Henry Fielding, the author of world classic, TOM JONES, was an excellent writer and the classical “woman wrapper”. So, he knew what he was talking about. For Fielding as for all men, there is an abiding warning – be careful when your woman (wife, running mate, mistress, girl-friend etc) intrudes too much in your business. Irrespective of whether the business is politics or a church or illegal oil bunkering the odds of a happy ending are very long. Conventional wisdom has it that “behind any successful man, there is a woman”. But, conventional wisdom is not history and the verdict of history has not been too kind to conventional wisdom.

The Founder of Christ Mega Church Nigeria & Overseas and current President, United Gospel Churches Association of Nigeria- UGCAN, Bishop Priscilla O. Otuya is an interesting woman who is enviably grounded in all fronts. As an entrepreneur, Otuya handles the administrative arm of Swan Dredging & Marine Limited, a dredging company she co-founded with her husband. As a mother also, she has 12 biological children to her credit; some of whom are already toeing her footsteps in ministry. Otuya who is of Kwale extraction in Delta State was recently consecrated as Bishop at the Chapel of Christ the Light in Lagos. Vista Woman had an encounter with her. Enjoy!

Herd mentality is a necessary concomitant of primitivism. Evidence from psychology indicates that certain personality types are prone or easily susceptible to herd mentality and obsessive attachment to blood and ethnicity, irrespective of their educational and socio-economic background.

I was admiring this couple at their wedding reception, marvelling at how well-matched they were; not only in their good looks and easy smiles, but also in the way they reached for each other’s hand unprompted from time to time, as if ensuring that they were connected all the time. As the chairman of the occasion made his speech, they smiled at the same time, giggled at the same time, and as if on cue, they would turn to smile lovingly at each other. I was mesmerized by the sight.

What does it mean to be a Nigerian? This question may seem clearly resolved in the Nigerian constitution: anyone born, whose forebears as at October 1 1960, had roots in any portion of the land which as at January 1914 became amalgamated as the Union of the old protectorates of Southern and Northern Nigeria. Such a person is a Nigerian by birth and has every right pertaining thereto that affiliation guaranteed under the bill of rights. But there are cleavages in the national imagination that make this question increasingly unresolved and academic.

The pages of newspapers have been rustling, in the past few days, about what is so cheaply described as the “jumbo” remuneration of our legislators. It has been reported that they each make over two million naira or more a month, with all sorts of allowances. No one seems really sure because it appears that the salaries and details of other items of remuneration paid to our law-makers are the best-kept secrets outside Fort Knox.

Exactly three weeks ago, I was in a state of quiet euphoria. Why? It was the 10th of August. A date I had been awaiting all year. Why?? For some, a birthday. A cherished wedding anniversary. Or their flight departure date to finally ‘check out’ of the shores of this land for a hopefully better life elsewhere.

A couple of years ago, bank PHB, a Nigerian bank, ran some exciting futuristic adverts. One of them was on cars that could drive themselves while holding the owners in decent conversations. It seemed far fetched but the reality is that most of these futuristic science fictions seem to catch up with us sooner than we expect. If the mind can conceive it, then science seems to be able to achieve it. I will not be at all surprised, given what cars are up to these days, if Bank PHB’s dream soon becomes a reality.

Many Nigerians and also friendly foreigners agree that the country is facing various problems on political stability and economic reconstruction. The major problem is that of national unity in an atmosphere of the rising profile of ethnicity and religious bigotry.

GOVERNOR Chibuike Amaechi of Rivers State – and his indigenous supporters and opponents – take delight in upsetting each other, regularly engage in vitriolic wars of words and use every tool they have at their disposals – including public funds, the compromised Nigerian legal system and their influential non-Rivers cronies – to inflict various humiliations and annoyances on each other.