The word ‘intoxicant’ means an intoxicating agent. It is derived from the verb ‘intoxicate,’ which stands for “ to make drunk: to excite to enthusiasm or madness; to elate excessively.”

I said last week that by his assumption of duty as Acting President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has become, de facto, the sole administrator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This means that he is right up there being the only person in the executive arm that was elected.

Understandably, more ladies reacted to this write-up than men. Many women and young ladies felt that the way we in the developing world ape our sisters in the western world is not in our best interest. Not only in what we eat and wear, but in our social lives and character.

Among the most sustained mythologies of postcolonial Nigeria is the myth of a “northern domination” or the hegemony of the north. Many of us buy into this quite unreflectively, and it has become the rallying cry in Southern Nigeria, whenever the issue of political bargaining arises.

It is remarkable that as the Senate basks in accolades of commendation over its seeming positive role in stabilizing the polity that mention is today being made of its equally very efficient “mortuary”. That is the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions.