It would be mischief on the part of this column if we subscribed to the bandwagon of those elitist Nigerians whose stock in trade is the creation of false hope of a better year ahead at the end of every dismal year in the past two decades or so.

This article could have been titled Obama and Media Executioners Vs Farouk and Nigeria and it will still be appropriate. But, the selection of the title was based on the need to come quickly to the conclusion before providing the supporting evidence.

Nigeria is the irritant. An irritant may not accept that it is one. But the tag is supplied by those who look at you, watch what you are doing and smile if you vibrate on the same wavelength as they; or you make them want to throw up by what you do.

Nigerian parents are very busy making money and thinking that that is all it takes to provide a great life for the kids. Many create cocoons of privilege that isolate their children from a larger community of peers, and they live in that bubble of a small, closed society, and become very easy targets, as I am sure the young Mutallab became, of those who give them meaning and tempt them with purpose beyond themselves.

The Yuletide celebrations have just ended, with the usual aftermaths, trailing them. Whether one is a Christian or nonchristian, Christmas is a period of frenetic activity and high expectations, great hopes and disappointments, increase in all manner of vices and road accidents.

The Evan Enwerem Senate is remembered for being a rubber stamp of the executive. The Chuba Okadigbo Senate is hailed for among others, its sound articulation of legislative procedures, flamboyant ventilation of parliamentary cadence, but also, for the contract scandal that eclipsed it.

Nigerians are furious that America has given us a name which does not belong to us. According to them, Nigeria is classified amongst countries that sponsor terrorism. This is outrageous!!! Really, who is a terrorist? If a man or a nation throws a bomb on a community killing dozens of people for whatever reason, is that person or nation a terrorist?

The sounds of the Yuletide have now subsided, yielding place to the daily bustle in the pursuit of honest, and maybe not-so-honest, livelihood. So, Happy New Year, and welcome once again to the frenzy of making two ends meet. But, you will agree, it was good fun while it lasted.

AFRICA stepped into 2010 with shaky legs and uncertainty about the future. This is not so much due to the anarchy in the Congo, the failed state of Somalia, the rise of hooligans in Guinea-Conakry, the sway of military might in Mauritania, the strong arm tactics of the Niger regime or the blood thirsty nature of the Sudanese government. All these as well as the continent’s economic ill health are contributory factors.

EVER since Mr President took off to Saudi Arabia to take care of his health, words like “rudderless” have frequently been used to describe the country he left behind.

Hi, Who is your confidant? Is it a friend or your spouse? How much of your secrets can you share with your spouse?
Love, they say is about giving and sharing, which can only thrive where there is mutual trust, understanding and effective communication between the partners. So, who better can you share your secrets with other than the one you claim to love, cherish and share your body with? The one who is supposed to know you inside out.

A FEW weeks ago, a presenter and documentary maker for one of the more prominent television stations drew attention to the state of primary healthcare in one of the more prosperous local governments in Lagos State.

‘’We live, at present, with our fellow -men as they are. If these volumes have shown what a wonderful world we live in – no creed, establishment, race, political organization or group of teachers, researchers, writers and artists has a monopoly of wisdom or morals- our editorial group may have done a little to help the next generation or two to live with our fellow-men as they might gloriously, and ideally, be.’’

ALL through the New Year season, the Nigerian Government was apologetic to the United States (US). It continued to cry that the insane Christmas Day attempt by Nigerian born Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab to blow up an American airliner over Detriot is unNigerian.

It’s this idea that it’s either his way or the highway, what Soyinka called ‘The Credo of Being and Nothingness’ that would lead Umar Farouk to want to commit mass suicide in the belief that he is right while everybody else is wrong. In his Facebook journal, Farouk betrays this sense of superior apprehension of religious knowledge despite his painful lack of social skills that could make him bond with his mates, make sense of his own growing sexuality and, maybe, strike up relationships with the opposite sex.