SOME security beat reporters have written stories of how the former Inspector General of Police, Mr Ogbonnaya Onovo, was shocked at his sudden removal.

Once; he actually gave a date, flight number and airline, I went to the airport with the children, my sister and her husband and a younger brother of his too, we waited after confirming that the flight was actually coming to Nigeria, but you won’t believe that my husband was not on that flight, he’d merely fooled us all

EACH time we hear this noise about the independence of the Judiciary, we are quickly reminded of that husband whose wife keeps accusing him of hardly sleeping with her but as soon as the wife goes into the bath-room, this husband takes delight in peeping at her through the key hole.

Donald Easum was the tennis buff who in many ways created the Nigerian Tennis circuit. A Tennis circuit line that played from Lagos Lord Rumens to Ogbe Hard Courts in Benin to the Kaduna Clay courts. We picked his balls and were picking for him even at his residential home across Gerrald Road, Ikoyi, Lagos.

ABOUT two years ago, I got a text message from somebody who said he was Soboma George. He wanted to react to a column I had written but could not reach me. I called him. He sounded surprised, spoke about my column and I promised to publish his reaction which he sent in a text message.

THE American Indian proverb, “Respect your brother’s dream” can be put differently and correctly as “Respect your brother’s success”. However, we oftentimes find ourselves in the opposite situation, scorning and slandering both the dream and success of our brother as the call to be our brother’s keeper is moribund.

THERE is much to be learnt from the Nigeria’s decolonisation politics on the issue of opposition parties in electoral and governance politics in Africa. Once the option of revolutionary opposition to the British colonial regime was precluded by Nigerian frontline anti-colonial parties, and agitation for self-rule was premised on constitutional reform of the colonial governments in the provinces of the British Empire, decolonisation as a process became progressive pressure for inclusion of nationalist parties in the running of the colonial government.

Goodluck Jonathan is a massive improvement on Yar’ Adua in terms of apparent good health. In addition, he obviously has his finger on the pulse of the nation and allows it to help him shape the direction of his governance.

Before the calls came there was the joke we were cracking with Tunji Babalola acting Executive secretary of the NPL who had voted during the elections. We said to him that he also stood accused and was likely to be picked up.

The Obasanjo, Yar’Adua and Jonathan administrations have all decried what they consider to be the unnecessary and stifling burden placed on the economy by government’s increasing subsidy on the price of petrol.

The way we are preparing to celebrate 50 years of our independence, I want to be proved wrong that we are not seriously hoping that October 1, 2010 would be a destination, not a bus stop. A destination is the end of a journey.

For the sake of those who might not be familiar with the way trouble started let me quickly summarise. Mrs Jonathan was a guest of the people of Okrika because she is (emphasis mine because this has an important bearing on the case) an indigene of Okrika. As protocol, or “apple polishing”, demanded, the Governor accompanied her and even planned a dinner for her after the visit to Okrika.

In Luke 10:5 when Jesus sent out his disciples two by two, He told them that whatever house they enter, they must first say ‘peace to this house’. This brings my thought to family violence. How many homes experience peace?

Obviously that is a limitation, but we are not totally helpless as a result. Media practitioners over the years have improved their information-gathering and investigative capabilities using available technology, to the extent that one can have enough reliable information about prominent individuals (without necessarily meeting them face-to-face) which otherwise would not have been possible.

The great dome of his head framed by wooly white hair. As we sat for a long, lingering breakfast, overlooking a golf course and a mild sun in descent, we went down memory lane, I prodding gently to retrieve the fragments of a remarkable life; a rich and textured life, and long. He said, very humorously, over a generous spread of hash-brown, eggs and sausage, “you see, I eat slowly. I have to be careful now how I chew otherwise my teeth will fall all out.