The sporadic violent uprisings between 1945 up to the eve of independence in which Southern Nigerians resident in the North, especially the Igbo, were attacked by their Northern compatriots, the lopsided colonial political arrangement which favoured the North despite its educational backwardness and economic dependence on the South, pernicious inter-ethnic suspicion and political rivalry among politicians from different parts of the country, indicated that the Nigerian federation which emerged on October I, 1960 was far from being a unified colonial amalgam

I don’t know what the voters in Osun State were expecting, but last Saturday’s election was one of intrigue and anticipation. I will say this, it was followed avidly beyond Osun State and Nigeria. There was drama which runs up to the election. I was forwarded an email last week, with pictures attached of security agents with balaclavas, armed to the teeth. They poured on to the streets and also dispatched some to block the Freedom Square where workers supporting the governor were holding a rally.

From the day after the Ekiti Election until two weeks ago, I received several text messages from PDP supporters, as well as those who just wanted to taunt me for declaring my support for Governor Fayemi who lost the election. I was unperturbed because I know that a democracy means that there must be at least two candidates contesting and one person must win – irrespective of whether the election is free and fair. And the fact that the majority had selected the winner does not always mean that they have chosen wisely.

I was on my way to Kigali in 1994, to report the brewing troubles in Rwanda, when the Ebola fever epidemic broke out in Zaire. Travelers were quarantined in the Kinshasha International Airport. All connecting flights to Kigali were cancelled. I contemplated the possibility of an Air Afrique flight to Arusha, in Tanzania, and from thence by car to Kigali.

Given the choice between a book and a movie I always make the choice of books! While watching movies is invariably easier and less mentally tasking than digesting a book, it gives a lot less satisfaction than the vivid imagery that the mind can conjure. The human imagination has more colours than have been named and its vivid descriptions of characters and plots are hardly ever matched by what is possible to create by actors and directors! The genius of it is that a million readers can have different perceptions from reading the exact same book! The human imagination is the greatest tool of the mind and its use positively or negatively decides the reality we live; it is the life blood of strongholds.