ERITREA is a relatively unknown African country. Little news filters out. In October 2012, I wanted to pay with a hundred dollar bill in a Washington supermarket, and the cashier declined. He asked me to pay with a smaller denomination, which I did not have. Noticing his features, I asked if he was of African decent. He asked if I knew Ethiopia. He said his country is near Ethiopia. I asked, Eritrea? “Yes” “So why didn’t you simply say you are from Eritrea?” “I tell people, and they never seem to have heard of such a country”

Last week, I wrote about the many Nigerian VIPs who do not manage success graciously, change for the worse the minute they cease to be ordinary citizens and start treating old friends (and blood relatives as well, in some cases) very shabbily, even when these folks who knew them before they became VIPs have helped them a lot in the past and are therefore owed considerable goodwill and courtesy.

ONE of the most significant issues of recent revelations of high wire corruption in Nigeria today, is the way that leading politicians have brought their children into the corruption loop. Top Nigerian politicians are appearing in courts together with their sons. Humungous sums of public money are stolen and shared by fathers and sons (their daughters are entering the political fray too). Ruling class irresponsibility has led to the detention and arraignment of fathers along with their children, for stealing monies in their care, expected to be used for the betterment of society.

UNEASY lies the head that wears the crown. Lately, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, has cried out twice on the fate of the Nigerian Judiciary.

I WELCOME the controversy over President Buhari’sexplanation ofthe re-arrest and continued detention ofColonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd), President Jonathan’s political ATM-machinewho went by the formal title of National Security adviser. If nothing else, it offers us the opportunity to ensure that the hallowed concept of rule of law will not become the refuge of scoundrels, of treasury looters whose kleptomania has the nation reeling from the mortal blows of grinding poverty, gross underdevelopment and threats to its corporate integrity. The president raised hackles when he said that Dasuki and Nnamdi Kanu (leader of the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra)have not been released,despite subsisting courts orders granting them bail, because given “the kinds of atrocities” they have “committed against the country, if they are given the opportunity, they will jump bail.