Babatee my car painter and the Automedics crew, especially Sly, Gbola Oba, Manager, Kunle (the Big Boss) – you ensured that my vehicle remained in top condition throughout last year, thank you very much. Fateye Asodun and Rotimi Omosulu (up and coming scholar), Jude Nwankwo, Dennis Otto, Lugard, Matthew, Igwe, Ojo, Mrs Taiwo and the non-academic staff in Philosophy – I really appreciate your assistance.

Our culture as Africans demands that family members care for their elderly, and most families do this to the best of their ability. However, total commitment to this is declining due to pressures of everyday living and limited time and funds. Besides, our healthcare is yet to include special services for the elderly.

The past has nothing to say that can condemn my present; What is done is done; time to do new and better things. I do agree with the saying that those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it but I go a step further to make an assertion of my own.

NOTE: This was not the original article scheduled for this day. But some issues intrude on the best made plans demanding urgent response. This is one of them; especially because i am involved as you will find out. Pardon me for this. Thanks.

Some say having a girl is like tending a neighbours’ garden. This is narrow minded and condescending perspective of low sense of value placed on females in our society. This is borne out of the way people react to the arrival of the birth of a baby boy: that of jubilation and in contrast,the arrival of a baby girl is often greeted with muted commiserations from friends and family. If the truth be told, the mother is often made to feel a failure if she does not provide the family with a male and a heir.

Last week, Dr Christopher Kolade, the Pro Chancellor of Pan African University, turned 80. About a month ago, I had asked him what his birthday plans were. I really was not surprised when he said he wanted to make it as low key as possible.

THE impression of the year 2012 by many Nigerians is that, though the Government of President Goodluck Jonathan has tried to transform the economic and political scenes, the efforts have been less edifying. Many commentators and analysts believe that the country has got much less than it desired in the past years, considering the opportunities afforded by immense material and human resources.

I RECENTLY told you that a friend recently told me that when he attended a school reunion dinner in Lagos, 80 percent of the ex-classmates on his table said that they were so unhappy with the status quo that they would gladly flee to foreign climes if they could get their hands on foreign work permits.

IT is a New Year. We all renew hope and make resolutions. I have never been particularly conformist about many things in life. From childhood, I have asked uncomfortable questions and thrown pebbles at orthodoxies. The conventional wisdom has never satisfied my search for answers about our often mysterious but lovely world, either the natural world that conditions us and which we are very much part of or the social canons of existence. So resolutions at the beginning of a new year often resembled for me, an admission of human weakness. If there is a thing to change, why wait till the beginning of a new year? But just for once, I fell into line and made a resolution which I have never betrayed.

IS it really necessary to remind ourselves that in government, what people intend is often different from what they bring about? In trying to evaluate a governmental action, one ought to consider likely, even if unintended, consequences.

Quite often, governments do the same thing, the same old way, while expecting different results. We have been at a loss to understand why, back to Governor Peter Odili’s years in Rivers State, a large cache of sophisticated arms and ammunitions was recovered from militants of that era who were beating a retreat from militancy and the weapons were set ablaze.