You’re not to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it. Malcolm X

I am a Christmas child. No, I was not born on Christmas day – but an exact week to Christmas – on the 18th of December – that last week of active shopping and frenzied last minutes preparation for Christmas celebrants. So imagine Nigeria on the 18th of December, 1966. Two coups had taken place earlier that year – one in January and the other on July.

When this column recently supported the introduction of Islamic Banking to Nigeria, some non-muslims were visibly angry with our standpoint. One critic dismissed our article as ‘sponsored’, and ‘a magnitude of lies’.

Truly, we are in difficult times in Nigeria. Anywhere you turn, the responses one gets as a direct output of interaction, are hisses and sighs. Such dismissive conclusion isn’t the best way to show satisfaction.

The inevitable happened on December 18, seven days before Christmas, amidst the mad rushing around that is synonymous with this time of the year. Parents going to pick their wards returning from school, shoppers jostling about for last minute bargains, travellers heading to the airport and other sundry movements on the road.

I find contradictions not only in the ‘big things’ but in the small things of life as well. The other day she (my last daughter) was whistling. Some new skill she has acquired. When it registered, the first thing that came out of my mouth was “stop whistling!”

THE passing year started on a sad note with the controversial death of Uche Okafor, in the USA. The former Eagles defender was found dead in his apartment. The initial impression was that he committed suicide. Investigations later vindicated those who believed that was not Uche – he was murdered.

A STRIKING feature of the Nigerian political landscape is the low visibility of ideas and principles in the conduct of party activity—particularly in the selection of candidates for public office.

I remember the late Howard Cosell as the man they loved to brand and label for expressing his gut feeling about the multiplying deliberate effort at restructuring the true essence the pro boxing sport conveys.

I have met General Aliyu Gusau Mohammed only once; and that was sometimes last year. He was an aspiring presidential candidate; one of the four vying to be the Northern consensus candidate.