On Wednesday, my friend and fellow old Umuahian, Chuks, came to dinner with his family at my home. He is a family doctor in Union, New Jersey, and has been vacationing with his family in Orlando for the Spring break. Our postprandial talk normally drifted to Nigeria, our “Ogbanje nation” and old homeland. Chuks has not visited Nigeria since his mother’s funeral some years ago, and it is not for lack of love, or interest, but from a deep phobia – a fear of getting mucked into the Nigerian criminal maelstrom of accidental deaths from robbery and kidnapping. It is a genuine fear. This fine doctor and gentleman is not alone.

The air has been full of felicitations for his birthday from the 28th and up to now as I write this. It covers the radio, television and then newspapers. Bola Ahmed Tinubu was 64 years old on the 29th of March. Akanbi, has not been a common man- as an Accountant and a Politician of note. He was senator of the Federal Republic and two-time governor of uncommon Lagos State.

Now, before sketching a very brief and plausible phenomenology of the character of Jesus I would like to make some remarks about the evolution of the Holy Bible, drawing heavily from the highly informative essay, “The Bible: So Misunderstood It’s a Sin,” written by Kurt Eichenwald, and from other scholars that have written on the subject.

A petrol station is not the place to spend Easter. But that was what happened to millions of Nigerians last week. For many, the entire Easter weekend was devoted to the search of the elusive liquid gold. So it was at Christmas. So it was at New Year. It is beginning to look like the leadership is determined to deny the rest of us the simple pleasures of the festive seasons having taken most other pleasures and conveniences from us. In the midst of all this, the man whose duty it is to ensure we have sufficient fuel for our needs said most undiplomatically that he was not a magician and that our woes would continue a while longer. We had adequate fuel most of last year and the year before. Were his predecessors practicing sorcery or magic?

Samuel Okonta is dead. His death sparked no public anger. Youth corper, on national duty, chased down and murdered. Amaechi, Wike, Dakuku, Asari Dokubo, Patience Jonathan, Ateke Tom, Egberipapa et al are all alive. Living with their families in secure comfort. Glory be to God. They have poured in their condolences and tears but left their rhetoric erect and dangerous. When opponents become cockroaches, murder becomes mere pest control. When demon possess elephants in a fight even trees are not spared. Soldiers have also been mowed down. Port Harcourt is now the garden of bloodletting. Depths that ISIS is yet to contemplate are being plumbed. In this abattoir, vultures take away skulls for keeps.