The din of the enthusiasm to have a say about the performance—or non-performance—of the first year of the Buhari administration, has subsided in connection with some issues. It will no doubt linger for a while longer over some other issues that need to be further addressed, if they are subjected to the lack of urgency that has been a noticeable habit of the government’s approach to some pressing issues over the past year. Although the response to the quality of governance has not been resoundingly encouraging among the populace, as gathered from reactions through the mass media, the plea for patience seems to have become mixed with emotions roused by disappointment over unfulfilled promises.

You would have noticed that I have never written on romance in this column. Well, that is because you cannot give what you do not have, or so I was made to believe. At my 40th birthday party long ago, I told my hosts (they actually organized it for me) that “my wife has been wonderful and most supportive, but she complains that I am not romantic.” They roared into laughter, while a friend jokingly commented that “how can she say you are not romantic, yet she is pregnant.” But you know even rape can result in pregnancy, yet rape is not romantic. I know that for a fact. In other words, sex can be romantic, but not all sex is romantic.

This year’s May 29, was no different. You could tell which side of the political divide a writer came from just by reading his assessment of the past year. In addition to this, and it is unsettling, is the new dimension of regional bias. These days, you could tell, by looking at the by-line, what the tone of the article would be. It seems a section of the country has decided to shoot the President down irrespective of where he is perched. Unfortunately, there are many reasons to shoot him down if you are so inclined. Or if you are unwilling to understand the peculiar circumstances of this presidency.

ABOUT twenty years after the infamous Otokoto saga which claimed several lives and property in Owerri, the Imo State capital in 1996, one of the people that would not forget the ugly incident in a hurry is Bishop N.E. Moses, the General Overseer of Overcomers Church World Outreach, Lagos. The Otokoto uprising was triggered off, following the killing of one master Ikechukwu Okonkwo for rituals.

FOR weeks, members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, and the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, looked forward to this year’s celebration of the Biafra Day. Over the years, the ceremony had rotated among the Igbo-speaking states and it was the turn of Anambra State to host the event this year. The organizers had chosen Nkpor, a suburb of the commercial city of Onitsha for the celebration. As it was customary, they usually assemble in a church and keep vigil the night before 30th of May every year and then march through some streets in the host city, after which they would return to their home states.