In 2003, Femi-Kevin’s headmaster sent me an email forecasting that he would fail his GCSE exams because he had done so badly in his mock exams. I wrote an angry response and asked him: “Are you God? How are you so sure he would fail? Is it because he is black?” After he took the exams, God did something strange. Before his results came out officially, he showed them to me in a dream; subject-by-subject and grade-by-grade. The results were excellent: Femi-Kevin got so many “A” grades.

Forgive me for breaking up the article IF I DON’T MAKE IT. The National Conference is far more important than anyone’s private life – including mine. Two weeks ago, I had written the first part of this piece with a definite bias which must again be declared up front. I want the 2014 CONFAB to succeed. As the publisher of THISDAY Newspapers, Mr Nduka Obiagbena, had pointed out, this CONFAB cannot solve all of our problems. No CONFAB can do that because previous military governments had endorsed constitutions which had led us into the dead end in which we find ourselves.

When I read that each of the mostly President Goodluck Jonathan’s handpicked delegates to the national conference going on in Abuja right now will collect N12million at the end of their three-month meeting, I was outraged. My reaction was based on the following considerations. First, as a very senior academic in one of the best universities in Nigeria, my emolument in a year after sundry deductions at source is less than N4million.

Where do you begin? They say, it does not rain but pours. In Nigeria, the misery keeps pouring down in buckets. And when you think that you have seen or heard the zenith of all the depravities meted by Nigerians to fellow Nigerians, then the mother of all depravity comes along and overshadows the last.

Life is like a revolving door, people seem to be passing through all the time. There are some who believe I have been hardened by a lot of sorrow early on in life and they could be right. What they observe is my calm acceptance and almost indifference to tragedy. I have found that I cant fight reality, so I tend to just roll with it. I do my 3 B’s checklist and I move on.

IN several countries, the position of Attorney General is usually held by a lawyer because the holder is expected to serve as the permanent legal adviser to the government. In Nigeria, it is one post that has always attracted top legal experts especially during the military era. At a point, it was resolved that only a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) could be the Attorney General of the Federation.

The tragic circumstances in which no less than nineteen young Nigerians recently lost their lives in vain search for jobs in the immigration office is heart-rending enough without the sloppy manner in which the authorities have reacted to it. The details are odious in the extreme.

Around noon on Thursday, March 6, the main building of Nigeria’s premier club, the Ikoyi Club 1938, was without electricity. It was the first time I would notice that in the almost four decades that I have been a member of this elite club.

Odein Ajumogobia, SAN, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, has pointed out that since 75 per cent of Nigeria’s population is aged between 18 and 35, young people are under-represented within the context of the National Conference.

A section of Christendom celebrates Mother’s Day tomorrow, and I crave your indulgence to pay tribute to my mother.