It has become a tradition for columnists to take stock of the year just gone in relation to expectations in the new year.

In Nigeria, I find this quite boring because we end writing and saying the same things every year in a country where sport is measured by the success or otherwise of football.

INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director, Madam Christine Lagarde was on a four-day visit to Nigeria from January 4. She claimed it was a friendly visit: “I’m not in Nigeria to negotiate for IMF loans but to promote fiscal discipline and favourable monetary policies”

So, at best, the Foreign Minister is a prestige position, full of glitter, and nothing else. Yet, President Buhari might also argue that it is Nigeria’s voice, its eyes and its ears in the outside world, for whatever it is worth. That by itself is significant – Nigeria speaks to the world through the voice of an Igbo, whose own illustrious father was no less the World Court judge, Charles Daddy Onyeama of Eke. The Ministry of Labour could equally be powerful, and might be in the hands of a visionary minister, the arrowhead for the reform of the Civil Service and the public sector.

Most of us never bother to determine precisely why we believe what we believe or do what we do. Why, for instance, do we celebrate Christmas? As far as Christians are concerned, we do so because we delight in Christ and rejoice in him. Christmas is a Christian tradition celebrated for centuries the world over. Surely, billions of people cannot be wrong.

Some people who were and are perhaps still unhappy on behalf Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State and his predecessor, Godswill Akpabio have made several rejoinders in the last few days in response to last week’s article in this column titled “Uncommon Governance: The bane of Akwa Ibom State.”