political arena and they are being used quite liberally in the name of internal party  democracy and  primaries. They are all sorts; table and bread knives, blades, and quite often, concealed daggers. The preferred knife of the more sophisticated party leaders, is the stiletto, made quite famous by the Italian and American Mafia. Some of the party bigwigs, to explain their blood stained hands simply use the scalpel claiming to be carrying out surgical procedures.

THE outrage against Saudi Arabia over last week Tuesday’s disappearance  of Jamal Khashoggi, a  59-year-old Saudi journalist within the precincts of its embassy in Turkey, is just the latest expression of international indignation against that country. In my December 1, 2017 column titled: Is Saudi Arabia also amongst the Terrorists? I had drawn attention to the Saudi monarchy’s unacceptable behaviour.

THE general strike on September 27 and 28 over a new National Minimum Wage will, going by antecedence,  be the first of many strikes to come. This strike was not about a new wage per se or  figures; not about  agreement or disagreement, not to talk about implementation. It was merely to demand that the Buhari administration which has an unenviable history of cancelling   promises, returns to the negotiation table. If a general strike had to be called just to pressure government to talk with workers and employers on a New National Minimum Wage in accordance with the constitution, imagine the struggles that will need to be waged to get the new wages implemented across all sectors and levels of government.