Dear Subscriber, your bi-monthly ring tunes tariff of fifty naira has been deducted from your account. Thanks for staying with us. ……………..’

When I received this text message out of the blue, many months ago, my reaction was to send a reply immediately.

In just two weeks from today a new governor will be sworn in who will occupy Douglas House, the Governor’s lodge in Owerri. Rochas Anayochukwu Okorocha was elected by Imo people in a hard fought election in which the incumbent Ikedi Ohakim was roundly defeated.

“My Fellow Countrymen”, behave as if history does not count for anything. It is no longer taught in the schools. And OBJ in one of his most destructive statements once said the teaching of social “sciences” should be discouraged in schools! That is ‘leadership’ for you!! I started reading Medicine, ended up graduating in Economics and now I wish I read History. For me, History and Philosophy are the most interesting of all subjects. What has that got to do with tsunamis and armed robbery? Plenty.

I think I understand the psychology of the average Muslim. Or nearly do. This psychology is coded in their belief of the inevitability of destiny. Some of them have honed it to an art. So, when Yuguda spoke that the youth corps “only fulfilled their destinies”, that was what he meant.

Last week, I asked readers to react on the cheating in age grade competitions as was highlighted by ex international Adokiye Amiesimaka in his comment in Vanguard two weeks ago.

WE may be getting somewhere with this issue of the age of Nigerian football players, or sports people altogether. Not too long ago, depending on your real age, Nigerian players had no reason to tamper with their age since most competitions were open – if you were good enough you weighed in. Juniors, intermediates, and seniors competed for the few opportunities.

WHY do so many Nigerians take suspicions of murder so lightly? People will tell you, very matter-of-factly, that X or Y politician is a psycho who sends thugs after his opponents. If you say that X or Y seems too civilized or sane to indulge in such maniacal savagery, his accusers will assure you that you are being naive.

THE past three weeks have been some of the most difficult for the frames of perception and analysis of Northern Nigeria, in the Southern Nigerian press. Not since the crisis generated by the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election, has Northern Nigeria received the negative, in some cases, crudely racist profiling, as has been visited upon it, in the wake of Nigeria’s last presidential election.

BEING too good, in itself, can constitute serious danger. Especially when there’s a marked shortfall in the member of available candidates contending for the prize.

WE do not want to fall prey of the very faults that have held this nation hostage in the past. We are not going to spend the next four years eulogizing the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for organising a good election. After all, INEC has merely done what it is paid to do. If we were to spend the next four years praising INEC to the high heavens; praising the electorate for voting wisely; and praising the governors for governing well, then, 2015 would still meet us standing still, oblivious perhaps that he who stands still is certainly moving backwards.

THE term, Government of National Unity, GNU, will take a prominent space when the political dictionary of Nigeria is compiled. The sooner this compilation is done the better, because Nigerians need to know what it truly means. It is a term that gains quick popularity at the onset of every new administration, especially after elections have been won and lost. Therefore, it is (erroneously) seen as the act of including winning and losing political parties in the cabinet of the new (or re-elected) president in order to “give them a sense of belonging”.

EVENTS in the Middle East and Africa are yet to be adequately appraised by the Security Council. That organ responsible for maintaining and protecting the global peace is yet enmeshed in its near 50 years of improvisation security diplomacy. This fact is exemplified in its Resolution 1973 that provides cover for NATO’s no-fly-zone in Libya.

THERE is a saying among the Igbo: Agbachaa oso a gua mile. After a race, you must check the distance you made. After the presidential race we must decipher the hidden and obvious meanings of the vote. What did the Nigerian electorate say with their voting patterns?

Inadequate power supply has choked the development and growth of Nigeria’s economy, particularly in the last two decades. The Punch Newspapers editorial of 22/3/2010 explicitly paints this reality. That editorial specifically notes that “Poor power supply has been at the heart of the nation’s wobbly manufacturing sector whose capacity utilization has today plunged to 29 per cent.

I do not believe last week’s article on the silence of other sports in the country was an attack.