ON September 5, 2012, it will be three years since Gani Fawehinmi died of cancer and joined the ancestors. The void he left in our political life remains unfilled, for so large was his presence while he breathed.

LAST week, while addressing the 52nd Annual General Meeting of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, President Goodluck Jonathan expressed his opposition to State Police. The President, like every Nigerian, is entitled to his opinion. But in this matter, he is like the chairman of a meeting.

The argument that the N5, 000 bill should not be introduced because it would spur corruption does not hold here because those that are using our currency for corruption have already migrated to the dollar because the naira has lost its value. The dollar has now become the store of value. That is why we are introducing a higher bill of value because we don’t want to dollarise our economy. We need to be in charge of the money that comes in and goes out”.

My three day stay in Cairo, Egypt afforded me the uninterrupted opportunity of watching the Paralympics courtesy Nile Sports Channel.

In 1994, the Lord healed me miraculously of bullet-wounds in my left leg, after I was shot by armed-robbers. Thereafter, he asked me to pray for four sick people.

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

Going by the frequency of debates in Nigeria, arguing back and forth over an issue is now a visible aspect of the nation’s culture. Not long ago, those in favour or against the introduction of Islamic Banking shouted themselves hoarse over its desirability or otherwise.

“THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH”. Fundamental law of Economics.
This series ended last week with the observation that whereas in Awolowo’s days as Premier of Western Region, virtually all kids enjoyed government sponsored primary education, today only a tiny minority of kids attend state schools. It was the same, even at the secondary school level.

The expression “electronic socialisation” is used here as a category for all contemporary innovative electronic modules through which people in different parts of the globe communicate and interact with each other.

The Rotary Club of Lagos, a forefront Club in Nigeria, was chartered in 1951, a few months after the first Rotary club- Rotary Club of Kano, was launched in Nigeria. Until 2005 when The Hon (Mrs) Hairat Balogun, a Life-Bencher, a former Attorney-General of Lagos State, one of Nigeria’s foremost female lawyers and a thorough-bred who never fails to leave her footprints on the sand of time, was invited to join, this Club had been an all-male membership.

Without any bias, Nigerians are among the most intelligent persons in the world, in my opinion. Go to any far-flung country, and you’ll find at least one Nigerian quietly making waves in his/her field; be it in Medicine, Science, Music, Acting, Politics and even in Philanthropy. Within the country, brains abound in all fields too.

What a man can do a woman can do better; an age-old adage that has sparked off many a debate and several battles between the sexes. Never before has it been brought home though (especially in these parts) as with the recent action of Liberia’s first elected female President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

The London 2012 Paralympic Games have finally begun, and Nigerian athletes with disabilities are poised to thrill the world along with athletes with disabilities from other countries.

Last week Sunday, Dr. Reuben Abati, the President’s Spokesman, came up with a tawdry essay about what some Nigerians do not know about President Jonathan.

It seems there is no let on in the cyclone of events which succeed after one another; now we have a shut out in the Ministry of Power out of the blues, as it were.