‘’You want me to do what the white man says, and go fight a war against some people I don’t know nothing about—get some freedom for some other people when my own people can’t get theirs? You want me to be scared of the white man, I’ll go and get two arms shot off and ten medals so you can give me a small salary and pat my head and say, ‘Good boy, he fought for his country.’ Everyday they die in Vietnam for nothing.’’

I took my eldest son for a haircut, on the insistence of his housemaster, near his school last Sunday. As we approached the barber’s shop, I saw youths clustered around the two shops on either side of the barber’s shop. Initially, I thought they were watching a soccer match, but then I remembered the European football seasons were over. As I moved closer, I said to myself, “I hope it is not what I think.” Yes, it was; both shops are betting shops, the young men came to wager.

The words above are not mine. They belong to Jorge Bergoglio, known world-wide as Pope Francis; also referred to within the Vatican as the ‘Pope for the poor’ or derisively by some powerful personalities in the curia as ‘the poor Pope’. This impassioned plea was made at a speech he gave on July 7, 2013 to about six thousand seminarians from 66 countries. In calling for the future religious to live lives that are consistent with their teaching and preaching, he said: ‘It grieves me to see priests and nuns with the latest model of cars… .You must not do this! It is better to cycle, or use a smaller car.’ That was when he used these words that have resonated with me: ‘Think about the children who are dying of hunger’.

The Banks are kicking. The National Employers Consultative Assembly is furious. Apostles of free market are seething. The federal government has directed the banks and telecoms companies to suspend planned massive staff retrenchments. The political opposition has been stirred. To hell with ‘command and control’ economic polices, and tyranny! Foreign investors are cringing. Many critics are excited, there is a mockery feast going on. Buhari and his men are incorrigible. He is perhaps a closet communist. His iron fists will ruin the economy and break the country.

I hear that Nigerian doctors are very unhappy about President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to seek medical treatment for a persistent ear infection in London.