Generally, I seldom write about issues at state or local government levels. Since coming on this page almost 20 years ago, I had prioritized my attention to focus on the Federal government – which still controls most of our lives. In a really federal republic, this should not be the case. But, nobody can change reality. So occasionally, a matter comes up at state level which calls for comments. With respect to Ekiti State, I write because I am involved. My maternal grandfather Pa Agbe-Davies, the first Nigerian to reach the rank of Inspector in the Nigeria Police, was from Ogotun Ekiti. So, this is home front.

His voice was strong, assured and cultured on air; the voice of a veteran. And he is a veteran, having cut his tooth—and his voice— in the old days when FRCN was still NBC, the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, fashioned after, and nurtured by the BBC. In the days when voices were trained and diction was important; when there was a strong awareness that whatever was said on air had implications beyond the moment. His wary, ambivalent answers to certain explosive questions on the state of the nation, betrayed this training. It also betrayed his disposition which is usually deliberate, logical and rarely judgemental.

Jesus shocked everyone by saying: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:53-54).

My personal struggles and imperfections notwithstanding, I hold very strong views on sexuality, molded mainly by my conservative Christian orientation. But I have also come to accept that we live in a free and secular world, and I therefore must tolerate contrary views and tendencies.

MANY analysts have attributed the many ills of Nigeria to the ‘forced marriage‘ contracted in 1914 through the amalgamation of Northern and Southern Provinces by the British imperialist, Lord Luggard. In spite of many vicissitudes of life, Nigeria had managed to survive as a nation for more than 100 years