This past Thursday, August 16, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida turned 71. He gave thanks to God. Just as the late K.O. Mbadiwe said of himself in 1983 at his official retirement from national politics, he was no longer “K.O,” said the juggernaut, he was then, “O.K;” Ibrahim Babangida is quite OK; he was satisfied with himself, he told reporters at his Hilltop home in Minna, and it was all the doing of Allah.

”In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers . . . we are ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.”— Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Her regular Montessori school, The Learning Place, Lekki, had been in existence for six years when two years ago, she decided to include a special unit, The Learning Place Centre. Mrs.Bolanle Adewole, The Director of TLP, who was impressed by the tremendous changes she was able to bring to the life of her eight year old autistic son, knew it was best to help other parents replicate such in their autistic children as well as children with other developmental disorders. In this interview, Mrs.Adewole who is also a member of the Parents Against Autism Initiative, speaks on her work with children, her style of helping children with autism, among sundry issues.

The title of our discourse today reminds me of some lectures in mathematics which I had while in secondary school. I was in Form Three when my mathematics teacher explained to the class Pythagoras theorem concerning right-angled triangles.

The past two columns opened a flood gate of emotions in quite a number of people and it says how much we all need support. These days I get a lot of counselling requests and I wish I had more time and even wisdom to really deal with them one at a time extensively.

If you live in a big and busy city like Lagos, the word ‘traffic’ is of so great importance to you, that it’s in your thoughts as you plan your day. The state of the traffic in Lagos, to a large extent, rules our lives and determines the sort of day – good or bad – that we will have.

Since the closure of the 3rd Mainland Bridge for repair works, it has been hellish going back and forth the Mainland. I try to avoid unnecessary trips to the other side or reduce them to the barest minimum.

President Goodluck Jonathan was asked to resign and become a Moslem by the irrepressible Boko Haram, while Dr. Doyin Okupe has been hired as the vocal defender of the President, though there appears to be no direct link between the two happenings.

Speaking for a former President of His Excellency, General Ibrahim Babangida’s status could be as Herculean and complex a task. The former leader is a behemoth of some sort and has combed the entire gamut of Nigeria’s political life in a manner that makes him the issue in Nigeria’s over 50 years of developmental discourse.

UP to this point, I have focused most of my attention on extremist ideologues and the instigators of violence and social discord. That’s because these happen to be the most urgent challenges we are facing at this time—and the perpetrators are very visible.