WE are surely getting good at being bad, taking one step forward and several backward. And rather than pretend that the Nigeria/FIFA spat has been resolved by Nigeria blinking and grovelling before FIFA while the latter looks away to make for the impeachment of principal officers of the Nigerian Football Federation, the truth of the matter remains that we’ve once more made fools of ourselves before the whole world, showed ourselves up for the spineless people that we are.

PROFESSOR Gates piece was published in The Nation Monday, April 26 2010 edition. As to be expected the problem he was addressing was elegantly stated in the introductory paragraphs reproduced below:

GOSPEL preacher, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, once said something about poverty which opened my eyes wider on the subject. I started seeing the subject in a different light thereafter. Being one of the Christian evangelists who preach prosperity and the reality of miracles, Oyakhilome enjoined his adherents and viewers never to link themselves with poverty.

Just like anger, I try not to be swayed by euphoria or charm, its best to wait till reason and facts emerge before acting. It is possible to feel trapped in a strait jacket of expectations to be nice even when people take undue advantage and are rude. So I had my day. Luckily I didn’t snap anyone’s head off and apart from sounding like a serial killer on the phone, virtually no damage was done; it was just one of those damn days.

A window into the bizarre and dysfunctional state of justice in Nigeria reveals that some judges use silly legal technicalities to protect Very Important Criminals (VICs),particularly those that occupied (or are occupying) top political positions nationwide.