THINKING about Nigeria at 55 I am both saddened and immensely hopeful. Saddened because we are not where we should be. Malaysia, Indonesia, which in the 60s and 70s were lagging behind Nigeria, now surpass us in terms of socio-economic development. Nigerians could once swagger on Oxford Street or the Champs Elysee with a buoyancy enabled by the strength of the Naira.

IT was Prof. Tanimu Abubakar, I believe, of the Political Science department and Aminu Yusuf, a postgraduate student at Ahmadu Bello University, the one a stalwarth of the ABU branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities and the other of the campus student movement at the time, who (if my memory serves me well), were fond of repeating this intriguing question whenever the moment came to drop the gown and bring some town — nay, village — perspective to our discussions of how to save Nigeria.

MY teacher and fellow delegate to the 2014 National Conference, Prof. Godini Darah, ruffled not a few Fulani feathers when he stood up during the debate on cattle grazing to speak against the atrocities of Fulani herdsmen against their host communities. He said apart from destroying farmlands, they were also in the habit of robbing people of their possessions and raping innocent women.

The Monetary Policy Committee is the ‘Think Tank’ that designs the blueprint for best practice strategies that should drive Nigeria’s economic growth and prosperity. Thus, if the MPC’s recommendations were appropriate, and progressive, inclusive economic growth would evolve; conversely if the MPC’s diagnosis or prescriptions are off target, then our current stunted growth experience will inevitably be the product of implementating those Monetary Policies midwived by the committee from time to time.

I LONG for the good old days whenever I think about the new bad ones. In confronting the ugly scenes of today, my mind instinctively, switches, like some defensive mechanism, to my youth, or even my childhood. They were the periods of innocence. When humanity was a child.