IN my November piece, The enemy within, I paid homage to Comrade Ibrahim Yusuf, the humble labour leader who introduced me to trade unionism. I was fresh from the university and held strongly to certain ideas. For instance, the State Security Services, then known as the Nigeria Security Organisation (NSO)were supposed to be kept at arms length and not allowed to know students, workers or union plans. For me, they were the enemy of the working people.

Sometimes last week I had this beautiful idea of making myself the judge for a man or woman or agency of the year in Nigeria. This idea did not just come out of the blues, i was only trying to follow the tradition that is worldwide. At the end of a year, personalities are named as people who had one way or the other influenced the world or their corner of the world. An example is Angela Merkel who is Time’s Person of the year 2015.

The mish-mash of Nigeria’s post-war history has permitted many sad revisions which in turn has made Nigerian historical studies and its statements therefrom to be lopsided, ethnic, and gnarled. We have tended in Nigeria to celebrate the worst of us, and have confined Nigeria’s true national heroes to the dustbin. Today, only in a place like Nigeria, with its twisted ethos, can a man like Ahmadu Bello for instance, have greater pride of place in the National rolls than Akweke Abyssinia Nwafor Orizu, one of the great spirits of the anti-colonial Nationalist movement.

I’d like to begin Joyful Homes , this week, in an usual way by asking a simple question: What is the state of your mind? Are you still expectant?

The effectiveness of a national security organization is determined by the accuracy of its reports. By the time the FBI breaks into any premises, it had gathered sufficient and reliable information to violate the fundamental rights of the occupants. Scotland Yard would never arrest first, on spurious charges, and later run around for evidence. That is standard operating procedure in any democracy.