I spent two hours with Dr Christopher Kolade, the elder statesman at his home last week. So rich is my experience, so varied is my take-away after such a meeting that I always wish there could be more of such meetings but Dr Kolade is still a very busy man even at his age. It was our first meeting of the year, and there seemed to be more to discuss than time allowed. But two areas that are inescapable in our discussions no matter how tight the time, are his passion for God, and his passion for Nigeria.

Pope Francis has said that the Catholic Church is not interested in donations from wealthy individuals who have cruelly exploited their fellow human beings.

A CURSORY check of the outlines of the abduction of teenager, Miss Ese Oruru from her parents’ home in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State by one miscreant, Yinusa “Yellow” (what a befitting alias!) and her transfer to a hiding place in Kano immediately flooded my mind with the Chibok Girls saga. Let’s compare and constrast.

WHEN the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) appointed ex-International, Sunday Oliseh, as National Coach of the Super Eagles, to replace Stephen Keshi, in July 2015, an effusive Amaju Pinnick, the NFF Chairman, described the new coach, as the “Guardiola” of Nigeria. Oliseh was going to do to Nigerian football, what Pep Guardiola had done to Barcelona FC.

IT is yet too early to forget that the immediate past yuletide was bleak and dismal for the Nigerian workers. They were thrown into the apparent state of melancholy perhaps because of the deliberate mismanagement of public holidays.