“In one breadth you people say there is no money and start sacking coaches, in another breadth, you are interviewing and employing coaches. There is more to this than meets the eye…..”

THE moment the Sultan called for amnesty for Boko Haram, I knew Nigeria was headed for bigger trouble. It was a major shifting of grounds by His Eminence, Mohammed Abubakar Sa’ad III, the Sultan of Sokoto and the head of the Nigerian Muslim community.

Many Nigerians over the age of 60 would recollect that statement. Right from our homes to our primary schools and, if we were lucky, our secondary schools, that moral admonition was drummed into our heads. Tell the truth.

The Bankers Committee,which comprises the Central Bank of Nigeria and Chief Executive Officers of the Money Deposit banks resolved at the end of their meeting last week, to remove ATM charges, and investigate alleged excessive charges imposed on customers and also agreed to increase lending, and reduce interest rates to Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs).

My name is Femi Aribisala. You may know me as the writer of these articles of faith. What you may not know, however, is that I am a great man. Indeed, I am greater than Prophet Isaiah. I am greater than Jeremiah and Ezekiel. I am greater than Elijah and Elisha. As a matter of fact, I am greater than all the Old Testament prophets.

Addressing her by the conventional title “First Lady…” should have been the norm here, but this is one unique woman who has refused to be addressed by that title. She simply prefers to be called “Wife of the Governor of Ogun State”. In her opinion, such bourgeois titles like “First Lady of..” are distracting.

One question which a committee I once belonged to could not find an answer for was why every Chairman of our electoral bodies of old was always booted out of office. For example, Professor Eme Awa who was appointed to Chair the Commission in 1987 was holding a crucial meeting with electoral commissioners when a radio announcement removed him from office barely a year later.

“The chaos keeps getting worse in spite of everything they [governments] do to improve discipline and morale”, Boris Pasternak, Russian Author of award winning Dr. Chivago.

Kanayo Okorocha,governor of Imo state, has come a long way from his time as a police leg and commercial school teacher in Jos. He is today, governor of Imo state; swept into office by two factors: a most lascklustre Ohakim administration which had grossly underperformed.

Having concluded the discourse on “The trouble with Nigerians,” it is time to pay tribute to the recently-departed icon of African literature, Prof. Chinualumogu Albert Achebe. Of course, the heading of that discourse was cloned from the title of Achebe’s pamphlet, The trouble with Nigeria, and a few of his views were used to buttress some major points made therein. Achebe was an accomplished intellectual, Africanist, humanist and teacher.