I have, in this column, recently complained about the unsatisfactory manner in which the government is responding to the United Nations Environmental Programme, UNEP, report about the devastating effects of oil production activities in Ogoniland.

The bad news of attack on the United Nations Building in Abuja was followed by another worse tale of deadly clashes in Jos.

“Ribadu, seeming to be in an environment where he felt comfortable and relaxed (the US Ambassador’s residence!), told the ambassador he wanted to share some more of what is really going on”- WIKILEAKS report

Before going into the subject for today, we would like to quickly give credit to our President on a matter of international importance. In his 18 months as the substantive President of this country, Goodluck Jonathan’s performance on policy issues may have been less than impressive.

God, in His in finite mercies, has granted every individual special talent to live a life of success. I daresay if opportunities are expanded enough, everybody will be a celebrity. William Shakespeare (Chinua Achebe, Cyprian Ekwensi and Wole Soyinka) wrote poems and thrilled people with stories.

It’s been two week’s since theterror attack on the United Nation’s building in Abuja that left over 20 people dead and many more with serious injuries. During these two weeks the extremist group, Boko Haram, has been front page news.

Imagine a theater with multiple cinema halls all showing top thrillers simultaneously! That is what Nigeria has become since April. Check: post presidential election violence, Boko Haram, Police Headquarters bombing, Islamic banking, Jumbo salary for National Assembly members, Lagos flood, Kerosene crisis, Al Mustapha comedy thriller, BPE probe, Minimum wage war, Salami and NJC, Single term imbroglio, IBB-Obasanjo beef, the return of Jos killings, Mikel Obi’s fathers kidnapping, UN Building bombing, Ibadan flood, Ondo Road carnage and Ocean surge in Lagos! To try and catch up with all of these is enough to make even a thriller addict dizzy.

These two teach lessons that should be appreciated by elites who rule through regimes tailored to the measure of their persons.

NOW, the eyes of the world are on us. We have set a new, macabre world record, beating strife-torn, sectarian violence-wracked Iraq to it. Before the penultimate Friday bombing of the United Nations, UN, building in Abuja, the highest death toll suffered by the “world government” was 22 people killed. And that took place in Baghdad, Iraq.

Friday, September 1, As the Air Malawi Boeing 727- 300 series commenced its final descent into Chileka International airport in Blantyre, Malawi, a feeling of conquest enveloped me. (The six number of African countries I am yet to visit has now been reduced to five.)

In her maiden address to journalists on Wednesday, 24/08/2011, the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister for Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, alerted Nigerians that Nigeria’s domestic debt was about N5.2 trillion ($33bn), while external component is about $5.3bn. In other words, at today’s exchange rate of N152=$1, Nigeria’s total debt is over $39bn; that is about $4bn above ‘crisis’ level of $35bn in 2006, when we were stampeded to part with almost $18bn from a healthy reserve base of over $50bn. As at August 2011, our current debt burden exceeds our ‘paltry’ reserve base of about $33bn, but surprisingly, our ex-IMF President assures us that “Nigeria is in good shape, as the debt profile is only 20% of Gross Domestic Product”.

There are many people who think that there is nothing good happening for them in their lives, careers, endeavours, pursuits or families. They see themselves as never-do-wells! They see themselves as failures! I want you to know that you do not merely exist on earth by accident. Your being alive is not mere coincidence. Don’t see yourself as someone that is created and abandoned to suffer. Don’t see yourself as a failure. You matter to the Almighty God.

Some young male readers of this column, and some older people too, were a bit upset that in the piece with the title above, some members of that church’s youth fellowship tried to trivialize the role of the man in the society by telling their pastor – guest speaker that too much responsibility is laid on the man.

Some of the women who contested shared their challenges with us at Baobab. We also had a programme in which they expressed their concerns, even before the 20ll general elections. One of the issues they pointed out was intra-party politics. This is actually about the intrigues that go on within political parties, and how they are short-changed, sexually harassed, etc. as women. The challenges are quite enormous.

In 2001, while travelling to Atlanta, USA, to attend the annual CNN world news report conference, I changed flights at Gatwick Airport, London. While there, one British ‘area boy’ snatched my brief case and ran into thin air. With confidence, I went to the police desk at the airport to make a complaint. The officer there virtually ignored me after murmuring something like “the public announcement you have been hearing repeatedly that everyone should hold on tightly to his luggage is not for fun.”