“Flooding is yet to be over. A type of flood, called black flood, which is caused by the arrival of flood waters from upstream of the River Niger is likely to hit communities close to the river banks between October and early November.” Minister of Water Resources, Sarah Ochekpe.

They were expecting a visiting Head of State from another kingdom. The streets were lined with people. School children were everywhere, holding and waving flags. The roads were completely cleared of all vehicles.

Tonight at midnight, Nigeria will clock 52! How time flies! A person of fifty-two is almost considered an elder in the society, not only because of the number of years he/she has clocked, but because of the presumed wisdom and experience he/she must have acquired to live a worthwhile life according to the person’s ability. When he/she speaks, both the older and younger people around listen, because he/she is worth listening to. Some are mentors to guide younger people into a well-adjusted adult life.

“Each person matters; no human life is redundant. Every individual must be given the opportunity to live a life in which his or her basic needs are provided for and in which, so far as it is reasonably possible, their full potential is realised”- Cardinal Basil Hume

On September 19, 2012, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega announced that his commission had commenced the printing of 40 million permanent voters’ cards. The cards would contain security features such as barcode, hologram, micro text, fingerprints, contactless/embedded chip with printed voter details and photograph. Another set of 30 million cards according to Jega would be ready by 2013.

At best, the Bakassi situation mirrors the extent of the Federal Government of Nigeria’s administrative incompetence even in handling matters of serious strategic relevance to Nigeria’s national security interest; at worse, it reflects the colonial conundrum – the result of the distortions in Africa’s national and cultural boundaries by, particularly, the Berlin conference where the famous “scramble for Africa” was enacted in the nineteenth century.

Political correctness has done a lot to straighten language and remove the many offences that can be taken when words and manners are used to segregate, discriminate and offensively identify. Now I am a person of colour or Afro Caribbean, a century ago, I would have been racially and offensively identified as a nigger. That particular hate word evolved into Negro before my race became classed as people of colour and of an Afro-Caribbean descent.

Lion(Mrs.) Gloria Moweta sees Lionism as a good platform for dishing out love and care. Now, fate has entrusted her with the leadership of the Viva L’Amour Lions Club, Ikeja, Lagos, and this gem whose official investiture will hold at the Lagos Sheraton Hotel next Sunday, October 7th, in this interview, reiterates her readiness to serve humanity.

This column could just as well have been titled HOW TO MANAGE YOUR ENEMIES – A COURSE FOR PRESIDENT JONATHAN; and, it would be just as apt. Back in my days as a Senior Lecturer/Consultant with the Nigerian Institute of Management, NIM, one of my functions was writing course notes. Among more than three dozen, my two favourite course notes were TIME AND SELF-MANAGEMENT and HOW TO MANAGE YOUR BOSS.

Last week I argued that we cannot abandon our world to misanthropes in the guise of religious fundamentalists, despite the real dangers associated with criticism of religious dogmas, because doing so would imperil human civilisation. This time around, in consonance with my conviction that columnists must help spread enlightenment especially about religion among the reading public, I undertake, in the following series of essays, to lay the ground for atheism.