PROFESSOR Gates piece was published in The Nation Monday, April 26 2010 edition. As to be expected the problem he was addressing was elegantly stated in the introductory paragraphs reproduced below:

GOSPEL preacher, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, once said something about poverty which opened my eyes wider on the subject. I started seeing the subject in a different light thereafter. Being one of the Christian evangelists who preach prosperity and the reality of miracles, Oyakhilome enjoined his adherents and viewers never to link themselves with poverty.

Just like anger, I try not to be swayed by euphoria or charm, its best to wait till reason and facts emerge before acting. It is possible to feel trapped in a strait jacket of expectations to be nice even when people take undue advantage and are rude. So I had my day. Luckily I didn’t snap anyone’s head off and apart from sounding like a serial killer on the phone, virtually no damage was done; it was just one of those damn days.

A window into the bizarre and dysfunctional state of justice in Nigeria reveals that some judges use silly legal technicalities to protect Very Important Criminals (VICs),particularly those that occupied (or are occupying) top political positions nationwide.

The argument was reinforced and enforced by the population of the North which they claim they can move to decide who rules Nigeria. I am beginning to hear that the South South are saying that they have the oil which they can decide who takes control of! They say you must use what you have to get what you want. So, you see, the stakes are rising

I have been told that the Imo State governor, Mr. Ikedi Ohakim has written some books on Marketing. Jolly well, I’d say! No wonder he is busy selling snake oil in Imo state. Marketing and advertising proposed sites as the great achievements of his three-years in Imo state requires a certain kind of talent for obfuscation.

A beautiful Lagos is not a dream. What the administrators only need to do is to move around without their escorts and mingle with the people and before you know it, the problem will be solved. Don’t forget, before you, there were some administrators. Many more will come and go after you. The major difference is that those who win the hearts of the people will be remembered as heroes… We don’t even need to talk about those who do otherwise!

The other week, a well-known international fast food chain was fined several thousands of pound sterling by British health authorities because, a cockroach was found during an inspection of its kitchen in London. I wonder how they would react if they were to come and inspect the kitchens of hotels and eateries in this country.

We were mostly wrong. But, we discovered we were remarkably right on one point – never appoint someone as Chief Executive Officer, CEO, for a giant, multinational organization, employing hundreds of thousands of people and impacting the lives of millions who happened to be the last man standing after an accident – for the simple reason that they generally don’t know how to manage simple, not to talk of complex organizations.

Theres so much going on in most homes, and many people do not know about it. Many women are so busy, they do not know what goes on in their homes behind closed doors.

In all of my thirty years as a football official at the national level, I never got to know Goodluck Jonathan as a football expert. His knowledge of the rules and regulations of FIFA would be hardly more than modest, in my estimate.

So no African team did better than Africa had done before now at the World Cup final, the first one on the continent? Ghana really came close but for a hand robber called Suarez.

Governor Ikedi Ohakim of Imo State was the first to shock us about the goings-on in the PPA, sponsored by Orji Uzor Kalu at the height of his problems with Obasanjo in the heady days of the face-off between Atiku and his boss at Aso Rock. He (Ohakim) had not long before dumped the PDP for the PPA to win in Imo State, and within two years had bolted back to the PDP on grounds that the PPA was not a party but a family business.

Let us learn from history. When GENOCIDE was being committed in Rwanda in 1994, US-led United Nations did not want to intervene and so tried to deny that genocide was taking place.

ACCORDING to a recent report in ThisDay newspaper, Alhaji Mukhtari Shehu Shagari, the Deputy Governor of Sokoto State and former Minister of Water Resources, has advised his fellow Northerners to stop emphasising the zoning issue, acknowledge the support they have received from the South-South for the past 50 years and accept his view that President Jonathan can deliver impressive results and has every right to contest for the presidency next year.