DIDN’T remember to tell you yesterday, but I’ve just finished reading Achebe’s THERE WAS A COUNTRY. I’m amazed at his cavalier attitude to basic facts of history and the strident tone of victimhood along with the inability to see anything wrong with Biafra.

THE current tribal face-off between Igbo and Yoruba commentators over Professor Chinua Achebe’s book: There Was a Country is an automatic reflex.

THE Federal Government was, yesterday, accused of not stating the fact by claiming that Nigeria had no fresh evidence to contest the International Court of Justice, ICJ, judgment of 2002 ceding Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon.

THE casualty figures continue to hover between 40 and 50 (possibly more), but there is no doubt that last week’s killings in Mubi, the second largest town in Adamawa State, was by any standard a massacre.

THE American Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Terence McCulley was interviewed by a Vanguard team led by the Political Editor, Emmanuel Aziken. The two perspectives on what led US Army Field Manual FM 3- 07 describes as stability operations are identified in the lead question of the Vanguard Team and the US Ambassador’s answer of the question.

MOHAMMED Gambo Jimeta, former Inspector General of Police, fired a surprising broadside at the Northern Elders Forum, NEF, last week.

Last week’s celebration of our 52nd independence anniversary offered us another opportunity for national moaning. I consciously avoided joining the bandwagon to pontificate ex-cathedra about our shortcomings.

Last Saturday at the Dipo Dina Stadium, Ijebu Ode, Sunshine Stars of Nigeria were involved in what was obviously their biggest continental match ever and the opposition don’t come bigger than Al Ahly of Egypt.

When a villain has ill-gotten gains, he sometimes needs to have the money “laundered.” This is the process whereby stolen money is made respectable by moving it through a number of legal channels designed to camouflage its original illicit source.

Scientists in Japan have distilled a process that can use stem-cells to produce sperms which can be introduced to female eggs to make babies in laboratory conditions. The implication of this heady, mind-blowing development is powerful, dangerous and disturbing.

Mrs. Obioma Liyel Imoke, wife of Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross River State, is regarded as mother Theresa of the state. She floated many non-governmental organisations that touch the lives of women and young girls. In this interview, she speaks on her mandate and saddest moment as First Lady. Excerpts:

In this interview, she talks about her life as a woman in politics and how she always finds herself as the only female in the midst of men in her career life. she also discloses how the local government chaired by Hon. Ayodele Joseph is partnering with corporate organizations to develop the area. Excerpt:

Part one of this series ended last week with the declaration that Jonathan, instead of hunting around for his enemies, real or imagined, determined to ruin him, should instead engage in a critical analysis of who those antagonists are. Since he had declared the media as his number one enemy, I have served as proxy for the media.

Exercise is a necessity to keep our bodies in good shape; my yoga coach is quick to remind me that the body is a rogue that can only be controlled with discipline and constant training. In a perfect world; I would be able to eat anything and everything at anytime without gaining weight but I know for a fact that it is not a perfect world as my ever growing population of cellulite will attest.

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.