Joy is in the air! I declare in the name of Jesus, your time has come!

In war, they say, there are no winners and yet, there seems to be calls to arms and calls for war or threats for one if Nigeria does not allow a section of Nigerians to go their own way. In fact, some have taken to the social media, to denounce their allegiance to Nigeria and some go as far as burn their Nigerian passports, they argue, that for them, they no longer want to be part of the Zoo, the Zoo, being Nigeria. Really, what ever gave them that idea?

It will be an understatement to say the outcome of the 2015 General Elections in Nigeria was based primarily on two issues – terrorism and corruption. These two, no doubt, contributed to the final results of the elections and technically sealed the fate of the former President, Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that ruled the country for sixteen years.

At the opening of a 2-day retreat for our 36 incoming ministers last Thursday, President Muhammadu Buhari made the point again that his administration would run a lean government at all levels, to avoid wastage of public funds. The president therefore charged the participants to key into the change agenda of government, as they constitute the main vehicle that would administer the change to Nigerians adding that the administration would be assessed based on the number of Nigerians it is able to lift out of poverty. The President could not have put it better.

Torch Oritsewenyimi Taire – his friends called him, TOT – was among many things, a man of great sensitivity: an aesthete – not in the mushy, pretentious way of the noveaux riche. A friend of poets and artists; a great lover of beautiful things. He had an eclectic mind. He was a truly renaissance man. I learnt from Torch Taire, more than a university could teach. He was a great repository of the lore of nation. He was friend to powerful men, and he was himself, without doubt, a powerful man. But you would never know it.